The united opinion. [volume] (Bradford, Vt.) 1881-1970, 1922-06-16

thOAl tiO otdDhity VI bhob SOtAAsNS -
on the decline. There seems to be al
unwritten law that the farm is the
real life spring of the country. and botf
in men and in things, that country IL
the richest. the most prosperous ant
the strongest that has the larger par
of it's people learning lessons from the
sol and strengthening their arms il
farm work.
The tendency towards the city is not
an encouraging sign, and the further
unfortunate fact is that our immigra-
ton has so largely settled in great
cities.
That same census shows that moi
only has New York, the largest Hebrew
population of any city in the world
about rs times that of Jerusalem, but
it has more italians than Rome. and II
is the fourth largest German city in
the world. Pittsburg has more Servi-
ans than Belgrade, the capitol of Ser
via. Chicago Is the second Bohemian
and the fifth German city in the world
and many other of our cities. like
Cleveland, Milwaukee and Boston. are
intensely foreign in large sections.
| IL 10 d ply Lhdl iliOlc HAS lOL OCOu
done to encourage immigration from
the great agricultural countries of
Europe into the farming districts. An
other disappointing feature of the GEN.
sus is that about 1O,00O.OO0 of our
population cannot read English. and
about one-half that number cannot
speak English. 1t is one of the sad
pages in our history wherein we learn
of the vast number of illiterates that
were enrolled in our army by the
selective draft.
True, very large population of
them came from our Southern states
and were of the colored race. but 1t is
wrong that in this day of enlighten-
ment there are so many hundreds of
thousands of our own people that have
been deprived of the opportunity of OBJ
tanning even the simplest education.
I doubt very much If all the people
of Vermont appreciate what blessing
the Public School system has been to
our state, for the preservation of our
national life and for education in
American ideals. The continuance of
American institutions depends largely
on education. We must blot out illit-
eracy. have no fear of immigration.
America has been built up by the
blending of the best blood of all coun-
tries.
America, as the melting pot of the
nations, has not been a failure, but we
must remember that the Pilgrim
Fathers, and the Cavaliers from Eng
land. the Huguenots from France. the
Germans. the Scotch, the Scandinavians
from Norway and Sweden. the Dutch
from Holland. all were educated, or at
least literate peoples. The Irish had
not the same educational advantages
that some of the others had, but they
had the capacity and the desire to
learn. and were willing to work. and
no people has given more strength to
our national life than the Irish. The
quality of our early immigration was
high. Most of our early settlers came
here driven by religious persecution
and with a determination to endure 1
for the sake of their reli-
gious or political principles. Those
traits produced superior people. To-
day we must be careful to guard
against that selfish immigration that
comes here solely for material welfare
against that form of immigration that
not only brings with it it's old customs |
and methods of thinking. but which |
clings to them here and refuses to
give them up. For these reasons we
can never assimilate Chinese or Japan
csc in this country. and the "Yellow
PeriP' must be guarded against, but we
not the number of immigrants that we
should erect barriers against, but we
should be careful about the quality of
the immigration that we admit within
our gates.
Those two things then are not as
they should be. The first is the I'M
fortunate drift from the farm to the
city, and the second the fact that there
is so much illiteracy in this country.
However the last census. shows us
some things that we can be proud Of
some things that lead us to think that
after all we have no cause to chang
our harps on the willows and sit down
to mourn" Let us look at another
side of the picture-20. 100000 people
in this land subscribed to Liberty
Bonds.
link Oh IL more tnan One-SlXtn OF |
our people are bond-holders; About 10,- |
100000 own farms; About 100000 |
more own their own homes; 1S.O00,000 |
have money deposited in our national |
banks, and 100000 have deposits in
savings banks. AS a nation we produce |
20 per cent of the worlds supply of |
gold, $3.50 of wheat. 400 iron and |
steel. 1919 of silver. 500 coal 500 |
cotton. 1870 corn. $50 automobiles. |
Before the war we owed other nations |
Ave billions of dollars. Foreigners |
were holders of our best bonds and of |
our highest grade of corporate stocks.
Today our railroads and great enter
prises are owned by Americans and the |
world owes us ten billions. or twice |
what we owed foreign countries five |
years ago. Gold has flowed in upon US |
until today we have the largest gold |
reserve in the world. and New York in
stead of London is the worlds f1nan-
cial centre.
There has never been in all history |
such change in the worlds financial |
as that created by the great |
nd do, TN