Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-09-01
ON FOREIGNERS

Wv
THE foreigner in the United States-that
l. is. the person born abroad and not yet
admitted to citizenship in this country
must sometimes be fattered by the volume
Of talk and discussion that RACES about him.
He is at best a small and feeble and pov.
erty stricken minority. Yet there are
Americans who secm to lie awake at night
in fear that this stranger within the gates
will seize the Government at Washington
and put nll the captains of industry to flight
before morning.
Mr. Mitten, in his admirable address 10
the employees of the p. r. r. at Willow
Grove, came periously near n fall into the
habit of broad generalization which still
confuses our thinking in almost every mat
ter that involves foreigners" It Is true,
as the president Of the P. r. T. asserts,
that the country has been too ready to open
It's arms to all sorts Of turbulent and unfit
and mentally twisted emigrants. And 1t is
equally true that great many Of the sins
attributed alike to capital and to labor are
nothing more than minor errors Of practice
or judgment reflected through the minds Of
aliens of an unassimiatcd and irreconcilable
type engaged in the business OF radical
propaganda.
That labor has suffered as much as capt.
tai from the foreign born radical has been
clearly proved n dozen times in the course
Of the rail and coal strikes. Foreign born
workmen of n red tendency, without any
discernibe relationship with the striking
shopmcn, made attempts to wreck Western
trains. Hcrrin Is populated for the most
part by foreign born miners.
But it is only fair to remember that there
are foreigners and foreigners. If emigrants
occasionally bring a taste for radicalsm to
this country, they have also brought, in
far larger measure, taste for better
things. From England and Wales and Ire
land and Germany they brought the habits
of industry which helped to develop the
wealth and power of the country. From
Italy and other parts Of Europe they
brought n love for music and nll the finer
arts.
1t is unfortunate for the "foreigners' as
q class that they are represented in the news
of the day only through the misbehavior Of
an almost indistnguishable minority Of their
kind. A public that reads Of murders COM
mitted by foreigners" in Illinois or Of at
tempts by foreigners to wreck railway
trains in accordance with tho communist
doctrines Of sabotage will not always stop
to remember that the great orchestras of
the country nre composed for tho most part
of foreigners or that foreigners continue
peacefully and patiently to do the greater
pnrt of the hard labor Of the land.
And no indictment or criticism of the un-
willing and unfit alien element can be COM
plete until it includes the system organized
Jointly by seekers after cheap labor and the
steamship companies to cntice to America
great numbers of od-country people who,
left to their own devices, would have re-
maincd at home. 1t is hard to blame even
this minority for It's persistent alterations.
1t was badly used under the hideoCsly cor
rupt political and social systems OF old
Europe. In its endeavor to cscapa-with
the aid Of the herders Of cheap labor and
the steamship agents-it packed its hates
with the rest Of its baggage and landed them
without any question from the port authori-
ties in the United States.
All that Mr.. Mitten and others say about
the shiftlessnPss of this class and the harm
it does is justified. And so is any appeal
which. like the one directed to the r. r. T.
employees by their chief, suggests n return to
virtues. such as simplicity Of
habit and the ability to find enjoyment in
decent work decently done. II 1t IS ever
possible 10 restore the vanishing spirit Of
TO this distracted earth. car
penters and bricklayers and conductors on
trains and plumbers ought to be able to get
more fun out of their lahors than less USE
full folk often get out OF golf and cabarets
and the like. But It was the rise of ma
chine methods, rather than an decline Of
human virtue, that did most to eliminate
tho craftsman from modern industry.
Machinery, properly adjusted to meet the
needs of civilization rather than to make
greater and greater wealth for a diminish
ing few. may bring the craftsman back
again. We may look for some such miracle
when machines are the servants OF work
men and not their swift. exacting and re-
lentless masters.