The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1924-12-20
MAYFLOWER DESCENT
Boston Transcript.

!
! The Society of Mayflower Descen-
dants in session at Plymouth, has
reported a considerable gain in mem
| bership, and also considerable losses
from time to time. The membership
Of the general body, in the whole
! United States, is now about 5000,
| comprised in eighteen existing state
! societies. The Massachusetts socic-
+, ~ of this order, or association, has
! increased its membership in the last
year by 14l, to scanty total Of
,G27 That number it but small
proportion OF the population of the
state which is, or should be, able to
trace its descent to a passenger on
the Mayflower. Such descent is a
distinction that is not uncommon in
New England or in the country at
large: and the only objection that
could be urged to the organized So
city Of Mayflower Descendants is
that il represents so small q proper
! ton of the actual living offspring
Of the little company Of Pilgrims at
Plymouth. 1t is true that descent
can be proved from but fifty of the
l04 passengers on the Mayflower,
yet the number of people who have
the blood of one or more of these
persons in their veins is today
counted by the hundreds Of thous-
ands in the whole country, and in
Massachusetts, by tens of thousands.
Evidently the interest in Pilgrim
descent itself is greater than the in
terest in the society which repre-
scnts it.
One thing is to be said in behalf
not only Of this society but of all
other organizations Of descendants
of the founders Of New England: it
has no "aristocratic" character, and
seeks to set up on no social distinc-
ton whatever. AS is we'll known.
the original Pilgrims were chiefly
composed Of simple craftsmen and
workers. They had no thought Of
containing in themselves, or of seek
ing to establish for their offspring,
n current Of ''blhe blood" Nor
have their descendants, taking them
by and large, ever developed any
such pretension. The same is true
Of our other colonial and revolution
airy societies. The line Of descent
is most carefully looked after in
these societies, merely for the rea-
son that they ought to be what they
assume to be. But when so many of
these carefully traced lines of de-
scent 60 back to a waxed end or a
ditching utensil, it would be vain to
assert either aristocratic origin or
present pretension. Their object is
to keep alive the interest in early
events and connections; the para
mount purpose is patriotic. And
inasmuch as the female line of de-
scent, is, in the majority of these
societies, all that is required for adj
mission, it is plain that their mem
berships must in the future include
great number of people who are
the offspring Of recent immigrants.
: The membership of the Society of
Mayflower Descendants already in
cludes many Irish and German
names. and even Slavic names.
This is, emphatically, as it should
be. Our revolutionary "ancestrap
and patriotic societies will be the
better and the truer to their purpose
if they represent all the elements
of our population-always premis-
ing, of course, the genuineness of
the colonial or other required de-
scent in one line or the other. The
admission of this sort of blood, one
half new, one-half old, will be
check against any sort of artist0cra-
tic pretense. 1t will mean just the
sort Of American influence that one
should seek in such societies. Yet
for that matter, our American soil
does not readily produce Orders of
the Garter, or run in any way to
the development Of pretense Of
nobility.