Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-21

| America in 1919 he had Just s24 left
but that's lot for canny Scots
man. He became proofreader, then
| Washington correspondent for the
New York Inquirer: later. he rented
a cellar i'm New York and founded the
| Herald-the first real newsy news
paper America or the world had evee
seen. Alien-born American That's
| Bennett
Ever hear of that Dutchman, Ed
ward Box? He could not understand
word of English when he came to
America with parents and a brother.
He was years old and his
brother, S12.
How the kids" in school did guy
the two Dutch boys! They were so
awkward and funny, Yes, until Ed
ward knocked a few of them down,
for he had been used to the rugged
climate of the Holland coast and he
had muscles. Then he became editor
of the Ladies' Home Journal. gave 1t
the greatest circulation in America,
married the daughter of its owner and
retired at the age of Sc, multimil-
lionaire in his own right. Funny
little Dutch immigrant! Maybe some
of the kids" who guyed him would
like to learn now how to get in
Dutch'-just like that! Imagine what
the millions of American women
would do for style if the Dutch boy
had never come over. He was the
intimate friend of the most notable
American literati, and of President
Hayes and also of Presidents Theodore
Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson-on
terms of special intimacy with both
of the last two mentioned.
** X
On the bank of the Potomac near
the Lincoln Memorial a heroic statue
group in honor of John Ericsson is
now being sculptured. Who was
Ericsson? A poor immigrant boy who
had been reared in Sweden, within six
degrees of the Arctic Circle. He in
vented the rotary propeller for steam
ships. which ended sailing vessels in
| commerce, and he built in his adopted
country the cheese box on a raft"
called the Monitor. which fought the
Merrimac to a finish and saved the
| Union Navy and the Union.
Who created the steel industry OF
| America? A Scotch immigrant named
Carnegie. Who opened the great en-
pire of the Northwest? A Canadian
immigrant named James J. Hill.
There was an Irishman named John
Philip Holland. from County Glare,
after the Monitor-Merrimac fight. He
conceived what formidable thing a
| boat would be which could float UNI
| der water. He made the first sub
marine, and that historic vessel was
sold only last week at auction, and
brought 500 as junk. 1t should be
in the Smithsonian Institution as q
great historic souvenir. The sub
marine was adopted by. the United
| States GnVnrnn1nnt in 1Q60 Whof
figure did that Irishman's submarine
cut in the World War!
From Germany, in 1872. came to
Baltimore. Ottmar Mergenthaler, and
II years later the first Mergenthaler
| typesetting machine was tested 1t
is known by the name given it by
| Whitelaw Reid as the linotype" It
sets practically all the type of all daily
newspapers in the world and most Of
| the books.
| Michael Pupin a Serbian boy, ran
away from his village home in Serbia,
In 1874 and, nine years later. grad
uated from Columbia College, New
York. where he is now a professor of
science. of worldwide fame, especially
in electricity. He made long-distance
telephony possible. and first applied
Roentgen rays to surgical work. His
| discoveries made the foundation for
| hdFcoHl : wireless.
| Who was that 4-foot hunchback,
the electric wizard, Charles Proteus
Steinmetz? He was consulting engi-
neer for the General Electric Co. for
years refusing a fixed salary, but so
| indispensable to the company that he
was permitted to draw whatever
| money his needs or whims called for.
| Nominally, his salary was 500. 900 a
year-plus whatever he wanted,
though he never did want any money.
Born in Germany in 1865; fled, a polit.
ical refugee. in 1883, and came to
America--the greatest electrician of
! the age.
J 1t is said that Nikola Tesla is a
dreamer. He was born in Austria.
Hungary in 1857, came to America in
1884 and became naturalized Ameri-
| can. He worked in the Edison Ma
! chine Works. designing dynamos and
| motors. and in 1888 he developed the
arc-light system while working there;
also turbine based on a new prin-
cfple.
There is another Dutchman who
must not be overlooked. An ancestor
had been given a Roman nickname,
Bonl Coli, meaning stiff neck"-a
term indicating a good fighter. The
Dutch translation of stiff neck was
"Goet Halls" The father of George
washington GOet Halls came to Amer
lea a century ago, and the boy. Goe-
thals, was born here and graduated at
West Point. That is the man who
made the dirt fly" at Panama: ac-
cordingly he was a man after Presi-
dent Roosevelt's own heart. The Gov
eminent tried to make Lieut.. Col.
Goethais major general, as a reward
for his success in building the canal.
but he refused the honor. on the
ground that he had not earned II.
Sometimes a Dutchman is as modest
as an American aviator of Swedish
descent.
Is that all the list? What space is
left for Carl Schurz. DIR. Anna Howard
Shaw. A. T. Stewart. Walter Dam
rosch, Saint-Gaudens. the SCULPTOR Ed
ward A. Steiner. Jacob Riis, Joseph
Pulitzer. John Muir. Henry Morgen-
,hau. Nathan Straus. Samuel Gompers.
, and host of other great immigrants?
Many important members of Congress
have been and are of alien birth.
This sketch is not intended as propa-
ganda against stringent restrictions of
the flood of postwar immigration
threatening to overwhelm the founda-
tons Of American institutions and
ideals 1t is only a reminder that
there were also giants In those days"
as well as peasants, even on Ellis
Island or in Castle Garden, which the
Know Nothing party of decades gone
by never comprehended.
tCopyriGht. 1927 hy Paul Y. Collnal