Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-21
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.


The subject under discussion was
Col. Charles A. Lindbergh, the native
born and 100 per cent American.
when high official of the Depart
ment of Labor remarked, well. if
we could get more immigrants like
Lindbergh. nobody would object to
letting down the bars of immigration
restriction"
The great aviator is of the third
generation, but what if his grand
father had remained in Sweden?
Where would America have stood in
the marvellous boost this boy has
given to-what. to aviation only? No.
to youth and noble ambition and high
standards of character
This remark of the Labor Depart
ment official set going a query as to
what is the amount of debt which
America owes to it's alien-born Citi
zens of adoption, whether through
the immigrant himself or his imme-
date descendants? 1t opens some
thrilling bits of romance.
If we were to go back to colonial
days, there would be no end to the
great Americans of alien birth
There was Alexander Hamilton. one
of America S greatest statesmen of
any age. born on the little Island of
Nevis. West Indies. which few of us
could ever find on a map. He clari-
fled American ideals of republicanism
which made our Constitution possible.
There was Stephen Girard. the young
French ship captain who had lost
money on his cargo when he voyaged
to New Orleans, and so feared to re-
turn to his native France, where he
would have faced a debtors prison,
and he feared capture by the British,
at war with both America and France
He was warned, when overhauled by
an American ship, to speed out of the
Atlantic to Philadelphia, but he did
not possess the five dollars which the
pilot charged to guide his vessel
through Delaware Bay and up to Phil
adelphia until the American captain
loaned it to him. Later, Banker
Stephen Girard found the Govern
ment of George Washington in
crisis for lack of $4,000.000 and he
the former bankrupt alien"-formed
pool and raised the millions-and
saved the Revolution.
But space limits us to modern DAYS.
There was professor of ichthyol-
ogy In Switzerland who had struggled
into fame at the age of %, when he
had an income of $40 a month, out of
which he paid the artist who illus
trated his scientific books SIS, and he
lived on the other SIS. Later. he
came to America, lectured at the Low
ell Institute and other establish
ments of high learning, until he ac-
cepted the professorsip of zoology at
tat, ,H,-i1 --s- l..
greatest teacher of natural science
America has ever had.
There was a son-in-law of Mrs Julia
Ward Howe and her husband, DR.
Gridley Howe-Michael Anagnosto-
poulos. Greek. 1t was he who
taught the deaf-blind-mute Helen
Keller how to speak. and she became
the wonder of the age. He taught
Thomas Stringer, sightless and voice.
less, how to speak. He opened the
eyes of America and the world to the
fact that to the hopeless there may
be joy. DR.. Howe had first laugh.
him. but the Greek alien spread the
work beyond DIR. Howes achievement.
Who knows but that some such mar
vel inspired THE Battle Hymn of the
Republic Mine Eyes Have Seen
the Glory of the Coming of the Lord"
Who first drew in astounding detail
the birds of America. so that a famous
European painter called him 1.-THE king
of archaeological painters? 1t was
John James Audubon, the Frenchman
True, like Lindbergh, he was born in
America. but Audubon's parents were
aliens-his father was the twentieth
child of a poor fisherman of the De-
partment of Vendee, France; his
mother was Spanish. The father go.
the command of small vessel in the
imperial French navy, and he was ac-
companied by his wife on frequent
trips to New Orleans. On one of these
trips. the child, John James, was born
while the boat was in the Louisiana
harbor. but they all returned to
France. After the death of the father,
the young man and his English bride
came to America-almost to starve,
but eventually he became the fore
most ornithologist Of the world-right
here in the United States.
1t is only a few years ago since
observation-disclosures were familiar with Il
fellow citizen-a native of Edinburgh,
Scotia nd-Alexander Graham Bell.
who astounded the world at our Cen
tennial Exposition with his machine
to enable humanity to talk through
wire.
AS a POSTMASTER would say, we
"have in our midst today. fellow cit
izens,' Mr.. Emile Berliner. who beat
Thomas Edison in a patent trans
mitter adding unmeasured capacity to
the Bell telephone. Herr Berliner was
born in Hanover. and reached the
I in no
~ achieved wealth" at So week. as
bottle washer in a chemical shop of
New York. Seven years later. when
he was % years old, this German i'm
migrant made and patented the trans
mitter for the Bell telephone, two
weeks ahead of Edison. The Ber
liner transmitter was bought and used
by the Bell Telephone Co.. which
fought and won against the Edison
claim. Since then he invented the
gramophone-the first instrument for
recording southland he invented the
disk records. In 1917 Herr Berliner
the revolving cylinder used in ocean
going airplanes-such as I'VE"
1t cost the Bell Telephone Co. $41..
1000 to win out on the Berliner in
vention of the transmitter against
Edlson's claims, and it cost the Victor
Talking Machine Co. half a million
to fight for the Berliner disks, but it
was that German alien who first
thought out the things. He now has
the idea that if we can get pure milk
we will not have so much tuberculosis.
y y X
There was canny Scotsman named
James Gordon Bennett. That may be
news to some, but not to many
Americans. When he arrived in
~k