Evening star., 1933-12-31

around the world? Italy. Who found
ed the whole temple of English letters?
Italy. Whence came the inspiration of
Father Chaucer? Italy Who supplied
the plots of most of the Elizabethan
dramatists, ConSp.Cu Du5ly of Shake
speare? Italians.
If you are muciIian. you deem the
symphony to be tt highest expression
of the soul OF man. L came from Italy.
You like the opera. 1t was developed
by Italy out of the miracle plays Of the
Middle Ages If you cherish good
literature you adore the sonnets Of
in Italy. Keats, Longfellow, de We're,
Aldrich, Fawcett. George Sterling, every
master of the sonnet form has been
diligently copying Petrarch and Cult
tone. Possibly you prefer prose
romances. The modern novel came
from Italy.
Make Good Americans.
Or turn next to phases of the sub
ject that may have more intimate ap-
peal to a more mater, liStic sense.
How many times making tie western
passage, have sputtering Nordics stood
forth to blast-With words-Italy,
sWarming there in the steerage. Think
of trying to make Americans out OF
these!' cried Nordicus. bursting with
rage. Well. we did it. We made
Americans of them and in most in
stances did a first class Job. There are
no better Americans today than second
generation Italians. I had rather take
my chances with them any day than
with an equal number OF the descend
ants of the sacred MayfOWer, much
rather l never hear second gCner-
alton Italian deridlng the country of
his birth or sneerirg at democracy or
intimatlng that the American ReVOlu-
ton was carried on by gang of
rasCalS That kind of imagery. in m
oh ervation has been COnfiIed to men,
bers OF our pure old Nordlc ancestry.
Other peoples come over here and hold,
often with rigid persistence, to the ira
ditiOnS and psychology Of their fore
bears. Second generation Italians can
respect the land of their fOrGbearS with
out in the least interfering with their
whole-souled devotion to the land Of
their birth a
that these chattering, strangely CARRIED
people massed in the forecastle could
never be ass inflated. In my observa-
ton they have proved, OF all lmml-
grants. the most easily aSsimllable
have known hundreds Of Englishmen
who have lived in this country all thei.
lives and have fierceiy declined to be
naturalized Italians seeking their first
papers crowd into the naturalization
Cffice almost as soon as they land.
have known EngliShmCn who refused to
allow their children, born on this soil,
to give the school pledge OF loyalty to
the American flag. l never knew an
Italian of that disposition.
Naturally Democratic.
One reason why Italians are so easily
adaptable to our ways is that they are
in spirit and by inheritance among the
best democrat5 III the world. Yet, even
now. misled temporarily in acceptance
Of an absolutism. the old Italian spirit
of democracy is still there. Other peO-
pies acquire It more or less. the Italians
are born with it. Live for time IN
an Italian town. mingle with the people.
note Their kindly ways and genial
psychology. their delightful absence of
self-cCnsciOUsness. their native friend
illness to strangers. You VIII see what
I mean. just as the toIG- OF snob-
berry cllngs to the Anglo Saxon, the
urge of democracy. inheritance from the
Forum. IS native in the blood OF the
an Italian immigrant has climbed into
the m9yor2lty Of New York
Our stupid immigration law, with its
perniciOuT and ill-founded quota ar
rangement. was hailed by fanatics as
a boon and salvation. Rather it should
have been moWned by all others as
a calamity It has effected its purpose
of reducing Italian immigration. but
hPnGtlT
has made virtually an end OF the source
of supply most valuable to the America
that is to be In the racial chemistry
from which we are to evolve here a
Nation of enduring and unimpeachable
worth. we really had no need Of more
of the indurated NOrdic material OF
that element we already had enough,
and if the events of the last four years
demonstrate anything, we had far too
much.
Expert about many things of one
thing the NOrdic has no command. He
can build fortunes, plan skysCraperS,
capitalize railroads, invent machinery:
but he cannot live. Of the whole art
of living in its true scnse. the art Of
gaining from the earthly passage Some
profit of joy for the spirit. he is as
ignorant as a child. 1t was this ele-
ment that Italy was contributing to US
and this that our clubfCOted immi-
grafton law excludes.
Spirit Reappears.
To think back over the achieve
mentS Of The ever curious Italian spirit
is to be filled with as much wonder as
pleasure. Age after age it has reap
peared What was manifested in the
medieval epoch through Aligheri. An
gelo, Da Vinci, was in the nineteenth
century Mazzini and Aurelio Safti,
Cavour and Manin, Verdi and Bellini
in the twentieth. MarcOni and Tos-
canini. Outward and visible signs of it
may change with the times; at heart it
is Cne.
In some way. by some inscrutable
provision, some combination of sun. at
mosphere. soil or what else. the shores
of the Mediterranean had produced
among men this singular spirit that
presses toward notable doing, row along
one line, now another. but always
pushing forward Now it inVentS new
arms and uses them, now it creates a
nation of an immortal opera. now il
breeds great discoverer. now it cleans
up its cities, now drains the peStllent
marshes. now produces a great con
tender in the lists for democracy now
wins New York by humping plural
ity. now explores the North Pole, now
conuuers the air, now builds great
steamships. while generation after gen.
Grafton after generation shows to tbs
world the infinite capacities of art and
beauty to cheer and sustain the strug-
Cling race of men. I think just one line
has compressed the whole extraordinary
story:
"Italia-mother of the souls of men!