Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1940-06-06
The Newer Americans

The Newer Americans
Few writers have delved into
the question of what the foreign
born and their descendants mean
to America, as has Louis Adamic
of Milford, N. j., who is now
gathering material for another
book, the title of which will be,
"a Nation of Nations" Hun
dreds of questions are asked of
interested persons in gathering
information for the book. Here
are some of them:
When, why and whence did people
of your stock first come to America?
When and why did they first come
where you now live? What did the
majority engage in at first? What
do they engage in now? What did
they have to go through to gain
foothold? q think that the stories
of the earliest immigrants of the
various new racial and national
groups are quite as interesting and
significant as are those of the earliest
Anglo-SaXon or Dutch colonists. The
wilderness of American city slums
or mining towns of so or 70 years
ago was perhaps worse than that of
the virgin region of New England
with its Indians in the 18th century,
Do they mingle with other national
tiles? With oldstock Americans? To
what extent? Are they going into
local, state, national politics: to what
extent?
Are they encountering prejudice
or discrimination because they are
foreigners" How do they cope with
it? Does this prejudice include the
immigrants American-born children?
What are they doing about it?
All immigrant groups have contri-
buted vastly to the upbuilding of
America as it now stands. Who were
or are some of the outstanding peo-
pie of your national group in the
u. S.? In professions? Sports? The
arts? Industry and business? Edu-
cation and religion? In special fields?
In the labor movement? In politics?
Are their life stories interesting, dra-
matte, illustrative of the life of your
people in America as a whole? I
am especially eager to hear of i'm
migrants or second-generation work.
ers who are not widely known but
who have invented gadgets and new
production methods which are now
a part of American industrial opera
tions, or have made other important
but not generally recognized social
and economic contributions.
should like to hear of old couples
of your race or nationality who have
been in America a long time and
whose children, grandchildren and
possible great-grandchildren are by
now scattered all over America, per-
forming various functions, facing diff
terent problems, living interesting or
average American lives.
To what extent are your national
or racial colonies in the various cities
breaking up? How are they break
ing up? What does that mean in
terms of living to the old immigrants
and their American-born children?
Is it good these colonies are break
ing up?
What have your people brought
over in them that, if it became part
of American life in general, would
add to the color and tone of the
culture of the U. S.? Your people
brought to America certain cultural
gifts and talents. Which of them were
destroyed, perverted or damaged by
conditions in this country? Which
were enhanced? Which have any
value for the future of America?
Why? What can be done to restore
those that were damaged?
What role does organized religion
play among your people? In your
own life?
Calvin Coolidge once said: "Wheth-
er one traces his Americanism back
three centuries to the Mayflower, or
three years to the steerage, is not
half so important as whether his
Americanism of today is real and
genuine. No matter on what various
crafts we came here, we are all now
in the same boat" More recently
Franklin D. Roosevelt said that 1--WE
are all immigrants here"
Mr.. Adamic goes on:
Iwant to hear from Americans who
are of many races-say, English, Ger
man, Czech, Jewish and Armenian;
or any other combination.
And what about Characterization?
AS see it, the old "Americaniza-
ton" idea, fear-motivated, aimed to
purge the immigrants of his old-coun-
try background (of which the amer
icanizers" had no clear notion ex-
cept that it was bad because "for-
eign") and thus turn him neatly into