Evening star., 1943-04-17
An American Relates
Story Of His Growth
Gods Country Was Good
To Little Immigrant Boy Who
Brought q Vision With Him

Brought q Vision With Him
To the Editor of The Star
There wasn't any war that day, and
was quite content to watch some other
boys playing with a ball-until it flew
over the railing and was lost in the foam
of the sea. Yet that isn't what I recall
most vividly about that day. was about
10, steerage passenger, but permitted
to roam about because I wasn't we'll.
What was happening? What had hap
pened? couldn't tell.
There I stood, on the deck of that
ocean liner-it was a liner in those
days-gazing in open-mouthed astonish-
ment as people gathered about a starry
flag. Some cried, some shouted, some
just talked and some slapped open palms
In boisterous and resounding greeting on
their neighbors' backs. Then there was
singing-singing that stirred something
inside of you-and then some one got
up on makeshift platform and waved
his arms about for while. Two words
only reached my consciousness. heard
them whispered, over and over, and they
seemed to have meaning, but I didn't
know what. remember repeating them,
until a friendly lady, recognizing my
troubled look for what it was, interpreted
and explained them to me. Gods coun-
try" she said means and this is
the Fourth of July
Gods country" Why that's where
we were bound!
Yes, II days before mother and had
boarded that liner, boarded it with all
of our worldly possessions-a small bun
die Of clothes, two tickets for a little
town in sprawling America, and the
equivalent to a dollar and quarter in
American money.
The dollar and a quarter, mother once
told me, we spent in riotous living dur
ing the IA Gays on the water The rest
of us, incluulng the bundle, landed at
Baltimore. How we got through the
customs I never learned, but we soon
found ourselves on a train, for long
ride that was to add several more days
OF sea-sick agony to my own expungable
experience.
And then, on sweltering, hot day in
July, we reached our destination. Once
again my childish eyes "popped'-this
time at the vastnesS, the expanse, the
endlessness of the prairies-the rolling
prairies, so prodigal, so wild, so evidently
unconquered, yes, less than half sub
dued So, this was to be home" this
was Gods country" Well, it was GER
tainly new. New to me, and new in
fact!
Why, it had been only few years
before that very day that a group of
people in the pay of what was termed
the Government" at Washington, had
come out, made some pencil marks in
the middle of clean sheet of paper,
placed some markers so that the whole
could be bounded by three dotted lines
and river, and listed it by name.
And there it lay, now, spread out be-
lore me, In all its beWildering grandeur
with name no older than mine. But
there it had been for ages, perhaps,
without name. Always inquisitive, I
began to ask questions, as soon as I
learned something of the language. Yes,
1t was explained, bounding this area.
and naming it, had not changed it. It
had been like that. 1t had the same
climate, the same rich SOIL the same re-
VltallZing air. It had the same beauti-
ful mlrages, glorious sunsets and stream
ing northern lights. 1t had the same
cool nights, the same crisp winters, the
same splendid, sunny, strengthening
Junes. 1t had the same rolling prairies,
the same wonderful wide-open tWilights.
the same big-visioned overwhelming.
ever broadening, soul ul-stirring horizon
and outlook
So found it; so believe it is today:
so believe it will be tomorrow-as fine
a place as when God first made it-a
| place
Where at eventide the glory of the sun
and sky and sod,
Makes you bare your head in homage
and in gratitude to God"
But, bounding it, and naming it, had
made change. 1t had changed it to a
State. And, as State, it was part of the
United States-a part of Gods colfn-
try by virtue of its own free choice.
There, in that part of Gods country"
I grew up. Through drought and flood
and hail and winters wantonness, my
once puny body-allegedly pure Aryan-
became strong and sturdy. Through the
stress and struggle of making living
after my first three years there. I de-
veloped something of mental alertness
and independence of thought-and no
one said me may" Oh, yes, I heard
about bolshevlsm and socialism and the
new lnternationalism, and was OCCASION
ally "needleo' with such utopian virus
as: Every man to the level of the aver
age" A relative took more or less de-
light in frequently reminding me that
trying to get an education was fooling
with something that poor boys couldn't
afford. But the important thing is that
1 was permitted to discover for myself
that all OF these suggestions were as false
to my America as they were fatal to
my own, individual well-being.
And SO, today, as those who bear my
name and those of my neighbors make
history in the very outposts of our So
called civilization, feel reasonably GER
tain why they have gone, and what they
have gone to do. The years upon this
American soil, under the american way
OF life," have taught us all a definite
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