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About The Northman. (Portland, Or.) 1920-192? | View Entire Issue (May 27, 1920)
THE NORTHMAN tutes the foreign-born in America, cannot be Americanized entirely by the more or less artifical methods of public education. It must be a daily experience. Every em ployer of labor, every foreman in the factory, every conductor upon a public conveyance, every politician, and preacher, and journalist, every clerk in a bank or store, every mistress in a home—in short, every American must have an awakened sense of obligation and must by careful selfdiscipline become interpreters to all home-grown and foreign-born alike of those spiritual realities that constitute America. According to an investigation conducted by the United States Immigration Com mission a few years ago, 58% of the work ing forces of America were born abroad, while 17% are native-born Americans of a foreign father. That is to say fewer than one out of every four workers in our basic industries are native Americans, while three out of every five industrial workers are of foreign birth. In some of our industries the percentage of foreign-born employees is much higher than the general average. In the clothing industry, 72%; in silk-dyeing, 75%; sugar refining, 85%. The problem becomes more complicated when we recall the startling fact that some 56 distinct races are represented among the workmen in the leading branches of American industry. According to Mr. Franklin Lane, late Secretary of the Interior, one out of every ten people we meet in the streets can neither, read, write nor speak our lan guage. In sending out the literature to farmers from the various government de partments it was found that practically three millions of the farmers could not read the literature. Five and a half mil lions cannot read or write any language, while from three and a half to four mil lions of our people can neither read, write nor speak the English language. Making allowance for those who are merely able to sign their names, or who have the most rudimentary knowledge pf any written language, it is likely that between fifteen and twenty millions of our people would have to be classed as illiterate. I am confident that the time has come for a great comprehensive attempt to make this a nation of one soul, one lan guage, and one loyalty. We must begin with the immigrant before he leaves his native land; and we must establish such rigid supervision that only those capable of passing certain standards, physical, mental and moral, are permitted to start the journey towards their new home, America. When, the immigrant arrives in this country, he ought to be taken immediate ly under the supervision of our national government. He ought to be distributed industrially either on the farms or in the cities where he is needed. He ought to be followed up and immediately put to work learning the language. He ought to be pretected from these abominable sharks and parasites who have pursued and sucked the life out of so many foreigners in recent years. In other words the foreigner ought to be furnished with leadership and education of an American kind and not left to the revolutionist and enemies of America. While it may be necessary for some time to come to have publications in foreign languages, every publication so 5 printed, ought to have printed in parallel columns an American translation of all it says. These things are forcing their way into the consciousness of the real men and women of Pittsburgh and our other pro gressive communities who see the danger and are preparing to meet it. May their tribe increase! those who embrace the oportunity only to abuse it. If aliens come hither and re fuse to behave with common decency, if instead of being guests they assume the airs of proprietorship, if instead of here becoming -Americanized, they seek to Bolshevise America, there is just one way in which to deal with them. Turn them out. Shut them out. THE ENEMY WITHIN OUR GATES BROTHERHOOD OF MAN North American Review Saturday Evening Post XVE USED to boast that we could wel- ” come hither all the peoples of the world, and assimilate and Americanize among us an undigested mass of millions of aliens, unassimilated and unassimilable, who instead pf becoming Americanized are going very far toward Europeanizing us. There is more danger of Russians Bol- shevising America than there is hope of America republicanizing Russia. Still worse, if possible, was the kindred folly of supposing that revolutionary plots and Anarchism could never secure a foothold here. A poet wrote of Eng land that slaves could not breathe her air; the moment they did so, they became free. With immeasurably less truth and reason we deluded ourselves with the notion that Anarchism could not flourish here; that our freedom was automatically fatal to it; and that therefore we could afford to let Anarchists come hither, and could safely ignore and laugh at their plottings. So many affected to scorn or ignore the treacherous plottings of the German- American Alliance and of German agents; even after the war was begun and Bem- storff’s jackals were busy with their deviltry. So now men affect to scorn Bolshevist plottings, or to disbelieve their existence. The fact is that America has all along been in special peril of such things, for a variety of reasons. One is, obviously, the number of alien and unnaturalized residents that we have here, who form the best posible field for such inimical propa ganda. They are alien in mind and heart. They do not comprehend and therefore do not appreciate American institutions, and they have no regard for this country and no inclination to protect it against overthrow. They are imbued with the notions of the old country, and they trans fer to our Government the same hatred which they felt for the oppressive gov ernments from which they fled. They are thus easily influenced by their fellows who come hither with marvelous tales of what the Soviets have done over there, and still more marvelous picturings of what they may do here. If the court of the Czar afforded rich plunder, how much richer would be the plunder of American capitals! We have given to the peoples of the world such an opportunity in America as they have never known before and will never know again. We have given them a chance to come hither freely and prosper. We have offered them all the same freedom, the same rights and priviliges, that we ourselves enjoy and that we pur chased for ourselves at a great price. Many of them have embraced and im proved that opportunity, and have given us a naturalized citizenship of which we are justly proud and which is of intesti- mable value to the land. It is for the sake of these latter, and of others who may come hereafter and be like them, that we should draw the line inexorably against AATHEN men speak of the brotherhood * * of man they mean flocking together of those who have a common grievance. They do not suppose or desire that all should share equally in the world’s wealth; their doctrine is that the staid old earth should be stood on its head so that in the resulting confusion the poor could get their feet on the necks of the rich and make them pay through the nose. If brotherhood means common courtesy and a fair deal between man and man, let us have it. But let us not drug our com mon sense with the theory that brother hood will give strength to the weak or brains to the foolish. One may love the unfortunate and share his substance with them, but his first interest is himself. Vocal altruists may coin pretty phrases until the crack of doom, and yet not make a dent in human nature. Each man will get possession to the limit of his ability, and if he dreams of an equal division of goods it is because his vision is fixed on those who have more than himself, not on those who have less. All of us believe in prosperity. We would have leisure and luxury for our selves and a like blessing for all of our fellows. But what can one do ? Here is a man who cannot or will not learn to do a simple task well. He has the mind of a child. He pities himself. He resents the fact that other men have greater abilities. He could save money, but will not. Will this pretty theory of brother hood put brains in his head, teach him thrift and responsibility and make him a governor ? The complaint that there is no equality of opportunity is but a confession that there is ho equality of ability to find, grasp and handle opportunity. We cannot legis late or theorize men to a common level of ability, and it would be a crime against God and the race to hold able men down because incompetents cannot climb. A brotherhood of courtesy, of tolerance, of honest dealings, of charity, of equal opportunity to labor and to get what one’s service is worth—for this all may pray in unison. But we will have none of brotherhood if it would abolish prizes, discourage ambi tion, mock ability and chain us fast to those who cannot keep the pace. The survival of the fittest may be a hard doct rine; it is not harder than the doctrine that all should drown in brotherly fashion because one of the number cannot swim. One can sympathize with the under dog without desire to crawl under and join him. See that the fight is fair and then let Nature take its course. Chivalry might enjoy holding the larger dog down while the smaller one gnawed his vitals, but a universal practice of this form of chivalry would soon rid the world of large dogs. And it is not at all reasonable to suppose that the small ones would be able to do the work now done by the large ones.