Page Twelve
THE UNITED AMERICAN
of it, even among fellow laborers in mill or camp,
but let a foreign-born with the same name come upon
the scene, and he furnishes all the joke-smiths of his
environs with tons of merriment. In an effort to
make a fool out of him, his name is twisted and
stretched and made to sound as ridiculous as possible.
And it is not innocent fun either. The greater the
discomfiture of the poor alien, who cannot talk back
without adding fuel to the flame, the greater the
merriment. Many aliens have in such moments of
desperation, committed rash acts with serious conse
quences. Many aliens have even gone to prison for long
terms because they acted rashly after having been
tantalized, in this manner, beyond the point of in
durance by fellow workmen of native birth.
A Russian immigrant by the name of Lasay com
plains that his name is furnishing fellow workmen
with so much fun at his expense that he is on the
verge of desperation. Plaintively he cries: “What
does my name mean in English?” and goes on to
tell that “when the men with whom I work say to
me, ‘Are you Lazy?’ and I answer ‘Yes,’ they throw
their heads back and laugh and laugh.”
A Norwegian immigrant by the high class Nor
wegian name of Aas, who is without sufficient know
ledge in English, complains that he must change his
name or be driven to madness because the people
with whom he works refuse to accept his pronouncia-
tiGn his name, and to give the letter “a” the broad
sound, as we so easily can give this letter, in a word
like “war.” Instead they insist an twisting the pro-
nounciation, making it sound like “ass,” the literal
meaning of which becomes anything but a desirable
interpretation of the man’s name.
It should not be necessary for any immigrant in
America to change an honored old family name in
order to escape ridicule on account of the accidental
literal meaning which the name may have, in sound, to
something funny in the Anglo-American tongue. If the
American culture, of which we justly pride ourselves,
was just a little more evenly distributed we should find
no American worthy of the name willing to stoop to
such practices. The aliens’ difficulties with the Anglo
tongue is no criterion of his cultural attainments,
and the thoughtless and uncultured type of Americans
who attempt to make him the laughing stock of the
shop or the camp, who perforce thus gives the foreign-
born his first real impression of America and the Amer
ican people, contribute most effectively to the sum total
of wrong impressions that are counteracting the aliens’
assimilation and Americanization.
Where there is true appreciation of American
values, there is dignity attached to the individual’s
display of patriotism. The example set by the indi
vidual is, by the foreign-born, credited to the sum of
America, which he, at heart, either rejects or accepts.
Which is it to be?
It is largely up to those who lay claim to being
Americans 1
APRIL 1925
Upton, a member of the upper branch of this August
body. The purpose of this bill is to create a Board of
Consmetic Therapy Examiners, whose duties it shall be to
examine applicants as to their ability to do sundry things,
such as shampooing a man’s head and trimming his finger
nails. The bill also gives women the right to establish them
selves as barbers with credentials to shave, trim beard, and
cut hair—hence, the right to invade another domain where men
have reigned Supreme. The bill, which passed, perhaps, not
so much because of its merits, but rather, as we suspect, because
of courtesy to the senator who introduced it, would have been a
“freak” measure some years ago and the solons of a recent past
would have considered its introduction an insult to their intelli
gence, but today — oh, well, there are so many freak bills
introduced that even a bill regulating manicuring and facial
massage goes into the hopper without a voice being raised in
protest against this form of intolerable levity.
The Expulsion from. Turkey of the venerable
Patriarch Constantinos of the Greek Orthodox Church which
the authorities of Turkey recently brought about under the
Exchange of Populations agreement entered into some time
ago, by Greece and Turkey, under approval of the League of
Nations, is causing considerable qualm and furnishes an ex
cellent reason for continuing the Balkan disputes. The appeal
which Greece made to the League has been answered by Turkey
with a denial of the League’s right to intercede in a matter
of international policy. Russia’s official repudiation of all
religions, particularly the orthodox church, has weakened the
Patriarch’s position in Constantinople, and the Mohamedan
come-back into Europe under these conditions paved the way
for the expulsion of the Christian Patriarch. Perhaps there
is little significance in this move, but the re-establishment of
Turkey in Europe has brought with it many indications that
it is the intention of the younger Turkey to seek redress and
regain the position of power which Turkey of old held in the
Balkans. Should they succeed in this respect, the peace of
Europe will never* rest on a strong foundation.
How extraordinary circumstances sometimes serve
the purpose of removing impediments to progress and even
physical imperfections is best illustrated in the following tale
told by Herodotus, the ancient Greek historian: “Croesus,
the last king of Lydia, had a son who was dumb. When Sardis
was attacked, and a Persian soldier rushed with a drawn
sword toward the king to take his life, this son sprang for
ward and exclaimed, ‘I pray you do not kill my father, the
king!’ ” The energy that was loosened in a critical moment
within the physical being of this young man, proved sufficient
to overcome the impediment in his speech. The citizen whose
civic conscience is. so dulled that he feels powerless to exert
himself for good citizenship should 'begin to study his own
physical and mental deficiency and try to discover where the
mainspring to his crippled energy is; wind up the works and
begin to tick off some invigorating signs of good citizenship.
“Those who are without sin cast the first stone”
was the way in which a noted figure of an early day challenged
a mob before a town gate of a city in an ancient country,
which was engaged in throwing stones at a weak and weary
fellow being who had erred. The challenge has its application
today. The urban habits of daily life today are taxing. Those
who falter and resort to wrongful means to keep up appearances
are not necessarily bad. The strain is breaking some, the
desire for glamor is throwing others, the general slackening
of morals is swallowing a liberal quota. Today it strikes
here, tomorrow there. There are many who are worth
rescuing. All they need is the rehabilitating influence that
lies concealed in loyal friendship. There are plenty of friends
when everything goes well. Be the one friend that remains
When everything has gone dead wrong.
“Who’s next” is a common parlance in the salons
A religious impulse may not make much, spectacular
of the tonsorial artists, places commonly called barbershops, but
one might twist this pert phrase into a kindred one, “What’s
next”, when one reads the contents of a senate bill introduced
in the late session of the Oregon legislature by Senator
noise, but it does not take a great deal of observation to
discover that it invariably accomplishes a greater and more
permanent change in the life of a man than the religions
feverishness that is produced through high pressure revivals.