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About The united American : a magazine of good citizenchip. (Portland, Or.) 1923-1927 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 1, 1925)
Page Twelve NOVEMBER 19.25 THE UNITED AMERICAN which the old world has been able to make it appear that wrong is right and right is wrong, as the foreign tutors have it, and as it has been put into the curriculum of the League. Uncle Sam, they have it, is only a moneyed old fossil who has come by his wealth through an accident, whose money is good, but whose judgement isn’t worth any thing. We are certainly fortunate that our Uncle Sammy is not responsible for the educational perverseties of the. League or its foreign council of tutors or we should, among other little domestic wars, by this time be up to our necks in a miniature Franco-Riffian war, here at home, no less intense than “our” Irish independence war of a recent period and the present hectic racial and religious skirmishes we are pulling off at a serious' loss in reputation. be made as an amendment to the quota immigration law, during the session now convened. To legislate adequately. is wise and commendable, but to legislate extremely is unwise and such action stands subject to severe condemnation. There is al ways the fair, just and equitable course to pursue. It may not appeal to those who are of an unfair, unjust and selfish turn of mind, yet, what they fashion is, at best, only temporary. It may appease their vanity for the while, but laws that define justice and equality will eventually replace the laws that reflect the ex tremely unfair legislator, the man with a grudge who attempted to set up certain technical definitions and dis tinctions designed to create public sentiment sustain ing a partial repudiation of the accepted American code and principle of equality. Changed conditions in the world at large, however, have made it necessary that America adopt certain rules and regulations pertaining to immigration which is in the interest of all her people, native born and foreign born. Public sentiment unmistakably favors certain specific restrictions, but without a question it stands opposed to any restriction giving rise to racial or re ligious contentions. Specifically the causes creating public sentiment favoring immigration restriction may be briefly summed up in the following points : First, mass immigration can no longer find the un limited sources for sustenance in America that existed here up to a decade ago. Second, the upheaval of Europe, caused by the world war and subsequent revolutions, has changed the mental cosmos into a chaos among all the classes that furnish the immigration flow. Third, the former standards of physical qualifications among the immigrants from Europe have been lowered to the extent that in order to protect the people of this country from an invasion of morons and those physic ally and morally deficient, new and specific standards of admissibility had to be devised. If only the unfortunate race distinctions could in some way be eliminated from the law it would make for more harmony in the Americanization and assimila tion work that is being done here at home in our country, where the grievous contentions, set up by this law, are creating insurmountable obstacles of mental reservations, barring a literal and spiritual interpreta tion and acceptance of the American equality creed. Somewhere and sometime we read something about a principle that was dubbed “self-determination,” as it applied to a nation, and the League of Nations was organized for the purpose of defending, among other things, that very principle. Well, the League, mischievous young thing that it appears to be, is perhaps not sufficiently educated to under stand that this principle knows no color line and should apply-to' the Eiffians as well as to any Other people. The French League tutor, perhaps, forgot to tell the League that an aggressive move by any people against any other people was wrong and would be no lesser wrong should the French undertake such a thing, and since none of the other tutors engaged to instruct the League have supplied the information the League appears to be as stupid on this point of principle as it was when its education began, several years ago. Isn’t Uncle Sam lucky though, for once, that he had sense enough to refuse the proffer to become a League tutor on the terms submitted by the foreign council of tutors. Uncle Sam, poor old dub, he is not supposed to know the finer art of diplomacy by Yes, yes, we quite agree with the London news papers in their voluminous contentions that America has much to learn from the Old World, but “by heck” if the curriculum forced upon us by the learned Old World in recent years hasn’t furnished us the most deplorable intellectual dementia. Some of the courses we have taken have produced mental nausea and perpetual biliousness. Great old stuff, some of that Old World intelligentia though, it has made Uncle Sam so darn polite that he is afraid to go bill-collecting over in Europe for fear that he might say something too rude to the polished boys over there who are too educated to bother about such trifles as debts. Our “education” has progressed so nipely that Un«le Sam, in order to keep his dignity, only sends a statement once in a while and at certain intervals may without breach of Old World etiquette accompany the statement with a very courteous letter which he is assured some dignified under-secretary will read to a most pompous body of official dignitaries who will dignify it by ordering it filed among “Papers of State.” A reply may in due course of time be given telling Uncle Sam that the amount due him has been transfered from the ledger of open accounts to the ledger of “funded” debts—debts for future generations to worry Over. Oh, that Old World educa tion is great if you are so constituted, but it is grating on our nerves now, and by the aid of a little Americanized garlic and pure kosher spices we are likely to recover and resume our old stand for American independence. Speaking of woman’s rights, lead us to ponder why down in Louisiana a woman cannot be the guardian of a child, even though it is her own. Somebody down there ought to tell them something about the nineteenth amendment to the Federal constitution. The situation in Georgia and Vermont isn’t much better in point, because in those common wealths a husband is by law entitled to the earnings of his wife. Pretty soft for the lazy husband. Earthquakes may be very soothing to the nerves of those who are crazy for excitement but they have a depreci ating influence on real estate. The hospitals are crowded and the surgeons are working hard. Think of that sometime when you feel that tingling sensational urge to “step on the gas.” WHEN JUSTICE IS SWEPT OVERBOARD (Continued from Page Seven) who had been in America many years beyond the five year period, but who had neglected to qualify for natu ralization — slightly miscarried, as previously men tioned. The intent was to give them an unobstructed opportunity to re-engage in fishing, nominally as boat pullers, for two years, providing they produced satis factory proof, that they were diligently studying to qualify for citizenship, either in the public night schools or in private classes and at home, with the aid of an Americanization teacher. Though a simple expedient at law, it would accidentally have become a factor, as nothing else, for the Americanization of the fishermen, who would have found it fair enough that > I ! i i