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
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