Zupa, Czecho-Slovak Republic, and came to this country in 1891,
alone. In June, 1909, he was admitted to the bar in Allegheny County,
Pennsylvania.
In an article, entitled “Americanization: the Other Side of the
Case,” contributed to the _Atlantic Monthly_, March, 1920, he says:
“Although born in far-off Czecho-Slovakia, under the shadow of the
snow-capped Tatra, I can without boasting say that I yield to no one
in my loyalty to the Stars and Stripes; and if I differ in my views
as to the methods to be used in Americanizing those who, like me,
were born in other countries, I do it out of love for my adopted
country, and because I am anxious to see these efforts crowned with
success.”
Mr. Kulamer has favored us with the following essay, in which he
further presents his ideas on this subject.
THE AMERICAN SPIRIT AND AMERICANIZATION
No matter how uncouth in appearance the immigrant when he sets foot
on American soil, the criminal fleeing from the hands of justice
excepted, there burns in his soul an intense love for the country of
his nativity, inherited from generations of his ancestors; the more
primitive his heart, the simpler and stronger is this love. He may have
come to this country only to earn sufficient money to relieve his wants
at home or to enlarge his means of living, or he may have come here as
to a land of promise of whose great opportunities and larger freedom he
has heard, still his heart remains in the land of his birth where the
ashes of his forefathers are resting and to which the memories of his
happiest childhood days are clinging. Leaving his home-nest, forsaking
friends and family and turning his face to a strange land to mix with
people whose customs and language he knows not, is a thrilling and
tragic adventure to every immigrant. And it is well that his soul is so
constituted, because he has the capacity to become a true patriot. Your
cosmopolite is of different stuff; he is callous and incapable of those
noble sentiments which urge the patriot to sacrifice even his life for
his country, either of birth or adoption. A man who pays no homage to
any land is incapable of harboring those feelings of brotherly love and
kinship on which the solidarity of a nation rests. If Americanizers
wish to wean the immigrant from the old to the new, they must have
genuine respect for his feelings and not wound them; he must be wooed,
he cannot be forced.
What is the object of this Americanization which is so much talked
about and on which so much energy and money is spent? Is it simply to
wipe out the difference between the customs and habits of the older
and newer settlers; or is it to amalgamate the various human elements
into one homogeneous mass, into one nation? If it is the former, it is
wasted energy; time will accomplish it. If it is the latter, then the
aliens must be considered as human beings whose souls are made of the
same material as those of the Pilgrim Fathers. Nations do not appear
on the earth spontaneously; they are the result of historical growth,
lasting for centuries. Many factors exert their influences upon a
nation in the formative stage. Stop immigration, if you can get along
without it, and in another generation the inhabitants of this country
will be such Americans as America will have made them. If they should
not turn out to be true Americans, it will be America’s fault. Even now
the children of alien parents speak the same language, dress the same
way, dance the same dances, sing the same songs, have the same good
qualities and the same faults as the children whose ancestors came here
sooner. If you want to convert the old folks into Americans, then it is
necessary to handle the situation with tact. Love is a tender plant;
it does not take root easily, and the least inclement weather will
blast it; but it is very sturdy when full grown, nothing less than a
thunderbolt will shatter it. Furthermore, it is of a spiritual essence,
and money cannot buy it.
To succeed in this purpose it is, first of all, necessary to study each
nationality separately. The very fact that all of them are treated
alike is detrimental. It is unfair to class them all alike. They
all have their good and bad qualities; and justice demands that the
latter be not attributed to those who do not possess them. There is
not one nationality that would admit its inferiority to the others,
and every one of them considers itself equal to, if not better than,
many others. Consequently, to be classed with races looked down upon
is a humiliation to which no one with self-respect will submit without
protest. This is a fact which must not be lost sight of; it is rooted
in human nature. It is further necessary to study the habits, customs,
prejudices and inclinations of every nationality separately, so that
such as are too deeply rooted may not be violently antagonized.
Take, for example, the matter of language. The Swede or the Spaniard
may not object to being forced by law to learn English, because in his
mother country this question never arose, it did not enter into his
daily life. It is different with the Slovak or the Pole, whose soul was
stirred to its very depths because the Magyar or the Prussian wanted
by law to force a strange tongue on him. It was a tradition with him
to resist such an attempt; he looked upon it as an oppression in his
mother country, and he is likely to look upon it in the same light
here. The conditions in Europe and here may be different; he may be
justified in objecting there and not here; but his mind is habituated
to opposing the ruling powers in their efforts to force upon him a
strange language. A common workingman is not used to psychological
self-analysis or to studying archæology; he is controlled mainly by his
impulses. He will note only that he is required to submit here to laws
which he considered oppressive and tyrannical in the old country.
The glories and advantages of this country should not be fed to the
immigrant in excessive doses, but presented tactfully. He is liable
to look upon it as an attempt to humiliate him, as unwarranted
boasting. It is not difficult to pick flaws in the armor of American
complacency. Every man is a hero-worshipper at heart, and every man
has his childhood heroes to whom he clings. Judged by an absolute
standard, if there is such a standard, the American heroes may stand
on a higher plane; but if rude hands are placed upon the childhood
heroes of the alien he is likely to resent it. The skies are just as
blue, the fields are carpeted just as beautifully with flowers and the
nights are illuminated with the same glorious stars on the Eastern as
on the Western Hemisphere. The majority of the aliens enjoyed more of
these beauties at home than they do in the mines and smoke-infested
atmosphere of the industrial American cities. It is true that they earn
more money here in dollars and cents; but they work harder for it and
sometimes under the most cruel taskmasters.
Teaching aliens the English language, American customs, ideals,
political institutions and history, will, of course, go a great way
in making them formal Americans, and, in some cases, it may awaken
in them a love for their new home; but it is indispensably necessary
that in their daily contact with the older Americans they see that
these ideals are put into practice. They have a very high idea of
Americanism, and they scrutinize very critically the conduct of the
Americans with whom they come into contact, to see whether it squares
with these ideals. They watch the manner in which the laws are enforced
by the officials, and compare it with the way in which they are
enforced in their native land; and, if they find out that the Americans
do not practice what they preach, that the administration of public
affairs is not essentially different here from what they know it to
be at home, their opinion of America is not exalted. They look upon
all the loud protestations as bluff and hypocrisy, and no amount of
Americanization work will change their views. They are on trial here,
but they also put the Americans to a test.
This Americanization work must be looked upon as the molding of human
souls. When men’s habits of thought and action have become fixed by
age, when they have lost their youthful plasticity, to recast their
souls into predetermined molds without subjecting them first to the
gentle heat of sympathy is like forging cold steel into new shapes. It
can be done, but it requires enormous energy and the results are never
as satisfactory as when the steel is first heated into a flux and then
cast.
If Americanization is to accomplish its purpose,--the amalgamation of
all the races and nationalities that inhabit the United States into one
nation, the transformation of the aliens into one hundred per cent.
Americans,--if it is to be beneficial and not harmful, it must be
looked upon as a spiritual regeneration. Naturalization makes a citizen
out of an alien; learning the English language makes him more efficient
both for good and evil; conformity to American habits and customs wipes
out social differences; knowledge of American institutions and laws
enables him to live up to them or to break them consciously; but none
of these nor all combined will make him an enthusiastic American unless
his heart has been alienated from his mother country and his affections
transferred to his adopted home. Not until the alien will love America
above all, not until he will boast of it and defend its faults, can he
be considered a true American. And he will do neither unless he has
placed America above his mother country in his estimation. This means a
re-birth in his soul.
ENRICO C. SARTORIO
“The Social and Religious Life of Italians in America,” by Enrico
C. Sartorio, is written from the viewpoint of one who came as a
foreigner to America when he was already a young man. It aims to show
how a foreigner really feels. In the words of Dean George Hodges,
who writes the Introduction to the book, it “is a timely revelation
of the width and depth of a racial gulf which must first be bridged
and then filled. His suggestions as to the accomplishing of this
necessary work are definite and practical inferences from his own
successful experience.”
Mr. Sartorio studied at the Cambridge Episcopal Theological School
and has since been successfully engaged in pastoral work in the city
of Boston.
PATRONIZING THE FOREIGNER
Among certain people there still exists the old prejudice that there
must be something the matter with a foreigner. Exclusiveness on one
side, loneliness on the other, do not help to interpret American life
in the right spirit to the foreigner. If educated Italians thus do not
know the real America, you can easily imagine what the immigrant’s
conception of America may be. My barber, who has been in this country
twenty-eight years, was dumbfounded when I told him the other day that
six people out of seven in America are Protestant. The poor fellow had
gone about for twenty-eight years tipping his hat to every church,
thinking that they were all Roman Catholic churches. I have found over
and over again Italian couples living together in the belief that
they were husband and wife, because they misunderstood American law.
They had been told that in America a civil marriage was as valid as a
religious one, so they went to the City Hall, and by going through the
process of answering questions in taking out the marriage license, they
thought they had been married and went happily home to live together
as husband and wife. An Italian tried to explain to me the meaning
of Thanksgiving Day. “You see,” he said, “the word explains itself,
‘Tacchins-giving Day’”; “tacchin” meaning turkey in Italian, it was,
according to this man, the day on which Americans gave away turkeys.
And what opportunity has an immigrant to know this country when he sees
America only at its worst? Through the gum-chewing girls whom he meets
in factories, through the hard-drinking and hard-swearing “boss” who
orders him about, through the dubious type of youth whom he meets at
the saloon and in the dance hall, through the descriptions given in
Italian newspapers and by cheap orators he comes to know America. Add
to that poor wages, quarters in the slums, policemen, car conductors
and ushers who laugh at him when he asks for information, “bosses” who
claim a fee for securing him a job, and the sweet names of “Dago” and
“Guinea” by which the supposed American thinks himself entitled to call
him, and you can imagine what a delightful feeling the average Italian
has toward this country.
Where does the fault lie? In prejudice and indifference, and in the
spirit of patronage. Americans who judge by appearances, who have not
travelled in Italy or studied modern Italian life, scornfully turn
away from the Italian immigrant because he is not as clean-shaven
or as well-kempt as the American workingman. Other Americans do not
concern themselves with foreigners. They have a vague knowledge that
there is somewhere, in some God-forsaken corner of the city, a foreign
population, and that is all. Still others take a sentimental view of
the matter; they have somewhat the feeling that existed in the bosom of
an Irishwoman, a neighbor of mine. On Saturday night,--she was always
affectionate on that special night,--she would wipe her eyes and say,
“Thim poor Eyetalians.” This kind of person means well, but generally
has zeal without knowledge.
A lady of refinement, born in a leading city of Italy, married to an
Italian Protestant minister who is now at the head of an important
religious movement in Italy, one day received the following letter:--
“_Dear Madam_:
“We are going to have a bazaar for the benefit of Italians. Please
come to help us, _dressed in the national costume that you used to
wear in Italy_.”
A son of a leading lawyer of Naples came to this country and was soon
holding a fine position and making a good living. He met at church an
American lady, who told him that she would be very glad to see him
the next day at her house. At the appointed hour our young gentleman
went there and handed his card to the servant. “Oh, yes,” she said,
“the lady gave me something for you,” and she thrust into his hand a
dilapidated suitcase and a note. The note read:--
“_Dear Sir_:
“I have been called away suddenly, but my maid will give you the
article which I intended to present to you in asking you to call. As
I no longer have use for this suitcase, perhaps it would serve you on
your next trip to Italy.
“Trusting to see you at church next Sunday,
“Sincerely yours,
---- ----.”
On another occasion an Italian minister was sent to a new field. A few
days after he had settled down he had a telephone call from the wife
of a minister of the town, who invited him to call at her house. At
the appointed hour he went and was met by the servant, who gave him a
newspaper bundle. The young man protested, saying that he had come to
call in response to an invitation. The servant went upstairs, but came
back, saying there was no mistake, that the lady wished that given to
him. On reaching home he found that the contents consisted of cast-off
clothing for his children. He bought a handsome edition of an Italian
book for children, translated into English, and sent it with his
regards to the patronizing lady.
TRAINING FOR CITIZENSHIP
There should be, in the large foreign colonies, organized lectures,
clubs, stereopticon lectures, distribution of information, both in
Italian and in English, to explain and to instruct in regard to
American history, laws, institutions, and ideals. There should be
free courses on a university extension plan for Italian professional
men, with a view to preparing them to expound to their people in the
right way the principles and standards of American life. A regular
and carefully carried out campaign should be started in the Italian
newspapers, with well-written articles by leading men on the subject of
American life; and a careful censorship of Italian newspapers should be
established to challenge every article that is unduly depreciatory of
America.
Churches should be centres where American volunteers of the best
kind can in deed and word represent their country to the foreigner.
Churches furnish a good means to bring about Americanization. Italians
are apt to move from place to place, and those who become attached
to Evangelical churches, besides the good which they eventually get
in their own churches, are also brought into contact with American
congregations, who by their example initiate them into the ways of
American life.
A campaign to enlighten the immigrant as to his duties towards his new
country should be started on a somewhat different basis from those
already tried. The immigrant is often made to feel how great the
material advantage is for him in becoming an American citizen, and
thus is trained to enter into American public and political life in a
mercenary spirit. When I applied for citizenship papers, I received
this letter from the Bureau of Naturalization, Washington, D.C.:--
“_Dear Sir_:
“You have just filed your petition for naturalization to become a
citizen of the United States, and because of this the United States
Bureau of Naturalization is sending this letter to you, as it desires
to show you how you can become an American citizen. It also wants to
help you to get a better position that pays you more money for your
work. In order to help you better yourself it has sent your name to
the public schools in your city, and the superintendent of those
schools has promised to teach you the things which you should know
to help you to get a better position. If you will go to the public
school building nearest where you live the teacher will tell you what
nights you can go to school and the best school for you to go to.
You will not be put in a class with boys and girls, but with grown
people. It will not cost you anything for the teaching which you will
receive in the school, and it will help you get a better job and also
make you able to pass the examination in court when you come to get
your citizen’s papers.
“You should call at the schoolhouse as soon as you receive this
letter so that you may start to learn and be able to get a better job
as soon as possible.
“Very truly yours,
N. N.”
As you see, four times there occurs in this letter the exhortation
to become a citizen and to learn the English language in order to
get “a better job.” The letter contains not a single appeal to
higher motives nor a reference to the duties and responsibilities of
American citizenship, yet it is sent to every foreigner who applies
for citizenship. I think a letter of this kind is demoralizing. I
wonder whether America is better off for exhorting foreigners to become
citizens from such motives, or whether it would not be more desirable
to instruct immigrants carefully on the altruistic side as to the duty
of sharing the responsibilities of American life.
It may be worth mentioning that thirty years of residence in the city
of Rome is required of any man, even of Italian birth, in order to
become a Roman citizen.
Human nature, fortunately, is always longing for an appeal to its best
side. I accompanied a friend when the American citizenship was granted
to him. The judge, a man with a fine, clean-cut face, turned toward the
candidates--there were about a hundred in the room--and told the story
of the Pilgrim Fathers who, although starved and in great distress,
refused the opportunity of going back to England, where religious and
political freedom was denied them. The words were to me an inspiration,
and in glancing around I saw the faces of those present light up and
show signs of emotion. Big Irishmen, heavy-faced Slavs, small, dried-up
Jews, dark Italians, small-headed Greeks, I could see in the eyes of
them all the light of men who were seeing a vision. The appeal to
the best there is in man should be the leading thought in educating
immigrants to a desire for American citizenship.
OTTO HERMANN KAHN
Otto H. Kahn was born at Mannheim, Germany, February 21, 1867. His
father had emigrated to the United States in 1848, where he became a
naturalized citizen, returning to Germany ten years later. The son
was educated in Germany and served one year in the German army. He
then learned banking, and for five years was with the London branch
of the Deutsche Bank. In 1893 he came to the United States, where he
became connected with the banking house of Speyer & Co., and later
with the firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co.
During the Great War Mr. Kahn delivered several patriotic speeches
which were collected under the title, “Right Above Race.”
The following excerpt is part of an address given at Carnegie
Institute, Pittsburgh, April 24, 1919.
CAPITAL AND LABOR--A FAIR DEAL
We have often heard it said recently--it has become rather the fashion
to say it--that the rulership of the world will henceforth belong to
labor. I yield to no one in my respect and sympathy for labor, or in my
cordial and sincere support of its just claims. The structure of our
institutions cannot stand unless the masses of workmen, farmers, indeed
all large strata of society, feel that under and by these institutions
they are being given a square deal within the limits, not of Utopia,
but of what is sane, right and practicable.
But the rulership of the world will and ought to belong to no one
class. It will and ought to belong neither to labor nor to capital,
nor to any other class. It will, of right and in fact, belong to
those of all classes who acquire title to it by talent, hard work,
self-discipline, character and service.
He is no genuine friend or sound counselor of the people nor a
true patriot who recklessly, calculatingly or ignorantly raises or
encourages expectations which cannot or which ought not to be fulfilled.
We must deal with all these things with common sense, mutual trust,
with respect for all, and with the aim of guiding our conduct by the
standard of liberty, justice and human sympathy. But we must rightly
understand liberty. We must resolutely oppose those who in their
impatient grasping for unattainable perfection would make of liberty a
raging and destructive torrent instead of a majestic and fertilizing
stream.
Liberty is not fool-proof. For its beneficent working it demands
self-restraint, a sane and clear recognition of the reality of things,
of the practicable and attainable, and a realization of the fact that
there are laws of nature and of economies which are immutable and
beyond our power to change.
Nothing in history is more pathetic than the record of the instances
when one or the other of the peoples of the world rejoicingly followed
a new lead which it was promised and fondly believed would bring it to
freedom and happiness, and then suddenly found itself, instead, on the
old and only too well-trodden lane which goes through suffering and
turmoil to disillusionment and reaction.
I suppose most of us when we were twenty knew of a short cut to the
millennium, and were impatient, resentful and rather contemptuous of
those whose fossilized prejudices or selfishness, as we regarded them,
prevented that short cut from becoming the high road of humanity.
Now that we are older, though we know that our eyes will not behold the
millennium, we should still like the nearest possible approach to it;
but we have learned that no short cut leads there, and that anybody who
claims to have found one is either an impostor or self-deceived.
Among those wandering signposts to Utopia we find and recognize certain
recurrent types:--
There are those who, in the fervor of their world-improving mission,
discover and proclaim certain cure-alls for the ills of humanity, which
they fondly and honestly believe to be new and unfailing remedies, but
which, as a matter of fact, are hoary with age, having been tried on
this old globe of ours at one time or another, in one of its parts or
another, long ago,--tried and found wanting and discarded after sad
disillusionment.