LOOKING DOWN THE TRAIL TO THE YEARS AHEAD
We have followed the trail of the first immigrants for more than half
a century, from the time they left the old home until they have become
an integral part of the life of the new home of their adoption. So
marvelous has this experience been that to many it must seem almost
like a dream or fairy tale. They came out of a land of poverty and
hampering restrictions, social, political and religious. They found an
opportunity to attain a comfortable living and a chance to help at the
big job of working out a democracy. They came strangers to a strange
land, they have already come to share in every position of trust and
honor in the new land, with the exception of the presidency, including
a number of governors. They came out a comparatively small company;
they have become a multitude, there being already in this country more
people of Norse extraction than the whole population of the mother
country.
As we look around us among the particular groups here described, and
see that the fourth generation from the pioneers is already coming on,
the thought comes to us: "What of these people and their descendants a
hundred years from now?"
As I, in vision and imagination, put my ears to the ground of present
prophetic facts and tendencies, I hear the distant tramp of great
multitudes out of the oncoming generations. Who are these multitudes
which no man can number? They are the sons and daughters of the
immigrant, tho outwardly indistinguishable from the Mayflower product
which, too, are the descendants of immigrants. But while the Norse or
Scandinavian immigrant is more quickly amalgamated in the sense of
taking on all the outward colorings of his new environment than any
other nationality, what, if any, will be his distinctive impress upon,
or contribution to, the life he has come to share?
As there has been, and is, much foolish talk, malicious
misrepresentation and manufactured-to-order hysterics about the
"menace of the immigrant", on the part of pink-tea patriots and that
whole breed of parasites who feed and fatten on stirring up and
keeping alive class prejudice and hatred, I want to turn on the light
here and now, the light of truth and facts.
In the first place, then, I wish to call the attention of these self
constituted, Simon-pure and, in their own estimation, only Americans,
to the fact that there is not in itself any disparagement to a man to
be an immigrant or descendant of one. Did they ever read about the
Pilgrim Fathers, George Washington, Ben Franklin or Abraham Lincoln?
Well, these and multitudes of others they might read about were all
"immigrants" or descendants of immigrants; not only that, but our
self-appointed detractor of the immigrant is the descendant of
immigrants--unless he or she is an Indian--and even the Indians are
immigrants only of an earlier date.
In the second place, while the immigrant should ever be mindful, and
in most cases is, of what the new land has offered him in opportunity,
yet be it remembered also that, as far as the "natives" around him are
concerned, he has given them immeasurably more than they have given
him. He has done the great bulk of the rough, hard work of the mine,
forest, factory and of subduing the untamed soil, and without him
there would have been far fewer soft-handed jobs for his critics and
far fewer of the comforts of life and developments of the country for
all the people to enjoy. He has built the railroads, literally by the
sweat of his brow, while the superior "native" manipulated them,
watered their stocks and rode on them, finding that part of the
enterprise more comfortable and profitable. But unless the "foreigner"
had been willing to wield the shovel and lay the rails as well as roll
them out red hot in the mill, where would the "American" have had a
chance to shine in the deal?
Again, we are told that the immigrant comes here ignorant and without
ideals and standards of life which would make him a safe member of a
democracy. Of course, like most broad generalizations, this has a
grain of truth when applied to some of the present influx from
southern Europe. But when applied to immigrants generally, and
especially to the class we have here described, the above judgment is
just about the exact opposite of the truth. The illiteracy of the
Norse immigrant is far less than that of the land of his adoption, in
fact, practically negligible, and far less than that of any other
class of immigrants. As for ideals of life and standards of morality,
the immigrant was generally deeply shocked, on arriving here, at the
lawlessness, profanity, sordidness, crass materialism and godlessness
prevalent among the people around him who called themselves Americans.
And speaking of "ideals" he came here in most instances because of his
ideals of freedom--religious, political and economic; to have a chance
to live out and express these ideals. They built schools and churches
while many of them themselves lived in sod houses or dugouts. Their
sons and daughters are found in every college and university of the
Northwest and out of all proportion to their rank in the total
population. They more than take their share in the four learned
professions of teaching, medicine, the ministry and the law. In other
words, he came for the very same reason that the first immigrants, or
Pilgrim Fathers came--to find room for his growing ideals, as already
shown in this narrative. Then, of course, like them, he also came to
better himself economically thru realizing certain ideals of equality
of opportunity which he had come to cherish in his home land.
Some time ago, Sinclair Lewis, the noted author, speaking on this
subject, said:
"I chose 'Carl Erikson' as the hero, protagonist, whatever you call
him, of the 'Trail of the Hawk' because he is a typical young
American. Your second or third generation Scandinavian is the best
type of American. *** They are the New Yankees, these Scandinavians of
Minnesota, Wisconsin and the Dakotas. They have mastered politics and
vote for honesty, rather than handshakes. **** They send their
children thru school. They accumulate land, one section, two sections,
or move into town and become Methodists and Congregationalists, and
are neighborly. *** And in a generation, thanks to our flag-decked
public schools, they are overwhelmingly American in tradition."
"Boston, Dec. 16. President Charles W. Elliot, who in an address
before the Economic Club of this city has declared in favor of an
unrestricted immigration and proclaimed the ability of this country to
'digest' the newcomers of every religion, education and nationality,
has been at the head of Harvard University since 1869, was a graduate
of that institution in the class of 1853, and holds the degree of
LL.D. from Williams, Princeton and Yale. He is considered one of the
highest living authorities in his specialty of chemistry and has
written many scientific works."
Permit me to offer a word of caution in this connection regarding
certain tendencies and attitudes toward the immigrant which are
working just the opposite result from what is intended.
There is that splendid movement inaugurated during the war--the
Americanization movement. Many, and I would like to believe most of
the workers in this movement, approach the recent immigrant with
understanding and respect and not with that disgusting provincial type
of mind and patronizing air which we see here and there. Now it should
be said very emphatically that any one who regards himself as a
superior being merely because born on this side of the Atlantic and
the immigrant as an inferior because born on the other side, should
keep his or her hands off Americanization if for no other reason, for
this one: They are not themselves in any true sense Americans, lacking
both the American spirit and ideals. It is such sociological tinkerers
that often de-Americanize more immigrants than the others can
Americanize. These recent comers are as keen to detect a patriotic
sham as any native, and their disgust and resentment of it is
profound. And the inevitable result is that they will judge the
country by its supposed representatives.
Even such organization as the American Legion and Home Guards should
refrain from every appearance of functioning as spies and censors of
the immigrant or even of organizations which may be considered radical
so long as they do not clearly advocate lawlessness or violence.
Yellow paint, personal violence and breaking up of peaceable
assemblies, in short, lawlessness, such as has already taken place
over the country, will not tend to teach regard for law or love for
country on the part of the victims. A mother cannot gain the love of a
child or even respect by the abuse of force, neither can a government
or organization inculcate patriotism by petty persecution and abuse.
There are over one hundred ex-service men in this state who are the
sons and grandsons even of the few pioneers described in this
memorial. I had the privilege of addressing a part of them at the home
coming last summer. Let me say to such of them as may read these
pages: Do not permit selfseeking men, small Americans, to borrow your
splendid organization and glorious prestige to carry out their petty
aims or personal spites. Be such big Americans that more recent
arrivals seeing you, cannot help but admire you and learn to love the
country which could produce you. This is real Americanization.
Have these people then a peculiar racial contribution to make to the
civilization of which they have become a part, and will they make it?
As to the latter, all I can say is that we should all make it our
sacred aim, privilege and duty to deliver this our gift. I am sure we
have it.
What then is it? In the main it may be summarized in a few words:
Industry, Thrift, a Sane Conservatism, Social Genuineness and
Religious Devotion.
I cannot believe that any one who knows the Norse immigrant would deny
that the above are outstanding expressions of his character and life.
The "newcomer" was not perhaps very "smart" in the Yankee sense, and
God forbid that he ever should become so, but he was a hard,
persistent worker, and he _saved_. The man who lived "by his wits" or
by hook and crook was not often found in his class, nor was he
encouraged in his efforts if found.
In this age of enormous over-production of non-producers; of
innumerable hordes of swivel chair folks, of middle men,
"manipulators", runabouts, who are mostly parasites on the social
organism, is there not need of emphasizing the production of something
to meet real human needs?
There is much talk and theorizing about the cause or causes of the
present high cost of living. There is, of course, no one single cause
responsible for this situation so full of hardship for many and so
great a menace to all. But one of the great causes, next to the
shameless profiteering by middlemen, is the alarming over-production
of non-producers. The great hordes of people who want somehow or other
to live by the sweat of the other fellow's brow rather than their own;
who by their clamor create innumerable jobs--paper jobs--in connection
with national, state, and municipal government as also in connection
with charitable and ecclesiastical organizations. It is a part of our
mission as the sons of producers to say to these parasites: "You've
got to get off the other fellow's back," at the same time calling him
by his right name--industrial slacker, social pauper, bum.
So may we take for our slogan the great words of Carlyle: "Produce!
In God's name, Produce!" Let us, like the Fathers, keep close to the
world of real values and refuse to be enticed into that "paper world"
which is one of the real menaces of our country, far more so than the
"immigrant" ever was. In being industrious producers in our line,
whatever it may be, we need not be "grinds". In being thrifty in an
age of extravagance and criminal wastefulness, we do not need to be
stingy or niggardly.
Yes, this our contribution is worth cherishing, for it is sorely
needed today.
If industry and thrift are gifts which our fathers brought to this
land and which we should hand on as our peculiar offering, no less is
that of sane conservatism. In this age of social, economic, political
and even religious wildcat schemes and propagandas, America needs a
balance wheel. We need a sane conservatism that is not, on the one
hand, the corpselike immobility of the typical stand-patters, or
reactionaries to all progress, and who themselves are the cause of
much insane radicalism. And, on the other hand, if true to our
traditions and temperament, we shall not dance to everybody's fiddle
without investigation of what sort of a tune is being played.
Ours, then, should be the open mind; the forward look, to examine,
search out, weigh men and issues. When we, amid the hordes of voices
who cry: "Lo here! Lo there!" occasionally find a prophet with a
message, let us follow him. Let us be a "holy terror" to all cheap
demagogs of every party and name, but let us also be the hope and
support of every true prophet, political, industrial or religious.
This is our part.
SOCIAL AND RELIGIOUS
There is a beautiful sincerity, a certain heartiness about our Norse
friendships and social relationships which I have not found elsewhere.
Writers in recent years have been bemoaning "the lost kindness" of the
world. Among our immigrant people, at least, you will find the
lingering fragrance of this old time kindness which for many in this
age of pretense and social sham relations has become only a sad, sweet
memory of the long ago. I charge us all, as inheritors and trustees of
this precious treasure--social sincerity and genuine kindness--let us
cherish it, cultivate it and guard it as one of the very greatest
valuables of life. For what is life without this, even with all the
fine houses and lands, automobiles and aeroplanes? On the other hand,
what is life with this genuine spirit of brotherliness in it? With
this you can have the lights of Heaven and music of the spheres in a
sod shanty. For where real good will is, Heaven is near. So let this
beautiful sincerity, or heartiness, vitalize your handshake, flame in
your look and thrill in your word of greeting to the fellow traveler
over life's way.
If our Norse immigrant has a distinctive contribution to make to
America, industrially, politically and socially, no less certainly has
he an offering to make to the highest and most important department of
life, that of religion. The Scandinavian is almost instinctively
religious. You find among them comparatively few specimens of that
sleek, beefy, selfcomplacent, godless animal-type, so frequently
encountered today in other quarters. The immigrant had encountered too
many of the realities of life; had been too often face to face with
the ultimate facts of life and existence, to develop the shallow
conceits of a mere beef animal whose main experience of life has been
largely confined to a full stomach and the animal comforts. Not
strange that this creature should speak great swelling words against
the Church, the Christ and His followers, as well as against God
Himself. The fool has always said in his heart (and with his stomach):
"There is no God".
Because of this deep religious devotion characteristic of the Norse
immigrant, and evolved amid the majestic mountains, the thundering
rivers and water falls, as well as the loudly resounding sea of his
birthplace, he built altars to God and established his worship almost
as soon as his feet touched the new soil. Partly because of his
religious sincerity the expression of his religious life has sometimes
showed a certain narrowness of outlook and an intolerance of different
religious forms which has not been to his credit. It is because of
this latter trait that so many of the Norse immigrants and their
descendants have been driven from the church of their fathers and are
found in almost every religious sect in the country. We have heard
"infant damnation" in its rankest form preached within the last year,
and other doctrines as well, which are remnants of Mediaeval barbarism
and which most Lutherans today would repudiate. Yet we believe the God
of Jesus Christ is becoming more clearly seen, and that the wider
horizons of truth are appearing. However, this is my plea: May we
cherish the religious devotion, the real piety characteristic of our
forebears. This is a contribution greatly needed in an age of
religious indifference, if not open hostility. And keeping alive in us
and inculcating in our children this religious devotion, may we never
be numbered among that class who religiously are lukewarm, neither hot
nor cold, only fit to be spewed out of the mouth of God and man. Let
us be a salt in the religious life of our country, for without genuine
religion there can be no morality worth talking about among the mass
of mankind; and without morality we can never succeed in developing,
or even keeping from destruction, our experiment in democracy. So may
we put this, too, our supreme gift, on the altar of our country.
Now we close our humble effort with a word of tribute to those brave,
unselfish men and women who left home, friends and native land, that
we, their children and descendants, may have a better chance at life
and happiness. They have paid the price of those who have to take and
to hold the front lines in the great struggle with untamed nature in
a new, un-inhabited country. Many are the premature graves, the lonely
heartaches and tragedies, most of which only God knows. They have laid
the material foundations for us deep and strong. They have also left
us an inheritance of ideals and characteristics to hand on to the
coming generations. If "American" is a state of mind, a certain kind
and quality of ideals and aspirations, rather than a matter of
birthplace, then our immigrant fathers and mothers were often more
American than the native born. However, in any case these
characteristics and ideals above enumerated are the life of our nation
and ours to keep alive. And in holding aloft as our slogans, these
ideals of industry, thrift, sane conservatism, genuineness and
religious devotion, we shall both build the noblest possible monument
to the immigrant and also lay the sure foundations for the great
future before us and our children.
To the few men and women who still remain of the first generation of
immigrants, let us show our love and respect while they still linger
with us, for it will not be long that we can have the opportunity.
When some political demagog, under the thin guise of super-patriotism,
would by legislation or social odium deprive them of the consolations
of religion in the old tongue to which they are accustomed, and thus
send them with sorrow if not bitterness to their graves, let us have
the courage and the manhood to fight these contemptible grand-standers
openly and to a finish. The language question will solve itself in a
few years in any case and without this violence and insult to a few
lingering men and women who have served this country so well and who
are now asking only that they be allowed to pass undisturbed to their
grave. There they will rest from their labors, but their works will
follow after them.
THE END.
August 10, 1920.
I AM THE IMMIGRANT
I am the immigrant.
I looked towards the United States with eyes kindled by the fire
of ambition and heart quickened with new-born hope.
I approached its gates with great expectation.
I have shouldered my burden as the American man-of-all-work.
I contribute eighty-five per cent of all the labor in the
slaughtering and meat-packing industries.
I do seven-tenths of the bituminous coal mining.
I do seventy-eight per cent of all the work in the woolen mills.
I contribute nine-tenths of all the labor in the cotton mills.
I make nineteen-twentieths of all the clothing.
I manufacture more than half the shoes.
I build four-fifths of all the furniture.
I make half of the collars, cuffs and shirts.
I turn out four-fifths of all the leather. I make half the gloves.
I refine nearly nineteen-twentieths of the sugar.
And yet, I am the great American problem.
When I pour out my blood on your altar of labor, and lay down my
life as a sacrifice to your god of toil, men make no more
comment than at the fall of a sparrow.
But my brawn is woven into the warp and woof of the fabric of your
national being.
My children shall be your children and your land shall be my land,
because my sweat and my blood will cement the foundations of the
America of to-morrow.
If I can be fused into the body politic, the melting pot will have
stood the supreme test.
FREDERIC J. HASKIN.
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