p. 18 | Untitled article by STEEN RASMUSSEN

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 30, 1916

Our Foreign-Born Neighbors — No. 1

By STEEN RASMUSSEN

The foundation of what later developed into the greatest and most unique foreign mission field on the globe, was laid in the early settlement of people from the Old World on the North American continent. Since then people of all nationalities under the sun have been gathering here, by a divine ordering, as it seems, within easy reach of the gospel. The greatness of this unusual opportunity is the measure of our obligation.

Radical changes in the volume and character of the stream of immigration have taken place since these first representatives of the Old World came, and especially has a marked change been going on during the last quarter century. The earlier immigrants came in comparatively small numbers, and the bulk of them were from northwestern Europe. Up to 1880 only one immigrant out of a hundred came from southeastern Europe, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Poland, and the Balkan States; the remaining ninety-nine came from England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries.

Things have so changed that the great majority of the immigrants of the last fifteen years have come to us from the southern and eastern European countries, so that we now have what has been termed “the new immigration.” In their home countries these people belong to the rural peasantry and unskilled laboring class, but on coming to this country they soon find that there is a strong demand for their labor, especially in mining and manufacturing towns. Consequently these rural peasants have flocked into our industrial centers and large cities, and have entered upon occupations for which they had no previous training, and for which in most cases they are ill adapted.

A few figures giving the change in the make-up of our foreign-born population, are most interesting and worthy of our attention. The following table plainly shows how and when this change took place, and gives the number of our foreign-born population at three different periods:—

1900	IMMIGRANTS	PER CENT
Northwestern Europe	7,016,000	67
Southeastern Europe	1,832,000	17
Other countries	1,493,000	16
Total	10,341,000	100
1910
Northwestern Europe	6,740,000	49
Southeastern Europe	5,048,000	37
Other countries	1,727,000	14
Total	13,515,000	100
1915
Northwestern Europe	6,942,000	40
Southeastern Europe	7,753,000	45
Other countries	2,480,000	15
Total	17,175,000	100

The change is especially marked in the ten-year period from 1900 to 1910. In the census at the close of that decade 6,740,000 persons gave northwestern Europe as their former home, a decrease from 1900 of 275,000. Their percentage of the entire foreign-born population had dropped from 67 to 49. On the other hand, the people from southeastern Europe numbered 5,048,000, an increase of more than 3,000,000, or 175 per cent, and their percentage of the total foreign-born population had increased to 37. When we look at the 1915 figures, we see that things have changed even more. That year the southeastern European population passed the northwestern, their number totaling 7,653,000, or 45 per cent, while the latter numbered 6,942,000, or 40 per cent.

The increase in the ten-year period 1900-1910 was: Italians, 175 per cent; Russians, 170 per cent; Hungarians, 163 per cent; Poles, 210 per cent; Roumanians, 338 per cent; and Greeks, 1,089 per cent. On the other hand, the Germans had increased only 11 per cent, and the Scandinavians had made a gain of only 16 per cent.

Another factor of much importance and consequence is the ability of our foreign-born population to speak English. Again we find a vast difference between the immigrants from southeastern and northwestern Europe, as the following table of English-speaking ability will show:—

Nationalities	Percentage able to speak English in U. S.	Percentage 10 yrs. or more in U. S.
Lithuanians	4	10
Ruthenians	4	11
Poles	5	15
Greeks	7	16
Italians	15	29
Hungarians	13	24
Roumanians	14	32
Russians	19	30

This table does not include the ability either to read or to write in English. If it did, the figures would be considerably smaller.

By comparing this list with another including the people from northwestern Europe, we find that the people from that part of Europe acquire our language much more quickly and in larger numbers. About 85 per cent of the people of the so-called old immigration speak our language after they have been with us from five to ten years.

This sudden transplanting of this agricultural class from the Old World to the conditions and environments in America, has created a most perplexing problem to the social as well as the religious worker. Religion forms a very essential part of the life of the southeastern Europeans. They are inclined to fanatical superstition.

Another outstanding factor of no small importance, especially in later years, is the great number of Catholics who have been pouring into the country. When the immigration tide runs as high as one million and more a year, as it has for the last ten years, more than 600,000 of the total are Roman Catholics. It is therefore safe to say that out of the total number of immigrants landed here during the last twenty years, not less than 10,000,000 were adherents of the Roman Catholic Church. To shepherd these millions speaking thirty different languages, each race having its own customs, prejudices, and superstitions, surely presents a problem that no ecclesiastical body has been called upon to solve in the history of the Christian faith.

In view of the facts presented, probably the most significant feature of the entire situation is the almost complete

ignorance and indifference of the greater part of our population to these recent immigrant colonies and their conditions. This attitude extends even to their native churches, and altogether too few agencies have been established for reaching these people from southeastern Europe with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Altogether too little has been done by us as a denomination. The Lord will hold us accountable for the spiritual welfare of these millions at our very doors. The situation does, indeed, call for most earnest and solemn thought, coupled with careful study and attention on the part of our Union and local conferences, committees, and brethren in other positions of trust and responsibility. Last, but not least, it calls for the closest attention of every church member throughout the length and breadth of the land, because these people are found in every community.

Drifting Away from the Church

We find that many of the immigrants depart from their former religious belief when they come to this country. They are not here long before they discover that church and state are not united. The percentage of those who leave the faith of their fathers is very high; especially is this the case among the young men, to whom the teachings of Socialism have a great attraction.

A strong movement has in later years been going on among the Poles to break loose from the Roman Catholic power. Hundreds of thousands of them have left the church, and are apparently drifting into the mists of indifference and infidelity, as there are not enough Protestant workers to step in and shepherd this wandering flock. The same is true of Italians, Russians, Greeks, Hungarians, and others. An intelligent Pole, when asked why his people were leaving the church, said, “The conduct of the priests accounts for the indifference of the people, who receive no spiritual help from the dead teachings of the church.”

In our next article we will further describe some of the existing conditions among these people, and the reasons therefor, and point out some of the remedies that may be applied in raising these people to a higher social, moral, and spiritual standard.

STEEN RASMUSSEN.