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The Foreigners in America

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 23, 1913

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 90, No. 43.

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The Foreigners in America

By O. A. Olsen

—No. 2

An Important Home Mission Field

O. A. OLSEN Secretary North American Foreign Department
IN the former article I presented some quotations from the book "Aliens or Americans," setting forth some facts concerning the enormous tide of immigration now pouring into our own country year by year. At this time I shall add some more facts, from "The New America, a Study in Immigration," recently issued by the Fleming H. Revell Company, Chicago, Ill. We believe it to be high time for us to more fully understand and appreciate the magnitude of the great foreign population in our own country, and to put into operation an earnest and well-planned effort to bring this last and solemn message to the foreigners at our very doors as well as to those thousands of miles away.
In the earlier years of our country the immigration was largely from northern Europe, Germany, Scandinavia, and Great Britain. While the immigration from northern Europe continues, though in rather smaller numbers, the immigration from central and southern Europe, which in earlier days was of small account, has in late years become a veritable flood, as the following statement will show:—
"From 1883 to 1907, 81 per cent of our European immigration came from countries of central and southern Europe,—Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Servia, Roumania, Greece, Montenegro, Russia (including Poland), Portugal, Spain, Italy, Syria, and Turkey.
"In numbers, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Russia have led all the others. In 1907 these three countries furnished nearly 70 per cent of the total immigration of the year. In the years 1899 to 1910, Italians led all others: 372,668 came from north Italy, 1,911,933 from south Italy,—a total of more than two and one-fourth millions."—"The New America," page 61.
Think of it: in two years from one country and nation in Europe—Italy—came 2,284,001; but that is not the end, they still continue year by year. This is more than the whole population of the State of Iowa with 2,224,771, and more than the combined population of such large States as Oregon, Montana, Colorado, and Maine, according to the last census.
"From 1899 to 1910 more than 949,000 Poles were counted among the immigrants. Coming from a country which is no longer theirs, fleeing from the tyranny of Russia, they are appreciative of the degree of liberty which they find in the land of their adoption.
"They are dominantly religious by nature. It has been customary to classify them all as Catholics, but it is estimated that not more than two thirds of the 3,000,000 in this country are affiliated with the Catholic Church. With them, as with immigrants from other Catholic countries, the weakening of ties with the native land and the finding of a larger civic life than the Old World had offered, tend to weaken the hold of that type of religion which is associated in their minds with the type of government which they have left. Unless a new phase of religious life meets them with the new civic life, the tendency is to feel religion to be outgrown and to become irreligious."—Id., page 73.
"We call them Polacks,' said the crude young foreman of a cotton-mill. 'They don't know anything but to work; and we drive them like cattle to that.'
"Perhaps it has not occurred to the young foreman that Paderewski, 'the greatest pianist ever,' whom he had heard play a few evenings before, is a 'Pole,' or that Chopin was their fellow countryman, or that Copernicus was of their nationality. He may never have heard of Pulaski and Kosciusko and of our indebtedness to their services in the Revolutionary war, when they fought for our independence. In those days we were poor and small, numbering only about three and a half million souls. Poland was one of the great powers of central Europe two hundred years before the beginning of our national life.
"Mr. Alexander E. Cance, in charge of that part of the report of the Federal Immigration Commission which treats of the 'new immigration' in agriculture, says in the Survey of Jan. 7, 1911: 'The goal of early Polish immigration was northern Illinois and Wisconsin. After 1885 the stream of Slavic immigration set in very strongly, and Polish rural colonies began to dot the prairies of Minnesota and the Dakotas as well as the Lake States.'"—Id., pages 74, 75.
"Bohemians began coming to America in large numbers after the revolution of 1848. They settled in New York, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Chicago, and in rural districts in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Texas, and California. Texas has a Bohemian population of more than 50,000, engaged principally in agriculture. More than half of them now own their own property, free of debt. A recent writer in the Texas Magazine tells us that, 'together with the Germans, the Bohemian farmers have given Texas her great agricultural industries, and have been responsible largely for her rapid development.' Favorable comment is made by this writer on their quickness 'to utilize improvements in machinery and methods of agriculture.'
"One hundred thousand one hundred and eighty-nine Bohemians and Moravians came to the United States between 1899 and 1910. More than one half of the Bohemians coming to us are skilled workmen. Of the Germans and Dutch, one third are skilled, and of the Scandinavians, one fourth.
"Bohemians have qualities which any nation might covet for its citizens. To inspire them with a new patriotism, a new faith in their fellow men, a new trust in their Father as the leader of his children toward increasing light and power, is a task well worth the effort of American Christendom."—Id., page 77.
"Reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration show that from 1899 to 1910, of Bulgarians, Servians, and Montenegrins, classed together, 97,391 came to the United States. In the same period we received 82,704 Roumanians. Of Dalmatians, Bosnians, and Herzegovinians, 31,696. Of Croatians and Slovenians, classed together, 335,543; of Greeks, 216,962; of Turks, 12,954,—a total of 777,250."—Id., page 78.
"In America, Bulgarians are found oftenest in the Middle West, Northwest, South, and Southwest. They are characterized by industry and thrift. They, with Greeks and Macedonians, are patronizers of coffee-houses rather than of saloons. They and the Greeks are named by investigators of the Immigration Commission as living 'most plainly' of all the group of nationalities with which they were found associated. They are reported as strong workers in iron and steel,—'rather heavy, patient, serious toilers.'"—Id., page 79.
We could wish that there was a better knowledge of not only the large numbers of foreigners in our midst, but also a better acquaintance with their temperament and characteristics. We will add one more quotation, which is not less significant than the former ones.
"It was found that 57.8 per cent of the pupils in the public schools are children of foreign-born fathers. Even in the cities where the percentage was lowest, New Orleans and Kansas City, eighteen and twenty-one out of every hundred were of direct European parentage. It is typical and suggestive that the highest percentage was just the same for an Eastern and a Western city: Chelsea, Mass., and Duluth, Minn., 74.1 per cent. New York City had 71.5 per cent, Chicago, 67.3 per cent, and Boston, 63.5 per cent."—Id., page 133.
The object of these quotations is to bring before our people the largeness and importance of this foreign field right here at home.