Conneaut High School - Tattler Yearbook (Conneaut, OH)

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2 ; THE TATTLER June, 1923 lias lowered the laborer’s standards of living. The average wage of the immigrant in his own country is $1.50 per day. In our country his wage averages $2.00 per day. No American can live up to the American standard of living on this wage. So why should not American labor be protected from the immigrant as well as his employer’s goods from foreign goods? The greater part of the immigrants who come to this country are from the less desirable nationalities. Those coming from the northern European countries have proved to be the most industrious, more intelligent, and possessed of a greater respect for law than those coming from the countries about the Mediterranean Sea. The percentage of illiteracy among the Italian Immigrants who come to the U. S. is 37 per cent of that of the Swedes and Scandinavians is .02 per cent. Italy alone sends 1-4 of all the immigrants that enter the IT. S. This shows that there is a great task ahead of Americans to educate and assimilate the immigrants into our government. Especially so, since a large part comes from a class which is more difficult to be assimilated. The Chinese and Japanese have furnished a serious problem to our western coast states especialiv California. There are 300.000 Chinese and Japanese in the U. S., the largest part of whom are in California. Some laws have already been made to discourage the Chinese and Japanese immigration but there remains yet a great task to know what to do for the immigrants already here and what to do about those wishing to come. The labor problem which confronts America today is one which can not be fully understood until its history is known. When America was first settled each inhabitant was practically independent of the rest of the world as far as providing food and shelter for himself and his family was concerned. He made his own tools, raised his own food and manufactured his clothing. With the development of factories, this independence became reduced in proportion to the increase in factories until today everyone is dependent on others. The factory also created a new problem, the labor problem. There have been many improvements in labor conditions since factories were started, perhaps the most notable of which are the eight hour day, child labor law, the abolishment of sweat shops, the rise in wages of labor. These have been gained after many years of adjustment. Each has proved a great benefit to the country and they have greatly raised the Standards of American life. There are, however, a great many more adjustments that must be made. A delicate hand is needed for the task. In-as-much as the non-participating public is usually the greatest sufferer when these questions come to an issue, it should express a strong voice in settling these issues. Our international relations have also become a serious problem. When the L S. was established this was not a problem and the best policy seemed to be to let other nations alone and have them let us alone. At that time the affairs in the U. S. required the entire attention of its citizens. There were so many resources yet to be developed in the U. S. that no one thought to look to the other countries. Then also the U. S. was a small country, and did not have its present power so its influence was not so strongly felt by the other nations. This state of affairs continued down through the History of the United States, until the World War. The policy of leaving foreign countries alone was clearly expressed in the Monroe Doctrine. A strong spirit existed all through the United States favoring the Monroe Doctrine. But the rapid development in the last few years in devices of travel and communication have made international relations. Where formerly it required months of time to cross the Atlantic, Europe is now only about four days distant. Messages can be sent

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June, 1!)2J THE TATTLER there exists a question about immigration. those who do our labor and those far beyond our shores present for us considerations almost beyond the power of imagination. The problem of the race is one of the most vital that has presented itself to the people of the U. S. recently. This is altogether natural. From the beginning of time the greatest of lniman problems has been the problem of race relationship. The Old Testament is a record of racial differences and racial struggles. Fifty years ago the U. S. was thrown into a great civil war by the Negro problem. Today we not only have the Negro problem but the Japanese and Chinese problem on the Pacific coast. In the Philippines we have a multitude of different races. One of the greatest problems that confront other nations of today is that of race relationships. Today in the U. S. there are 10,000,000 Negroes distributed among some 75,000,000 white people. This is a condition brought on by ourselves and for which we alone are responsible. Our own greed and laziness were the factors that brought the Negroes to this country. Out of this wrong grew the Civil War, and after that came a period of reconstruction. It is natural that there was a great bitterness in the minds of the southern people after such a strife. But how much greater must it have been when day by day they saw the cause of their sorrow, the Negro, on every hand. It is not to be wondered at then that a great wall has grown up between the two races. The laboring class of the south is made up of Negroes while the employers are white. Differences arising which we are accustomed to call capital and labor problems in the north became a racial problem in the south. At the close of the Civil war a great deal of political power was given to the Negro who was in no way fitted to use it to advantage. Russia exhibits a fair example of the result of placing the political power in the hands of such a class. When the white people of the south lost temporarily their political power the gap widened still farther. Another reason for the feeling in the south is that there are rarely other laboring classes with which to compare the Negroes. The south has not seen the offspring of poor laboring classes become the employers of the next generation. Though there is a great personal regard for the black mammy of the south, yet when a Negro tries to rise to higher positions he is met with hatred and bitter opposition on every hand. Because the Italian immigrant does the work of the Negro a colony iof them in Mississippi were treated as such. The Italians had a government to protect them which acted but the Negro is left to our mercy. A decided tendency also exists to charge to the Negro because he is a Negro, all the crimes which are unavoidably committed by any ignoi-ant poverty stricken people. Their crimes are no greater, no mor.e prevalent than those committed by the common immigrant class which makes up a large part of the population of our government. Yet violence to a negro by a mob is an occurrence that happens all too frequently. Though the negro is treated more as a man in the northern states and in the manufacturing centers of the south, yet the time when th industrial devlopment of the south raches that of the north will not solve the problem. It has not solved it in New York and Philadelphia where industrial development has reached its highest form. The prejudice there, has been growing more intense as the Negro population has increased. What then will happen? What is the answer ? There is a situation produced by the flow of peoples into the U. S. which is of serious concern to the American people. The greater part of the criminal class of our country is made up of immigrants. The immigrant has helped to make critical situations in labor conditions. Aside from being easily stirred up by strike agitation he

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June, 1923 THE TATTLER 27 back and forth in a few seconds by wireless and by telegraph. From this we see that Europe, once a distant, remote country, hard to reach, has moved up to be our neighbor. If we were still to keep our policy of non-interference America would not have entered the World War. The necessity of doing this was clearly seen, however. Then with the close of the War came the problem of whether we were going to continue our relationship with the other nations. Our commercial needs required that we should continue this relationship! yet should we be willing to enter into entangling alliances for this reason ? Some say that with the end of the War only part of our duty to humanity was finished and that the countries of Europe needed our aid. Yet, on the other hand, would this interference aid these countries or help to make the gi’eat turmoil that is going on continually there greater. Of late a great deal of interest has been centered in China and India. Japan has shown the development of which these people are capable. China has a population of 385,500.000. India has a population of 294,361,000. The population of the United States is about 100,000,000. Now the possibility of these two countries suddenly developing higher civilization and progress is seen by the great leaders of today, especially since India has shown her desire to become independent. The result would be beyond our imagination. India and China with their great population would easily move the center of activities of the civilized World from the United States with her smaller population to the Far East. The great power and influence of the United States would become nothing as compared with theirs. And now, ladies and gentlemen, I have presented to you four of the greatest problems that confront America today. I have shown you why they are the greatest problems that face Americans but I have not given you a solution. I have given you an idea of the magnitude of each problem. It is apparent that a great duty falls to us to present a solution. Let us apply ourselves to a study of our situation in order that we may cope with it with an understanding which will bring success to our efforts and happiness to our people. AMERICAS HERITAGE No concourse of American Citizens can be held without more or less recognition of the fact that our American stock is the product of a fortunate mixture. To a man bred in another part of the world, the United States is a country of battling confusion; he cannot understand its solidity and its apparent fluidity, its deep-rooted political convictions and its apparent indifference to political forms; its essential conservatism and the rapid growth of radical ideas in its atmosphere. And these traits are the heritage bequeathed to us from forefathers of widely different national traits of character. The heritage of America came not from one country with its uniform characteristics, but was the result of the fusion of races. The Puritan strain in our American social life is too well known to need description. Personal independence, religious intensity, ethical earnestness mitigated by commercial activity—this strain has made its mark deep in the American Character and in our History. For this devout and cultured people established colleges and schools which lead in the educational life of our country. From the beginning, public life in the United States has been crowded with men of university education; the respect for education has deepened into a faith so intense that it has become almost a superstition, and both public and private funds flow with a kind of tidal movement to the support of education and the enrichment of its institutions. It is from these schools and this people that our early men of litei’ature have come with their