AMERICAN LEAVEN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 20 December 1913, Page 12

AMERICAN LEAVEN.

We hear much about the influence ot European emigration to America, on *«c. Politics and social conditions of the a." -a States^ bufc no* so much about the influence of returned emigrants on £L e «? mmunities of the Old World, lhe Washington correspondent of the Morning Post draws attention to the backward flow of European workers from the United States. Formerly very few emigrants returned to their native land, but last year the number wno recrossed the Atlantic was 333,000 Many workers^ especially Italians, find it pays them better, after working in the summer in the United States, to return to Europe until the following summer for to remain in AmericS means being out of work in oold weaI■ ti others (among those who go back to Ji/urope have made money; it is a common: ambition among Europeans who emigrate to return to their own Un? y heS,, tll6y hare made, their fortune." The "American". who returns brings back to his own people the spirit of democracy. The few years he has spent in America have lessened his respect for law and authority He is less tractable than when he left but . iess willing to admit that whatever is bad must continue to be bad because ]t cannot be improved." He is touched with the spirit of Western progress and energy, and is nearly always a propagandist. "The American leaven is working, in the back places of Europe in ways that are seldom reported, and profound changes are certain to follow," says an observer. The Italian, for instance, takes back with him an elementary knowledge of hygiene and a desire for, greater comfort, which must have the effect of raising the standard of living in Italy. Equally noteworthy is the influence of the Japanese who has been to the United States and returned to Japan. The growth of democracy, including Socialism, in Japan is attributed largely to the leaven of men who have worked in America and been influenced by American ideals.