POLYGLOT AMERICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15766, 14 November 1914, Page 1 (Supplement)

POLYGLOT AMERICA.

BY CRITIC. One of tie great interests of the time in which we live is the unrest which has become so marked a feature of "many nationalities. Once we 'classed peoples roughly into nomads and settled; now if we look closely into the contemporaneous excitements of all countries, we shall find but few communities which have not, in varying stages of development, the germ of a desire to project themselves into other lands.

Nowhere is there a more complete example of this than in the United States of America. There indeed is the melting-pot of all nations; and only the stars can seo what the issue will be. From its broad what the issue will be.

Stephen Graham is making of world movements his study. He is closely watching the emergence of Russia from serfdom and autocracy; and ho is one of those few students of man who has the true spirit of the seeker after knowledge. For he descends into the pit with his Russians. Dressed as one of them, Jiving and eating as they, he went through the ordeal of a Russian pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and wrote a book that cannot be forgotten He spared himself no more than the poorest moujik: and of his experiences he produced a record remarkable not only for its wealth of information, but also for the simple grace of its style-* testimony indeed to the fine human sympathy of the man and the refined skill of the author. And now he has written " With Poor Immigrants to America" (Alacmillan. London) ; and given to thoso who, perforce must see the world through others' eyes' one of the most complete pictures of poly! lot America that has ever been penned. He travelled with Russian immigrants, shared their sorrows, if all the incidental suffering can be counted as such when endured by passive peasants, ate poor food, had i his eyelids roughly pulled up bv New lork health inspectors, slept in a bed with three other men, in varying stages of dirtiness, and then tramped the high road to Chicago. Tramped it, sun and shine, with a wallet on his back, his roof the stars, and his food what he could buy on the road I * .He could not always buy food; and once evidently, the American housewife has intimidated her husband into not adding to her work, he was often unable to obtain shelter on wet, 6 tormv nights. Work he was always offered: and refusing it, he was treated as vagabonds must nowadays expect to be treated in a land where everyone, except the millionaire, is obsessed by the idea of continuous exertion His fascinating story, while setting out presumably to follow the fortunes of the blavs who in thousands are migrating to the land of Labour, leaves a vivid impression of the American population of the manner of life there, and repeats in ones mind the eternal questions raised as one follows events in that republic. What is the issue to be of all this unceasing expenditure of energy? And what is to be the ultimate type of man evolved from all the incongruous human elements now in the States? The Americans are great collectors says Graham. Of Britain, he remarks that she is "seated in the mean. Compared with America, she is semi-Eastern. Despite the blood-relationship of the American and British, peoples, they are more than an ocean apart. We- are an old nation. We have explored the island. America will take a long time to explore her territory. The American man has a true passion for work, for his country, for everything, the Britisher.. does "his "duty. The - Americans do "not" want the weak ones; England backs the 'little 'un' to win; Russia loves the weak one. feeling he will be eternally beaten. But America loves the strong, the healthy, the pure, because she is tired of Europe, and the weakness and disease and sorrow of Europeans." He remarked to a States man on the number of men who lost their lives in the building of skyscrapers. "For every minute of the day there was a man injured in some town or other of the (States." So he had read in an evening paper. The New.Yorker replied that "the Americans were playing large, and must expect to lose a few men in the game. He expected the America of the future would justify all sacrifices made just now. The Woolworth Building is only an inadequate symbol of our faith," said he. "You British and the Germans and the French are working on a different principle; you are playing the small game, and playing it well. " You stake your efficiency on the perfection of details. In the German life, for instance, nothing is too small to be thought unmeriting of attention."

I told him the watchword of the old chess champion, Steinitz, "I do not vant to vin a pawn; it is enough if I only veakens a pawn." ( "'That's it exactly," said the America. "He did not care to sacrifice pieces; he was entirely on* the defensive in his chess, ch? And in life he would bo the earns', hoarding his pennies and his dollars, and economising, and saving. That's just how the American is different. He doesn't mind taking great risks; ho is playing the iarge game, sacrificing small things, hurrying on building, destroying, building again, conquering, dreaming. We are always selling out and reinvesting. You are concentrating on yourselves" as you are ; we want to leave our old bodies and conditions behind; and jump to a new humanity. If an American youth could inherit the whole world he would not care to improve it if he saw a chance of selling it to someone, and getting something, better. . . . Wo haven't your rebelliousness and quarrelsomeness. The new-come immigrant is always quarrelling with his neighbours. It is only after awhile that America softens him and enriches his heart. The vastness of America, the abundance of its riches is infectious; it makes the heart larger. The immigrant feels he has room, life is born in him." 11 1 know," contends .Stephen Graham, " that America ought to be reallv a. paradise. But it is pathetic to think of the difference between America as the Russian thinks it to be, and America as it is. I know it is the land of opportunity, opportunity to become rich, to get on. to bo famous; but for the poor immigrant it is rather the land of opportunism, a land where he himself is the opportunity, which not he, but other people have the chance to seize."

My friend was scandalised. "I think it gives everyone an opportunity," said he, "even the drunkard, and the" thief, and tho embezzler, whom you so uncharitably hand over to us. The ocean of American life cleanses many a»muddy stream of the Old World."

Apart from his personal reflections, and yet leading to them, is the charming narrative of Graham's walking tour. His conversations with working men, nil filled with thoughts of work; his talks with motorist*, who marvel at his walking; his appreciation of the beautiful country; his lament over the ugliness of the grimy townships; his amazement at the colloquial States tongue. And from it all ne comes yet again to his deduction that " the American of to-day is not the American of to-morrow. The Tsar 6 subjects coming in at tho rate of a-quarter of a million a year ensure that, the flocking of almost whole nations from South-eastern Europe ensure it. Xono car. tell what tho new American nation will be. Wo can -only watch the wonderful patterns and colours that form in tho great ballet and choir dance, the mingling in the labyrinths of destiny, the disappearances and the emergences, the involution and the evolution. It is something enacted within the mystery of the human race it-self.

And having finished his observations, he " returned with the home-going tide of immigrants; with flocks of Irish who were going boisterously back to the Groen Isle to spend small fortunes; with Russians returning because their time- was up, and they were due to serve in the army. With British rolling-stones grumbling at all countries. Thousands of opinions were expressed about America. 1 heard few; of disillusion."