THE LAND OF EFFORT.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1751, 27 September 1905, Page 65

THE LAND OF EFFORT.

The ‘'National Review” for August contains, under the above title, a thoughtful artiple on the character, growth, and conditions of life of the people of the United 'States. The following excerpt will give an idea of its nature: —• “The sort of emigrants that are sent to us from England should be exterminated,” said a Canadian to the writer; “they only fill our gaols—that is all they do.” And though, in the States, a certain check is put upon indiscriminate emigration, by the rule that each emigrant must have a certain sum of money in his possession on landing, that is not after all an entire guarantee of moral worth. It is comparatively easy to ship off a black sheep, giving him a farewell sum, and telling him he will get no mops.; but such men are not a kind gift from across the seas. I am afraid there is rather too much thought, in many cases, of the. emigrant’s good, and too little of whether he will benefit the land he goes to; and this is scarcely fair to America. It is all very well, as so many philanthropic. people do, to “give a man a fresh start in life,” but fresh starts are frequently given at the expense of the land he arrives to. Every land, like every man, should bear its own burdens, instead of rolling them off on to other shoulders when they become too heavy. ' We, however, are not the only offenders in this respect, for every country in Bui ope sends its contribution of emigrants weekly to New YorkWhere these thousands upon thousands of men and women get stowed away every week it is difficult to say. Jews, Poles, Russians, Swedes, Finns, Armenians. Italians—in they pour, ignorant and dirty for the most part, but the seed of the American nation that is to

be. Look at these emigrants as they arrive, and the task of amalgamation appeal's impossible; but observe an American, crowd and you will realise that somehow or other, by some unexplained process, all these varying nartions and races have been boiled down into a new nation. English, French, Italian, Dutch, Jewish, or German blood, or a mixture of all of them, flows in the veins of these men and women, yet they do not look like a crowd of different nations; they are one quite individual people, -with, features and speech of its own. This extraordinary process i§ going on all the time; and the interesting question, to me, is to ask what the force can be that is moulding them into this new shape? There must be, so to speak, some common factor at work. Intermarriage of different races does something; climate does something; food does something; but it still seems as if there must be another force at work, to give this new cast of feature to these men and women who come of the old well-born British and other European stocks. Can it be the mental influence that surrounds the Aniemcan-horn child, of whatever race he may spring? This influence is strong enough to change the expression, indeed the features, of any race —it is the probability of success. Consider the very hopeless conditions into -which half the working classes in England are born; a man of extraordinary force or cleverness may rise, by tremendous exertions, out of these conditions; tho average man if he is sober and self-denying for haif a lifetime may “lay by” enough to support him in his old age; the man of inferior capacities is fore-doomed to poverty ali the days of his life. None of these conditions seem to prevail in America. The forceful, clever man of the NewWorld is apt to make his fortune ; the average steady man may count upon comfortable prosperity; and even the man of inferior capacities may look lor wages such as he could never command in England. It is true that lie must work harder in the New World than in the Old : but how many men are there in England to-day who would be more than willing to work hard if the work was there for them to do ? That sad and shameful spectre of the unemployed which stalks through our streets every winter is not known in New York; there may be —there is—poverty, overcompetition, hardship—but that recognised desperate army of men for whom there is no work, no food, and little or no hope, does not exist here. The life of the American working man is full of almost terrible toil, lie is expected to work hard, and he does it; hut he works with hope ahead, and there are not only chances but probabilities of ultimate reward. Stevenson wrote of the “difficult but not desperate life of man” —a wonderful distinction. It is when the one priceless element of hope comes in that desperation takes flight.