The word neighbor has a larger meaning than merely one who lives near
another. There is a wonderful description of a neighbor, given by One
who is the World’s Good Neighbor. He tells of the traveler who found
a stranger lying by the roadside, wounded and helpless. At personal
inconvenience and expense the traveler cared for the half dead man, and
continued his aid until the stranger was again able to care for himself.
We shall have gained a great deal from the study of this book, if we
learn not only to look on these immigrants as neighbors, those who live
near us, but if we seriously ask ourselves how we may be Good Neighbors
to the strangers from across the sea.
_The Neighbors to be Studied._ We are not going to talk about all of
the thirty-nine races of immigrants that are separately listed by our
government, but only about four of them. Some one says, “I hope you will
tell about the ones I like.” Well, we hope before we are through you will
like the ones we shall tell about, and we are sure you will, for you
will be better acquainted, and it is wonderful how much more likable the
immigrant is when you know him.
_Numbers._ Although we are to study only Chinese, Jews, Russians and
Italians, 333,694 of these four classes of immigrants landed in America
in 1911; 920,299, almost a million, landed in the three years last past,
and that is a large falling off as compared with some previous periods.
In 1911 the Jews and Italians numbered thirty-five out of every hundred
that came. You see that while we discuss but four classes, two of these
are more than one-fourth of all that come.
These numbers may suggest very little to us, but how they would have
startled the fathers of our country. The warlike Miles Standish, or,
in later years, the peppery Peter Stuyvesant, would have declared no
such numbers could be brought across the sea in a year. The only ships
our fathers knew were small wooden sailing vessels like our coasting
schooners; the giant, floating hotels that we call steamships, that carry
a big village every trip, were not dreamed of in those days. The sailing
vessel took weeks and months to make the voyage; now we can reckon,
almost to the hour, the time of the arrival of a great liner.
[Illustration: A Jewish Immigrant]
[Illustration: A Little Maid of Italy]
It might be well if these numbers did startle us more and if we better
realized how great is this invading army of strangers, friendly as it may
be.
_Dislike of Foreigners._ Many people do not like the immigrants simply
because they are foreigners. This prejudice is as old as the world, and
its origin is a most interesting study. Perhaps some high school boy or
girl can give a reason for this early dislike.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account