The Man Farthest Down: A Record of Observation and Study in EuropeWashington, Booker T.
History
The Man Farthest Down: A Record of Observation and Study in Europe
Washington, Booker T.
Poor -- Europe; Working class -- Europe
I set out from America, as I have said, to find the man farthest down.
In a period of about six weeks I visited parts of England, Scotland,
Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy, Sicily, Poland, and Denmark. I spent
some time among the poorer classes of London and in several cities in
Austria and Italy. I investigated, to a certain extent, the condition
of the agricultural populations in Sicily, in Bohemia, Poland, and
Denmark. I saw much that was sad and depressing, but I saw much, also,
that was hopeful and inspiring. Bad as conditions are in some places, I
do not think I visited any place where things are not better now than
they were some years ago.
I found also that the connection between Europe and America is much
closer and more intimate than I had imagined. I am sure that very few
persons in this country realize the extent to which America has touched
and influenced the masses of the people in Europe. I think it is safe
to say that no single influence which is to-day tending to change and
raise the condition of the working people in the agricultural regions
of southern Europe is greater than the constant stream of emigration
which is pouring out of Europe into America and back again into Europe.
It should be remembered that not only do large numbers of these people
emigrate to America, but many of these emigrants return and bring with
them not only money to buy lands, but new ideas, higher ambitions, and
a wider outlook on the world.
Everywhere that I went, even in the most distant parts of the country,
where as yet the people have been almost untouched by the influences of
modern civilization, I met men who spoke in broken English, but with
genuine enthusiasm, of America. Once, when I had made a half-day's
journey by rail and wagon into a distant village in Poland, in order
to see something of life in a primitive farming village, I was
enthusiastically welcomed at the country tavern by the proprietor and
two or three other persons, all of whom had lived for some time in
America and were able to speak a little English.
At another time, when I visited the sulphur mines in the mountains of
central Sicily, I was surprised and delighted to encounter, deep down
in one of these mines, several hundred feet below the surface, a man
with whom I was able to speak familiarly about the coal mines of West
Virginia, where each of us, at different times, had been employed in
mine labour.
There seemed to be no part of Europe so distant or so remote that
the legend of America had not penetrated to it; and the influence of
America, of American ideas, is certainly making itself felt in a very
definite way in the lowest strata of European civilization.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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