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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (May 24, 1903)
I A T.T.AM M'f.AITnilf TXT DM " " ' ' ' . x a B a4a IV , IIICIII" I ber of the United States public lee, contributes to the current Popular Science Monthly an ex- tendtnl review of the movement of Slavic races to the United States, the reasons for It, characteristics and racial divisions and direction taken by the new settlers. The paper follows in part: Every new factor of our Immigration Is looked on with suspicion. It Is the right and duty of every American to criticise Justly the raw material for future citizen ship passing within our gates and to Insist that this material shall be measured and weighed, measured by the standard of hu manity, weighed In the scale of justice, and ir f..d wanting sent back without cere mon or sentiment whence It came. Hut too often tho criticism is blinded by race prejudice and Ignorance of the Immigrant. Every race that has fljjured prominently in our Immigration statistics has had to bear tho brunt of attacks by well-meaning pessi mists, who. In many Instances, never saw an Immigrant In the ro.ig.i. In this regard the Slav Is not more fortunate than his predecessors, the German, the Irishman r.d the Scandinavian. Ono of the most striking facts shown by recent immigration atnllstk-a Is the rapid Increase of Slavic arrivals. From almost nothing before 'ISiS. It has grown pro grtsslvely year by year, until it now con tltiitcs nearly one-fourth of our total im migration. In view, therefore, of the fact that the desirability of Slur as immigrants Is In question at the present time, and that they constitute such a large proportion of our total Immigration Inflow. 'a considera tion of the Slavonic Immigrant seems pertinent. Eastern Dlvlslon-1. Oreat Russian. 2 Little Russians. 3. whlto Russian.. Dalkon or Southern Dlvlslon-1. Croats fa) Crotlans. (b) Slovenes'. 2. 8arbs 2 Bosnians. 4. Montenegrins. 6. Rulgnr. Western Dlvlslon-1. Poles. 2. Slovaks. 2, ciechs. (a) Bohemians, (b) Moravians. 4 Lusatian Wends. The Slavic race may he conveniently dl Wed to three great division, according to their geographical distribution In Europe-" eastern division, embracing all the Russian Slavs; a southern division, the 1 Imb,,"nu ot th. Balkan states, and that portion of Hungary south of the Danube; and a western division, compris ing those Slavic people, whose progress Westward In Kurope has formed a Slavic wedge, separating the Germans of upper ! lower Austria from tho Germans of felony and Brandenburg. The above table Indicates a simple geographical classlnca- Since of the many subdivisions given In the preceding table only five furnish u. with more than I COO Immigrants a year Md Hnce these five race, aggregate 97 per t of th. tola! Slavic Immigration, a con r 0VUhf,n Poetically cover, the Whole field. The following table show, the rumerkal strength of the Slavic arrival, for the year ended June 30, 1902: T"olos Blovak ' .! Croits 2,1 Buthcnlana ) Cieohs JMl'J AM other Slavi' incl'udVng'RuieiVni: Bulgara, Serbs. Montenegrin., etc 6.879 Total Slv. The lot of the Polish peasant ha. alway. been unhappy. When Poland at the senlth of 1U power ruled White Ruasla, Ruthenlan. and Lithuanians, when lu dominion ex tended from the Odor to the Don and trom the BolHo to the Black sea. the position f the Polish serf was as unenviable a. It today. Poland wa. an oligarchy In which the ruling nobles and their miserable serfs ad no bond of sympathy. There was no Polish middle class to carry on commerce and trade, to serve as a connecting link between the two widely separated classes. Commerce and trade were In the hand, of foreigners, chiefly Jews. The Pacta Con vent. C1572) or. as It has been called, the Polish Magna Charts, was In no sense a charter of the liberties of the people. It la true that It curtailed the power of the king and made him a mere figurehead, but It greatly Increased the power of the no ble, and. If anything, added to the misery of the peasants. These condition, made Impossible a universal national feeling, and paved the way for Poland', downfall. No doubt Russian treatment of Polish landowner, and nobles has been unjust, even cruel, but It must be remembered that the Brat real freedom the Polish serf ever enjoyed he received from his Russian mas ters. Russia abolished serfdom and, after the Polish Insurrection of ISO. the csar sought to conciliate the Polish peasant das. by certain agrarian reforms. By these measure, th peaaant. settled upon land and were made owners, the govern ment compensating the landlord and ex acting from the peasant a small sum yearly Until tha amount advanced was paid. Fol lowing the suppression of the revolt, whole sale confiscation placed upon the market thousand, of acre, of good farming land, and In a great measure broke up the large estates which kept the peasant a serf, even after he was declared free. Unfortunately for the Polish peasant, he was usually too The Influx of Slavonic Immigrants poor to buy any of the land thus placed In the market. But the conciliatory policy of Csar Alex ander II Is not favored by the present ruler. His efforts at Russiflcation are aggressive and persistent. It is to America that the Tole looks as the only land likely to give him a chance. The Polish Immigrant, posses, the general characteristic of the Slavs. They are of medium height or very alightly below it, very strongly built, with the broad face and brachycephalic head of the Slay type. Their complexion shows all gradations from the blue eyes and light hair in the Slav, of the north to the pro nounced brunette type of the southern Poles. Five-sixths of the male Polish Im migrants are unskilled laborers. They are very willing to work and are especially useful In the mines, mills, manufacturing concerns and great works of construction. The geographical distribution of Pole, arrived in America during the year ended June 20, 1902. is shown below: Ratio to Total Poles Landed. Number State. of Ple. Pennsylvania 21.9 9 New York 14,Sti Illinois 8.MS Massachusetts f.911 New Jersey 5.K 9 t'onnect'eut .1.:99 Ohio 2.W2 M!chigan Wisconsin 1.0T9 All other states 4.2.6 u 8 8 6 4 3 2 Total 69.(20 10 There arc two rat-tors that more than any others lend to preserve the purity of a race. They are the Inaccessibility and tho uninviting nature of the country It In habits. Thus, races occupying a barren mountainous country or a country covered by trackless forest and impassable marsh land are apt to be of purer racial type than the races living upon the great natural highways of commerce and trade or occu pying territory rich enough to be inviting to covetous eyes. These factor, have had much to do with the preservation of the purely Slavic type as represented by the Slovaks. This people occupies the rough mountainous country on the Hungarian side of the Carpathians, well back from the valley of the Danube. The Slovak la very closely allied racially tb the Bohemian or Cxech. Their lan guages are similar, the Slovak being the more primitive and more like the old Slav. Up to the beginning of the nineteenth cen tury, the Slovak, used the Bohemian lan . guage for all printed or written forma, but about that time a. separatist movement , began and an effort was made to develop ' a Slovak literature. This movement was unfortunate for both Csech and Slovak, because they had to resist the same natural enemies aggressive pangermanism on the one side, and the ever-intrusive Magyar on the other. Physically, the Clovak. are a sturdy stock, a little taller than the Poles. The great majority of the men are unskilled laborers. The following table Indicates how the Slovaks were distributed for the year ended June 30, 1908: RiUo to Number Total Biovaks State. ot Slovaks. Pennsylvania 19 OT) New York 4.S04 New Jersey .' 8,479 Ohio 3.1 J Illinois 2.111 Connecticut l.iKS All other states.. Landed. 54 13 9 9 6 3 6 100 Total 21.S34 The Croatian, and Slovene, occupy the two lare province, to the south of Hun- . gary, Croatia and Slavonla, that lie be tween the Drave and Danube rivers on the north and the Save river and the Bosnian boundary line on the south, A large num ber of the same race also come to America from th. adjoining province, ot Carnlola, Carinthla, Btyria, Ietrla and Dalmatia. Croatia and Slave nla formed part of an cient Pannonla. The Slav, took possession about the seventh century after Ostrogoth and Hun had come and gone. They recog nised the authority of the emperor, of the east until 1075, whea their leader. Zwonimir Demetrius, threw off the Byaantlne yoke and received the title of king front Pope Gregory VII at Rome. The country was subdued by tha Turk. (1534) and. from the time of their expulsion aome year later, has been considered a part of the kingdom of Hungary. The Croat, took .Idea against the Magyar. In the revolt of 1848, and Austria rewarded them by making them Independent of Hungary, but In 1X61) Aus tria's attitude changed, and to conciliate the Magyar. It restored them to Hungary. They are not content. Their national feel ing Is Intense, and. though loyal to the house of Hapsburg, they desire complete autonomy, with the emperor of Austria as their king. They detest their Magyar rul ers, and there exist, a. a consequence a constant clashing of Magyar and Slav throughout the provinces. This race of southern Slav, present, some peculiarities when compared with the recognised Slav type. They are dark-eyed and swarthy skinned (very different In complexion from the northern Slavs).' Their heads are brachycephalic, not so much from great width a. from a very short antero-posterior diameter. This peculiarity Is strik ing If the subject be Inspected In profile. The Hne of contour from the vertex of the skull to the root of the neck is almost per pendicular. Compared with the average Pole or Russian, who Is not above medium height, they are very tall. Their stature la remarkable not only because It is so unlike that of the typical Slavs, but also because It is an exception to the general rule that European races are tall In the north and short In the south. The Croats are of slighter build than Pole or Slovak, but they have fewer physi cal defect, than any other Slavic people. More than seven-eighths of the males are unskilled laborers, strong and willing to work. The table given below shows how they were distributed in the United 8tate during the year ended June 30. 1902: Ratio to Total Number numher or Croats of Croats. Landed. State. Pennsylvania 1S.72S Illinois J.M7 Ohio 22I New York 1,1 All other states &,6 11 1 6 Total 30.232 100 The statement that nearly all Russian Immigrants In America come from Austria may seem strange, but it is true. Last year 7.640 Russians came from Austria and only 1,536 Russians from Russia. The Russian Slavs are divided by philol ogists into three divisions Great Russians, White Russians and Little Russians. The Oreat Ruslana occupy a large quadrangular area in Russia consisting of the central governments, from Novgorod and Vologda on the north to Kiev on the south; from Pensa and Simbirsk on the east to the Polish provinces on the west. Tha White Russians number less than 4,000,0U and occupy aome of the western govern ment, adjoining Poland. Great Russian, and White Ruslana do not emigrate. The Little K urate ns occupy the great fertile, treeless plain, the black mold belt In south ern Russia, which extends from Kiev to the Black Sea. They aura people the two Austrian provinces of Bukowlna and Ga llcla. It la said that a line drawn east ward ou the map from Cracow In Oallcla through Kiev in Russia will divide the Lit tle Russian, from the Great Russians. The Little Russian, occupying Gallcia and Bukowlna. Austria, are known as Ruthen lan.. They are also called Ruasniak. and Red Russian.. Nearly all our Russian im migrant, come from those two Austrian provinces. The Ruthenians are typical 8lav, They have a rugged, sturdy physique, and the men are almost all un skilled laborers. They were distributed In America as follows, during the year ended June JO, 1902: Ratio to Total Nltmhor nf Number of Kuthenlant Ruthenians. landed. State Pennsylvania .. New York New Jersey Ohio All other statej. 4.153 1.5S4 W 7.2 21 10 4 1; Total 7.53 iXr,, From within the boundaries of the king dom'of Behemia and the adjoining province of Moravia come each year several thou aand Immigrant, of Slavic blood. There la little difference racially between the Itohemlun and Moravian and they are usually classed together as Caechs. Bohemia constitutes tho point of the wedge formed by the advance of the western division of the Slavic race into central Europe. For this reason Bohemia ha. been the bulwark of Slavic supremacy, and has acted the part of a buffer In check ing the progress of pan-Germanism In the Slavic states. The German element Is stronger in Bohemia than In any other 81avic state, and the Bohemian Slav, are taller and more blond, noosibly because of a strong infusion of Teutonic blood. The C sec ha possessed a native literaturo a. early as the ninth century. Their coun try la well supplied with schools, in about one half of which the Csech language Is spoken. They are far better educated than any other Slavic immigrants. The valley of the Elbe is a rich agricul tural country, and throughout the kingdom Industry and manufacturing are highly de veloped. For this reason more than 60 per cent of Csech immigrants are skilled la borer, or mechanics an unusually high percentage for Slav.. The Csech. hare a very wide area of distribution In this country. This Is nat ural for, being skilled in various occupa tions, they can find employment anywhere. They are scattered from New York to Ne braska and Texas. The following table shows the destination by state, of the Caechs arrived last year: Number of Caechs. 1..-S7 ..... 1.S75 State. New York.. Illinois Ohio Pennsylvania 671 Texas ;1 Wlnronnin 217 Nebraaka ' 14 All other states 76 Ratio to Total Number of Cecils Landed. 26 1 10 7 4 14 Total MM W, There are certain cardinal requisites in the make-up of a desirable Immigrant. He must have a good physique, he munt be willing to do rough hard labor, and he must be a man who Intends to make this country his permanent home. Observations of the Slavic Immigrants will show that they have a very rugged physique, that they are very willing to work at the most arduous labor, and that they have no de sire to return to the oppression and grind ing poverty of the old world. A dispassion ate study of their history In Europe reveal, nothing to their disadvantage. In addition their normal standard Is a very high one. They are a simple, right-living people, in tensely religious and mindful of family ties. They are guileless compared with the Hebrew, Italian or Levantine races, and before the board of special Inquiry they usually tell the plain truth. The demand for rough unskilled laborer, has steadily increased with our wonderful industrial growth. It is generally admitted that this demand cannot be supplied by na tive American applicants. Of all foreign laborers none is better qualified for this work than the Slavs. Eighty-five per cent of tho male Slavs are unskilled laborers, and nearly 96 per cent come to this coun try between the ages of 15 and 45, when their economic value is greatest. These people do not crowd tho tenement, of our large cities', but tend to establish themselves In little homos of their own In the country or in t'.e suburbs of manu facturing towns and cities. The Slav is popularly supposed to be men tally Blow and without energy or ambition. Tills is not entirely true. In comparison with the Hebrews who transact nearly all the business in Poland and G.iliela, the Poles (In business acumen) seem as chil dren. The Slovak appears mentally slow compared with the alert Magyar, but it must be remembered that the Hebrew in business makea other races than the Slav seem slow, and that, while almost all Mag yars can read and write, one third of the Slovaks are illiterate. This seeming men tal deficiency and absence of ambition In the Slav Is due mainly to lack of education and to centuries of subjection to tyran nical masters. It is hard to conceive how a peasant in Russia under existing condi tions could develop such a quality as am bition, and Judgment as to the Slav's en ergy and his intellectual possibilities must be suspended until his children in this country have had a chance to show that American schools and American environ ment can quicken the alow apathy of the serf into the energetic activity of the f reed man. The Slavic immigrant fills a place in the Industrial fields of this country In which he hears no call for such attributes as am bition, energy and mental brilliancy, a place which no American envies him, and where he is as necessary to American advance ment as the coal and iron that by his labor are mined and made ready for an Ameri can mechanic and manufacturer. Sitting for Photograph Don't wait until the afternoon If you are going to get the best results from a pV.o'o graph. Go early In the day. Don't exrejt to get a photograph that will please you If you are fatigued when rittlng. Pon't hurry. Haste makes the face red, and red comes out dark In a picture, a result not desirable where complexion is concerned. Don't get out of temper, a condition which brings lines to the face and spoil, the expression. Don't choose a day when the sunshine Is too bright, or every Imperfection will be mere strongly developed. A well lighted, cloudy day is Irest. Don't wear dead white. Cream white i. prettier and more effective; indeed, tha best color for a dress. Don't wear black. It gives a hard, dense tone. Don't wear tan or yellow, or lavender. They take badly. Gray takes white, and Bky blue generally comes out white. Don't wear silk or satin. Nothing come, out so badly as the glimmer of Bilk or glosa of satin. Woolens, crepes or velvets are preferable. Don't be afraid of wearing lace. The line between flesh and dress should be soft ened by It. Don't wear diamonds or rubies. Jewel, are best left at home, though pearls may be worn. Don't wear screw earrings. They will look like lumps, or protuberance.. Don't indulge in any elaborate halrdress lng. One can hardly dreas the hair too loosely for a picture. Don't arrange the hair in flat style If your face is round and like the full moon in all its glory. The fluffy or pompadour effect Is better. Don't take a full face picture If tha nose Is crooked or the eyes weak. Try a three-quarters view. Don't hide the eyes. If they are fine. Taka a full face view. Don't try a profile If the chin Is retreat ing, the none a pug and the lips too full. A sldewlse turn of the head may transform these defects almost into charms. Don't be afraid o using a bit of powder to cover an obnoxious mole. Don't cover up graceful curve, of neck and shoulders with drapery. Don't smile unless It come, naturally, or the restult will be heartrending. Don't flop Into a chair with tha arm. in any position and call that :itural posing. Pose must mean something. Sitting eroct, with the head slightly drooping, gives an expression of contemplation. If the eye. are raised an expression of interest is tha result. V
