mad, buckjumping boat in whose timbers the sea devils of the Baltic had bored holes. Everything unpleasant was forgotten, because the Dream filled them with a great happi ness. The inspectors at Ellis Island were interested in Ivan. They walked around him and prodded his muscles, 10 and he smiled down upon them goodnaturedly. "A fine animal," said one. "Gee, he's a new white hope! Ask him can he fight?" An interpreter put the question, and Ivan nodded. "I have fought," he said. "Gee!" cried the inspector. "Ask him was it for purses or what?” 20 "For freedom," answered Ivan. "For freedom to stretch my legs and straighten my neck!" Ivan and Anna left the Government ferryboat at The Battery. They started to walk uptown, making for the East Side, Ivan carrying the big trunk that no other man could lift. It was a wonderful morning. The city was bathed in warm sunshine, 30 and the well-dressed men and women who crowded the sidewalks made the two immigrants think that it was a festival day. Ivan and Anna stared at each other in amazement. They had never seen such dresses as those worn by the smiling women who passed them by; they had never seen such well-groomed men. "It is a feast day for certain," said 40 Anna. "They are dressed like princes and princesses," murmured Ivan. "There are no poor here, Anna. None." Like two simple children, they walked along the streets of the City of Wonder. What a contrast it was to the gray, stupid towns where the 24. The Battery, the southern extremity of the island of Manhattan, New York City. Terror waited to spring upon the cowed people. In Bobruisk, Minsk, Vilna, and Libau the people were 50 sullen and afraid. They walked in dread, but in the City of Wonder beside the glorious Hudson every person seemed happy and contented. They lost their way, but they walked on, looking at the wonderful shop windows, the roaring elevated trains, and the huge skyscrapers. Hours after wards they found themselves in Fifth Avenue near Thirty-third Street, and 60 there the miracle happened to the two Russian immigrants. It was a big miracle inasmuch as it proved the Dream a truth, a great truth. Ivan and Anna attempted to cross the avenue, but they became confused in the snarl of traffic. They dodged backward and forward as the stream of automobiles swept by them. Anna screamed, and, in response to 70 her scream, a traffic policeman, resplendent in a new uniform, rushed to her side. He took the arm of Anna and flung up a commanding hand. The charging autos halted. For five blocks north and south they jammed on the brakes when the unexpected interruption occurred, and Big Ivan gasped. "Don't be flurried, little woman,' said the cop. "I can tame 'em by liftin' my hand." 80 Anna didn't understand what he said, but she knew it was something nice by the manner in which his eyes smiled down upon her. And in front of the waiting automobiles he led her with the same care that he would give to a duchess, while Ivan, carrying the big trunk, followed them, 90 wondering much. Ivan's mind went back to Bobruisk on the night the Terror was abroad. The policeman led Anna to the sidewalk, patted Ivan good-naturedly upon the shoulder, and then with a The President was nearing the close of his address. Anna shook Ivan, and Ivan came out of the trance which the President's words had brought upon him. He sat up and 20 listened intently: We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let those great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them, nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which come always to those who sin30 cerely hope that their dreams will come true. The President finished. For a moment he stood looking down at the faces turned up to him, and Big Ivan of the Bridge thought that the President smiled at him. Ivan seized Anna's hand and held it tight. "He knew of my Dream!" he cried. "He knew of it. Did you hear what 40 he said about the dreams of a spring day?" "Of course he knew," said Anna. "He is the wisest man in America, where there are many wise men. Ivan, you are a citizen now. "And you are a citizen, Anna.” The band started to play "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," and Ivan and Anna got to their feet. Standing side by side, holding hands, they 50 joined in with the others who had found after long days of journeying the blessed land where dreams come true. NOTES AND QUESTIONS 1. President Wilson explained to the newlymade citizens the value of having an ideal; tell why he thinks "a dream is worth more than gold or silver" to the citizen. Mention some things America believes in that we might forget. 2. What dream came to Ivan as he plowed the fields of far-off Russia? What did his dream lead him to do? Tell briefly the story of Ivan's coming to America. 3. Quote Ivan's words to show what his vision of America was. Show that such an ideal would help a man to become a good American citizen. Show that his ideal included more than earning a living. What tells you that Ivan and Anna were thrifty? What does thrift have to do with good citizenship? 4. Which of the incidents mentioned in the story of Ivan's trip to America interested you most? What tells you that Ivan had found the land "where dreams come true"? What other story dealing with immigrants have you read? Theme Topics. 1. How immigrants are treated at Ellis Island. 2. Americanization work among new citizens. AMERICANS OF FOREIGN BIRTH It warms my heart that you should give me such a reception; but it is not of myself that I wish to think tonight, but of those who have just become citizens of the United States. This is the only country in the world which experiences this constant and repeated rebirth. Other countries depend upon the multiplication of their own native people. This country is 10 constantly drinking strength out of new sources by the voluntary association with it of great bodies of strong men and forward-looking women out of other lands. And so by the gift of the free will of independent people it is being constantly renewed from generation to generation by the same process by which it was originally created. It is as if humanity had determined to see to it that this great Nation, founded for the benefit of humanity, should not lack for the 10 allegiance of the people of the world. You have just taken an oath of allegiance to the United States. Of allegiance to whom? Of allegiance to no one, unless it be God-certainly not of allegiance to those who temporarily represent this great Government. You have taken an oath of allegiance to a great ideal, to a great body of principles, to a great hope of the human 20 race. You have said, "We are going to America not only to earn a living, not only to seek the things which it was more difficult to obtain where we were born, but to help forward the great enterprises of the human spiritto let men know that everywhere in the world there are men who will cross strange oceans and go where a speech is spoken which is alien to them 30 if they can but satisfy their quest for what their spirits crave; knowing that whatever the speech, there is but one longing and utterance of the human heart, and that is for liberty and justice." And while you bring all countries with you, you come with a purpose of leaving all other countries behind you bringing what is best of their spirit, but not looking over your 40 shoulders and seeking to perpetuate what you intend to leave behind in them. I certainly would not be one even to suggest that a man cease to love the home of his birth and the nation of his origin-these things are very sacred and ought not to be put out of our hearts-but it is one thing to love the place where you were born and it is another thing to dedicate yourself to the place to which you 50 go. You cannot dedicate yourself to America unless you become in every respect and with every purpose of your will thorough Americans. You cannot become thorough Americans if you think of yourselves in groups. America does not consist of groups. A man who thinks of himself as belonging to a particular national group in America has not yet become an 60 American, and the man who goes among you to trade upon your nationality is no worthy son to live under the Stars and Stripes. My urgent advice to you would be, not only always to think first of America, but always, also, to think first of humanity. You do not love humanity if you seek to divide humanity into jealous camps. Humanity can 70 be welded together only by love, by sympathy, by justice, not by jealousy and hatred. I am sorry for the man who seeks to make personal capital out of the passions of his fellow-men. He has lost the touch and ideal of America, for America was created to unite mankind by those passions which lift, and not by the passions which separate and debase. We came to 80 America, either ourselves or in the persons of our ancestors, to better the ideals of men, to make them see finer things than they had seen before, to get rid of the things that divide and to make sure of the things that unite. It was but an historical accident no doubt, that this great country was called the "United States"; yet I am very thankful that it has that word 90 "United" in its title, and the man who seeks to divide man from man, group from group, interest from interest in this great Union is striking at its very heart. It is a very interesting circumstance to me, in thinking of those of you who have just sworn allegiance to this great Government, that you were drawn across the ocean by some beckoning finger of hope, by some belief, by some vision of a new kind of justice, by some expectation of a better kind of life. No doubt you have been disappointed in some of us. Some of us are very disappointing. No doubt you have found that justice 10 in the United States goes only with a pure heart and a right purpose as it does everywhere else in the world. No doubt what you found here did not seem touched for you, after all, with the complete beauty of the ideal which you had conceived beforehand. But remember this: If we had grown at all poor in the ideal, you had brought some of it with you. A man 20 does not go out to seek the thing that is not in him. A man does not hope for the thing that he does not believe in, and if some of us have forgotten what America believed in, you, at any rate, imported in your own hearts a renewal of the belief. That is the reason that I, for one, make you welcome. If I have in any degree forgotten what America was intended 30 for, I will thank God if you will remind me. I was born in America. You dreamed dreams of what America was to be, and I hope you brought the dreams with you. No man that does not see visions will ever realize any high hope or undertake any high enterprise. Just because you brought dreams with you, America is more like ly to realize dreams such as you brought. You are enriching us if 40 you came expecting us to be better than we are. NOTES AND QUESTIONS 1. This selection is taken from a speech made by Mr. Wilson at Philadelphia in 1915, before a gathering of recently naturalized citizens. Mr. Wilson points out that "this is the only country in the world which experiences this constant and repeated rebirth"; explain his meaning. What problems that are not found elsewhere are created in America by this fact? 3. To what does the President tell the newlymade citizens they have taken an "oath of allegiance"? What, besides earning a living, does he say brought the immigrant-citizen to America? Compare with Ivan's dream of America. 4. The President defines the attitude the . citizen should take toward the country from which he came and toward the country to which he has come; discuss this definition. 5. Discuss the President's argument for unity-the contention that "America was created to unite mankind." What do you know of the early history of America that supports this opinion? Theme Topics (2 minute talks). 1. The source from which America gains strength. 2. Whom the foreign-born citizen owes his allegiance to. 3. What the foreign-born citizen brings with him when he comes to America, and what he leaves behind him. 4. Mr. Wilson's plan for welding humanity together; The aptness of Mr. Wilson's address for the occasion. Library Reading. The Promised Land, Antin; The Making of an American, Riis; His Soul Goes Marching On, Andrews; "What We Can Expect of the American Boy," Roosevelt (in St. Nicholas, Vol. 46, Part I); The Americanization of Edward Bok, Bok. |