127463 PEASANT PIONEERS An Interpretation- of ,the Slavic Peoples in the United States By KENNETH D. MILLER Author of: The Czechoslovaks in America Slavic design en cover by B. Mrazek COUNCIL OF WOMEN FOR HOME MISSIONS AND MISSIONARY EDUCATION MOVEMENT YORK The EeVrK&mielh D. r filler fcas demote! thirteen, year^"" to* service- amosi'g ttte t Slavic- ^eTp.]3Se&* ** He prepared "especially fox 6 "this wVV Iby s spewing a year in Czechoslovakia as an "Immigrant Fellow" of the Board of Home Missions of the Presby- terian Church in the '.U.S^As ! During this time he studied the Czech language, and acquainted him- self with the political, economic, and religious backgrounds of the people. Upon his return to this country he was associated for five years with the Jan Hus Presbyterian Church of New York City, being in charge of the social and religious work of its Neighborhood House. From 1917 to 1919 Mr. Miller was in charge of the ^Y.M.C.A. work among the Czechoslovak troops in Russia and Siberia. Subsequently Mr. Miller has been connected with the immigrant work of the Pres- byterian Board of National Missions, and in that capacity has visited all of the outstanding Slavic colonies of America. In 1921 he again visited Czechoslovakia and the other countries of central Europe on behalf of the relief work for the Prot- estant churches of Europe. Copyright, 1925, by the Council of Women for Home Missions and Missionary Education Movement of the United States and Canada Printed m the United SM^jf of America CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE Introduction 7 I. EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS OF THE SLAVS . 9 Americans of Tomorrow. Who Are the Slavs? Peasant Village Life. Peasant Customs and Tradi- tions. Social and Economic Status of the Peasant. Political Conditions in Slavic Europe. Education, Illiteracy, and Backwardness. Characteristics of the Slavic Peasant. Music in the Life of the Slavs. Religious Backgrounds of the Slav. Eastern and Western Slavs. The Church, the State, and Nationalism. Religion and Life. Peasant Piety. A Russian Church Service. The Mecca of the Poles. A Slavic Protestant Church. Religious Revivals among the Slavs. The Drift Away from the Church. At the Parting of the Ways. In Conclusion. II. THE SLAV AT WORK IN AMERICA ... 54 The Slavs in Industry. The Lot of the Unskilled Worker. The Old Attitude toward Immigrant Labor. The Slavs and Labor Movements. Changing Public Opinion. Enlightened Labor Policies. Work- ing towards Industrial Democracy. Material Prog- ress of Slavs. The Rising Second Generation. "White-collar Immigrants." Slavs on the Land. Economic Contribution of the Slavs. III. SLAVIC COMMUNITY LIFE IN AMERICA . . 87 Slavic Communities. National Organizations. Help for the Homelands. Racial Solidarity in America. Interpreting America to Their Countrymen. The Slavic Press. Foreign Language Schools* Business and ( Professional Life. Slavic Communities and Assimilation. iv CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE IV. THE SLAV MEETS AMERICA . . . .no Ellis Island. Locating in America. Meeting America in Industry. First Impressions of American Life. Child Life. Housing Conditions. Migrant Labor. Castles in Spain. The Consequences of American Neglect. Interpreting America : Immigrant Agencies. American Agencies. The Settlements. Other Agencies. The "Americanization" Movement. The Public School. Contacts with the Government. V. THE SLAV AT WORSHIP IN AMERICA . . 138 Transplanted Faiths. The Roman Catholic Church. The Poles and the Church of Rome. Other Slavic Catholics. The Parochial School. Orthodox Churches among the Slavs. Protestant Slavs. The Break with the Old World Faith. Reaching the Un- churched Slavs. Protestant Work among the Slavs* Slavic Churches and Missions. Reinterpreting Christianity. The Christian Neighborhood House. Literature. Helping to Adjust to American Life. Cooperation with Slavic Leaders. Protestant Hos- pitality. VI. THE SLAV AND AMERICA'S FUTURE . ,176 The New Immigration Policy. Contribution of the Slavs to America. The Task of the Church. In- dividual Church Members. Local Protestant Churches. The Protestant Denominations. United Protestantism, Appendices I. CONCERNING SLAVIC NATIONALITIES ... 192 II. A SHORT READING LIST 106 III. TABLE OP PROTESTANT WORK AMONG SLAVS IN THE UNITED STATES 198 IV. DISTRIBUTION OF SLAVS IN THE UNITED STATES . 199 ILLUSTRATIONS PACING PAGE Map Showing Distribution of Slavs in Europe by Language Frontispiece Map Showing Percentages of Slavic Populations to Total Population by States 57 A Slavic Miner 80 A Girl of Czechoslovakia 81 Slovak Peasants in Native Costumes ... 96 Slavic Peasant Types 97 INTRODUCTION The preparation of this study book on the Slavic peoples in the United States has given the author genu- ine joy and satisfaction. When one has been associated with a group of people for twelve years and more, one cannot help but cherish affection .and esteem for them and desire to have those feelings shared by others. If this little volume, in spite of the inadequacies and deficiencies which the author is the first to acknowledge, will help other Americans to a better understanding and a more sympathetic appreciation of our Slavic fellow citizens, the author will feel that the work which he has given to its preparation will not have been in vain. It is impossible for me to make acknowledgment to all those who have assisted me in making this study. To those who first aroused my interest in the immi- grants, to those who turned my attention to the Slavic peoples particularly, to my Slavic friends in Europe and in Siberia as well as in the United States, who have taken me into their confidence and affections, I owe a debt of gratitude which no words can express. But specific acknowledgment must be made to the following for their assistance: to the Webster Branch of the New York Public Library for illustrations of Slavic types copied from a portfolio of prints by Josef Manes ; to the Foreign Language Information Service for certain statistical data; to Miss Amy Blanche vii viii INTRODUCTION Greene, for permission to read the unpublished manu- scripts of the studies made on the Jugoslavs and the Bulgarians for the Interchurch World Movement; to my colleague, Rev. William P. Shriver, D.D., and the following other friends who read the manu- script and offered many helpful suggestions : Mr. Thomas Capek, Mr. Ales Broz of the Czechoslovak Consulate, Rev. William M. Regnemer, Rev. Paul Fox, Ph.D., Professor Paul Radosavljevich, Ph.D., of New York University, John P. Myers, Timothy N. Pfeiffer; and last, but not least, to my wife, without whose in- spiration and sympathetic counsel this book could not have been written. KENNETH D. MILLER NEW YORK 192$ PEASANT PIONEERS EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS OF THE SLAVS A prominent Englishman came to the United States to make a study of life in our American cities. One of his first points of contact was with the public school. He attended the graduation exercises of an elementary school. He heard the principal read off the names of the graduates: Potocki! Nagy! Krbecek! Toma- sula! Catania! Radioslavich ! Cihelsky! Rhein- stein! Villelli! He watched the boys as they came forward to receive their diplomas. They were fine- looking boys and well dressed, for they had donned their "graduation clothes/' He heard them salute to the flag : "I pledge allegiance to my flag/' He heard them sing "My country, 'tis of thee." He heard the principal tell the boys in his commencement address: "You are the Americans of tomorrow. The America of the future will be what you make it." The visitor went out on the street, thinking as he .walked along: "Potocki, Radioslavich, Cihelsky the Americans of tomorrow ! Is it possible ?" He noted the signs on the stores: ZDE SE MLUVI ESKY; SLOVENSKT? OBCHOD; MAGYAR ETTEREM. He heard the groups that lounged about the door- steps of the tenements talking and laughing. He heard many languages spoken, but not once did he hear a word of English. He stopped at a news-stand 9 10 PEASANT PIONEERS and picked up some newspapers. In addition to tKe local English papers he gathered at one stand the fol- lowing : Newyorksky Dennik, Svornost, Russkj Golos. Our English friend stopped in front of a tablet erected in memory of those who served America in the World War, and there again, amidst the familiar Anglo-Saxon, German, Irish, and Scandinavian names, was a liberal sprinkling of these strange, outlandish, unpronounceable names I He visited our factories and our mills, and although he heard the men called "John" and "Mike," he knew right well by looking at them that their real names were probably Vaclav, Ladislav, or Vladimir. The first conclusion which our English visitor drew from his observations was this: "The American city is not American ; it is foreign." His second conclusion may be summarized as follows : "A new era has dawned in America, It is the industrial era. With it has come wealth, prosperity, power. This era has been heralded by the industrial workers, as the Colonial era was heralded by the Pilgrim Fathers. The peasants of Europe have become the pioneers of twentieth-century America, as the Puritans of Europe were the pioneers of seventeenth-century America." Americans of Tomorrow We seldom think of our immigrant workers as pioneers. But they were the pioneers in breaking our vast prairies and converting them into fields of corn EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 11 and of wheat. They were at the forefront in the con- struction of that network of railroad which is the foun- dation of American industrial development. When the call came for thousands of men to mine our coal, iron, and copper, to make the steel which our modern life demands, it was the immigrants who responded. They have led the army of workers into the automobile in- dustry and have done pioneering work in thus revolu- tionizing our life. They are pioneering today in New England, demonstrating that old worn-out farms can be made fruitful once more. Who are these people which the last two decades have brought to us in such large numbers? What sort of men and women are these pioneers of the twentieth century? If the future of America lies so largely in their hands, is our country safe? The English we know; the Scotch, the Irish, and the Welsh we know also. Germans and Scandinavians are fairly familiar to us. But who are these? Many of them are Jews, it is said. Many more are Italians. Most of us know something about the Jew and the Italian, although not as much as we should. But what of the six millions in bur midst who are called 'Slavs? Who are they? [Whence come they ? What do they bring to us ? What yvill they do to us? Who Are the Slavs? Who are the Slavs? Few Americans can give a 'satisfactory answer. We know that the Slavs come 12 PEASANT PIONEERS from eastern Europe, but that part of the world is terra incognita to most of us. Europe, and particularly eastern Europe, presents to us a veritable maze of races and nationalities hopelessly entangled with one another in our thinking. Ethnologists and anthropolo- gists help us but little, for they disagree among them- selves as to how the various races and nationalities should be classified. + Those who wish to study the intricate problem of the relation of the various races of man to one another will find ample material at hand. 1 But for our purpose it will suffice to remind ourselves of the old if unscien- tific division of the human family into five groups: the Aryan, Semitic, Mongolian, Negro, and Malay; races. The peoples of Europe are for the most part of the so-called Aryan family. The subdivisions are roughly indicated in the following diagram : ARYAN LATIN SLAVIC NORDIC Mediterranean Alpine Teutonic No* Germans Scan dmavians Scotch-Irish Anglo-Saxon Celtic Irish Scotch Wehh French Thus, although we are to study the "Slavs" in America and "Slavic" life abroad, there is, strictly speaking, no such person as a Slav. The term Slav is a generic one, used to designate the people of a number of different nationalities which are bound to- 1 See Ripley, The Races of Europe. EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 13 Aether in a family or race by ties of blood, of culture, and of language. Among the Slavs are numbered the following nationalities; RUSSIANS (Great Russians, White Russians) Great Russians. This is the technical nomenclature used to differentiate the pure Russians (Muscovites) from the Little Russians and the White Russians. White Russians. There are approximately ten million White Russians in the western part of Russia and within the bounds of the new Baltic states and of Poland. The differences in culture and language between them and the ruling Great Russians are not so great as to make as- similation impossible. Their separate entity as a nation- ality was not recognized by the Russian Empire. Now, however, there is a separate White Russian National Re- public, which is an autonomous state under the Soviet Federation, with a capital at Minsk. There are many Roman Catholics among the White Russians. UKRAINIANS (Little Russians, Ruthenians) Ukrainians. This term is now used to include the people of southwestern Russia who, under the Czar's regime, were called Little Russians, as well as those who were under Austrian rule over the border in Galicia and were then called Ruthenians. Ukrainian language, culture, and his- tory differ considerably from that of the Russians, and these differences, although not admitted by many Russians, must be recognized in our dealing with them. POLES CZECHS (Bohemians and Moravians)' Czechs. The Czechs live for the most part In Bohemia 14 PEASANT PIONEERS ajid Moravia, which were formerly provinces of the Aus- trian Empire, and are now mere geographical divisions of the Czechoslovak Republic. The terms "Bohemian" and "Moravian" therefore correspond to our "New Yorker" or "New Englanden" SLOVAKS Slovaks. The Slovaks are now united with the Czechs in the Czechoslovak Republic. Both people are sometimes referred to as Czechoslovaks. Although the languages are very similar, the differences in culture, traditions, and temperament are considerable. LUSATIAN SERBS (Wends) Serbs. The Lusatian Serbs constitute a small remnant of an ancient Slavic race. They have maintained their national consciousness in spite of the fact that they are entirely surrounded by Germans, who call them Wends. JUGOSLAVS (Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes) Jugoslavs. The Serbs and Croats are kindred nationali- ties, their languages being identical, save that the Cyrillic alphabet is used by the Serbs and the Latin by the Croats. k They are further differentiated by religion, the Serbs being of the Orthodox and the Croats of the Roman Catholic faith* With them, the Slovenes are grouped as Jugoslavs or Southern Slavs, All three of these nationalities are now included in the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. BULGARIANS Bulgarians. The Bulgarians are sometimes not included among the Slavs. There has been much intermixture o races in Bulgaria, but the original racial stock and the language were of Slavic origin. Accordingly, in common with many of the best authorities, they are here included among- the Slavs, EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 15 A glance at the map (page 57) will reveal to the uninitiated the fact that these peoples do not live in the most remote corners of the world, as their names suggest, but quite within striking distance of points often visited by American tourists. It is only a few hours by train from Dresden or from Vienna to Prague, the capital city of Czechoslovakia, and one of the leading cities of Slavdom. Express trains and even air service provide very good connections with ( Warsaw, Belgrade, and Sofia, while Moscow and Leningrad are not so inaccessible as they were a few years ago. These cities are all beautiful, picturesque, and interesting, and every traveler in Europe should include at least one of them in his itinerary. But if one wishes to visit the Slav in his native habitat, he should go to the peasant villages rather than to the cities of Slavdom. Prague, Warsaw, Mos- cow, Belgrade, and Sofia, fascinating as they are, are no more typical of the Slavic life from which our immigrants have come than New York, Chicago, and San Francisco are typical of American life. These pioneers of the America of today are peasant pioneers. The traditions, ideals, and standards which are being transplanted upon American soil by Slavic immigrants are those of the peasant class. The blood which more and more is to be intermingled with ours is peasant J>lood. It is the peasant life which we must study if we are to understand the life of the Slavs in America and forecast the nature of the American life which ithey are helping us to build. 16 PEASANT PIONEERS There is a striking similarity in the mode of life in the rural districts of the various Slavic countries. Whether located on the banks of the Volga, or set down in the midst of the Siberian steppes, or perched high in the mountains of Slovakia, or strung out along a fertile valley in Bohemia, or huddled together in the mountain fastnesses of Serbia, the villages of the Slavic peasants differ little from one another. Peasant Village Life Here is a picture of a typical Czech village from which many have gone to seek homes in America. There is one long street or road, along which are strung the dwelling houses. These are built of brick or stone, covered with plaster, and adjoin one another as do our city houses. The roofs are of red tile or slate. The entrance to any of these houses is through! a large gate leading into a passage-way from which one may enter, on one side, into the dwelling-rooms ; on the other, into the stable; and at the rear, to a yard used either as a barnyard or a garden. In the dwelling there are at most four rooms, often only two, and sometimes but one. A huge stove in the corner serves for both heating and cooking purposes. The large shelf over the stove is often used as a sleeping bunk, particularly where families are large. The beds are piled high with feather comforters and covered with gayly decorated blankets. Even where there is more than one room, the kitchen serves as EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 17 the family gathering place, dining-room, and bed- room. "Holy" pictures adorn the walls. The wooden floors are swept clean. Ample but simple meals are the rule. The social life of the village centers around the church, the tavern, and about the market set up on the village green. A brook flows through the center of the village, and here the women gather to do their washing and their gossiping. Here, too, the inevitable geese, tended by the inevitable children, disport them- selves. The peasants' fields are scattered about on the plains and hills surrounding the village, so that the farmer goes back and forth to his work morning and evening. Often the fields are divided into long nar- row strips, and one peasant may have several such strips widely separated from one another. Looking upon the country-side from the window of a railroad train, one sees first the fields, long strips and irregular patches of green, yellow, brown, and red; then, nes- tling down between them, the village, a long line of white-washed, red-roofed cottages, low-lying, with only the church spire or perhaps the school building towering above them. In the background is a forest, kept clean of underbrush, looking swept and gar- nished. Oxen pull a cumbersome farm wagon along the road, while the peasant, whip in hand, walks be- side, urging them on. Out on the fields women are seen as well as men, their bright head shawls making them the more conspicuous. Here a boy is herding a flock of geese, that hiss at every passer-by. There 18 PEASANT PIONEERS Is a woman carrying a hod of bricks. Yonder a man is playing an accordion while resting from his labors. It is a simple life, a frugal existence, but the people love their village and all that it means, and one does not wonder that they do so. To be sure, there are many sections of Slavdom where the people are much more poverty-stricken than in a Czech village such as has been described. Hous- ing conditions in the Balkans, for instance, are much more primitive, as is evident from the description given by Dr. Haskell : Some villages in Macedonia consist of one-story mud huts, with thatched roofs, devoid of ceiling, windows, or board floors, one end serving- for the residence, and the other for a stable, with a screen of mud-plastered wattle, slightly higher than a man's head, between. In the residence part a fire is made in the middle of the room, and the smoke finds its way out as best it may. 1 The typical Russian village on the steppes consists of crude unfinished log cabins; and the aspect is the drearier on account of the lack of trees and the de- pressing effect of the clouds of dust which sweep down the street in summer and the black, oozy mud which makes walking a difficult and disagreeable procedure in the spring and autumn. In these poorer villages, from which most of our Russian immigrants come, the outward setting is much the same as in the fairly prosperous Czech villages. * Bulgarians in America, The. HaskelL Unpublished manu- script EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 19 There is one long- street or road, a brook or pond, the houses are huddled together with the fields at a distance, and the church and the tavern dominate the social life; but life is much more restricted. Potatoes and cabbage form the chief diet, meat being a luxury to be indulged in, only upon great occasions. The field work is done by oxen or cows, horses being reserved for the well-to-do. In some places men and even women may be seen out on the fields yoked to a plow or harrow, for even oxen are beyond the means of these peasants. In such villages the tavern promotes drunkenness as well as sociability. School facilities are inadequate or even entirely lacking. Diseases such as tuberculosis, trachoma, cholera, and typhus make their ravages among the people. As Professor Steiner says: The masses of peoples of the Slavic countries have never been above economic want. To the peasant, bread, potatoes, and cabbage to eat and an occasional pull at the vodka bottle means comfort ; while to have feather beds, a crowing cock in the barnyard, and a pig killing once a year is the realiza- tion of his wildest dreams. 1 For many such peasants the only hope for social and economic advancement for the children lies in emigration to America or to the industrial towns and cities of the homeland. Many of the young genera- tion are escaping the economic limitations of peasant life by working and starving their way through the * Immigrant Tide, Its Ebb and Plow, The. . A. Steiner, Page 283. 20 PEASANT PIONEERS higher institutions of learning, and graduating into the "white-collar" class. The sacrifices made by stu- dents from peasant homes in order to secure an edu- cation constitute a heroic chapter in the developing life of the Slavic people. Yet life in even the very poorest of the vil- lages in these out-of-the-way mountain settlements where civilization has scarcely penetrated has its compensations. The village may be set down in the midst of a romantically beautiful country, with the mountains o the High Tatra or the Urals towering above them, and with the surrounding forests and streams un- touched by human hand. The Slavs are all great lovers of nature, for they have been born and brought up in the open spaces. Peasant Customs and Traditions It is in such villages that the most colorful tradi- tions and customs of the people are often best pre- served. Professor Pupin describes the thrill which came to him as a boy when he attended the neighbor- hood gatherings, and listened to the old men of the village discourse through the long winter evenings, while the women sat silently spinning, sewing, and embroidering. The tales that he heard there made the local and national heroes, such as St. Sava, Prince Marko, and Hayduk Velyko, as real to him as his own parents. In looking back upon his boyhood days* EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 21 he regards "the cultivation of traditions as the prin- cipal element in the spiritual life of the village." * In all Slavic villages a wedding is a gala occasion around which many quaint customs and traditions are gathered. In a Polish village, for example, everyone turns out in the street on the day of a wedding, decked in his most brilliant costume. The church bells ring incessantly, the village band parades the street, every- where there is laughter and song. Everyone stops at the bride's house to drink her health before going to the church. The fiction of carrying away the bride, cave-man fashion, is still maintained. The groom or his relatives stop for her and bundle her into a car- riage or peasant cart, and with the druzhby, the best men or masters of ceremonies, leading the way, the procession goes on to the church. After the ceremony; all the guests return to the bride's home to eat, drink, and be merry to their hearts' content and often they are not content until after two or three days of celebration. Christenings are also made the occasion of great celebrations. The godparents of Slavic children are no mere figureheads, nor is their appointment as sucH an empty compliment Often they have more to do with the discipline of children than the parents them- selves- Etiquette requires an unusual degree of re- spect and consideration for one's godparents. Christmas, Easter, and the other church holidays are marked by quaint customs which vary in each 1 From Immigrant to Inventor. Michael Ptipin. Page 6. 22 PEASANT PIONEERS community and are- handed down from generation to generation. Christmas Eve is the occasion for the family celebration, when gifts are exchanged and the festive dinner held. It is then that the Child Jesus comes, bearing gifts to the children. St. Nicholas (Mikulas) has a holiday of his own, December 6, and the tradition is that he appears in every home with an angel and a devil. If the parents make a good report of the conduct of the children, the angel smiles and Mikulas leaves gifts for them; but if the report is unsatisfactory, the devil growls and a bundle of sticks is handed to the parents with a gentle hint that it may come in handy in bringing up the children* Christmas Day is the time when the children go about singing the beautiful carols, in which Slavic music is so rich. New Year's Eve, Three Kings, Palm Sunday, and Easter also have their associations and customs. In Russia the great Easter service begins at mid- night on Easter Eve. At a certain point in the service each worshiper lights the candle he holds in his hand, so that the whole church becomes aglow with candle- light, and the radiant joy in the faces of the pious peasants is brought out in bold relief. After leaving the church all greet one another with the words, ''Christ is risen P* It is said that the young men are permitted at this time to accompany this greeting with a kiss for each girl they meet. Even every-day life in the village does not lade olor. Thus in the poorest Slovak villages the little EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 23 white-washed cottages are often decorated with a frieze of gay colors reds, blues, greens, and yellows mingling in fantastic yet artistic designs. It is in such places that the peasant costumes are seen in all their festive glory. Each village has its own distinc- tive costume, so that a native can tell at a glance where any peasant hails from. One has to see these costumes to appreciate them. Their beauty and charm are in- describable. With the men, the tight-fitting trousers are covered with high boots, the coat is worn open so as to display the richly embroidered shirt, and the black felt hat is set off with a bit of color in braid or ribbon or feather. The women's costume is a perfect riot of color, the skirt, apron, waist, and cap being covered with exquisite embroidery. As the women's hands are all roughened and scarred by manual labor in the home and in the fields, it is the more remarkable that they are able to do the delicate work involved in making and embroidering these costumes. In such villages we also find the folk-music at its best. One can hear the Russian or Slovak peasants singing in the fields during their noon-day rest hout; or in the evening when their work is done. Their folk songs may have a note of pathos or sadness about them, but there is a beauty, charm, and dis- tinction most winsome in its effect. It is a simple life, in many respects an extremely restricted life. But somehow anyone who has visited these villages and entered into the life there can read- ily understand why eyes are wet with tears when our. 24 PEASANT PIONEERS Czechs in America sing "O Homeland Mine" ; or our Slovaks, "Nitra, dear Nitra"; or Russians, "Volga, Volga, Mother of Russia." Social and Economic Status of the Peasant The social and economic position of the peasant 1 is a relic of serfdom, when they were obligated to work for the large land owner without wages. Al- though now everywhere emancipated, and given land of his own or the opportunity to acquire it, the peasant has continued to recognize the superiority of the gen- try. He accepts the existence of a superior class upon earth just as he acknowledges that there is a God in heaven. He doffs his hat and gets out of the road for the gentry, who recognize the inferior station of the peasant by the use of the familiar "thou" in ad* dressing him. The spread of democracy is, however, breaking down this "inferiority complex" of the peasant. In some countries this inferiority has been more clearly marked than in others. The Russian peasant tinder the old regime probably suffered the most f rom the "upper class." The Russian army officers in deal- ing with the common soldier of the peasant class- * The term "peasant" in this volume is used in the popular sense as denoting the agriculturist generally. In the interests of accuracy a distinction should be noted between the landed "peasant/' the "cottager," the agricultural laborer, and the farm servants. Our immigrants are largely "cottagers" or agricultural laborers. But in this volume the term "peasant" is used as we use the term "farmer." EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 25 looked upon him and often treated him as a beast* They struck him, beat him, and kicked him for the slightest offense. The common soldier could travel only third class on the railway, and use only the third- class waiting-room, and was permitted to ride only on the front platform of a street car. In one public park there was a sign placed which read, "Admittance to dogs and private soldiers forbidden." To a larger extent than in any other country, the Russian peasant was dependent for a livelihood upon the great estates of the nobility, and the treatment accorded them by these "gentlemen" varied from benevolent despotism to practical slavery. It is small wonder that the re- venge of the Russian peasant upon his overlords has been swift and terrible. Nevertheless, the peasants do not, as many suppose, occupy the lowest position in the economic and social order in Europe. They have a definite social position: of which they are proud; and if they have their superiors, they also have their inferiors, who are taught to know their place until they too attain unto the aristocracy of the peasantry. The peasants are distinctly class conscious. They h&ve traditions, cus- toms, an esprit de corps, and a code of honor that are all their own, and which bind them together as. a social and economic unit. They are the solid citi- zens of the country, slow to move, often backward culturally, but still preserving and expressing some; of the finest traditions and ideals of their nation. 26 PEASANT PIONEERS Political Conditions in Slavic Europe We have already observed some of the similarities in the outward aspect of village life and in the eco- nomic and social disadvantages under which the peas- ant labors in all Slavic lands. Until recent years there has also been a general similarity in the political con- ditions which affected the Slavs in their homelands. The great bulk of our Slavic immigration has come from those sections of eastern and southern Europe where there was, until recently, either an autocratic government, or political unrest, or both. There were comparatively few immigrants to the United States from self-governing Bulgaria or Serbia, or even from Russia. Most of our Slavic immigrants came from the old Austro-Hungarian Empire, where the Slavs were exploited, politically and economically, by the ruling Germans and Magyars* Our Poles and Ukrain- ians came to us, for the most part, from the old Austrian province of Galicia. Our Serbs came from Austrian-ruled Bosnia and Herzegovina rather than from Serbia proper. Our Slovaks and Croatians came to us smarting under their treatment at the hands of the ruling Magyar government. Most of our Bul- garian immigrants hail from Macedonia, which for years has been the political football of the Balkans. Very few of the Slavs have been masters of their own political destinies until the war brought them self-determination. EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 27 Education, Illiteracy, and Backwardness The inevitable result of the social, economic, and political disabilities of the Slavic peasants has been the general denial to them of adequate educational facilities. In some countries, Russia, for instance, the peasant was not considered worth educating. In others, as in Hungary, educational facilities have been denied the peasants of subject nationalities as a part of a definite policy of forcible amalgamation. Of all the Slavic nationalities, only the Czechs were success* ful in securing something like an adequate school system in their own language, As a result, the Czechs show an illiteracy of less than two per cent, while the Russians, Poles, Slovaks, and Jugoslavs have an illiterate population ranging from 25 to 80 per cent of the whole. Now, under the new regime of independence, Poland, Jugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, and Soviet Russia are all emphasizing popular education. These states have an enormous task upon their hands, for generations of neglect and oppression have steeped the minds of the peasants in an ignorance, superstition, and provincialism from fc which only long-continued educational work will redeem them. The state of the Russian people is perhaps the most Deplorable of all. The Russians say of themselves, { Ri4$ky narod tyomny narod (the Russians are a dark Jbackward] people). And assuredly they have been a people that dwelt in darkness. JVitK a church that 28 PEASANT PIONEERS fostered superstition and brought little enlightenment, with scarcely any schools, and hampered on all sides by social and economic limitations, the Russian moojik has lived for generations in a little world of his own, the horizon of which was marked by the market town at the nearest railroad station. He knew nothing of Russia, nothing of the world. The sun rose and set upon his little derevnaya (village), which was his world, his life. Many have sought to find in this ignorance, pro- vincialism, superstition, and general backwardness of many of the Slavic peasants arguments for their innate racial inferiority. But it is possible to find similar conditions even among people of pure Anglo-Saxon stock. It is a question of opportunity. Just as the Czechs have responded to their educational and cultural opportunities, so will the Russians, Ukrainians, Poles, Slovaks, and Jugoslavs respond to their opportunities. It needs no gift of prophecy to declare that a genera- tion or two of enlightened self-government, providing adequate educational facilities, will entirely transform the character of the Slavic peasantry. Characteristics of the Slavic Peasant Here, then, is a simple folk, humanity in the rough!. The peasant's virtues are the homely ones kindliness, goodness of heart, unbounded hospitality, generosity, devotion to kith and kin. In most countries the peasant is patriotism personified. He knows his coun- EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 29 try's history and traditions, and time and time again he has left his field to defend his land in the hour of need. It was the Polish peasants who rallied about Kosciusko. The Hussite armies which battled all Europe in defense of their faith were composed of Bohemian peasants. It was the Serbian frontiersmen who time and again repulsed the Turk. In the last war the peasant responded readily to the call to arms. The peasant is known for his common sense, and the folk-lore of every Slavic people abounds with proverbs which sprang from the peasants and express the best wisdom of the nation. He is self-respecting, independent, strong, and usually moral, temperate, and cheerful. There are a respectful courtesy and poetic sensibility about these children of nature that are very beautiful. No stranger can pass through a village without a greeting. The helping hand is never with- held from the needy. Melancholy and sadness have been so often the por- tion of the peasants throughout the past generations that they seldom seem able to shake it off completely even now. There is a minor note in the most frivolous of folk songs. The very aspect of many peasants is dour. And yet they love the bright and beautiful and have an innate artistic sense that enables them to ap- preciate beauty and to bring it into their surroundings, naturally sordid as they often are. The peasant's faults are those one would expect to find in a people who have lacked educational oppor- tunity. He does not appear brilliant intellectually; 30 PEASANT PIONEERS his mind moves as slowly as his body. And yet the universities of Europe are thronged with students from peasant homes. It seems to be not so much intellectual capacity that is lacking as intellectual training. In the more backward sections there is much intem- perance. Vodka, palenka, and slivka (varieties of whisky) are names to conjure with in the Slavic world* The general attitude toward women is unenlightened. Some make of her a veritable beast of burden, and all, a creature somehow a little lower than man. There are few bright spots in the lives of the peasant women. tTheir marriage is the one outstanding event A woman seems to be valued chiefly for the work she can do and the children she can bear. Booker T. [Washington traveled all over Europe in search of "the man farthest down" with whom he could compare his own people, and his conclusion was that "the man farthest down" is the peasant woman of Europe. 1 And yet few people have such a reverent love for their mothers as do the Slavs. Presumably they love their wives as devotedly, but many have a strange way of showing it. The Slavs show quite a disposition to argumenta- tiveness and quarreling, but seldom resort to violence in settling their disputes. They usually show more respect for the person of others than for their own property and reputations. A lazy or shiftless peasant is the exception rather than the rule. These people have to work hard for a living, and nature has en- *Man Farthest Down, The. Booker T. Washington. EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 31 dewed both men and women with a physique capable of enduring enormous burdens and strenuous toiL Making a little go a long way has instilled in them a sense of thrift, which no self-indulgence, save some- times that of strong drink, can overcome. Many peas- ants seem literally to make bread out of stones, so apt are they at making crops grow on unpromising soil. Ask any Slav and he will tell you that the peasant is the hope of his nation. Is there any reason why he cannot be the hope of America ? Music in the Life of the Slavs There are two ways in which the deepest feelings of the Slavic people are expressed : through music, and through religion. One generalization can be made of all the Slavs without fear of contradiction; namely, that the Slavs are a musical people. They not only love music, but are musical. Their traditions, ideals, aspirations, hopes, fears, joys, and sorrows seem to burst into expression spontaneously in music. Each nationality has a wealth of folk songs that the people sing while they work, play, rest, worship, or make merry. There are sad songs, and joyous ones; love songs, war songs, lullabies, carols, and dance songs. Every mood is reflected, every human experience por- trayed there. There are few peasant homes in which music in one form or another does not create the chief diversion in leisure hours. Surely people so possessed by the love of music have much to give to the world ! 32 PEASANT PIONEERS Every visitor to Slavic lands has spent many de- Jightful evenings with these people in homes similar to the one described by Mr. Van Norman in his book on Poland. 1 One evening a young Ruthenian priest known to the family at whose home I was staying drove up to the door in his peasant vehicle, bringing with him his zither. He played well, and sang delightfully, with that rich, round, full voice of beautiful sympathetic quality so often found among the JRnssians. Many of the melodies were richly beautiful, at times almost fiercely gay, but always undershot with that inevitable tone. . . Weirdly beautiful, haunt ingly beautiful, yet inexpressibly sad are these Slavonic folk songs, per- meated with the breath of the plains. . . . Into them is pcmred the very emotional soul of the Slavic race, mingled reproach and sorrow, the volcanic resignation that comes only after ages of suffering and wrong. Those of us who heard the Czechoslovak soldiers singing as they marched across Siberia during their famous anabasis will never forget how the appealing Elt of the songs and the emotional timbre of the sol- diers* voices gripped the hearts of those who heard them, even if they did not understand the words. Surely people so possessed by the love of music have much to give to America. Religious Backgrounds of the Slav But the soul of the Slavic peasant finds its best expression and its deepest satisfaction in religion* The *> Poland: The Knight among the Nations. Louis E. Van Nor- man. Page 269. EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 33 Slavic peasant almost everywhere is deeply religious. His church, with its forms, ceremonies, and services, its holidays, and customs, is woven into the very warp and woof of his life. His superstition, his credulity, and his prejudices, as well as his piety, are bulwarked by the church. The icons or sacred pic- tures in the cottages, the crucifixes in the railroad stations and schoolhouses, the shrines and crosses by the roadsides or in the fields, the very form of the daily salutations "God be with you/' "God help you in your work," "Praise be the Lord Jesus Christ" these are but outward evidences of the central place occupied by religion. The holidays are church holi- days, they are spent in religious observances, and their name is legion. At Christmas time all ordinary activities are suspended for the better part of a week; at Easter the holidays last two weeks and are strictly observed. No one can hope to understand the Slav who disregards or discounts his religion. Eastern and Western Slavs The Slavs fall into an eastern and western group in accordance with their church affiliation. The Russians, Bulgarians, and Serbs belong to the eastern group and are of the Orthodox faith, while the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Croatians, and Slovenes belong to the western group and are predominatingly Roman Catholic. The Ukrainians occupy an intermediary position, for the Greek Catholic Church, to which many of them be- 34 PEASANT PIONEERS long, accepts allegiance to the Pope, bait retains many of the forms and ceremonies of the Eastern Orthodox Church. This division of Slavdom into an eastern and west- ern group has had very real and very serious con- sequences of a political and cultural as well as religious nature. Byzantine moral and spiritual ideals signify something quite different from the ideas and ideals which center in Rome. The adoption of the Cyrillic alphabet by the Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians, and Serbians has erected a cultural barrier between them and their western fellow-Slavs who use our Latin alphabet One of the chief obstacles in the way of political and cultural unity among the Slavs is religion. It is religion that sets the Ukrainians against the Rus- sians and the Poles against both. It is religion that differentiates the Serbs and Croats and prevents them from working together harmoniously in the new Jugo- slav state. Religion is a mighty factor in the move- ment to set the Slovaks against the Czechs, which is causing so much concern to the government of Czecho- slovakia. It is a sad sight to see the religion of Christ dividing men from their brethren instead of uniting them; creating suspicion and hatred instead of mutual understanding and brotherly love. And yet such is the state of affairs in Slavdom today. One is re-* minded of one wag's interpretation of the Irish! situation. "The trouble with Ireland/' he said, "is that the people in the north of Ireland are Protestants and the EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 35 people in the south of Ireland are Catholics. Now if they were only all atheists they might be able to live together like Christians." The Church^ the State, and Nationalism The reason religion has been such a divisive factor in the relations of the various Slavic nationalities is that the church, in many of these countries, has been the bulwark of the most narrow and intense national- ism. With the Serbs, the church is one of the chief exponents of the Serbian national spirit It was for this reason that so many Serbian priests fell victims to German atrocities when their country was overrun by the Kaiser's hordes. In Belgrade the writer was shown a picture of a group of priests and was told that of the thirty men in the picture all but two had been slain during the war. These men were singled out by the Germans, not because they were priests, but because they were the most zealous propagandists of Serbian patriotism. The Serbs and Croatians are really one people, but both Serbs and Croats are ardently devoted to their respective churches because it is the church that dis- tinguishes them* Just as a good Serb must be a faith- ful member of the Orthodox Church, and a Croatian of the Roman Catholic, so every good Pole is a Roman Catholic, for Protestantism is the religion of the hated Germans and the Orthodox faith of the detested Rus- sians. Thus it happens that a Pole who deserts Rome 36 PEASANT PIONEERS is regarded as a traitor to his country, and of one such 1 convert the remark was made, "He is not a Pole; he is a Presbyterian." This state of affairs is due to the existing relation- ship between church and state. When the church is supported by the state, in whole or in part, it must needs be regarded as a servant of the state, and feel under compulsion to carry out the behests of the state, even if there should be involved a diversion into polit- ical fields and an accompanying neglect of its spiritual activities. This close relationship between church and state is the greatest curse of organized religion upon the continent of Europe. To it may be traced much of the formalism so characteristic of the religious life of many of the Slavic peoples. Religion and Life From this close relationship of church and state has also sprung another outstanding feature of the religious life of the Slavic peoples; namely, the com- plete dissociation of religion and life. One writer describes the religious life of the Bulgarians in the following language : I doubt if it (Orthodox Christianity) has any important bearing upon conduct, and certainly in its tradition, there is no longer a trace of the humanitarian spirit of mercy and love which the modern mind tends more and more to read into religion. To go for ethical guidance to the average village priest would indeed be too ridiculous. The married EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 37 priests are, for the most part, totally uneducated and lead the life of peasants, only adding the fees of baptisms, wed- dings, and funerals to the revenues from their fields. Their function is not that of the pastor or the teacher. They are simply petty officials who perform the rites appropriate to the crossing of the frontier between this world and the next They bury and baptize for a consideration, much in the spirit of a customs officer who takes toll on the border of him who enters and of him who leaves. 1 One of the most sympathetic friends of the Slavic peoples, Professor Edward A. Steiner, has this to say concerning their religious life : In spite of the fact that religious forms dominate the life of the masses of the Slavs, there are no people in Europe who understand less of the real value of religion, whose con- duct towards each other is so little affected by it, or to whom it is so entirely a mere belief in the mysterious forces of Heaven and Hell, which can be appeased by prayers, formulas, sacrifices, and pilgrimages. Religion with them has seemingly nothing to do with sobriety, chastity, conquer- ing the will, or the cultivation of the inner virtues. 2 One who has made a special study of religious life in Poland sums up his impressions in this fashion: In Poland the forms of superstition and ignorance con- nected with Catholicism are numerous and pitiful. The sys- tem is opposed to education, makes no effort to lift the people from poverty, perpetuates the class distinctions that have weakened the whole nation, appropriates the hard-earned money of the people in return for mystical benefits, and 1 Macedonia and Its Races and Their Future. H. N. Brailsf ord. * Immigrant Tide, Its Ebb and Flow, The. E. A. Steiner, 38 PEASANT PIONEERS works hand in glove with the groups that exploit the mate- rial goods and the morals of the Poles. The Bishop of Galicia, according to Polish testimony, owns fourteen whisky distilleries, and properly and effectually blesses them. 1 These fearful indictments may be brought against the church in all the Slavic countries. Nor does the Protestant Church entirely escape the general condem- nation, for, unfortunately the Protestant churches, be- ing nearly everywhere a small minority in a Catholic or Orthodox country, have assimilated some of the faults of their neighbors. Regeneration, the new life in Christ, cannot play an important part in the life of one who is a Protestant because he is born one, and goes to church to show that he is different and therefore, to his mind, better than his fellow towns- men who are Catholics. Peasant Piety This state of affairs, unfortunately almost universal in Slavdom, is not attributable to the people themselves, but to the ecclesiastical machine which has been put in operation chiefly to glorify itself and aid the state, and has employed as its ministers men who are not fit for educational or spiritual leadership, even if they were given the opportunity to exercise it. That the people are at heart truly religious is demonstrated by the genuine piety which so many of them exhibit in their lives even in the face of the discouragement which the church gives to such living. i Religious Work among the Poles w> America. Joel B. Hayden. EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 39 A Russian Church Service No one can visit a service of worship in a Slavic village without feeling that these peasants are truly devout. Imagine yourself at a holiday service in one of the Russian Orthodox churches. The building itself is imposing without, and artistic and worshipful within. The great bulbous towers reach so high above the low-lying cottages that they can be seen for miles around. And, as if to appeal to all the senses, the church makes itself heard as well as seen of all. Early in the morning the people are aroused by the ding-donging of the great basso pro- fundo church bells, an indispensable part of the equip- ment of even the smallest churches. In a city such as Moscow the sound of all the church bells ringing on a Sunday morning can only be described as a din. Following the crowd into the church, we find that we, like all the rest, must stand. The services are long and tiring to one accustomed to comfortable pews, but the worshipers show no signs of fatigue. The church is dimly lighted, and clouds of smoke from the burning incense obscure what little light there is. Even in this subdued light one can see that in the architecture, in the windows, in the columns, and in the setting of the icons, considerable attention has been paid to artistic beauty. The ritual, however, is even more artistic. The whole service is chanted to music that is rich, colorful, and stirring. The priests all seem to have unusual 40 PEASANT PIONEERS voices. A few of them are tenors, but the majority chant the services in a deep, resonant bass voice* No instrumental music is permitted in the Russian churches, and under the old regime only male voices were employed in the choirs. Since the revolution, however, female voices have been added. One will notice immediately the unusual quality of the bass voices in these choirs. They seem able to reach much lower notes than any other people, and the deep rum- bling of their voices sounds like the roll of an organ, accompanying the clear, bell-like tones of the high sopranos. "Gospodin pomiluj!" (Lord, have mercy!) is the refrain, chanted again and again by the priest and reechoed by the choir from the other end of the church, while the vast assemblage of worshipers bow and cross themselves. At certain services, notably at Easter, each wor- shiper brings with him a candle, and, at a given time in the service, all the candles are lighted from the altar. The beauty of this scene will not soon be for- gotten. Above, the far corners and high reaches of the nave, the delicate tracery upon the columns, the outlines of the gargoyles are thrown in bright relief; while below, the upturned faces of peasant men and women are all aglow with candle-light. It stirs one's heart, tugs at one's emotions, and lifts one with the thronging multitude above the earthly and the worldly into the realms of the spirit. The pity of it is that one can see these same people, who at that service apparently attained unto a state EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 41 of unusual spiritual exaltation, sink the next day into the depths of degradation, misery, and sin. And the priest who led them in a beautiful Christian service of worship, is apparently incapable of leading them into a decent Christian life. If the mystic power of this religious faith could only be harnessed to the practical problems of life, and designed to produce Christian life in individual and society, these simple peasants could revolutionize the religious world of today. The Mecca of the Poles The fervent piety of the Slavic peasants can be studied also by visiting some of the famous shrines of Slavdom. Let us go on a pilgrimage to Czensto- chowa, 1 the Mecca of every devout Pole. Here is the abode of "Matka Boska Czenstokowska" the Mother of God of Czenstochowa. Copies of this famous im- age of the Virgin are found in almost every Polish home. It is the figure of a mild- faced woman and child of Polish type, generally brown in color, and surrounded by rays and stars and spangles of gold. The original image was disfigured by the Tartars, who cut great gashes in it by shooting arrows across the cheek of the Virgin. Tradition has it that many attempts were made to paint out these gashes, but they always reappeared. Thus a miracle was pronounced, and the scars left untouched. Czenstochowa was the 1 Pronounced Chen-sto-kova'. 42 PEASANT PIONEERS scene of the repulse of the Swedish invaders of Gus* tavus Adolphus in 1655, and, as the Polish victory was attributed to the miraculous intervention of the Virgin, Saint Mary was declared Queen of Poland and is still known as such by the peasant people. The image is believed by the people to have miraculous power. To this shrine hundreds of thousands of Polish pilgrims wend their way every year. Often the entire population of a village men, women, and children set out upon a pilgrimage lasting weeks in order to pray before the image of the Virgin of Czenstochowa. .The church in which the image is enshrined is situ- ated upon a hilL As one makes one's way up to the entrance, one passes through an avenue of beggars, deformed, crippled, and diseased, repulsive in the ex* treme, who ask for alms "in the name of the Mother of God of Czenstochowa, Queen of Heaven/' Facing the entrance is a large copy of the image. Here everyone stops, kneels, and murmurs a prayer, for it is the first station for every pilgrim. The stones in the courtyard are literally worn into basins by the genuflections of the faithful. At the entrance of the church itself sits a priest gathering money. It is a pay-as-you-enter system. Every pilgrim pauses in the vestibule to kiss the foot of the Savior's image. The body of the image is covered with dust and cobwebs, but the brass toe sparkles and glitters, polished by the osculations of generations. ,The body of the church is crowded with pilgrims EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 43 slowly making the rounds of the altars and the pictures which constitute the stations. The atmosphere is stifling. There is scarcely a square foot of free space on the floor. Everywhere are kneeling or prostrate forms of peasants in various stages of religious hys- teria, depression, and exaltation. On one side there arises a shrieking wail from an old woman who lies in the form of a cross, beating her aged head against the stone pavement. From the floor a triumphant cry is heard as an equally aged man rocks himself to and fro in an ecstasy. Mothers stretch out little naked children in their arms before some favorite altar. One has to be careful not to step upon the worshipers who lie prone upon the floor, kissing the stone pavement, sobbing, crying, and shouting. Some have shed so many tears that little pools form in the hollows worn by the tread of thousands of feet. Throughout it all the great organ rolls, and a fine choir chants the service. A priest is saying mass at the main altar, but scarcely anyone hears him or pays attention to that service. They are all intent upon begging some boon from the miraculous Virgin healing of body, pros- perity in business, or forgiveness of sin. All human needs, great and small, important and unimportant, material and spiritual, are being brought to the Mothei; of God, the special protectress, intercessor, and Queen of every Polish home, in confident, child-like trust that she will uaeet the need and satisfy the desires of theit: hearts. The little chapel where the original image of the 44 PEASANT PIONEERS Virgin is enshrined is the Holy of Holies of this temple. One can scarcely see the image or make out its distinguishing scars, for the light is dim and such light as there is seems focused upon the gold, silver, and precious jewels with which the image is sur- rounded on all sides. Here are diamonds, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, garnets, amethysts, topazes, pearls, glittering and glistening even in the subdued light cast by the swinging lamps. On the walls of the chapel gold and silver ornaments, mirrors, rosaries of coral and pearl flash and gleam through the semi-darkness. Every conceivable device, material, mental, and moral, to impress and completely subjugate the simple mind of the peasant is here employed. Every sound that can attract the ear, every material that draws the eye, is made to lend religious aid. It is the most powerful religious sense-life in the world, and experienced by a people whose temperament and moral bent respond as the thirsty soil soaks up the rain. It makes one marvel to see such complete, absolute self- abnegation in this day and generation. The peasant is no longer his own. He belongs, body, soul, mind, every part of him, to the church, to the Virgin. Is it any wonder that it is said that a visit to Czenstochowa means more to the Polish Catholic than would a pilgrimage to St. Peter's at Rome, or to the Savior's tomb at Jerusalem? 1 Would we as Christian Americans welcome the establishment upon American soil of a Czenstochowa with all that it implies? What elements are there in such a form of religion which are inconsistent with 1 Poland: The Knight among the Nations. Louis Van Norman. Pages 192 ff. EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 45 our conception of Christianity? Are there any ele- ments of value in the worship at this shrine? If so, what are they and how can they be preserved in Amer- ican life? These are questions which we must face and answer, for three millions of the pilgrims to Czenstochowa have now become pilgrims to America* A Slavic Protestant Church Let us contrast such a service as the one just de- scribed with the severe simplicity of the services as conducted in most Protestant churches among the Slavs. Here is a Czech Protestant church belonging to the communion now called the Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren. It is a country church off in the highlands of Moravia, in the sections where the Protestants still retained their services in the days of the persecution because they could hide in the forests and in the caves and meet in secret. It is called a "toleration" church, and was built soon after the Edict of Toleration of 1791 which legalized Protestantism after the long period of persecution which followed the Anti-Reformation. The building has no tower,, and no bell, and looks more like an American barn than a church, for the toleration edict expressly prohibited the erection of churchly buildings by the Protestants. Within, the church is as bare and barren as without* The walls are unadorned save by Scripture verses rather inartistically inscribed. The windows are of plain glass/ The pews are of natural wood. The floor is 46 PEASANT PIONEERS cemented. The pulpit is placed high above the pews on one side of the church. Upon it and upon the com- munion table beneath, the only decoration or symbol is the open Bible with the chalice placed upon it, a combination noticed everywhere among the Protestants of this "land of the Book and the Cup." There is no organ and the singing is led by a precentor who pitches the key with a tuning-fork. The psalms are still used for congregational singing, and as innumerable verses are sung, all with every note drawn out until one's t breath is almost exhausted, it can be seen that con- gregational singing occupies an important place in the service. At one service when the congregation started singing the iipth Psalm, the writer began to wonder if he would ever get back to America ! These old churches are not heated, and in the winter it is a severe test of Christian patience as well as of physique to sit for three hours in a church where a man can see his breath and where he has constantly to shift his feet about to avoid being frost-bitten. But many in such a congregation have walked miles to church. If you ask them how far away they live, they will say one hour, three hours, four hours, five hours, as the case may be. Imagine spending three hours going to church, three hours in the service, and three hours on the return trip ! How many Americans are willing to do that today? Such emotional sects as the Dukhobortsi and Molo- kani in Russia and the spiritualists, theosophists, and Russellites everywhere are making a great appeal to the EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 47 religious nature of the Slavic peasants and gaining thousands of adherents. A religious movement has been sweeping through Czechoslovakia and seems now to be gathering strength in the Ukraine and in Russia. Religious Revivals among the Slavs .Wh'en the Czechs were liberated from Austrian rule in 1918, one of the first uses many of them made of their new-found freedom was to break with the Church o Rome. For the Czechs have Protestant traditions which antedate the Reformation. Jan Hus has always been their great national hero and the Hussite period has ever been regarded as the golden age of their history. Many Roman Catholic priests took the lead in the revolt against Rome. Some of them took their whole parishes with them when they seceded. In other places the people deserted the priest en masse. In one town the only Catholics left are the priest, his housekeeper, and the sexton. Many of those who broke with Rome remained outside of the Church altogether, but nearly a million have united to form a new Church, called the Czechoslovak Church. This Church, while retain- ing many of the forms and dogmas of Catholicism, is very friendly to the Protestant Church and is working in cooperation with it The Protestant Church (The Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren) has strengthened its position materially. New congrega- tions have been springing up all over the land. In 48 PEASANT PIONEERS places where, a few years ago, one could not have found more than a handful of Protestants, there are now flourishing congregations of several hundred members, and in some instances of several thousand members. The congregation at Zizkov, a part of Prague, has increased from 500 to 7,500 members* In Plzen there are now 8,000 Protestants as compared with 600 a few years ago. The church authorities are embarrassed by the lack of sufficient church build- ings to house these congregations and of ministers to preach to them. Religion is one of the burning issues of the day in Czechoslovakia, and such is the position of leadership among the Slavs occupied by this little republic that the consequences of this religious move- ment which is sweeping the Czechs back to their, traditional faith may be very far-reaching. Protestant traditions, indeed, have a greater place in the life of the Slavs than one would suppose who studied their religious life but superficially. For the Czechs, for example, the chalice has always been a symbol not only of a religious observance, but of liberty and democracy, the equality of all men in the sight of God. Thus the Czechoslovak Army in Russia adopted the chalice as their symbol, sewed it on the sleeves of their uniforms and upon their flags as a symbol of the things they were fighting for. Many of those who have recently come into the Protestant Church wept like babies when they partook of the communion for the first time and reached out their EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 49 hands for the cup. For three hundred years that cup had been denied them by the church. Now at last it was placed in their hands. A look of exaltation came over many of the faces as if they were thinking: "At last I am a real Czech. At last I am true to the best traditions of my people." In Bulgaria there is the tradition of the Bogumiles, a Protestant sect which flourished as early as the eleventh century. Russia and the Ukraine have always had a large number of dissenters, such as the Stundists, a strict Baptist sect. Just now these Protestant groups seem to be gathering new strength, and recent visitors to the Ukraine report that a great mass movement is sweeping the country and opening the way for a re- alignment of the religious forces and the marshaling of millions of people behind the standard of a vital Christian faith such as Protestantism at its best rep- resents. If the Slavs were once captured by a religious experience with a Christian ethical content which would have the power to regenerate individuals and refashion society, what a power they would be in the world! But all is not plain sailing for the development of such a religious life. Superstition, formalism, ritualism, on the one hand, and atheism and materialism on the other, operate to cramp the soul of the Slavic people. Religion is beset by foes within the church and by enemies without the church. The enemy within the church is called in Europe clericalism. The foe without is called everywhere materialism. 50 PEASANT PIONEERS The Drift away from the Church There are two classes of people who show a tendency to break with religion in all the Slavic countries! : the so-called intelligentsia and the industrial workers* The former are turned against religion by their knowledge of philosophy and science, the latter by the influence of socialism. The student class, which is now growing by leaps and bounds in all the Slavic countries, is largely estranged from the church and indifferent at; hostile to religion as it understands it Approaching life from a rationalistic basis, these students find so much irrationality and superstition in the faith of their fathers that they turn from it in disgust, and little enough has been done to reinterpret religion to them in terms of modern thought. That socialism has the effect of destroying religious faith, as most of us understand it, cannot be doubted* One of the outstanding results of the intrenchment itt power of the communists in Russia has been the growth of an anti-church and anti-religious feeling. "Religion is an opiate for the people" were the words some Bol- shevik scrawled upon the walls of the Kremlin in! Moscow, and that is the point of view which the Soviet Government has sought to promulgate. The sad fact is that there is so much truth in this statement as applied to the form of religion known in Russia and other Slavic countries* EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 51 At the Parting of the Ways President Masaryk of Czechoslovakia, one of the most respected leaders in Slavdom today, is reported to have said in a public address, "Our nation must choose between the ideals, standards, and principles of a Julius Csesar, and the ideals, standards, and prin- 1 ciples of Jesus of Nazareth." That is as true for all of Slavdom as it is for Czechoslovakia. The Slavs stand today at the parting of the ways. Either re- ligion must be reformed, revitalized, regenerated, or it must give place to rationalism and materialism. (These millions of Slavic people are destined to play aja increasingly important role in European affairs. Most of them have now come into their own politically* [They are free. No longer will religion be imposed upon them from above or injected into them from without. If religion is to continue to sway their lives, it must have its springs, its motive power, within and then flow out to meet the problems and the duties of the outside world. The Slavs are potentially people of tremendous spiritual power. If that intense re- ligious feeling which characterizes them, if that re- sponse to the mystic and mysterious which comes so readily from them, can only be brought to bear upon the practical problems of the individual and society, the Slavs would initiate one of the greatest spiritual revivals the world has ever seen. And America has an opportunity through example and influence to help lead the Slavic nationalities to that great end 52 PEASANT PIONEERS In Condition We look upon immigration as a purely domestic problem. But it is far more than that. It gives America an opportunity to exercise a moral and spir- itual influence, not only over those millions who have coine here, but upon millions of others who are in- fluenced and molded by what they hear from their relatives and friends in America of America and of life here. The Slavic people idealize and idolize America. If they are convinced that the dollar is our god, it will be their god too. If they are per- suaded that with us comfort, luxury, and a high material standard of living is man's chief end, that will be their aim in life too. If they are sure that America uses her power and wealth for selfish ends merely, that will be their national ambition too. But if they become convinced that America is using her strength to serve the world; and that righteousness, piety, and spirituality are our chief concern as a nation and our one test of individual success, they too may be led to turn their religious enthusiasm to the task of bringing into life on the continent of Europe that righteousness, justice, peace, and love which Jesus proclaimed as essential to the kingdom of God. And certainly if there is any one thing that is needed in Europe more than anything else, it is just that the religion of Jesus lived out in the life of individuals, rations, and races. as Christians cannot isolate ourselves from the EUROPEAN BACKGROUNDS 53 problems of Europe, especially from its religious prob- lems. If we have no other link to bind us to Europe, we have one in the immigrant. His presence here with us not only summons us to work with him to make America Christian, but bids us look out upon the world from which he came and see the fields white for a mighty spiritual harvest. In the reaping of that harvest these same immigrants may have their share if we give them of our best and thus train them for: moral and spiritual leadership. II THE SLAV AT WORK IN AMERICA Bearing in mind the background from which he comes, the simple village life, a meager living eked out from the soil, disadvantaged by economic and social restrictions, limited in educational and religious opportunities, enriched and stabilized by tradition, cus- tom, folk-lore, and folk-music, a life in which the peasant has a place of his own which is recognized by society, let us now picture to ourselves the life of the immigrant Slav as we see him at work in the United States, a pioneer of the America of tomorrow. Let us seek to understand why he is here, where he is located, what he is doing in America, and what his presence here means for him and for us. What gigantic forces have uprooted this peasant from the soil upon which his forebears for generations have lived and labored? Is he fitted by physique and mentality for the new tasks which he has undertaken ? [What adjustments has he had to make in taking his place in the industrial world of America ? What prog- ress have the Slavs already made? What future lies in store for them and their children? If it is true that they are pioneers of a new age in America, what will that new age be like? The Slavs in Industry The peasant has become an industrial worker. We clo indeed find the Slav in other walks of life, on 54 THE SLAV AT WORK 55 the farm, in business, and even in the professions. But the typical Slav in America is the industrial worker. Scattered over the length and breadth of the land as they are, there is a noteworthy concentration of our Slavic population in the great industrial regions of the East and Middle West. In the state of Penn- sylvania every ninth individual one meets is a Slav of the first or second generation. The same propor- tion obtains also in Connecticut. In Illinois, New Jersey, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, and New York at least every twelfth individual is a Slav. Four fifths of our Slavs are found in these eight states. (See Map on page 57.) The census of 1920 gives the number of Slavs of the first and second generation as ^,922,703, or 4,6 per cent of our population. Slavic authorities estimate that the correct number is nearer six millions. In practically all of the large cities of ithis area, Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, Czechoslovaks, and Jugoslavs are found by the tens and hundreds of thousands, while in the smaller industrial and mining towns there are hundreds and thousands of them. In these industrial towns which dot the landscape in Penn- sylvania and Ohio particularly, we do not usually find our Slavs living in compact nationalistic colonies as in the cities, but rather forming a part of a polyglot ^community composed of representatives of many races, all drawn together by the factory, mill, or mine. One has but to go along any of the valleys which lead out in all directions from the city of Pittsburgh in order to see where the typical Slav of America 56 PEASANT PIONEERS works and lives. It is in those enormous, over- powering steel mills that line the railroad tracks for miles, it is at those long lines o coke ovens which darken the sky with smoke by day and light the heavens with their lurid flames by night that our Slavic peasant has found his job in America. Those endless trains of cars, heaped high with hard or soft coal, which make their way from the mines of Penn- sylvania to our homes and factories; the ever length- ening procession of automobiles which are turned out at Detroit and Cleveland to revolutionize our social life, the rubber industry of Akron, the stock-yards and packing houses at Chicago, Kansas City, and Omaha ' such are the outward and visible signs of the work our Slavic immigrants are doing in America. And among those bare frame houses perched high upon the hillsides which slope up from the Pennsyl- vania valleys, or in one of those box-like structures. which stand row on row on the cindery ground sur- rounding the mine, or in teeming tenements of the great cities is the home for which our Slavic immi- grant has exchanged his thatched-roof cottage. Let us take a closer look at some of the centers where the Slavs have congregated, and see for ourselves the work they are doing and the manner of life which they have adopted. Two Methodist city workers describe their fields of labor in this way : If you can imagine a community twenty-five blocks long and five blocks wide between the Pennsylvania Railroad and 58 PEASANT PIONEERS the Alleghany River, where no new dwellings have been built for about twenty years; where those dwellings that are standing are not well repaired; whjere tons of steel dust and smoke are poured out of hundreds; of smokestacks every day; where there are thirteen different nationalities; where there are not enough active good people to produce a public sen- timent in favor of keeping the law ; where there are thousands of children, and many economically unfit and inefficient people living under terrible conditions in many cases, you will have a faint picture of the Strip Section, where iny field of en- deavor is. When I came to my field in Chicago, I found forty thou- sand human beings huddled into a half-square-mile area. Here dwelt a sturdy, thrifty, industrious people grimly bat- tling their way out of the depths to gain for themselves and their children a better place to live, Poles, Bohemians, Lithua- nians, Slovaks, Germans, and Irish numbered their thousands, but their anarch was impeded by great obstacles, and against such odds, victory seemed impossible. Their sky was con- stantly owrcast by black clouds belched forth from the smok- ing stacks o Chicago's giant packing industries. Their air was polluted by a nauseating stench from cattle pens, slaugh- ter houses, and fertilizer plants, and poisoned by foul gases which came from putrifying offal dumped into that wide, sluggish open sewer called Bubbly Creek. Sickly grass, scrubby trees, and dirty babies were making pitiful attempts to grow. In one precinct, of every ve babies born, three had died before they were a year old. Crime, disease, drunk- enness, poverty, gambling.,, immorality, and sin abounded* And the church proposed to quit the field.* In the soft coal and coke region of southwestern Pennsylvania, the workers, the majority of whom are 1 "Applied Christianity." Report of Meeting of the Council o Cities of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1924. Pages 69, 75, 40, THE SLAV AT WORK 5 Slavs, five, for the most part, in small communities which surround the mines. They make their homes in company houses erected for their accommodation. .These houses are built in long rows, each one exactly like the other. The street in front and the yards around them are of cinder. There is not a tree to be seen. Over and around and through the houses blows the densest of black smoke from the coke ovens. Forlorn, dreary, and sordid beyond description, such are the surroundings in which hundreds of thousands of our Slavic immigrants are farced to make their American homes. The Lot of the Unskilled Worker The men are unskilled workers in the mine, the mill, the packing house, or the factory. "Unskilled workers at the mill/' What does that mean? The mill is near by. In fact, the mill is the outstanding feature of the town. In a sense, the mill is the town. One- sees it from the tram, its gigantic chimneys emitting clouds of that black smoke which covers the eotmtry- side like a pall, seeming to paint not only the houses but the streets, and even the trees and fields', a monot- onous, murky shade of gray. Underneath the smoke,, the red glare of the blast furnaces intermittently throws into bolder relief that complicated net-work of machinery, cranes, furnaces, rats, and miniature rail- roads, which, by a process mysterious to the lay mind, converts iron ore and coke into steel. In t&e nridst 60 PEASANT PIONEERS of it all one sees the diminutive forms of men moving about. They are shoveling coke, manipulating cranes, tending to vast furnaces. Many of them are stripped naked to the waist and so begrimed that their own mothers would not know them. They are magnificent physical specimens, these Slavic steel workers, broad-shouldered, deep-chested, with muscles like iron. They have to be, for theirs are the hardest, roughest, most disagreeable jobs in the entire industry. Just inside the entrance gates several ambulances are parked, ready to take the injured workmen to the hospital which the steel company has built and main- tains near by. In spite of all the safety devices and "safety first" campaigns which the company can de- vise, there are still plenty of calls for the ambulances for steel is a man-killer. The work itself is dangerous to life and limb, and so arduous that only the most fit physically can survive even if accidents be avoided. Many of the accidents of today are unavoidable. But others are caused by the speeding-up process of modern industry, which aims at maximum production only, so that the worker finds himself faced with the alter- native of falling below the efficiency standard of the company or taking an unwarranted chance with dan- gerous machinery. As one of them put it, 'Tve a wife and three children to feed, and I'll take a chance every time to earn more money for them even if it does break the safety regulations." The experience of Josef Leksa, a Slovak immigrant, is typical of a shockingly large number of Slavic immi- THE SLAV AT WORK 61 grants who have entered our industrial world. Coming to America when he was nineteen, a splendid physical specimen, Leksa soon secured a position in a coal mine in West Virginia. One day the miners working down below in the shaft heard a crash. Running up, they found young Leksa pinned under a huge mass of coat and rock. There had been a "fall." He was taken to a hospital, where it was soon discovered that if he recovered at all, he would be a cripple for life. While his life was still in the balance, he was visited by a lawyer who presented him with a paper to sign, which he understood to be a claim against the company for damages. After several months Leksa left the hos- pital on crutches, hopelessly maimed. When he went to the company offices to see about his claim, he was confronted with the paper he had signed, and told that it was an agreement to settle with the company for $200. In vain did he protest and appeal to the courts for redress. The company paid him $200 and sent him away. Some months later he was found on the streets of New York, begging. Efforts on behalf of the New York charitable organizations to secure a more ade-* quate adjustment from the company failed. He was an object of charity for a long time. He was sent from one hospital to another, but without avail. It was once suggested that he return to the old country. "Why should I go back and be a burden upon my folks?" he protested. "It was America that crippled me, and America should take care of me. Fll never <62 PEASANT PIONEERS let the folks at home know what has happened to me. I always write that I am well and happy." A few months ago Leksa was seen making a deposit ia an East Side bank. He was well dressed and ap- parently prospering. But he was still on crutches, and tis face had the drawn look of one racked with pain. He has become a professional beggar, and evidently a successful one. But Leksa's American adventure could not be termed anything else but a failure. He had lost his health, and, more serious still, he had lost his self- jespect Who was responsible for that failure ? What is the company's responsibility? What is the respon- sibility of our charitable agencies? Of the public? It is true that the Workmen's Compensation Act would make impossible the repetition of such injustice today. But still the path which leads to the industrial era of American life is strewn with the wreckage of human lives, and not a few of those who have been sacrificed for our prosperity are our Slavic peasants, such as Josef Leksa. The Old Attitude toward Immigrant Labor Until very recently the twelve-hour day and seven- day week was the rule in the steel industry. The life of the steel worker was "Wor'rk, wor'rfc, almost every day, every week, ten hours days and twelve hours nights alia time no spell, and alia time every d Jurnace hungry." a The abolition of the twelve-hour * What's on the Worker's Mind. Whiting Williams. Page 25. THE SLAV AT WORK 65 day has had, as we shall see, an immediate beneficial result, as far as it has been put into effect. Btrt the Slavic steel workers,, no matter what their nationality, are still all "Hunkies" and for the "Hunkies" their Irish and American bosses reserve their choicest bits of profanity, so that the first English they pick up is "Jesus Christ." Little does this Polish or Slovak worker know of the steel company or its policies. He came to the steel town because a job was to be had there immediately after his arrival, a job that required no capital or equip- ment save a strong back and willing hands. This jot> paid him enough to enable him, If he accepted the living conditions offered him near the mill and if he were willing to put up with the low standards of the life, to save some money to bring his family over and give his children an education, or to buy a little farm back in the old country. When the Slavic steel worker participated in the great steel strike of 1919, it was not because he was interested in controlling the steel industry, nor because he was committed to any Social- istic or Bolshevistic ideas- "What matters to him is that if the mill is shut down, he is the first to be laid off; if the job is unusually hot, greasy, or heavy, he is the first to be set to it. He is most arbitrarily, often brutally, shifted and ordered about, and if he takes a lay-off, it costs him his job/' * For he is- a "Hunky," His labour is cheap. His back is broad. No one cares if he is killed or maimed. 1 Report of the Steel Strike of 1919, Interclrarcfa World Move- ment. Page 135. 64 PEASANT PIONEERS "How many accidents did you have this month ?" one foreman was asked. "Five men and twelve Hunkies," was the reply. If he rebels, there are plenty more to take his place- If European immigration be restricted, Negroes and Mexicans will be imported to take his job. A large supply of unskilled labor willing to do the hardest, roughest work at the lowest wage has been and is still considered to be essential to the expansion and prosperity of the steel industry. To the Slavic immigrant, even this lowest wage is alluring, for it promises an opportunity to escape the limitations and oppressions of his life abroad. It gives him an oppor- tunity to amass a little capital, something he could not even dream of at home. It will enable him to give his children a good education, that they may make something of themselves. So he grasps at the oppor- tunity, not counting the cost. Could he know just what awaits him, he would not be so precipitate in his flight to America. His immigration is brought about by economic motives. He wants to better himself and his family. The steel industry gives him a job because it wants to better itself and its stock-holders. The era of great industrial expansion in the United States, that golden age which reached its zenith during the first decade of this century, was the time of our greatest Slavic immigration. These immigrants have helped us to amass our astounding wealth; their labor has made possible our high standard of living, all these comforts and luxuries which make America the most pleasant place in the world in which to live. THE SLAV AT WORK 65 But in the past industry, as a whole, has cared little about how these people lived and worked, or what America might mean to them, or what the future held in store for them. Its main interest has been in getting as much work out of them as it could at just as small a cost as possible. That the steel workers, miners, and other unskilled industrial workers have never come to know the real America; that they have re- mained mere industrial automatons, unable, after their day's work, to take an interest even in family life; that they have lived in crowded, unsanitary quarters; that they have huddled together in foreign sections, clinging to Old World speech and ways ; that they have remained ignorant and superstitious ; that their animal instincts have been the only ones given an opportunity for expression all this has been no concern of industry. It seems difficult for Americans to understand that the immigrant often had no choice in the matter, that he did not make his own bed here in America, but found it made for him by our industrial system. Once having come to this country in response to the lure of "the land of the free and the home of the brave," he must needs take the first job offered to him, or starve. Furthermore, he had to accept the conditions of that job. The kind of work, the conditions under which he labored, his wages, the place where he should live were all determined for him. He had to live near the mill or mine, and within his means. That meant in most cases the company houses or the boarding houses 66 PEASANT PIONEERS kept by his countrymen. That they were ditty, tin- attractive, overcrowded, unsanitary, could not be helped. They were the only quarters available within his means. Thus from the character and conditions of his job arise all those social and economic prob- lems which so often make the immigrant's life here a veritable hell on earth, and cause all public-minded citizens to lie awake nights wondering' how we can solve the "immigrant proHem." Our "immigrant problem" is but a phase of a serious industrial problem. This picture of the life of the Slavic industrial worker in America is indeed a dark one. But such conditions as are described above were well-nigh uni- versally prevalent in industrial communities ten years ago. And today they are still the rule rather than the exception, in spite of the considerable progress which has been made in htjmamzing' industry in recent years. Until recently the Slavic immigrant worker accepted these conditions as his inevitable lot, or suffered them in bitter and resentful silence, expressing his reaction privately in some such way as this : "The galling thing afjcrut it afl is the necessity of accepting in silence any treatment t&at the Corporation may see fit to give. [We have no right to- independent action, and when we are wronged, there is no redress/' Even this year at miner in the coke district had this to say: "We ane wholly at the mercy of the company. We live in a state erf iindustria! peonage. If we kick about it, we lose our jobs, are thrown out of our homes, and nig- THE SLAV AT WORK 67 gers are brought in to take our places. So what's the use?" The employers' attitude was, "If you don't like yorar job, go and find another one"; "If you don't like America, go back to the old country"; "We decide what is best and put it into effect before the workers have a chance to express themselves." The company generally thought the men did not want anything better than what was offered them, just as the men thought they could not get anything better. And the general public, as far as it has given the lot of the immigrant any thought at all, has been dis- posed to lay the responsibility upon his shoulders. The immigrants have been blamed for all the social ills of our commonwealth. ,They have been held re- sponsible for unemployment, child labor, lack of or- ganization among* wage-earners, strikes, radicalism and Bolshevism, congestion, poverty, crime, insanity, the continental Sunday, parochial schools, atheism, politi- cal corruption, and municipal misrule. Particularly are sucfo charges brought against the new immigrants, among whom our Slavs are to be numbered. They are said to be an inferior people, with low standards and capacities. Thus a prominent sociologist says : "The immigrant Slavs* have small reputation for capacity. * Clearly they belong in skins, in wattled huts at the close of the Great Ice Age. These ox-like tneti are descendants of those who always stayed behmd." 1 * Old World in the New, The. E. A. Ross. Page 216. 68 PEASANT PIONEERS A circular of the Junior Order of American Mechan- ics expresses the same conviction in even more lurid terms: ''Will we American citizens allow the riff-raff of Europe, who will work for a matter of nothing and Irve on the refuse of the cess-pool and the garbage dump, to replace American labor and take our earn- ings bjj,ck to foreign lands, to assist more filth and vice to land on our shores?" That the standard of living in many of our foreign industrial centers is often low, no one will deny. That social problems of a grave nature have arisen from the presence in our midst of such large masses of un- assimilated foreigners is also patently true. But the fault lies not so much with the immigrants, as with our industrial system. Why is it that the same charges which are now brought against the Slavs were laid at the door of the Irish, the Germans, and the Scandi- navians when they first came to take our lowest jobs? Recently, however, a new point of view, a new atti- tude has been gaining headway, not only among the workers themselves, but with the public generally, and witb the employers especially* For these signs of progress we shall thank God and take courage. The Slavs and Labor Movements The dumb acquiescence of the immigrant worker to any terms that industry might dictate has largely given place to organized discontent. This has been THE SLAV AT WORK 69 due not so much to any organized propaganda of the American trade unions or of the radicals as to the inherent injustice of the situation. In fact, with the exception of the United Mine Workers, the unions have not been very successful in enlisting the support of the Slavic workers. Such attempts as have been made by the unions to secure the support of the Slavs have more often been failures than successes. In their position of unorganized helplessness, such a propa- ganda as that of the I. W. W. would seem to have a fertile soil in the Slavic immigrant. It is a proof of the stability and level-headedness of the Slavic worker that so few of them were swept into the ex- treme radical movements. Most of them want pro- gressive improvements in working conditions and in their social status rather than abstract revolutionary doctrines. 1 The only Slavic group which has entered extreme radical movements is the Russians. And the Russians' sympathy with Bolshevism was due much more to a patriotic devotion to their homeland than to any communistic convictions. The latest attempt of the Slavic workers to secure better conditions for themselves was in the steel strike of 1919. The strikers were defeated, due largely to the fact that the Steel Company, by an extraordinary campaign of publicity, succeeded in convincing the pub- lic that this was not an ordinary strike of trade unions, but a revolutionary strike far the control of industry by Bolshevism and the I. W. W. But it is significant 1 Adjusting Immigrant and Industry* W. M. Leiserson. Page 180. 7Q PEASANT PIONEERS that, following the strike, a whole series of reforms has been introduced by the steel industry, culminating ia the abolition of the twelve-hour day, which was one of the chief grievances of the men, and the greatest sitigie sore-spot in our American industrial life. [Whether the Slavic workers will turn again to the trade unions and fight for their rights by strikes de- pends, first, upon the progress made by industry towards employee representation and, second, upon the attitude of the unions themselves. Just at present the workers seem to have a greater chance of securing the reforms and improvements needed through vol- untary action by the employers, supported by public opinion, than by direct action with the union. Changing Public Opinion That public opinion has undergone a change in re- gard to the industrial question, no one can deny. How much this is due to the fear of Bolshevism and how much to an awakened social conscience, erne cannot tell- But the fact remains that public opinion is be- roming increasingly intolerant of the old attitude of regandkjg 1 the immigrant worker as an inferior being, foar fffeona anything is good enottgh, aind is beginning to demand for him a fuller measure of econotnie and soeral justice: The Steei Corporation did not abolis&i the twelve-how day f rom any altruistic motives of its owa, btat simply because public opinion demanded it. 3Ve of the church can take some degree of satisfaction THE SLAV AT WORK 71 from the fact that the report of the Interchurch World Movement on the steel strike had no small part in forming public opinion on this subject. It remains now to discover the facts concerning the many remain- ing injustices of our industrial order and to give to those facts "pitiless publicity/' Through its influence upon public opinion, the church can render as great, if not greater, service to the immigrant as by any; other means, Enlightened Labor Policies There have always been some employers whose atti- tude toward their men has been enlightened, and who have made every effort to give them just and fair treat- ment, with the result that the men have been satisfied, their working and living conditions have been of the best, and the employers have been undisturbed by strikes and unnecessary labor turn-overs. The labor policy of Henry Ford, for instance, although frankly paternalistic, has, nevertheless, resulted in a high stand- ard of wages, working and living conditions not only among his own men, but among all of the hundreds of thousands of workers in other automobile plants in and about Detroit. Thus in Hamtramack, which has been described as "a Polish city of 75,000 entirely sur- rounded by Detroit/* a competent observer reports that the Polish workers, the majority of whom are em- ployed in the Dodge Brothers' plant, are prosperous and satisfied, are saving money, buying their homes, 72 PEASANT PIONEERS and rapidly becoming first-class American citizens* The welfare work of the Pullman Company, the National Cash Register Company, and the Endicott- Johnson Company, to name but a few, while not alto- gether successful, did, nevertheless, point the way to a more humane labor policy. The Workmen's Compensation Acts, new Child Labor laws, "Safety First" campaigns, the enactment of the Adamson law for an eight-hour day for railroad employees, the serious study of such questions as san- itary provisions, factory lighting, fatigue, occupational diseases, the introduction of medical service, home visiting, organized recreation, the teaching of English and civics during working hours these are some of the milestones marking progress along the path to industrial democracy. The violent reaction of 1919- 1920, when the fear of Bolshevism struck terror to the hearts of many large employers, was followed by an era of reasonableness in which employers seemed to realize that the time had come to give the foreigner a new deal. This decision was no doubt hastened by the restriction of immigration, and the realization that industry must now conserve its labor supply. But whatever the reasons for the changed attitude, as^- suredly industry as a whole has undergone a change of heart when the President of the National Associa- tion of Employment Managers can make a statement like this in voicing the point of view of industry : "The only business organization which can be per- manently effective is the one which is planned, con- THE SLAV AT WORK 73 trolled, and guided to give the working-man, the crea- tive being, the fullest opportunity to develop his talents, fcpply his energy, stimulate his interest, satisfy his atn- Jbition, and attain satisfaction and contentment." x All Christian people should rejoice in these signs of progress, and give to those employers who are lead- ing the way towards industrial democracy their whole- hearted and enthusiastic support. This new attitude of the employer towards his immigrant employees is proof that, after all, Americans love justice and fair play more than the "almighty dollar/' Working towards Industrial Democracy Beginning first with the introduction of efficiency experts, who focused attention on problems of person- nel, many large industrial concerns have introduced employment managers, service departments, or labor bureaus whose main function has been to work out a successful plan to keep the employees satisfied. The next step was the introduction of shop committees, .welfare councils, or industrial councils, all aiming to give the workers some voice in determining working Conditions. The adoption of the scientific approach to employment problems has done much to bring about more humane conditions. Employers will give weight to the advice of scientific experts and even pay them a large fee for their recommendations, when they will not even listen to the same recommendations if they 1 Adjusting Immigrant and Industry. W. M. Leisersoti. Page 83. 74 PEASANT PIONEERS tome from those whom our "hard-headed business aien" class as "sentimental idealists/' Mr. Leiserson reports no less than seven hundred industrial concerns in which some organization has been effected to secure a greater degree of cooperation be- tween the management and the employees. Among the more prominent concerns which have introduced some such plan are the International Harvester Company, the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey, the General Electric Company, the Bethlehem Steel Company, the k Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, and the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. The reasons advanced by Mr. Cyrus McCormick of the International Harvester Company for the introduction of employee representation in their plants are inter- esting. They are: first, the fear of syndicalism; sec- ond, the growth of the ideal of democracy as against benevolent despotism; third, it is good business both for the company and for the man. Certainly the effect upon the morale of the men fias been most marked. This is the testimony of one of them: "I have been working for this country for seven years. Up to a year and a half ago I always felt I was the servant of the family. Today I feel that I am a real honest-to-goodness member of the family, and that I can sit down at the same table with the rest of the family/' Of course this movement towards industrial de- mocracy is ridiculed by the radicals as a sop to the worker to keep him satisfied with an economic system THE SLAV AT WORK 75 which they consider to be fundamentally unjust. Nev- ertheless, the workers seem to enjoy the opportunity that these plans give them to become capitalists in -a small way, and certainly, reforms gradually introduced, in this manner seem to give more promise of a stable result than a violent revolution overturning the whole social order at once. But certain it is that unless this movement is honestly, sincerely, and thoroughly carried through so as to give the worker a real controlling voice in determining the conditions of his labor, he will consider recourse to violent revolution to be his only alternative. The labor .unions are finding the ground cut out from under their feet by this movement, and quite naturally are protesting. In most of the concerns where the industrial democracy plans are being introduced there are no unions. The unions have lost ground in the United States of late, and one reason certainly is that they have not made the eff ort or have not been successful in the effort to enlist the sympathy and support of the immigrant worker. As it is now, the immigrant finds it more to his advantage to cooperate with his employers in industrially democratic plans than to throw in his lot with the labor unions. The unions remain, however, as an alternative means of progress should industry falter or fail in its plans for giving the worker his due. The United States Steel Corporation has not the reputation of being progressive in its relation towards its employees. It is, therefore, a significant sign of 76 PEASANT PIONEERS the times, that although no steps have been taken look* ing towards industrial democracy, the great outstand- ing evil of the steel industry, the twelve-hour day, has been abolished. To be sure, the change has not yet been made complete. In many places a ten-hour day is still the rule. But the aim of establishing a basic eight-hour day is nevertheless being gradually realized. The results have been immediately beneficial, as one would expect. Reports from various steel centers on the effect of the introduction of the shorter working day, pub- lished in The Christian Science Monitor on January 25, 1924, are of a nature to gladden one's heart. Thus from Youngstown, Ohio, comes the report: "Bank deposits have increased by ten millions of dollars. The men have more time to develop themselves, to enjoy their families, and improve their own mental and physical state." Milwaukee reports : "The attend- ance at social centers and night schools has increased. . . . Husbands now come home fresh enough to enter into the spirit of the home. . . ." In Gary, Indiana, it is reported that "juvenile delinquency and truancy have decreased. Crime has been diminished. Thrift has been stimulated. . . ." The Superintendent of Police in Gary says: "The whole town is brighter BOW. Life means more. It is fuller and richer." The head of the Department of Physical Education, in the same town reports : "There has been an increase of thirty to forty per cent in the attendance in our , physical training classes. We have twenty-five basket- THE SLAV AT WORK 77 ball teams this year as against ten the year before. [We have had to engage six additional physical directors to take care of the increased demand for recreation." In commenting upon the reports the Monitor says, "The survey indicates that if steel costs more than it did, the price is being used to purchase a better citi- zenship." These conclusions have recently been con- firmed by a scientific study of the result of the intro- duction of the eight-hour day made and published by the Cabot Fund, of Boston. The passing of the saloon has also meant much to the Slavic immigrant worker, although not all of them appreciate what prohibition has done for them. Ten years ago a visitor to a steel town such as Lacka wanna, N. Y., Gary, Ind., Youngstown, CX, or Braddock, Penn., would have seen the streets lined with saloons, and, on Sundays particularly, would have witnessed riotous drinking on the part of the workers. Today in such towns the saloons are few and far between, and, although there is much bootlegging and home- brewing, hard drinking has abated to a truly remark- able degree. The men themselves, brought up with! the continental idea concerning liquor, grumble con- siderably against prohibition, but their wives and chil- dren tell another tale, and the effects are apparent in happier homes, increased savings, and increased efficiency* All of these changes which have been noted wiH do much to make the lot of the Slavic worker easier, and give him an opportunity to develop himself and 78 PEASANT PIONEERS his children as was not possible before. But we have Hiade just a beginning, and our enlightened citizens, employers, employees, and consumers will have to bend every energy and devote themselves to the task with unremitting vigor and unfailing patience for many years to come if our industry is to be placed on a Christian basis of justice and fair play for all. This would seem to be one of the great tasks of the church today, and the ultimate outcome will depend in no small measure upon the vision, the courage, and the iaith which the church shall manifest in its procla- mation and incarnation of the gospel of the Son of Man, the Carpenter ^Workman of Nazareth. Material Progress of Slavs It is a tribute to the inherent worth of our Slavic immigrants that such large numbers of them have risen so high in spite of the discouraging surroundings in which they have found themselves. The majority of those who have been here ten years or more are get- ting ahead in the world, even in the steel towns. At Mingo Junction, Ohio, a steel town, the Slovak workers have made remarkable progress. Many of them have been in that same town twenty years and more. ' When they first came over they lived in com- pany houses, and endured typically bad working and living conditions. Now they have bought their own homes, many of them have automobiles, and their ichildren are securing the best education that America THE SLAV AT WORK 79 tan afford. I attended a church service at Mings< Junction, and the audience gave every evidence o happiness and contentment, and of mental and spiritual alertness. These were upstanding, intelligent Ameri- can citizens, even if their English was broken and some of their ways quite foreign. One could not help contrasting that congregation with others in the Zemplin district of Slovakia, where these Slovak miners hail from. There evidences of illiteracy, pov- erty, and intemperance had been only too patent Surely America has wrought miracles with these men and women! (Cf. Chap. IV, The Rising Second Generation In the cities, there is a noteworthy change in the occupations of the second generation of Slavs born and reared here. There is a very marked trend away from factory and other manual labor towards the store and office where "white-collar jobs" are to be had. Thus while the older Czechs of New York are cigar-workers, pearl button operatives, and me- chanics, the younger generation is found downtown in the stores and offices working as clerks and stenog- raphers, or in professional life, making their way as teachers, lawyers, doctors, and dentists. In one of the Settlement Houses of New York there is a club' of forty members, all of whom are of Czech descent and all college graduates. This change has its effect not only upon the younger generation itself, but upon 80 PEASANT PIONEERS their parents as well, as the young people insist upon higher standards of living and their parents accommo- date themselves to their wishes whenever possible. The same trend is noticeable among all the other Slavic nationalities, and for that matter among the newer immigrants generally. The unskilled or skilled immi- grant worker of one generation produces highly skilled workers, and workers in commercial and pro- fessional fields in the second generation. In the industrial communities the youths are more Ekely to follow their fathers into the mill or mine, though even here many wish to escape the social op- probrium attached to the job of the "Hunky," and seek out clerical positions. When times are good, however, the comparatively high wages lead the young American Slavs to pocket their pride and enter the mill or mine. "White-collar Immigrants" One of the effects of the new immigration law has been to bring over a much larger number of Slavs of the soK^lled intellectual class. These are men and women of good education and often of considerable business or professional experience. Our first impulse is to congratulate ourselves that we are receiving a ''better class of immigrants." But these men and women constitute something of a problem. Generally they know little or no Englisji, and if there is one thing which our business and professional cirdes demand From a painting by B, Czedekowski. Reproduced by permission of The Survey. A SLAVIC MINER A GIRL OF CZECHOSLOVAKIA THE SLAV AT WORK 81 in America it is a perfect command of English. Very often these university trained men and women are not willing to undertake manual labor, and yet we have to explain to them the brutal fact that America needs immigrants of brawn more than immigrants of brains. The location of these white-collar immigrants is a ilifficult task. In the case of the Russian emigres, the thousands of men and women of the nobility and intelligentsia who have fled before Bolshevism, some very pitiful and some very ludicrous adjustments have had to be made. One Russian noble is said to have secured finally a position as a floor-walker in a depart- ment store in a city in Kansas. He could not speak a word of English, and so could not even direct a cus- tomer to the proper counter. But he was very hand- some, and when, attired in his morning suit, he walked up and down the aisle twirling his tnoustachios, he made quite an imposing figure. Needless to say, the store did not take pains to conceal the fact that their new floor-walker was a Russian count, and as a result all of Main Street flocked to the store to gaze and admire. Slavs on the Land Many wonder why it is that the Slavic and other immigrants who at home had tilled the soil as peasants have so largely gone to our large cities and industrial centers upon their arrival here. We forget that to start farming nowadays an amount of capital is re- 82 PEASANT PIONEERS quired which is prohibitive to immigrants. We forget also that farm life is lonely as compared with the village life abroad or city life here, and the Slav is, above all else, a social being. Furthermore, under conditions prevailing today in many places farming is not a very profitable undertaking, and one can secure better wages in the city than as a farm-hand. It is not as easy as it sounds "to get the immigrant out upon the land." Nevertheless, there is a very considerable percentage of Slavs out on the land at the present time. About forty per cent of the Czechs in this country are agriculturists. Texas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, and Wis- consin have large populations of Czech farmers. Many of the early Czech immigrants in the fifties and sixties went directly to the Middle West or to Texas, took out homestead rights, broke the prairies or cleared off timber land, and began farming. The tales of the struggles and sufferings of those pioneer farmers con- stitute a heroic chapter in the story of the development of the Middle West. But today these pioneers and their children are reaping their reward, for some of the best farms in such states as Nebraska and Iowa are in the hands of the Czechs, who are making pro- gressive, intelligent, and industrious American citizens. The Czech is a splendid farmer. Accustomed as he is to intensive agricultural methods in the old coun- try, he is able to work miracles when given rich and fertile soil. Furthermore, he is progressive in his THE SLAV AT WORK 83 methods. Agents for the latest agricultural machinery state that they have no better customers than the Czech farmers. Nearly all now have automobiles. ( Their children are sent to high school, and, in many cases, to the state colleges and universities. The sec- ond generation is displaying a most commendable tendency to stay on the land, and carry on the develop- ment of the farms which their fathers created out of the virgin soil. On one farm in Nebraska, one can see the mile- stones of the progress made by one farmer during a period of sixty years. There are the remains of the original sod hut in which this immigrant made his home when he first staked out his claim upon the un- broken prairie back in the sixties mute reminders of untold privation, self-sacrifice, and unremitting toil. (The old man can make one's blood run cold with tales of Indian raids and prairie fires. Not far from the sod hut stands a simple frame structure, his first farm- house, for thirty years his home, but now used as a storehouse. For this farmer now has a new home, a handsome two-story stucco house, with hardwood floors, electric light, a modern bath-room, and fur- nished with modern department-store furniture, nice higs, a piano, and a radio. Here the old man, now nearly bent double with rheumatism, makes his home with his unmarried children, who work the i2O-acre jf arm for him. And for four other children who have married, the old man has provided a farm out of his savings, having first given them the best education 84 PEASANT PIONEERS the state affords. As one sees one of these sons driving along in his high-powered automobile, one would little suspect that his father came over in the steerage as an immigrant. Nor must we believe that in the case of the Poles the large city colonies monopolize the best of Polish life and effort. On Long Island the Poles are said to lead all other nationalities in the production of truck garden supplies for the city of New York. The Poles are prominent among those immigrant farmers who have recently invaded New England on such a large scale to take over and make productive the farms which our Yankees have abandoned. In Con- necticut, where some 5,000 Poles have settled, the value of farm land has risen phenomenally, in some cases from ten dollars to four hundred and fifty dollars an acre. By reclaiming abandoned farms and special- izing on onion and tobacco crops, the Poles are not only succeeding where Americans failed, but are even making small fortunes from their farms. A million- dollar onion crop is not uncommon in the Deerfield Valley in Massachusetts since the Poles came in. The. appearance of the Poles in rural communities has raised in some places grave social problems. This is particularly true in New England. It has been some- thing of a shock to the people of those beautiful New England villages where the pure Puritan stock has reigned supreme for generations to have their sacred precincts invaded by strangers of alien speech and foreign ways. The way the women and children work THE SLAV AT WORK 85 in the fields, the low standard of living which has been introduced into the staid old farmhouses, the unwonted size of these newcomers 5 families, their dif- ferent religious faith have not increased the warmth of New England's welcome to the immigrant farmer. Some of the reasons for the success of the Poles on these New England farms can be seen in the fol- lowing description of the methods they employ. The women and girls, as is necessary in onion weeding, dress like the men in overalls and without shoes and stock- ings. It is a familiar but picturesque sight, and one typically representative of their great patience, dogged perseverance, and thrift, to see them, in blue jeans and huge straw hats, slowly crawling on their hands and knees tip and down the long 1 rows, astraddle the slender green onion tops, pulling out the weeds which no machine can reach. They do not stop to rest even on the hottest days, and at noon the women go back to the house, prepare the meal, and bring it out to the men. 1 Is the rehabilitation of our New England farms by the employment of such methods a gain or a loss to our American life? Among the other Slavic nationalities there are but scattered communities of fanners, the great bulk of them being engaged in industry. But there are suc- cessful Slovak farmers in Virginia and Arkansas, Slovenians in Minnesota, Croatians and Dalmatians on the Pacific coast, and some 10,000 Russian sec- tarians Stundists and Dukhobortsi have settled in the Dakotas and in California, and on the whole seem ' * Our Slavic Fellow Citizens. Emily G. Balch. Page 329. 86 PEASANT PIONEERS happy and successful. While there are large numbers of Ukrainians on the land in Canada, most of those in America are located in the cities and industrial centers. Aside from New England, there does not seem to be any movement of Slavs from the city to the land, nor does there seem to be any likelihood of any such movement. With the exception of a large number of the Czechs and Poles, our Slavs seem destined for industrial or commercial life. Economic Contribution of the Slavs Even such a cursory review of the work our Slavs are doing in America cannot but convince us of the magnitude of the economic contribution he is making to this country. But why is it that in prosecuting his work, the Slav so often does not come in contact with the best that America has to offer, or show the best side of his character? Would any man, be he Anglo-Saxon, .Teuton, or Slav, be stimulated in the full development of his personality by conditions such as have been described ? Is the development of the Slavs in America more restricted by the limitations of the background from which he springs, or by the environment in which he is placed here ? These are questions which we must face and answer if we hope to make of these people not only good citizens, but good Christians, in whose lives the ideals of brotherhood, sacrifice, and service shall be paramount Ill SLAVIC COMMUNITY LIFE IN AMERICA In the preceding study of the economic conditions surrounding the Slav in America, there was little said which would not apply equally to the non-Slavic Mag- yar, Lithuanian, or Italian. For, especially in our industrial centers, the determining factor in molding the worker's life is not race or nationality, but "the job." Just as in Europe the peasants of all races and nationalities lead the same kind of life, so in America the industrial workers, whatever their nationality, face the same problems and share the same lot. True there are differences in the economic conditions of the vari- ous nationalities, but in the industrial world these differences are not so noticeable as the resemblances. It is in the rural districts and particularly in the large city colonies that racial and nationalistic differences become apparent, and even here these differences are due not so much to varying economic conditions as to the distinctively nationalistic social life which the immigrants have built up for themselves. Slavic Communities In most industrial communities a great many differ- ent nationalities are found living together, working together, and facing common community problems. But in the large cities and in the rural districts the 87 88 PEASANT PIONEERS various nationalities and races segregate themselves into separate communities in which one nationality has an overwhelming predominance. Thus in cities like New York, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland, we have our Czechoslovaks, Poles, Russians, and other Slavs living together in the same sort of compact groups as do the Italians and Jews in our "little Italics" and "Ghettos." And even out on the farms we find the Czechs and the Poles grouped together in such close proximity as to permit of a rural community- life on a nationalistic basis. National Organizations This separate community life of the Slavic nationali- ties is most highly organized. And their nationalistic and racial organizations are the outstanding features of the community life. They bind the people of one nationality together, give them a community of inter- est, common meeting places, stores, shops, and banks, and provide the educational, social, and recreational facilities for the employment of their leisure time. In almost every Slavic community one finds a Czech' for Slovak or Polish or Croatian national hall, which is the headquarters of most of the national organiza- tions* Many of these halls are large and imposing buildings, but others are mere second-floor rooms over a saloon or store, or in lowly rented quarters. The general plan of the buildings and the type of program are everywhere much the same. .There is a restaurant SLAVIC COMMUNITY LIFE S9 of saloon on the ground floor, from which much of the revenue for the up-keep of the hall is derived. It is to these restaurants that our new immigrants repair to regale themselves with those Old World dishes which our American restaurants do not afford. There one can secure Russian borscht (cabbage soup), and drink tea from a glass as in Moscow. The knedliky (dumplings) so dear to the hearts of the Czechs and so indigestible to uninitiated Americans can be had, or halushky (noodles in Slovak style). Here also the leaders of the district congregate to discuss the political affairs of the old country or the politics of their group life in America rather com- plicated affairs. Every such building has a large hall which serves both as a gymnasium and as an audi- torium. And there are a number of smaller rooms, for the societies* meetings and for educational work. In the height o the season the halls are busiest on Saturdays and Sundays. On Saturday and Sunday mornings the children come for instruction in their mother tongue. On Saturday evenings there are dances and balls which last well into the morning. It is a matter of regret that these dances are so American in character. Jazz and the modern dances have cap- tured the immigrants also, and as a result the truly beautiful Slavonic folk dances, such as the Czech beseda, the Serbian kolo, and others, are seldom if evetf used even among the newly arrived. On Sunday after- noons theatrical performances in the native tongue or concerts by native artists are given, followed by danc- 90 PEASANT PIONEERS ing. On week nights, the various clubs and societies hold their meetings, and gymnasium classes are held for members of all ages. The hall is thus a veritable beehive of activity, and if one wishes to find the Slav in his own element, this is the place to go. The halls are financed and managed entirely by the people them- selves, and it is here that they most naturally express themselves. Almost every Slavic group has large national or- ganizations, which have branches in every community of any size. In addition, each community has local clubs and societies of its own. The Czech newspaper of New York publishes a directory of the Czech or- ganizations active there, and in it are listed over a hundred societies. These are of various sorts. There are Czech labor unions, singing societies, dramatic clubs, gymnastic societies, socialist clubs, free thought cirdes, and women's organizations as well as men's. Each national organization has several branches in such a community. Apparently the same general plan of organization is followed in all of these national organi- zations. There is a central coordinating committee, but the real business is carried on in the branches. Membership is usually defined by national or national- religious lines. When one recalls the background of ignorance from which the mass of our Slavic immigrants have come, their unfamiliarity with organization and parliamen- tary procedure, it is truly remarkable how rapidly these societies have grown and how successful they are. SLAVIC COMMUNITY LIFE 91! Religious and social agencies at work among the Slavic immigrants have found it exceedingly difficult to secure the interest and participation of the men. Children and young people are easily reached, and the women are also quite glad to join clubs and societies such as the settlements and neighborhood houses, afford. But the community settlements are not doing much with the men. One of the reasons for this is the activity of the natural leaders among the men in the work of their national societies. Our Slavic men may be divided into three groups. First, there are those whose work is so arduous that, when they are through in the evening, they do 'not want to do any- thing but sit at home with their families and enjoy a pipe and a newspaper. Then there are those who spend their leisure time drinking and playing cards. Then there are the men who are natural "joiners/* who belong to many different lodges and societies and enjoy the politics of the organizations. These men* are out almost every night at some sort of meeting. Thus the settlement or church must compete either with the restfulness of the home, the conviviality of the saloon,, or the activities of the national organizations. Some of the outstanding national organizations of the various Slavic groups are the following : the Polish National Alliance, the Roman Catholic Union of America (Polish), the Polish Women's Alliance, the Polish Socialists' Alliance of America, the Czecho- Slavonic Fraternal Benevolent Society, the National 92 PEASANT PIONEERS Slovak Society, the Slovak Catholic Union, the Union of Czech Women, the National Croatian Society, the Slovene Benevolent Society, the Slovene Free Thinkers Association, the Southern Slav Socialistic League, the Russian Collegiate Institute, the Ukrainian National Association. The Jugoslavs have no less than twenty- one such national organizations, while the Poles have sixteen, the Russians thirteen, the Czechs twelve, and the Slovaks eight Some of these organizations have as many as five hundred branches, and one hundred thousand members. Nearly every Slav is a member of one such organization or more. Almost all of these societies are organized for mu- tual insurance and pay sick and death benefits to their members. But they have many other functions besides that of insurance. Some are social clubs, others carry cm charitable work in the neighborhood, others have an educational program, and still others are organized on the basis of religious affiliation Greek Orthodox Catholic, Protestant, or free-thought. Some of the free-thinking societies have stolen a leaf from the church's book and have developed ceremonies for marriage and funeral services, so that their members will not have to repair to the church at such times. But it is difficult to understand just what comfort the family of the deceased can derive from the rapidly read, stereotyped, atheistic eulogy, with its reference to "Fate" and to "Nature" and its avoidance of any reference to God or a life hereafter. SLAVIC COMMUNITY LIFE 93 Help for the Homelands Some of these societies were organized primarily to help the people at home in their struggle for liberty. The Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, and Jugoslavs in this country have always taken an active part in the strug- gle for liberty in their respective homelands, and many of their organizations have had this as their primary aim. Thus the constitution of one such society reads : "The purpose of this society is to work for the pres- ervation of our language and literature, the encourage- ment and promotion of our national affairs, and to aid the home country in every way in its struggle for liberty." The work of these societies has not been in vain. The Czechs and Slovaks of America provided much 1 needed financial assistance to Masaryk in his campaign for the independence of Czechoslovakia. The idea of the Jugoslav state was furthered greatly by the efforts of these nationals here. The Uhro-Russines were in- cluded within the boundaries of Czechoslovakia be- cause of the agitation carried on. by those living here, and the first governor of that province was a man who was born in Brooklyn. The Ukrainians won rec- ognition for their name and their right to self- determination largely through agitation carried on; here. The Poles of America were among the leader^ in the fight for Polish independence. At the same time these nationalistic activities havej 94 PEASANT PIONEERS not detracted from the devotion of the Slavs to tHeir adopted country. Rather, it was because they had come to love and appreciate the liberty of America that they craved the same privileges for their people at home who could not come to America. Our Slavic fellow citizens have really served as missionaries of American ideas and ideals in their respective home- lands. Thus when all Slovak national organizations designed to uplift the people were repressed by the ruling Magyars, the Slovaks of America, through their societies and through their press, devoted themselves to the welfare of their down-trodden kinsmen at home, with the result that seeds of liberty, freedom, and democracy were sown which later came to fruition in the founding of the Czechoslovak republic. Thus does the immigrant problem take on an international aspect, in that the Slav of America transplants the ideas ab- Ssorbed here to other lands. Many of them become missionaries of all that is good in America; others spread abroad so-called "American" ideas and stand- ards of which none of us would be very proud. It all depends upon the contacts they have had with America, her institutions, and her people. Racial Solidarity in America Other aims of these societies are to preserve the racial solidarity of a given group in the United States, and to advance in America the influence and culture of the native land. Undoubtedly some of the societies SLAVIC COMMUNITY LIFE 97 Protective League for advice and aid. The largest jCzech benevolent organization does all it can to pro- mote naturalization; and the Sokol requires in its .by-laws that the members pledge their intention to Jbecome American citizens. The Sokol is one of the most influential of the societies which are not organized primarily for mu- tual benefit. The Sokol (literally, "falcon") exists among most of the Slavic nationalities, but is strongest iamong the Czechs, Slovaks, Croatians, Slovenes, and Poles. In that it places much emphasis upon gym- toastic training, it corresponds to the German Turn Herein. But the Sokol aims to develop in its members, not only a sound body, but such qualities as courage, faithfulness to duty, and love of country. Those ;who have seen the Sokolists drill in the old country rwill bear witness to the splendid physical training this organization is giving to Slavic youth. It has made an inestimable contribution to the democratic move- ment in the Slavic countries by educating the youth in the elements of patriotism. Certainly we should re- joice that an organization so beneficial to the welfare of society abroad should be transplanted to America. In vkw of the important place occupied by such organizations, it is surprising that the Americans who are interested in the various foreign groups should know so liftte abotrt them. In the effort to improve material, moral, and even spiritual conditions among the Slavic groups, no more valuable allies can be found than these organizations. They express the wffl of 98 PEASANT PIONEERS the people themselves. The real leaders of the national groups are likely to be at their head. They are fur- thering the assimilation of their people to American life by a process of self -Americanization, which is much more efficacious than any "Americanization pro- gram" conducted by an outside agency. The Slavic Press Next in importance to the national organizations in its influence upon Slavic community life in America is the foreign-language press. When one considers the background of illiterate peasantry from which many of our Slavic immigrants come, it is astounding that there should be such a demand for newspapers and magazines in this country. As a matter of fact there are more newspapers in proportion to the Slavic population of the United States than there are in their homelands. Ritsskoye Slovo, a Russian daily of New York, recently conducted an inquiry along these lines among its readers. It found that of 312 correspond- ents only sixteen had read newspapers in Russia, but all were subscribers here. At home they had used newspapers to make cigarettes, but in America they read them, first of all, because they are allowed to; and, secondly, because they find it necessary to do so in order to keep in touch with the community life here, the activities of their national organizations, as well as to secure detailed news of events in Russia. Twenty-five per cent of the readers of the Russkoye SLAVIC COMMUNITY LIFE 99 Slovo read English newspapers as well. 1 Until free- dom was gained, the Slovak papers of America had three times as large a circulation as those published in censor-ridden Hungary. Every Slavic nationality has an extensive press, with, dailies, weeklies, monthlies, and quarterlies. Among the publications there are numbered not only news- papers of every conceivable political persuasion, but also official organs of the various societies, agricultural and trade journals, humorous magazines, women's papers, and religious periodicals representing all shades of religious belief and unbelief. The Home Missions Survey of General Foreign Language Literature in the United States made by the New Americans Divi- sion of the Interchurch World Movement reports no less than 260 publications in existence among the Slavs in 1920, The Poles have no less than 81 publications, including fifteen dailies, of which one has a circula- tion of 150,000. The Czechs support ten dailies, the Slovaks six, the Russians four, the Croatians> Ukrainians, and Slovenes three each, the Serbs two, and the Bulgarians one. Even the Lusatian Serbs (Wends), whose representation in America is insig- nificant, have a paper of their own. Many Americans are of the opinion that the foreign- language press is necessarily an evil, un-American in- fluence because of the fact that it is published in a foreign tongue. During the recent period of reaction, the foreign-language press was even legislated against 1 Immigrant Press and Its Control, The. Robert E. Parks. 100 PEASANT PIONEERS in some states. This is a most short-sighted policy^ The foreign-language press meets a real need among the newly-arrived immigrants, and will continue to do; so as long as there are people here who are more at home in a foreign language than in English. These publications serve to keep them in touch with the homeland and with affairs there. Surely none of us would wish to have an immigrant forget his home- land immediately upon his arrival here. They keep him informed concerning the doings of his own people In America, and thus make him feel that he belongs here. They offer one of the best mediums of inter- preting America to the new or prospective citizen. As is the case with the societies, the national con* sciousness does find expression and stimulus in the foreign-language press. But it is often through the development of that national consciousness that the best type of Americanism is developed. Now that the war aims of the Slavic nationalities have been in such a large measure attained, more attention is being paid 1 by the Slavic press in America to the effort to preserve the national traditions and language in America and to interpreting America to the immigrant If the best traditions are thus preserved for assimilation in out: American life, a real service is rendered. And surely; America can be interpreted to the immigrant in nc> better way than through the foreign press. That much! can be doaoe to mold opinion among the foreign-born by working with and through the editors of foreign- language papers has been amply demonstrated by the SLAVIC COMMUNITY LIFE 101 Admirable work of the Foreign Language Information Service/ The constructive forces of American life would do well to cease decrying the existence of the 'foreign-language press and to seek rather to make use of it. With the foreign-language press as powerful as it is, it becomes naturally subject to abuse, as Is our American press. There are "yellow journals" in the Slavic languages, as well as in English. Many editors picture to their readers only the seamy side of Ameri- can life, presumably because that is the America they know. Jerome Davis in his study of The Russians and Ruthenians in America brings out that fact very ^clearly. He quotes from the Russkoye Slovo of December 24, 1920, as follows : America is not at all interested in the sotil and spiritual life of the Russian immigrant only in his muscles. He came to this country a stranger and often leaves it again without any American knowing him at all. It is therefore very tin just to accuse him of disloyalty, ingratitude, and revolt. Mr. Davis comments: Such articles would tend to antagonize the reader against the American people, and yet for the Russian there is much of justice in this view-point. There are papers still more radical, such as the I.W.W.'s publish in Chicago. These have daily cartoons which, for example, depict the capitalist as a, shark devouring the worker and the I.W.W. coming to the rescue with direct action. On the other hand, newspapers such as the Russkt Slovo and the Russki Golos do print mate- 1 See Appendix II, page 197. 102 PEASANT PIONEERS rial which would definitely help the foreigner to understand America, but it is almost infinitesimal compared to what it might be if more cooperation were given to the newspapers by social and religious agencies. 1 Professor Parks in his study of the immigrant press lists as "radical" 222 periodicals out of the total num- ber of 1,052 published in foreign languages. Of these, but forty-five are published by the Slavic groups, by far the great majority being published by Jews, Italians, and Germans. Only among the Russians and the Ukrainians may the radical papers be said to ex- ercise great influence, and in the case of these two nationalities the press is affected by the unusual polit- ical situation in Russia. In any event, the influence of the foreign radical press may best be counteracted, not by suppression and censorship, but by removing the all too prevalent causes for unrest from our in- dustrial and social order. The fact that foreign-language publications are be- ing used to promote radicalism, socialism, and Bol- shevism, as well as all sorts of medical and religious quackery, only heightens the importance of making use of this medium for the inculcation of the con- structive ideas and high ideals for which the church stands. With the national organizations and the foreign- language press there is another factor which is all important in the community life of the Slavs in America. That is the church. The place of the 1 Russians and Ruthenians in America, The. Jerome Davis. Page 64. SLAVIC COMMUNITY LIFE 103 church in the life of the immigrant Slav is to have separate treatment in another chapter. It should only be noted here that the church is the dominating factor in Slavic life in the industrial communities and rural districts, but in the cities does not exercise so much influence as the societies or the press. Foreign Language Schools Among the activities of the national organizations among the Slavs there is one which deserves special attention; namely, the foreign language schools. These are of two kinds, the secular and the parochial. Leav- ing the consideration of the latter for a later chapter, the importance of the secular schools for instruction of the children in their mother tongue should not be overlooked. These schools are generally held in the national halls after public school hours and on Satur- day and Sunday mornings. They confine themselves to teaching the children to read, write, and speak the foreign language. Far from decrying the existence of these schools, those interested in the welfare of our second generation of immigrants should encourage the movement The children learn English in the public schools. Many of their parents will never acquire a ready knowledge of English, and unless the children learn to sp^ak their parents' tongue, the gap between the parents and their children, already wide enough, will be considerably widened. Furthermore, every child reared in America should know more than one 104 PEASANT PIONEERS language, and if his parents happen to come from Russia or Poland, it is natural for him to learn that language, and he will never regret it in later life. Some of these schools include history and folk-lore in their curriculum, and this is also a splendid feature. In some schools conducted by free-thinking societies, atheism has been openly taught. The very existence in America of Sunday schools where children are taught not to believe in God certainly offers a chal- lenge to the church! Business and Professional Life One of the first institutions which our immigrant: groups establish is a bank where they may deposit tlieir savings and forward money to relatives abroad. As one writer puts it : "Banks are an unerring barom- eter of the Americanization attained by this or that: racial group. Like the ownership of real estate, a bank in our mmd is associated with the notions of stability and permanence. 5 * * A study of the financial condition; of our Polish, Czechoslovak, and other Slavic banks would make one wonder where all the money came from. All of the Slavs are frugal and saving. In fact they are often criticised for this very quality. We Americans seek to promulgate the idea that people should "save first and spend afterward." Then when our Slavic workers seek to follow this rule, they are criticised for their "miserliness" and "low standards/* *Csecks and Slovaks in American Banking, Th& Thomas Capek. SLAVIC COMMUNITY LIFE The success of Polish! and Czechoslovak Building and Loan Associations, the prosperity of Slavic banks, the investment of Slavic dollars in real estate are all indi- cations that there are some people in our midst who have not yet succumbed to the American policy of tasteful extravagance and inordinate spending. In each Slavic community a small professional class soon springs tip, and these men doctors, lawyers, dentists, and others have a splendid opportunity for service among their fellows. Some of them are, to- be sure, incompetent and unscrupulous, but an increas- ing number are well trained and enlightened, and our American agencies would do well to seek their coopera- tion to a greater degree than they do. A Slav will turn to a doctor or lawyer of his own race for help before he will go to art American court or to an Ameri- can hospital, the ways, oi which he does not under- stand. This is another case where the immigrant leaders are not being made use of as they should be. 'Slavic Communities and 'Assimilation In short, a typical Slavic community is a miniature ;wbrld in which the immigrant finds most of his needs satisfied, He often fc works with fellow Slavs. His recreation hie finds at tfe national hall among his own people. He has his own paper. He worships in his own ctiurch. He buys at neighborhood stores where his own language is spoken. He deposits his money in his own bank. He invests his savings in real estate 106 PEASANT PIONEERS sold by a fellow countryman. He is, in fact, sub- merged in the life of the group. He is often so segre- gated from American life that it is not until his children grow up that he comes into contact with American people and American institutions, and even then he often feels like a fish out of water. It is this segrega- tion of the various Slavic groups from Americans and from each other that constitutes the greatest obstacle to their assimilation. Our Slavs in America do not even have much to do with each other. Ukrainians are jealous of the Russians, the Poles hate the Rus- sians, the Czechs and Slovaks do not always pull well together, and the differences between Serbs and Croa- tians are perpetuated here. And if, in addition, each nationality is to be a group apart from American life, we are faced with a truly serious problem. The remedy is not any drastic legislative measure, or any forcible "Americanization" scheme, but a slaw process of education. The immigrants must be given an opportunity to come into contact with the best American life. The help of the immigrants* organi- zations and leaders, their societies, press, and church, their bankers, lawyers, doctors, and business men, should be enlisted in the attempt to interpret that best to their own group rightly. The leaders of the various groups will heartily favor any practical movement on the part of American-born citizens to help their people to become true Americans. But many of them resent the attempt to Americanize them forcibly or with undue haste. They had enough of Prussian, Cossack, SLAVIC COMMUNITY LIFE 107 and Magyar repression in Europe. If we surround them with a favorable environment, show them Amer- ica as we like to think of her, there will be no question of the response. The visitor to any of the Slavic communities in America will find few superficial indications that this is a "foreign" community. The peasant costume has given place to our drab American dress ; the men and women, boys and girls look much the same and act much the same as Americans in the same walk of life. There is little "atmosphere" in our Slavic communities. Distinctive food you will find in the homes, unless they expect you, when they will be careful to provide you with American dishes. The language spoken will be foreign, although the most vociferous members of society, the children, speak a language which is all too truly "one hundred per cent American/' It is only as one is able to share the social life of our Slavs, to attend their meetings, their concerts, their theatricals, their dances, and enter into the spirit of them; it is only as one can comprehend the program of such an organization as the Sokol; it is only as one can read a Slavic paper and understand something of what is written therein, or attend a church service and participate in public worship, that one finds some- thing distinctive in the life of the group. And such a far-seeing interpreter will find that our Russians, our Poles, our Czechoslovaks, and the others are in Amer- ica but not altogether of it. Their most pleasant memories and associations are as yet of the old coun- 108 PEASANT PIONEERS try. America is but the place where they earn their living and sufficient leisure to indulge themselves in Old World memories and associations. But as the years pass, the memories of the old country grow dim and the old associations are weakened or severed entirely. Meanwhile our Slav acquires a working knowledge of English, becomes an American citizen, and votes. Then his children enter the public school and open an entirely new world to him. Later he begins to tap the cultural resources of our cities the libraries, museums, public concerts, free lectures, settle* ments, Y.M.CA.'s, and the like, and at last our green Slavic immigrant has become an American in the making. Then his children grow up, form friendships with Americans, make business and social associations with Americans, marry Americans, and found an American home. At that stage he is likely to leave the Slavic community and buy a home in an American community and spend the rest of his life trying to live up to what he considers to be the American standard. Then come automobiles, radios, silk stockings, bobbed hair, and all the other marks of the "real American." But does our Slav in the course of this process really comprehend the deeper meaning of American life, the spiritual significance of our institutions, the splendid idealism, magnificent altruism, the self-sacrificing cour- age which we like to believe are characteristic of our people ? Or is it the "successful" American, the money- mad, pleasure-loving, wasteful, extravagant American of our generation that this newcomer comes to know SLAVIC COMMUNITY LIFE 109 and to Imitate ? In short, what kind o Americans will they be? This, I take it, is the vital question which! Christian men and women of America should be ask- ing concerning the Slavic peoples- We need not ask, "Will they become Americans?" We know that they will do so. They have already proved it. But the other question, "What sort of Americans will they be ?" we need not only to ask but to ponder deeply, for the answer to it depends not only upon their inherent worth, but upon the opportunities which we provide for that worth to express itself in our common life. IV THE SLAV MEETS AMERICA We have seen the Slav at work in America, and have studied the community life which he has built up for himself here, and have outlined the gradual process by which many o them in the course of years rise to "American" standards of life. But the problem of the assimilation of the immigrant Slavic peasant to our American life is not to be so lightly dismissed. Many a perplexing question must be answered before -we can be ready to give the Christian solution to this baffling problem. How does the Slav become ac- quainted with America? What contacts does he have with American life ? What impressions does he form of us? If false impressions of America and erroneous ideas of her institutions and people are formed, how may they best be corrected? Ellis Island The Slav is first introduced to America at Ellis Island. If it is true that first impressions are the most lasting, many a Slavic immigrant will go to his grave "with a most unfortunate memory of his first contact with America. It is popular now to condemn Ellis Island, its officials, and its methods. And much unjust criticism is being directed at the public servants whose duty it is to enforce the immigration law, most of 110 THE SLAV MEETS AMERICA 11! whom are doing the best they can under the circum- stances. Nevertheless, it must be said that the physical limitations o Ellis Island, and its buildings, and the governmental red-tape which hampers the officiate in the administration of the immigration law, and some provisions of the law itself are such as to impress the bewildered immigrant most unfavorably. All credit must be given to the heroic efforts of the present com- missioner and most of his predecessors to remedy conditions. Unstinted praise should be accorded the representatives of the welfare agencies who are seek* ing to alleviate conditions. But Ellis Island will ever remain a reproach to our fair name until the immigrant station is removed root and branch from that crowded little island and located in a place where more decent surroundings for those detained will be possible, and until the officials at the station are accorded greater discretionary powers in the administration of the law. From Ellis Island our Slavs make their way to their destinations, subject every step of the way to fraud and exploitation on the part of unscrupulous men. The guidance and protection of such organizations as the Travelers' Aid Society and the Young Women's Christian Association are safeguarding thousands from such dangers, but such friendly service needs to be greatly extended. There are still instances of robbery and fraud. Exorbitant rates are still charged by some taxicabmen and expressmen. Immigrant girls are still subject to grave peril. And the strangeness of it all the crowds, the rush and hurry of our life is in itself 112 PEASANT PIONEERS enough to bewilder and discourage a Slavic peasant who has never been away from his own little village before. Locating in America Most Slavic immigrants nowadays come to join friends or relatives, who generally procure for them their first job and see that they have some place to sleep. There is considerable graft connected with placing new immigrants in industry. There are some foremen who make a regular practise of selling jobs to "greenhorns," generally working through an "Amer- icanized" fellow countryman. In spite of all the efforts of the steel companies, there are still bosses who take a fee of from five to twenty-five dollars for giving a new immigrant a job. And after that the immigrant finds that he must "treat" the boss if he wants to keep the job. The problem of placing the newly-arrived immi- grants is, however, a larger one than the simple pro- tection against fraud. In it is involved the whole ques- tion of adjusting the labor supply to meet the demand. It would seem as if Yankee ingenuity could devise some plan for obviating the economic loss entailed in periodic unemployment, mass return movements to Europe, and the entrance of agriculturist immigrants into factories and mines, instead of farm work for which they have been trained. Our efforts to set up a placement service for immigrants have thus far been THE SLAV MEETS AMERICA 113 sporadic and local. The centers where new immigrants congregate are honeycombed with fake employment bureaus* Our immigrant aid societies, municipal em- ployment bureaus, and trade unions are ineffective in meeting the problem. Many an immigrant has to walk the streets helplessly before landing any sort of a position. Many find themselves faced with the same dilemma as was M. E. Ravage when he first arrived in New York. "I found that in order to secure a job one must have American dothes, and the only way to get American clothes was to find a job and earn the price/' 1 When one considers the fact that of the 1,600,000 agricultural laborers who entered this country between 1900 and 1910 only 100,000 went out on the farms where they are so sorely needed, it is certainly high time that some plan for an effective placement service be devised. Meeting America in Industry We have already seen how largely the immigrant's impression of America is determined by the economic conditions which surround him. While in Russia dur- ing the days of revolution, I often met Russians who had been in America and had opportunity to question them concerning 1 their impression of the United States. Not one, but scores of such returned immigrants ex- pressed themselves most bitterly: "America is hell. I hate America. There a man counts for nothing. It 1 An American in the Making. Marcus E. Ravage. 114 PEASANT PIONEERS is only the dollar that counts." Some of these men had been in the steel mills, others in the sweat-shops of New York. America had made revolutionists of them. Others had had a more fortunate experience in America. One who had been out on a farm said : "There is no place like America. I can't wait to get back. And when I do get back, I shall feel like kneel- ing down and kiss-ing the soil." America had made a friend of this man. Here is the observation of one who has been thrown into close contact with immigrant workers : The worker's first point of contact with America is through the "boss." . . . As the "boss" is not always kind, the Rus- sian has embodied in his antagonism for him antagonism for America. Here is a typical incident. Something- had gone wrong with the work of some Russians. The men were not to blame, yet the young American foreman blamed it all on "the Polacks." They faced the angry tirade with stolid, sullen faces and made no reply, yet in their hearts they registered one more case against America. 1 In the case of the Russians and Ukrainians the sit- uation has been aggravated by prejudice against them on account of their supposed radicalism. Mr. Davis cites instance after instance of the grossest forms of discriminations against the Russians for this reason. 2 They were laid off right and left with the curt expla- nation, "You are a Bolshevik/' Most of them did not know the difference between capitalism and commu- 1 Russians and Ruthenians in America, The. Jerome Davis. Page 106. 2 Ibid., page 109 ff. THE SLAV MEETS AMERICA 115 nism. But the Bolsheviks were in control in Russia, and our newspapers had worked up a genuine scare concerning the radicals and the "reds" in America, so that Russians were dismissed no matter how faith- ful they were in their work. One Russian worker discussing the steel strike of 1919, said: "We didn't start the strike. Americans are at the head of it They told us we would be traitors to our fellow work- men if we did not support the strike. Now we have done it for the sake of the others, and the newspapers call us 'reds/ 'dogs/ 'LW.W.V " One Russian tersely characterizes America as a "place like Heaven for the rich, but like hell for the foreign worker/' Another believes that "America is not free for workers. He is beast like horse." Mr. Davis sums up his conclusions ( with this terrible indictment of industry: "This actual industrial Americanization now going on is breeding a hatred for America and a contempt for our life." The Slavs are most responsive. We can make Bol- sheviks of them, and we can. make good Americans and good Christians of them. The decision lies with -us. First Impressions of American Life How does life in our city tenements, our steel towns, and rural districts impress the immigrant? Here is the testimony of one immigrant : "The first thing that repels the immigrant on his arrival in New York is the realization of the dreadful level of life to which 116 PEASANT PIONEERS his fellows have sunk. * . - Let no one think that the slums are of our making or to our liking." x Suppose our Slavic immigrant goes to a mining town where housing standards are generally lower than in industrial cities and towns, because frontier conditions are tolerated after camps have become towns and even cities in the size of their population. In what sort of a house will he have to make his home? This is what a government report tells us he is likely to find: Many of the houses rented from th mining companies had fallen into a state of extreme disrepair because the com- panies had either refused or neglected to attend to them. In one such house the beams had given way tinder the kitchen floor, leaving it -unstable and the walls warped. The cellar and the parlor were damp all the time, and flooded when it rained. The chimneys were bad. The roof leaked. The plank walks in the yard were rotted and broken. The com- pany had made no repairs in this house for two years. 2 Is this America? Child Life If this same immigrant Slav has children, what will itheir life be like ? The same report tells us : Few places offer so little opportunity for education through play as did the town of Shenandoah. The houses set flush with the sidewalks were crowded on the lots so that there 1 An American in the Making. Marcus E. Ravage. 2 Child Labor and the Welfare of Children in an Anthracite Coal-Mining District 9 Publication No. 106, Children's Bureau* U. S. Department of Labor, Page 58. THE SLAV MEETS AMERICA 117 was hardly a yard in the city. There had once been a play- ground, but the tennis courts were not kept up, the wading pool for the children was dry and the drains became stopped up. . . . The town had no parks. . . . But, as everywhere, the children of Shenandoah managed to play whether the places where they played were either suitable or safe. The smaller boys seemed to choose the railroad tracks; a football team practised regularly in the city street; a basket for basket- ball was attached to a telegraph pole on a street where trol- ley cars and vehicles interrupted the game. . . * The little children went wading in the black streams which flowed along two sides of the borough and received the sewage and refuse of the mines. The older boys found that Hooky Dam, which catches the water which drains down the mountain, could be used as a swimming hole. Children played on the dumps of refuse and garbage and climbed to the tops of the mountains of culm. Everywhere the larger boys loitered on street corners and gangs of smaller boys swarmed the streets. 1 Can real American boys be reared in surrounding's like this? Do you wonder that one Slav said that upon arriving at a mining town he wanted to run away. "I recalled how my boy used to tend the geese and help in the fields at home after school, and now this ! What will become of him I" Housing Conditions It is said that Trotsky derived his distrust of tHe United States from the housing conditions in which he found his compatriots living* in New York. One has but to set down in writing the housing standard 1 Ibid., page 65. 118 PEASANT PIONEERS adopted by the National Conference of Charities and Corrections in 1912 to realize how far we are from achieving it in almost every community where our Slavic immigrants are found. Social welfare demands fori every family a safe and sanitary home ; healthful surroundings ; ample and pure running water inside the house; modern and sanitary toilet conveniences for its exclusive use, and located inside the building; adequate sunlight and ventilation; reasonable fire protection; privacy; rooms of sufficient size and number to house the members of the family decently; freedom from dampness; prompt, adequate collection of all waste materials; and a rental not exceeding twenty per cent of the family income. It would be a revealing experience for a group of Americans to study the housing conditions in the near- est immigrant community with a view to determining how far this standard has been realized. Many mem- bers of such a group undoubtedly would realize as never before how it is possible for immigrants to mis- understand and misjudge America, Migrant Labor Many of the Slavic immigrants of recent years, par- ticularly the Russians, Jugoslavs, and Bulgarians, come without their families, and become either migrant workers in railroad, mining, or lumber camps, or make their "home" in the immigrant boarding houses of our industrial centers. Do we who ride throughout the length and breadth of the United States in comfort THE SLAV MEETS AMERICA 119 ever think of what it has cost to build that network of railways which has made close neighbors of all our fellow countrymen? It has cost money, millions of dollars, but it has also cost greatly in terms of flesh and blood. For the immigrant laborers who have built and are building and keeping in repair our rail- roads have often had to endure the most unspeakable living conditions. This is the official report of one State Commission on its railroad camps: A railroad camp commonly consists o a coal car, a kitchen car, one or two dining cars, a commissary car and several sleeping or "bunk" cars. All of these are ordinary box-cars. Most cars occupied by foreigners do not have individual sleeping bunks. The common practise is to build a platform across each end of the car. On this a double blanket or straw mattress is placed and four or five men sleep on it. The following are notes on an inspection of a typical camp : "Sur- roundings of the camp very bad. Odors plentiful. Every- thing left over from the food seemed to have been thrown out of the cars without any care whatsoever. Within ten feet of the camp is a ditch full of water drained from a swamp near by. This is filled with garbage, clothes, etc. Thick scum on the water. Plenty of flies." [What idea of America will such laborers have? When we eat grapefruit or oranges in the morning, how many of us realize at what cost that fruit has been gathered? Out in California there are thousands of foreigners, among them Russians and Jugoslavs as .well as Mexicans and Italians, who are migrant fruit- pickers. They have no home, but flit from crop to 122 PEASANT PIONEERS while, in spite of the initial hardships and the way they are shunned by their American neighbors. But they are comparatively few. Many of our Slavic workers, by dint of careful saving, are able after ten or fifteen years to move into sections where it is pos- sible to live an "American" life. And how they do welcome the change! Read this story of one immi- grant family, and then decide whether the immigrants Eke to live in crowded slums ! Jan and his buxom Marenka lived in one of the top-floor back tenements that faced the dirty alley. The sidewalk privilege was no less theirs, on summer evenings, and the three rooms had been chosen chiefly because, for a brief hour in the spring and fall, the sun sent its rays between the higher surrounding build- ings to the single uncurtained window of one of the tiny rooms. That blessing had meant that Marenka could have a garden outside the favored window, a garden of fragrant herbs, bright marigolds, a few geraniums. She even grew four sickly tomato plants in tin cans perched on the window ledge. America had not proved in many ways to be just what the young couple had dreamed. Dismay had been written large on Marenka's expectant face when, on her arrival from the old country with the children, Jan had shown her the dark little tenement that was to be her home in the New World. She accepted docilely, however, the explanation he offered : that they would be near the mill, and that anyway, being high up, the chosen tenement was much more desirable than THE SLAV MEETS AMERICA 123 others where there was scarcely any light at all. She made the best of it, and bent all her energies toward saving money so that they could move some day to better quarters. Ten years passed, and then some of the farm lands surrounding the city were bought up by realty com- panies, subdivided into lots and sold to the mill- workers on easy terms. Soon the country-side was thickly dotted with small gardens, green with the luxuriant growth of carefully nurtured vegetables, with miniature vineyards, with queer little green and red and yellow houses, gradually being transformed into "real American homes" as the means to add a porch, another room, an upper story, was acquired. And soon Jan, in company with a few of his fellow countrymen, was planning to have a house of his own, even though it meant assuming a large debt. Now the children would be able to run barefoot on the grass instead of on hot pavements. Now Marenka could have chickens , perhaps even geese as in the old country. They had to have more furniture for this large house of five rooms, and the department stores were visited with eager interest. There would have to be real nice cur- tains at the windows now that the sunlight was to pour into every room. Marenka would have to stop working at the mill and stay home so that she could keep the home looking nice. Then in the long sum- mer evenings, after Jan came home from the mill, he and Marenka could work together out in their own little garden. There would be plenty of fresh vege- 124 PEASANT PIONEERS tables, and Marenka could grow flowers to her heart's content The children would be able to be out-of- doors and grow up into sturdy and healthy manhood and womanhood. Thus did our Slavic immigrants build their castles in Spain. But best of all their dreams came true. They have their home and all that it means, and for Jan and Marenka the New World is proving, after all, to be the America of their dreams. Sometimes the adaptation to American ways is made with astonishing rapidity. Dr. Haskins expresses his astonishment at the rapid rise of some of the Bul- garians from Macedonia whom he visited in this country. To sit at the dining-table of a Macedonian worker in a neat brick house with all modern conveniences (electric lights, furnace, water faucets, bathroom, etc.) carried me back to the old Macedonian hut, where they slept on the floor, ale out of a common dish in the center of a low table, about which they squatted or knelt, drank their water from a common jug, and worked in the evening by the smoke of a candilo, a leerosene-filled tin out of which protrudes a round wick with no chimney. I rubbed my eyes, and wondered whether the days of the Magic Carpet had returned. The progress made by the Czechs, Poles, and other Slavs in our large cities indicates that it will not be long before all of our Slavic peoples occupy a position in our life comparable to that now occupied by the Oermans and Scandinavians* THE SLAV MEETS AMERICA 125* The Consequences of American Neglect The ease and rapidity with which our Slavic immi- grants are able to adapt themselves to favorable con- ditions but makes it the more deplorable that these privileges are denied absolutely or kept so long out of the reach of the great masses of our industrial workers* It is sheer neglect on our part. I have met Czechs, Slovaks, and Poles who had been in this coun- try over ten years and had never really come to know a single American. The testimony of Mr. Jerome Davis is conclusive on this point. Mn Davis was given the opportunity to interview a number of Rus- sians who were imprisoned and deported during the "radical raids." He says : In my interviews I asked each Russian whether, during his stay In America, he had ever met any American who had helped him. I suggested that perhaps there had been some teacher, some boss, some boarding-house keeper, or worker who had been friendly to him. Out of nearly one hundred and fifty arrested Russians there were only five who had ever met any such help. . . All the others had met many who* had cursed them, foremen who had called them "Russian swine," bosses who were continually swearing at them. One could but feel that there was not so much bad in these men as there was in the American conditions which could force these people to endure such treatment. One priest took me to* the door and pointing to the mountain of coal dust and cin- ders at the mouth of the mine said, "That is the heart of America." The overwhelming majority have not seen the real America, the America that stands for justice, equality of opportunity, brotherliness. I believe that this real America, 126 PEASANT PIONEERS as everywhere. Some of the Russians have tasted a little of its goodness, and today they are loyal Americans. Our task is to enable all the Russians, even those in our mines and industries to feel the warm, generous heart of our people that makes America dearer to us than any other land in the world. 1 That is the heart of the matter. Our immigrants do not know America or Americans. As Dr. Haskins puts it, "They watch the American afar off in his Cadillac on the boulevard." Interpreting America: Immigrant Agencies It is because the immigrants have been so largely left to shift for themselves that they have had to fall back upon their own resources of self-help. We have already noted the progress made by the immigrants through their own societies. But in some respects their own resources are limited. In his relations to women, for example, the Slavic immigrant is handicapped by the notion transplanted from Europe that women are of an inferior caste. From the Jugoslav of the lowest type who acts on the principle that "he who does not beat his wife is no man," to the educated Czech, ;woman is accorded a distinctly inferior position, which is in such sharp contrast to the American idea that some newly-arrived immigrants call America "a woman's country." In his relations with his children, the tendency of 1 Russians and Ruthenians in America, The. Jerome Davis. Page 125. THE SLAV MEETS AMERICA 127 tlie immigrant Slav is to enforce absolute obedience by corporal punishment or by threats, as is the custom in the old country. They are often perfectly scan- dalized when they observe the liberty which is accorded to children in America. Many immigrants find it dif- ficult to adjust themselves to the American method of training children, and this is one reason for the many problems with the younger generation. In the all important matter of health the Slavic immigrant first exhausts all the resources of his own group home remedies, the "wise woman" of the neighborhood, the midwife, the local drug store, the medical institutes or quack doctors who advertise in the foreign-language press, the neighborhood doctor, the lodge physician before even thinking of calling upon those American health agencies which have been created for the very purpose of serving him the visit- ing nurses, hospitals, and dispensaries. Many either do not know of the service which is available to them, or have been misinformed concerning it and are there- fore afraid of it. 1 American Agencies Our Slavic immigrants would rather depend upon the often deficient advice and help of their own leaders and organizations than turn to American agencies, simply because these are so strange to them that they lack confidence in them. There is sore need of in- terpreting and explaining to the newly arrived the 1 Immigrant Health and the Community. Michael M. Davis. 128 PEASANT PIONEERS service which our multitudinous health, educational, -cultural, and welfare agencies are in a position to render them. There is also need of educating such agencies in the method of placing their facilities at the disposal of the immigrant in such a way as to elicit his confidence. We have seen that even the labor union movement which ought to be the natural friend of the immigrant worker, has not accomplished nearly so much for the Slavic workers as it should. Nor will it do so until it is more disposed to admit immigrant workers on a basis of brotherhood. The Settlements The social settlements justify their very existence to their supporters by the needs of the alien city- dwellers and industrial workers, and the service which the settlements have rendered and are rendering today is of incalculable value by way of demonstrating to the immigrants that there are some Americans and some American institutions that are genuinely inter- ested in their welfare. So far, however, the greatest service of the settlements has been to the children of immigrant parents. Many have conducted successful English and citizenship classes and Mothers* Clubs, and have waged incessant warfare upon just such social evils and maladjustments as have been described in this volume. Along many lines the settlement has been the pioneer in the field of social service for the THE SLAV MEETS AMERICA 129 immigrant. Such names as Jane Addatns, Lillian k Wald, Jacob Riis, and Mary McDowell are stamped indelibly upon the minds and hearts o thousands of Slavic immigrants as the champions o their rights and fighters of their battles. But still it must be said that even the settlement has not been very successful in reaching the newly- arrived immigrant. It is generally through the chil- dren that the parents are reached, and often that con- tact is not made until the immigrant has been here a number of years and has passed through the most difficult period of adjustment. Even then the settle- ments have had little success in reaching the men. The settlements are often spoken of by the men as "good places for the women and children/' Perhaps this is due to the fact that the immigrants themselves have little voice in the program of the settlements, as is claimed by John Daniels. 1 Mr. Daniels quotes some immigrant men as saying of the settlements, "They are a bunch of people planning for us and deciding what is good for us without consulting us or taking us into their confidence." Mr. Daniels himself says that "the relation is all that of benefactor and bene- ficiary, of director and directed, and sometimes of patrons and patronized." * No one who is acquainted not only with settlement work, but with other forms of welfare work, including church work, can deny that too often, this is true. One cannot escape the 1 America Via the Neighborhood. John Daniels. *Ibid. f page 319. 130 PEASANT PIONEERS conclusion, however, that Mr. Daniels has underesti- mated the service rendered by the settlements in allevi- ating the lot of the immigrant poor, in providing recreational and educational facilities for the under- privileged, and in championing their cause in the struggle for a more just and humane social order. Other Agencies It is impossible within the compass of this book even, to list all of the agencies which are engaged in the task of interpreting America to the Slavic immigrants. The Young Men's Christian Association and the Young Women's Christian Association have both consciously set themselves to this task of interpretation, and the latter organization, particularly, through the friendly and sympathetic service of its International Institutes and through its brave and uncompromising stand on. social and economic issues, is making a noteworthy contribution. Practically every welfare agency is doing something to relieve distress or correct social abuses among the immigrants. Volumes could be written on the work they are doing. When the charge is made that America is interested only in the dollar, we should not forget that in no other country in the world is there as much philanthropic and welfare work as in the United States; nowhere has the community; good-will been so thoroughly and scientifically organr ized; nowhere are there so many men and women who are devoting their lives to unselfish service to their THE SLAV MEETS AMERICA 131 [fellow men as in this same "materialistic" America. And the chief beneficiary of our American philanthropy is the immigrant. That the efforts of our charitable organizations are often met with suspicion and even opposition on the part of our Slavic immigrants is due in part to the past experience of the immigrants themselves and in part to the mistaken methods of our organizations and their agents. It takes our Slavs some time to grasp the idea that it is possible for private individuals and organizations to take a purely altruistic interest in 'Jheir welfare. Their experience in Europe has taught jthem that most people who concern themselves with their affairs are seeking something for themselves and mean them no good. They think the same is true here. [Then, too, our Slavs are a proud people, and dislike the appearance of accepting charity. On the other hand, American welfare workers often repel them by their coldly scientific approach, which apparently lacks spontaneous human sympathy; by their assump- tion of the superiority of themselves and all things American; and by their disregard of the group psy- chology of the Slavic nationalities. The Slavic people generally are affected more by personalities than by Causes or organizations, so that with them much de- pends upon the personality of those who represent our [various agencies in their work among them. Our American agencies have fallen down too in failing to employ as their representatives a sufficient number of men and women who command the native language. 132 PEASANT PIONEERS The "Americanization" Movement During the last seven or eight years a multitude of organizations have been formed to carry on so-called "Americanization" work. We have scores of private "Americanization" committees of philanthropically in- clined men and women. Our Boards of Trade, Cham- bers of Commerce, Rotary Clubs, and similar organi- zations have been devoting themselves assiduously to "Americanization," often frankly because of the fear that "if we do not do something, these 'reds' and 'Bolsheviks' will ruin the country." The churches, the Y.M.C.A., the Y.W.C.A., and the settlements all have their "Americanization" programs. 1 Municipali- ties and states have created "Americanization" Boards and Departments. By "Americanization" many mean outward conformity to American standards and ways. They must eat the same kind of food, wear the same kind of clothes, and occupy the same kind of houses as we do, or the Republic is not safe. Others attempt to "Americanize" by a process of injection. "We shall form an English class and teach the immigrant civics, and in a few months we shall Americanize them all." Most of these agencies proceed by attempting to enlist the voluntary interest of the immigrants. But there have been frequent attempts to make "American!- 1 Although the churches have quite generally eschewed the use? of the word "Americanization" in describing their work, much of their work is Americanization in the best sense of the word. The Baptist women in the admirable work of their Home Mission So- ciety among immigrants (cf. pp. 164-165) describe it as "Christian. Americanization." THE SLAV MEETS AMERICA 133 zation" compulsory. Laws have been passed 'forbid- ding the use of foreign languages in public meetings, restricting the foreign-language press, and making the knowledge of English obligatory. Many employers have made the acquiring of a knowledge of English, or naturalization, or subscription to Liberty Bonds conditional to holding a job. Anyone who knows the immigrant population of this country is aware of the fact that the "Americani- zation" movement is resented and the very name hated and ridiculed. The reason is not difficult to discover. It lies in the assumption of superiority on the 'part of the "Americanizer," and in the attempt to secure by coercion what can only be accomplished by cooperation. If we make America, American institutions, American! standards, and American people such that the new- comers to our shores will be led to love them, we may be sure of the ultimate result. But if we permit our immigrants to see only the unlovely side of American life, no amount of knowledge of English, no ward- robes of American clothes, no superficial adoption of American ways will ever make of these newcomers the enthusiastic, loyal American citizens that we wish them to be. With some "Americanization" programs, every good American can cooperate wholeheartedly. When the Immigration Commission of the State of Delaware annotrnces that it intends to adopt "a program that shall not miss any conceivable means of sharing the best gifts of America with all who seek the protection 134 PEASANT PIONEERS of her flag/' every one of us must say "Amen !" When one who has made a special study of the immigrant problem expresses himself in the following language all must thank God and take courage ! The native born must rid themselves of two kinds of obses- sions before they will be spiritually fit to undertake the task of securing the whole-hearted loyalty and devotion of the foreign-born. These delusions are: (i) that native Amer- icans constitute a superior race when compared with the for- eign-born, and (2) that our institutions and aspirations are peculiar and distinctive to our own people and country. 1 If there is any reader who is not convinced that these ideas are delusions, let him read the series of Americanization studies published by the Carnegie Foundation. 2 I am sure he will be led to modify his conception of "Americanization." The Public School Of all our American institutions the public school has exercised the most potent influence upon the life of the foreigner. Of course the public school directly affects the children chiefly. But its effect upon them is truly miraculous. As far as the superficial "Ameri- canization" of the second generation is concerned, the knowledge of English, acquaintance with American history and institutions, and training in patriotism, we need look no further than the public school. .Whether the type and method of education afforded 1 Schooling of the Immigrant, The. Frank V* Thompson. Page 363- 2 See Appendix II, page 196. THE SLAV MEETS AMERICA 135 by the public school system is such as to give us the kind of citizens we shall need in the future is another question, which we must leave to educators to answer. But to jail intents and purposes children who enter the schools as Czechs or Poles or Slovenes, leave them as American boys and girls. It is through the children that the parents learn the most about America, and if our schools could adopt a more thoroughgoing system of securing the intelli- gent interest and cooperation of the parents in the school work of their children, its influence would be 'greatly extended. The use of the public schools for social centers, for public lectures, and for adult English classes has meant much to the parents, and this practise should be encouraged and greatly extended. Contacts with the Government In his contacts with other municipal, state, and fed- eral authorities the immigrant has not been so fortu- nate as with the schools. In our law courts, in the administration of the income tax and immigration laws, and in the process of naturalization, the immigrant meets with scant courtesy and consideration and often enough with such injustice as to create the impression that the government is the rich man's friend and the poor man's oppressor. Much is needed to humanize those official contacts so as to make it evident that the government exists to serve rich and poor alike, and native and foreign-born without discrimination. 136 PEASANT PIONEERS The so-called "radical raids" conducted by the United States Department of Justice in 1919 have created the impression among the Russians of this country that the administration of justice in America is a mockery. And no wonder! For in a report made by twelve lawyers headed by Dean Pound of the Harvard Law School on "The Illegal Practises of the United States Department of Justice," we find this indictment against our own government : Wholesale arrests both of aliens and citizens have been made without warrant or any process of law ; men and women have been jailed and held incommunicado, without access of friends or counsel; homes have been entered without search- warrants and property seized and removed; other property has been wantonly destroyed; working men and women sus- pected of radical views have been shamefully abused and maltreated. One judge made the following comment upon the case of a Russian brought to trial before him: This case makes my blood boil. The methods of the De- partment of Justice have created more anarchy than all the radical parties put together, and conditions in this district are worse than they are in Russia. I did not suppose that this kind of thing could happen in a country where we have a constitution. 1 These radical raids resulted in the importation of a few score alleged "Bolsheviks," and in the creation of hundreds if not thousands of radicals amortjg- those who remained to resent such injustice. 1 Russians and Ruthemans In America, The. Jerome Davis. THE SLAV MEETS AMERICA 137 More potent than the government or any social or religious agency is the attitude of individual Americans toward the immigrants with whom they come in con- tact. If we do nothing but move away from the neighborhood as fast as they come in, shun all inter- course with them, or treat them with condescension or pity, we cannot expect the immigrants to love us as their brothers. If we allow them to live only In the worst sections of our cities, and to associate with only the lowest elements of our population, we must not be surprised if they do not become immediately* "one hundred per cent Americans/' Almost all of us come in contact with some immigrants every day* If they are not in our employ, they sell us our papers,, keep the corner fruit-stand, shine our shoes, or do the repairs on our house. How many of us have ever taken the trouble to speak a friendly word to them? How many of us have shown an interest in them, tried to find out something about them, or volunteered any- information or suggestions about life in America? If we need organized community hospitality in this coun- try, we most assuredly must first have the spirit of hospitality in the hearts of individuals. Has any man the right to rail against the low standards of the immi- grant or to become excited about the way aliens are imperiling our institutions unless he has done his full duty as an American and a Christian in showing hos- pitality to this stranger, and in interpreting to him the best and highest ia our American life? V THE SLAV AT WORSHIP IN AMERICA Transplanted Faiths It is well to remind ourselves of the fact that our Slavic immigrants come to us as a religious people. And in the sharp break in their life involved in emi- gration, language, customs, and standards of living are all likely to be abandoned before religion. An immi- grant's faith is the last stronghold of the old order, and will be relinquished only under great stress. As there was transplanted to this country in days gone by the Puritanism of the Pilgrims, the missionary zeal of the Moravian Brethren, the pacifism of the Quakers, the Lutheranism of the Germans, and the Catholicism of the Irish, so in these latter days we have seen other forms of faith transplanted to American soil by mod- ern pilgrims. Thus in a polyglot mining town one can see, in addition to the usual variety of American churches, Russian Orthodox, Ukrainian Greek Catho- lic, Slovak Roman Catholic, Polish Roman Catholic, Slovak Lutheran, and Czech Reformed churches, to name but a few. Among the first Slavic immigrants were many priests and ministers, who saw to it that the spiritual life of their countrymen was not neglected. Many a group of Slavs has sent over to the old country for a clergy- man rather than remain in this country without the ministrations of religion in their own tongue. The 138 THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 139 early history of most of the Slavic groups in America is inseparably bound up with the story of the founding* and development of their churches. Many of the out- standing leaders of all the Slavic nationalities have been and are today churchmen. In many a Slavic community the church is the greatest single influence in the life of the people, the center of practically all leisure-time activities. It is therefore impossible to understand fully the life of the Slavs in America with- out giving full consideration to the place which the church occupies in their lives. The Roman Catholic Church The majority of the Slavs who come to us are of the Roman Catholic faith. Our largest Slavic groups, the Poles, Czechoslovaks, Croatians, and Slovenes are overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. It is only recently that there has been any large incursion of Russians and Ukrainians adherents of the Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches and the number of Orthodox Serbs and Bulgarians in this country is still comparatively small. The Roman Catholic Church was already strongly intrenched in this country when the Slavs arrived. But these new immigrants did not fed so much at home in the Catholic churches of America as they might, had not the organization and priesthood of the church been so completely under the control of the Irish element, for the Irish and Slavs mix about as 140 PEASANT PIONEERS well as oil and water. Consequently, the Slavic CatH- olics lost no time in securing their own priests and organizing their own churches, and in this effort they were encouraged and assisted by the church authorities here. That this policy was wise is shown by the fact that in those instances where the Irish element at- tempted to dominate the situation, Poles, Slovaks, and Croatians have revolted and set up independent Catho- lic churches of their own. The Poles and the Church of Rome There has been little diminution in the devotion to the Roman Catholic Church on the part of the three million Poles in this country. Wherever you find Poles, there you will find a Polish Catholic Church. Usually it is housed in a most imposing building, for the material equipment of the Catholic Church among the Poles is of the very best. Not only are the church buildings large, permanent, well equipped, and excel- lently adapted to worship, but the Polish parishes in all the larger settlements have in addition a home for the priest, a parochial school, and a sisters' house. Money has not been spared in providing this equip- ment. Buildings costing from $250,000 to $500,000 are not uncommon. Even in comparatively small min- ing towns one finds $100,000 churches which have been erected by the contributions of faithful miners. Cleveland has no less than ten Polish Catholic churches. The largest, the St. Stanislaus parish, occupies an en- THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 141 tire city block, with its various buildings, and has 18,000 people on its parish register. It is estimated that the realty value of the Polish Catholic churches of this country approximates $20,000,000, and that $2,000,000 is contributed annually by the people for the support of church work. There are over 600 churches with approximately 2,500,000 members, ministered to ,by 900 Polish priests. One hundred and fifty thousand Polish children are enrolled in parochial schools, the St. Stanislaus school in Cleveland alone having 2,000 pupils. Although many of the Polish priests have proved themselves to be real leaders of their people, enough of them have been of a different stripe to cause one observer to say, "Poor leadership, selfishness of the priests, disgraceful moral conduct, misappropria- tion of funds, political use of religious prerogatives have been characteristics of the Roman leadership of this people." * The failure of Roman Catholic leadership, coupled with the attempted domination of the Irish hierarchy, has been responsible for the formation of a Polish National Church independent of Rome, which has more than forty parishes and is in a t position to take ad- vantage of any weakening of the hold of the Roman. Church upon the people. Other Slavic Catholics Like the Poles, the Slovenes are well-nigK one Kttn* 'dred per cent Roman Catholic and remain so in this. * Religious' Work among 1 the Pales in America. Joel B. Hayden* 142 PEASANT PIONEERS country. Not only has every large colony its church and parochial school, but the societies and the press are largely controlled by the church. The Croatians are not so faithful to the Old World faith as the Poles and Slovenes, Most of them retain a nominal allegiance to the Church of Rome, and the Croatian Catholic parishes are numerous and powerful, but the church no longer has the unswerving allegiance of the masses. The beginnings of an independent Catholic movement have been made, and religious in- difference is widespread. The Slovaks are conservative in religious matters, and consequently are likely to remain faithful to the church here. The new Czechoslovak National Church has, curiously enough, gained some adherents among the Slovaks in America, although, in Czechoslovakia, this independent movement is confined almost entirely to Czechs. The Czechoslovak Church has now six parishes. Resentment of Irish domination in eccle- siastical matters has played a part in this movement, as have the political machinations of the Slovak Cath- olics at home. Although the Czechs of America have definitely broken with the Church of Rome to a far greater ex- tent than any other Slavic nationality, Catholicism still claims at least fifty per cent of the people of that nation- ality. There are 338 Catholic parishes, and 278 Czech priests. The 88 parochial schools in our Czech colonies enroll 5,882 children and have a teaching staff of 391 sisters. A college and seminary for Czech students, THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 143 five convents, and two orphanages are maintained by the Catholic Church. There are eleven Catholic be- nevolent societies, and even a Catholic rival of the Sokol. No less than twenty magazines and papers are published by the Roman Catholic Church in the Czech language. With the wane of the free-thinking movement, Rome is redoubling its efforts to win back the Czechs of America and is more successful in its propaganda than one would think possible in view of the wide- spread movement away from the church which is sweeping through Czechoslovakia. The Roman Church has a thoroughgoing program to hold the allegiance of its Slavic adherents. They do not depend entirely upon the appeal of the liturgical services to the aesthetic sense, nor do they depend entirely upon the "big stick" of priestly authority, nor upon the nationalistic feeling of their parishioners. The larger parishes have an extensive social, recrea- tional, and educational program. The church is made the center of community life. Through the Catholic societies and the sisters, a large amount of relief and welfare work is carried on, so that the people are im- pressed with the way in which the church cares for its own constituency. Entertainments, theatricals, con- certs, clubs, and gymnasium privileges make the church a real recreation center in many communities. Plenty of good reading matter in their own language is pro- vided. But the chief reliance of the church as it looks into the future is the parochial school. 144 PEASANT PIONEERS The Parochial School Every Polish community of any size has its Polish -parochial school, and it is said that fully fifty per cent of our Polish children are enrolled in these schools. Among the Slovenes, Croatians, Slovaks, and in some localities even among the Czechs, the parochial schools enroll nearly as many children as the public schools. The parochial school appeals especially to the newly- arrived immigrant, who, quite naturally, welcomes the opportunity thus afforded to have his children taught in the Old World faith and language. The longer the immigrant stays here, the greater is the tendency to send the children to the public school. The parochial schools have been severely criticised t>y Protestants on the one hand and by educators on the other. They have been called un-American and divisive. It is said that their standards are low in comparison with the public schools. It is claimed that an undue emphasis is placed upon religious dogma and upon instruction in the foreign language. On the other hand, one cannot but feel a certain degree of sympathy with the conviction which has given rise to the parochial school; namely, that no education is complete without religion. One cannot but admire also the interest shown by these immigrants in the religious education of their children an interest whicli "has led them in many communities to invest thousands of dollars in the building and maintenance of parochial schools. Protestants could criticise the parochial THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 145 schools wltK much better grace if they manifested the same degree of interest in the religious education of their children. Nevertheless, it is a mistaken policy to segregates Catholic children in separate schools. The solution o the problem of religious education should be sought in other directions. We have already noted the bene- ficial effects of our public school system upon the chil- dren of immigrants. Of these benefits the children in the parochial schools are, in a large measure, deprived, Orthodox Churches among the Slavs As the Orthodox Church was so closely identified with the nationalistic spirit of Russia, the Russians upon their arrival here quite naturally set about estab- lishing churches of their own in every large colony. Since many of the Ukrainians are also of the Orthodox faith, this church has had a large field, and in 1916 had already established 169 churches and enrolled 99,681 members. The Orthodox Church has, how- ever, fallen upon evil days. The disturbances in; Russia have had their effect liere. Government sup- port of the churches has been cut off, thereby bringing on serious financial difficulties. The church leaders here have not hesitated to oppose Bolshevism and the Soviet government, and so have estranged the great mass of Russian working-men. Most of them now stu- diously avoid the church save at Christmas and Easter^ 146 PEASANT PIONEERS Since the recognition by the Soviet government o the "Living Church/' some priests, friendly to the Soviet government, have attempted to gain control of the churches here. As a result there has been a series of disputes over property. The church leaders have become so involved in political disputes that they have had little time for the spiritual oversight of their people, and consequently the Russians, who of all the Slavic people most need spiritual leadership, are as sheep- without a shepherd. The Orthodox faith is peculiarly adapted to their temperament, and it is therefore imperative that some order be brought out of the present ecclesiastical chaos as speedily as possible. Many Protestant church leaders, especially of the Protestant Episcopal Church, are attempting to co- operate with the outstanding Russian priests in the effort to re-establish the Orthodox Church in America on a firm basis. If they succeed in doing so without becoming involved in partisan politics, they will have rendered a real service to the cause of Christ in America, for it is a great pity to allow such a natu- rally religious people to live in America without the ministrations of its own church. The Greek Catholic, or Uniat, Church, which claims the adherence of the majority of the Ukrainians in this country, has also suffered from political disputes, though not to the same extent as the Orthodox Church. There are approximately 350 Greek Catholic parishes in America, most of which are Ukrainian. The SLAVIC COMMUNITY LIFE 9^ go too far in the attempt to maintain their group solidarity in this country. But there are very few Slavs today who look upon their communities here as colonies of the old country. Their leaders abroad are still disposed to expect that the first allegiance of the Slavs of America will be to the homeland. But they are doomed to disappointment in almost every instance. For all the Slavs who have been here ten years or more are first of all Americans, and only secondarily Czechs or Poles or Jugoslavs, as the case may be. As one of them put it : "We love the home- land as a man loves his mother. But we love America as one loves his wife. And there is nothing inconsistent in those two loves." It is not strange that the various Slavic groups wish to preserve their racial solidarity to the extent of having their children learn their mother tongue as well as English, and to inculcate in both the young and the old a proper pride in the land from which they came. One who is a good Polish or Czech patriot will make a good American patriot, but one who is. incapable of love for the land of his birth will scarcely be capable of great devotion to the land of his adop- tion. That the Slavs should be jealous of the good name of their old country and kinsfolk is also under- standable, though many need to be reminded of the fact that the best argument for the inherent worth of their people is not made by printed propaganda but by the worthiness of their life among us. 96 PEASANT PIONEERS Interpreting America to Their Countrymen But to a surprising degree our Slavic societies are Devoting themselves to the effort of building their people into our American life, of fostering American ideals and a love for America. One of the largest and most influential of the Slavic societies, the National Croatian Society, thus expresses its purpose in its constitution: "To help people of Croatian race re- siding in America in cases of distress, sickness, and death, to educate and instruct them in the English language and in other studies to fit them for the duties 'pi life and citizenship with our English-speaking peo- ple, to teach them and impress upon them the im- j*ortance and duty of being naturalized under the laws of the United States and of educating their children in the public schools of the country . . ." This sounds more like the constitution of an "Amer- icanization Committee" than that of a "foreign" oi> ganization. This same organization has a large educational fund and is paying especial attention to the care of its orphan children, bringing to bear upon this problem the latest American methods of child care, through public and private child placing. The Polish organizations carry on an extensive work of a social and educational character. They have immi- grant aid stations at the principal ports* of entry and several homes for immigrant women and girls. The Polish women's organization maintains a Polish JWomen's Employment Agency and a Polish Women's H tn 8 / ,A f / M 4 X i\., 'feii/ * ' / THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 147 Ukrainian Independent Church has twenty parishes. There have been schisms, secessions, and dissensions, and as a result a large proportion of the people is indifferent to the church. The churches are crowded to the doors on holidays, but almost empty the rest of the time. The Bulgarians in the United States are pitiably neglected religiously. There are but five Orthodox parishes in this country. Most Bulgarians in America have discarded religion altogether. As one of their number said to Dr. Haskins : "The Bulgarians do not become atheists in the United States. They simply cease keeping up pretenses/' That is a terse characterization of the state of re- ligion not only among the Bulgarians but, as we shall see, among hundreds of thousands of other Slavs who have broken with their church. Protestant Slavs Practically the only Slavic immigrants who come to us with a Protestant background are a small number of Russians, a few Czechs who came from the Czech' Brethren Church, and a goodly percentage of Slovaks who were Lutherans or Calvinists in the old country. Like the Catholics, these Protestant groups early set about establishing their own churches in the New World. There are about 10,000 Stundists (Russian and Ukrainian Baptists) in North Dakota, and some ^,500 Molokani (Milk Drinkers) in Los Angeles, 148 PEASANT PIONEERS ;while the Dukhobortsi (Wrestlers of the Spirit) have several large colonies in Canada and scattering ad- herents in the United States. The Russian Protestants are insignificant in numbers, but influential, neverthe- less, especially with the Orthodox Church in its pres- ent decrepit state. The Czech Protestants and Slovak Calvinists have largely associated themselves with vari- ous American Protestant denominations, chiefly with the Presbyterian Church. Only in Texas have the Czech Protestants organized independently. The Slovak Lutherans have been cordially welcomed by the Lutheran Church in America, which Is doing its best to care for their co-religionists. But large num- bers of Lutheran Slovaks, widely scattered in polyglot communities as they are, still remain unreached by their own church, owing to the lack of sufficient workers. One would u think that with so many different churches and varieties of faiths transplanted to our shores the spiritual welfare of our Slavic immigrants would be adequately cared for. This would indeed be the case if there were enough of such churches to care for all the immigrants, if the immigrants re- tnained as loyal to the church here in America as they L *were abroad, and if the type of religion offered by these transplanted churches were such as to assure the development of the kind of Christianity tliat America needs. But as a matter of fact, none of these conditions are fulfilled. THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 149 The Break with the Old World Faith The Old World churches, numerous as they are, still leave thousands of Slavic immigrants untouched by any church. There are hundreds of communities where there are not enough of any one nationality to justify the establishment of a church or a mission,- but where the religious need is just as great as in the larger colonies. These men and women and their children are becoming godless Americans. In the large city colonies the Old World churches often reach but a small percentage of their constituency. Then there are thousands upon thousands of Slavs who have a church of their own within reach but' who never darken its doors, or at best enter the ehurcK only on Christmas and Easter or when they have a baptism, marriage, or funeral to be performed. Many of these perhaps the majority retain a nominal con- nection with the church and bring up their children in the faith. But many do not even make a pretense of church connection. Competent observers estimate that the following percentages in this country are, to all in- tents and purposes, unchurched,: Croatians and Slovenes Slovaks Poles Czechs 10 per cent 20 per cent 20 per cent 50 per cent Serbs Ukrainians Bulgars Russians 50 per cent 50 per cent 75 per cent 90 per cent Thus approximately two million Slavs, men, 350 PEASANT PIONEERS and children, one third of the total population, are untouched by organized religion in America. This is an astounding state of affairs when one recalls the place which religion occupied in their lives in the old country. Apparently America, which prides itself upon its religious life, has destroyed the Old World faith of these people without providing anything else to take its place. One looks into the future and faces the prospect of thousands of new homes being estab- lished which shall be in every respect typically Ameri- can save that there shall be no place there for re- ligion. For anyone who believes that the future of America is inseparably bound up with the progress of true Christianity among its people, the situation is truly alarming. The causes for this widespread break with the church are not hard to discover. With many, immi- gration to America involved a reaction against that formal, state-controlled religion which in Europe is known as "clericalism." In Europe the peasants had been bound by tradition, the force of public opinion, and the pressure of the state to give at least lip-service to the church. In America they were free to do as they pleased. They felt no need of the old church in the New World, and they knew no other kind of church and no other type of religion. This is the psychology underlying not only the Czech rationalist movement, but the apostasy of many of the other Slavs as well. The influence of American educational institutions and the gradual penetration of democratic THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 151 ideas have induced dissatisfaction with the thought of the Middle Ages and the methods of autocracy as rep- resented in most European churches. With the Rus- sians, political conditions have furthered the break. The influence of organized labor, of socialism, and the general atmosphere surrounding the industrial worker, have weaned many Slavs of all nationalities away from the church. Furthermore, our Slavic immigrants are quick to imitate the Americans with whom they come in con- tact. They see Americans by the thousands, who were brought up in the church, now living as if the church did not exist and as if there were no God. They see Sunday given over wholly to pleasure ; they observe the moral standards of our **best society"; they come in contact with business standards that are anything but Christian; they receive anything but a Christian wel- come from American people. Is it any wonder that they come to the conclusion that religion does not count for much in America and that one can get along very well without it and still be a respected and suc- cessful member of the community? At the outset they are forced to work and live under conditions which give them little leisure or strength for religion or anything else save the bare struggle for existence; and by the time they have improved their material conditions the habit of church attendance and the prac- tise of personal religious faith have fallen into disuse. The remarkable thing is not that many have lost their faith, but that so many have retained it and still find 152 PEASANT PIONEERS time and strength and inclination to devote to it. When one recalls the type of religion prevalent in Slavdom, it Is perhaps not an unmixed evil that so many have turned against it in this country. Perhaps a poor religion is better than none ; possibly f ormalism, ritualism, superstition, an utter divorcement of religion from life are all preferable to a practical agnosticism or atheism; but certainly a type of religion such as has been described in Chapter I has little in common with that practical Christianity of brotherhood, justice, and love which we believe must dominate our land if we are to make America a Christian nation. The Old World faiths contain elements which are essential to the spiritual life of their people. The beautiful ritual, the mysticism, the appeal to external authority interest all the Slavs, and are necessary to many of them. But these things they can have without losing sight of the essentials of the Christian gospel, the development of the Christlike character and the forma- tion of a Christian society. Reaching the Unchurched Slavs Many of the leaders of the Catholic and Orthodox 'churches are recognizing the shortcomings* of their church, and are anxious to adapt their program to the new conditions in which their people are now* placed. They will welcome the cooperation and assist- ance of American Christians, even of Protestants, pro- vided they are convinced that such cooperation is ten- dered in good faith. THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 153 Protestant Work among the Slavs But there are hundreds of thousands of Slavic immigrants and their children who are irrevocably lost to their own church, and who will remain entirely without the church unless the Protestant Church wins them. Although the opportunity for immigrant work has been appreciated by the Protestant churches for almost a generation and much attention has been given to its development, we cannot survey the results of our united endeavors with any great pride, at least; as far as the Slavs are concerned. According to the best information available, tHe Protestant churches are now maintaining 381 churcties and missions in each of which one of the Slavic lan- guages is employed. These are served by some 300" pastors, missionaries, and colporteurs. The total mem- bership is approximately 30,000. Six million Slavs and thirty thousand Protestant church members ! Two million unchurched Slavs and only thirty thousand reached by the Protestant churches ! Even taking into account those of Slavic extraction who have beea reached by American churches, the total number of adherents would certainly not exceed fifty thousand, and Protestantism would still have less than one per cent of our Slavic population in its membership. Slavic Churches and Missions The most common method of approach adopted by the Pjrotestant churches is the foreign-language church 154 PEASANT PIONEERS or mission. A native minister is employed who gathers together any of his countrymen of Protestant predilec- tions that he can find, and by evangelistic work seeks to win adherents from among the unchurched. At first, meetings are held in rented quarters or in rooms in some church building; but eventually a separate church building is secured, usually through the denom- inational building fund. Although there are some self- supporting Slavic churches, notably among the Czechs, the great majority of these churches are maintained by the home mission agencies of the churches. The Baptist Home Mission Society alone expended $52,095 in 1921-22 for the salaries of Slavic missionaries and the expenses of its churches and missions. The total investment of the Protestant churches for Slavic work would exceed $500,000. The Czechs were the first Slavic nationality to be reached by the Protestant churches. But although the Congregational and Presbyterian churches were early on the field, they were not early enough to prevent the hundreds of thousands of Czechs who left the Church of Rome from being swept into the free-thinking move- ment, instead of into the Protestant Church, where their traditions and historic ideals would naturally place them. Nevertheless, there are some splendid Protestant Czech churches. The Presbyterian churches in New York, Cedar Rapids, Hopkins, Minn-, Clark- son, Neb., Wahoo, Neb., are strong self-supporting organizations. The Independent churches at Ely, THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 155 Iowa, and at Silver Lake, Minn., and the Congrega- tional Church at Silver Lake are also self-supporting. The Reformed Church in Cedar Rapids, the Presby- terian, Methodist, and Baptist churches in Chicago, the Congregational churches of Cleveland, the Pres- byterian churches of the Pittsburgh district, to name but a few, are real powers in their respective com- munities. The country churches are especially strong and influential. In some rural communities the Prot- estant Czech Church represents the transplantation of a large part of some local congregation in the old country. People from the same village or district settle together in this country. If they were Protes- tants in the old country, they seek to keep alive their historic faith in the New World. Thus we find alive today in the prairie towns of the Middle West the faith which was kept for generations by the Protestants of the Bohemian highlands, who, in the face of persecu- tion, met secretly in caves and in the forest, deter- mined to hand down to their children the torch once so splendidly held aloft by Jan Hus. So is America enriched by the traditions of the Hussites. In the cities the progress is slower, as the unchurched element is more thoroughly organized and more deeply prejudiced against the church. But even in the cities the active free-thinking movement is on the wane, and the people, as a whole, are open to approach by Prot- estantism as never before. The Slovaks also present a splendid field for Prot- 15*6 PEASANT PIONEERS estant effort, especially on the part of tHe Lutherans. The Slovak Evangelical Lutheran Synod of America (a part of the Synodical Conference) has 58 congrega- tions and 7,000 communicant members ; and the Slovak Zion Synod of the United Lutheran Church has 34 congregations with 7^161 communicant members. In addition, the Immigrant Mission Board of the United Lutheran Qiurch maintains Slovak work at a large number of points, but many of them are mere preach- ing stations which are reached only a few times a year, owing to the scarcity of workers. Most of the Slovak Calvinists have affiliated themselves with the Presbyterian Church. The Baptists are now carrying on an aggressive evangelistic work among the Slovaks in a number of places, notably in Chicago. Protestant work among the Poles has presented un- usual difficulties, and the results in terms of church members are exceedingly meager. The Congrega- tional work in Detroit and the Presbyterian Churcli in Baltimore are outstanding examples, however, of what may be accomplished by the slow, tedious process of taking a small nucleus of people and placing the best sort of leadership at their disposal to sow the seed of Protestant ideas and ideals, A visitor to the Polish Congregational Church at Detroit reports that in the appearance of the people, young and old, in their participation and interest in the services and the activities of the church, this congregation com- pares favorably with that of any other church in the country. Certainly it is a long step from the THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 157 ritualistic, mystical, and authoritative religion of Czenstochowa to the simplicity, intellectuality, and de- mocracy of Congregationalism. In Chicago the Congregational, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches are now uniting in an earnest interdenominational effort to reach the Poles of that city. They have secured the services of Rev. Paul Fox, Ph.D., one of the ablest Polish Protestant leaders, and have set before him the task of ministering to this, the largest Polish colony in America, in the name of united Protestantism. It is significant that one of Dr. Fox's first points of contact was with the PolisH societies. He has secured their support and coopera- tion in an educational program which includes a series of lectures by Dr. Fox on educational, economic, social, and religious subjects. The younger generation of Poles is being reached by lectures in English at the Y.M.C.A. on such subjects as the following: "Is re- ligion necessary?"; 'TDoes Jesus Christ have a place in modern life?"; "Is the Bible inspired?"; "Is there a future life?" The results of the strategic approach' to the Poles on the part of the Protestant churdies of Chicago will be watched with great interest. Protestafct work among the Russians is of compara- tively recent origin and little progress has yet beat made, although the Russians seem peculiarly open to Protestant approach, owing to their break with the Orthodox Church. More than any other Slavic peoples, the Russians in America are susceptible to the appeal pf such sectarian movements as Russellism, spiritual- 158 PEASANT PIONEERS ism, and the "Holiness" movement. Thus Protestant efforts are disrupted, and affiliation with Protestant denominations of those who are really Protestants at heart is discouraged. The Second Avenue Baptist Church and the Methodist Church of All Nations, both of New York, have been unusually successful in their ministry to the Russians. At the Church of All Na- tions, with its magnificent new plant, the Russians are being reached by an extensive educational, social, and religious program. The New York City Mission Society is maintaining Russian work at two points, at the People's Home Institute (Methodist) and the hurch of the Sea and Land (Presbyterian). At the latter center an interesting approach is being made to the Russian community. In addition to lec- tures and preaching services, a Russian school for children has been started upon the request of the people of the neighborhood. This school meets every evening, and is attended by sixty children of Junior and In- termediate age. The program includes instruction in reading, writing, and speaking the Russian language, the singing of Russian songs, and Bible stories in Russian. The school is managed by a parent-teachers association, the parents engaging and paying two of the teachers, and the City Mission Society providing a third. The program is worked out cooperatively. Such a foreign language school as a method of ap- proach is worth considering in other places and for other Slavic groups. The parents like to have their children learn their language, and such knowledge is THE SLAV AT WORSHIP H9 not inconsistent with true Americanization; indeed, it may be used to further it by binding the parents and children closer together and bringing both groups into a knowledge of American and Christian ideals through the use of the foreign language. The Protestant Episcopal Church is pursuing the policy of cooperating with the Orthodox Church, and hopes to assist it in putting its work on a more stable basis. The Ukrainians of America have been largely neg- lected by the Protestant churches of America, although the experience of the Protestant churches of Canada has been that these people are peculiarly open to the Protestant approach. The Presbyterian Church has a splendid congregation in Newark, and five churches at other points. The Presbyterian work among the Ukrainians has an interesting history. The congregation of the Greek Catholic Church in Newark, New Jersey, had a con- troversy with its bishop, and the bishop won. As a result, a large number of the congregation, with the priest, withdrew and held services elsewhere. They decided they would leave the Catholic Church, and, looking about for a new church relationship, concluded they would become Presbyterians. They had to come to the local Church Extension Committee again and again before they were given a favorable reply. When finally a church of one hundred members was organ- ized, it was found that hardly any of them knew any- thing of Presbyterian thought and practise. They were J60 PEASANT PIONEERS steeped in all the customs and traditions of the Greek: Church, buttressed about with superstition and igno- rance. But the Presbyterian authorities were con- vinced that they were facing in the right direction and that they were willing to be taught. Consequently, it was decided to make no radical changes in their form ef worship at once, but by a process of education to lead them into a more simple form of worship and a more enlightened conception of Christianity. True, the services held in the early stages of their connection with the Presbyterian Church were quite tmusual for a Protestant Church. The minister wore the white and gold robe of the Greek Church. He stood with his back to the congregation, facing an altar upon which were lighted candles and above which hung a picture of the crucifix. Near by was a table on which rested a cross flanked by lighted candles. As the worshipers came in, they knelt in the aisles, crossed themselves, came forward to the table, and kissed the cross several times before taking their seats. At the beginning of the service, the minister made a reverence at the altar, censed it, and, turning, censed the congregation. The service was chanted. When time came for the reading of the Scriptures, the Gospel was brought to the altar in ceremonial procession, pre- ceded by lighted candles. The .minister signed the people with the sign of the cross by waving the Gospel both ways, and then the people came forward to kiss Ike volume. The same ceremony was observed in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. The elements were THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 161 thought forward in ceremonial procession. After the prayer of consecration the altar server rang a bell three Jimes, while the people knelt A sensational account of this church was written tip in a local paper, and as a result quite a controversy ensued in Presbyterian circles, But the Presbyterian leaders paid no heed to critics, and quietly pursued their plan of education. The Superintendent f the local mission work, Rev. Davis W. Lusk, D.D., expresses his point of view on this matter in one of his reports on the Ukrainian work. Religious prejudices are strong and deep-seated. The cus- toms of generations are not easily given tip. We must make haste slowly, and not too rapidly cut people off from things that have meant everything to them. They are not heathen ; they are Christians. They believe in Christ. Why force them against their will ? Give them the light. Lead them into the freedom of the sons of God. This we did, and behold the result! I never told them not to cross them- selves ; I never told them not to bow before the crucifix ; I only let in the light and gave them a chance to learn, and now everything has fallen into harmonious relation, and jthese people feel and see and know as we do. It took nearly seven years, but what are seven years for such a result? This experience would seem to point a lesson as to Jhe proper method of approach to those who come to us from a background of ritualism. Among the southern Slavs the Protestant churches have scarcely any work. The Baptists report one Serbian chttrch, one center for work among the Slo- 162 PEASANT PIONEERS venes and one for the Bulgarians. There are 125' Lutheran Slovenian churches. There is in existence not a single Protestant church for the Croatians. This Is one of the great untouched fields of missionary en- deavor in America. Here are at least 700,000 souls, over half of whom are out of touch with their owa church, and we have three struggling Protestant mis* sions for them! If there ever was an opportunity which must challenge the Church of Christ in America, here is one! Reinterpreting Christianity The attempt to evangelize the Slavs by means of churches and missions where the gospel is proclaimed in their native tongue must be expected to meet with small results in terms of church members. Not many Slavic peasants who have been trained from their youth in the Catholic or Orthodox faith can be expected to step immediately into complete and intelligent fellow- ship with the Protestant Church. Much education, much reinterpretation of the meaning of religion is needed before the masses will be ready for Protestant- ism. The greatest value of these churches lies in their work with the children where they often have a free hand and in the influence which these small groups of adult Protestants, wisely led, may exercise upon their fellow countrymen. Many a Slavic community in this country has been led to change its idea of Protestantism completely by the influence of a few THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 163 saintly lives; or by the example of the magnetic per- sonality of some Protestant leader. Slavic people gen- erally judge causes by the persons who represent them, and if they are to come to the Protestant faith in any large numbers, they must be caught by the contagion of personalities rather than taught by arguments, de- bates, and lectures. Herein lies the greatest oppor- tunity of the Slavic churches and missions. Their success must be measured not so much by the statistics of church membership as by the reaction of the com- munity to their work. The Christian Neighborhood House Realizing the futility of attempting to accomplisK the whole task of winning the Slavs to a living Chris* tian faith and a vital Christian life by means of .churches and missions, the Protestant churches have recently sought to interpret Christianity to the Slavs and other immigrants by means of Christian Neigh- borhood Houses and Community Centers. In general, the program of such neighborhood houses does not differ greatly from that of the social settlements, save that the Christian purpose is consciously adopted and made paramount, and religious work is placed at the heart of the program. With a seven-day program of educational, recreational, social, and religious activities, conducted by Christian men and women, the attempt is made to meet the human needs of the people in the spirit of Christ, and through such contacts to re- 164 PEASANT PIONEERS interpret to them the meaning and value of the Chris- tian religion. In almost all such neighborhood houses a Sunday school is conducted, and, in many, services of worship as well. Such agencies as the Daily Vaca- tion Bible School, Boy Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, gym- nasium and handicraft classes are employed to demon- strate what religion means in daily life. The adults are reached through Mothers' Clubs, through English and citizenship classes, and by visitation in the homes. The Neighborhood House exists to demonstrate the power and beauty of practical Christianity, and has already proved itself a valuable agency of the church. More than thirty such centers are being conducted under Presbyterian auspices. Most of the Neighbor- hood Houses minister to a number of different nation- alities in a polyglot community, but of the twenty-two from which reports have been received, fifteen are reaching one or another of the Slavic nationalities. These twenty-two centers cost $233,000 annually to maintain, and a force of 157 paid workers and 180 volunteers is necessary to operate them. It would seem as if the Presbyterians believed in this method of approach to the Slavs ! The Woman's American Baptist Home Mission So- ciety reports 3*3 Christian centers of which a large proportion minister to Slavic peoples. These centers are rendering splendid service in bringing the best of America to the Slavs. One Baptist worker reports, "I had a Russian girl in my class last week who said, *America and Christian America are very different/ " THE SLAV AT WORSHIP In many centers an effort is being made to preserve the best gifts that the Slavs have to bring to us, to Develop Slavonic music and folk-dancing, to teach Slavonic embroidery and other handicrafts. The Jan Hus House of New York is making a feature of this solt of work. The intermingling of various nationalities in a Christian center cannot help but break down ttie national and racial barriers which prevent a real uni- fication of our people. When one such center reports twenty-four different nationalities attending its Daily ^Vacation Bible School, and another tells of a joint meeting of Hungarian, Polish, Roumanian, Mexican, and American Christians, our faith in the unifying power of religion is restored. Aiken Institute in Chi- y the Presbyterian Church in its parishes on the Mesaba iron range and the Gogebic range. The Coke Mission operates from Uniontown, Pennsylvania, as headquarters, and from there workers are deployed jo a score or more of the small mining communities ' * Neighborhood House, The. W. Clyde Smith. THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 167 or "patches" which dot the landscape in the southwest- ern part of the state. Sunday schools are established, week-day classes for children and adults are opened, and preaching services are held. With a unified staff and program, much more effective work can be done than if each community were approached independ- ently. The social and religious needs of the Slovak and other miners of this coke region are of such a crying nature that one is almost tempted to designate this as the most needy home mission field in the country. The classes and the friendly visitation of these mission workers provide one of the few bright spots in a life which seems unutterably dreary and forlorn. If such a field as this does not challenge the church to great and noble undertakings, then the church has indeed lost its vision and lost its faith. Literature But Neighborhood Houses are expensive to build and to maintain, and we cannot expect any large ex- tension of this type of work. But there are other methods of approach to our Slavic immigrants which have not been taken advantage of by our Protestant churches. In the first place, in reinterpreting Chris- tianity to the Slavic peoples a far greater use of liter- ature in their own language should be made than is now being done. We have already noted the power of the printed word in our foreign communities. If Socialists, Bolshevists, and Russellites can make sue- 168 PEASANT PIONEERS cessftil use of the printed page, certainly the church of Christ can do so. Although a considerable amount of literature has been developed by the various Protestant churches in the Slavic languages, most of it is designed for the use of those already committed to the Protestant point of view. The religious periodicals and tract literature now available in the Slavic tongues are, therefore, for the most part, not adapted to interpret Christianity to the unchurched. There is a crying need for a much more extensive literature which will frankly have in mind those "who come to us with a Roman Catholic or Orthodox background and who are now entirely out of touch with organized religion. Helping to Adjust to American Life In the second place, our Protestant agencies must find some method of assisting the immigrant to make his adjustment to American life during the early years of his residence here. We meet him at Ellis Island, and there the social agencies and the churches are 'doing all that is in their power to make his first im- pressions of America favorable. There are no less than nineteen private organizations which maintain paid workers in the Social Service Department at Ellis Island. Twelve of these organizations have Protestant affiliations. But we Protestants have lagged behind our Catholic and Jewish friends in following up the immigrants. Lately a cooperative effort on the part THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 169 of the Protestant churches has been inaugurated tinder the auspices of the Home Missions Council to follow up Protestant immigrants and put them in touch with churches in the communities where they locate. Usu- ally we lose track of the immigrant until five, ten, fifteen years later, he makes his contact with our churches, neighborhood houses, and settlements, and it is this intervening period that is often decisive. It is then that erroneous conceptions of American insti- tutions and standards are likely to be formed. It is then that the old faith is apt to be discarded and the immigrant launched upon his American journey with- out the guidance and power that religion at its best can give him. Our Protestant churches can, if they will, establish contacts with the newly-arrived immi- grants by cooperating with the national societies, the native leaders, and the foreign-language press. Im- migrant information bureaus, where advice and aid are given by one of their own nationality who is familiar with American ways, need to be multiplied. Many a Protestant church could render an inestimable service to the newly arrived by establishing and main- taining such a bureau. In coffee houses, restaurants, and pool rooms, groups of young men who have just recently come over are apt to congregate. Anyone who can mingle with such a group, speak to them in their own tongue, and win their confidence could easily organize an informal dub of new arrivals and through it do much to interpret America to them. It is upon, these formative years that, not only the churches, but 170 PEASANT PIONEERS all agencies interested in interpreting America to the immigrant, should focus their attention. Such a group as this has been gathered into the Dodge Community House of Detroit in a "Fellowship of New Americans/' Their leader is an American who knows well their European background, and he is assisted by a Polish-speaking young man. The purpose of the group is to study American life. All of the group are studying English, and the group meet- ings give them an opportunity to practise in conver- sation. The study of American life is being made by means of visits, with discussions following. Thus, when music in America is the topic of discussion, several concerts are attended, samples of Negro spirit- uals and of jazz are brought before them; whereupon there follows a discussion of the relative standing of music in America and in Poland. A study is made of recreation in America by taking the group to base- ball, football, and other sporting events, and the at- tempt is made later to explain the large part which sports play in American life as compared with Poland. Then the philanthropic and welfare work of the city is studied by means of visits to representative institu- tions. Doubtless many of the group will learn for the first time that there are some people in the United States who are not concerned primarily with making money. When religion is under discussion, visits are anade to churches and religious meetings of every kind and description, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Protestant, and even to the meetings of such movements as Chris- THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 171 tian Science, Theosophy, the Salvation Army. Care is taken that a thorough study is made of the work of some outstanding Protestant church. At the con- clusion of the visits the class will be in a position to discuss rather intelligently religion in America and draw its own comparisons with the religious life of a country like Poland. No attempt is made to tie the group with the church. The leaders are content to make a Christian interpretation of America. At present few immigrants establish any friendly American contacts during their first few years in this country. This is true of the rural districts as well as of the cities. The Polish farmer in the Connecticut Valley is let severely alone by his American neighbors when he first moves among them. The American, farmers of Nebraska still look somewhat askance at their Czech neighbors, although many have been there now for over a generation. That the Americans and Slavic immigrants do not mingle much is more the fault of Americans than of the Slavs. One cannot establish friendly relationships with people who studi- ously avoid one and look down upon one as an inferior. And certainly in the development of community hos- pitality the Church of Jesus Christ should be actively interested. Cooperation with Slavic Leaders A third form of service which the Protestant Church can and should render is cooperation with the foreign- speaking religious leaders. Many of our Slavic Prot- 172 PEASANT PIONEERS estant ministers and missionaries find themselves left to shift for themselves. Few Protestant churches, few Protestant church members take any personal interest in them or their work. Even In church councils they are apt to be looked down upon because they are "for- eigners," or at best patronized by our "one hundred per cent American" pastors. If ministers and church workers are not willing to admit the spiritual heirs of Jan Hus Into Christian fellowship, how can they expect that our American people generally will accept our Slavic immigrants as their brothers ? Furthermore, there are many Orthodox priests and not a few Roman Catholic priests who would welcome the cooperation of American Protestant churches. Mr. Jerome Davis makes the following' concrete suggestions to any American congregation that finds a Russian Orthodox Church in its vicinity. 1 1. Call on the Russian priest. 2. Donate Russian New Testaments to him for dis- tribution. 3. Send gifts to the children's school. 4. Lend a stereopticon or slides or both. 5. Help in organizing- a community service center in the parish for Russians. Such practical service as this would be welcomed most heartily, not only by Russian priests, but by many Ukrainian, Serbian, and Bulgarian, Orthodox priests, and by the leaders of the Polish Independent Church * Russians and Ruthenians in America, The. Jerome Davis* Page 130, THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 173 and the Czechoslovak National Church. The Roman Catholic priests are not so approachable, but a much more friendly relationship could be established with most of the Slavic priests if Protestants would but make the effort. Protestant Hospitality Then our American Protestant churches could per- form a real service to the Slavic immigrants if they would make them and their children feel welcome at their services and in their activities. Not a few adults and- practically all the children among the Slavic immi- grants soon acquire a good knowledge of English. ^The influence of an American congregation and the association with American Christians would mean much to them. But as long as we insist upon keeping our Protestant churches "one hundred per cent Ameri- can/' few immigrants and few of their children will feel at home in them. The acid test of the democracy of our Protestantism is whether we are willing to receive all men into a common fellowship, be they Americans or Slavs, successful bankers or unskilled laborers. If our churches insist that all foreigners must worship God apart in a "mission church/' while the big church on the avenue is reserved for the socially elect, we certainly have no right to expect that the community as a whole will be more hospitable or more democratic. An example of what an American jchurch can do to win Americans of Slavic descent 174 PEASANT PIONEERS is provided by the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church of New York City. .When the present pastor came to this church, he found that the congregation consisted of the wealthy and middle-class people of the immediate neighbor- hood. The great East Side foreign population lying but a few blocks distant was reached only by a small and rather ineffectual chapel. One of his first aims was to bring the East Side people, most of whom were Czechs, into his church and into his Sunday schooL His fashionable members objected to having "foreigners" occupy their pews. Some of them left the church indignantly. But this pastor believed that a church should be inclusive and that it should be democratic, and he had the courage of his convictions. A Czech-speaking visitor was employed. The pastor himself began assiduously to climb tenement stairs. The people began to come, first the children and then their parents. At first the East Side children were organized separately from the others, but even this separation was not of long duration. Now, of the Sunday school of 1,800 members, forty per cent are Czechs, or of Czech parentage, and they take their places side by side with the children of Fifth Avenue homes who are brought to Sunday school by their governesses. There is one Bible Class for Czech women which is conducted in Czech, but, with this one exception, the Czechs fit into the regular program of activities and share completely in the organized life of the congregation. On the official boards of THE SLAV AT WORSHIP 175" the churcli Czech and other "foreign" workmen sit side by side with some of the most influential per- sonages in the financial and social circles of New York, There are probably more Czech children in the Sunday school of this fashionable American church than in the Sunday school of any of our Czech churches or missions. Let every Protestant church begin its Americaniza- tion work at home and see to it that its own relation- ships to the "foreigners" of its community and the relationships of its members to them, are truly Ameri- can and truly Christian, that is, dominated by the democratic principle, permeated with the spirit of brotherhood and controlled by the law of Christ, which is love. VI THE SLAV AND AMERICA'S FUTURE The New Immigration Policy Of recent years the American public has become alarmed over the question of immigration. The so- called "new immigrant" has been under heavy fire. It is said that our American institutions and ideals are endangered by his coming. It is claimed that the supremacy of the "Nordic race" in America is threat- ened Dark pictures have been drawn of the future of America should this "new immigration" continue. As a consequence, a new immigration policy has been framed and enacted into law which avowedly aims to restrict immigration from southeastern Europe to a minimum, while permitting larger numbers of immi- grants from northern and western Europe to enter the country. In so far as this new immigration policy is based upon racial discrimination and involves an arbitrary differentiation between "superior" and "inferior" races, it contains elements of injustice that are unworthy of America. As far as the Slavs are concerned, their classification among the "inferior" and "undesirable" races is not justified by the facts. The Slavs are as inherently capable of entering completely into American life as any of the other peoples who have come to our shores within the last seventy-five years. Given 176 THE SLAV AND AMERICA'S FUTURE 177 ittie same length of residence In the country, and equally favorable economic conditions, a comparison between iany of the Slavic nationalities and the Swedes, Nor- wegians, Irish, or Germans in respect to their assimi- lation would not result unfavorably to the Slavs. It is the exigencies of our modern industrial world that put many of our Slavic peoples in an unfavor- 'able light. They are held responsible for conditions which they are powerless to change. And yet in spite of these conditions we have seen how most of our Slavic workers in the course of time do rise above their environment and prove themselves worthy of sharing the highest and best that America affords. The progress and achievement of thousands of Ameri- can citizens of Slavic extraction prove the falsity of the assertion that they are an "inferior 7 ' people. Nevertheless, every well-wisher of the Slavs in America should welcome the restrictions placed upon large Slavic immigration. With our social and eco- nomic order constituted as it is, few friends of the Slavic people would wish that they might come over in large numbers to play the part of "robot" in our industrial life. If further unrestricted immigration would mean the multiplication of such conditions as we have seen exist in railroad camps, steel and mining towns, and in our large cities, every friend of the immigrant should welcome restriction rather than have him go through the struggles and suffering involved. If we have nothing better to offer the industrial worker than that which we have accorded him during 178 PEASANT PIONEERS the past generation, the Slav is better off at home in his peasant village. A more statesmanlike policy for the distribution of immigrants so that Slavic peasants may have an opportunity to get out upon the land where most of them belong; an adjustment of eco- nomic and social conditions so that the newcomer may more quickly and more readily come in contact with and appropriate the best that is in America; and a more adequate provision for a religious education of the Slavs which will enable them to help us make America really Christian such are the conditions which should prevail before any good American Chris- tian advocates unrestricted immigration. In spite of the progress made in recent years, these conditions are not yet fulfilled. And, for the sake of the immi- grants themselves, restricted immigration should be welcomed. It is only to be regretted that the restric- tions do not apply to Mexicans. For unless all signs fail, the Mexicans and Negroes from the South will take the place of the Slavs as the unskilled laborers in our mines and mills, and will be subject to the same economic and social exploitation that the Slavs have undergone. Restricted European immigration will not accomplish much in bettering the working and living conditions in industry as long as others are to be found who are willing to subject themselves to present conditions. Those who are interested in interpreting America to the Slavs and the Slavs to America should welcome the opportunity which restricted immigration gives us THE SLAV AND AMERICA'S FUTURE 179 to carry on such work without being constantly over- whelmed by the sheer volume of a continuous incoming' flood of new immigrants. We now have an oppor- tunity to catch up a little bit with our task. We can set about undoing the mistakes and atoning for the neglect of the past. We should now be in a better position to appreciate the contribution which our Slavic Americans are making and can make to American life. We should be able so to organize the work of our American social and religious agencies that Amer- ica will make its full contribution to the material, mental, and spiritual development of those Slavs who have cast in their lot with us. Contribution of the Slavs to America No one could have followed us thus far in our study of the life of the Slavs in America without realizing what a great contribution these immigrants have made and are making to our national life. In the first place, they have been a distinct economic asset* That miraculous industrial development which has within the last twenty-five years transformed America, made us the richest nation in the world and our standard of living the highest of any country, would not have been possible but for the coming of the Slavs and other immigrants to do the rough work of in- dustry. They have built our railways and roads, mined our coal, iron, and copper; made our steel. They have helped to transform the unbroken prairies 180 PEASANT PIONEERS ;nto our most productive farm lands. They are male- ing a success of farms long since abandoned by Amer- icans. As Professor Steiner says: "The man who goes into the depths of the mine and exchanges his 'day for night, that we may change the night into day; the man who faces the boiling caldron and draws ribbons of fire from the furnace for our safety and comfort . has justified his existence, and made ours easier, more beautiful, and safer." 1 The contribution which Slavic leaders have made to the life of their own people here, by assisting them to make their adjustment to America, by relieving: their distress, by helping to solve their problems, by interpreting America to their people and their people to America, has been a contribution to America since it has furthered the assimilation of the best in our Slavic peoples with the best in our American life. There appeared recently a little volume containing the biographies of representative American Czechs under the suggestive title, "These also Help to Build Amer- ica." These men are bankers, lawyers, Protestant tninisters, Catholic priests, doctors, editors, business men. Hardly any of them are known outside of Czech circles, but by their leadership of their own people they have indeed "helped to build America/' as have hundreds of Poles, Russians, and Jugoslavs. We go back into history and we find such names as Jan Hus, Komensky (Comenius), Kosciusko, Pu- laski, Copernicus, Gogol, Tolstoi, Turgeniev, and *From Alien to Citizen. E. A. Steiner. Page 325. THE SLAV AND AMERICA'S FUTURE 181 t)ostoyevsky enrolled among those who, directly or indirectly, helped to build America. In contemporary life we find Professors Michael Pupin and Nicola' Tesla, Serbs, and Dr. Ales Hrdlicka, a Czech, among the leaders in scientific circles. An American. Czech, Mr. Charles Vopicka, has been ambassador to various Balkan states. There are not a few Congressmen and other public servants of Slavic origin. Our business world is gradually being penetrated by Slavic concerns. In the ranks of teachers, lawyers, doctors, and bankers there are numerous Slavs. In the World War the Slavs sealed their loyalty to their country by the lives of thousands of their children, and there is scarcely a Roll of Honor which does not contain some Slavic name. In the world of music and art the contribution of ihe Slavs is impressive. Slavic names abound upon our musical programs, and in the catalogues of our art museums. Just to mention their names is sufficient Tschaikowsky, Dvorak, and Smetana among the composers; Kubelik and Kocian among the violinists; Paderewski among the pianists; de Reszke, Sembrich, Destinn, Burian, and Slezak among the singers; Uprka and Mucha among the artists. This is but a partial list of the Slavs who have enriched our cultural life. There is scarcely an orchestra of any prominence which does not contain among its members a goodly per- centage of Slavs. Surely the coming of several mil- lions of genuine music-lovers must be good for the soul of America. 182 PEASANT PIONEERS In the religious world the contribution of the Slavs is more potential than actual. But in the materialism of our generation, the simple, child-like faith of the Slav, his response to the appeal of the mystic cannot but have a beneficial effect, provided this faith is made the dynamic power of a practical godly life. I have no fear for the future of the Slavs in Amer- ica provided they are able to appropriate the idealism and moral standards of America at its best, and gain material prosperity without losing their soul. I have no fear for the future of America as far as it can be affected by our Slavic population, provided these people are not embittered by economic injustice and jby our commercialism, so as to dull those qualities of heart and soul which should constitute their great- est contribution to American life. The Slavs are ready for America and for American life. But is America ready for them? The Task of the Church This study book has failed of its purpose if it has failed to make clear that in the task of preparing America for the reception of our Slavic peoples into the very fabric of American life there are four projects to which Christian America must address herself : First: The Promotion of Industrial Justice. Second: The Creation of an Environment Favorable to Christian Living. Third: The Interpretation of America. THE SLAV AND AMERICA'S FUTURE 183 Fourth: The Reinterpretation of Christianity. The general lines along which the Protestant Church must proceed have already been outlined. It remains, however, for us to see what we as individual church members, as congregations, as denominations, as a united Protestantism can do to meet the needs of our Slavic Americans. If America is to be made really Christian, every one of us must "do his bit." If this study of the Slavs in America has in any measure achieved the aim of the writer, many readers when they have finished it will be asking the question, "What can I do?" No more fitting conclusion could be made to a study of this sort than to suggest by way of recapitulation ways and means by which we as Prot- estants can serve our Slavic brethren and meanwhile learn of them the lessons they have to teach. INTERPRETING AMERICA TO THE SLAVS AND THE SLAVS TO AMERICA SUGGESTIONS FOR A PROTESTANT PROGRAM Individual Church Members I. Establish friendly relations with individual Slavs. Through a Polish servant, a Czech workman, a Rus- sian employee, perhaps, or through casual business or social relations with men and women of Slavic origin, almost all of us can establish a point of contact with the Slavs. Many of these would be glad to have an 184 PEASANT PIONEERS American friend. All of them can open up a new world to most Americans. An illustration of what may be accomplished by such individual contacts is afforded by the Christian Americanization program of the Woman's American Baptist Home Mission Society. Acting on the princi- ple "that we can reach the women in their homes less by organization than by personal service; less by system than by sympathy; less by crowds than by quiet talks over the babies/' no less than 2,400 Baptist women have been enlisted for personal service to foreign-born women. The service rendered individuals in their homes includes everything from teaching English to the linguistically helpless foreigner, to sewing, cook- ing, and knitting lessons. Those who have entered upon this service as volunteers ftom their own churches report most enthusiastically concerning the way they are received by the foreign-born women. No doubt also the American-born women have gained as much from such first-hand contacts as have their foreign- born neighbors. 2. Make a study of the backgrounds and the Amer- ican life of some Slavic nationality. The story of the Slavic peoples is a fascinating one, especially in the light of recent European developments. Their con- tribution to American life is significant; find out what it is. 3. Do your fqll duty in making our public opinion Christian. Avoid the use of nick-names in referring to people of alien extraction. Decry prejudice against THE SLAV AND AMERICA'S FUTURE 185" foreigners. Outlaw the "better-than-thou" attitude. Do not be too extreme in condemning "Bolsheviks," "reds," and other radicals, until you understand the causes underlying industrial unrest in this country. 4. Make a point of going to the nearest Slavic church of whatever faith it may be to see what re- ligion means to these people, 5. Establish contacts with the nearest Protestant center for Slavic work, and show your personal in- terest in the minister and his work. If you can con- tribute time or money, he can tell you where that con- tribution will do the most good. 6. Inform yourself concerning the work your own! congregation and denomination are doing or ought to do for the Slavic people. There will always be ways in which you can help in the work, if you volunteer to do so. Local Protestant Chwrches 1. Make your church a hospitable church* If a 'foreigner should wander into your church, would he feel at Home there, and would there be a place for him in the life and work of the church? If you have Slavic neighbors, does the program of your church include them and their children? 2. Study your community and the races which Compose its population. If their needs are not being adequately met, your church is manifestly called of *9i .1 Tennessee 3,088 .1 Florida 3,717 .2 New Mexico 2,320 .6 Mississippi 2,286 .1 South Carolina 1*904 .1 Nevada 1,571 1 9 North Carolina 1,352 .04 Total 4,922,703 4.6