AMERICA’S PEOPLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 September 1940, Page 6

AMERICA’S PEOPLE

MIXTURE OF POPULATION. Some of the reasons why American opinion and policy are not fully’ understood abroad are given by James Truslow Adams in an article in the “Eng-lish-Speaking World." He writes: — Obviously no one American can speak authoritatively for all of the 130,000,000 or so of his fellow citizens. He can give only his impressions derived from a great variety of sources, spoken and printed, private and official. This article is not only unofficial but wholly informal. I am writing just as I would’talk with one of my old friends in London. Although here in America our institutions, language and literature descend mainly from Britain, we are a nation of large minorities, and the largest groups are from the totalitarian countries. Over one-third of the total population are foreign born or the children of foreign or mixed parentage. Let us list them:— Germans 6,800.000 Italians 4.500 000 British 4,300,000 Polish 3,300,000 Canadians 3,300,000 Scandinavians .... .... 3.100,000 Irish 3.100.000 Russians 2,600,000 Mexicans 1,400,000 Czechs 1,300.000 Austrians 900.000 Hungarians 680.000 French 500.000 70 other nations .... 3.900,000 Negroes, all native "born 12.000,000 We thus have, as minority groups, populations larger than those of many European countries, such a:: Sweden. Norway, Denmark. Switzerland, and others/ and we all get along happily together. The ordinary American cannot see why Europeans do not. People like myself, who have lived much abroad, can understand. Others cannot. On the other hand, most Europeans cannot understand us.