Introducing the American Spirit Part 13

He took us to his temple in the bas.e.m.e.nt of a shabby looking American tenement. He showed us his Sunday-school room, picture cards with Golden Texts, club and cla.s.s rooms, and many devices borrowed from us, applied and perhaps improved upon by his j.a.panese genius. The day we left the city he brought us an invitation to luncheon at the home of the most prominent j.a.panese merchant in the place. Our hostess was a delightful woman educated in a Methodist school in her native country, and of course spoke English. Her husband, a conservative Buddhist, although he had been in this country for twenty years, was still j.a.panese to the core and spoke little or no English. There were several notables present, whose English was more or less j.a.panned. They were keen, well educated, and had absorbed enough of American culture to be baseball "fans."

During luncheon, which in our honor was served a la Nippon, we discussed the anti-j.a.panese legislation which at that time was menacing the peaceful relationship of the two countries.

All the j.a.panese agreed that they had no right to demand unrestricted immigration; but they were urgent that no cra.s.s distinction should be made between them and other races, and that they too should have the right to obtain citizenship when they had proved themselves fitted for it.

During this discussion the Frau Directorin and our host were carrying on a picturesque conversation; that is she did the talking and he smilingly said "Yes" to everything she said. She felt highly flattered that he understood her English, which was still about seventy-five per cent.

German, while his was ninety-nine per cent. j.a.panese.

That night as we were leaving the city a delegation met us at the station to complete their Oriental hospitality by presenting us with beautiful and valuable souvenirs.

After such brief and friendly relationships with these people it is easy to come to very one-sided conclusions about the problem they present to the people of California. The situation is serious, but not so serious that, in order to try to meet it, we must cease to be gentlemanly in our relation to them.

It is the peculiarity of all people who face race problems, to face them irrationally and to think that in order to maintain racial dignity one must insult, demean, and humble other races; and the people of the United States in general, and those of the Pacific Coast in particular, have not yet learned a better and more rational way.

Strong race prejudice is not necessarily a sign of race superiority, and the people who constantly proclaim their superiority by humiliating and persecuting others have a hard time proving it.

If what I was frequently told is true, that California "wants no immigrants unless they are something between a mule and a man," then I can understand their animosity towards the j.a.panese; for they are altogether human and want to be so treated.

Beside the many racial varieties with which we came in contact on the Pacific Coast, we found there all the types produced in the United States, and while neither the Herr Director nor myself was able to differentiate them by external variation, we discovered them by different and contending ideals. From that standpoint they were even more interesting than the Orientals. Every shade of political and religious opinion, every kind of economic doctrine, every variety of social standards we found, besides currents and cross currents not easily discerned or cla.s.sified. In spite of the difference in race, cla.s.s, religion and politics, we found three well defined ideas expressed, upon which there is such an agreement that they might be called the California Confession of Faith.

First and foremost is the belief in the climate and the resources of the state. There is no religious doctrine in existence unless it be the monotheism of the Jews, which is so dogmatically held as this faith, that California is unsurpa.s.sed in climate, productiveness, in all those opportunities for a leisurely existence (provided you have worked hard elsewhere to get the necessary money) as are offered by its mountains and sea, its luxuriant homes and all other factors which contribute to the health and happiness of mankind. The only possible rival to California is Heaven itself, and just because in these unbelieving and unregenerate days so many people are not sure that there is such a place, or if there is, are in doubt that they will have a mansion reserved for them, they are leaving the farms and towns of the more mundane Middle West and prosperous East to get a taste of Heaven in California before they go to that "bourne from which no" wanderer has returned.

The people of California forgive any heresy or unbelief except a doubt, however faint, about its climate and resources. From the shadow of Mount Shasta to the deepest depth of the Imperial Valley, whether we were so cold in summer as to need furs, or were hot enough to melt, or were choking from dust when we travelled through miles of unredeemed desert, we found this faith in the climate and resources of California unshaken.

The Herr Director asked why there were so many cemeteries in the midst of the most crowded streets, and only a nearer look convinced him that they were "for sale" signs of rival real estate agents, who flourish equally with the sage-brush and cactus.

The second idea upon which there is a common agreement is, that while California in particular is perfect as to climate and resources, the world in general is a dire place, and its wrongs need to be righted.

In spite of the fact that the climate invites to leisure, it has not as yet tamed the fighting spirit of this fine, manly race, which is never so happy as when it has something to do and dare. This state has admitted women to the duties of citizenship, that all may have an equal share in the fight. The issues at stake are worth battling for, and nowhere else is the struggle more intense and dramatic. Organized labor and capital have crippled each other in the desperate conflict, fierce always, and often brutal. Protestantism, unorganized and frequently inefficient, faces the Roman Catholic hierarchy, defending, as it believes, the public schools and democratic government itself: awakening, purified democracy is in deadly conflict with the demagogue entrenched by special privilege while the prohibitionists are engaged in most desperate conflict with the vinous industry of the state.

The third doctrine of the California Confession of Faith is, that here on the Pacific Coast the white race has been providentially placed to defend this country against the encroachment of the "Yellow Peril." It was illuminating though painful to find that race prejudice is as intense here as in the South, and as unreasoning, and that one is as helpless against it as against a flood or fire. All one seems to be able to do is to accept it as a fact, and treat it like a contagious disease.

If there is any danger to the white race at the Pacific Coast, it is not the presence of the j.a.panese or Chinese in limited numbers; it is the att.i.tude of mind which has been created among Americans there, and that may bring its own vengeance.

It was a great joy to introduce my guests to California, its orange groves and vineyards, its marvellous cities and palatial homes. It is a state to glory in; but strange to say I was somewhat depressed when I left it. The Herr Director said he missed my "brag and bl.u.s.ter."

Everything was beautiful and bountiful, even as the real estate agents have advertised; yet there were some things I found and some things I missed which took the "brag and bl.u.s.ter" out of me.

Its pioneer spirit is weakened by the accession of a large, leisure cla.s.s, and how or where the next generation will find a grappling place for vigor of body, mind and spirit, is still a great question. To eat one's bread by the sweat of some ancestor's brow, to be challenged daily by the luxury of a limousine rather than by the hardships of the prairie schooner, to have as the end and aim of one's day the winning of a Polo match, or the making of a golf score, must ultimately bring about a decadence of spirit, even though one retains for a while litheness of body and activity of mind.

The boasted democracy of California is threatened, not only by the presence of a large leisure cla.s.s and the necessary serving if not servant cla.s.s, but also by a lack of faith in humanity, without which no democracy is safe and enduring. To California has been transferred all that unfaith gendered by the advent of the negro, and if there were ever a chance to revive the inst.i.tution of slavery, that state might offer some hope for its revival.

The Californians who fear for the white race because of the presence of the Oriental, whom that fear has made vain, boastful, ungenerous and reckless of the feelings of others, need to know that a greater danger threatens the race--the decay of the democratic spirit, which languishes and perishes unless it permits to all men free access to the best it holds, regardless of "race, color, or previous condition of servitude."

Because I had lost my "brag and bl.u.s.ter" and wished to recover them, I took my guests, who were now homeward bound, to the one place which might fitly crown their experiences--the Grand Canyon, where one is apt to forget humanity and its fretting problems.

I must confess that by this time I was quite worn out; for introducing your country to a stranger is wearing business, especially when you are dealing with _blase_ globe-trotters, who have done all the big things, from the Alps to the Dead Sea, and have had to crowd into a brief month the best which lies between New York and California. To do this with a lover's adulation, endeavoring more or less skillfully to hide defects and make the bright spots brighter still, may well tax one's nerves.

I acted as a sort of shock absorber, for I determined that the journey should be a joltless one for my guests; but in that I partially failed; for not only did I receive the shocks myself, I could not keep them from receiving some.

One of the worst of these jolts I suffered at the Grand Canyon of the Colorado. I was very sure of the Canyon itself; I knew it would put a thrill into the Herr Director, and force an expression of it out of him. I never worried about the Frau Directorin. We reached the Canyon in that happy mood gendered by a combination of Harvey meals and Pullman berths, and the sight of the friendly inn at the brink of the big surprise, and the cheer of the big log fire in the raftered room drew an involuntary exclamation of pleasure from the Herr Director. He registered, then asked the clerk for a room fronting the Canyon.

"Yes siree!" said the obliging young man as he attached a number to the Herr Director's long and illegible signature; "I'll give you a room so near that you can spit right into it."

Naturally I received the first shock; a minute later it communicated itself to the Herr Director. It did not reach the Frau Directorin, for her English fortunately was still limited; she kept on looking at the bright Navajo rugs, while the clerk smiled at his own smartness. The Herr Director commanded to have his bags taken to his room, and turning from the desk said: "Young man, I am a German, and I want you to understand that we do not spit in G.o.d's face."

The next morning the great Canyon was full of mist, and only faint outlines of its t.i.tanic architecture were visible. As we stood at the edge of the wondrous chasm, watching the last cloud being driven from the depths as the moisture was absorbed by the dry, desert air, the Frau Directorin was shaken by emotion as she gasped at intervals: "_Um Gottes Himmels Willen!_" The Herr Director, his feelings better controlled, said nothing; but after a long silence, muttered under his breath: "I should like to throw that clerk down this abyss as a penalty for his desecrating thought."

Every few minutes I heard him saying, as he shook his head: "Just think of it! Just think of it!"

I did not disturb him or ask him what he thought of it for I knew he could not tell, nor can any one. I think he felt as I felt, that all the cities he had seen were as nothing compared with this wonder of nature; that all the pillared post-offices and libraries which our cunning hands have scattered over this broad land are trifling toys compared with this templed miracle; that all our dreams of what we might paint or fashion or carve, or build, are child's play compared with this, and that we ourselves are mere nothings in the presence of what G.o.d hath wrought here in stone and clay, in color and form.

Never before had I so wished that I could rearrange the geography of the United States as when we turned eastward from the Grand Canyon. If I had the power of Him who shaped this earth I would have put it within a mile of the Atlantic Ocean and within a stone's throw of the Hoboken dock, and having shown my guests the Canyon, I would have put them on board their home-bound steamer, and as they sailed away I would have cried out with ancient Simeon: "Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace!"

XIII

_The Grinnell Spirit_

Between the Grand Canyon and the ship there might be "many a slip,"

especially as I was to conclude my guardianship of the travellers in my own town, prosaically placed in the great Mississippi Valley, which consists of two plains--one at the top and the other at the bottom, filled with corn and hogs, and most prosperous and contented people.

The place towards which we journeyed holds two things which are the biggest, most beautiful, and best things in the world--my home and my work, both of which my guests wished to see. I was anxious that they should; for there, if anywhere, they could come close to that I gloried in most, the American Spirit.

After the barren plains, the monotonous miles of sage-brush, and the long, straight stretches of railroad tracks, it was good to look upon green meadows and commodious farmhouses sheltered by groves of maple and elm, and surrounded by great fields of young corn just peeping above the black, rich clods.

During the last few hours of the trip the Herr Director thought every station at which the train stopped was our destination, and began gathering his various belongings. When finally we reached it he jumped out almost before the train stopped, so eager was he to see the place where he was to spend at least a fortnight, and really see the American home from the inside.

Again fortune favored me. It was early June. The air was soft from recent rains, the gra.s.sy lawns were wonderfully green; peonies were opening their buds, adding touches of color, s...o...b..a.l.l.s hung thick upon the bushes, and blooming roses filled the air with sweet odors.

It seemed as if our neighbors had conspired to make the town ready for my distinguished visitors, and I could see that they enjoyed the peace of it, the friendliness of the park-like streets, the sight of well-kept homes set in gardens, and the cordial greetings of the people we met.

Their appreciation of all they saw before reaching the house, and their evident delight in the rooms prepared for them, not to mention their astonishment at finding their trunks awaiting them there, afforded me not only pleasure, but a great sense of relief; I felt that the race was won. I had faith to believe that they would be happy in our town of six thousand inhabitants, which is not unlike other places of the same size.

It has its public park, two or three shopping streets, churches, schoolhouses, a few factories large and small, clubs, lodges, and all the things of which like towns may legitimately boast; yet it has a background peculiarly its own.

It was founded by an intrepid pioneer who brought a colony of New Englanders from the hills of Ma.s.sachusetts to this treeless prairie, and with the imperious will of his race said: "Let there be a town!" And lumber was carted over miles of deep mud, cabins were built and there was a town.

And again he said: "Let there be a railroad!" And he diverted the course of a great railroad system miles out of its way, and there was a railroad.

And he said: "There must be no saloon in this place!" So more than half a century before strong drink was acknowledged to be a social and physical foe, he had seen its true nature and put prohibition into every deed of real estate, thus making it impossible for liquor to gain a foothold.

Years pa.s.sed and he said: "Let there be a college!" and he brought one across the state, and there was a college; a young, infant thing just started by Christian missionaries who had come from the East, each of them to plant a church, all of them to plant a college.

This infant educational inst.i.tution was put into its rude cradle in the midst of an unshaded campus, and when it had grown to generous size, with buildings to house it and trees to shade it, a cyclone swept the campus bare, and instead of a joyous Commencement, which was but a few days distant, there were funerals and desolation, wreck and ruin.

On a pile of debris sat the same pioneer with a determined smile playing upon his face, and at once, while the tears upon the mourners' cheeks were still wet, he and others like him began rebuilding the town and the college.