Nature has blessed this country with great natural wealth, but immigration has brought us even greater riches in the form of human resources. Andrew Carnegie, himself an immigrant, was well aware of this when he said, “Take away my factories, my railroads, my ships. Take away my money, strip me of all these things, but leave me my men, and in two or three years, I will have everything back again.”
Priceless Gifts
Transforming her immigrants as they have come, the United States has, in turn, been enriched and transformed by them. The immigrant has played an important part in our cultural as well as in our economic life. One immigrant, Franklin K. Lane, who became Secretary of the Interior, wrote feelingly of the contributions which the immigrant has made to American life.
Their music—dirge and dance and wassail song, proud march and religious chant, and their instruments for the making of music.
Their poetry—winged tales of man’s many passions, folk songs and psalm, ballads of heroes and tunes of the sea, lilting scraps caught from the sky and field, or mighty dramas that tell of primal struggles of the profoundest meaning.
Their art—fancies of the mind, woven in wood or wool, silk, stone, or metal, rugs and baskets, gates of fine design and modeled gardens, houses and walls, pillars, roofs, windows, statues and painting—their art and handcraft.
Homelike familiar things—a favorite tree or fruit, an accustomed flower, a style in cookery or in costume.
Hands with which to work.
Minds that could conceive.
Hearts filled with home—stout hearts to drive live minds; live minds to direct willing hands.