The Foreigner in America
Mary Antin is talking all through the country of the wonderful things America does for the foreigner. These things are not true.
I went the other night to an affair given by a Norwegian woman and her husband before a gathering of Chicago’s representative intellectuals. The woman was Borgny Hammer, an actress of tremendous power from the National Theatre, Christiania. Mme. Hammer plays Ibsen so well that there is not much chance of her playing it very often. On this particular evening she gave some Björnson things and talked with naive fervor of Norway as compared with this commercialized land. Her intensity was so authentic and so beautiful and so moving that it became almost pitiable in that stiff, self-contained room. Mme. Hammer could be playing Ghosts and Master Builder and Beyond Human Power, could be giving nightly inspiration to thousands of unimaginative Americans if America was able to offer the foreigner one tenth of what the foreigner brings to America.
Not long ago the Hebrew Institute of Chicago refused its platform to Alexander Berkman who was to speak there on the Schmidt and Caplan case. Some one who sympathized with the action of the directors explained to me that it was a wise move on their part because the foreigners, especially the Russian Jews, are so easily inflamed. Thank heaven they are! If only something could be done to inflame the American. Well—there is always the flag....
The Russian Class
The group for the study of Russian literature will have a preliminary meeting in room 612 Fine Arts Building on Friday, January 14, 1916, at 8 p. m. All interested are invited.
The Illusions of “The Art Student”
There has made its appearance in this city of ours a new magazine, The Art Student. Its desire, according to the editor’s announcement, is to “help establish a bond of understanding between the American student of the allied arts and the public.”
This aim is commendable and deserves the co-operation of everybody unselfishly interested in the promotion of American art.
The reason for this publication at the present time is also given in that announcement. It says there: “With all Europe at war and its art centers crippled, it is not only America’s opportunity, but her duty, to preserve and promote art in its various forms.”