Nase Novine, May 05, 1982

              Grandsons was published in 1935 and
begins shortly after the Armistice od World
War I. It is the story of Peter Gale whose
grandfather, Anton Gale came to the
United States in 1870. The author, a
soldier, meets Peter and says how he is of
Slo.mlan descent and Peter starts telling
him about his grandfather who came to the
United States and married an American
Indian. They were Slovenian and the
grandparents were Slovenian and Indian.
He talks,, about the type of life the
grandfather had as an immigrant in the
United States and the prejudice against
him. He was involved in the labour riots of
the 1800s and was killed in the hay market
explosion in Chicago. The Indian grand-mother
remarried another immigrant fellow
from Dalmatia named Ivan Krmpotich. This
marriage produced two children, Tony and
Andy. Andy had two children named Peter
and Andrew.
Andrew is the fellow the story is about.
He talks about the immigrant community
he grew up in, and how they were more or
less segregated, had their own church,
social centre, etc. Then the war comes. He
talks about his experiences in the war and
then he is discharged. Years and years go
by and Peter and the author meet up again.
By now its the late 1920s and the
depression has started.
The book talks about depression times,
unemployment, union problems and une-qual
distribution of wealth. In the conclu-sion
of the book, Peter promises to join
the author in the old country, Carniola. He
has a brother Andrew who gets involved
with crime and becomes a criminal. Hi:,
sister marries a salesman. They live in a
high, prestigous house and his sister is
the success of the family. The granddau-ghter
of this immigrant peasant is the one
who really moves up in the world, and the
brother Andy changes his name. Hi is
killed in gang warfare. Peter promised to
go back to the old country but his lungs
were seriously damaged from the type of
work he was forced to do. Peter decides to
write a book called Grandsons talking
about the 'rise of this immigrant family
through generations but he realizes he
probably isn't going to get the chance to
do so. He is going todie. He writes a letter
to the author, who at this time is in
Yugoslavia, travelling and taking notes,
etc. he asks the author to write the story of
the three generations of his family, and he
thinks Grandsons would be a good title to
use. His greatest regret is that he never
returned to his ancestoral home before he
died.
A culmination of Adamic's concern for
his adapted country is reached in the book
A Nation of Nations. He dedicated this
book to Merritt H. Perkins whose Puritan
ancestors came to the United States in the
seventeenth century and to all Americans
who have remarked, "Why don't jou go
back where you came from?" He again,
looks at what he calls the psychological
civil war in the United States. This
psychological war has the following
fronts: the privileged vs. the underprivile-ged;
isolation vs. internationalism; Catho-lic
vs, Protestant; Gentile vs. Jew; White
vs, Negro; old-stoc- k Americans vs. foreig-ners
vs, each other.
He says there are two ways to look at the
history of the United States. Firstly, "the
United states is an Anglo Saxon country
with a white Protestant Anglo Saxon
civilization struggling to preserve itself
against infeltritation and adulteration by
other civilizations brought here by Blacks
and hords of foreigners". Secondly, "the
pattern of the United States is not
essentially Anglo Saxon although her
language is English, nor is the pattern
Anglo Saxon. The many lands, molded
into threads; diversity is the pattern and
the fabric is made of different colours".
Another way to put is the United States is a
new civilization owing a great deal to the
Anglo Saxon strain, also owing a great
deal to the other elements in its heritage in
growth, and the interplay of its people. The
plentitude of its resources and the skill all
these people have trought here, helped in
the development of the United States for
the last three centuries. People have come
to the United States and contributed, and
yet these people are talked about as the
immigrant problem (eg. the Black prob-lem).
He doesn't like the idea of "we and
they". Adamic thinks it is a very dangerous
attitude to prevail. So, his book, A Nation
of Nations, shows how immigrants have
built the United States. Adamic feels
immigrants have done so much for the
United States, their contribution should be
recognized.
The book Two Way Passage was also
made possible by a grant from' the
Carnegie Foundation of New York. At the
very beginning of the book, Louis Adamic
states that the ideas are his own and he
disclaims that he's not connected with any
organization within the Unites States
government. He starts the book by
predicting that a war in Europe ;s
inevitable and he gives the following
reasons. The old-wor- ld Europe is cracking
up. The Spanish Civil War was not a war at
all but merely a rehearsal for the next
World War. In the United States he talks
about social and racial tensions and the
political climate of the United States being
ready for a revolution. At this time he
mentions his next project which he calls
The Plymouth Rock Ellis Island. "Plymo-uth
Rock" personifies the old stock
Americans; "Else Island" — new immig-rants.
The point of landing for immigrants
would be the new immigrant book about
the interplay of relations among people of
different backgrounds; the attitude of the
old line Americans to America. Adamic
talks about the reasons for immigration,
political oppression, terrorism, massac-res,
traditional compulsory army service,
militarism and wars, and life in the
ghettos, the problems for females of being
old maids, they're coming to the United
States to find a husband, the economic,
social, cultural or personal frustration (be
it actual or potential) of imigrants. Then,
he talks about what he calls the mother
country psychology. He compares the
attitude of Anglo-Saxo- n Americans to that
of the continental immigrant groups,
native people or foreigners. The Americans
aim is to wear away or disconnect them
with the old country, to make them a
cultural zero, so they are drained of their
history and they have not intercontinuity.
Attitudes of the Americans is based on a
belief that immigrants are trying to form
colonies in the United States and keep all
their attitudes, organizations, etc.
The American ideal is unity within
diversity. There has to be a balance
between the right of the individual and
those of the society. Adamic points out
that you can have unity without uniformity
and that the American ideal is unity within
diversity. Immigrants are torn between
their loyalties toward the old country and
the old culture and being assimilated into
the American way of life. American
cultural patterns do clash with the old
world ways. He gives a few personal
anecdotes of people' he has known. One is
the history of an American of German
origin. Where did his sympathies lie when
the second world war broke out? Was he
going to fight his relatives in Germany? In
relation to this question, Adamic talks
about organizations and the role of
organizations. He is referring to organiza-tions
between 1914 and 1919. He feels
these political organizations vere instru-mental
in destroying the German, Austro-Hungaria- n
and Turkish empires. Because
of these organizations, Yugoslavia, Cze-choslovakia
and Poland were created. He
also discusses the United States' involve-ment
in World War I. They started with an
attitude of isolationism and in his opinion
it was the old "country responsibilities"
that dragged the United States into
World War I and led to the creation of
theLeague of Nations. He also writes
about the festival of nations which was
held in St. Paul in 1939. at the festival of
nacions a committee was created to bring
over a score of the best Slovenian cultural
workers and Alovenian treasures. He also
mentions the fact that his book, The
Natives Returs was condemned in Yugo-slavia
before World War II. He gives a brief
history of Dr. Edward Benz, a Czech leader
in exile and how his story was used to
rouse the English and French out of their
apathy. He speculates on Europe beco-ming
free from the old colonial attitudes
and some form of a socialist state being
implemented. The concept of two passage
is the people coming to the United States
and then returning home. Although they
might be living and working in America,
their attitudes, loyalties and part of their
families are still in the old oounlry. He
refers to the plight of these people during
World War I. They were living in America,
wanted to stay out of the war, yet wanted
to help the old country. He takes the case
of the Polish-America- ns who were the
most responsive to the old country and is
an excellent example of the old country
complex where the people are caught In