92 ANDREW J. SHIPMAN MEMORIAL 



/comes to America where there is no State Church. In fact, 

 some assumed that they had left the Church, as an institution, 

 behind them in Italy, and some whom I have known were 

 much astonished to know that we had any laws here whatever 

 in regard to religious worship and decorum or church owner- 

 ship. Consequently they have not made an advance in church 

 life commensurate with their numbers. On the other hand, 

 nationalities such as the Slovaks or the Ruthenians, who have 

 for nearly two centuries struggled to maintain their language, 

 'nationality and oftentimes their Church, are fired through and 

 i through with the idea of making their church the nucleus of 

 Vheir settlement and progress here in America. This has 

 made them as eager as the Irish to build and maintain their 

 churches against all odds, and they have willingly and cheer- 

 fully given of their substances to do so. It is needless to 

 say that these immigrants are eager for and readily respond 

 to the influence which the Church seeks to bring to bear upon 

 them. In their desire to erect and maintain their churches 

 they regard them too often as their individual property and 

 are not amenable to ecclesiastical supervision, and too often 

 break out into factious disturbance and difference; but all 

 this may be paralleled in the history of the Irish Catholics in 

 the United States between 1815 and 1850. A distinguished 

 .ecclesiastic in New York City once assured me that until the 

 immigrant learned enough English and became actively inter- 

 ) ested in American politics, it was no matter of surprise that 

 he made a great deal of trouble and dissension in the parochial 

 politics of his particular local church. It was the only thing 

 he could take a vital, exuberant interest in, and he oftentimes 

 overdid the matter. But it was a sign of life, nevertheless, and 

 worth many times the conduct of mere indifference. 



Another thing from which the immigrants suffer in America 

 is the firm grasp which their home governments try to hold 

 over them. Emigration to America is not so much a matter of 

 ,-4nere volition, of desire originating in the breast of the immi- 

 ■ grant, as it used to be. It is now a matter of commercialism 

 ,v^ >, - to a very large extent. Steamship companies and ticket agents 

 V§' 'go through Europe stimulating emigration to America by 

 ^ every device they can invent, whether by advertisement, can- 

 vassing, moving pictures or other means, to set forth the 

 advantages of America. Enterprising labor agents, notwith- 



