92 RURAL SOCIOLOGY 



will succeed in time, despite obstacles, but some common-sense 

 assistance would hasten the day of their prosperity. 



In other parts of the United States large set 1 lenient s of 

 Bohemians of no higher standard are prosperous and happy. 

 As an illustration of the status that should obtain the writer 

 would refer to some of the very prosperous communities of 

 Poles and Icelanders in North Dakota and elsewhere. No class 

 of citizens, whether immigrants or descended from immigrants 

 half a dozen steps removed, could ask for greater material prog- 

 ress, better buildings homes, churches, schools, and town build- 

 ings than the Polish settlements around Warsaw, Poland, 

 Minto, and Ardock in Walsh County, North Dakota. The 

 writer's knowledge of this and other communities of like char- 

 acter leads him to say that to encourage such settlements is to 

 foster prosperity and frugality as well as to place the stamp 

 of approval upon a home-loving, land-loving class of farmers. 

 If we pass on to settlements of Russians we may say nearly the 

 same as above. With a love for land and home which is almost 

 beyond our understanding, these people are too often frugal to 

 a fault. They come with a low standard of living and during 

 the first generation the standard does not rise much. But the 

 change soon comes. The children, or at least the grandchildren, 

 become thoroughly American unless the immigrants have been 

 located in an environment where success is impossible. In this 

 connection we might refer to such concrete cases as the settle- 

 ments in central and western North Dakota, or the large pros- 

 perous colony in Ellis County, Kansas, or the newer settlements 

 in the Southwest. 



Nor need we stop with the Swiss, Bohemians, Polanders, Ice- 

 landers, and Russians. If we turn our attention to the Italians 

 coming into the South we find them filling the various places 

 demanding attention. There is a large demand for white labor, 

 and the mass of Italians who do not intend to make this their 

 life-home more and more fill a long-felt need. With the great 

 numbers of Mexicans coming across the line for part of a season 

 this demand may gradually be better and better satisfied. There 

 is also a large demand for tenants, and this cry is being answered 

 by Italians. These newcomers are not only fitting into the 

 cotton-growing industry in competition with the colored people, 



