But this original British character has been modified first by life in a new land and then by the coming of people from other countries. Though in 1790, when the first census was taken, 69 percent of the population was of British origin, even then the American people were no longer British. Something had happened to them in the new land.

Since 1790 the British predominance in national background has been greatly modified. The most common American family names such as Jones, Brown, Smith, and Johnson are English. However, for a majority of Americans En^and is no longer “our old home” as it was for the writer Nathaniel Hawthorne a century ago. The great immigration from other countries began in the early nineteenth century. Before 1860 the people came largely from northern and western Europe or Canada. The potato feminine in Ireland brou^it one-fifth of the population of Ireland (1, 500，000 people) to the United States between 1840 and 1855. In the 1850s the Germans were the chief immigrants. In the latter part of the nineteenth century new streams from other areas came in. In 1870, 123, 000 Chinese entered the United States, largely to work as laborers on the west coast. Between 1880 and 1910 most of the migration came from Southern and eastern Europe. During this period the United States received 3, 000, 000 Italians, 2，000， 000 Russians，and 1, 500，000 Jews, 71 percent of whom came from Russia. The mingling of all these people in a new country has produced a new culture, some aspects of which we shall discuss in the paragraphs that follow.

The time at which these various groups came has influenced the extent to which they have mixed into American society. Many of the more rcccntly immigrating groups have found employment as factory workers in large dties, and people from a given country tend to find housing in the same area. San Francisco has its Chinatown complete with its own telephone exchange and daily newspaper. The Polish and Italian sections of Chic^o are second only to Warsaw and Milan in the number of inhabitants from those countries. Los Angeles has a Mexican population second only to Mexico City. New York has a larger Jewish population than any other city in the world. More than half of all New Yorkers are either foreign-bom or of foreign-born parents. In that dty there are sections called “Little Italy, “Little Poland, ” and “Little Russia. ” It is therefore no surprise that in New York dty newspapers arc published in two hundred languages besides En^ish. Wherever such national groups are gathered, it is only natural that they remain a group apart They speak their native language amoi^ themselves and preserve their old customs. Thus older groups in the United States tend to regard these recent immigrants as foreigners, a tendency disappearing as the groups become assimilated. Since recent immigrants came largely from southern Europe or countries such as Greece, Italy, or the Slavic countries, it is the Italians and Greeks or Hungarians and Slavic people \^io are commonly so termed. The older groups are often made up of people originally as poor as or poorer than the newcomers; but because they have been in America longer, they have been able to develop the resources of the area and rise to positions of dominance in the community.

In spite of this tendency, however, America is not deeply divided socially according to national background or the length of time one’s ancestors have lived in this country. This is particularly true after the first generation. Immigrants gradually become assimilated. Differences of national background have become more a matter of pride than of social distinction and do not hold groups apart firom the community.

Regional rather than national differences often characterize the people of certain areas and add another element of diversity to the population of America. The works of American poets, authors， musicians, and artists often reflect their ancestral background or portray typical features of the region where they live. Exaggeration of regional differences forms the basis of much American humor. The New Englanders who have lived for generations on rocky soil have had to labor hard to gain a living from their farms. They have a reputation^ not wholly corrcct, for being silent and stem and careful with their money. Texas is so big that Texans think of everything connected with the state as being equally large: all ranches are as big as counties and every man is at least 8 feet tall and lights his cigar with a thousand-dollar bill. It is true that Texas is favored in natural resources, but neither the state nor the people arc quite as big as the natives would have you think.

In certain isolated mountain regions, particularly in the East, there are people whose poor farms and lack of contact with the outside world have bred poverty and provincialism. The people are called “mountaineers，” and the popular conception is that they never wear shoes, are always Uniting with the neighbors, and will shoot a stranger on sight. There are elements of truth and of exaggeration in this picture also.

With all of these groups making up the American people, it may seem surprising that American society is as uniform as it is. American culture has typical features, and perhaps one of the most characteristic is the blending of all the diverse strains to produce distinctive American customs and ideals.

From its very beginnings America has been a magnet to the people of the earth. They have been drawn to its shores from anywhere and everywhere, from near and far, from hot places and cold places, from mountain and plain, firom desert and fertile field. This magnet, three thousand miles wide and fifteen hundred miles long, has attracted every type and variety of human being alive. White people, black people, yellow people, brown people; Catholics, Protestants, Quakers; Baptists, Methodists, Unitarians8,. Jews Spaniards, Ei^lishmen, Germans，Frenchmen, Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Chinese，Japanese，Dutch, Bohemians, Italians，Austrians, Slavs, Poles, Rumanians, Russians 一 and the list is only just begun;

farmers, miners, adventurers, soldiers, sailors, nch men, poor men，beggarmen, thieves, shoemakers, tailors, actors, musicians, ministers, ei^ineers, writers, singers, dicchdiggers, manufacturers, butchers, bakers, and candlestick makers.

First came the Norsemen; then an Italian sailing in behalf of Spain; then another Italian sailing in behalf of En^and; then Spaniards, Portuguese, En^ish, French; then an Englishman sailing for Holland. All of them discovered parts of America, explored a bit, dien raised their country’s flag and claimed the land. They returned home and told stories (some of them true) of what they had seen. People listened and believed and came. Millions came within three hundred years, sometimes at the rate of a million a year.

This unique immigration of peoples was not accomplished without difficulties and clangers. To cross the ocean in modem steamships over nine hundred and scvcnty-fivc feet long wei^iing over ei^ity thousand tons，is one thing. But to cross the Atlantic in a sailboat perhaps ninety feet long and twenty-six feet wide, with a tonnage of only three hundred was quite another thing. For over two hundred years the earlier immigrants poured into the United States in just such boats as these. Remember, too, that in those days there were no refrigerators — fish and meat had to be salted to be preserved, and very often the crossing took so long a dme that all the food rotted.

“In Europe there were lafge numbers of people without land; in America there were large areas of practically free land without people. ”

A bigger and better loaf of bread, then, America. But many came for other reasons. One was religious p>ersecution. If you were a Catholic in a Protestant country, or a Protestant in another kind of Protestant country, or a Jew in almost any country, you were oftentimes made very uncomfortable. You m^ht have difficulty in getting a job, or you mi^it be jeered at, or have stones thrown at you, or you might even be murdered 一 just for having the wrong (that is, different) religion. You learned about America where your religion didn’t make so much difference, where you could be what you pleased, where there was room for Catholic, Protestant, Jew. To America, then!

Or perhaps you had the right religion but the wrong politics. Perhaps you thought a few people in your country had too much power, or that there should be no kings, or that the poor people paid too much taxes, or that the masses Of people should have more to say about governing the country. Then, oftentimes, your government diought you were too radical and tried to get hold of you to put you into prison, where your ideas might not upset the people. You didn’t want to go to prison, so you had to leave the country to avoid being cau^it Where to go under the circumstances? Some place where you could be a free man, where you weren’t clap- ped into jail for talking. Probably you turned to the place Joseph described in his letter to his brother. “Michael, this is a glorious country; you have liberty to do as you will. You can read what you wish, and write what you like, and calk as you have a mind to, and no one arrests you. ” Off to America!

For several hundred years America was advertised just as cigarettes and cars are advertised today. The wonders of America were told in books, pamphlets, newspapers, pictures, posters 一 and always this advice was given, “Gome to America. ” But why should anyone be interested in whether or not Patrick McCarthy or Hans Knobloch moved from his European home to America? There were two groups interested at different times, but for the same reason — business profits.

In the very beginning, over three hundred years ago; trading companies were organized which got huge tracts of land in America for nothing or almost nothing, That land, however，was valueless until people lived on it, until crops were produced, or animals killed for their furs. Then the trading company would stein, buy things fn>m the settlers and sell things to them — at a profit The Dutch West India Company, the London Company, and several others were trading companies that gave away land in America with the idea of eventually making money on cargoes from die colonists. They wanted profits 一 needed immigrants to get them 一 advertised — and people came.

In later years, firom 1870 on, other groups interested in business profits tried to get people to come to America. The Cunard line, the White Star line, the North German Lloyd, and several others earned money only when people used their ships. They therefore sent advertisements to all parts of the world to get people to travel to America — in their ships. They sent not only advertisements, but also agents whose business it was to “hunt up emigrants. ” All the other reasons mentioned before were operating, and along came a man who promised to help you, gave you complete directions, aided you on all the little details that were necessary, sometimes even got you a passport, and finally led you to the right ship — To America!

For one reason or another, then, people were attracted to America and came of their own free will. There were others who came not because they wanted to, but because they had to.