Yugoslavs in U. S.

Washington — When President Roosevelt let Yugoslavia know she could expect American aid in the way of war material, the announcement was highly welcome music to the ears of the 800,000 Yugoslavs who dwell in the United States.

The Southern Slavs have played a full role, not only in the United States of today but fairly far back in American history.

The present Yugoslav population of America is broken down as follows: Croats, 400,000; Serbs, 180,000; Slovenes, 220,000. Some came before the World War, a great number came during that war and the years that immediately succeeded it, and fewer came after Yugoslavia got on its feet, so to speak.

The main centers of Yugoslav population are Pennsylvania (particularly Pittsburgh), Ohio (particularly Cleveland), Michigan (particularly Detroit and Flint), and California. In the East the Yugoslavs are employed mainly in the coal mines, the steel mills and factories. In California they are farmers, orchard owners and fishermen.

Cleveland is the biggest Slovene city in the world outside of Ljubljana, capital of the Slovene section of Yugoslavia itself. They both have about the same Slovene population — 60,000.

The Slovenes in Cleveland support two daily papers published in their language and a number of weeklies and monthly magazines.

It is the general belief Yugoslavs began coming to this country within the past few decades. The fact is the first officially known arrival of a South Slav to these shores took place in 1642, when a Croatian, Baron Rataj, settled in what is now the United States.

Yugoslavia has a number of firsts to its credit in American history.

The first official map of what is now California was made by the Dalmatian, Fran Koscak, in the early 18th century.

The first version of the Bible in the language of the Chippewa Indians was made by the Roman Catholic Croat Bishop Baraga, who dwelled among those Indians in Michigan from the time of his arrival in the United States until his death in the early 18th century.

The first cultivated figs grown in California came from cuttings of fig trees imported from Dalmatia and planted by the Dalmatian farmer, Luka Jurisich, near Fresno.

The now celebrated Watsonville, Calif., apples originated from cuttings likewise brought from Yugoslavia by farmers of that country.

For years oysters in the Gulf of Mexico were dredged in a hit or miss fashion. It was Dalmatian fishermen, used to oyster planting in the Adriatic Sea, who in the Gulf of Mexico, off Louisiana, first started the regular business of planting oyster beds in fixed locations and dredging for them there when they reached their succulent maturity.

The Yugoslavs also have given America some famous names in science.

The late Michael Pupin, born in Yugoslavia, became one of the greatest wizards of electricity the United States possessed. He was not only professor of electromechanics at Columbia University, but he invented self-induction coils which largely made possible long distance telephony. Ultra-loyal to his adopted country, he made a present to the United States government of his invention reducing static interference with wireless transmission.

Dwelling in honored retirement in New York is 84-year-old Nikola Tesla, who came to this country after working for his native Serbia. During his busy career here he invented the telephone repeater, a system of arc lighting, the Tesla motor and system of alternating current power transmission, a generator of high frequency currents, and one for wireless transmission of power.