Nikola Tesla FBI Files - Page 249

MW ľ The American Way with Wallace). The same was true again in the period of Andrew Jackson, when American democracy took another long step forward. When Lincoln came along and started a new party, his most steadfast backing came from the numerous new-immigrant groups-Germans, Finns, Poles, Scandinavians and others. 30 This was quite natural. As new. comers who came here seeking liberty, abundance and opportunity, they had a more acute sense of what America professed, and they took American principles more seriously than many of the old-line Americans who had begun to be matter-of-fact, if not smug, about the country. As newcomers, they were somewhat outside the mainstream of American life. By going behind the cause of Wash. ington, Jefferson, Jackson and Lincoln, they became part of the mainstream. They promoted themselves from second-class citizens to firstclass. It was Americanization at its very best. It made history, it enriched the traditions, it integrated the new Americans into the country as a whole. Delegates join in singing the National Anthem. (Continued from page 29) Regardless of what some of our opponents have said, this fact is strictly and wonderfully in the American tradition. It is part of the Americaniza. tion process. It is according to the American Way. We are promoting ourselves from second-class to firstclass citizenship. This is resented by some of the Americans of the older strains, the self-styled standard Amer icans; but don't let that worry you too much. They, too, are being Americanized or re-Americanized as you as sume your full rights and duties of citizenship. Americanism has its standards, to be sure; very high standards; but it is not anything rigid or dead; it is alive, vital, open to change and enrichment. And it is quite natural, and very fortunate, that many of us in the new-immigrant groups have joined with many old-line Negro Americans, with many white Americans of the earlier immigration waves, with Henry Wallace, in this movement to form a new party and make it competent to deal with the complex problems looming before us. Many of us Slavic Americans already in 1946 and early in 1947, sensed that Henry Wallace was right, and we became part of the growing impulse to form a new party. WE FIGHT FOR A PEACEFUL WORLD FREE FROM FEAR AND WANT.. 100 ordinary people. But in the new immigration waves were also some extraordinary human beings. There was, for instance, a man of genius, Nikola Tesla. His numerous inven. tions now are one of the most impor. tant factors in the immense American industrial scheme which throbs with the high promises that pulsated through Tesla's brain, but which are also full of dangers. Personally, as one who happens to be proud of being of the same background as was Tesla, I feel it is my special duty to help do what is necessary to insure that Tesla's work, as well as the work of ordinary men and women, will go into the fulfillment of promises in our American Way of Life, rather than contribute to the catastrophe now threatening. Slavic Americans are part of the whole immense American dynamic which is as yet little understood, and is full of promises and dangers. By coming here, we of the new immigration greatly complicated the American civilization as it was, say, 90 or 100 years ago. Most Slavic immigrants became workers in the great industries, and now their energy is integral with the American scene as a whole. Most immigrants in the last 100 years or so worked hard. many of them too hard at too little pay, and helped to create a complex industrial machine which, lest it overwhelm us. now needs intelligent handling and control. It is our duty to take an active interest in finding an approach to the immense industrial, economic and social problems facing us: for. let me repeat, our coming here and our labors in the last several decades have helped to create these problems. Most of us who came over were 1942, Henry Wallace made his famous speech on "The Century of the Common Man." Nikola Tesla. who was a very uncommon man, publicly endorsed that speech in glowing terms. And I think that I speak not only for myself, but also for Tesla. when I assert that the American Way of Life is not the way of incredibly greedy monopoly profits and prohibitive prices for the necessities of life. Look at this picture: Millions of men in their best years who fought and suffered, many of whom will carry greater or lesser disabilities to their graves-veterans to whom we said Nothing is too good for you"-are unable to secure homes of minimum decency and convenience. Their fami. lies cannot be adequately fed with meat at 70 to $1.20 a pound. Whatever wage increases they may secure (Continued on page 32¹ 249