The presence of foreigners in this country have brought on dislike by some Americans, especially now that the country is trying to overcome major problems. There can be no question about the average American's Americanism or his desire to preserve his precious heritage at all cost. Nevertheless,some insiduous foreign ideas have wormed their way into his civilization without him realizing what is going on.
Dawn finds the unsuspecting patriot garbed in pajamas, a garment of East Indian origin, and lying in a bed built on a pattern which originated in either Asia Minor or Persia. He is muffled to his ears in un-American materials:cotton first domesticated in the Near East; wool from an animal native to Asia Minor;or silk, the first of which was discovered in China. All these substances have been transformed into cloth by methods invented in Southwestern Asia.
On awakening, he glances at the clock, a medieval European invention, uses one potent Latin word in an abreviated form, rises in haste, and goes to the bathroom. But the insiduous influence pursues him even here. Glass was invented by Ancient Egyptians,use of glaze tiles for floors and walls in the Near East, the porcelain in China, and the art of enameling on metal by the Mediterranean artisans of the Bronze Age. Even his bathtub and toilet are but slightly modified copies of Roman originals. The only purely American contribution to the ensemble is the steam radiator. I should say that the soap he uses was invented in ancient Gauls. He shaves, a masochistic rite which seems to have been derived from either Sumer or Ancient Egypt.
For the sake of brevity, I will skip over his getting dressed and the dishes he uses for breakfast. Breakfast now over, he places upon his head a molded piece of felt invented by the nomads of Eastern Asia and, if it looks like rain he puts on an outer pair of shoes made of rubber, discovered by the ancient Mexicans and takes an umbrella invented in India. He then sprints for the train--the train, not the sprinting, being an English invention. At the station he pauses for a moment to buy a newspaper, paying for it in coins invented in Lybia. Once on board, he settles back to inhale the fumes of a cigarette invented in Mexico, or a cigar invented in Brazil.
Meanwhile,he reads the news of the day, imprinted in characters invented by the ancient Semites by a process invented in Germany, written upon a material invented in China. As he scans the latest editorial pointing out the dire results of his institutions accepting foreign ideas, he will not fail to thank a Hebrew God in an Indo-European language that he is a one hundred per cent (decimal system invented by the Greeks)American (from Americus Vespucious, Italian geographer).
Would'nt you agree that we cannot do without the "foreigners"?
