Respected citizens - delegates;

We all live by the present and are working for a bright and better future. Usually we look back at the past, only very reluctantly, because in that past we can see all our blunders, all our mistakes, our frustrated and shattered dreams.

But in public life not to look back at the past means to reject the experience of past generations and to repeat their mistakes which we could easily have avoided. It would mean to reject together with the mistakes and blunders, the achievements of our predecessors who have been laboring on the same field of public welfare, in which we are laboring now.

I seek to draw your attention for a short time from the poignant issues of the 2present, and to remind you of the fact that up to the present time we have stubbornly refused to become interested in our past here in America, and that this past of the Russian colonies persistently offers us the rich experience of Russians in America, their bequests and their spiritual heirloom.

If the study of the past, speaking generally, attracts chiefly historians studying all kinds of "tedious" special questions, such as archeology and even down to numismatics; the study of the past of the Russian colonies in America presents a great and immediate practical interest. It is so because the great transatlantic republic, in which we have found a refuge is at present very busy trying to achieve a cultural unification of all the various nationalities inhabiting this country. By this, we do not mean assimilation, an enforced or artificial transformation of all foreigners into "Americans". Such a mixture of nations, such an attempt to fit violently or artificially people with different cultures and languages into the same frame would be quite antagonistic to the spirit of American history and 3American liberty. America does not want to force its Hungarians, Italians, Syrians, Czechs to become Americans. America seeks to bring about a closer approach to each other of all foreigners, as well as the American aborigine. A coming together on the basis of common interests, common economic conditions of life, common ideals. Let us put this in a different and simpler way, thus; America does not say, for instance, to the Russian immigrant: "Renounce not only Russia, but everything that is Russian, your Russian ideals, Russian cultural habits,-and become an American." Lincoln's and Wilson's republic has another appeal to the immigrants. It tells them: "If you are our temporary guest, we are glad to serve you, to teach you those things in which we are superior to you, and learn from you those in which you excel. But if you want to become one of us, come nearer to us, and let our interests become yours.

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We put at your disposal the conquests made by our forefathers who have built our republic under the shadow of the flag of liberty. We know that our republic is not perfect, that we are still expected to do a great work in improving it. Come and help us, so that we can improve and crown this home of Liberty together with you, by our united efforts. Accept from us our ideals, but contribute also your share to the treasury of our culture; bring your cultural habits, your social ideals and your aspirations for Righteousness and Truth".

In its so called work of Americanization the American government has previously been trying to study out the contribution to American culture made by each of the nationalities forming the population of the United States. This work has just been started, but it has already shed a bright light on the fact that the immigration from Russia has been a powerful factor in the advance of American 5civilization during the last twenty-five years.

Only by a careful study of our past and present can we make clear to what extent we have repaid our great debt to the American republic which has opened wide its doors to us during those years of sad memory when the persecutions of the tsarist regime, poverty and hunger have driven us to seek a happier, better fact beyond the ocean.

We began to requite America for its hospitality in the sixties of the last century; when for the first time fugitives fleeing from the tsarist rule, bent their steps in the direction of the New World.

The Russian immigration to America is usually subdivided into two periods: 6the period of political immigration, or immigration of representatives of the Russian intelligentsia, and the period of mass - or economic immigration. Both these periods remain almost unexplored, except what is known about them from two or three articles published in magazines, and an unpretentious study of the Russian immigration published by the author of this report.

Yet, during both periods mentioned, Russian immigrants have had their say in various branches of American culture and civilization. Our pioneers among the immigrants were pure idealists who were seeking in the New World an opportunity to realize their ideas of the brotherhood and liberty of the nations inhabiting the earth. Some of these pioneers, such as Nicolai Vasilievich Tchaikovsky and Vladimir Vasilievich Heins, known better under the pseudonym of William Frey, have contributed to the work of organizing experimental Socialistic communes in America which have, no doubt, played a certain role in the creation of modern American socialism. Others, i.e., Sergey, Shevich, 7and Lev Hartmen, were fanning in the cities, the smoldering fire of the socialist movement, helping to convert it into a bright flame; others again have contributed to the growth of American industry. In this field of activity we had, and still have here such prominent workers as the mining engineer, Evgheniy Nicolayevich Engelhardt and Peter Alexyevich Demens, an active worker in one of the Russian Zemstvos. (Note: organs of local self-government which existed in Russian under the tsarist regime. D.S.). Both have played an important role in the industrial development of the state of California.

Do many of us know that a Russian physician, Dr. Neftel, was the first to introduce electric treatment of diseases in America; that another Russian physician, Dr. Sverchevsky, of the Kiev University, was occupying in the seventies a place of honor among the members of the American medical profession; that one of the members of the greatest medical institutions of America - of the 8Rockefeller Institute in New York - is a Russian immigrant; that scores of Russians occupy places of honor among the professors of American academic institutions.

Among the early Russian immigrants there were many who are close to the heart of every Russian; i.e., Ivan and Vladimir Dobrolubov, brothers of the great Russian critic, had to struggle for their existence in America. But we do not know anything about the life of these people, how they have toiled and what they have contributed to the constructive work being done in America; yet these contributions must undoubtedly have been considerable.

These very men, the bearers of Russian social and cultural ideals, awakened in America the interest in Russia, Russian literature, Russian art, Russian music, Russian folk-songs. They paved the way towards the cultural rapproachement 9of the Russian and American democracies. The creative spirit of the Russian people has succeeded in putting its mark on the American social ideals, on American literature, American art, and these influences have never been appraised.

The men and women of the mass, - or economic immigration, had to learn chiefly from America; yet their contribution to the building up of this country was not insignificant, whether we consider those who were working with the pick-ax, the shovel and the needle, or those Russian immigrants belonging to the working class who were participating in social constructive work, struggling side by side with their American friends, for the triumph of social justice, in the American republic.

The immigration of Russians to America has been going on for fifty years. One after another the pioneers who have broken a way into the New World for our 10generation, leave us depart for eternity. Two years ago Herman Rosenthal died, the founder of the first Russian agricultural colonies in America, a man who was respected by all those who knew him. In this year there has gone to a better world one of the founders of the "Oregon Commune", the Social revolutionist Dr. Paul Kaplan. The last witnesses of the past of the Russian colonies depart from this life.

On the other hand we can see clearer and clearer the necessity of the study of our present for the correct determination and enhancement of the role which the Russians should play in the family of national groups of America.

The study of the Russian immigration to America becomes an urgent problem. It is important for us, and is also important for the future of the Russian immigration if the latter will have any future.

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This is why I have the honor of proposing to the Chicago Convention the founding of a special Committee for the Study of Immigration.

The purpose of this Committee should be the study of the past and present of the Russian Immigration to America. For this purpose this Committee should be authorized: 1. To conduct investigations in the realm of Russian immigration and to encourage institutions and private individuals to investigate this matter.

2. To make agreements with existing historical sociological Societies concerning the collecting and publishing of materials about the Russian immigration.

3. To get information about the economic, cultural and spiritual needs of Russian immigrants, by means of questionnaires distributed among the members of Russian colonies.

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When the activities of this Committee will develop, its function could be enlarged in accordance with demands arising out of changed conditions.I believe that such a Committee will play a useful role in helping the Russians in America to achieve self-determination in cultural respect; and shall allow myself to urge the Convention to create such a Committee.

If the Convention would found some other institution which would have to do with immigration, the functions mentioned above could be entrusted to this institution instead of electing a special Committee, such as I have proposed.

With hearty greetings to the delegates of the first Russian Convention, devoted to the problems of the people's enlightenment.

New York, December, 1918.

Mark Vilchur