Saturday Spotting–Happy War Brides

KINGSTON, NEW YORK, JANUARY 4, 1947

HAPPY WAR BRIDES

By the middle of next year there will be

60,000 foreign-born girls in this country as

brides of American soldiers. Already there

are more than 40,000 here. The communities

throughout the land where they have settled

have received them with interest, usually

with cordiality. They have been the subject

of many press articles. And of course every-

one wants to know how they like America.

While statistics on such a personal matter

must be unscientific, one writer estimates

that all but five per cent of these marriages

are succeeding. There are instances like that

of the English girl from beautiful Somerset-

shire who could not face bringing up her

child in the grime and ugliness of a West

Virginia coal mining town where her hus-

band’s work took them. Housing shortages,

forcing a doubling up with his family, have

produced mother-in-law troubles. But by

and large even those girls from non-English

speaking European countries like life in the

United States with its liberty of speech and

action, its household comforts, its material

plenty and its freedom from war devastation.

America has a long history of assimilating

other nationals. This indeed has made

America. The newcomer brides, like the

other people from their homelands who have

come to these shores, will make this country

a better place and everybody hopes they will

be happy here.