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diff --git a/old/69409-0.txt b/old/69409-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index cc43757..0000000 --- a/old/69409-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,4037 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Straight America, a call to national -service, by Frances A. Kellor - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Straight America, a call to national service - -Author: Frances A. Kellor - -Release Date: November 22, 2022 [eBook #69409] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Charlene Taylor and the Online Distributed Proofreading - Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from - images generously made available by The Internet - Archive/American Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRAIGHT AMERICA, A CALL TO -NATIONAL SERVICE *** - - - - - - _OUR NATIONAL PROBLEMS_ - - - STRAIGHT AMERICA - - - - - [Illustration] - - - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS - ATLANTA· SAN FRANCISCO - - MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED - LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA - MELBOURNE - - THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. - TORONTO - - - - - STRAIGHT AMERICA - - A CALL TO NATIONAL - SERVICE - - BY - - FRANCES A. KELLOR - - - New York - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - 1916 - - _All rights reserved_ - - - - - COPYRIGHT, 1916, - BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. - - Set up and electrotyped. Published June, 1916. - - - Norwood Press - J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. - Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. - - - - - TO - THE PRESIDENT-ELECT OF 1916 - - - - - CONTENTS - - -CHAPTER PAGE - - I. WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH AMERICA? 1 - - II. AMERICANISM 21 - - III. THE NATIVE AMERICAN 43 - - IV. AMERICA-MADE CITIZENS 91 - - V. THE POPULAR VOTE 127 - - VI. NATIONAL UNITY 153 - - - - - STRAIGHT AMERICA - - - - - CHAPTER I - - WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH AMERICA? - - -For the first time in its history, America, broadly speaking, is -consciously ashamed. However divided we may be upon preparedness, -neutrality in thought has not brought peace of mind. We find ourselves -making explanations and apologies. In the midst of unprecedented -prosperity, we are restless and dissatisfied. Smoldering in the hearts -of men is desire for change, fermenting in their minds is a demand -for national leadership. The situation defies accurate analysis. It -is not that we want war or that we favor militarism. Rather it is -that our powers are dormant, our aspirations unexpressed, our beliefs -unformulated, our attitude misrepresented, our motives misunderstood, -and our presence in the world’s conflict unnoted. - -We sit supinely under insult, injury, and violation of rights and -laws, expressing such resentment and reaction as we have by sending -relief funds and relief ships abroad, by making loans and munitions, -by newspaper editorials, and by public speeches. We give vent to our -feelings in a campaign for preparedness that urges Congress to pass a -few feeble, disconnected defense bills, that organizes numerous defense -organizations that are frantically busy collecting members and fees and -holding meetings. We urge taking what we can get rather than insisting -upon what we need. The result is, a large part of our energy goes into -talk, which is not helping us greatly to really focus as a nation in -this great crisis in the world’s history. - -What really hurts us most is the realization that we, who think of -America as the most prosperous, energetic, efficient, inventive, -and best organized nation in the world, have suddenly discovered -that we are nationally the most unprepared for united service in any -field--geographical, military, industrial, economic, social, or -educational. In vision, independent thinking, and citizenship we are -not more prepared. In fact we have hardly yet begun to think of these -in terms of national service. - -We are still stunned by the realization that we are not in a position -to grapple intelligently, instantly, and decisively with situations in -our own country. Trinidad and Mexico have driven this lesson home. Our -national method of dealing with hyphenism and its activities indicates -little comprehension of its real roots. We now know also that we are -not in a position to participate disinterestedly and courageously in -the international adjustments that will take place at the close of the -war. We suspect that the “peace ship” illustrated American capacity. -Its founder’s victory in the presidential primary exposes our capacity -for caprice in a nation’s crisis. We talk about fighting humanity’s -battles when we have done none of the things that qualify us for such -championship. We but dimly realize that a united, not a divided, -nation must enter the lists. We talk about upholding the President’s -hands, but we now know that we did in truth elect a minority President -in 1912, and it is no great task to promise to uphold him. It is lip -service to which we have long been accustomed. - -The war has revealed to us the biting truth that we have one body -of people on the coast line realizing the need of protection and -another in the interior feeling quite safe at this distance. We see -a conglomeration of colonies and ghettos and immigrant sections in -our large cities, and the country dotted with settlements quite as -un-American as anything to be found abroad. We face the fact that -America is not first in the hearts of every resident, that not every -man works for America, and that not every man trusts her present or -believes in her future. This is still the land of promise for the “bird -of passage” who exploits us, and whom we pluck in return. - -Thanks to the war, we have been freed from the delusion that we are a -united nation marching steadily along an American highway of peace, -prosperity, common ideals, beliefs, language, and purpose. Security -and prosperity have blinded us to the fact that we do not all speak -the same language nor follow the same flag. We have marveled at the -revelation that our own native-born sons and daughters of foreign-born -parents could justify the _Lusitania_ and defend the invasion of -Belgium, and we have let it go at that, not realizing what the -acceptance of this portends for future America. America has neglected, -even forgotten, its task of making Americans of the people that have -come to its shores. Men may be workmen and voters and taxpayers and -bosses, but the final question for this nation to answer is--are they -loyal American citizens? - -In our quest for nationalism, we stand aghast at the task before -us. About one seventh of our population is foreign born, and about -one third is of foreign-born or mixed parentage. It is no small -assimilative task to preserve the best in the traditions, beliefs, -standards, and points of view of these peoples for the strengthening -of America, and to give them enough of America’s ideals to make them -strong citizens of a democratic country. Mr. Carl Snyder is authority -for the statement that one half of all the aliens that have come to -America are still alive. Despite the volumes written on the subject, -we do not yet know whether this is a good or bad thing for America. -The test has not yet been applied. The war is giving us a breathing -spell to find out and to define a policy which will insure Americanism. -In the absence of any constructive policy or clear national purpose -we can predict little for the future. This we do know, that every -government but our own has a national purpose which it is carrying -out in America with its own subjects--naturalized or alien--through -its representatives and agents, its publications, institutions, and -business interests. America alone in its own territory has a negative -procedure and is without a policy. We are concerned chiefly with those -we can keep out or send back. Once an alien is admitted there is no -system of protection, distribution, and assimilation; no specific -inducements to citizenship; no encouragement to acquire a home stake -in America. Sectional and specific interests compete for what the -immigrant has to offer; the parent government keeps an eye on the new -arrival and helps him in distress. The Federal government alone remains -silent and indifferent. - -It is true we have the beginning of such a system in several -departments. It is encouraging that the Bureau of Naturalization has -changed its attitude and is now being of some service to aliens who -have applied for citizenship. For the many years of its existence, -prior to 1915, this Bureau had not in any way encouraged or urged -educational assistance for the prospective citizen. There is in the -Bureau of Education a Division of Immigrant Education which for the -past two years has been carrying on important educational work among -immigrants. The educational work of these bureaus does not receive -adequate support or authority and has not so far been considered as an -essential part of real preparedness. The vision and faith and effort -of these officials is not part of any strong defined policy; it is not -coördinated with the government’s larger activities and could be wiped -out to-morrow by a single order. It is makeshift, not policy. - -This country is alive to the inadequacy of its army and navy. It has -a glimmering that even the strengthening of these may not entirely -protect its interests. If we may judge from the record of Congress and -the press reports of the activities of our citizens to date, there -appears, however, to be but the smallest comprehension of the slack -that must be taken up throughout this nation; of the discipline, -self-sacrifice, and spirit of service that each one of us must acquire; -and of the need of organization along national lines that American -institutions will require to be prepared to even maintain peace. - -After many months of the European war, official America still finds -its chief slogan to be “Safety first” and “Made in America.” Toward -nationalizing its transportation lines, toward bringing all ports -under Federal control, toward national citizenship training, toward -educational unification and industrial preparedness the nation has -made little progress. We are still dealing with ships and guns and -ammunition, taking little thought of the questions of unity which -will make a nation effective behind these defenses. We still quibble -over whether we are for universal training or uniform service. We -cannot federalize the militia or abandon useless army posts because it -will offend some sectional interest that controls votes in the next -election. This narrow conception of preparedness is the despair of -thinking America. It is the doom of national unity. - -In considering the hyphenated American, it is not so much that we -question his ultimate loyalty. It is that we question his understanding -and ability to act in an intelligent, organized way on behalf of -America. It is that we do not know what influences may control his -action though his heart and interest may be with America. The question -for America to answer is whether we can create a united nation in both -spirit and efficiency in the short time remaining before we have to -deal with new questions arising after the war. We face the humiliating -truth that for any immediate conflict this cannot be done, that we -must take the risk and, if need be, weld our many peoples together on -the firing line. Will the American desert his forum for the training -camp; and the platform for inconspicuous field action? Will he erase -his name from committees and memorials and petitions and throw away -the press notices with his name in them for the toil and sweat of -industrial mobilizing? Will the American woman stop making bandages and -joining organizations and put the immigrant family on her calling list -and send the illiterate adult to school and help to make English the -common language of America? Can the Federal administration abandon its -involved correspondence and political fences long enough to consider -what the real preparedness of any nation comprises? A body of the best -railway men in the country was asked some months ago to assist the -government in railway preparedness and is still awaiting instructions. -The Naval Consulting Board, representing the best brains in the country -yet called together for industrial preparedness, pays its own bills, -largely because of our national lack of vision and the “Pork barrel” -methods of Congress. - -In the growing demand for a more united America it is apparent that -America needs a national spirit which shall combine reverence and -service; a national consciousness which shall be willing to give as -well as to receive benefits and to put something into politics as well -as take something out; an ideal, which shall make every resident give -something of his interest, service, time, and money _voluntarily_ to -America without waiting for conscription and without quibbling over -“rights,” “emergencies,” “time of need,” or “obligations of business.” - -The practical questions before America are how to become Americanized -and how to stay Americanized. The answer to the first question -comprehends all measures of preparedness adapted to our present needs. -The answer to the second question comprehends America’s policy after -the war. - -In the measure in which we answer the first question so shall we answer -the second. Let no one suppose that anything short of a national -policy, purpose, and consciousness in which each one of us does his -full share, will meet the critical need of the hour. We are agreed in -the hope that America shall endure as a great nation; that we wish to -preserve our free institutions and constitutional guarantees. We are -also generally agreed that America shall rank in the world as a nation -of vision, courage, ideals, opportunity, and achievement; and that, -last of all, out of this democracy we hope to get the greatest amount -of aspiration, happiness, and achievement _per man_ that it is possible -for a strong nation to have. - -These are not to be achieved by inaction or by misdirected action. We -are at the point where every act counts for or against the future of -America. I believe our capacity for nationalism is in exact proportion -to the measures we take for its achievement. The war has taught us that -it cannot be left to the complacency of the native American or to the -voluntary efforts of the immigrant. A general melting pot tended by -no one in particular does not necessarily brew a nation. This is even -more true when we find so many other self-interested nations and people -stirring this pot. The war has also taught us that the demand for -cheap labor cannot continue to be the chief determining factor in the -admission of immigrants--because of America’s new interest in aliens as -prospective citizens. - -We not only have a present nation-size job of assimilation, but we need -to prepare ourselves for the problems that will accompany negotiations -for peace. We shall have at least three questions of great and -far-reaching importance--incoming immigration, outgoing emigration, and -citizenship status in America and abroad. - -If the pending immigration bill represents the sum total of the -wisdom we can summon on the first subject, we shall fail miserably to -improve this opportunity by substituting a constructive policy for -our prevailing negative policy. Such arbitrary tests as the literacy -clause based on race and class theories and antagonisms bear no real -or lasting relation to the fundamental national needs of the country. -This country needs a statesmanlike policy in its international -relations based not upon theoretical makeshifts, but upon _a knowledge -of existing conditions_, upon capacity for assimilating the -immigrant, and upon our power to develop the machinery which will make -assimilation possible. - -Admission of aliens to this country should be based upon their capacity -for Americanization. Any exclusion laws should look to the raising -of the physical standard, owing to the results of the privations and -hardships of war, with greater emphasis on deportation for crime. I -believe that every incoming immigrant should declare upon arrival his -or her intention to remain here and become a citizen. Every immigrant -should be required to become literate in the English language (the -minimum standard to be definitely set) within five years after arrival, -provided facilities are offered him. Deportation should be the penalty -for failure to do so. With the probable increase in the immigration -of women and children, every safeguard should be thrown about their -admission, arrival, and distribution. - -A policy of distribution should be worked out. This again requires -three fundamental lines of activity--agricultural organization -which will enable the land to compete with industry for the laborer -and settler; the development of a rural credit system which will -enable people to go to the land; and a national system of government -employment agencies and the regulation of all private agencies doing -an interstate business. All of the civic and stimulated “back to the -land” schemes are doomed to failure until these three questions are -solved. Industry will get the great mass of the immigrants as long as -it offers higher wages, steadier employment, decent conditions and -opportunities for advancement; and so long as, unlike agriculture, it -has the organization to reach the aliens on or before arrival. - -A policy of national education is required for a statesmanlike -consideration of nationalism. Local communities cannot carry the burden -of educating large numbers of incoming residents concerning whom they -have not been forewarned and who have not grown up in an American -community. The relation of education to seasonal labor is important. -The great forces in Americanization are the home, the school, and the -neighborhood. These cannot influence the itinerant resident, in one -town to-day and gone to-morrow; in a factory this month and in a wheat -field next month; in a city with its rule of civilization one year, -and in a labor camp with only the most primitive rule another year; in -a well-ordered home one week and in a derailed freight car the next. -We must contrive that educational and cultural forces shall follow -the man from place to place if we are to achieve nationalism through -assimilation. - -America has never had any method of protecting newly arrived aliens. -This has been left to states, cities, philanthropies, racial societies, -or to foreign governments. The alien is not only an international -figure until he becomes a citizen, with all of the entanglements of -dual citizenship and obligations abroad, but he is an inter-state and -inter-city figure. Our industrial system and living conditions make -him so. The average immigrant travels more in the few months after -arrival in America than during his whole lifetime abroad. In the face -of this, two cities and three states have recognized his disability -and handicaps and have tried specifically to protect him. When the -Federal government substituted Ellis Island for Castle Garden, all the -safeguards that were thrown about the immigrant by law in the early -fifties were abolished because there was no longer anybody to enforce -them. We shall never attain a united America so long as we permit the -first educational and social contacts of the immigrant to be controlled -by his self-interested countrymen, and our equally self-interested -Americans, and the exploiter, acting independently, or as the tool of -both. - -I am unable to find in government or in industrial organization, or -in a combination of the two, any such marshaling of facts, any such -attention to vital details, any such breadth of view as to make one -sanguine of results. The industrial inventory now being made by the -Committee on Industrial Preparedness of the Naval Consulting Board -is indeed an indication of the possibilities. It is too early to say -whether the government will use it or bury the results along with other -naval reports. - -This is the kind of service in which all good Americans can join, for -the guns have been taken out of industrial preparedness. It is not the -kind of task prosperous Americans looking for appreciation will like. -It is singularly devoid of the pleasures of the footlight and applause; -it cannot be done by a committee meeting or sending a check; it is not -to be accomplished by “interest” or spasmodic work. It means a full -day’s work in the regular task at which each man earns a living, to -which is added the overhead charge of Americanism and nationalism. I -am convinced that no other service or method will make America again -unashamed. - -We may fairly conclude that the real matter with America is that -as a nation it has not achieved within itself a permanent national -consciousness. It has no clear conception of its national power or -its responsibility, having conformed too largely to the wishes of -local governments and their representatives. The Congressman still -represents, not America, but his district. This is illustrated by the -retention of useless army posts and state militia doing police duty. -The prevailing conditions in our political world have failed to make -the Federal government master of its own resources and forces and the -director of its own destinies. We are still propagandists occupying -the field of debate on matters of preparedness. We are relying on the -presidential campaign--the heat of battle, as usual--to tell us where -“we are at,” after nearly two years of world conflict. - -America’s selfish preoccupation, its own growth and prosperity, have -commercialized national sensibility. Our war-order prices show this. -Citizenship has come to be the cheapest of its privileges and the -football of politics. The country has been living unto itself while -taking into its heart the outpouring of other nations. The American -dollar has been the goal of success, and “Safety first” the national -motto. - -Whether, in the absence of a great dramatic crisis, we shall attain -that heroic spirit by which a nation is finally welded together remains -to be seen. America needs nationalized vision and action. America -needs universal service from each and every citizen. America needs -to get together, to study itself, to have records of its needs and -action, to organize, to plan, to standardize its efforts. America needs -national incentives and national rewards outside of politics. America -needs leaders who see its future in terms of international duties, -Americanism, and efficiency--a synonym for preparedness. - -Will America achieve these things? I believe the next few years will -indicate whether America shall endure as a great nation or become a -colony of states and sectional interests. The responsibility rests -squarely upon the shoulders of each and every one of us. We cannot -delegate it to Congress or legislatures, to benevolence or charity, -to managers or superintendents, to the “man who has time” or to the -agitator. The call is to national service for every one of us, and the -only answer should be, where can we serve best and how soon shall we -begin? - - - - - CHAPTER II - - AMERICANISM - - - What is Americanism? - -On the day this was written there appeared in the daily press a -“pledge” now being circulated among young men, especially in our -colleges and universities: - - “I being over 18 years of age hereby pledge myself against enlistment - as a volunteer for any military or naval service in international - warfare, _offensive or defensive_, and against giving my approval to - such enlistment on the part of others.” - -Compare with this pledge that solemn oath taken many years ago by the -wise elders of a new republic: - - “... in support of these truths we mutually pledge to each other our - lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.” - -Which strikes the keynote to the future of America? - -“We cannot in this country hope for the compelling devotion which has -animated Germany, still less for the supreme moral and intellectual -force which is the staying power of France,” says Miss Repplier in a -recent statement. - -What then _can_ we hope for? Granted our geographical difficulties, -granted our youth, our size, and the consequent imperfect control of -our material resources, granted the complexity of our problem caused -by the rapid immigration of the past years, granted that we are still -a body of states--does this mean that we cannot acquire the spirit of -France and the efficiency of Germany? - -I believe Miss Repplier’s attitude (a typical native American one) -shows an entirely mistaken conception of the situation. No nation -ever had a more vigorous birth than ours. This country was founded -upon a body of conviction, clarified by a white heat of passion, but -representing the judgment of deliberate men and great statesmen, men -who saw into the future, and built the ship of state by that vision. - -I believe the foundation stones of Americanism are exactly what they -were 140 years ago,--liberty, opportunity, and obligation. We have -lost sight of the third. The conception of liberty upon which this -country was founded was a chastened and a disciplined conception. It -was chastened by a menace to rights as dear as life itself. It was -disciplined by the immediate duty of defending these _by life itself_, -if need be. That chastened and disciplined conception of liberty is -Americanism. We have now the sacred tradition. We have now the liberty. -We have now the opportunity. Our task is to restore to it the austerity -and the discipline of obligation. - -A combination of rights and duties, of obligations and privileges, -is the determining idea in those first vehicles of Americanism, our -Declaration of Independence and our Constitution. But in interpreting -and reaffirming these in state constitutions, laws, and municipal -ordinances,--in which for very natural reasons sectional and provincial -points of view have often entered,--we have drifted away from the true -balance between these fundamental rights and duties, a balance which -is at once the delicate spring and the solid rock of our existence. -Prosperity, unusual freedom of choice in vocations, varying and broad -opportunities to control the vast material resources of the country, -have made us complacent about accepting the privileges of a democracy. -We have argued among ourselves endlessly as to just what these -privileges are and whether perhaps any of them are being infringed. -But we have rarely investigated whether we ourselves are giving to -the democracy the respect and service that alone can keep it secure. -Americanism has become for the great mass of Americans a point of view -accompanied by a lukewarm sentiment. The rigor of duty and the ardor of -a passionate belief have entered but little. - -Through all our defense discussions and legislation, one amazing thing -has stood out very clearly--that the great majority of private citizens -in America recognize no compelling obligation to place themselves, -their time, or their resources at the disposal of the nation. They -regard this as a voluntary matter. They frequently question whether -the point of national service ought to be raised at all with respect -to the law-abiding citizen who earns his living, provides decently for -his family, and treats his neighbor with respect. The time and energy -outside the office or the job and the necessary duty to home belong to -the moving picture or to the pool room, or to any other pleasure to -which the freeman wishes to devote them. We have made a fetish of our -industrial freedom and we have tied our Americanism to it. The everyday -citizen has ceased to balance national opportunities with national -duties. - -In all the long years of our progress and prosperity no clearer concept -or statement of Americanism than this has been made: - - “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created - equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable - Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of - happiness, that to secure these Rights, governments are instituted - among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the - governed.” - -But to these words, clear and solemn, this pledge was added: - - “And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the - protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our - Lives, our Fortunes, and our Sacred Honor.” - -Nothing was said about “the claims of business,” or being “willing to -do anything that may be necessary when the need actually arises.” When -the twentieth-century Americans “mutually pledge to each other” these -things, we shall cease talking about “reasonable preparedness.” We -will arm and train _all_ our manhood. We will restore democracy to the -twentieth century. And we will restore Americanism to America! - -Restoring our real traditions of liberty is not a vague task. The -general principles of liberty as stated in the Declaration of -Independence are, in part, very practically interpreted in the -Constitution. As there enumerated they include: freedom of religion; -freedom of speech; freedom of the press; the right of petition; the -right to keep and bear arms; the right to protest against unreasonable -searches and seizures; the right of protection for persons and -property; the right of trial by jury; the right to vote without -abridgment of this right because of race, color, or previous conditions -of servitude. - -These are only minimum guarantees. There are other rights of -far-reaching importance--as the right to profit by a free system of -education. And there are besides these rights countless privileges and -dignities which no specific enumeration will cover. - -At some time and some where this nation began to think of these -privileges and opportunities rather in deed than in spirit, and to set -them aside as prerogatives for “first Americans.” We began to think of -ourselves as better than other men and to create barriers which could -not but result in injustice and intolerance. And just at that point we -laid the corner stone of our shame to-day. - -“First Americans” have already pointed out to us that the framers of -the Constitution never foresaw the “Southern European hordes” that -now flock here. Perhaps not. But I question if the vision would have -disturbed them, or whether it could ever have put greater caution and -reserve into the instrument they were drawing up. The magnanimity of -spirit there expressed is based upon something greater than philosophy. -It is based upon a quality that has nothing to do with changes of times -or conditions, a quality of stern fearlessness, a national conviction -that the destiny of this nation was to be above all else the safeguard -and champion of liberty. - -The extent to which we have departed from the ideals set forth in the -Declaration of Independence and the Constitution is best measured by -the way we have come to regard and to treat the most helpless and -trusting of our people--the immigrants who come to our shores. Our -early policy at Castle Garden was to meet them, advise them, protect -them by laws, safeguard their journey, and to consider them as a -valuable asset to America and its future development. Compare with -this the route of the immigrant in America to-day, keeping in mind our -forefathers’ conception of American guarantees of life, liberty, and -happiness. - -The immigrant arrives at the port of entry. After passing his -examination (during which time not a friendly word of greeting is given -him, or a personal interest taken in him) he is turned loose upon -the city to be met at the gate by cabmen, porters, runners, crooks, -thieves, and every conceivable kind of exploiter interested in getting -his cash money. This is America’s first reception line. He then meets -our second reception line--the employment agent, the private banker, -and “steering agent” who derive profit from his labor before it has -even become productive. When the immigrant actually goes to work, he -has generally lost his money and is in debt. He then meets our third -American reception line, the employer interested only in his labor -output, and he is treated accordingly. He is generally left alone, to -live as best he can, until he begins to save money. This immediately -calls forth our fourth reception line--the private banker who renews -his acquaintance and offers to help him send his money home; the -speculator in land who looks him up; the get-rich-quick concerns that -advertise in the papers he reads, and the medical quack who sells him -so-called “American” medicines. Some one tells him he may be better off -as a citizen, and then appears our fifth American reception line--the -politician willing to buy his vote because he needs it, the notary -public who is ready to settle his affairs at home so that he can “cut -loose,” and the labor leader who thinks now he ought to be organized. - -By the time the immigrant has shaken hands along these various -reception lines he feels he knows everybody, and he has a very -definite idea of liberty, justice, freedom, law, order, and measures -of happiness which in no sense accords with our forefathers’ ideal of -America. - -I sometimes wonder when I see men in the night schools studying our -Constitution to enable them to pass their citizenship examinations -how they square its teaching with their various experiences under the -peonage system of the South; with the robberies by the company store -in the coal mines; with the sentences they receive for minor offenses -in justice-of-peace courts which have no interpreters; with the -prohibition that they cannot work at certain trades, for example in -Michigan where they cannot be barbers; with restrictions upon personal -liberty, as in Pennsylvania where they cannot keep a dog; with the -repeated private bank failures in which all their savings were lost; -with the double standard of living under which they see their American -neighbors protected and themselves neglected and exploited. - -I ask myself if the time will ever come when we shall restore -Americanism as the signers of the Declaration of Independence conceived -it. We cannot do this until we ourselves believe in practical -Americanism. We are coming to realize that the native American -who makes the lives of our foreign born wholly subservient to the -industrial grind and who neither provides for nor permits them to -become American citizens is himself a strong anti-American influence -in this country; that the native American who permits the foreign -born to enter and denies them the opportunities of America and the -right to work, is really anti-American; that the native American -who emphasizes the liberties and opportunities of America without -correspondingly emphasizing the duties of all American residents is -anti-American. We are beginning to see that the native American is -anti-American who perpetuates class consciousness and race hatred; who -favors or perpetuates the immigrant colony or camp or section with -different standards of living, different law enforcement and isolation -from American influences; who establishes his own home and his own -children in a well-policed, sanitary section of the town and leaves his -immigrant neighbor in another section unprotected and living in filth -and disorder. We are coming to regard that man as a selfish patriot who -consistently and complacently in his factory exacts a physical toll -from his workmen without regard to the cost in citizenship to America; -and that woman as anti-American who takes a girl into the kitchen -because of certain racial excellences, but refuses to consider that -these excellences have any social value to America outside the walls of -that kitchen and who therefore uses and monopolizes her labor capacity -but contributes nothing toward making that girl an American citizen -qualified to preside over an American home. We are coming to see that -a political leader is a menace to a united America who uses newly -naturalized immigrants to swing the American vote in this direction or -that, but who does nothing to make the immigrant a good citizen, or -even to see that he understands American political ideals. - -It is impossible to have the spirit of Americanism prevail in this -land when at least a quarter of its people do not understand it, or -have been disillusioned in their dream of it, or have been despoiled -in their search for it. I do not minimize the value of hardship of -obstacles to be overcome. They make for the strength of a nation just -as they do for the strength of a human being. But I like to see the -obstacles set up in a fair field with no favor--where a man can see -them and meet them intelligently. This is what Americanism stands for, -but it is not what it means to the average immigrant. We point with -pride to the immigrant who succeeds in spite of it, but I suspect -that often we judge by his clothes and his house and his speech -rather than by his outlook upon life and his inlook upon himself. We -satisfy ourselves by comparing his lot here with what it was in his -home country--often without real knowledge of either. We fail to see -that we have lost the dream of what America may be and with the dream -the ability to achieve it, when we become content that America should -merely be better than Russia or freer than Austria instead of being the -very best of which America is capable. - -This country is full of so-called un-American types. Some of them are -native born and some are foreign born. Immigrant men and women in this -rank of life or that, who have been in this country for years, have -found themselves isolated from and ignored by Americans. American -customs and standards have therefore failed to alter them. The result -is the perpetuation of foreign types or the creation of distinct types -which we refuse to accept as ours, but in the making of which we have -certainly had a controlling hand. Take the typical foreign-born -journalist and publicist. There are hundreds of them to-day fighting -the battle of Americanization for their fellow countrymen here -against fearful odds because they are so far from being Americanized -themselves. Many of them are philosophers, students, zealots; many of -them are all-American in aspiration. But they are not themselves in -possession of the very Americanism they seek to interpret. And their -efforts at Americanizing their fellow countrymen fall as far short as -would a piece of philosophy with a man in need of a pick to earn his -living, bread to eat, or a tongue with which to speak. - -Medical quacks, shyster lawyers, saloon-politicians, chronically -bankrupt factory owners or lessees of foreign birth are continually -pointed out to us as the types that are being inflicted upon a -long-suffering America. They are in fact the types that a negligent -America is inflicting upon itself. - -How can we expect people from all the nations of the earth, from all -kinds of governments and traditions, to understand the principles of -liberty, as they have been handed down to us? The one thing they do -understand is that the surveillance that prevails in the old country -does not prevail here. Take the small business man or small factory -operator of foreign birth in New York, the frequenter of the bankruptcy -court, the owner of flimsy factory lofts which, when they have been -burnt down, show the evasion of the most obvious laws. These men as -youths in new America see that every man is free to try his hand at -anything he wishes. Seeing _only_ this, they get the idea that the -great American game is the strife of one man against the other, that -this island of Manhattan and this country are a land of single combat -on a large scale, of which competition is the real secret, endurance -and cunning and aggression the winning qualities. When they once get -this idea, and they often get it very rapidly, they follow it as -the dominating principle of their practical existence in America. I -say their practical existence, because the methods pursued by many -immigrant traders, business and professional men in this country -do not represent at all _any moral point of view which they have -evolved themselves_. What they do represent is a practical routine, a -thoughtless application of the principles they see Americans practicing -all around them. And unlike the Americans, they have no background of -American tradition which will interpret differences and distinctions to -them and give them a _general_ criterion. - -Certain things are essential to elucidating and preserving Americanism. -One of these is a common language. Not until the necessity for national -defense was thrust upon us have we considered seriously requiring that -all American residents learn English. It is true we said in 1906 that -all naturalized citizens must have a knowledge of the English language, -but we neglected to define what we meant, so the knowledge may consist -of as many words as each of several hundred judges may decide is a fair -test. Not until the business man found that a knowledge of English -reduced accidents did he indorse night schools. Only two states require -compulsory attendance of minors under eighteen years of age to learn -the English language. - -This lack of a common language has prevented the American born and -foreign born from getting together in a common Americanism. It has been -a closed door to nationalism. - -A second is a common citizenship. We have thought of this as the -most sacred of rights and have safeguarded it with every possible -technicality. Again our policy has been negative, discouraging, and -hampering. We have put up the bars with one hand while with the other -we have poked holes through the hedges for the political boss. We make -it impossible for an alien to acquire citizenship within five years, -but permit him to vote--with all that implies--in eight states after -he has been there a few months. What conception can he have of how -we regard this privilege and right and why has he no compunction in -selling it? He leaves his home country to escape military duty and -attends meetings in America where he is told he is not even expected to -defend this country in case of war. Not one public school in a hundred -makes any provisions for teaching him about American conditions, life, -and government. Again he finds a closed door to Americanism, and it is -small wonder when it is opened that he enters, a skeptic of democracy. - -Men work for and defend what is dear to them. When a job is the only -stake, it is a rather narrow base for patriotism. The newly arrived -immigrant is not given much of an opportunity to have any sentiment or -inspiring associations about his job. The average employer feels that -when he raises wages he has discharged his full duty to his workman -and to his country. But America is concerned not only with what a man -earns, but with how he spends it. It is interested in his having a home -stake in America, and in his investing in America. Only a prodigal, -short-sighted, hand-to-mouth nation can look with indifference upon -workmen sending $400,000,000 abroad, and following their savings there -each year. - -So it is with his living conditions. In the vermin-ridden bunk house -the Italian dreams of Italy. In the bungalow with a flower garden Italy -is far in the background. The “pursuit of happiness” was mentioned with -life and liberty, but as we have forgotten our duties in privileges, -so have we neglected happiness for life in terms of gain. - -We need a new social impulse back of our patriotism. We have come to -the point where we even trifle with the idea that nationalism may be -an outworn thing, too parochial a survival to stand the white light of -the twentieth century. We have a great deal of social emotion of one -kind or another in this country. It has put many healthy ideas into -circulation, registered many needed protests. But it has been so remote -from the actual business of life, so far removed from the job and the -polling booth, that it has done little even for those that have served -it best. The prevailing idea of social freedom in this country within -the last few years has developed among the industrial groups of our -large cities especially a kind of intellectual proletariat, whose creed -is active social reform, but whose practice is intellectualism. This -constitutes a curious menace to Americanism. It seeks to substitute -the “brotherhood of man” for all the loyalties and obligations and -relationships of life. I saw a month or two ago in a widely circulated -magazine a symposium to which many writers and publicists contributed, -stating whether or not they “believed in patriotism” and saw any -validity in it. Some did and some did not. It was discussed as if it -were the protective tariff. - -The I. W. W.’s urge their followers to ignore national lines and -unite only as “Workers of the World.” And a great many of those -followers, truly united in their passion for industrial freedom, -hoodwink themselves into believing that in this bond all the debts -and privileges of a national citizenship are more than included. They -come to speak slightingly of those that still hold to so practical a -loyalty. The immigrants, wavering between two loyalties and firmly -fixed in neither, and especially the immigrants who come from those -countries where the social sense is strongly developed, are especially -drawn or think they are by the appeal of a loyalty to “no God and no -master”--and respond readily to the flexible and not too confining -_idea_ of brotherhood. The _idea_ moves and sways the throng. But -when they go home to their crowded rooms in tenements, when they go -the next morning to the job, when they deal with property, those men -and women need a government, understanding and equable, to carry and -control the conditions of their lives, to safeguard their rights, to -aid them to right their wrongs. It alone can give them the guarantees -and the tradition of industrial freedom. They need a loyalty. - -We must learn to care. Our hearts must be on fire with belief, or we -shall never have Americanism. We need to go back again to the sources -of our liberty and relight our torches there. It is because we have -not Americanism in our hearts and souls, because we have not been -through the process of Americanization, because we have become slaves -to prosperity and faithless to our ideals that we have failed Europe -at a critical time. Americanism has become a phrase, a trademark, a -passport. Unless somehow and somewhere we can restore belief and zeal -and faith in our destiny we face the disunion of this Republic into -races and creeds, into sectionalism and localism, into class warfare -between capital and labor, into selfish individualism rather than -nationalism. - - - - - CHAPTER III - - THE NATIVE AMERICAN - - -I find the future of America a far more hopeful and beautiful thing -to contemplate from the trenches of a new subway than from a Fifth -Avenue bus. Perhaps it is because in one is seen the raw material of -hopes, ideals, and ambitions in the making,--a people eagerly looking -forward; while in the other these ideals are already fashioned, perhaps -discarded,--a people looking backward. I am not more afraid of the -ignorant vote than of the absent vote; of the discontented alien than -of the satisfied American; of the hungry laborer than of the surfeited -idler; of the casual laborer than of the overworked industrial captain; -of the patient, plodding hand toiler than of the dreamer of the -get-rich-quick concerns; of the alien with the family back home than of -the American with no family at all. They all go to make up one America. - -When we think of a united America, our minds naturally turn to -Americanizing the immigrant. Big as that task is, I do not believe that -our greatest difficulty lies with him. Rather I fear that we shall have -to Americanize our native Americans first--in increased respect for the -flag, in conscious renewed allegiance to America, in the patriotic use -of the nation’s holidays, in measures of national service. We have, I -think, to return to the civilian training camp and universal service -as a melting pot for natives before we can make America a successful -melting pot for aliens. - -The average native American is local, provincial, self-interested, -constitutionally opposed to any change that may threaten his particular -established local order. The average native employer looks askance -at anything that may upset his labor supply, be that a shop census -or workmen’s compensation. The average native employee does not take -to such new-fangled ideas as health insurance and promotion based -on record. It is the native-born American woman who crosses to the -American side of the street and who still meets and discusses the -immigrant as a problem. I suspect it was a native American who dubbed -the Italians “dagoes,” the Hungarians, “hunkies,” the Lithuanians -“round heads,” and so on. There is no better invention for prolonging -personal conflict than derisive nicknames, and America seems to have -done its share in this direction. - -It is natural that those who carry responsibilities should be -conservative, but the native American seems to me to carry this -responsibility to the verge of reaction and antagonism. I am reminded -of a time when I had occasion to summon an employer and employee before -me for a hearing upon a wage dispute and was reminded that it was -presumption to set the employee opposite the employer to discuss such -a trivial matter on equal terms. I am constantly asked to entertain -women’s clubs who find immigration “interesting,” but whose members -shrink from the neighborly services which they might render in their -own communities. - -There are always many exceptions to any general statement. But this -does not alter the fact that the native American has a point of view, a -state of mind, a prejudiced observance, a sense of superiority--which -makes him greatly in need of Americanization. This is acquired by the -native boy and girl early in life. What opportunity has the average -native-born boy and girl to learn about American citizenship and its -duties and rights? The public and parochial schools give little more -than history and an indifferent kind of civil government, which seems -to us as we learn it to have little to do with us or our future. Our -patriotic days are largely holidays from school, filled with fun and -pranks, but rarely with any sense of their real significance. They seem -to have nothing to do with the very freedom we enjoy on those days. -The boy becomes a voter by the mere act of registering his name. The -average girl is unconscious that she ever _becomes_ a citizen unless -she is interested in suffrage or anti-suffrage, or unless practical -property questions arise. We can hardly expect under these conditions -much realization of what nationalism means, or that a call to national -service will meet with much response. The surprising thing is that in -spite of our official neglect and indifference, youths are filled with -patriotism and desire to serve, if it can be utilized before the shop -and home absorb all their energies. - -I believe that a really careful, impartial analysis of our situation -to-day would reveal two things: that there are two main systems of -thought and lines of activity upon which the hope and future of America -depend--one is government and the other is business. They alone have a -nation-wide organization, whose units reach every American community -and every American resident. To the government we look for law, order, -education, justice, and the essentials of community life; to the -industry for the job or the market which gives life to the community. -_Go where you will, in the last analysis a native American controls the -situation._ The man higher up, if you go high enough, is invariably a -native-born American. It is said that there are more native-born sons -of Connecticut in Oregon than in Connecticut, but the great industries -of Connecticut that set the pace for the state are in the hands of -native Americans. So it is with government. Minor offices, sometimes -even important offices, are in the hands of naturalized citizens, but -usually with the consent or approval of some native American--sometimes -far removed from the scene of action. - -The radius of this native American influence bears no relation to -numbers. It encompasses the school, the home, the neighborhood, the -personal life of the resident. We fill our night schools by adjusting -them to the industrial organization and securing its coöperation. -We fill our civilian training camps by the coöperation of employers -in granting absences and paying wages. We obtain a common standard -of living by enforcement of laws that set the standard. Civic and -philanthropic agencies may be the pioneers, the educators, the balance -restorers; they can care for the waste and discover causes. But America -has too long regarded them as the unifiers of its many peoples, as the -makers of citizens. We now know that this task comes squarely back to -the political and industrial leader and to no other; to the native -born and to no other. - -America is the proud possessor of some significant and far-reaching -illusions which make a poor foundation for the structures it is seeking -to build. Chief among these is the assertion that the immigrant lowers -the American standard of living. In the final analysis it is America -that lowers the immigrant’s own standard of living. A double standard -of living is imposed upon the immigrant by the responsible native -American. - -Of the many hundreds of immigrant communities which I have studied, I -recall none in which American ideals were being aggressively menaced -by immigrants who were determined to have none of them. Isolation, -betrayal of our own minimum social and civic standards, these I have -seen over and over again. But always the immigrant population has been -the weaker force in any given community. There are in the country -to-day hundreds of towns, say of 1500 population, in which the foreign -born number one half. But in civic strength, social influence, and -political power, the immigrant 50 per cent measures less than 10 -per cent. In the census they appear as towns of 1500. In reality the -native-born residents of these towns consider them as towns of about -500--with an unfortunate though necessarily large annex of immigrant -workmen and their families who live “on the other side of the railroad” -or in some other segregated spot--to which fire and water systems, -garbage collections and calling do not penetrate. Now there can be no -doubt that that large “annex” is a menace to the future of America. -But it is a menace produced by American neglect, not by immigrant -aggression and malevolence. - -We shall never solve the immigration problem so long as we begin with -the immigrant’s shortcomings, nor shall we attain Americanism so long -as we define it as nativism. We need not fear that we are not as -much in control as we ever were. We set the standards. The question -is whether we have cause to be satisfied with the way in which we do -it. The ideals and standards of America are set by the American born -to-day just as they were in our early history. In all communities -which I have studied the American-born residents or employers are the -determining factors. The citizen may send you through many devious -channels, to see this boss and that boss, to win friends for your cause -from this foreign-born leader or that immigrant saloon-keeper, but -eventually you deal with a native American, not with an alien. - -Mr. Ross, in the “Old World in the New,” points to a typical Western -town of 26,000 inhabitants, 10,000 of them immigrants, and gives a -picture of the vice, intemperance, bad housing, and wretched standards -of living resulting in this town from the immigrant population. We -in America believe in majority rule. There was a safe margin of 6000 -Americans in that town, free to establish and insist upon any standard -they chose. Why were the Americans beaten in the struggle? Because here -as in many places they ignored or definitely isolated the immigrants, -permitting them to work all day with Americans at the mills or -factories where they were needed, and then encouraging or compelling -them to spend all the rest of their time in their own corner of the -town, and to encroach no more than necessary upon the respectable -streets and schools and churches and recreations of the American -section. - -Persecuted America! Miss Repplier, lamenting the immigrant invasion -of Philadelphia, in the _Atlantic Monthly_ not long ago, presents -a truly colonial point of view concerning the suffering wrought by -the twentieth-century world of America in this colonial stronghold. -In the mind of Miss Repplier and many thousands of Americans the -long-suffering American, heir of all the ages, legatee of all the best -traditions of liberty and opportunity sealed in 1776, is now driven -like sheep before the advancing immigrant hordes: - - “Dirt is a valuable asset in the immigrant’s hands. With its help he - drives away decent neighbors, and brings property down to his level - and his purse. The ill-fated Philadelphian is literally pushed out - of his home--the only place, sighs Mrs. Pennell, where he wants to - live--by conditions that he is unable to avert, and unwilling, as well - as unfitted, to endure.” - -Old Philadelphians that would never have run from an Indian, that -would have conquered the forests and spanned the rivers, run from the -Italian and the Pole. Alas! We too have deteriorated. We see nothing -dramatic, we feel no challenge, in the fight to raise the standards of -our less fortunate neighborhoods. We cannot find any inspiration in -that ideal of justice which insists on law enforcement equally among -all residents of a neighborhood. Is there nothing to be said on behalf -of the neighborly, friendly visiting which would soon make dirt as -unfashionable in the immigrant’s as in the Philadelphian’s home? The -reason that the tenement fire escapes are cluttered in Rivington Street -and free on Fifth Avenue is not, as we fondly suppose, that immigrants -prefer fire escapes draped with bedding and pillows and children. -The answer is that they move to Fifth Avenue as soon as their income -permits and as fast as they learn how well it is possible to live in -America. - -Let us take a town in the making and see if the standards do not come -back to some native American. Take, for instance, the towns that -have grown up during the war-order prosperity, which is typical of -our town building in the past in America. American capital, directed -by native-American enterprise and brains, selects a site and builds a -model factory, secures the necessary transportation facilities and puts -in its power and machines. Anything else? Yes, the skilled labor market -is scarce of men, so a few good houses are put up for skilled workmen, -upon whom the operation of the plant depends. - -As for the mass of foreign-born unskilled workmen, relying upon a -well-stocked market, no provision is made for housing, sanitation, or -other care of them. This is left to the individual workman and to the -speculator. When a cluster of huts, tents, or bunk houses spring up, is -it because the immigrant prefers the huts or tents, or is it because -the only power to create standards--the native-American power--has -ignored its obligation? - -It is the same with contract work. The contractor, in figuring the cost -of road building, includes not only materials, grades, etc., but the -cost of decent housing for his American workmen. The immigrant workman -he leaves to the padrone. The padrone is one of the most anti-American -forces in this country, and he exists only by the grace of the -native-born American employer. No immigrant body can impose him upon an -employer who does not find him useful. - -I am invariably met with the fact that native Americans refuse to -rent to immigrants because of their alleged defacement of property. -The one remedy seems to be eviction and refusal to rent. I have not -yet found that a limitation on boarders in the rental clause has been -tried or that any effort has been made to teach these tenants the -meaning and methods of an American standard of living. I have not found -that such conveniences as an adequate and accessible water supply, -garbage collection, prompt repairs, and interest in the well-being of -the tenants bear in the mind of the landlord much relation to care of -person and property. The native American thinks of the immigrant tenant -as an inferior human being, used to something quite different, and -almost unconsciously brings the American standard down to his own idea -of the immigrant’s capacities. - -There are, of course, many people--not confined to immigrants--who are -indifferent to or incapable of maintaining an American standard of -living. Eliminating these, I believe that the native American can and -must set the standard, pay decent enough wages to make it possible, and -then admit no excuses whatever for non-performance. In my judgment it -is a fallacy to suppose that increased wages and shorter hours alone -will Americanize America, unless there goes with these things some -education as to their use. - -Paternalism? I have in mind a steel mill where the employer has -increased wages 50 per cent, and established eight-hour shifts; where -the most perfect conditions prevail in his plant, where his first-aid -and safety-first work are excellent. He believes that to build company -houses would be paternalism. Almost every one in the town works in -his mill. He has added 5000 workmen to the village within a year. No -private capital will take the risk of building houses for his war -industry. His men sleep 5 to 15 in a room, often on the floor and in -their clothing; they have no care and eat badly prepared food. They -crowd family houses, destroying privacy and morality. That plant -employed last year 34,000 men to keep an average of 15,000. This -registers the immigrant’s protest,--the only one possible,--moving on. -Yet one native-born American controls the health, decency, morality, -and efficiency of some 8000 immigrant workmen whose only protest is to -move on, and whose only future is high enough wages to return to his -home country. - -And the worst of it is that men get used to these conditions, -believing them to be American, and with this belief go the dreams, -the visions, and ambitions which are the essence of good citizenship. -The prospective good citizen is sacrificed to the demand for cheap -labor which is a native-American demand. For the few hundreds of men -that are indifferent to or incapable of appreciating an American -standard of living thousands are sacrificed daily at the hearth of the -indifferent, complacent native American who thinks of them only as cogs -in his machine and rarely as future citizens of America. - -There is no more representative class of native Americans in the -popular mind than those bearing old family names. The youth of America -read and store up all the available information about them and aim to -duplicate their achievements in dress, manner, entertainments, and -work. And yet I can take you to any one of the great estates that -they occupy, and if they employ immigrant labor, you will find it -housed in miserable shacks, lacking the decencies and comforts of an -American standard of living. You will find that the native Americans -had these shacks put up and receive rent for them. You will find also -that the immigrant has but one choice, to leave his job if he wants -something better. Ask yourself, as an American with a family dependent -upon you, whether you would have the courage to make this choice. I -have in mind as I write a most exclusive club which is the wonder of -the Hudson Valley for sheer beauty and order; and I see below the -railroad track its thousand employees who toil all day to produce that -beauty, housed in wretched frame buildings in bad repair and crowded -with boarders because there are not enough houses. I find there the -future citizens of America being brought up without regard to decency -and morality, living 5 to 10 in a room, while the little native-born -boy or girl in the clubhouses has a room and a bath to himself. Now -this difference is not alone the difference of wealth. It goes deeper -than that. The club owns the workmen’s houses; it gets an adequate -return on its investment. The trouble is the native American does not -regard the immigrant as anything but a workman--and so long as he -ignores America’s interest in that man as a citizen, as a defender -of America, as a voter, as a future taxpayer, he is anti-American. -To these men, preaching patriotism and freedom in America must seem -the height of insincerity when contemplated from overcrowded rooms -under a leaky roof. Last Fourth of July the National Americanization -Committee instituted “Americanization Day” when native-born citizens -tendered receptions to foreign-born citizens. When foreign-born men -wrote saying that although they had been here many years it was the -first time they had shaken hands with an American, it demonstrated how -wide is the gulf of our prejudice and its consequent neglect. The pay -envelope has made a poor melting pot, and America is to-day paying the -cost of an experiment that has failed. Whenever we have established -lines that make our native Americans inaccessible to our foreign-born -residents, there we have established the unknown quantity in fixing -the responsibility for the immigrant standard of living, without which -knowledge the truth can never be ascertained. - -What I am urging is this: Before we assert so calmly that the immigrant -lowers the American standard of living let us rest our case with the -man higher up--if need be with the financier who supplies the capital -and requires that all material conditions must be right, but who -forgets that in the last analysis the success of any enterprise depends -upon loyal, efficient workmen with a home stake in America. - -Another native-American illusion is that the immigrant will not -appreciate our efforts. Since when has America based its principles of -action upon the flimsy desire for appreciation? Furthermore we expect -the appreciation to be out of all proportion to what we do. We have -indeed deteriorated when we have come to regard simple acts of justice, -fair play, service, obligation, and duty as acts to be persisted in -only when the immigrant is duly appreciative! Such a stimulus would -have done little to develop the northwest and to conquer the resources -of the country. The man who hesitates to build houses for his homeless -or commuting workmen because it may be paternalism, closes the -club-house he has provided because it is not appreciated, or bewails -his empty playground as a species of rank ingratitude. A great weakness -of the American character to-day is its desire for appreciation and -credit, and it does not make for Americanism. - -A third American illusion is that the native American always thinks -of the immigrants as getting something from America--wages or liberty -or opportunity or rights. We forget that the majority of them come to -us as laborers, representing a net contribution of at least $1000, -which is the cost of raising a native-born child to the productive age. -In these days of prosperity, of new vision in business, of expansion -marked by a remarkable greatness of spirit, it is no time to forget -that the very industries which are at present by way of putting America -in the front ranks of trade and commerce are dependent upon immigrant -labor. - -We know in a general way that the immigrant is the possessor of -much brawn and muscle. But it is characteristic of us that we think -of him always as a _job hunter_, not as a producer. His may be the -opportunity; but we never reflect that ours may be the profit. The -big mine owner, the subway contractor, the chief engineer of the -railroads, the canal builder have a practical knowledge of just where, -and how largely, the immigrant comes into new America’s scheme. But -the average American has no grasp of the full significance of the -immigrant’s immediate and present service to him and to the nation, in -a purely present and industrial way. - -He knows that a big army of immigrants armed with pick and shovel is -down there in the subway cavity; and he knows that they build the roads -over which he spins his motor. Still he does not really grasp the fact -that the railroad that carries him, the clothes he wears, the cigars -he smokes, the furniture he puts in his house are made by immigrant -hands. Take iron and steel, the strategic industry, so to speak, in -America to-day. The Federal Immigration Commission found that 57.7 per -cent of the workmen in this industry were foreign born; and if you add -the workmen of foreign-born parentage, the percentage mounts to 71.7. -And so it goes through a long list of essential industries--in sugar -refining, 85 per cent of the workmen are foreign born; in bituminous -coal mining, 61.9 per cent; and so on. And there is no one to take -his place. There are to-day three jobs for every two workmen, and we -are calling out our reserve of women who have never before worked for -wages. We often hear of the displaced American workmen, but when we -look for them, we generally find they have moved up in the economic -scale. - -_What other value are immigrants in American life?_ What percentage do -they possess of the social opportunity and liberty of America? What -percentage do they contribute to it? What percentage are they permitted -to contribute to it? - -Some immigrants come to us with racial powers, instincts, and -susceptibilities, which, however modified by years of peasant toil, -have great potential value for America. Some come to us with vision -trained for centuries in beauty of line and color, with the skilled -hands of races that have been shaping arch or temple or cathedral for -thousands of years. They feel beauty and mobility of outline as only -those feel them who have lived with them for generations. What becomes -of these capacities over here? Does America give immigrants the chance -to use them? Does America even know they exist? - -Another illusion is that the present races coming to America are not -easily assimilated, and should they be, they would give America an -undesirable type. - -What, after all, is Americanism? What is the destiny of America? What -do we want it to be? What, in the great evolution of nations, is -it bound to be? Until the average American meets and answers these -questions squarely, we cannot settle the question of what races are -best for the future of America. Miss Repplier quotes Dr. Horace -Kallen as saying, “Only men who are alike in origin and spirit and -not abstractly can be truly equal, and maintain that inward unanimity -of action and outlook which makes a national life.” And, says Miss -Repplier, rightly, “We have no mutual understanding, no common -denominator.” - -We have not. The first Americans whose opportunity, yes, and whose -_responsibility_ it was to produce these, have failed ignominiously to -do so. “An Englishman,” says Miss Repplier, “knows that a Russian Jew -cannot in five years or in twenty-five years become English; that his -standards and ideals are not convertible into English standards and -ideals. A Frenchman does not see in a Bulgarian or a Czech the making -of another Frenchman.” - -True, but what is an American? Is he an Anglo-Saxon racial type, and if -so, by what law? _Do we desire him to be this?_ - -I do not despise the conclusion of ethnologists, but they seem to -have so few conclusions and so many theories. And the root of them -seems to be, not experience, but apprehension. Meanwhile, I see all -around me valiant Americans, Southern European by birth and tradition, -Americans now in spirit and loyalty and _tendency_. These men and women -have mastered the opportunity--for they had to seek and improve it -themselves--to become assimilated. In spite of the thousands of their -countrymen among us, still un-American, I am convinced of two things: -That America _can control its own destiny_, that one of the greatest -obstacles has been slothful neglect, another obstacle, nativism; and -that the way to attain control of our destiny is by aggressive, not -passive, Americanism. When this is under way, it will be easy enough -to sort out and deal separately and finally with undesirable races and -types or those that have no desire to become Americans. - -In the midst of all our discussion of to-day about a prepared America, -there is no national policy emerging. We see Congress half-heartedly -bolstering up the army and navy. We see the Federal Bureau of -Immigration without adequate authority at work upon a Federal system of -employment exchanges, a system which can be overturned by successors in -office. We see the Bureau of Naturalization at work on a citizenship -program into which it jumps without preparation, preëmpting a field -long occupied by its neighbor in the Interior Department, the Bureau of -Education, without a suggestion of real coöperation. We see the Bureau -of Education with an unlimited field before it, hampered by state -lines and no funds. We have laws demanding that an alien shall learn -English and have a knowledge of the Constitution in order to become a -citizen, yet leaving it to the ward boss to supply the information. We -see the various departments dealing with various phases of preparedness -pursuing a path of departmental routine, waste, and duplication. No -clear uniform note runs through it all. There is little apparent -indication that times have changed and new issues and opportunities -are presented to our American government. We see the field of -transportation and distribution cut into small sections by local -regulations and local competition. One state is pitted against another -to secure labor for the development of the individual state--with no -thought of national needs. - -Surely we cannot, in all fairness, expect the immigrant to distribute -himself wisely, to protect himself adequately, to educate himself -intelligently, to become a willing citizen without the full coöperation -of the native American. Yet upon this whole matter we have no national -sense of responsibility, no national consciousness. If a practical bill -providing for a national Americanization policy, to be administered -by national authority but leaving to states and counties and cities -their due rights and obligations, were at this moment before Congress, -it would have small chance of being considered. The trouble is that we -have no convinced body of native Americans behind it to support it. - -We have not had a vision of many peoples making one nation, but rather -of a few people being worked for by others. Even kindhearted employers -with “welfare departments” for their men have little realization of -their immigrant workmen as future American people. In many cases the -welfare provisions and company housing specifically _do not apply_ to -the immigrant force. The average American housewife does not think -of the immigrant and her future in America when she needs a servant, -but wonders what nationality will suit her best. I should like to ask -how many of our housewives, even our suffragist housewives, know the -attitude of their foreign-born servants towards America or how well -they are fitted for citizenship? Are they regarded as a civic factor of -any importance? The average American officer regards the immigrant as -a trouble-maker; but how many cities compile their laws intelligently -in a language the immigrant can read, so that he may not become one? It -is the native-born American who must separate the wheat from the chaff -before we can estimate the wheat and dispose of the chaff. - -We cannot treat the immigrant as if he were something to be absorbed, -automatically, by inevitable chemical reaction, in the course of time. -He is a living, changing, creative organism, _needing attention at -every minute, and with something to contribute at every point_. From -the moment he arrives in America he needs the _creative_, aggressive -attention of American institutions if he is to become a good American. -What he gets, when he gets anything, is a chance to touch here and -there American institutions adapted to a native-born population and -_barely fulfilling the needs of the native born_. Take the case of the -immigrant who arrives at Ellis Island and goes, let us say, to a New -England mill town. Originally it was a conservative little colonial -town of 1000 population with no large industries, and with schools, -churches, and a library adapted to the population. The introduction of -several factories increases the population fourfold, and 75 per cent -of the newcomers are foreign born, needing especially to profit by the -organized institutions of America. But what really happens is that -the institutions adapted to the original 1000 native Americans remain -exactly the same--schools, churches, library, court, and houses, for -the host of new Americans to fit into them as best they can. In other -words, although immigrants may make up from one half to two thirds of -that town they do not figure 10 per cent in its activities or 10 per -cent in its government or its facilities. - -The native-born American has set up some very important and flourishing -institutions to perpetuate the ideals of Americanism and to preserve -the things dear to him. These have come also to be regarded as the -institutions for Americanizing the immigrant. If they Americanize -our native-born youth, why not our foreign-born peoples? The native -American has adapted them to his own needs and assumes that they will -do for every one. Will they, without any further attention on his part? - -The public school comes first. It is the first aid to the nation. It -also represents a fundamental principle and obligation in American -civilization. Of the 13,000,000 men and women born in other lands, -3,000,000 of them were unable to speak English, according to the 1910 -census, and only 38,000 were enrolled in our public schools to learn -it. Many important communities, in such important industrial states as -Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut, where the population is at -least one half immigrant, do not maintain _any_ classes whatever where -English can be learned. - -Even where night schools exist, they are likely to be conducted in an -experimental or detached way--as a benevolent “extension” of the public -educational system rather than as a legitimate, highly important, -and necessary part of public policy. In a city in which 75 per cent -of the population is either foreign born or of foreign parentage, -the president of the board of education said this year: “More night -schools for foreigners--well, I don’t know. I am highly interested in -the technical night high schools. _If_ there is any money left after -these are fully organized, I will see that it goes into classes for -English to foreigners.” - -But there never _is_ anything left. On that basis we shall get nowhere. -If the alien is to be taught English in this country only after every -form of education life is “fully organized”--he will by that time have -reached the point where he either cannot or will not be taught. When -will America learn that teaching immigrants English and requiring -them to learn it is a fundamental necessity, a condition of national -vitality? - -The Bureau of Naturalization is publishing a statement that during the -past year 600 cities have conducted, initiated, or largely extended -night-school instruction for aliens. With the usual optimism we point -with pride to what America is doing with the native-American taxpayer’s -money. Do we not want to know how effective it is? In how many of these -600 cities has this night-school work been put on a basis adequate -to the numbers of the foreign-born population? In how many of the 600 -has a really adequate system of instruction been worked out--adapted -to the needs, trades, shifts, hours of the men, providing for proper -classification, textbooks, teachers with vigor and understanding? How -long have the terms been and did the immigrants attend? - -We should naturally expect New England to lead in this phase of an -Americanization policy. According to the data gathered by the Bureau -of Education in 1915, Maine had 15 towns with over 1000 foreign born -in the population, with no evening schools. Massachusetts had 28, -New Hampshire and Vermont each 6, and Rhode Island 4. In Connecticut -there are 15 towns with a foreign-born population of over 1000 that -have no evening school or other municipal provision for learning -citizenship and English. There is no town in the state that has -adequate or anything like adequate provisions for this. Yet New Haven -has approximately 50,000 foreign born, Bridgeport 40,000, Hartford -35,000, Meriden 10,000, Waterbury 25,000, Stamford 12,000. Concerning -Connecticut the lament of nativism that the “State is rapidly being -foreignized” is coming loud and strong. And it is true. How, with the -situation described above, could it be otherwise? - -For the immigrant in the courts our cherished “equality before the -law” is not realized. There have been a great many studies and -investigations into the “immigrant’s influence on crime” and his -responsibility for this or that percentage of it. But there has never -been a constructive effort to make the machinery of the law adaptable -to the immigrant. With thoroughgoing nativism, the native-born -Americans have set up the kinds of courts they need for themselves, and -have installed forms of procedure that they know and understand. They -proceed on the assumption that every man knows the law, and that every -man can tell his tale in English. These assumptions were justified, -back in the days when our courts were founded. A man used to the -town-meeting scheme of government knew of what government consisted -and what it entailed. In answer to requests for interpreters, for -the distribution of information concerning laws, for modifications -of judgments where ignorance was the cause of the violation, we are -constantly met with the unsympathetic statement that if the system is -good enough for Americans and for America, it is good enough for the -Italians and the Germans and the Irish and the Jews and the Russians. -We so seldom think of laws and courts as educational, as incentives -to right doing, but always as punitive, even though this may be the -immigrant’s first contact with this leading American institution. - -An immigrant lands in America and gets whatever work he can. He does -not know, and no governmental agency takes the trouble to tell him, -what particular restrictions there are on any given occupation. No -one explains to him for which job he has to have a license or which -occupations are open only to citizens. He does not know our ordinances -about the disposal of garbage or ashes. He may come from a region -where there are no free schools, and he does not know that the law in -this country obliges him to send his children to school. Unwittingly, -with the best intentions in the world, he may offend in almost every -relation of his life. Suppose that he does offend and is brought into -court. If he cannot speak English, he is supposed to rely on the court -interpreter. In many places there is no court interpreter. In Chicago, -a short time ago, an investigation of courts disclosed the fact that -the judge sometimes had to order volunteer interpreters to leave the -room because they were interpreting wrongly time after time. The judges -stated that there were a few men of that kind who made a practice of -hanging around the courts and interpreting wrongly whenever it was to -their advantage to do so. - -Unable to make himself understood, and without competent and honest -assistance from an interpreter, the alien is placed at an additional -disadvantage in our courts. Ignorant of his rights, not understanding -what his offense is, he is tried and convicted, and leaves the court -wondering what he has done that justifies it in branding him as a -law breaker. His respect for American law and for American justice -does not outlive many experiences of this kind, and another door to -Americanism is closed. - -Our journals are also nativistic. We are known as a country ruled and -governed by our newspapers, which are said to be able to make and -unmake political parties, and to raise a politician or statesman to a -dizzy pinnacle of fame or else to cast him headlong into oblivion. The -average paper has page after page--on Saturdays and Sundays, section -after section--full of articles that are suggestive and instructive to -those who have their bearings already, but a helpless, hopeless maze -to those who have come to America so recently that they still need an -occasional signpost to guide them through our political mazes. It seems -to be assumed that the readers know the form, the history, the value, -and the significance of American institutions, and need only to have -them attended to or referred to, the more casually the better. Some of -our most significant journals take apparent pride in being cryptic. -They ignore the presence in this country of millions who need to be -informed, who ardently desire information, about our history and our -institutions, and who do not know where they can obtain it from an -English-speaking source. - -About 9,000,000 people in this country read foreign-language -newspapers. Some of them are persons who read these papers largely -from necessity while they are learning English, and some of them never -intend to learn, and never do learn, English at all. An immigrant who -arrives in this country without being able to speak English finds -that it takes a considerable time to learn it--the length of time -depending on the place he finds work in and the people he works with. -Now in this period, long or short, which must elapse before the alien -learns English, the foreign-language newspaper could be an invaluable -Americanizing agent. But it cannot be so without the coöperation of the -native press and native Americans. And that we have never given. Our -big manufacturers advertise in thousands of these papers to sell goods. -Otherwise we do not concern ourselves with them at all, except to -regard _all_ with suspicion when we learn of the disloyalty of _one_. -Many of the editors of these papers, themselves not Americanized in -any complete sense, are making inadequate but persistent efforts to -connect their people with American institutions to lead them to become -Americans, real citizens of this republic. They get little help from -us. The American press is increasingly proud of its position as one of -the very greatest of our social institutions. It is run for labor, for -capital, for society, for business, for the man in the street; but it -is run very little for the foreign-born citizen or alien who against -odds is trying to accomplish his own assimilation. Yet this is exactly -the task in which the newspaper that considered his interests and his -needs could help him most. - -The public library, especially in cities where public school branches -are maintained, has a great opportunity to reach the adult immigrant -in his own neighborhood, in community reading rooms, by providing -newspapers, books in the native language, simple books about America, -either in English or translated into the native tongue. Whenever public -library facilities are extended to immigrants, there is ample testimony -to the enthusiasm with which they are received. A few years ago the -management of the New York City public library in a very interesting -report gave some startling figures covering the patronage of the -public libraries by the foreign born of New York City, showing that -they were exceptionally eager and persistent readers, and of the more -serious forms of literature--history, philosophy, science, and drama. -In hundreds of industrial towns of the country the public library is -a virtual mausoleum, a monument to culture, little used but “always -there.” Whole sections of the town that have never found the way to the -library, and who might not be made welcome if they did, are starving -for some recreative interest, some sources of information which they -could manage. - -But here occurs a stumblingblock. The native American has a prejudice -against furnishing books in a foreign language and often proceeds on -the theory that although he does nothing to furnish facilities for -learning English, it is better that the immigrant should read nothing -while he waits. - -It is idle to fear that the foreign-language book is an obstacle to -Americanization. Anything that increases the alien’s intelligence, and -especially his information about America, is an aid, not a hindrance. -Outside of the large cities few libraries have any collection of -foreign books. Those that do are likely to have an entirely academic -or classical assortment. A few weeks ago, in investigating the public -library facilities of one of our big steel towns, now given over to the -production of munitions, it was discovered that the foreign language -“collection” adapted to the races in the town consisted of one Polish -book. In one industrial town which is heavily immigrant a public -library a few weeks ago opened a branch in a foreign bank--and, as -might be expected, it is flourishing. - -One of the chief American grievances against the immigrant is that he -does not spend or invest his money here. Until the establishment of the -postal savings banks he had little encouragement to do so. Here again -we cling stubbornly to our nativism, and maintain that arrangements -that are satisfactory to the native born are good enough for the -foreign born as well. Few banks have foreign departments, although of -late the number is increasing. The ordinary bank is not adapted to the -immigrant. He is intimidated by it and is not always welcome. That -59 per cent of the present investors in the Postal Savings Banks are -foreign born, and that this 59 per cent owns 72 per cent of all the -money now on deposit is significant proof that the immigrant _will_ use -our banks as an institution. - -If I have given the impression that the entire responsibility for -Americanism is the native American’s, I have failed in my purpose. I -have but attempted to restore the balance and point out the really -controlling factor in Americanism. - -If I have failed to note the many very important and excellent -movements now under way in the name of reform and paid by benevolence, -it is not that I underestimate their value. It is because I want the -native American to realize that reform and philanthropy are no more -now to be the custodians of Americanism than when the Declaration of -Independence was signed. It is the average business man in his plant -and the average official in his government office that must preserve it -in every thought, act, and ambition of the day’s routine work--carrying -always the overhead charge of patriotism and nationalism. - -This fixing of initial responsibility does not mean that the immigrant -has no responsibility. Far from it. He must be ready to stay in -America, to become a citizen, to adopt American standards, to obey -our laws, to meet his obligations, to do his duty, to assume his -responsibilities for, as well as to exercise, his rights. But he must -know what these are. He must realize that the native American knows -what they are and will set him a good example. He must be told that -he is expected to meet the requirements or America does not want him -and will not keep him. Our admission and exclusion laws serve no such -notice on him. The literacy test is a plain evasion of the native -American’s responsibility and a lazy way of thinking out the problem. -We native Americans in business or in office have never addressed -ourselves seriously to the task of making Americans or nationalizing -America. When we do, we shall have as strong a nation as we have -bridges and railways and banks. - -It is possible that we have been admitting too many people of too wide -a variety for the native American to Americanize. It is certainly true -that we should hesitate to admit many others until we have demonstrated -our ability to provide an assimilation policy for the nation. We cannot -forever depend upon the missionary for the Americanization of aliens. -Shall we close the doors as the only way to preserve Americanism? Will -this be a confession of our utter failure to deal in a statesmanlike -way with either the international or national situation which confronts -us? - -It seems to me that our real enemy is not an aggressive foreignism, -but a passive, complacent Americanism or nativism. What we really need -to fear is, not that we shall be invaded by civilizations and ideals -we cannot assimilate, but that we shall fail to develop and perpetuate -and extend to all Americans the civilization and the ideals we firmly -believe to be American. - -I consider that a most dangerous fallacy in this country to-day is the -belief that the evils that have overtaken us through the immigrant are -the result of an undue expansion of our hospitality, an undue breadth -of interpretation of America as the land of liberty, open to all. -What we are really suffering from is not undue expansion but undue -contraction, a determined withdrawal of native Americans from the real -situation in America, a positive refusal to face their destiny, a -stupid neglect to provide anything for the immigrant but a job. - -It seems to me the height of complacent nativism to ascribe our social -and political evils to unrestricted immigration, when as a matter -of fact we have never developed facilities for assimilating them or -given the matter much constructive attention of any kind. We have no -information concerning the numbers and kinds of immigrants which our -country and our institutions can assimilate, and until we have these we -are not in a position for judgment. - -I believe emphatically that unless America can show itself worthy -of its traditions and opportunities, we should not be honored nor -sought as “an asylum for the oppressed,” nor be regarded as “a refuge -from tyranny,” and that we should close our doors and put up a sign -that means what we say. I am equally positive that we should give -a constructive policy a fair trial--starting at Ellis Island and -following the alien to the last hamlet with information, advice, and -protection, with assurance of equality before the law in all respects, -and giving him the full guarantees of our Constitution. If under these -conditions he prefers his home language to ours, pays his allegiance -to a country other than America, sends his savings home to be invested, -persists in a second-rate standard of living, asserts his rights but -refuses to meet his duties, reads the foreign language press instead of -the American, joins the racial society instead of the city club,--then -we shall know the fault is not the native American’s, and we can put up -the bars with a clear conscience and with courage in our hearts. - -Americanism faces the future and is courageous. Nativism faces the past -and is apprehensive. Never in the history of nations shall we have a -greater opportunity to attain stability and leadership than now. The -native American has in his own hands the power to build a great future -for his land. He has the needed qualities, too; he has an idealism -such as the world never witnessed before, in so high a degree as to -seem naïve or childish to citizens of older races dyed in intrigue and -used to always looking for the hidden motive under every apparently -open move. He has courage and a faith in liberty detached though it -sometimes is from his daily life. And I am one of those who hold that -he still believes in equality--in spite of the manifold contradictions -we see all about us. - -But he is, as we have seen, blind beyond parallel to his -opportunities--to a degree that makes us question sometimes whether he -has not, after all, committed the unpardonable sin of sinning against -the light. He has been stupid, foolish, trivial. He has been content -to treat his belief in liberty and equality as many a man treats his -religion--as something precious, but not to be used in daily life. - -It is not too late for the American to face about from his nativism, -from his contentment with considering only the needs and interests -of the native born, and to consider the needs of America as a whole, -America as he sees it and meets it every day, in his shop or mill,--the -America of the native born _and the foreign born as well_. Let him but -recognize once for all that the foreigner’s needs are the same as his -needs, that everyone wants a decent home and a place to sit in, and -book or paper to read, a safe place to keep his savings, a chance for -himself and his family to keep well,--all the varied needs of the body -and the soul,--let him but recognize that the alien and the native-born -both need and desire these things, and then make it his responsibility -to provide them and the battle will be won. - -_We_ are the great adventure of the twentieth century. And the foes we -have to fear are not the hosts that come to us to profit by our liberty -and opportunity, but the lack of wisdom and of courage that makes us -unfit to administer our heritage and to meet our destiny. Nativism is -no substitute for Americanism. - - - - - CHAPTER IV - - AMERICA-MADE CITIZENS - - -When is a citizen not a citizen? The great game of hide and seek in -America might well be called citizenship. Every naturalized male alien -is a citizen as long as he stays here; but if his home country was -Turkey, it is not safe for him to get back into its jurisdiction. -In New York state the alien waits five years to become a citizen -and vote; in Nebraska and half a dozen other states he has only to -declare his intention to become a citizen and then qualify under the -election law. We deny men the right to work in certain occupations -unless they are citizens, yet we make them wait five years to become -citizens, meanwhile failing to provide them with facilities for -meeting the educational requirements for citizenship. We tolerate a -system of seasonal labor and shifting of the working population which -makes it physically impossible for the migratory workman to meet the -legal requirements. We permit women to vote and still retain the law -that naturalization follows the husband or father--thereby making it -possible for the alien woman who marries a citizen or is the child -of a naturalized citizen to vote as soon as she complies with the -residence law, however ignorant she may be. At the same time we deny -the privilege of citizenship to native-born American women who marry -aliens. One of the great questions facing us to-day is the adaptation -of our citizenship requirements to the needs of the country. We cannot -have real Americanization until this is done. A man or woman unfit for -citizenship is not wanted in America. The fit man or woman should be in -every way encouraged to become the best kind of citizen and to remain -so. - -We have no standard definitions of the citizenship requirement as to -what constitutes knowledge of English, of the constitution, of loyalty, -or the meaning of the oath of allegiance. Some judges with a high sense -of patriotic duty enforce one standard; others “pass them up”--and -again America pays the price in its quality of citizenship and in -the kind of service such men and women railroaded into citizenship -will render when called upon. We have never considered a knowledge of -the country, of its institutions and of Americanism as necessary for -citizenship, either of native or foreign born. We rest our case upon a -rather splendid series of assumptions. We assume that the school and -home and job and town will do this work with never an inquiry by the -Federal government as to how the task is being done. Were it not for -the campaign for preparedness and the dangers we face we would still -accept the public school Fourth of July oration as sufficient evidence -of the interest and proficiency of the native-born son; we would still -believe that the granting of papers to foreign-born men sealed their -loyalty to America. We hardly yet realize the significance of the fact -that no specific way of pledging allegiance is required from the men -or women who come of age; even the child born here of foreign parents -is not asked to make a choice between the two possible allegiances -that may be dear to him. Little citizenship training is given in our -schools, except in the form of diluted history or civil government, -and the thousands of girls and boys that leave school at 14 years of -age and go to work do not obtain even that. We assume that the child -has absorbed American ideas and traditions. The feeble response to -a preparedness call and our attempts at neutrality in thought have -shown us how little of the national and how much of the local and -selfishly “safe” attitude we as a nation have. What is our conception -of citizenship? Does it mean that we, the people, are the possessors -of life, liberty, happiness, and prosperity in America with no -corresponding obligations? Does it mean that our obligations consist in -paying taxes, being law abiding to the point of keeping out of court, -and voting at some elections? We owe these obligations to any country -in which we are guests. We still find ourselves, after generations of -American citizens, debating whether we shall train our young men to -defend America. We find the best life in the country not in government -service, building a strong nation, but in business, building an -individual fortune. - -Are we as careless, go as you please, and perfunctory about making -aliens into citizens as we are about native sons and daughters growing -into citizens? It is not very flattering to America to find that up -to the beginning of the war in Europe the greatest incentives to the -acquirement of citizenship by aliens were political and commercial. -There are many thousands of aliens moved by a general aspiration toward -the idealistic privileges and traditions of American citizenship and -these make our true patriots. But by far too many of our citizens -have entered by way of the political club and at the behest of a -self-interested politician; and by way of the job, to earn a living. -How and when did citizenship become so cheap and begin to serve the -commercial and not the patriotic needs of America? - -The chief difficulty arose with the willingness of government to -place the whole burden upon the alien. We wrote a law on the statute -books, setting forth certain technical requirements; then we taxed -the prospective citizen enough to pay for the enforcement of the law, -providing a number of fat offices and a neat balance in the treasury. -Then we sat back in our comfortable office chairs and said to the -alien: Now you comply with the law and we will grant you citizenship -papers. - -But in drafting the law, we did another thing. We called it raising -the standard. What we really did was to increase the technicalities -which cost influence and money to satisfy, but which gave America no -better citizens. The naturalization law provides that an alien before -becoming a citizen shall have a continuous residence of five years in -America, shall comply with certain rules, shall have a knowledge of -the English language and of the constitution, and shall renounce all -allegiance to foreign governments. He may not do this all at once. -It is a long, complicated process, intended to safeguard American -citizenship, but failing in its purpose because we failed to establish -standards or facilities for compliance. For instance, the prospective -citizen must file a declaration of intention at least two years prior -to the granting of his final papers--an obsolete requirement, as his -five years of continuous residence is now established by the filing -of a certificate of arrival with his petition. A second document, -the petition for citizenship, must be filed not less than two nor -more than seven years after the declaration of intention, verified by -the affidavits of two credible citizen witnesses, certifying to the -petitioner’s five years’ residence in the United States _and one year’s -residence in the state or district in which the application is made_. -This latter requirement creates almost insuperable difficulties for -migratory laborers who go from state to state, following the call of -casual or seasonal labor. After the petition is filed, the applicant -must wait at least ninety days before his appearance in court. -_But should he move during this period from one judicial district -to another within the same state, he must file a new petition_ and -pay an additional _fee, as the court will not transfer its original -records_. As a result, an applicant who removes to New York City after -filing a petition and paying the fee in Buffalo must go through the -same process in New York City. And unless he can afford to bring his -witnesses twice from Buffalo to New York City he must wait another -year until two other citizens can verify his year’s residence in New -York City. The two witnesses must accompany the petitioner at least -twice--when the petition is filed and at the hearing in open court. -If his case is not reached and adjournments are made, the applicant -frequently appears not only the minimum four times, but may appear -as many as six or eight times, and his witnesses as many as four or -five times. Every day in court means the loss of wages and the cost of -transportation to and from the county seat for himself and witnesses -whom he must reimburse for their losses. The applicant and his -witnesses are in constant fear that their enforced presence in court -during ordinary working hours may result in the loss of their jobs. - -Of what possible value can state and district lines be in a national -citizenship matter? Are we a nation or are we a conglomeration of -states and districts? If we need so cumbersome a machine to prevent -frauds, by which the alien pays the entire cost, then the reduction -in fraud is at the high cost of citizens. It is estimated that 10 per -cent of all aliens who try to become citizens fail in their final -examination because of technicalities, and most of them never come -back, though no fraud was alleged. - -When we set this highly specialized Federal machinery in motion in -1906, it was on the theory that citizenship was a national, not a -state matter. In 1889 when the enforcement of the immigration laws -was transferred to the Federal government, it acquired all powers of -admission and exclusion, but all the protective features of the Board -of Emigration Commissioners of New York state were dropped and a series -of exploitations immediately arose. This is precisely what happened -when our naturalization laws were transferred. We took the authority, -but we neglected to establish standards, facilities, and protection for -the alien. We did not settle the states’-rights question and we did not -consider sufficiently our international relations. - -In the matter of standards, the burden of determining the -qualifications of the prospective citizens rests upon the Bureau of -Naturalization, while the actual granting of final papers rests with -some 2380 judges, each applying his own idea of qualifications. The -Bureau of Naturalization up to 1915 has been primarily concerned with -technicalities of law and proof of residence, time elapsing between the -granting of papers, etc. It has been largely legal evidence which has -been placed before the judge, showing that the law had been complied -with. - -For nine long years the Federal government enforced the letter of -this law--it had no American spirit in it. It did nothing to assist -the alien to qualify in the English language or in civics. It made no -attempt to stimulate the opening of night schools where these could be -taught; it favored no educational extension work; it saw no connection -between the courts, schools, and naturalization bureaus. Then -things began to happen. States like New York and California started -immigration bureaus which emphasized education. Other states like New -Jersey and Massachusetts had immigration commissions that studied -naturalization among other things. Two cities, at least, took up the -matter--Cleveland and Los Angeles--of connecting the public schools -with the courts and having the certificate of the school, giving credit -for work in the English language and civics, recognized by the judge -in granting final papers. In a few cities night sessions were also -urged, so the cost to workers in time and wages might be lessened. -In 1914 the Bureau of Education established a division of immigrant -education, which began a nation-wide campaign of education through the -public schools. In 1915, the preparedness movement, and the discussion -of hyphenated Americans and their activities, awakened the Bureau of -Naturalization to the fact that a new situation confronted America. - -In the meantime politics and business had been as busy as ever “making -citizens” for their own purposes, putting them through the courts -without qualification in English or civics. Something had to be done -about this, so the Bureau of Naturalization reversed its policy and -is now conducting a campaign by which the name of every applicant for -first papers is now sent to the nearest school authority and the alien -is followed up and urged to become qualified for citizenship. - -This is still largely an ideal and a dream--something to be worked -out with infinite care and patience to bring good results. We shall -never have prepared citizens until we have Federal aid to local -communities. Outside of the large cities the local school can barely -meet its local obligations to children, and it will be a long time -before there are adequate facilities for night schools. This is by no -means all of the problem of standards. I am convinced that we shall -have to have a Federal admission law compelling the acquirement of the -English language or similar compulsory state laws to get immigrants -into the school. Let us tell the truth. We have empty night schools -in America as well as aliens without school facilities. Why? The -foreign governments and the bulk of the foreign-language newspapers -are against the immigrant learning the English language. It opens -the door too rapidly to Americanization. The short-sighted business -man is against his workmen becoming literate, learning English and -too much about America. He thinks they will move up and want higher -wages. The trade union is against it, as it also thinks they will move -up and displace union men. No school can succeed where the employer -discourages attendance, works his men nights or overtime, interfering -with attendance, or in alternate weekly shifts, destroying continuity -of attendance. The coöperation of business and the adjustment of -the school system for adults to the industrial system are vital to -success. No school can fully succeed that does not have the support -and understanding of the local political and religious leaders, as -they may make for or against attendance. A national governmental plan -of preparation for citizenship depends in its last analysis upon local -activity, sympathy, and understanding, and upon adequate funds. Why did -Detroit double its appropriation for night schools in 1915 and increase -its attendance 156 per cent? Because organized business, wide awake -and far seeing, saw that the stable working population in the future -in America will be men with a citizenship and a home stake in America. -They set out to provide it, and the latest step taken is that of the -Packard Motor Car Company, basing advancement upon citizenship. - -Citizenship preparation cannot be a paper propaganda--it must bear a -vital relation to the work, play, and living conditions of each citizen -and take him not only to the school but to the military training camp; -not only to the job but to the polls; not only to better conditions in -America but to unswerving loyalty to America. - -So much for standards. What have we done about states’ rights? In the -chapter on the American Vote, I have dealt with the confusion between -our state and Federal voting laws. We have a more serious problem in -the economic imprint we have permitted states and cities to put upon -citizenship. As a result of these laws citizenship has become in many -states a kind of economic patchwork. In order to preserve certain -rights, advantages, and fields of effort to native-born and naturalized -citizens, we have made certain discriminations against aliens which -have resulted in a purely commercial incentive to citizenship or -evasions of law. - -As illustrative of America’s attitude in these matters, let us take -public service. Aliens are shut out from public service by several -laws and many municipal ordinances. The state laws are sometimes very -sweeping, excluding the alien from employment in any capacity in any -department of the state. In California, for instance, only citizens -may be employed in any department of the state, county, city, or town. -This law was invoked last winter to prevent the payment of salaries -of several Canadians who had been employed as teachers in the public -schools. This law was later amended, allowing aliens who had made their -declaration of intention to be employed as teachers and exempting the -University of California from the operation of the act. - -State civil service laws prescribe citizenship as a qualification -in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, New -Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. The Federal civil service law -has a similar requirement. In most states these laws apply to unskilled -labor on public improvements, road building and ditch digging, even -where sublet by the city to a contractor. The result is a wholesale -evasion of the law, made necessary in order for the city to get its -work done. The alien knows he is a law breaker and gets his first -lesson in American law enforcement. He works in peace and security -while some one else pays the necessary fines. If the worst happens, he -applies for his first papers and then works under an injunction until -the law can be interpreted or amended--which is done if labor is very -scarce. - -It is a sound policy necessary for the protection of the country to -require that only citizens shall administer its government and hold -positions of trust and responsibility. As a measure of defense, which -is its main justification, it should be _national_. It is no defense -against a foreign foe to have it obtain in one state and not in -another; in one city and not in another. A state or city that needs -protection from a neighboring state or city has not yet attained -a national point of view and stands in the way of Americanism and -nationalism. It is sound to keep alien workmen off our waterways and -water-supply systems and other public works of importance in defense, -but we defeat our entire purpose of safety when any alien resident here -for a few months can go on those arteries of our defense system with a -declaration of intention in his pocket. - -It is a sound policy that the instruction in our public schools should -be by American citizens with an American point of view and loyalty, but -compliance with that law, as in California, by granting first papers, -will not carry out that policy or give assurance of teaching from the -American point of view. Americans regard the possession of a paper -as evidence of intent and of qualifications, whereas it is generally -regarded by the alien as a technical requirement necessary to earn -money in America. - -In some states there is a modified form of this law, requiring that -preference be given to citizens. At this stage it becomes clear that -these laws are not national defense laws, but labor preference laws. -If Americanism means anything in justice, law, order, or opportunity, -such laws should have their purpose expressed and their terms defined -in the Federal statutes and due notice should be given the alien before -he emigrates to America. Are we a nation dealing squarely with all -peoples and honorably with those we admit, or are we a federation of -states each dealing with the alien as it sees fit, after the nation -has admitted him? All right-thinking Americans must see that we must -deal as a nation and not locally with the subjects of alienism and -citizenship. - -Local temporizing with national honor and fair play has led us into -even more unjust discriminations, indefensible in the light of our -treaty obligations. Aliens are in some states excluded from pursuing -certain private callings. In many states an alien may not be an -attorney; in other states that profession is open to declarants, -showing again our utter lack of comprehension of such laws as defense -measures. For example, in Louisiana, an alien cannot get a contract -for public printing; in Michigan he cannot get a barber’s license; in -many states, such as New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, etc., -only a citizen can get a liquor license. In six states the alien is -excluded from gaining a livelihood by hunting and fishing; in Tennessee -he may not be a market hunter, and in Wyoming he may not be a guide. -In Virginia only a citizen may get a junk-dealer’s license, and in -Georgia only a citizen or a declarant can get a peddler’s license. In -New Jersey an alien cannot get a license to transmit money to foreign -countries, or receive money on deposit for transmission to foreign -countries, or buy and sell foreign money. - -What is the situation in relation to property? The United States -consists of a federation of states, each sovereign in its own domain -except for the powers delegated to the Federal government. The tenure -of real property is not one of the powers so delegated. Each state -consequently has sovereign power over its own soil, and can determine -by whom it will permit its soil to be held and what conditions it will -attach to the tenure. For this reason the state enactments regarding -real property are of the utmost importance. In twenty-nine states -resident aliens are given the same property rights as citizens; in two -other states the same rights are given to white aliens. - -In other states, however, aliens are practically prohibited from -holding land at all or may hold it only for a limited period. In still -others, no alien can acquire land, except by inheritance or in payment -of debt. The laws vary greatly in the various states. Non-resident -alien heirs are placed in a difficult position. In several states -they are allowed to take only with the limitation that they sell -within a certain time. If land in California falls to an alien not -capable of taking title to it, it is sold for his benefit; in Illinois -non-resident heirs are excluded altogether. - -The restriction of landholding to citizens is a fundamentally sound -measure of national defense. It is not sound unless it is uniform in -all states, and in view of our growing international importance and -impossibility of isolation from the world, there should be a national -policy in this regard wholly governed by international agreement and -national law. The holding of land also bears a vital relation to our -various schemes for colonizing aliens, opening of reservations, and -issuing of rural credits, and should be considered in these connections. - -Some of the recent so-called insurance laws show the same tendencies to -discriminations. The workmen’s compensation laws now in force in the -United States affect the alien in several ways. The most evident is -the discrimination against alien beneficiaries that limit the amount -that may be paid to non-resident dependents. Connecticut gives such -a dependent only half of what a resident would receive, and Kansas -names $750 as the maximum a non-resident may receive, although a -resident may receive a sum varying from $1200 to $3600. In some states -installments are commuted to a lump sum if paid to a non-resident, and -in Nebraska this may amount to only two thirds of the sum total of -the installments; in New York it may amount to only one half, while -lump-sum payments by the railroads engaged in interstate commerce may -amount only to one year’s wages. - -Another form of discrimination is found in the determination of who are -“dependents.” Three states in the case of non-resident aliens limit -to the closest relationships those who may be considered dependents. -Three others present the extreme situation of refusing to recognize -non-resident alien dependents at all. If an immigrant workman is killed -in any one of these states, even his closest relatives in Austria or -Italy have no standing under this law. - -Aliens are excluded in Illinois and New York from the benefits of the -mothers’ pension laws; and there is a tendency to make citizenship a -requirement in plans proposed or put into operation for the welfare -of the unemployed. In the law passed in Idaho last year, requiring -the county commissioners to provide work on the public highways or -elsewhere for unemployed men, only citizens of the United States -were entitled to apply for work. In other words if two men contribute -equally to producing wealth for the state, the citizen may work and -receive state funds to keep him from starving, while the alien must get -out or starve. The state is done with him, when it has no work for him -to do. - -In other states an alien cannot be an executor, administrator, or -guardian, a provision which often hampers the settlement of the estate -of an alien whose close friends and relatives are often aliens. There -are other examples of discrimination in the enjoyment of personal -rights and privileges. In Pennsylvania and New Jersey an alien is -not allowed to have a rifle or shotgun in his possession--nominally -in order that game may be protected. A law that went into effect -this summer in Pennsylvania goes even further; it prohibits an -alien from owning or having in his possession any kind of dog. The -constitutionality of this law is soon to be tested. - -One cannot read the hundreds of discriminating laws without a sense -of the utter prostitution of American citizenship to prejudice, -race hatred, greed, cupidity, and to the selfishness of groups and -individuals. Men in power set themselves above the nation and seek to -make that power secure by controlling at will the means of subsistence -of other men. By all means let us have a complete national defense -in which the lives, land, and jobs of citizens shall be secured, but -let us have it by statesmanship and national law and international -agreement, so we may fight in the open for what we believe in and -not support indefensible citizenship legislation lobbied through the -legislatures by class interests. - -And now we face a new situation which bids fair to upset all our -citizenship plans. Some industries are taking the stand that they -will only promote men who are citizens or who have applied for -their first papers. In this attitude employers are moved by two -considerations--patriotism and the need for national preparedness and -a realization of their responsibility; and second, the need for an -improved and more stable labor supply and a reduction in accidents -among English-speaking men. The Packard Motor Car Company in making -its announcement said: - - “We have in our organization almost 100 different peoples. We have - Germans, Italians, Austrians, French, Polish--whose sympathies are - divided as regards the war at present raging in Europe. We have a - babel of tongues and an endless variety of races and nationalities. - - “Our workmen are divided into cliques thereby. Their sympathies are - with the lands that gave them birth. They forget our national ideals. - To my mind this is a source of danger not only to the company, but - to the whole country. The conditions of the average American factory - are the conditions of this country. We have no unified people, as in - France, in Germany, or in other countries. - - “In the American factory this sympathy and patriotism of each set of - foreign-born workmen for their native land causes friction among the - men. We find that in many instances men of one nationality object to - working under a foreman or higher official of another nationality. We - have had letters from the men along that line objecting to employment - under a boss who is undesirable because of a different nationality. - - “So we are going to make the ‘bosses’ in this factory Americans. Be - they of whatever nationality when they come in as laborers, they must - be American citizens, loyal to America and American ideals and all - they stand for, before they can hope for positions of responsibility - and trust. We determined to make the prerequisite of success in this - institution American patriotism and American nationalism. - - “We will employ foreign-born men, but it shall be understood that - their only hope for advancement and preferment lies in their speedy - adoption of American citizenship and the forswearing of allegiance to - other lands. And we feel that if throughout this nation commercial - and industrial success depended on a prerequisite of American loyalty - and patriotism, the country would be better off, its factories would - have far more efficiency and the workmen would be better satisfied - and happier, with old-country feuds and bickerings forgotten and - superseded by a thorough Americanism.” - -As an educational measure supplying the stimulus to citizenship work -this is valuable. Should it be adopted, however, as a widespread -industrial policy it will lead to two complications--international, -as being unduly discriminating, and hardships to the alien, due to -lack of advance knowledge and opportunity to adjust himself. It may -further cheapen citizenship by putting it on a commercial basis. The -way out is to notify each alien before admission that every alien over -school age and under 45 will be required to learn English within five -years, subject to deportation for non-compliance, if facilities are -furnished him. We shall then see every industry interested in keeping a -good labor supply, making every effort to comply with the law, and we -will have a national policy based on law instead of isolated action by -miscellaneous industries, never uniform and varying widely in purpose -and methods. - -We have heard much about “dual citizenship” since the European war -began. This is not a new question. Over and over again it has come -up for adjudication before the Department of State. There are two -important aspects of the subject. The first concerns the question of -the citizenship of children born in the United States of foreign-born -parents; the second concerns the status of naturalized American -citizens. - -In the first case the difficulty arises from what appears to be an -inevitable conflict of laws. There are two theories for determining the -nationality, or rather the citizenship, of any given individual. The -first of these laws is what is called the _jus soli_, or the law of the -land. According to this a person takes the nationality of the land in -which he is born. This is the American conception running through our -general theory of citizenship. - -The other is called _jus sanguinis_, or the law of blood. This is the -law that is followed in ordinary European civil law codes. According -to this law, a person’s nationality or citizenship depends on the -citizenship of his parents. The United States has adopted this rule in -the case of children born abroad of parents that are American citizens. -Each law has its advantages. It is certainly better to consider that -the child of an American business man residing in China at the time -the child is born is an American citizen than it would be to consider -that the child was a subject of the Chinese Empire. This law of -blood, like many other rules of the civil law, goes back to such a -fundamental human instinct that any other way of dealing with this -situation than the one it suggests would seem wrong to us. The law of -the land, on the other hand, has very distinct advantages as well, -which can also be illustrated from our American situation. A Russian -man and woman, let us say, succeed in escaping persecution at home and -come to this country to live. We prefer to think that their children, -born on American soil and brought up under American institutions, are -Americans, and we have made this the cardinal principle of American -citizenship. It would be too late now to attempt to alter this law, -even if we wished to do so, because it is firmly rooted both in statute -law and in our fundamental conception of the meaning of America. - -And yet we find it convenient and right to use the opposed law of -nationality, the law of blood, in such a case as a child born in China -of American parents. If we find it necessary to adopt into our own -statutes a provision so contrary to our general citizenship law as -this law of blood, we cannot consistently object when another country -adopts it as its principle of citizenship. The difficulty has been met -hitherto by allowing the child to choose which nationality it wishes -to keep when it becomes twenty-one, or attains its majority, and by -holding it subject until that time to the law of whichever country it -happens to be in. This at least is the way the situation works out, -although there has never been any international ruling on the subject. -If the child were in France, the French authorities applied the French -law; if it were in America, the American authorities applied the -American law, and when the child became of age, it made its election, -and thereafter was held to be a citizen of whichever country it -elected. It was considered to be so clear a fact that this election was -something that the child alone could do, that the fact that the father -took the child from one country to another was held over and over again -not to affect the child’s right to chose for itself when it became of -age. Theoretically we hold that there can be no dual citizenship of -the naturalized citizen or of the child born in America if he elects -American citizenship. The records are not altogether clear if we stand -ready to enforce this. There are two recent cases on this point. In -June, 1915, a young man named Ugo da Prato, who was born in Boston in -1895 and had gone to Italy in 1912 to study architecture, was held by -the Italian government as liable to military duty because his father, -Antonio da Prato, had been a native of Italy. He had emigrated to -America and had been naturalized in Boston in 1892. Under our American -law, the son Ugo, born on American soil, was an American. The Italian -law, however, holds that Italian subjects who have acquired citizenship -in other countries are not exempted from the obligations of military -service, nor from the penalties imposed on those who bear arms against -their country. Italy subsequently released Ugo da Prato. - -A similar situation arose in the case of one de Long, of Louisiana, who -was born in America of a French father who had never been naturalized. -Upon his inquiry to the State Department as to what his status would -be in France if he were to return there during the war, the State -Department advised him that while he was by the law of America an -American citizen, by the law of France he was a French citizen, and -they declined to encourage him to test the matter by returning to -France while the war was in progress. - -The real question at issue, of course, is whether or not a nation has -the right to regard its control over its subject as a thing of which -it can refuse to divest itself. The Ottoman law is that no transfer of -allegiance to which the consent of the Ottoman government has not been -previously obtained is binding. The French law is similar; the French -government rarely consents to permit a Frenchman of military age to -throw off his allegiance. Under certain conditions, however, permission -may be obtained. The Greek government generally refuses to recognize a -change of nationality made without consent. Neither does the Persian -government, nor the Russian government. Under Russian law, a Russian -subject who becomes a citizen of another country without the consent -of the Russian government is deemed to have committed an offense for -which he is liable to arrest and punishment if he returns without -having previously obtained permission of the Russian government. - -This second form of dual allegiance, which would more properly be -stated as the attempt to hold that the change of allegiance either did -not take place at all or else was not thoroughgoing, bears in itself -the possibility of very serious complications. Our naturalized citizens -and the native-born children of foreign-born parents have a right to -determine that the allegiance they have chosen to swear to the United -States be protected. - -The situation at present amounts to this: The United States has -treaties of naturalization with Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, -the German States, Great Britain, Haiti, Norway and Sweden, and -Portugal. These treaties provide under what conditions naturalization -does not free a former subject from obligation to the country of his -birth. Theoretically, whenever a question involving some aspect of -naturalization comes up with reference to a former subject of one -of these countries, his rights and obligations are determined by the -treaty. As a matter of fact, however, this is not always the case, -for while there is a treaty of naturalization with Germany, that did -not prevent the Germans from passing the law of nationality of June -1, 1914, which practically nullifies the treaty. Where there is no -treaty of naturalization all that the state authorities can do is to -call the attention of the foreign government to the American point of -view. It has never, apparently, been considered possible to enforce the -American conception of naturalization, or to make American citizenship -really respected in countries that are slow to do so. When the point -was brought to an issue with Russia, the only effect was to leave us -without any treaty with Russia at all. - -As long as we are content to treat naturalization as an isolated matter -we will get no satisfaction. We shall never be in a better position -than at the close of the war to insist upon a thorough understanding -of matters and adoption of a uniform practice in international -citizenship. We now have citizenship matters to settle nationally and -internationally for which we are ill prepared. - -Congress is charged by the Constitution with “establishing a uniform -rule of naturalization.” It has never been established. It is the -immediate duty of Congress to do so. We need a thorough overhauling -of our Federal naturalization laws, and of local laws in regard to -voting, holding land and property, earning a living, etc., from the -standpoint of national development and defense, and from the standpoint -of the future of our Americanism. We cannot do this without a thorough, -impartial scientific study of the effect of the enforcement of -these laws--not only as shown in official statistics and records in -Washington, but in the local districts and among those naturalized. We -need to know more of the cost and effectiveness of our naturalization -process and the kind of citizens it gives us. We need to know about the -granting of papers through the various courts and the influences at -work for making good or bad citizens throughout the country. We need to -know what our facilities are for educating aliens to become citizens, -and more of the attitude of our newly naturalized citizens toward -America. Having these matters in hand, we may then proceed to work out -a citizenship policy and practice which will accord with the times in -which we live and will be a national and international code which will -make all native-born citizens doubly proud of their heritage and all -foreign-born citizens proud to live or die for America, as the call may -come. - - - - - CHAPTER V - - THE POPULAR VOTE - - -We are facing a national election in which the “vote of the people” -will decide the future of America more certainly than at any election -since the Civil War. One of the most vital questions before us this -year is: Will the foreign-born vote tend to solidarity and be cast in -racial interests, or will it be cast for America along broad lines of -national policy? Will the 1500 foreign-language newspapers influence -the foreign-born vote in favor of a national policy or will it attempt -to influence it along racial lines? - -The returns of the next national election should have an important -bearing upon our future immigration policy of admission. Should -we find the vote tending to solidify along racial lines then we -have an additional reason for insisting upon the development of an -assimilation policy if we are to continue to admit aliens. The -racial vote may prove to be a far more anti-American influence than -the foreign colony. America cannot afford to have an Irish vote, a -German-American vote, a Jewish vote, cast _en bloc_ for any measures or -man, if Americanism as defined in the Declaration of Independence and -Federal Constitution is to prevail. - -The issues promise to center more about candidates than platforms. -Parties will impress us more as election machinery than as vehicles -of any really fundamental ideals and program. We shall probably have -three measures of preparedness from which to choose. There will be a -sincere, genuine program of preparedness, including international duty, -Americanism, and preparation at home carried by the Republicans, to fit -its candidate, and probably indorsed by the Progressives. There will be -a milder course, a kind of middle-of-the-road preparedness carried by -the Democrats, in the hope of holding their own. The indications are -now that there will be a third party of pacifists, anti-preparedness at -most points, which will include the ultra-contented, the discontented, -and a considerable socialist and labor following. Each platform will -doubtless carry some planks dealing with “pressing national questions” -as ballast, but few voters will consider them seriously. The main issue -of preparedness will determine the lines of the vote, because America -now knows that all of its internal progress and “reform” depend upon an -America that can defend itself. Belgium drove that lesson home. Through -the intricate paths of American honor, international duty, adequate -preparedness, national service, universal training, Mexican strategy, -the American voter must wend his way. He will be beset at every turn by -the “record of the administration and of Congress,” interpreted first -one way and then another by the propaganda of defense organizations and -of their opponents. He will be deluged with accurate and inaccurate -information, from which he will find it difficult to select the best. -He will be bombarded with literature, and enticed to meetings and will -be given promises hard to keep in 1917. Within the next few months he -will receive more gratuitous condensed education on all these questions -than during the entire time since 1912. - -In addition to all this confusion of mind and competitive struggle, -prevailing about the native-born voter, the foreign-born voter will -be torn by loyalties and sympathies which go back many generations to -the fatherland. Most of them have some one dear to them at the front -or lying dead on some battle field. Their mail is censored and they -often do not know who is dead and who is living or what has happened to -their little homestead in the old country. They see ammunition going -out of America, not to fight their battles, but to kill some of their -countrymen. They see America growing rich from this manufacture. They -are only waiting the first assurance of peace to go back and see what -has happened or to help their home country. - -It is inevitable that some expression of this should find voice at the -polls, and the question is how to make the American issues so fine -and big and strong and world compelling that they will engulf this -great human sorrow and devotion and make it of service to America. -How can we in this next election make every voter feel that America -is for him--to serve, to guard, to use, so we may stem the great tide -of discontent, aversion, and desertion which has set in among our -foreign-born voters? How can we in this coming election remove the -indifference, irresponsibility, and profit seeking which characterizes -our native-born voter? - -Now that we face the crisis and know the necessity, we look with -amazement and alarm at what our preparation has been. We turn to our -schools and ask them what they have been doing in the way of preparing -the voter--what has he been taught about America and its government, -institutions, and opportunities? How have these been related to his own -local civic life? What sense of national service has he acquired in -his town school? Alas--we find there is nothing held so cheap as the -American vote, and the last form of preparedness is that for voting. Of -the American boy we require that he shall be born here, and shall be -21 years of age. We assume that somehow the public school, which he -is required to attend in some states only, will teach him the value of -the vote and how to use it, and something of his duties and obligations -to his country. We also assume that the boy’s parents will educate him -along these lines. To the girl in most states we deny the vote for -apparently no reasons other than precedent, prejudice, conjecture, or -apprehension. - -There is no ceremony, no pledge of allegiance, no occasion made -patriotically memorable in the mind of the boy when he casts his -first vote. No one makes him welcome as a citizen of the country. He -registers in his home town in an automatic way, and if he thinks of -voting in the future as an obnoxious duty that interferes with his -business or week ends, it is surely not entirely his own fault. - -In some schools there is an increasing attempt to bring his rather -localized experience into relation to the broader questions of the day, -and into the national political life, but the mass of boys depend upon -the newspapers and such discussion as they stimulate or hear among -their fellows. This is good so far as it goes, but it is too critical, -too superficial, too opinionated, too provincial to serve the great -national need of America in the crucial test of elections. Despite -our many thousands of educational organizations it is very difficult -to obtain an impartial and scientific statement on any political -controversy. There are many briefs for one side or the other, but few -impartial statements that are not special pleading. - -The indifference and ignorance of the native-born voter are real -impediments to Americanism. A vote is a practical thing requiring as -much knowledge and experience in its use as any other responsible act -of life. You cannot teach a man to handle a gun by a series of lectures -on the ethics of warfare. Neither can you teach a man to handle a vote -by the average treatise on civil government. - -In our failure to find this training in the public school, we turn next -to the political school, the club, the district organization. Here we -find every mechanism possible for getting the vote and holding it, but -practically none for training or instructing that vote. It is easy to -find a dozen men to help a prospective voter to obtain his citizenship -papers, but very difficult to find one man or an institution to educate -him in Americanism and English, enabling him to qualify. It is easy -to find men who condemn the sinking of the _Lusitania_ and watchful -waiting in Mexico, but hard to find a man who has a clear, practical -idea of how he will register that protest in November. Thousands will -vote for Mr. Roosevelt as their protest in case he is nominated. But -suppose Mr. Roosevelt is not nominated. Have they thought of their next -effective protest at the polls? Justice Hughes perhaps. But who knows -where he stands on these questions? Those of us who have worked with -him as governor of New York, and knew him, take no risks, but how about -the average voter who has no such knowledge and must make up his own -mind? - -As shown in the preceding chapter the acquiring of citizenship by -aliens does not have for its main object the vote. To him, it is -connected more closely with a job, with getting on in America, with -freedom from the tyranny of his own country and from military service, -and with gain. The power of the vote is, generally speaking, an -unknown quantity to him, until he has been here some time--often it -represents something which he can sell, or which he has to have to -keep his job--ideals set before him by some native American. It is a -rather curious thing that the padrone system had its real origin in -our political rather than in our industrial system. The padrone is -a labor boss who furnishes men to industrial organizations, and in -return for keeping up the supply of men, has the privilege of housing -and feeding them--making his profit from the employment fees, housing, -and supplies. The padrone, however, is usually a political leader, not -in the camp or quarry or mine where the industry is located, but in -the city, which is the source of the supply of men. It was generally -understood that the padrone, in return for the contract to furnish men, -would deliver the foreign-born vote in his district in favor of the -candidate acceptable to the company with whom he had contracted. He saw -to it that his countrymen were naturalized and how they voted. In this -way the position of the padrone became impregnable. - -If a community as a whole fails to use the immigrant as a political -and citizenship asset, some other force in the community is fairly -sure to awaken to his political usefulness. The only way in which a -community can “control” its alien vote is by controlling preparation -for citizenship. Most communities, far from controlling it, have not -yet developed interest in it. The American community, without night -schools, without interest, without responsibility for the Americanism -of one third or one half of its residents, is the real parent of this -“alien” vote. - -The ignorance of the newly naturalized voter is different from that -of the American. But like the indifference and ignorance of the -American voter, the ignorance of the foreign voter is largely a social -matter, and is subject to the same remedies. In other words, it is -not _merely_ instruction in English and Civics, the usual preparation -for citizenship, that makes an immigrant a good voter or a bad one. -A very _great deal depends upon his social background_, upon the -understanding and point of view he has been able to develop as a result -of his contacts with American institutions and American community life. -To develop a social understanding large enough and deep enough to make -a man grasp readily a national political issue in all its importance, -and the subtler aspects of community issues and legislation, when they -come up to the vote, is a tremendous task--not a task that even a very -intelligent and educated immigrant can compass for himself. This, in -a political sense, is the heart of our present difficulty with the -naturalized voter. His social assimilation has not been sufficiently -thorough to give him the background he needs at the polls or to enable -him to find himself among the various political parties and sub-parties. - -Now, the average voter is too thoroughly localized. In other words, -his political status in America is very much like his social status. -He becomes fixed in a neighborhood, a colony, a ward, and he never -learns to think of himself _nationally_. Politically, the issues -are presented to him in the impersonation of local figures and -interests--Max Schroeder at the corner saloon, or Tim Connolly of the -Labor Council. National issues are invariably translated in ward terms -and the immigrant accepts them at this valuation. After this kind of -political tradition has persisted for a few generations the result is -a community or colony of hopelessly provincial voters, keenly alive to -the immediate practical profit or loss involved in any political issue, -almost oblivious of the fact that the greatest good to the greatest -number is the thing for which the citizen of a Republic is to vote if -he is to fulfill his republicanism. - -The social education of Americans is difficult enough. We need to -Americanize the American voter quite as much as the foreign. But with -the immigrant the problem of social education as a prerequisite to -political freedom and competence is a far more difficult thing. The -truth is that nobody can coach him in American life. He needs to live -it and must be allowed to do so, if we are to have competent voters. In -proportion to the breadth of his human contacts, and to the number and -variety of American institutions which he touches he will be informed -upon those subjects and points of view that fit him for the actual -exercise of the vote. - -This is a social responsibility on the part of America toward its -foreign-born citizens. It does not belong to the courts, or, to any -great degree, to the schools. These two agencies are to see to it -that the candidate for naturalization knows and can use the English -language, is of good moral character, and is “attached to the -principles of the Constitution.” But at the best, the preparation for -and the process of naturalization alone does not Americanize, does not -qualify a man for the American _vote_ in nation, state, or city. - -With some sense of this, the schools that prepare for citizenship -have within the last year been revising their courses in “civics” for -aliens. They have put aside the paraphrases of the Constitution which -have been the traditional textbooks for these classes and they have -evolved a system of “community civics” designed to teach the alien his -privileges and responsibilities in their simplest form, with direct -reference to his everyday life and his own immediate points of contact -with the laws of public health, of property, of parents’ obligations, -etc. - -This is a much-needed movement. But it should be accompanied by -some organized effort to make the immigrant voters of this country -an entirely intelligent political force. I am referring of course -to the great body of adult immigrants _who have attained most of -their education in this country, outside of work hours_. It would be -invidious to suggest that certain of our immigrant voters need any -assistance whatever for intelligent voting. - -How can we best put the newly naturalized immigrant, alert, -well-intentioned, but usually socially and politically unassimilated, -in touch with the political issues of the day in their large national -bearings, and in their practical expression. - -_I should like to see the political forum, in its best form, become a -recognized part of American life._ It is needed for the native born. -It is practically indispensable for the foreign born. It would not -be non-partisan, nor attempt to be. The forums would be conducted by -the parties separately, but always openly, regularly, as a routine -of community series of meetings for discussion and information. And -the party that did its educational work best, and placed its ideas -and objects most frankly in the light, would in the long run get the -votes. But it would have to be a sustained piece of work, carried on -from year to year, with quite as much zeal and quite as much _sustained -party support_ after elections as before. The most significant effort -made in this direction was tried by the Progressive Party through its -Progressive Service.[1] This educational division carried on political -educational work throughout the country and drafted legislation, though -it was not in office nor directly responsible to the people for its -enactment. It failed temporarily because the average voter does not -yet respond to national issues in the absence of danger and conflict; -of controversy and emergency. He has been too long taught that he can -learn all he needs to know at election time. This attempt to realize an -ideal ahead of its time has suffered defeat but temporarily. So long -as the party system prevails there will exist a need for political -education by parties. How long it will be before leaders are freed from -the spoils system and recognize this obligation cannot be foretold. - -[1] “A New Spirit in Party Organization.” _The North American Review_, -June, 1914. - -Athens feared that if the town hall grew too small to hold a -convocation of the people, Hellenic democracy would perish from the -earth. Here in America we cannot revert to the town meeting. But in -the interests of Americanism, I believe the political parties of this -country will be forced, by the developing intelligence of public -sentiment, to create systems of party education which will have to -bear the light of day--and the challenge of severe competition. Party -education now means campaign literature, speeches only by candidates -or for them, a virulent emotionalism which even the unsophisticated -voter no longer takes seriously. A party “stands firm” for “social and -industrial justice” for all men and women alike. But these same men -and women, who do _not_ attend conventions, who are sorely in need of -social and industrial justice or who would like to help in securing -it for others, never learn what its concrete definition is, or how to -secure it through the vote. Our political parties need, first of all, -_great leaders_. And after the great leaders we need an informed and -alert and sensitive citizen body, insistent for information, undismayed -by long ballot sheets, at home among political ideas. We need party -laboratories, publicists not advertisers, a thoroughgoing machinery for -getting studies and facts and opinions to people in a form in which -they can weigh and use them. - -The very introduction of the word “political” revives the conventional -fear that the immigrant will be “used” in dark and dangerous ways. It -is certainly true that he has been. But what America really needs to -face with greater apprehension is the immigrant that is _not used_. The -time has passed for a negative position. How is the political force -of the foreign-born residents and citizens to be intelligently and -practically connected with the body politic? It is folly to let our -fear of the word “political” justify our gross neglect of the political -intelligence and potential power of from one third to one half the -population of many of our important cities and towns. The _use_ of the -immigrant politically is more likely than anything else to put an end -to the political _abuse of_ him. - -Many Americans have taken some satisfaction during late years in -attributing radical votes and platforms to the foreign born. And yet in -the last presidential election Ohio, with a population of about half -that of New York, and with a native-born percentage of 87.4 as against -New York’s 69.8, cast 27,000 more votes for the Socialist candidate. In -that election, New York state, with a foreign-born population of 30 per -cent, gave the Socialist candidate a vote amounting to seven tenths of -one per cent of its total population. In the same year Kansas, with a -foreign-born population of 8 per cent, gave the Socialist candidate a -vote amounting to seven tenths of one per cent of its total population, -or twice the New York Socialist vote. Oklahoma, with a native-born -population of 97.6 per cent, cast a Socialist vote amounting to 2¹⁄₂ -per cent of its population, or nearly four times the ratio for New -York, nearly twice the ratio for Illinois, where the foreign born are -one fifth of the population, and two and one half times the ratio for -Pennsylvania, where the foreign-born population is almost one fifth of -the total. - -One of the most dangerous conditions--at least potentially--concerning -the alien vote we have deliberately brought upon ourselves. In ten -states of the Union we have been for years allowing immigrants to vote -upon their first papers. In the last presidential election declarants -voted in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, South -Dakota, Texas, Oregon, and Wisconsin. The result has been shameless -grafting and fraud. In Nebraska the alien in order to vote need only -have been in the state six months, and have made his declaration thirty -days before election. In other words, an Italian or Russian or Pole or -Armenian or Turk who landed at Ellis Island about six months before -the last presidential election--say in April, 1912--and who went out -to Nebraska at once and lived there until fall, making his declaration -in October, could have voted at the last presidential election; _and -this absolutely without reference to whether he knew a word of English, -understood a single provision of the Constitution, or knew even the -name of the political party with which he was voting_. - -The one great fact that stands out is this: That the voting quality of -a number of our states is not and never has been subject to review, -from the point of view of _national_ political ideals, of Americanism. -So long as we have citizens of states that vote who are not citizens -of the nation, we have a disrupting force in our national political -organization. Citizenship in the United States is constitutionally -defined in Amendment 14 thus: “All persons born or naturalized in the -United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of -the United States, and of the states in which they reside.” No other -kind of citizenship is provided for in the Constitution. A state may -need voters, and undoubtedly many of the first-paper men, pioneers -in our western states, have voted wisely and well, with a grasp of -local conditions. But because of the greater variety in our present -immigration as compared with that of former years, and because American -citizenship, including the power to vote, is a matter for national -valuation, a state should no more arrogate unto itself the power to -make its own citizens than to coin its own money or set up its own -postal system. The time has come for conscious statesmanship, for -international purposeful dealing with this fundamental element in our -political organization. - -A situation quite as much in need of national review concerns the -relation of women to citizenship. An immigrant woman, no matter what -her educational qualifications or length of residence in this country, -becomes a citizen by the act of her husband or father’s naturalization. -This means in eleven states of the Union that she can vote at all -elections. But immigrant women are very generally years behind the -men in Americanization. They lack not only the social assimilation -which makes them fit to vote, but even the technical requirements for -citizenship, which their husbands or fathers have at least mastered. -And yet of 3,723,971 possible women voters in the suffrage states, -902,129 are foreign born--one quarter of the whole number. Of late -a number of our western suffragist leaders have assured us that the -immigrant woman makes a good voter--that she is conscientious about -going to the polls, and seems to take a direct and personal interest in -registering her opinion on matters that she knows to affect the welfare -of her home, her husband, her children. But there are many thousands -of immigrant women in this country who have not mastered the English -language in even a small degree, who have had no opportunity to learn -our civic ideals, whose homes are not American homes. The thing that -concerns us is not that this vote of immigrant women will corrupt our -political situation. It is rather to lament that so much civic force -and interest, of inestimable value in political rating, is lost to the -community and to the nation. - -We must know and direct the political forces, or we shall direct the -social and civic forces in vain. “Civic consciousness” is coming to be -too diluted a quantity, too general, too philosophic, too “broad” and -non-partisan to act promptly or definitely. It stands for too much, -directs too little. The civic welfare of towns has become separate from -their political welfare. And the real danger of the salutary modern -social and civic movements that are spreading through our cities and -towns is that it tends to become so. Most American towns, as such, -never think of their immigrants, representing one third or one half -of the town in numbers, as voters or as potential voters--or make any -effort to bring their force into play in any national way, as a part of -public sentiment. They are left to the by-ways of politics. And it is -small wonder if they learn the habit and tricks of the by-ways. - -Hundreds of immigrants in small towns to-day are getting their -political education from just two sources: the ward boss, who tells -them no more than he thinks they need to know; and the foreign language -newspaper, which is _published in the big city and circulated_ in -hundreds of small towns over a wide radius. There are at least 1500 -such papers in the country, reaching more than 9,000,000 regular -readers daily. Many of them have an acknowledged political interest -and trend--witness the vigor of the campaign editorials now beginning -to appear with such calculated timeliness. Many of the editors of -these papers regard it as their first charge to instruct their fellow -countrymen in the political events and tendencies and issues of -America. But a very great many of these editors are themselves not -initiated in these things. The force that guides the immigrant to the -polls must come more directly and warmly from the American center of -American affairs. - -The American attitude of indifference to the vote, of refusal to -consider it a national privilege and a national service, is at bottom -responsible for our difficulties with the immigrant vote. When that -changes, and the force of the change carries through the political -world, the American vote will be regenerated among native and foreign -born alike. I should make the occasion of giving an immigrant the -vote the occasion for insisting upon the duties that must go with the -exercise of it. At present the immigrant is too much in possession -of the idea that it is a right and a privilege--partly sold to him, -and which it is his privilege--or duty--to sell or contribute to his -benefactors or superiors in return. - -The problem before the political parties has long been how to extend -the social ideal and how to make it count in the body politic. The -“politicians” of vigor and imagination cherish a practical hope of -organizing the idealism of men, restoring human belief and values to -party organization. In the peculiar opportunity now presented to the -country to take stock of its citizenship, to reënforce its unity, to -justify itself as a democracy, to make the most of its powers, to -use the intelligence and the ardor of its citizens of many races, -and to bring the newest of these into accord with its ideals and its -practices, lies a great opportunity for the political parties of this -country. By an organized effort to instruct newly naturalized citizens -in the use of the American vote, and to bring them into real accord -with the social forces behind the vote, we shall secure Americanism in -politics, without which we can have no genuine preparedness. - - - - - CHAPTER VI - - NATIONAL UNITY - - Military Preparedness. - Industrial Mobilization. - Universal Service. - Americanization. - International Duty. - - -The decision America is called upon to make to-day is whether America -shall emerge from this world-wide struggle as a nation of many peoples -or whether it will imperil its very existence by remaining half native, -half alien; half free and half slave to foreign influences. - -We are in the midst of a bitter contest in which the forces for -weakness are contending with those for strength in terms of -fortifications, battleships, and guns amidst the sordid influences -of appropriations, sectional selfishness, and party campaign -considerations. - -_Preparedness means_ something more than a larger army and navy. It -means also having a united America back of that army and navy. - -Shall we get nothing except the material standards of preparedness from -the mighty struggle in Europe, where nations are contending for the -preservation of the liberties and security we now enjoy? - -What will it avail this nation to build battleships and a merchant -marine, if we do not at the same time create a nation-wide loyalty that -will prevent explosions wrecking their holds? - -Shall we strengthen our coast defenses and leave our transportation -lines, upon which they depend, to be manned by unskilled workmen -whom Americans have not shown how to love America, and in whom dual -allegiance still persists? Shall we conserve our resources in mines, -quarries, and fields and build more factories and man them with -discontented workmen who will see American defenses only in terms of -profit and advantage? - -Shall we have citizens’ training camps and train to higher efficiency -only those already filled with patriotism, or shall we in these same -camps bring new and old citizens together and bring up the ranks in -discipline and efficiency for a better America? - -Can we become a really strong nation if Americanization is for -native-born men and women only, while we do nothing for the millions of -foreign-born men and women who constitute our reserve strength? - -These and many other similar questions must be included in any adequate -program of defense, and yet in no council of government or of citizens -have they been given the consideration their importance demands. The -great immediate task before us is mobilization and Americanization, -the welding of the many races and classes in this country into one -enduring, steadfast, efficient nation. - -The things that make for preparedness in peace or war, that make -France and Germany the two leading contestants in the present war, are -as much social and economic, as military preparedness. We shall not -attain this until we have Americanized our foreign-born residents and -many of our American-born as well. We cannot do this by legislation -or proclamation, but only by the patriotic action of each and every -resident in America disciplined for national service. - -Some one has brought to America a remarkable series of moving pictures -called “Britain Prepared.” The conspicuous thing about them is that -the emphasis is put upon the training of men, the kind of training we -find in the gymnasium and in sports and among boy scouts. Guns and -battleships and horses are there, to be sure, but they are always being -_mastered by men_. Somehow in our defense propaganda during the past -year we have missed this dominant note. We talk about an increased army -and navy and aëroplanes and coast defenses, but we always get the sense -of guns and machines and mechanics and never the sense of their mastery. - -The defense bills in Congress this winter are marked by the same fatal -presumption--that defense is entirely a matter of physical preparedness -and that it is to be brought about chiefly by legislation and -appropriations. We are apparently looking only to the immediate and -obvious and popular kind of preparedness and have not yet begun upon -the real problem of preparedness which involves long, slow, patient -consideration of many intricate matters vital to any adequate national -defense of America. - -I believe that the work of the agitator and propagandist in arousing -America is about done. The hundreds of volunteer, happy-go-lucky, -hit-and-miss organizations throughout the country that have divided -public attention with Congress have accomplished their task. We are -entering upon the serious business of investigation, organization, and -administration. We are ready for a policy, a program, and a leader. We -are ready to act as a nation and not as the spokesman for any section -or race. - -A thoroughgoing policy of national preparedness to insure national -unity and action cannot comprise less than five main divisions, -all proceeding together toward a common goal. They are military -preparedness, industrial mobilization, universal service, -Americanization, and international duty. - -Military defense has centered chiefly upon the army and navy and has -dealt largely with numbers and appropriations. The pending measures -can hardly be said to represent a policy. The conflicting provisions -scarcely constitute a program. - -Let us see how we have approached this subject: Under the guise of -a first and immediate defense step we are urged to provide for a -tunnel through the Rocky Mountains; for a road connecting two forts in -Georgia; for rifle clubs, the Federal government to supply the rifles; -for a national aviation corps school; for volunteer training camps for -high school students; for the purchase of the Chesapeake & Delaware -Canal; for a naval or a military academy in this or that particular -state; for a “multiroad highway”; for a marvelous continental army on -a voluntary plan, whereby 88,000 men are to enlist for six months, a -second 88,000 within sixty days, and so on “as long as in the opinion -of the President this procedure is necessary to public welfare.” This -last bill well illustrates the detached point of view we have adopted -toward the defense issue--an army of _volunteers_, _i.e._ whoever see -fit, is to be raised overnight, and another army two months later and -so on, so long as the President thinks there is any danger. Then this -volunteer force is to dissolve into civilian life, and we are all to -rest easy again until the next scare comes--when we shall again leave -it to the most adventurous or the most conscientious among us to make -up a hasty miscellaneous _volunteer_ force to defend our homes and our -liberty. - -There is the usual supply of academic bills providing for commissions -to investigate this or that aspect of defense. No doubt accurate -information and therefore investigation on many points is necessary, -but--the commission is too often a death chamber. By one bill a joint -committee of the House and Senate is instructed as one of a series -of academic charges to “investigate the advisability of universal -service.” The problem has come upon the horizon, so to speak, and in a -leisurely and philosophical way we get out our field glasses to observe -it. - -We have been doing too many sums in our defense propaganda. How many -men in the army, how many millions of dollars for the navy,--all of -these important,--but when an adequate plan is worked out for training -_every_ man and woman, according to his or her capacity, the numbers -will take care of themselves. Until we are all “volunteers” we can -dispense with mathematics. - -The defense legislation of the year is evidence of heartbreaking -national failure. The collection of sectional, personal, sometimes -obviously dishonest, and, at best, ill-considered bills, evidences -a graver charge than the political “expediencies” to which we are -well enough accustomed. They are a testimony to the faithlessness of -legislators in the highest places of the land, a miserable failure in -patriotism, and that they have gone on so many months unchallenged is -another proof of the supine patience, flabbiness, and stupidity of the -average American citizen. - -What should we have done? We had ample warning when Congress -adjourned in 1915 that we would face the issue of preparedness as a -vital compelling matter in 1916. Instead of depending upon separate -and often conflicting reports from various departments and staff -officers, the party in power should have had in hand in December--when -Congress reassembled--the outline of a national policy, substantiated -by certified facts, along which a series of bills could have been -drafted to meet the needs at all points, and to avoid duplications at -any point. Then the reserves of the majority party should have begun -their own nation-wide campaign to carry their program. Failing this, -the minority party in Congress had its opportunity. Such a plan would -have rallied all the citizenship force for defense in support of its -program and would have avoided the conflicts that now wage throughout -the land. This program broadly conceived would have commanded the -most comprehensive information in the country; not only from the -Interstate Commerce Commission on transportation; from the Federal -trade commission on industrial capacities and reserves; from the Public -Health Service on port conditions; from the Federal reserve board on -credit; from the Department of Labor on conserving men and stabilizing -labor and Americanizing aliens, but it would have had the coöperation -of such organizations as the American Federation of Labor and the -United States Chamber of Commerce. The best thought of the country -would have been crystallized, and instead of the prevailing chaos -we would have a program free from partisan or sectional influences. -Instead of haggling over the number of men, and where to get the money, -and resurrecting letters from files to prove responsibility, we would -be reapportioning our army posts on the basis of national defense, -instead of on the basis of a civil war; we would be locating our -munition plants in safe places; we would be building model ammunition -plants, we would have an aviation corps and training schools worthy of -the name--and Villa would not have raided Texas. - -We are about where we started so far as actual accomplishment is -concerned. I think but little of writing a statute and appropriating -money until we see who is to spend the money and where. Nine tenths of -the achievement for success lies in the organization and administration -which follows the passing of laws. We are in the Congressional -eleventh hour still agitating for a council to gather the necessary -information, and propose a plan, which the Cabinet officers should -have had in hand and operation jointly months ago. The whole situation -has become so muddled that there is no one non-partisan, scientific, -accurate, efficient, dependable source to which one can go and obtain -the information necessary to formulate a policy or outline a program, -and we have not yet established our first line of defense in an -unassailable position. - -The mobilization of industry is as important as the mobilization of -men. The enlisted men must be taken from offices and shops and we must -still maintain our output in products, get it to the places it is -needed, when it is needed, and in prime condition. Soldiers without -supplies and arms are useless; as are civilians behind the line. - -The business of industry is to meet the demands and opportunities of -foreign markets and to supply the needs of America; to transport men -and supplies upon short notice on a large scale. - -The work of industrial preparedness is not the primary task of -government--it is the obligation of every plant in America, every -leader at the head of it, every workman within it. - -America has capital, resources, inventions, and leadership. It is short -of average men to meet its industrial as well as citizenship needs. The -country needs to keep every able-bodied man in America by making him an -efficient, loyal citizen and by giving him, not a job, but a stake in -the industry and a home stake in the country. - -First of all in mobilizing industries we need an inventory so the -government may know the location and capacity of its plants and -who mans them; what the investment is and whether there are any -international strings tied to the business and of what kind. It -needs to know its present capacity, what it makes best, and how far -its capacity can be increased, if need be. It needs to know how its -products are transported and marketed; whether army supplies have ever -been made and what agreements might be entered into. After twenty -months of the war, the schedule for such an inventory has been -formulated by a volunteer committee and paid for with private funds! - -This is the Industrial Preparedness Committee of the Naval Consulting -Board, of which Mr. Howard Coffin is chairman. It proposes first to -take an inventory of the resources of 30,000 industries, each to be -covered by an engineer. This in itself is a magnificent educational -measure. It will make these engineers and industries think about a -great many questions they have not faced before. This Committee has -secured the coöperation of the Associated Advertising Clubs of the -World, of which Mr. Herbert Houston is president. This insures the -most widespread and accurate publicity of work and results, free from -any political manipulation. It also insures a highly intelligent -and forceful education of the public, free from self-interest or -organization interest. The unfortunate thing is that this inventory -comes too late for Congress to make any real use of the results unless -it stays in session very late. It is also not yet clear just how these -results will be related to other important fields or whether the -Secretary of the Navy will bury them somewhere. The essential thing, -however, is that we have a wholly satisfactory industrial preparedness -program under way in the hands of men the country trusts for ability, -integrity, efficiency, and knows to be without self-interest. - -So far as I am aware we are not dealing with the conservation -of resources in any such way, as this inventory applies only to -manufacturing. I believe the different Federal departments have been -called upon to make some such survey and report, but its results seem -not to have found their way into action nor to have the coöperation of -practical business men. Agricultural organization also we consider of -little interest in defense, even though the land feeds the nation. - -Undoubtedly a most important factor in our national defense is -transportation. The President has recommended an inquiry into railroad -rates and regulation, but the resolution introduced does not seem to go -beyond the subject of rates. It does not seem to include a study of the -railroad situation by a competent staff that would be prepared to take -over and operate the railroads for military purposes if the necessity -arose; it does not imply that we might need a railway construction -corps for use in a military zone, taking the places of the aliens now -employed on this work. It does not indicate that there is need for our -army officers and leading railway officers to get together in times of -peace in order to prevent friction in time of war. It does not indicate -that there is need of approved regulations which should be formulated -now so they could be put into operation immediately should occasion -arise. There is no indication that it might be well to provide a way by -which operating men should become army officers in time of war and thus -have the handling of supplies under an efficient military direction. - -The country is fortunate in having a competent committee appointed by -the American Railway Association, Mr. Fairfax Harrison, president of -the Southern Railway Co., Mr. W. G. Besler, president Central R. R. of -N. J., R. H. Aishton, vice president, Chicago & Northwestern R. R., -Chicago, Ill., and A. W. Thompson, general manager of the Baltimore & -Ohio R. R. - -The work of this Committee has not yet been definitely related to -the Federal departments which could make most use of its experience, -knowledge, and ability. It is ready to devote itself to this question -along such important lines as the following among many others: - - First, a distinct understanding between the War Department and the - railroads should be arrived at concerning the tariffs for military - traffic, freight, passenger, and baggage, in order that there may be - no confusion whatever on these points when the time comes to move - large bodies. - - Second, the simplification of the settlement of railway accounts in - consequence of such agreements. - - Third, complete and competent agreement in regard to the - classification and traffic on impedimenta accompanying troops so as - to deliver the burden of the paper work that ordinarily nowadays is - essential to the shipment of such bodies and impedimenta. - - Fourth, the physical operations of the railroads in carrying supplies - to mobilization points, concentration points, and embarkation points, - must be coördinated and regulated. The necessity of having a uniform - method and a complete understanding between the Department and the - railroads is of course obvious. - - Fifth, a clear arrangement should be had with the proper officials of - the railways in regard to provisions for spurs, switches, side tracks, - and all facilities for handling troops and supplies on reaching - mobilization points and concentration points and embarkation points or - the base of operations. - - “There should be some means of bringing together railroad men, - including the freight and passenger traffic departments, the - construction and operating branches of the railroads, in close - consultation with the officers of the army whose function it is to - provide for the transportation of troops and supplies. There should - be provision made for a reserve corps, not only of railroad men, - but of all that class of civilians whose services could be used - advantageously in the army in a directing capacity--railroad men - of every description, whether belonging to the operating branch - or the accounting branch, the passenger or freight department, or - the construction branch. Automobile experts of every class would - be in very great demand. We have a paper organization which would - exactly fit the accomplishments of men of that character. Men having - exceptional knowledge of the handling and distribution of great - quantities of supplies would be invaluable. Men recruited from all - the industries of peace should form such a reserve corps as would be - available for immediate service upon mobilization.” - -The weakest point in industrial preparedness is the question of labor -supply. We deal with resources and transportation on the assumption -that our supply of men is adequate and all sufficient in training -and efficiency. This is by no means the case, and in order to cover -this defect, the Immigration Committee of the United States Chamber -of Commerce is making an inventory of the labor supply and its -conservation. It began its work with a questionnaire upon the probable -immigration after the war. With the coöperation of the railways it -received 934 replies, representing about 20,000 rail and steamship -agents, based upon their inquiries among some 2,000,000 foreign-born -peoples in this country. The questions covered were the following: - - _A._ Are those of foreign birth or parentage in this country saving - money at the present time with a view to bringing their European - relatives and friends to this country after the War? - - _B._ Does the personal correspondence which they are receiving from - Europe indicate that there will be any considerable movement to this - country after the War is over, and what, so far as you can get the - information, do the estimates indicate as to the volume? - - _C._ Will such immigration as does come consist of people who have - been working on farms, or of those from the factories? - - _D._ After the War is over, will there be any considerable emigration - from this country to Europe of those going back to live permanently - there? - - _E._ How great will be the movement of those going back to Europe - temporarily after the War to look after their relatives, or through - sentiment to view the destruction of their early homes, _et cetera_, - and who will return to this country after a short visit? - -The Committee is now following this with a schedule to industries -covering the source of the labor supply, labor turn-over, methods of -employment, promotions, transfers, and voluntary lay-offs, insurance, -and other methods in use to conserve the labor of the country. -It includes inquiries into the living conditions, as housing and -sanitation, and into citizenship and knowledge of English. - -From the data already at hand, it has begun holding a series of -conferences with industrial leaders throughout the country, looking -toward the conserving of men, keeping immigrants in America, and -stabilizing the labor market. It is essential, however, that the fields -of production, transportation, conservation of resources and of the -labor supply be brought together and a national policy be worked out -as the result of the combined effort. It is important that this whole -field be related to universal service and military preparedness. Let us -illustrate the nature of the interdependence. - -In any system of universal service there needs to be some plan of -industrial adjustment, as to time, payments, and releases from work, -so that the burden will not fall too heavily upon special industries -at critical times of output. The efficiency records of plants make -the selection of good officers easier. There needs to be a careful -handling of skilled labor in order that it may not be withdrawn too -heavily at vital points. Even our voluntary civilian training camps -are being filled with coöperation of industry, which is arranging -vacations, paying wages during the training period, and urging its -men, by competition and in other ways, to attend. No military system -can operate successfully without understanding effort on the part of -production and transportation men. The pursuit of Villa showed the -absence of this, and to date it seems to be largely a moral victory. - -When we have this information along many lines, industry is not -mobilized. We have but secured the knowledge to begin the real task. - -The mobilization of industry for America’s defense cannot stop with the -plant. Is the employer’s responsibility ended with the eight-hour day -and an increase in wages? The best-equipped plant in the world will -not give us strong, able, efficient men unless they live decently, -have the right kind of recreation, and get a home stake in the country -to defend. There are minimum standards in the matters of numbers, -separation of sexes, family privacy, sanitation, and cleanliness -which no American workman can fall below and be a loyal citizen fit -for defense. It is part of the mobilization of industry to see that -conditions do not prevail which give American defense men unable or -unwilling to defend it. - -Industrial preparedness means a knowledge and system by which skilled -workmen at strategic points in industry, supplies, and traffic shall -not enlist, but will be released at the greatest point of efficiency. -Telegraph companies for instance do not encourage their men to enlist, -but are fitting them for signal men in time of need! - -We have in all of our preparedness activity failed to grasp the -point that there can be no industrial preparedness without the -nationalization of business. An inventory of resources and the -utilization of the full power of each plant is only possible when -all men coöperate for a mutual end and not when they compete for -contracts. The employer who cares nothing about the labor market so -long as he has plenty of men does little to stabilize that market or -regularize employment or distribute men advantageously, and yet in the -final analysis defense comes back to efficient, loyal, individual men -doing their full duty at some inconspicuous post all over the country. - -The nationalization of business is not a matter of legislation, or -of regulation, or of coercion. It is the duty and obligation of each -responsible person in industry--all working together on a national -coöperative basis instead of on a local, sectional, competitive basis. -It means a new spirit abroad in business--patriotic Nationalism. - -We have come to regard universal service, with a period of compulsory -training in a military camp, as a measure of military defense only. -We seem to think it means only learning how to shoot and acquiring -a thirst for blood. I believe it has a great civic value hitherto -disregarded. We have two things to acquire from the training camp: -individual proficiency and team work, and a national spirit and point -of view. - -The American factory and the American city have failed as a melting -pot.--The dog tent may succeed. It may become the best school of -practical civics there is--a place where all Americans can meet -together for the common good of America. - -It may restore the balance to our triumvirate of the Declaration of -Independence--Liberty, opportunity, and obligation. We have demanded -and used the first two--we have neglected the third. - -The civilian training-camp movement, which started at Plattsburg and -is now continued at Fort Oglethorpe, is the biggest civic movement in -America, and when crystallized along the lines of the Swiss system, -will become the dynamo for national progress in America. There can be -no question but that America is desperately in need of some national -civic movement which is in its interest alone and which represents -nothing but itself. - -America is full of undisciplined, native-born young men and has -besides a large transfusion of still raw foreigners. It could not -bestow any greater favor upon its young men than to give all of them -the benefits of military methods of drilling and education. It would -“set them up” physically; they would acquire a knowledge of hygiene, -sanitation, prevention of disease, etc., and they would also learn, to -their great advantage, obedience, promptness, precision, regularity -of habits, abstinence, economy, avoidance of waste, and respect for -authority, all of which would make them more competent for their daily -tasks--whatever they may be. Germany perhaps furnishes the best example -of a well-governed people, but what the world needs is to govern -itself, just as the best men are the men who exercise self-control. - -Many of our young men, in their desire to remain “independent,” are -inefficient, unreliable, and irresponsible; they are disobedient, -headstrong, or rebellious under authority; they are discourteous, -careless of obligations, and indifferent to broken promises. The -average boy is prompt with excuses and self-justification under -discipline--and this has been seen most conspicuously in our nation’s -attitude in the present war. - -Inevitably all of this leads to slovenly work; to indifferent -citizenship; to play in which entertainment, not participation, is the -rule; and to a shifting of responsibility in all walks of life. In the -supplementing of individual by social ideals; in the transition from -individual to social conscience; in the great change from personal to -social control of many individual affairs, we have somehow lost the -finer traits of character and those ancient Christian virtues which -make for strong nations as well as for strong men. - -I believe the training camp is unparalleled in its power to develop -social consciousness and social control, and to show men the means -by which they can work together for a common end. America needs -sportsmanship in the best sense of the word, and the training camp can -give it. America needs the abolition of its foolish class lines, now -drawn in industry and in society; emphasized among races and by creeds, -and nowhere worse than in the army itself. There is no place for it -in the training camp. American industry has failed to Americanize the -foreign-born citizens through its pay envelope; the training camp may -succeed through the dog tent. - -In our idea of universal service we should not stop with the training -camp. There are hundreds of thousands of men and women, with a desire -to serve, that cannot go to the training camp. We have throughout the -country to-day a splendid expression of the desire to serve. - -I believe that every citizen of this republic, male or female, and -of any age after childhood, should have a regular scheme of duties, -a regular enlistment for service of a definite nature suited to his -or her status of capacity, which he must be prepared to render upon -demand, _and which he or she must keep in training to deliver_. To work -out the plans for such service for men and women alike, whether in -motor corps, red cross camps, health service, or in many other ways, -may well be the charge of citizens’ defense organizations, but they -should be related to the civilian training camp to maintain standards -and methods and unity. - -The defense organizations, some fifty of national name and scope, -are missing their great opportunity. They are getting people to -sign pledge cards focusing attention, as it should be focused, on -legislation and party programs. But they are not lining up the -citizenship of the country in definite citizenship service. And by -their lack of coöperation and lack of actual information about one -another’s activities, they are further splitting up and sectionalizing -sentiment where the real necessity is to collect and focus it. All -over the country, in this place or that, groups of citizens are trying -in a promising way to form definite, practical, little associations -for training and defense. Aside from the training-camp movement now -so hopefully developed, business men are joining together to try to -settle upon uniform ways of coöperating with training camps and the -national guard by making it possible for their employees to profit -by these and to render national service in this way. People that own -motors or own or control motor trucks are getting together to see -how they could work out the transportation service which experts -agree would be an absolute necessity in case of war in this country. -Rifle clubs are being formed, business men are training one night a -week in armories, women are forming red cross branches with definite -courses of instruction in many cities, schoolboys are being sent to -camps, suburbanites are organizing to breed police and army dogs, city -tradesmen are organizing parades. - -But as a whole the civilian defense movement is confused and -incoherent, not nationally coördinated, having no national guidance -or even suggestion. If the various defense organizations were to get -together in a spirit of coöperation, they could gather up and unite -these sporadic citizens’ movements all over the country, give them -standards of organization and accomplishment, start movements in -different states which are as yet practically untouched by defense -sentiment. Just as the Industrial Preparedness Committee of the Naval -Consulting Board is working out the mobilization of industry throughout -the country down to the last practical detail, so the preparedness -organizations in combination could work out the mobilization of -civilian resources and activities throughout the country. In some way -all of these efforts should be brought into relation with each other -under control and direction and discipline. They should be associated -with the training camps and recognized as volunteer corps and be given -the standing necessary to perfect their organization and administer -their control. We have passed the stage of propaganda; we now need -organization and administration of volunteer efforts if we are not to -waste the precious patriotism and enthusiasm for Americanism throughout -the country. - -Americanization is basic preparedness. It is fundamental and enduring. -The first question is how to nationalize our native-born American -into doing his duty in the military training camp, in his industry, -in his town, at the polls, with the welfare of the nation in his -mind, and national service as his purpose. No system of laws, no plan -of administration will do this--it is a problem for leaders, for -education, for the spirit of the youth of America to grapple with. -The reason so many public monuments, promisingly begun in America, -fall through or dwindle, is because it is so difficult, so well-nigh -impossible without constantly renewed stimulants, to keep individuals -firm and enthusiastic in a social and national point of view. The -defense movement has illustrated on a broader scale the same thing -that has been illustrated in this country many times before--the -American religion of individualism in arrogant array against a critical -national need. Only two things--a rediscovery of a stern sense of -duty among American youth; and a recovery of that stern idealism that -persistently exacts of men a social responsibility, a consideration -of a _first_ claim beyond the claim of family, personal success, -career--can establish American citizenship on a sound basis. With the -native American these things are, as I have said, a _rediscovery_. The -tradition exists and was incorporated in the very principles of our -foundation. - -With the immigrants, it is different. They come to us, mostly adults, -with certain specific needs and tendencies, and here we need to -assume a constructive and painstaking task--that of interpreting the -principles of Americanism and the obligations as well as the privileges -of American citizenship to the men we invite to come here to do -American work, and permit to be a large percentage of the population of -many American industrial towns. - -Immigration is a great force in American life. It is not, as has often -hitherto been regarded, a labor subject or a health subject. It is -primarily a citizenship subject, to be administered along the broad -lines of nationalism and the future best interests of all America. It -is properly an interior subject, and all of our dealings with it should -proceed from a consideration of conditions in America. We admit or -reject people because of the effect on America; we distribute them to -avoid congestion, misery, and bad conditions in cities and to develop -America; we educate them for citizenship in America; we protect them, -looking again toward a better citizenship. We can never have a real -policy of dealing with our immigrant people, from the time they arrive -until they become citizens, so long as officials remain as they are, -unless the administration of existing laws, the drafting of new laws, -gathering of necessary information, and formulation of broad policies, -rest with some one department. Somehow we must treat this matter as -a citizenship and not as a labor matter. It is useless to preach to -the employer that he cease to regard the immigrant as a cog in his -machinery when the government puts this stamp upon him when it admits -him. We now have a probationary period of five years for citizenship. -We can well use that as the period for applying our immigration policy -which shall begin with his admission, exclusion, and deportation within -that period--the deportation clause being extended to conform to the -citizenship standard. - -What does Americanization mean in national defense? - -_It means putting the American flag_ above all others, abolishing dual -citizenship, and pledging _open_ allegiance to America. - -_It means American citizenship for every alien within our borders_, -or deportation and closing our doors to political scouts and birds -of passage. We can no longer endure as a “polyglot boarding house.” -Citizenship will give us an intelligent body of voters, for it -will mark the end of the “voting the hunkies” by ward bosses. This -desecration of American citizenship cannot exist side by side with an -aggressive effort on the part of the public schools of the country to -instruct the foreign born, adults as well as children, in the real -meaning of citizenship. It means, finally, economic stability. The -thousands of immigrants that become “birds of passage” and return -to their own country because they have never been able to make any -American contact except through their pay envelope will be enabled -really to settle their homes, their affections, and their earnings -in America, increasing the prosperity of the immigrant family here, -cementing its bonds with this country, and also contributing to the -prestige and prosperity of the American nation. - -_It means one language for all America and the elimination of -illiteracy._ Confusion of tongues and ignorance of American -institutions and opportunities are foes of efficient preparedness. -This means the end of “Little Italys,” “Little Hungaries,” and the end -of filthy, remote foreign villages on the outskirts of our towns and -cities, inhabited by foreign-speaking men and women with no way of -learning American standards of living and American customs, and with -no way to protest against standards of living which in many cases they -do not “lower” at all, but which they accept only because they are too -ignorant to protest when the conditions are forced upon them. There -are to-day thousands of communities where decent living conditions do -not and cannot prevail. Our war contracts are starting boom towns that -are a menace to our very civilization and a source of danger in time -of war. It means a higher level of intelligence, the wiping out of -illiteracy, and the establishment of the rule of the English language -and of a common citizenship. - -_It means the abolition of class prejudices and of racial hatreds and -of the_ intolerance of the old stock for new stock, which stand in the -way of United America. - -_It means one American standard_ of living. As we cannot have a double -standard of morality, we cannot have a double standard of living. We -can no longer sacrifice the preservation of this country to industrial -necessities. So long as our industrial communities are made up of large -groups of un-Americanized immigrants, without the English language, -without an understanding of American conditions, too helpless to bring -their grievances to the attention of their employers, too ignorant -to understand or trust compromises, if compromises are offered, too -ignorant to force them in legitimate ways if they are not offered, -able to understand only the radical agitators addressing them in their -own language--just so long will the industrial history of America be -blotted by Ludlows, Lawrences, and Wheatlands. The road to American -citizenship, to the English language, and an understanding of American -social and political ideals is the road to industrial peace. - -_It means the Americanization of women._ Now women automatically become -citizens with their fathers and husbands, although in some states they -vote. The best Americanization agency is the home. We can only reach -foreign-born women in their homes, and we must go to them. They are -now isolated, forgotten, ignored, and constitute the greatest single -backward factor in the progress of citizenship among women. - -It means, lastly, not America first and safety first, which are -sectional and selfish banners under which no man can fight his best, -but liberty, justice, honor, and right first. - -This is no small task. The figures for 1910 tell us that America -has about thirty-three million foreign-born people and persons of -foreign-born parentage. One third have, therefore, in our immediate -environment foreign traditions and standards. The problem is to keep -the best of these and make them serve America. No nation in the -civilized world would think itself “prepared” with such an internal -situation, and yet we officially ignore it. - -These intricate, delicate, interlocking questions, mostly unsolved in -any national way, are found in education, savings and investments, -standards of living, and in all of the other fields before us. They -are as important and as difficult as those we are solving in military -defenses and industrial mobilization. They are the problems of -nationalism--the things that make the immigrant man a good citizen, -workman, or soldier. They must be considered in any movement for a -unified America. They have always been approached by our government -from some sectional, local, or isolated point of view. They have never -been approached from the national point of view. The 42 volumes of -the Federal Immigration Commission are silent on a national policy -other than the negative one of exclusion. They deal exhaustively with -conditions in industry, in philanthropy, but nowhere do they lead us to -a policy of a program for America that meets its present requirements. - -We shall never attain this united America back of our firing line, -in our shops, in our cities, in our schools, on our great arteries -of communications and supply, by the most intelligent policy, by the -wisest of laws, by the fairest enforcement of law, unless each and -every American resident does his share--and realizes that a prepared -America at every point comes back to him and to him alone. - -We shall not accomplish preparedness through Americanization without -organization. We have the beginnings of many excellent movements of -Americanization, in much the same state as our army and navy. Each -bureau interested in some phase of the subjects carries on its work, -drafts bills, and enforces laws. We are as wholly lacking in policy, -program, and leadership as in any other phase of preparedness. We do -not yet recognize as a nation that _Americanization_ is fundamental -_preparedness_ and should be vitally related to military and industrial -preparedness and to universal service. - -No policy of preparedness can be complete without a strong sense -of international duty and a willingness to defend it as loyally as -American institutions. We are emerging from the haze of what we should -have done to preserve international law. We have before us some -pertinent problems which will test this new-found honor. - -We owe it to ourselves, in our new treaties and new relations -arising after the war, to have a thorough understanding in regard to -citizenship so the protection of the American flag will follow every -citizen, native and foreign born, to every country in the world under -whatever conditions. - -We owe it to the people who come to our shores asking admission _that -all of the regulations of aliens should be in our national admission -law and not hidden in state and local laws preventing their earning a -living and becoming good citizens. This whole law should be based upon -America’s welfare and capacity for making these men and women good -citizens_. We do not want them unless they are willing to join with us -for defense of American liberty. - -When we have a common policy which all America understands and -believes; a program to which every American can give efficient and -loyal service; and leaders that Americans can and will follow, then we -shall be a prepared nation,--standing again as we stood one hundred -and forty years ago: for justice and right and liberty. - - “And in support of these truths - we mutually pledge to each other - our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.” - - - Printed in the United States of America. - - - The following pages contain advertisements of a few of the Macmillan - books on kindred subjects - - - - - OUR NATIONAL PROBLEMS - - Americanization - - BY ROYAL DIXON - - _$0.50_ - - -What are we doing to Americanize the alien? How can we make sure -that he will emerge from the melting-pot willing to support and -to contribute to our institutions? These are the questions which -Mr. Dixon asks and to which he offers a clear and simple answer, -broad and practical in vision. His suggestions are more than merely -constructively patriotic--they are stirringly hopeful. - - - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York - - - - - The Heritage of Tyre - - BY WILLIAM BROWN MELONEY - - _$0.50_ - - -The first, direct, uncompromising demand for a new American mercantile -marine. Mr. Meloney points out the opportunity that is now ours, the -opportunity to recover our lost sea prestige and to set our flag -waving again in every great port of the world. Not only is this -merchant marine needed by our commerce--it is absolutely necessary -and indispensable to the support of a truly adequate navy. The United -States must be a vassal on the seas no longer. - - - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York - - - - - Their True Faith and Allegiance - - BY GUSTAVUS OHLINGER - - WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY OWEN WISTER - - _$0.50_ - - -A fair, impartial discussion of German propaganda in America describing -the methods in use and the results achieved. - -“For the sake of the facts that it gathers, this book should be read -not once, but two or three times, by all Americans who believe in -Union, in Lincoln, and in Liberty--worth keeping in mind and dwelling -upon, not merely to-day, but during many to-morrows. It bears upon the -future of our national health.”--_Owen Wister._ - - - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York - - - - - The Forks of the Road - - BY WASHINGTON GLADDEN - - _$0.50_ - - -Awarded the prize offered by the Church Peace Union for the best essay -on war and peace. - -A powerful indictment of war which calls upon the political and -religious forces of our country to give up preparedness programs and -to follow a policy that will make for the prevalence of peace. Never -has Dr. Gladden written with such fervor and inspiration; his book -goes straight to the heart of our national problem; without cant or -sentimentalism, he shows the course true Americanism must take. - - “A wise and noble essay.”--_Independent._ - - - THE MACMILLAN COMPANY - Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York - - - - - “Not since Mercier, Archbishop of Malines, gave his now famous - pastoral letter to the world has more eloquence and truth been - compressed into so small a space.” - - The Pentecost of Calamity - - BY OWEN WISTER - - _Boards, $.50_ - - -“One of the most striking and moving utterances.... Let all Americans -read it.”--_The Congregationalist._ - -“It is written with sustained charm and freshness of insight.”--_New -York Times._ - -“It is a flaming thing, itself a tongue of Pentecost.”--_Boston -Advertiser._ - -“Mr. Wister’s artistic power at its best.”--_Philadelphia Ledger._ - -“A strong book which sets out to be just a passionate plea to America -to find its own soul.”--_Rabbi Stephen S. Wise._ - -“In ‘The Pentecost of Calamity’ Owen Wister sees and speaks as a -prophet. With rare spiritual insight and sympathy he penetrates to the -real meaning of the world tragedy under whose shadow we are living. I -am glad we have an American writer able to speak the voiceless longing -of an awakened world.”--_Rev. Charles A. 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