If that man who careth not for his own household is worse than an infidel, the nation which permits its institutions to be endangered by any cause that can fairly be removed, is guilty, not less in Christian than in natural law. Charity begins at home; and while the people of the United States have gladly offered an asylum to millions upon millions of the distressed and unfortunate of other lands and climes, they have no right to carry their hospitality one step beyond the line where American institutions, the American rate of wages, the American standard of living are brought into serious peril. Our highest duty to charity and to humanity is to make this great experiment here, of free laws and educated labor, the most triumphant success that can possibly be attained. In this way we shall do far more for Europe than by allowing its slums and its vast stagnant reservoirs of degraded peasantry to be drained off upon our soil.—General Francis A. Walker.

If the hope which this country holds out to the human race of permanent and stable government is to be impaired by the enormous and unregulated inroad of poverty and ignorance, which changed conditions of transportation have brought upon us, then for the sake of Europe, as well as for the sake of America, the coming of these people should be checked and regulated until we can handle the problems that are already facing us.—Phillips Brooks.

There are certain fundamentals in every system, to destroy which destroys the system itself. Our institutions have grown up with us and are adapted to our national character and needs. To change them at the demand of agitators knowing nothing of that character and those needs would be absurd and destructive.—Professor Mayo-Smith.

I. Two Points of View

Immigration is a radically different problem from that of slavery, but not less vital to the Republic. It is a marvelous opportunity for a Christian nation, awake; but an unarmed invasion signifying destruction to the ideals and institutions of a free and nominally Christian nation, asleep. "The wise man's eyes are in his head," says Solomon, "but the fool walketh in darkness." In other words, the difference between the wise and otherwise is one of sight. While Americans are walking in the darkness of indifferentism and of an optimism born not of faith but ignorance, immigration is steadily changing the character of our civilization. We are face to face with the larger race problem—that of assimilating sixty nationalities and races. The problem will never be solved by minimizing or deriding or misunderstanding it.

All through this study we have sought to remember that there are two sides to every question, and two to every phase of this great immigration question. Especially is this true when we come to estimating effects upon character, for here we are in the domain of inference and of reasoning from necessarily limited knowledge. Here, too, temperament and bias play their part. One person learns that of every five persons you meet in New York four are of foreign birth or parentage, notes the change in personality, customs, and manners, and wonders how long our free institutions can stand this test of unrestricted immigration. Another answers that the foreigners are not so bad as they are often painted, and that the immorality in the most foreign parts of New York is less than in other parts.

A third says it is not fair to count the children of foreign-born parents as foreign; that they are in fact much stronger Americans in general than the native children of native parentage; and instances the flag-drills in the schools, in which the foreign children take the keenest delight, as they do in the study of American history. But a fourth says, with Professor Boyesen, that it takes generations of intelligent, self-restrained, and self-respecting persons to make a man fit to govern himself, and that if the ordinary tests of intelligence and morality amount to anything, it certainly would take three or four generations to educate these newcomers up to the level of American citizenship.

One observer of present conditions says there is a lowered moral and political tone by reason of immigration; and another agrees with a leader in settlement work who recently said to the writer that he sees no reason to restrict immigration, that wages will take care of themselves and the foreigner steadily improve, and that there is in the younger foreign element a needed dynamic, a consciousness of Americanism, an interest in everything American in refreshing contrast to the laissez-faire type of native young person now so common. His conclusion, from contact with both types, is that the intenseness and enthusiasm of the foreign element will make the native element bestir itself or go under.

So opinions run, pro and con. There must be a mean between the two extremes—the one, that God is in a peculiar sense responsible for the future of the United States, and cannot afford to let our experiment of self-government fail, however foolish and reckless the people may be; and the other, that unless Congress speedily passes restrictive laws the destiny of our country will be imperiled beyond remedy. We find such a mean in that Americanization which includes evangelization as an essential part of the assimilating process.

Jewish Girl, Polack Girl
Italian Boy, Spanish Boy

As to the ubiquity of the foreigner all will agree. "Any foreigners in your neighborhood?" asked the writer of a friend in a remote country hamlet. "O, yes," was the reply, "we have a colony of Italians." Of all such questions asked during months past not one has been answered in the negative. Go where you will, from Atlantic to Pacific Coast, the immigrant is there. In nineteen of the northern states of our Republic the number of the foreign-born and their immediate descendants exceeds the number of the native-born. In the largest cities the number is two thirds, and even three quarters. There are more Cohens than Smiths in the New York directory. Two thirds of the laborers in our factories are foreign-born or of foreign parentage. New England is no longer Puritan but foreign. So is it in the Middle and the Central West, and not only in city and town but hamlet and valley. The farms sanctified by many a Puritan prayer are occupied to-day by French-Canadian and Italian aliens. Foreigners are running our factories, working our mines, building our railways, boring our tunnels, doing the hard manual labor in all the great constructive enterprises of the nation. They are also entering all the avenues of trade, and few other than foreign names can be seen on the business signs in our cities large or small.

Not only do you find the foreigner, of one race or another, everywhere, but wherever you find him in any numbers you note that the most distinctive feature is the foreignism. The immigrant readily catches the spirit of independence and makes the most of liberty. He is insistent upon his rights, but not always so careful about the rights of others. He is imitative, and absorbs the spirit of selfishness as quickly as do the native-born. He is often unkempt, uncultured, dirty, and disagreeable. He is also impressionable and changeable, responsive to kindness as he is resentful of contempt. He follows his own customs both on Sundays and week days. He knows as little about American ideas as Americans know about him. He is commonly apt to learn, and very much depends upon the kind of teaching he falls under. Much of it, unfortunately, has not been of the kind to make the American ideas and ways seem preferable to his own. Made to feel like an alien, he is likely to remain at heart an alien; whereas the very safety and welfare and Christian civilization of our country depend in no small degree upon transforming him into a true American. For upon this change hangs the answer to the question, which influence is to be strongest—ours upon the foreigner or the foreigner's upon us.

II. American Ideals

Surely this is a question to engage the attention of Christian patriots—the influence of this vast mass of undigested if not indigestible immigration upon the national character and life. A most scholarly and valuable treatment of this subject is found in the discriminating work by Professor Mayo-Smith, one of the very best books written on the subject. The figures are out of date, but the principles so clearly enunciated are permanent, and the conclusions sane and sound. This is the way he opens up the subject we are now considering:

"The whole life of a nation is not covered by its politics and its economics. Civilization does not consist merely of free political institutions and material prosperity. The morality of a community, its observance of law and order, its freedom from vice, its intelligence, its rate of mortality and morbidity, its thrift, cleanliness, and freedom from a degrading pauperism, its observance of family ties and obligations, its humanitarian disposition and charity, and finally its social ideals and habits are just as much indices of its civilization as the trial by jury or a high rate of wages. These things are, in fact, the flower and fruit of civilization—in them consists the successful 'pursuit of happiness' which our ancestors coupled with life and liberty as the inalienable rights of a man worthy of the name.

"In order that we may take a pride in our nationality and be willing to make sacrifices for our country, it is necessary that it should satisfy in some measure our ideal of what a nation ought to be. What now are the characteristics of American state and social life which we desire to see preserved? Among the most obvious are the following:

"All these are desirable traits; and as we look forward to the future of our commonwealth we should wish to see them preserved, and should deprecate influences tending to destroy the conditions under which they exist. Any such phenomenon as immigration, exerting wide and lasting influence, should be examined with great care to see what its effect on these things will be."[79]

We should add to this thoughtful statement a clause concerning religion. A vital thing to be maintained and extended is the Protestant faith which formed the basis of our colonial and national life. No part of the subject should receive more careful scrutiny than the effect of immigration upon Protestant America. Whatever would make this country less distinctively Protestant in religion tends to destroy all the other social and civil characteristics which, it is well said, we wish to preserve.

When immigration began in the early years of the nineteenth century, the American people possessed a distinctive life and character of their own, differing in many respects from that of any other people. The easy amalgamation of the races that formed the colonial stock—English, Huguenot, Scotch, Dutch—had produced an American stock distinct from any in the Old World. The nation was practically homogeneous, and its social, religious, and political ideals and aims were distinct. That great changes have taken place in the past century no one will deny. The material expansion and development have not been more marked than the changes social and religious.

Just what part immigration has played in producing these changes it is of course difficult to say with exactness, but unquestionably the part has been very great. The twenty-three millions of aliens admitted into the United States since 1820 brought their habits and customs and standards of living with them; brought also their religion or want of it; and it would be absurd to imagine that all of these millions had been Americanized, or, in other words, had given up their old ways for our ways of thinking and living. On the contrary, they have transported all sorts of political notions from monarchial countries to our soil. "The continental ideas of the Sabbath, the nihilist's ideas of government, the communist's ideas of property, the pagan's ideas of religion—all these mingle in our air with the ideas that shaped the men at Plymouth Rock and Valley Forge," that adorned hill, dale and prairie with Christian church and Christian school, and made possible the building of free America.

As we have seen, the immigrants have mostly represented the peasant or lower classes of the countries whence they came. This is noted, not in the way of prejudice, but because it is always true that mortality is greater, and crime, illiteracy, and pauperism are more prevalent among the lower classes. Of course it is also true that if the higher classes had come from foreign lands they would have made an addition to the social life quite different from that which did come. The average character of the immigration, however favorable, required raising in order to meet the American level. In the new environment it was to be expected that large numbers of individuals among the immigrants would rise to prominence and influence, and this has been the case. The country owes large debt to the immigrants of earlier days. Their children and descendants are loyal Americans. It is true, on the other hand, that many have come from unfortunate conditions in the Old World only to fall into quite as unfortunate ones in the New; and they and their descendants have swollen the pauper and criminal class. The statistics prove that a large proportion of our criminals and convicts are of foreign birth. It is still more significant to note that, in the opinion of expert observers, the first generation of foreign-born parentage, in the cities at least, make a worse record than the migrating parents.

If this be so, the new environment is producing deterioration and degeneracy instead of improvement. An Italian of education, working among his people, told the writer that the Italian boys and girls born here, or coming at a very early age, were much more lawless and disorderly and difficult to deal with than their fathers and mothers. They had imbibed all the worst features of our life, its independence, its defiance of parental authority, its selfishness, rudeness, and vices, while they lacked the reverence, courtesy, and spirit of obedience native to the Italian-born. This is substantiated by many witnesses who have labored among the foreign element. The Americanization these children are getting is largely of the worst type—the type that we should like to see emigrate to European countries. And it is confined to no one race, but common to all. Professor Boyesen, for instance, a Norwegian-American, who blamed the ideas gained in the public schools for some of the results seen in the young hoodlums and roughs of foreign parentage, said that worthy German and Scandinavian fathers complained bitterly that they could not govern their children in this country. Their sons took to the streets, and if disciplined left home entirely; and they attributed this to the spirit of irresponsible independence in the air. This is perhaps one of the inevitable penalties of individual liberty.

III. Various Effects of Immigration

The introduction through immigration of a lower standard of living has been shown in preceding chapters. The point to be appreciated is that in this matter we are not dealing with the immigration of individual paupers and cheap workingmen, but with the influx of whole classes that threaten to degrade our material civilization. There are in America entire communities which live on a different plane, and form colonies as foreign to American ideas and life as anything in Europe can show. They have organized their own social life and fixed their own standards, instead of rising to ours. The results are plain all over the country. Immigration has cheapened more than wages in certain lines, it has cheapened life, until the coal barons could say, "It is cheaper to store men than coal." But men may be too cheap.

Some of the best qualities in the immigrants are liable to abuse. Thrift, for instance, is commendable, but not when it is exercised at the expense of decent living. Economy is an admirable trait, but not when practiced at the expense of manhood and decent conditions. A distinct deterioration of the masses displaced by the cheaper labor has marked the advent of the new immigration. While some of the workingmen thrown out of employment by immigration rise with the increase in the number of superior positions, the great mass are obliged to accept the lower standard or are forced out of the industry into misery, pauperism, and crime. The greater tendency of immigrants, by reason of their poverty, to permit or encourage the employment of their wives or children, still further increases the intensity of the competition for employment. In view of all the facts, a recent writer argues that the limitation or restriction which would reduce the volume and improve the economic quality of immigration would greatly improve labor conditions in this country.

Under the present free inflow, says this writer, "the condition of the great mass of the working classes of this country is being permanently depressed, and the difference between the industrial condition of the unskilled workers in our country and of other countries is being steadily lessened to our permanent and great detriment."[80]

As to the economic effects of unrestricted immigration, the stock argument that it costs a foreign country a thousand dollars to raise a man, and that, therefore, every immigrant is that much clear money gain to this country, simply begs the question of the usefulness of the immigrant and the country's need of him. Many immigrants are not worth what it cost to raise them, to their native land or any other; and at any rate, a man is only of value where he can fit into the community life and do something it needs to have done. Another naÏve claim is that every mouth that comes into the country brings with it two hands, the assumption being that there is necessarily work for the two hands. If not, then there is an extra mouth to be fed at somebody else's expense. The real question is one of demand and quality.

What effect has immigration had, and what is it likely to have, upon our national educational policy? The parochial school is opposed to the public school; the parochial school is Roman, the public school American. The parochial schools could not secure scholars but for immigration. The Roman Catholic Church is persistently trying to get appropriations of public money for parochial schools, although well aware that this is directly contrary to the fundamental American principle of absolute separation of Church and State; and is relying upon the foreign vote to accomplish this un-American purpose. Here is an illustration of the conditions made possible through unchecked immigration and the wielding of this immigration by priestly influence:

In Illinois the foreign element outnumbers the native in voting power. In consequence compulsory education in the public schools of that state was voted down by a legislature pledged to obey the dictum of the foreign element. Where the priests wield the foreign element in favor of the parochial schools, it is not possible to pass a bill for compulsory education in the English language.

The striking fact is given by Dr. Warne[81] that in parochial schools for the Slav children in Pennsylvania, English is not taught, and the children are growing up as thoroughly foreign and under priestly control as though they were in Bohemia or Galicia.

A student of this subject[82] says that all the facts indicate that the time will come when, if compulsory education in English is not maintained by the states, this important matter will have to be made one of national legislation. "The supine bowing of the native element in our political parties to this foreign, domineering, un-American and denationalizing opposition to the state control of the education of the child for citizenship is in itself a menace. When we hear of public schools in America taught in German and Polish, instead of the language of Emerson and Longfellow, Lincoln and Grant, one feels like taking, not Diogenes' lantern, but an Edison searchlight, and going about our streets to see if there be in all our cities a patriot." More evil in results than this, and most insidious of all the attempts of the Roman Catholic hierarchy to undermine American principles, is the system of so-called compromise by which some of the public schools are taught by nuns, sisters, and priests, who wear their Church garb, and use the school buildings during certain hours for sectarian instruction. The mere statement of the facts ought to be sufficient to bring about drastic remedies, but the easy-going Protestants apparently do not realize what is being done.

American patriotism must steadily and resolutely resist every Roman Catholic attack, open or covert, upon our public schools, every attempt to divert public moneys to sectarian purposes. This is vital to the preservation of our civil and religious liberty. For the immigrant children the public schools are the sluiceways into Americanism. When the stream of alien childhood flows through them, it will issue into the reservoirs of national life with the Old World taints filtered out, and the qualities retained that make for loyalty and good citizenship. We shall have to look to our school boards, elevate them above party politics and the reach of graft, and elect upon them men and women instinct with the spirit of true Americanism, or see this mightiest agency of modern civilization diverted from its high mission to produce for the Republic an enlightened and noble manhood and womanhood.

What is the effect of the addition of so many thousands of men of voting age upon our political conditions? Undoubtedly demoralizing and dangerous. Professor Mayo-Smith says: "We are thus conferring the privilege of citizenship, including the right to vote, without any test of the man's fitness for it. The German vote in many localities controls the action of political leaders on the liquor question, oftentimes in opposition to the sentiment of the native community. The bad influence of a purely ignorant vote is seen in the degradation of our municipal administrations in America."[83] The foreign-born congregate in the large cities, especially the mass of unskilled laborers. There they easily come under control of leaders of their own race, who use them to further selfish ends. Fraudulent naturalization is another evil result. There is no more dangerous element in the Republic than a foreign vote, wielded by unscrupulous partisans and grafters. The immigrant is not so much to blame as are those who corrupt him, but if he were not here they would have no opportunity. In order to wield a bludgeon a bully must have the bludgeon.

There is an unquestioned and increasing evil and peril in a German vote, an Irish vote, a Scandinavian vote, an Italian vote, and a Hebrew vote. Out in South Dakota a Russian vote also has to be reckoned with, and in New England a French-Canadian vote. All this is undemocratic and unwholesome in the highest degree. Our government is based upon the intelligent and responsible use of the ballot. How can such use be possible in the case of the naturalized alien who cannot read or write our language or any other? No one can declare it unreasonable that a reading test as a qualification for voting should be required of all. On the brighter side of the political phase, it is asserted that it was the foreign element of the East Side in New York that made possible the election of a reform candidate in a recent election, and that this element can be relied upon for reform and independent voting quite as much as the American society element, which is frequently too indifferent to vote at all. There is too much truth in this. At the same time, one who is familiar with the discussions at the People's Forum in Cooper Institute, New York, or similar meeting places of the foreign element in other large cities, knows how essentially un-American are the point of view and the theories most advocated.

IV. The Religious Problem

What is the effect of immigration upon the religious life of the country? This is an exceedingly difficult matter upon which to generalize. There is no doubt that great changes have taken place in the religious views and practices of the people, but how far these can be attributed to foreign influence is something upon which agreement will be rare and judgment difficult. It will be instructive, first of all, to study this table, which gives the results of questions asked the immigrants in 1900 concerning their religious connections. This was the last inquiry of the kind officially made, and will indicate what religious elements in immigration must be taken into consideration:

RELIGIOUS STATISTICS OF THE IMMIGRATION FOR 1900

Countries	Total	Protestants	Roman Catholics	Greek Catholics	Israelites	Brahmans	Moham- medans	Misc.
Austria-Hungary	64,835	5,009	39,694	7,699	11,082	—	—	1,351
Belgium	1,728	94	967	2	4	—	—	661
Denmark	3,253	2,629	44	—	2	—	—	578
France	4,902	165	1,736	3	12	—	2	2,984
German Empire	25,904	10,258	6,758	18	401	—	—	8,469
Greece	2,450	14	14	2,350	—	—	—	72
Italy	79,664	50	78,306	26	1	—	—	1,281
Netherlands	1,994	839	190	—	8	—	—	957
Norway	7,113	6,674	2	—	—	—	—	437
Portugal	2,269	2	2,056	—	—	—	—	211
Roumania	1,655	160	60	31	1,350	—	—	54
Russian Empireand Finland	62,537	13,295	22,462	1,470	24,351	—	1	958
Servia, Bulgaria	59	—	4	47	1	—	—	7
Spain	1,428	15	704	—	—	—	—	709
Sweden	13,541	12,708	9	—	—	—	—	824
Switzerland	2,294	710	608	7	6	—	—	963
Turkey in Europe	137	5	5	33	27	—	13	54
United Kingdom	65,390	12,611	31,216	4	197	—	1	21,361
Not specified	8	—	—	5	—	—	—	3
Total Europe	341,161	65,238	184,835	11,695	37,442	—	17	41,934
Total Asia	9,726	452	1,390	2,833	48	3,373	77	1,553
Africa	109	13	9	—	5	—	16	66
All other countries	10,440	1,274	2,178	11	28	228	—	6,721
	———	———	———	———	———	———	———	———
[84]Grand Total	361,436	66,977	188,412	14,539	37,523	3,601	110	50,274
	———	———	———	———	———	———	———	———
Percentage ineach religion	100	18.54	52.14	4.03	10.39	.99	—	13.91

In analyzing these figures, it will be noted that the Roman Catholics had fifty-two per cent. in a year when the total immigration of 361,436 (not much over one third that of the present time) was about the same in the proportion of aliens from southeastern Europe as now. The Jews would make a larger showing at present, as the immigrants from Russia are almost wholly Jews. The Protestant strength certainly would not be any greater proportionately. The large number put down as miscellaneous is significant. What a task is laid upon American Protestantism—nothing less than the evangelization of nearly eighty-two per cent. of the vast immigration. It is easy to say that the fifty-two per cent. is nominally Christian, but in fact that nominal Christianity is in many respects as much out of sympathy with American religious ideals, with democracy and the pure gospel, as is heathenism; and it is in many cases as difficult to reach, and as great an obstacle to the assimilation of the aliens.

Looking at various results of this incoming host, in regard to reverence for Sunday and observance of it, it is fair to assume that the millions of Germans, with their continental Sunday, were leaders in breaking in upon our Sunday customs. While they have as a people observed the laws—although seeking to have the laws changed so as to permit here the home customs of open concert halls and beer gardens on Sunday afternoon and evening—their influence has been strongly felt in favor of loose Sunday observance, and this has been sufficient to stimulate the natural tendency of the American element to make the day one of amusement and recreation, regardless of laws. The result is that now we have a lawless American Sunday quite different from and more objectionable than the continental Sunday.

In the larger cities throughout the country the encroachments of the money-makers have been steady. Performances of all kinds are permitted, theaters run either openly or with thinly veiled programs, saloons are open to those who know where the proper entrances are, and many forms of business and labor are carried on seven days in the week. The Jews claimed that it was a hardship to have to close on Sunday, when their religious observances came on Saturday, with result that a good many manage to keep shops and factories open all the year around. Pleas of necessity have been put forward where contractors desired to push jobs and profits. Sunday excursions are universal, and in order to gain their Sunday pleasure-outings several millions of people of all races keep several other millions hard at work on the day of rest. All places are crowded on Sunday except the churches. Go among the foreign elements in the city and you would never know it was Sunday. Holiday has supplanted holy-day. Observe the trolley-cars or subway or elevated trains on Sunday and you will see nine foreigners out of every ten persons. Go into the suburbs and you will find springing up in out-of-the-way places, where land can be secured cheap, little recreation parks, with games and dancing platforms; and here there will be throngs of Italians and other foreigners all day.

Let us be just in this matter. The loss of the American Sunday is undoubtedly due in great measure to immigration; due in part to the weakness and dereliction of American professing Christians who have surrendered to the foreign elements and fallen in with their ideas instead of maintaining public worship and insisting upon respect for law at least. Let the blame fall where it belongs, and let the Church members recreant to duty take their share. When the sea threatened Holland her resolute people built the dykes and maintained them; American Christians have failed to stop the leaks in the church dykes, and we have had a Sunday submergence in consequence. The effect of it upon our national development is already evident and is most disastrous to our highest interests. Sabbath-breaking and progress-making never go together. Sunday work and pleasure combined form the peril alike of the American workingman and of Christian civilization.

Along with this inflow of alien ideas in religion goes a lowered morality and a lower tone generally. Not that the sins of those in high places are to be charged upon the poor immigrant, for he rarely if ever belongs to that class. The statement may be true that the great rascals are of native stock. But that only increases the peril. The masses that come to us from southern Europe certainly will not raise the moral or commercial, any more than they will the political or intellectual, level. If we do not raise them they will tend to lower us; and much of what they see and hear can have nothing less than a demoralizing effect.

Where shall we find the zealous and consistent Christians who by sympathetic contact will represent the true spirit of Christianity, and make the elevation of the aliens possible? The supreme truth to be realized is that nothing but Christianity, as incarnated in American Protestantism, can preserve America's free institutions.

Ex-President Seelye, of Amherst, said that socialism is the question of the time, and this is more apparent with every passing year. Socialism has its source in the foreign element. It is not native to America. Its swelling hosts are composed almost entirely of immigrants of recent coming. It is found not only in the great cities but is spreading through the farming sections. Now, there is a truth in socialism that must be intelligently dealt with; and there is a Christian socialism that should become dominant. And this is the only force that can check and counteract the foreign socialism that would sweep away foundations instead of ameliorating conditions and remedying evils.

In the same way, Protestant Christianity is the only agency that can save us from the moral degeneracy involved in migration, even if the immigrants were of our moral grade before coming. As Dr. Strong says, the very act of migration is demoralizing. All the strength that comes from associations, surroundings, relations, the emigrant leaves behind him, and becomes isolated in a strange land. Is it strange, then, that those who come from other lands, whose old associations are all broken and whose reputations are left behind, should sink to a lower moral level? Across the sea they suffered restraints which are here removed. Better wages afford larger means of self-indulgence; often the back is not strong enough to bear prosperity, and liberty too often lapses into license.[85]

This result of migration is at once an evil and an opportunity. Breaking away from the old associations leaves room and necessity for new ones. Upon the character of these the future of the immigrant will largely depend. Here is the Christian opportunity. See to it that the new associations make for righteousness and patriotism. If the immigrant is evangelized, assimilation is easy and sure. It is recognition of this fact that leads the Roman Catholic Church to keep foreign colonies in America as isolated and permanent as possible. The ecclesiastics realize that children must be held in the parochial schools, so as to avoid the Americanization that comes through the public schools, with the probable loss of loyalty to the Church. The parents equally must be kept away from the influences that would broaden and enlighten them. Dr. Strong tells of large colonies in the West, settled by foreigners of one nationality and religion; "thus building up states within a state, having different languages, different antecedents, different religions, different ideas and habits, preparing mutual jealousies, and perpetuating race antipathies. In New England conventions are held to which only French-Canadian Roman Catholics are admitted. At such a convention in Nashua, New Hampshire, attended by eighty priests, the following mottoes were displayed: 'Our tongue, our nationality, our religion,' 'Before everything else, let us remain French!'" And it is well said: "If our noble domain were tenfold larger than it is, it would still be too small to embrace with safety to our national future, little Germanies here, little Scandinavias there, and little Irelands yonder." To-day there are also little Italies and little Hungaries, and a long list of other races.

V. The Hopeful Side

Turning to the pleasanter and brighter side of this great question, we give the encouraging view of one who has spent years among the immigrant population, studying their environment, conditions, and character, with view to improving their chances. She says:

"The writer will risk just one generalization which, it is hoped, the ultimate facts will bear out, that in the case of the new immigration we shall see a repetition of the story of the old immigrant we are so familiar with. First comes the ignorant and poor but industrious peasant, the young man, alone, without wife or family. For a few years he works and saves, living according to a 'standard of life' which shocks his older established neighbors, and we may guess would often shock his people at home. At first he makes plans for going back, sends his savings home, and perhaps goes back himself. But he usually returns to this country, with a wife. America has now become his home, savings are invested here, land is bought, and a little house built. The growing children are educated in American schools, learn American ways, and forcibly elevate the 'standard of life' of the family. The second generation, in the fervor of its enthusiasm for change and progress becomes turbulent, unruly, and is despaired of.

Portuguese Boy and Girl
Spanish Boys

"But out of the chaos emerges a third generation, of creditable character, from whom much may be expected. Our Austrian, Hungarian, and Russian newcomers are still in the first and second stages, and there seems no good reason why they should not pull through successfully to the third. But in that endeavor we can either help or materially hinder them, according to our treatment of them, as employees, as producers, as fellow citizens. America, for her own sake, owes to the immigrant not only the opportunities for 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' that she promises to every man, but a sympathetic appreciation of his humanity, and an intelligent assistance in developing it."[86]

This is a picture of progress in assimilation to be remembered, and the conclusion is admirably expressed. Assimilation is made easy when the wheels of contact are oiled by kindness and sympathy. The children lead the way to Americanization. Mr. Brandenburg gives this report of a conversation overheard in an Italian tenement in New York, the parties being a mother, father, and the oldest of three daughters: "Said the mother in very forcible Tuscan: 'You shall speak Italian and nothing else, if I must kill you; for what will your grandmother say when you go back to the old country, if you talk this pig's English?' 'Aw, g'wan! Youse tink I'm goin' to talk dago 'n' be called a guinea! Not on your life. I'm 'n American, I am, 'n you go 'way back an' sit down,' The mother evidently understood the reply well enough, for she poured forth a torrent of Italian, and then the father ended matters by saying in mixed Italian and English: 'Shut up, both of you. I wish I spoke English like the children do,' Many parents have learned good English in order to escape being laughed at or despised by their children."[87]

The language is not classic, but it is that of real life such as these children have to endure. The rapidity with which foreigners become Americanized is illustrated, said Dr. Charles B. Spahr, by the experience of a gentleman in Boston. In his philanthropic work he had gotten quite a hold on the Italian population. A small boy once asked him: "Are you a Protestant?" He said "Yes," and the boy seemed disappointed. But presently he brightened up and said, "You are an American, aren't you?" "Yes." "So am I!" with satisfaction. Children become American to the extent that they do not like to have it known that they have foreign parents. One little girl of German parentage said of her teacher: "She's a lady—she can't speak German at all." Where assimilation is slow, it is quite as likely to be the fault of the natives as of the immigrants, much more likely, indeed. How can he learn American ways who is carefully and rudely excluded from them? We build a Chinese wall of exclusiveness around ourselves, our churches, and communities, and then blame the foreigner for not forcing his way within.

In a thoughtful treatment of this whole subject, Mr. Sidney Sampson says:[88]

"It has become a pressing and anxious question whether American institutions, with all their flexibility and their facility of application to new social conditions, will continue to endure the strain put upon them by the rapid and ceaseless introduction of foreign elements, unused, and wholly unused in great measure, to a system of government radically differing from that under which they have been educated. Can these diverse elements be brought to work in harmony with the American Idea? The centuries of subjection to absolutism, or even despotism, to which the ancestors of many of the immigrant classes have been accustomed, has formed a type of political character which cannot, except after long training, be brought into an understanding of, and sympathy with, republican principles. This is by far the most important aspect of the question, much more so than questions of industrial competition."

If the republic will not ultimately endure harm, he believes industrial questions will slowly but surely right themselves; if otherwise, none even of the wisest can foresee the result. We give his conclusion:

"What is to be the outcome of this movement of the nations upon American political and industrial life is a question which confronts us with a problem never before presented in the world's history. Upon a review of the entire situation I think we may be optimists. Notwithstanding all unfavorable features, there are antagonizing elements constantly at work, not the less potent because they work silently. We may attach undue importance to statistics merely.

"Students of the immigration problem do not sufficiently observe the influences—in fact, the immigrant may not himself be conscious of them—which year after year tend to adjust his habits of thought and his political views and actions to his new environment. Freedom of suffrage, educational advantages, improved industrial conditions, the dignity of citizenship, equal laws, protection of property—all these nourish in him an increasing respect for the American system; and we have reason to believe that, under proper legislation, the combined influence of all these will in the long run fully neutralize the distinctly unfavorable results of future immigration."

With this we are in accord, provided the Christian people of America can be brought to see and do their whole duty by the aliens. The solution of the problem demands the combined forces of our educational, social, political, and evangelical life. In that solution is involved the destiny of ultimate America.

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER VII

Aim: To Realize the Effect of Immigration Upon the National Character and Our Individual Responsibility for Improving Conditions

I. Reasons for Concern.

I. * Do you think that immigration makes a very serious problem for the United States? Why? Mention others who think differently. Why do you not agree with them?

2. * Are there any foreigners in your neighborhood? What are they and what can you do for them?

3. Do these immigrants long retain their foreign aspect and ways? In what respects do they change most quickly?

4. What does Professor Mayo-Smith say about keeping American ideals intact? Must Protestant Christianity be guarded?

II. Threatening Changes.

5. In what respects has immigration since 1820 introduced un-American standards?

6. * Have the average character and the plane of living of the immigrants been raised or lowered by their coming here? Same as to wages? As to intelligence?

7. * How are our public schools affected? Is there any menace to our school system? Can we provide compulsory education for all the children?

III. Other Effects.

8. Do these new Americans learn to use the ballot rightly? Can they learn?

9. Does their coming make genuine Christianity more or less prominent in the national life? What effect does it have on Sunday observance? Does it lessen or increase lawbreaking?

IV. National Bulwarks.

10. What are the safeguards pointed out by Professor Boyesen? By ex-President Seelye?

11. How can Socialism be met?

12. * Will anything but Christianity effectively guard our institutions?

13. How far will material improvements help to uplift and assimilate the newcomers?

14. Do the children learn patriotism from their new country? Do they keep it when grown up?

15. * Is there good reason for being optimistic? Upon what condition may we be hopeful?

References for Advanced Study.—Chapter VII

I. Study further some of the specific effects of the immigrants' presence.

Warne: The Slav Invasion, V, VI.
Wood: Americans in Process, VII, VIII.
Riis: How the Other Half Lives, XVIII, XXI.

II. What can you learn about the present status of the parochial school movement, especially in your own vicinity?

Refer to local periodicals and daily papers.

III. Is assimilation of foreigners taking place everywhere, or only in certain places?

McLanahan: Our People of Foreign Speech, I.
Hall: Immigration, 172, 182.
Wood: Americans in Process, XII.
Strong: The Twentieth Century City, IV.

IV. Are our school facilities, actual or prospective, likely to prove sufficient for the demands made upon them?

Riis: How the Other Half Lives, XV, XVI.
Wood: Americans in Process, X.
Hunter: Poverty, V.

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The Christian Churches in America stand face to face with a tremendous task. It is a challenge to their faith, their devotion, their zeal. The accomplishment of it will mean not only the ascendancy of Christianity in the homeland, but also the gaining of a position of vantage for world-wide evangelization.—E. E. Chivers, D.D.

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