CHAPTER XVIII

AMERICANIZATION: THE FOREIGN-BORN

There are two groups of the foreign-born, the Asiatics and the Europeans, which must be considered in the light of Americanization. The relation of the first-mentioned peoples to Americanization has been indicated in detail in Chapter XV. By way of re-statement it may be said here that the presence of the Oriental in America raises the problem of bringing together two civilizations which in many ways are opposite in character. An added perplexing element is that of international complications. At this point, Americanization no longer involves chiefly intra-national issues, but takes on an international import. It must be based on no shortsighted type of Americanism. Our admission, landownership, and naturalization laws must all be revised and rewritten on the basis of treating all selfrespecting foreign peoples alike, and of guaranteeing our own protection by making the standards high, and by putting them on the basis of personal merit, and of assimilative ability.

Americanization of the European immigrant may well begin in the steerage.1 The "old type" of steer

"There are those who advocate consular inspection and certification of persons who are fit to enter America, but the plan involves serious practical difficulties of operation.

age with its humanly unfit sanitary conditions should be prohibited. All immigrants should be allowed to come only in the "new type" of steerage, where living conditions are fairly satisfactory. In the "old type" of steerage, the immigrants are subjected to an environment so unhealthful and at times so immoral for a period of ten to fifteen days as to form the worst possible introduction to America. Nowhere on earth are human beings housed under such vile conditions.

With the adoption of the "new type" of steerage as the universal means of immigrant conveyance to America, provisions should be made for federal inspectors, both men and matrons, to travel in the steerage of all immigrant carrying ships. Talks and illustrated lectures concerning America, the language, the nature and value of American money, types of work in America should be given. The immigrant will thus take a long stride toward understanding America. He will be able to protect himself against exploitation when he arrives here. He will be helped to make the necessary adjustments and assisted in adopting American principles.

The "contract" labor rules for admission of immigrants should be changed. The Canadian rules are superior to ours. Instead of following the principle of debarring aliens who apply for admission in consequence of labor agreements, "oral, written, or printed, expressed or implied, to perform labor in this country of any kind, skilled or unskilled," we

A first-hand, authentic description of the "old type" steerage is given in the Reports of the Immigration Commission, Volume 37.

should adopt the Canadian principle of admitting only those skilled and unskilled immigrants who have promise of work. At present they suffer from periods of unemployment; or they must perjure themselves in order to be admitted. An immigrant may of course swear that he has no promise of work even when such promise came in a letter from America from a brother or other close relative. In fact, if he comes on the strength of such assurance, as large numbers do come, he must swear that he has no promise, and thus perjure himself, in order to be admitted at all. But what an unfortunate situation is created. The immigrant, thus at the very introduction to American life, is indirectly taught to disrespect our American laws. To require a promise of work from unskilled and skilled laborers would create problems, but these could be handled by the Commission General of Immigration, in ways similar to the successful Canadian methods. A national uniform minimum wage law would go far toward protecting the immigrant against innocently agreeing to work for less than living wages in this country.

In the reports of the Immigration Commission, an important incident is described, which shows the difference between the Canadian and our laws in regard to the promise of work requirement for admission. An immigrant applied for admission to the United States at Quebec. He had been told in a letter from his brother in one of the Western states that the brother could probably get him a job if he would come. On the strength of this assurance, he came, and so informed the immigration official, who,

doing his duty, enforced the contract labor clause and debarred the man from entry. The man then went to the Canadian immigration station in Quebec and applied for admission to Canada. When asked if he had had any promise of work in Canada, he promptly replied in the negative. And the Canadian officer, enforcing the Canadian rule that any one without promise of work should not be admitted, refused the man entry to Canada. In one case, the man was debarred because he had work "in sight"; in the other, because he did not. Both methods are beset by evils to be sure, but the Canadian is undoubtedly the better.

In general, the requirements for admission to America should be made upon the uniform basis of the personal worth and potential ability of the applicant and upon opportunities for him to become assimilated and Americanized readily. Mr. S. L. Gulick's idea of admitting from a given nationality only a small percentage-perhaps five per centeach year of those from that nationality who are already in America and assimilated appears to be a satisfactory principle. The time has come-in normal years when we cannot admit to America all who wish to enter. We have so many poor of our own, and our economic order is not working so justly that we can admit all the poor and oppressed who 1 wish to migrate hither. We can open our gates only to that number annually which we can assimilate and Americanize-otherwise Americanism will be subject to disintegration from forces operating within. If there are, for example, 1,000,000 Italian

men here and none are assimilated, then we cannot afford to admit others. But if they are all assimilated, then we shall be able to Americanize, perhaps, 50,000 men per year from Italy. This principle is based upon the fact that an immigrant always comes to his own people racially or nationally, in this country. If they are not Americanized, his chances in that direction are slim; but if they have become Americans, he will become so in a short time.

In the rough, the literacy test works fairly well, as a rule of admission, for it debars those who are most likely to be exploited, to suffer industrial accidents, to earn inadequate wages, to fall into poverty, and to remain unassimilated. On the other hand, the literacy test is not a criterion of personal worth, of potential ability, or of ultimate capacity for Americanization. It is a test, primarily, of lack of educational opportunities in the given European province in which the alien was reared. It acts as a penalty for not having had educational advantages. These objections are so vital that it seems that more scientific tests of admission should be substituted for the mere ability to read. Educational psychologists have prepared standardized tests for getting at one's mental keenness and for showing one's potential mental ability. As soon as these tests may be applied to large numbers of individuals quickly, they should be substituted for the crude literacy test.

Our Americanization program must provide for government protection of immigrants within the country. Federal inspectors-both sexes-should