ism. The philanthropic desire to help the poor immigrant is reported as being "refreshingly absent.” Its place was taken by the immigrants' desire to be self-reliant and to give as well as to receive. The impression grew that even Americans who had been talking of Americanization might profitably give more of their time "to broadening the minds of our American adults and children," until no one was left who conceived Americanization as an imposition of our set of ideas upon the racial groups who come to us to give and to share. It became apparent that a phase of Americanization consists of "a distillation of the purest ideals of all those peoples who come to

Another splendid idea is represented by the American House, Cincinnati. This unique institution was formerly a saloon, where immigrants were exploited; it has now become a club house for immigrants where Americanization automatically takes place, under the direction of such Americans as R. J. Condon, George Eisler, and other public-spirited citizens of Cincinnati. The institution is worthy of being developed throughout the United States.

The social settlements in America have stood forth like isolated Statues of Liberty in oppressive urban districts, and have personified the spirit of true Americanism to the freedom-hungry children of the Old World. Many churches have carried the principle of human brotherhood in practical

"All Americanization work should leave out the patronizing tone toward the immigrant

'See the Survey, August 24, 1918, p. 596.

ways to the immigrants and have demonstrated that Christianity has in its spirit the power to solve all race and immigration problems. If America were to appeal to the spiritual and religious nature of the immigrants to the degree that she has appealed to their physical abilities in the development of her natural resources, they would undoubtedly respond in a manner that would add tremendously to the spiritual backbone of America.

One of the greatest tasks, perhaps the greatest, of Americanization is to overcome race prejudice. Each racial unit develops the unscientific belief that it is the superior race-and each race is wrong. Scientific data indicate that all races are potentially more or less equal, that present racial differences are due largely to the variations in the cultural and climatic environment, and that there is an essential unity of races. Race prejudice causes one to overlook the weaknesses of one's own race and to magnify those of other races. It blinds its victims to the best qualities of other races, it calls the doctrine of human brotherhood mere moonshine, and it paralyzes the processes of assimilation. Race prejudice against the foreigner, race prejudice between racial. groups in America, and face prejudice of the foreign-born against the native-born must all be over

come.

CHAPTER XIX

AMERICANIZATION: THE FOREIGN-BORN (Cont.)

The most important of all measures in behalf of the immigrant is education. The immigrants should have the opportunity of realizing the importance of being able to use the English language. It should become common knowledge that the foreign-speaking but uneducated immigrant is exploitable raw material, and that he is often exploited until he cannot pull himself out of his lowly condition. When he learns English, he reaches a level where he can assist himself.

The present educational provisions are far from adequate. Although there are about 2,500,000 illiterate adult immigrants in the country, there never have been at most more than 50,000 in the night schools at a given time. Further, only 60 per cent of the adults who enroll in night classes are induced to stay as long as 20 nights; only 10 per cent remain 60 nights.

In the two school years of 1914-1915 and 19151916, the writer directed an intensive study of 140 representative adult immigrants in the night schools of Los Angeles.1 Seven university students who

"The complete results were published in the Western Journal of Education, August, 1917.

"These students were Messrs. R. E. Pollick, Ross Hodson, Errol P. Jones, and the Misses Irene Mills, Cecilia Irvine, Bessie Hoagland, and Blanche Hood.

were teaching adults in the night schools secured the data.3

The following questionnaire was used:

1. Sex? Race? Age? Occupation? 2. How much public education did you receive in the home country? How much private education? 3. Why did you come to the United States? To Los Angeles?

4. How many years have you lived in the United States? In Los Angeles?

5. What political party do you favor? Have you taken out first papers? Second papers?

6. What is your religious attitude?

7. How was your attention called to the night school?

8. Why are you attending the night school?

9. How may the night school be improved? 10. What is the attitude of your employer to the night school?

11. How may others be interested in the night school?

12. What would you do in the evening if not in the night school?

"The facts which are herein tabulated and analyzed were secured indirectly from the immigrant by the teacher, e. g., while the teacher was giving the adult pupil personal instruction in English or civics, he or she secured the facts and the pupil's viewpoint upon the questions which are discussed in this paper. It frequently took the investigator a month to secure the answers to all the questions from a given pupil and to verify these answers through the use of the cross-question method.

Of the 140 immigrants, 103 were men and 37 were women. The majority of the entire group belonged to three racial groups, namely: Italian (33), Serbo-Croatian (24), and Mexican (23). The remainder included Germans (7), Jews (6), Englishmen (6), Greeks (4), Magyars (3), Negroes (3), Spaniards (3), Russians (2), Poles (2), Bohemians (2), and others of mixed racial parentage (22).

The ages varied from 15 to 40. The modal, or most common, ages, were 24 and 25 years. The classification by occupation gives the following results: skilled (52), unskilled (50), housework (19), business (6), clerical (5), agriculture (4), student