AMERICAN IDEALS IN 1918 AND 1919

BY WOODROW WILSON21

There is a great voice of humanity abroad in the world just now which he who cannot hear is deaf. There is a great compulsion of the common conscience now in existence which if any statesman resist will gain for him the most unenviable eminence in history. We are not obeying the mandate of parties or of politics. We are obeying the mandate of humanity.

Friendship must have a machinery. If I cannot correspond with you, if I cannot learn your minds, if I cannot co-operate with you I cannot be your friend, and if the world is to remain a body of friends it must have the means of friendship, the means of constant friendly intercourse, the means for constant watchfulness over the common interests. makes it necessary to make some great effort to have with one another an easy and constant method of conference so that troubles may be taken when they are little and not allowed to grow until they are big.

That

There is only one thing that holds nations together, if you exclude force, and that is friendship and good will. Therefore, our task at Paris is to

These selections are chosen from the address of President Wilson in Free Trade Hall, Manchester, England (December 30, 1918), and from the address before the Chamber of Deputies in Rome (January 3, 1919). In the speech in Rome, there occurs the world-significant ideal: "Our task . . is to organize the friendship of the world."

organize the friendship of the world—to see to it that all the moral forces that make for right and justice and liberty are united, and are given a vital organization to which the peoples of the world will readily and gladly respond.

We know that there cannot be another balance of power. That has been tried and found wanting, for the best of all reasons that it does not stay balanced inside itself.

Therefore, there must be something substituted for the balance of power, and I am happy to find everywhere in the air of these great nations the conception that that thing must be a thoroughly united League of Nations.

APPENDIX B

SUGGESTIONS TO SPEAKERS ON
AMERICANIZATION

Interested persons should write to the Bureau of Education, Washington, D. C., and ask to have their names placed upon the mailing list for the monthly publication, Americanization. Each issue is full of helpful suggestions. Other valuable material may be secured by writing to specific organizations such as the State Commission of Immigration and Housing of California (Sacramento), which has published several very useful pamphlets on Americanization.

There are many fundamental ideals which speakers on Americanization need to have clearly in mind. They should familiarize themselves with the past and present phases of Americanism and with the problems which lie directly before the nation. They must analyze the differences between American ideals and American practices, and appreciate what must be done in order that the nation may achieve complete democracy.

Speakers on Americanization need to avoid narrow interpretations of the subject; they must see it as a process, chiefly educational, which requires time and patience, which involves sympathetic attitudes,

and which must be translated daily into personal action by Americans.

Speakers must ground themselves in the cultural backgrounds of immigrant life. What ideals has the given group of immigrants brought with them? What hopes did they bring? What gifts can they make to America?

Another set of questions which speakers must answer before addressing a specific racial group is: What problems of adjustment have these immigrants faced? In what ways have they had difficulties in bridging the chasm between previous methods and present demands? What are the differences between their viewpoint and our American ways of doing? Have their hopes been shattered in any way in America?

In addressing an immigrant group, the speaker will be given an open door to their hearts and minds, if he shows them that he is acquainted with their racial struggles and racial heroes. Another good method of approach is to explain clearly that the United States entered the European War "to help establish liberty in all the world." Almost all immigrants understand the meaning of liberty better than any other term in our national vocabulary. They come from racial stocks which struggled to secure liberty for centuries before the United States as a nation was established.

It is important that a right attitude be taken by public speakers toward the teaching of the English language. The many ways in which a knowledge of the English language will aid an immigrant may be

clearly outlined. On the other hand, the speaker must not attack the native language of the immigrant. Let him stress, however, in every constructive way possible, the importance of learning English.

Above all else, it is vital to remember that the nature of the attitude of Americans will determine in almost all cases whether the immigrant will become an asset or a menace, that love for the immigrant will cause the immigrant to love America, and that if American principles are given attractive and just expressions, the immigrant will gladly give himself to their hearty and loyal support.

It is worth while, as a matter of technique, to work out several outlines for speeches on Americanization. Nothing bores an immigrant more than a speaker who talks "in a circle," who "rants," or otherwise shows that he has not thought clear through his topic.

Three outlines for speeches on Americanization are given herewith. The first is a modification of one that appeared in the pamphlet "Americanization," by the State Commission of Immigration and Housing of California. It will be necessary to modify these outlines to suit the occasion and the speaker's store of information, and to introduce as much illustrative material as possible.