the old country cannot be considered unjust to the United States. For every dollar sent or carried to Europe, more than a dollar's worth of productive labor has been expended in the United States by the immigrant. It is true, however, that if that dollar were invested in this country, the United States would have not only the results of productive labor but also the benefits to be gained from the use of the capital derived from the immigrant's savings. This country can afford to offer inducements whereby the immigrant will change his mental attitude and will prefer to make his investments here.

The time is coming (if it has not already arrived), however, when the United States cannot admit the immigrant who comes simply to make money and then to return home. If he is to be admitted, he must come as a home-seeker and a future citizen as well as a laborer. Perhaps the time has come when we can admit only a few hundred thousand selected immigrants per year. We reached the point years ago where we could no longer admit freely all who desired to come. We are unable to remain an asylum for the oppressed of other races and nations. Our own free land is exhausted, our industrial opportunities do not prevent us from facing the serious problems of unemployment from time to time, our poor in increasing numbers are being recruited from our own native-born population as a result of our own economic and social maladjustments. It is our plain duty and opportunity to build up our economic and social order on scientific principles and to advance the Americaniza

tion of the immigrants who are already in the country. When our socio-economic processes operate soundly and when our Americanization program reaches throughout the nation, we shall be able again to invite immigration.

PART TWO

THE NATIVE-BORN AND AMERICAN

TRAITS

CHAPTER VII

THE AVERAGE AMERICAN

The term "average American" is here used to include all native-born Americans except three distinct native groups, viz., the American Indians, the Negroes, and the Appalachian mountaineers. Aver age Americans are the persons to whom one would ordinarily say an Americanization program does not apply. At first thought it would seem that normal Americans are already Americanized, and that Americanization should start from them, not with them. Americanization, on the other hand, is the process of adopting the principles of Americanism, and all native-born, as well as the foreign-born, must experience this process, which requires time and patient learning. Some of the foreign-born citizens have reached a higher point on the scale of Americanism than some native citizens. Moreover, not all normal Americans understand and live the principles of Americanism to an equal degree.

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Americans vary in type from the highly loyal, national-minded, socialized person to the mean wretch who preys upon his kind and society, or to the gilded "gentleman" who moves in the best circles, but at heart is a moral reprobate, or a profiteer. Every average native is moving either upward or downward on the graded scale of Americanism. Some persons are improving the quality of our national life; others are degrading our precious standards. All Americans can be truer Americans.

1. Americans must lead the way sincerely, nobly, and democratically if others are to follow. If the American Indians are to become enthusiastic in their loyalty to the United States, they must not be allowed to suffer from economic exploitation, or from short-sighted Americanism; they must get their conception of American standards from large-hearted, broad-minded American leaders. If American Negroes, who compose one-tenth of our armies abroad and at home, and of our total population, are to become a strong link in our national chain, they must not get their Americanism through lynch procedure and rabid race prejudice, but from Americans who understand fully the problems of racial assimilation. If the Appalachian mountaineers are to come forth from their eighteenth century life into twentieth century Americanism, the invitation must not come tardily in the wake of the blunt, crushing penetrations of commercialism, but through the sympathetic and painstaking efforts of public educators. If the European alien within our gates is to contribute his life and ideals to the melting-pot, he must

be protected from unscrupulous "bosses," agents, "padrones," soap-box orators, and be given at the work-bench, in the street-car, and everywhere a daily interpretation of an Americanism ringing with the principles of liberty, union, democracy, and brotherhood. If the Asiatic immigrant is to be inducted into the body politic, the leaders in charge must not be narrow-minded American "patrioteers," but largegauge, world-visioned American patriots. Nothing on the part of Americans but a consistent day-by-day attitude begotten of love will so effect the unAmerican native or alien that he will naturally and willingly give up his former life, break home ties if necessary, and assume the responsibilities of wholehearted citizenship in our democracy.

Attorney George L. Bell of the State Commission of Immigration and Housing of California reports, by way of illustration of unfortunate American practices, a colonization scheme in the Sacramento Valley. The sales agents made a special effort to induce immigrants to purchase land in lots of from twenty to thirty acres. The value of the land was represented in advertisements and by oral statements in the most glowing terms. Exaggeration and misrepresentation were common. As a result, "150 families, mostly immigrants, were induced to pay from $100 to $150 an acre for this land. Three years of fruitless labor went by, life-savings were lost, and worst of all, confidence in America was shattered." Upon investigation, it was found that the land was "honeycombed with hardpan." The soil experts of the University of California are re