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ported by Attorney Bell as finding that, at the most, the land was worth only from $15 to $20 an acre, and that no one could possibly make a living on these twenty or thirty acre lots. Mr. Bell observes:

"This is only one of some 500 land fraud cases that have been handled by the State Immigration Commission. It shows that we exploit immigrants even in their attempt to get back to the land-the place where many wise students of the problem1 say they must be, before our immigrant problem is solved."

Another type of traditional American attitude, which must be changed, is found in the experiences of a certain California mining company.

"The manager began to notice a restlessness among the 5000 South Austrian employes. They were Croatians but he did not know that. The unrest grew. He could discover no real cause for it and began to fear real trouble. He thought the I. W. W. had been at work somehow and he sent for the United States marshal and asked that help be ready on call. The Immigration Commission offices up in San Francisco heard of the stir, and wired to wait, for they would send down an interpreter who spoke the language of the men. The interpreter arrived and announced that he intended to live among the men and find out just what all the noise was about. The company objected on the ground that it was dangerous and that his life wouldn't be

"Americanization as a Necessity to National Defense," pamphlet published by the California State Commission on Immigration and Housing, no date,

worth a cent. He answered, 'But you forget that these are my own people, and I understand them.' He found a bunk in a lodging house. At the end of the second day he reported to the company that the row was the result of a feverish debate, in which the whole camp was involved, as to where the new capitol for the new republic of Jugo-Slavia should be located! The management said, 'What we needed was not the United States marshal to keep order, but an interpreter to help us understand the men'."2

2. Additional democratization of Americans is necessary because so many Americans misunderstand, take a snobbish attitude toward, or look down upon the foreigners. We do not realize that these same foreigners see our faults and look down upon us because of certain of our ways. The situation is explained by the statement that the average American thinks of the immigrant in terms of a laborer and the average immigrant thinks of the American in terms of a "boss." The truth of the matter is that the immigrant possesses countless good qualities which the American does not suspect and the American has ideals and traits of which the immigrant personally does not learn. President Wilson struck the needed key-note when he said: "No amount of dwelling upon the idea of liberty and of justice will accomplish the object we have in view, unless we ourselves illustrate the idea of justice and of liberty.

193

"National Conference of Social Work, Proceedings of, 1918, Kansis City, pp. 449, 450.

'Address at the Citizenship Convention, Washington, D. C., July 13, 1916.

We are slow to study and to comprehend the full meaning of democracy. As a nation, we are democratic; but as James Russell Lowell said, "Few people take the trouble of trying to find out what democracy really is." Even many loyal Americans have thought it fitting to reverse the President's dictum and declare that "democracy must be made safe for the world." Other Americans have questioned the merits of democracy in time of a national emergency such as war. All such doubters need to remember that the war between the United States and Germany was one between an imperfect democracy and a highly perfected autocracy. The latter had been consciously and purposely building up its system for centuries; the former began only in recent years to analyze its national purposes and to perfect itself on the basis of those purposes. Americanizing average Americans means, in part, that they shall analyze democracy and build up a purposeful nation on that basis.

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The question has been raised by our diplomat and historian, David Jayne Hill, whether we have made our land a democracy in our laws and in our administration of them." "We have concentrated our aftention upon our material conduct until we have been hypnotized by it." We need to re-examine our Americanism. Americanization itself means a process of self-examination by native Americans in regard to

*Address at Birmingham, England, October 6, 1884. Cf. R. Dixon, Americanization, pp. 44ff.

Americanism: What It Is, p. 78.

'Ibid., p. 205.

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the principles which they profess, according to President Wilson. As Americans, we are asked by the President, to purify and re-dedicate our declarations of democracy. We need to see clearly "where we are adhering to and where we are departing from just and equal democratic laws."

3. In the normal times of peace, many Americans have become notorious for taking little interest in their government and in public welfare, sometimes through sectionalism, and sometimes through thoughtlessness and unconscious selfishness. Mrs. Mary K. Simkhovitch of Greenwich House, New York City, cites the example of a New Englander who is first a New Englander and only very secondar、 ily a citizen of the United States. 10 Mrs. Simkhovitch believes that the colonial hyphenated American has perhaps as little understanding of Americanism as has a member of any other hyphenated group; and in her work on the East Side, she has come to believe, also, that the average immigrant is a more ardent patriot, even under adverse conditions than the plain American of colonial stock.1 + Because of our lack of interest in governmental matters, unworthy politicians have prospered and true statesmen have been unjustly caricatured. The chief evil in this country was pronounced by Mr. Roosevelt to be the lack of sufficiently general appreciation of the responsibility of citizenship.12 Con

Address at Citizenship Convention, op. cit.

'D. J. Hill, op. cit., p. 78.

10 The City Worker's World in America, p. 188. "Ibid., p. 191.

12 Fear God and Take Your Own Part, p. 104.

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sequently, a whole brood of evils have hatched. As enumerated by Mr. Roosevelt, these are: (1) unfair business methods, (2) the misused power of capital, (3) the unjustified activities of labor, (4) "pork-barrel" legislation, and (5) graft among powerful politicians.'

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When the United States declared war in 1917, there were undoubtedly many native Americans who thought of the war, not as an opportunity to serve the country or the cause of democracy, but who asked themselves, "How can I better myself economically?" or "How can I personally gain something out of the war spirit?" In defiance of patriotic needs, profiteering spread its ugly tentacles, and labor strikes and "direct action" were boldly advocated. Too often the aim has been: What can I get out of the government? Too rarely has the question been raised: What can I do for my country?

Americanization implies a development of steadfast interest on the part of the American in his political representatives. It means that public office must be given an air of dignity in the eyes of both the native-born and the foreign-born. The conception of public office in America according to our kindly critic, Mr. James Bryce, falls below its true worth and dignity. The average voter frequently neglects to cast the ballot. He rarely keeps his legislative representatives informed as to his belief on important issues, unless he is the votary of a "special interest," when he importunes too much, urging the support

18 Ibid.

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"The American Commonwealth, Vol. II, Chap. XCVIII.

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