Immigration and naturalization are domestic questions, and no The atti

tude of people can come to the United States except upon our own terms.

California. We must preserve the soil for the Caucasian race. The Japanese by

crowding out our population, produce disorder and bolshevism among our own people, who properly look to our government to protect them against this destructive competition. California, by acting in time, before the evil becomes even greater, expects to prevent conflict and to maintain good relations with the Japanese Government.

The American Government rests upon the free choice of the people, The purpose and a large majority of the people are engaged in farming pursuits. of our

exclusion They form the backbone of every country — the repository of morals, policy. patriotism and thrift, and in time of their country's danger spring to its defense. They represent its prosperity in peace and its security in war. The soil can not be taken from them. Their standards of living can not suffer from deterioration. Their presence is essential to the life of the state. I therefore urge the Japanese Government and people to put themselves in our place and to acquit us of any other purpose in the exclusion of oriental immigration than the preservation of our national life.

The people of Asia have a destiny of their own. We shall aid them Conclusion. by instruction and example, but we can not suffer them to overwhelm the civilization which has been established by pioneers and patriots and which we are dutifully bound to preserve.

119. Americanizing the immigrant 1 Of recent years the assimilation or Americanization of the immigrant Growing has been of rapidly increasing importance. This is particularly true importance

of the probof the period which has elapsed since the outbreak of the World War lem of assimin 1914. That struggle called our attention to the danger of toler- ilation. ating large masses of unassimilated foreigners in our midst, and stimulated increased interest in the problem of Americanization. In the following passage, the United States Bureau of Education sums up some of the factors involved in an Americanization program for individual states:

1 From the United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1919, No. 77. State Americanization, Washington, 1920; pp. 24-26.

The place
of local
communities
in Ameri-
canization
work.

The rôle of the state chamber of commerce, labor organizations,

associations of manufacturers,

The great task of educating, protecting, and assimilating our foreign-born people must be performed by the communities where these people live and work. These communities must be organized and set to work. It should be unnecessary to create any new machinery within a community, for every community has already of its own initiative formed organizations and societies which are ready for the work. The task is to bring them together in one united force. .

The state chamber of commerce, wherever it exists, should be a powerful factor in bringing back of the state program the influential and representative bodies which compose its membership. ...

The state federation of labor, with its hundreds of local unions, is a necessary factor, for through the unions direct influence may be brought to bear upon the non-English-speaking workmen to enter the classes wherever they may be formed.

The state association of manufacturers represents a group which is indispensable in the work of Americanization. The active support and complete sympathy of the manufacturers must be secured by each community. ..

The state departments of education, of health, of industrial relations, and those other bureaus which are concerned in the broader aspects of Americanization should of course be brought into the plans. The state university, through its education extension work, can be of very great assistance not only in the educational phases of the work but in the social aspects as well. Through its traveling libraries, film service, community center, and other work, the extension division can directly assist the communities in practical Americanization.

The state federation of women's clubs and the women's patriotic organizations can start a great force at work in every community in the state, and they should be brought completely into the plans of the state committee.

The special educational branches, such as home economics, kindergarten, and school nursing, can through their state leaders be of material assistance. The state organizations of the doctors, visiting nurses, lawyers, bankers, dentists, architects, and others can not only render direct assistance, but they can in turn spur their individual members to proffer their help to the local committees.

educational agencies,

associations of women,

The state library association, the state Young Men's Christian and associAssociation, Young Women's Christian Association, Knights of ations. Columbus, Young Men's Hebrew Association, and other semi-public institutions, the Boy and Girl Scouts, the social workers, the churches and the church organizations — all of these should be interested in the work.

Of an importance which is very great are the racial organizations. Many of the local racial societies are formed into state groups, and if the interest, sympathy, and support of the latter are once secured, that of the former will naturally follow. In bringing all of these active agencies into a common program, Necessity of

coördinagreat tact on the part of the state committee or director will be re

tion. quired. Many of these agencies are already at work in the field. It will not be an easy task to incorporate them into a common program, but it can be done. ... With vision, sympathy, tolerance, and a sincere friendliness toward The goal of

Americanithe foreign-born by those in authority within the States, with ade

zation. quate funds for the provision of educational facilities for their needs, and with earnest and cordial coöperation on the part of all the powerful forces of the Nation, State, and community, America can within a decade weld all of its various peoples into one great, harmonious, homogeneous whole and the words of its national motto be at last achieved — “One out of many."

1

120. A proposed immigration policy Following the conclusion of the World War, there was a growing Question of demand for a definite immigration policy on the part of the United an immigra

tion policy States. By many it was declared that immigration to America, inter- after the

World War. rupted by the war, would recommence in such volume as to render impossible the assimilation of the newcomers. While uncertain as to the volume of post-war immigration, many others admitted that the country could not effectively meet its post-war adjustment problems unless immigration were drastically restricted. In 1921, when the question of an immigration policy was being generally discussed,

Attitude of the National Committee for Constructive Immigration Legislation.

What is needed.

the National Committee for Constructive Immigration Legislation proposed the following immigration policy:

[The Committee] advocates the scientific regulation of immigration. It does not propose either the complete stoppage of immigration or its unlimited admittance. It urges that the amount of immigration which may be admitted wisely in any given year depends on facts which are not generally known, and which can not be known until patient, scientific investigation has been made of two distinct sets of factors; one social, the other economic.

Neither Congress nor the people as a whole has at present adequate knowledge on which to base a hard and fast immigration law that would be really wise and safe for us, or fair and friendly to the peoples clamoring for entrance.

What is needed is a law that will define certain principles for the guidance of decisions, that will set up the requisite machinery for getting the needed facts; and that will provide an agency for evaluating those facts and for applying the principles in the light of the facts, so that the immigration allowed may be steadily adjusted to the ever-changing economic, industrial and social conditions.

We contend that this policy, if adopted, will create an automatic barometer of admissibility of assimilable immigration.

The policy and program advocated by the National Committee are based upon and embody the following General Principles:

1. That all legislation dealing with immigration and with resident aliens should be based on justice and good-will as well as on economic and political considerations.

2. That the United States should so regulate, and, where necessary, restrict immigration in order to provide that only so many immigrants of each race or people may be admitted as can be wholesomely Americanized.

3. That the number of those individuals of each race or people already in the United States who have already become Americanized affords the best practicable basis of measuring the further immigration of that people.

4. That American standards of living should be protected from the dangerous economic competition of immigrants, whether from Europe or from Asia.

Elements in the proposed program.

Justice.

Admittance of only as many immigrants as can be Americanized. Basis for restriction.

Self-protection.

aliens per

5. That no larger amount of immigration of any given people should be admitted than can find steady employment and can fit wholesomely into our social, political and economic life.

6. That such provisions should be made for the care, education and Attitude distribution of aliens who come to live permanently among us as

toward will promote their rapid and genuine transformation into American manently citizens and thus maintain intact our democratic institutions and resident

here. national unity. 7. That the standards of naturalization should be raised so as to Standards

of naturaliinclude among other requirements at least the ability to read an

zation. ordinary American newspaper, some real knowledge of the history of the United States, and an intelligent acceptance of the practices and ideals of our democracy.

8. That under careful regulation as to numbers and qualifications Citizenship. of permitted immigration from the various peoples, the privilege of acquiring citizenship by those who are lawfully here and are to remain a permanent part of our population should then be granted to all who actually qualify, regardless of race.

Questions on the foregoing Readings

1. Which aspect of the immigration problem is probably the most

fundamental? 2. What effect does lack of funds have upon the occupations of

recent immigrants? 3. Explain what is meant by saying that the recently arrived immi

grant often has a low standard of living. 4. To what extent is it true that the attitude of many recently

arrived immigrants toward their employers is one of subserviency? 5. Name the cities in which the U. S. Immigration Commission con

ducted a survey of the living conditions among immigrant

groups. 6. Discuss the prevalence of boarders and lodgers in the households

of recent immigrants. 7. What can be said as to the cleanliness of the homes of the immi

grant groups studied by the Commission? 8. Compare the various cities surveyed by the Commission with

respect to congestion in immigrant quarters. 9. Name three Presidents who vetoed immigration bills embodying

a literacy test.