HOW TO ASSIMILATE THE FOREIGN ELEMENT IN OUR POPULATION.

No other subject in the larger politics of modern times deserves more earnest attention than the problem of assimilating the foreign element in our population. Unless an intelligent effort is made for the protection of our national ideals, the United States will be in a fair way to become un-Americanized; and sooner or later the question will become not how we may assimilate the foreign element, but how we may discern traces of our original government and institutional spirit. The native population in some parts of our country to-day is practically saturated by the foreign element, and no more of that element can be absorbed under existing conditions without a dangerous precipitation.

Certain well-meaning social scientists, with this fact staring them in the face, are exerting themselves to restrict immigration. But those who clamor for such an interdict have better intentions than information; for, with the positivism born of a scanty supply of sociological facts, they ignore the possibility of immigration being regulated by natural laws. As surely as a vacuum invites air, the unique natural and industrial advantages of the United States attract the oppressed and impoverished of all other countries. From the humanitarian standpoint the only right, safe, and never-changing view this is without qualification fortunate for the ultimate improvement of man. It would, indeed, be supreme presumption for any little body of people, especially happy in earthly blessings, to prevent those in need from obtaining a share of these plentiful gifts. We must not forget that America as a nation was founded by foreign elements. The hardy pioneer spirit of our sturdy forefathers was the direct outcome of unfavorable European conditions. Increased heterogeneity was the principal cause of America's progress. The first influx was fed by a score of pure streams, diverse in origin, yet united in destiny, and in that strongest of all bonds -hope. The diversity of the original colonies persisted even up to 1789, when a common language and a common purpose united them all into one nation.

How strange it is that the causes leading to unity of feeling, harmony, and unswerving loyalty in the life of nations have all been of such a variable nature! In ancient times the love of country was vague. Teucer cheerfully told his companions that wherever he fared well there was his home. "Ubi bene, ibi patria." Later in the history of the world we learn that it was religious belief that formed the bond. As long as the Visigoths in Spain and the Ostrogoths in Italy remained faithful adherents of the doctrines of Arius, and at the same time the great body of their Roman subjects were thorough believers in the doctrines of Athanasius, there could be little unity on the part of the conquerors and the conquered; but when the rulers changed their creed to that held by their subjects, the two peoples became amalgamated, and the country was united into one nation. In course of time the question of creed gave way to that of race. Race remained a factor, and is a factor yet, but, in the case of men of the same color, only when there continues to be a difference in language. This feeling of a common race and nationality based on language became pronounced about the middle of the nineteenth century, and betrayed itself first in Austria, especially in Bohemia, where the Slav objected to German supremacy, and in Belgium, where the Flemish opposed French rule.

It seems now that language and all the customs, habits, and traditions that spring from it form the only cohesive power that assimilates a people. When the question arose in the Pennsylvania State Legislature whether English or German should be the official language of that commonwealth, it was a German who cast the deciding vote in favor of English. This was not because he loved German less, but because he recognized the fact that in an English-speaking country-in his case the country of his choice and not of his birth—it was surely the duty of the foreign-born citizen to do all in his power to secure and maintain the institutions which had given him freedom and a home.

In the United States the condition of affairs is peculiar. No European country offers a parallel. Austria, it is true, like our own country, consists of a conglomeration of various nationalities: the German throughout the realm, the Hungarian in the south, and the Slav in the east, north, and west. Yet the bond that holds it together as a nation is so weak that it seems to be only a question of time when that old domain will fall to pieces; a part to go to Russia, a part to Germany, and a part to become the new Hungary. There is Switzerland also, with its German, French, and Italian constituents of the population, all at variance with one another, but held together-partly by jealousy of the

so-called great powers and partly by democratic institutions in such a way that neither monarchical Germany, Austria, and Italy, nor republican France has so far impaired the bond. The other European countries, with great skill, much tact, and unremitting zeal, have in past decades succeeded in assimilating the foreign elements within their borders, or are on the way to accomplish that end. In Germany, for example, the Danish element in the North and the Polish in the East are rapidly diminishing in numbers as such. How well the Teuton has succeeded in Germanizing the French-speaking population of AlsaceLorraine has been sufficiently shown by the result of the last Reichstag elections.

Yet in all these countries the danger menacing the state is comparatively but a small one. With them immigration is not large, while with us the foreign population is so immense as to hold the balance of power in any election. Of the total of males of the voting age in this country, numbering about 17,000,000, the foreign-born reach the astonishing figure of 5,000,000. The danger of their influence will be realized when it is noted that they are so concentrated that in the North Atlantic, North Central, and Western States, there is but a small margin in favor of the native-born population. In addition to foreign citizens we have now 1,500,000 aliens, twenty-five per cent of whom are unable to speak the English language. With allegiance still due to other powers, these people would form, to put it optimistically, a distinctly uncomfortable military possibility in case of any international disagreement. Italy, Germany, and Russia, it must be remembered, do not relinquish their military claims upon their subjects even in cases of expatriation.

Moreover, while formerly those who landed on our shores came for the most part from peoples akin to us the Irish, English, Scotch, Germans, and Scandinaviansand were bent upon agriculture and eager to settle upon the unoccupied parts of the public domain, those who now come are from the Romance countries, from the farthest east and southeast of Europe, from Asia, and from Africa; that is to say, from nations totally unlike ours. These strangers as a rule scorn to till the soil. Factories, mines, and vocations that demand nothing but unskilled labor attract their attention. The push-cart and other forms of bartering goods have a fascination for many, and the small trades that can be entered upon with little or no capital afford the means of livelihood to the rest. Whereas in the past the immigrants were absorbed in our agricultural communities, and became in a short time a part of the body

politic, now they cluster in the large cities, where can be found a Little Italy, a Little Russia, a Little Poland, a Little Turkey, etc., in which the mother tongue is carefully preserved, the English language is ignored, the institutions of the home country are revered, and American habits are despised.

In these altered conditions it is not reasonable to suppose that a foreigner can become an American citizen simply by landing or merely residing in the country and waiting the number of years required by law. By an abuse of our method of naturalization the immigrant often obtains the power to influence our most precious and sacred institutions for the worse. Almost at once he is given power in our body politic. According to the law, two years before they can be admitted to citizenship aliens must take an oath of their intention to become citizens. They must renounce allegiance to other powers; must agree to support the Constitution; must have resided in the United States continuously for five years, and in the State where they take oath for one year; and they must satisfy the Court before which they appear that they are of good moral character. Yet these restrictions are often disregarded in densely populated districts as can be made clear, to any one interested, by a cursory examination of the illegalities tolerated during the few months preceding election.

The past can throw some light on the present. In Europe, in mediæval times, the political and social dangers of alien influence were so keenly realized that community interest rendered migration itself a cause for suspicion. The stranger was sometimes fined and often made a dependent. The people to whom he came felt themselves likely to be reproached by the people from whom he came; for monarchs did not favor the loss of military strength resulting from migration. The stranger was disliked in England as late as the end of the eighteenth century. He was considered a commercial rival, as the Navigation Acts of Cromwell and Charles II bear witness. The English Statutes of Laborers once made it impossible to migrate even from one parish to another; and Germany went so far as to refuse admittance except to those having independent means or legitimate business. Even now Russia gives no immunity of travel or permanent residence, Germany demands passports, and France requires police registration. In fact, all European countries restrict or forbid immigration. But individual interest, as symbolized in the French Revolutionary period, proclaimed to the world the principle of personal freedom. National and international concerns absorbed petty provincial interests. Machinery supplanted

guilds and apprenticeships. Migration became an inalienable right. A faint prophecy of cosmopolitan humanitarianism affected the thoughts of men, and universal brotherhood became their desire.

Yet no one can deny the disintegrating influence of a commingling of our civilization with that of an inferior class of immigrants. The average culture of the world cannot be raised at a touch. Nor can a homogeneous nation result without the blending power of time and effort. The internal consolidation of the German nation is the greatest modern work of practical politics. Unification is the supreme plan of the greatest minds, as illustrated by our own motto, "E pluribus unum." Now, as never before, does it need to be our watchword, our pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night. The solidarity of our government is absolutely necessary to our efficiency as an aid in moral progress. It has proved true in the case of all older civilizations, whose falterings and failures may serve as danger lights for us. The adage of the Revolutionary period might well hold good for all time: "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."

Now that we have become a nation in every sense of the word, how can we preserve our nationality and at the same time be true to that broad, liberal spirit which attracted our fathers to this land? The fusion of the diverse elements of our population into one common nationality cannot be attained by saying: "You are an American. You have passed the forms of naturalization. Vote!" No; the security of the perpetuity of our Government is based upon a higher, broader, and more effective principle, that of a responsible and intelligent use of the franchise. Is any one worthy to cast a ballot that he cannot read, explain, and defend? Surely we should regard the gift of the high estate of citizenship as a most sacred blessing, to be won, at least, by the testimony of earnest desire. In the five years nominally required for the process of naturalization, any foreigner of sufficient intelligence to be worthy the honor of American citizenship should be able to master enough of our language to read intelligently the Constitution of the United States and the Declaration of Independence. No one could demand less of a prospective maker of laws than that he should be cognizant of the underlying principles of our Government. The influences under which the foreigner would come in his pursuit of even this slight amount of knowledge would be an infinite aid in his assimilation; and in this direct contact with the formulas of the rights of men he would inevitably absorb some of the true principles of liberty and equality.

It would, perhaps, be useless to attempt to assimilate all the stran