but wherever you find him in any numbers you note that the most
distinctive feature is the foreignism. The immigrant readily catches
the spirit of independence and makes the most of liberty. He is
insistent upon his rights, but not always so careful about the rights of
others. He is imitative, and absorbs the spirit of selfishness as
quickly as do the native-born. He is often unkempt, uncultured, dirty,
and disagreeable. He is also impressionable and changeable, responsive
to kindness as he is resentful of contempt. He follows his own customs
both on Sundays and week days. He knows as little about American ideas
as Americans know about him. He is commonly apt to learn, and very much
depends upon the kind of teaching he falls under. Much of it,
unfortunately, has not been of the kind to make the American ideas and
ways seem preferable to his own. Made to feel like an alien, he is
likely to remain at heart an alien; whereas the very safety and welfare
and Christian civilization of our country depend in no small degree upon
transforming him into a true American. For upon this change hangs the
answer to the question, which influence is to be strongest--ours upon
the foreigner or the foreigner's upon us.
_II. American Ideals_
[Sidenote: A Question for Patriots]
Surely this is a question to engage the attention of Christian
patriots--the influence of this vast mass of undigested if not
indigestible immigration upon the national character and life. A most
scholarly and valuable treatment of this subject is found in the
discriminating work by Professor Mayo-Smith, one of the very best books
written on the subject. The figures are out of date, but the principles
so clearly enunciated are permanent, and the conclusions sane and sound.
This is the way he opens up the subject we are now considering:
[Sidenote: The Marks of a High Civilization]
"The whole life of a nation is not covered by its politics and its
economics. Civilization does not consist merely of free political
institutions and material prosperity. The morality of a community, its
observance of law and order, its freedom from vice, its intelligence,
its rate of mortality and morbidity, its thrift, cleanliness, and
freedom from a degrading pauperism, its observance of family ties and
obligations, its humanitarian disposition and charity, and finally its
social ideals and habits are just as much indices of its civilization as
the trial by jury or a high rate of wages. These things are, in fact,
the flower and fruit of civilization--in them consists the successful
'pursuit of happiness' which our ancestors coupled with life and liberty
as the inalienable rights of a man worthy of the name.
"In order that we may take a pride in our nationality and be willing to
make sacrifices for our country, it is necessary that it should satisfy
in some measure our ideal of what a nation ought to be. What now are the
characteristics of American state and social life which we desire to
see preserved? Among the most obvious are the following:
[Sidenote: American Ideals]
"(1) The free political constitution and the ability to govern
ourselves in the ordinary affairs of life, which we have inherited
from England and so surprisingly developed in our own history;
"(2) The social morality of the Puritan settlers of New England,
which the spirit of equality and the absence of privileged classes
have enabled us to maintain;
"(3) The economic well-being of the mass of the community, which
affords our working classes a degree of comfort distinguishing them
sharply from the artisans and peasants of Europe;
"(4) Certain social habits which are distinctively American or are,
at least, present in greater degree among our people than elsewhere
in the world. Such are love of law and order, ready acquiescence in
the will of the majority, a generally humane spirit, displaying
itself in respect for women and care for children and helpless
persons, a willingness to help others, a sense of humor, a good
nature and a kindly manner, a national patriotism, and confidence
in the future of the country.
"All these are desirable traits; and as we look forward to the future of
our commonwealth we should wish to see them preserved, and should
deprecate influences tending to destroy the conditions under which they
exist. Any such phenomenon as immigration, exerting wide and lasting
influence, should be examined with great care to see what its effect on
these things will be."[79]
[Sidenote: Protestant Religion Vital]
We should add to this thoughtful statement a clause concerning religion.
A vital thing to be maintained and extended is the Protestant faith
which formed the basis of our colonial and national life. No part of the
subject should receive more careful scrutiny than the effect of
immigration upon Protestant America. Whatever would make this country
less distinctively Protestant in religion tends to destroy all the other
social and civil characteristics which, it is well said, we wish to
preserve.
[Sidenote: American Life Changing]
When immigration began in the early years of the nineteenth century, the
American people possessed a distinctive life and character of their own,
differing in many respects from that of any other people. The easy
amalgamation of the races that formed the colonial stock--English,
Huguenot, Scotch, Dutch--had produced an American stock distinct from
any in the Old World. The nation was practically homogeneous, and its
social, religious, and political ideals and aims were distinct. That
great changes have taken place in the past century no one will deny. The
material expansion and development have not been more marked than the
changes social and religious.
[Sidenote: Influence of Immigration]
Just what part immigration has played in producing these changes it is
of course difficult to say with exactness, but unquestionably the part
has been very great. The twenty-three millions of aliens admitted into
the United States since 1820 brought their habits and customs and
standards of living with them; brought also their religion or want of
it; and it would be absurd to imagine that all of these millions had
been Americanized, or, in other words, had given up their old ways for
our ways of thinking and living. On the contrary, they have transported
all sorts of political notions from monarchial countries to our soil.
"The continental ideas of the Sabbath, the nihilist's ideas of
government, the communist's ideas of property, the pagan's ideas of
religion--all these mingle in our air with the ideas that shaped the men
at Plymouth Rock and Valley Forge," that adorned hill, dale and prairie
with Christian church and Christian school, and made possible the
building of free America.
[Sidenote: The Grade of the Aliens]
As we have seen, the immigrants have mostly represented the peasant or
lower classes of the countries whence they came. This is noted, not in
the way of prejudice, but because it is always true that mortality is
greater, and crime, illiteracy, and pauperism are more prevalent among
the lower classes. Of course it is also true that if the higher classes
had come from foreign lands they would have made an addition to the
social life quite different from that which did come. The average
character of the immigration, however favorable, required raising in
order to meet the American level. In the new environment it was to be
expected that large numbers of individuals among the immigrants would
rise to prominence and influence, and this has been the case. The
country owes large debt to the immigrants of earlier days. Their
children and descendants are loyal Americans. It is true, on the other
hand, that many have come from unfortunate conditions in the Old World
only to fall into quite as unfortunate ones in the New; and they and
their descendants have swollen the pauper and criminal class. The
statistics prove that a large proportion of our criminals and convicts
are of foreign birth. It is still more significant to note that, in the
opinion of expert observers, the first generation of foreign-born
parentage, in the cities at least, make a worse record than the
migrating parents.
[Sidenote: Bad Effects of New Environments]
If this be so, the new environment is producing deterioration and
degeneracy instead of improvement. An Italian of education, working
among his people, told the writer that the Italian boys and girls born
here, or coming at a very early age, were much more lawless and
disorderly and difficult to deal with than their fathers and mothers.
They had imbibed all the worst features of our life, its independence,
its defiance of parental authority, its selfishness, rudeness, and
vices, while they lacked the reverence, courtesy, and spirit of
obedience native to the Italian-born. This is substantiated by many
witnesses who have labored among the foreign element. The
Americanization these children are getting is largely of the worst
type--the type that we should like to see emigrate to European
countries. And it is confined to no one race, but common to all.
Professor Boyesen, for instance, a Norwegian-American, who blamed the
ideas gained in the public schools for some of the results seen in the
young hoodlums and roughs of foreign parentage, said that worthy German
and Scandinavian fathers complained bitterly that they could not govern
their children in this country. Their sons took to the streets, and if
disciplined left home entirely; and they attributed this to the spirit
of irresponsible independence in the air. This is perhaps one of the
inevitable penalties of individual liberty.
_III. Various Effects of Immigration_
[Sidenote: Making Life too Cheap]
The introduction through immigration of a lower standard of living has
been shown in preceding chapters. The point to be appreciated is that in
this matter we are not dealing with the immigration of individual
paupers and cheap workingmen, but with the influx of whole classes that
threaten to degrade our material civilization. There are in America
entire communities which live on a different plane, and form colonies
as foreign to American ideas and life as anything in Europe can show.
They have organized their own social life and fixed their own standards,
instead of rising to ours. The results are plain all over the country.
Immigration has cheapened more than wages in certain lines, it has
cheapened life, until the coal barons could say, "It is cheaper to store
men than coal." But men may be too cheap.
[Sidenote: Good Qualities Bad if Abused]
Some of the best qualities in the immigrants are liable to abuse.
Thrift, for instance, is commendable, but not when it is exercised at
the expense of decent living. Economy is an admirable trait, but not
when practiced at the expense of manhood and decent conditions. A
distinct deterioration of the masses displaced by the cheaper labor has
marked the advent of the new immigration. While some of the workingmen
thrown out of employment by immigration rise with the increase in the
number of superior positions, the great mass are obliged to accept the
lower standard or are forced out of the industry into misery, pauperism,
and crime. The greater tendency of immigrants, by reason of their
poverty, to permit or encourage the employment of their wives or
children, still further increases the intensity of the competition for
employment. In view of all the facts, a recent writer argues that the
limitation or restriction which would reduce the volume and improve the
economic quality of immigration would greatly improve labor conditions
in this country.
[Sidenote: Deterioration a Result of too Large Immigration]
Under the present free inflow, says this writer, "the condition of the
great mass of the working classes of this country is being permanently
depressed, and the difference between the industrial condition of the
unskilled workers in our country and of other countries is being
steadily lessened to our permanent and great detriment."[80]
[Sidenote: False Reasoning]
As to the economic effects of unrestricted immigration, the stock
argument that it costs a foreign country a thousand dollars to raise a
man, and that, therefore, every immigrant is that much clear money gain
to this country, simply begs the question of the usefulness of the
immigrant and the country's need of him. Many immigrants are not worth
what it cost to raise them, to their native land or any other; and at
any rate, a man is only of value where he can fit into the community
life and do something it needs to have done. Another naïve claim is that
every mouth that comes into the country brings with it two hands, the
assumption being that there is necessarily work for the two hands. If
not, then there is an extra mouth to be fed at somebody else's expense.
The real question is one of demand and quality.
[Sidenote: Effects upon Education]
What effect has immigration had, and what is it likely to have, upon our
national educational policy? The parochial school is opposed to the
public school; the parochial school is Roman, the public school
American. The parochial schools could not secure scholars but for
immigration. The Roman Catholic Church is persistently trying to get
appropriations of public money for parochial schools, although well
aware that this is directly contrary to the fundamental American
principle of absolute separation of Church and State; and is relying
upon the foreign vote to accomplish this un-American purpose. Here is an
illustration of the conditions made possible through unchecked
immigration and the wielding of this immigration by priestly influence:
[Sidenote: Baneful Results in Illinois]
In Illinois the foreign element outnumbers the native in voting power.
In consequence compulsory education in the public schools of that state
was voted down by a legislature pledged to obey the dictum of the
foreign element. Where the priests wield the foreign element in favor of
the parochial schools, it is not possible to pass a bill for compulsory
education in the English language.
[Sidenote: Parochial Schools in Pennsylvania]
The striking fact is given by Dr. Warne[81] that in parochial schools
for the Slav children in Pennsylvania, English is not taught, and the
children are growing up as thoroughly foreign and under priestly
control as though they were in Bohemia or Galicia.
[Sidenote: A Real Menace to the Republic]
A student of this subject[82] says that all the facts indicate that the
time will come when, if compulsory education in English is not
maintained by the states, this important matter will have to be made one
of national legislation. "The supine bowing of the native element in our
political parties to this foreign, domineering, un-American and
denationalizing opposition to the state control of the education of the
child for citizenship is in itself a menace. When we hear of public
schools in America taught in German and Polish, instead of the language
of Emerson and Longfellow, Lincoln and Grant, one feels like taking, not
Diogenes' lantern, but an Edison searchlight, and going about our
streets to see if there be in all our cities a patriot." More evil in
results than this, and most insidious of all the attempts of the Roman
Catholic hierarchy to undermine American principles, is the system of
so-called compromise by which some of the public schools are taught by
nuns, sisters, and priests, who wear their Church garb, and use the
school buildings during certain hours for sectarian instruction. The
mere statement of the facts ought to be sufficient to bring about
drastic remedies, but the easy-going Protestants apparently do not
realize what is being done.
[Sidenote: Schools the Sure Way to Americanism]
American patriotism must steadily and resolutely resist every Roman
Catholic attack, open or covert, upon our public schools, every attempt
to divert public moneys to sectarian purposes. This is vital to the
preservation of our civil and religious liberty. For the immigrant
children the public schools are the sluiceways into Americanism. When
the stream of alien childhood flows through them, it will issue into the
reservoirs of national life with the Old World taints filtered out, and
the qualities retained that make for loyalty and good citizenship. We
shall have to look to our school boards, elevate them above party
politics and the reach of graft, and elect upon them men and women
instinct with the spirit of true Americanism, or see this mightiest
agency of modern civilization diverted from its high mission to produce
for the Republic an enlightened and noble manhood and womanhood.
[Sidenote: Effects upon Political Conditions]
What is the effect of the addition of so many thousands of men of voting
age upon our political conditions? Undoubtedly demoralizing and
dangerous. Professor Mayo-Smith says: "We are thus conferring the
privilege of citizenship, including the right to vote, without any test
of the man's fitness for it. The German vote in many localities controls
the action of political leaders on the liquor question, oftentimes in
opposition to the sentiment of the native community. The bad influence
of a purely ignorant vote is seen in the degradation of our municipal
administrations in America."[83] The foreign-born congregate in the
large cities, especially the mass of unskilled laborers. There they
easily come under control of leaders of their own race, who use them to
further selfish ends. Fraudulent naturalization is another evil result.
There is no more dangerous element in the Republic than a foreign vote,
wielded by unscrupulous partisans and grafters. The immigrant is not so
much to blame as are those who corrupt him, but if he were not here they
would have no opportunity. In order to wield a bludgeon a bully must
have the bludgeon.
[Sidenote: A Voter Should be Able to Read his Ballot]
There is an unquestioned and increasing evil and peril in a German vote,
an Irish vote, a Scandinavian vote, an Italian vote, and a Hebrew vote.
Out in South Dakota a Russian vote also has to be reckoned with, and in
New England a French-Canadian vote. All this is undemocratic and
unwholesome in the highest degree. Our government is based upon the
intelligent and responsible use of the ballot. How can such use be
possible in the case of the naturalized alien who cannot read or write
our language or any other? No one can declare it unreasonable that a
reading test as a qualification for voting should be required of all. On
the brighter side of the political phase, it is asserted that it was the
foreign element of the East Side in New York that made possible the
election of a reform candidate in a recent election, and that this
element can be relied upon for reform and independent voting quite as
much as the American society element, which is frequently too
indifferent to vote at all. There is too much truth in this. At the same
time, one who is familiar with the discussions at the People's Forum in
Cooper Institute, New York, or similar meeting places of the foreign
element in other large cities, knows how essentially un-American are the
point of view and the theories most advocated.
_IV. The Religious Problem_
[Sidenote: Effects upon Religious Conditions]
What is the effect of immigration upon the religious life of the
country? This is an exceedingly difficult matter upon which to
generalize. There is no doubt that great changes have taken place in the
religious views and practices of the people, but how far these can be
attributed to foreign influence is something upon which agreement will
be rare and judgment difficult. It will be instructive, first of all, to
study this table, which gives the results of questions asked the
immigrants in 1900 concerning their religious connections. This was the
last inquiry of the kind officially made, and will indicate what
religious elements in immigration must be taken into consideration:
RELIGIOUS STATISTICS OF THE IMMIGRATION FOR 1900
-------------------------------------------------------
|Total
| | Protestants
Countries | | | Roman Catholics
| | | |Greek Catholics
-------------------------------------------------------
Austria-Hungary|64,835 | 5,009 | 39,694| 7,699
Belgium | 1,728 | 94 | 967| 2
Denmark | 3,253 | 2,629 | 44| --
France | 4,902 | 165 | 1,736| 3
German Empire |25,904 |10,258 | 6,758| 18
Greece | 2,450 | 14 | 14| 2,350
Italy |79,664 | 50 | 78,306| 26
Netherlands | 1,994 | 839 | 190| --
Norway | 7,113 | 6,674 | 2| --
Portugal | 2,269 | 2 | 2,056| --
Roumania | 1,655 | 160 | 60| 31
Russian Empire | | | |
and Finland |62,537 |13,295 | 22,462| 1,470
Servia, | | | |
Bulgaria | 59 | -- | 4| 47
Spain | 1,428 | 15 | 704| --
Sweden |13,541 |12,708 | 9| --
Switzerland | 2,294 | 710 | 608| 7
Turkey in | | | |
Europe | 137 | 5 | 5| 33
United Kingdom |65,390 | 12,611| 31,216| 4
Not specified | 8 | --| -- | 5
Total Europe |341,161| 65,238|184,835|11,695
Total Asia | 9,726| 452| 1,390| 2,833
Africa | 109| 13| 9| --
All other | | | |
countries | 10,440| 1,274| 2,178| 11
---------------------------------
Grand Total[84] |361,436| 66,977|188,412|14,539
---------------------------------
Percentage in | | | |
each religion| 100| 18.54| 52.14| 4.03
-------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------
|Israelites
| | Brahmans
Countries | | | Mohammedans
| | | |Miscellaneous
--------------------------------------------------------
Austria-Hungary |11,082 | -- | -- | 1,351
Belgium | 4 | -- | -- | 661
Denmark | 2 | -- | -- | 578
France | 12 | -- | 2 | 2,984
German Empire | 401 | -- | -- | 8,469
Greece | -- | -- | -- | 72
Italy | 1 | -- | -- | 1,281
Netherlands | 8 | -- | -- | 957
Norway | -- | -- | -- | 437
Portugal | -- | -- | -- | 211
Roumania | 1,350 | -- | -- | 54
Russian Empire | | | |
and Finland |24,351 | -- | 1 | 958
Servia, | | | |
Bulgaria | 1 | -- | -- | 7
Spain | -- | -- | -- | 709
Sweden | -- | -- | -- | 824
Switzerland | 6 | -- | -- | 963
Turkey in | | | |
Europe | 27 | -- | 13 | 54
United Kingdom | 197 | -- | 1 | 21,361
Not specified | -- | -- | -- | 3
Total Europe | 37,442| -- | 17 | 41,934
Total Asia | 48| 3,373| 77 | 1,553
Africa | 5| -- | 16 | 66
All other | | | |
countries | 28| 228| -- | 6,721
---------------------------------
Grand Total[84] | 37,523| 3,601| 110| 50,274
---------------------------------
Percentage in | | | |
each religion | 10.39| .99| -- | 13.91
-------------------------------------------------------
[Sidenote: Eighty Per Cent. Non-Protestant]
In analyzing these figures, it will be noted that the Roman Catholics
had fifty-two per cent. in a year when the total immigration of 361,436
(not much over one third that of the present time) was about the same in
the proportion of aliens from southeastern Europe as now. The Jews would
make a larger showing at present, as the immigrants from Russia are
almost wholly Jews. The Protestant strength certainly would not be any
greater proportionately. The large number put down as miscellaneous is
significant. What a task is laid upon American Protestantism--nothing
less than the evangelization of nearly eighty-two per cent. of the vast
immigration. It is easy to say that the fifty-two per cent. is nominally
Christian, but in fact that nominal Christianity is in many respects as
much out of sympathy with American religious ideals, with democracy and
the pure gospel, as is heathenism; and it is in many cases as difficult
to reach, and as great an obstacle to the assimilation of the aliens.
[Sidenote: Sunday Observance]
Looking at various results of this incoming host, in regard to reverence
for Sunday and observance of it, it is fair to assume that the millions
of Germans, with their continental Sunday, were leaders in breaking in
upon our Sunday customs. While they have as a people observed the
laws--although seeking to have the laws changed so as to permit here the
home customs of open concert halls and beer gardens on Sunday afternoon
and evening--their influence has been strongly felt in favor of loose
Sunday observance, and this has been sufficient to stimulate the natural
tendency of the American element to make the day one of amusement and
recreation, regardless of laws. The result is that now we have a lawless
American Sunday quite different from and more objectionable than the
continental Sunday.
[Sidenote: Disregard of Law]