The following questions, for example, are immediate to the pupils' own interests: After what action are labor leaders justified in calling a strike-after a referendum of all members, an action of a delegate convention, or a decision of only a governing board? In what way may lodge officials be removed for improper conduct? How shall a decision be reached as to whether the profits of a co-operative shall be distributed in dividends on purchase or spent on welfare activities? Such questions are current and vital in the lives of immigrants. They are problems in actual self-government. May not the learning to solve them contribute as effectively to present American citizenship as the decision to have a school, to organize a militia company, or to ring a curfew prepared the fathers of our nation for establishing the American Republic?

In passing, it may be remarked that thousands of American workingmen learn a great deal about organized government in labor-union meetings. Possibilities may offer for co-operation with labor-union activities. In those industries where shop committees and other such organizations are encouraged, it should be easy to combine instruction in citizenship with the activities of these. The possibilities of developing co-operation in the industrial plant are almost unlimited, and co-operative stores, lunch rooms, and recreational activities are more valuable for training of citizenship than all the books on civics ever written.

In cities where comprehensive efforts are being

made to enroll all non-English-speaking immigrants in classes in English, the aid of naturalization classes should be invaluable. Members of such classes might organize for the purpose of recruiting new applicants for citizenship. A city-wide organization of all naturalized citizens should be perfected, but its purpose should be vital, and nonpolitical. Such activities might very well constitute the practice in self-governing organization which we are seeking; the future of civic education, perhaps of all organized government, is measured only by the capacity of educators to develop the co-operative instincts of common men everywhere.

XI

SUMMARY

AMERICA has undertaken the problem of national unification or Americanization in a fashion similar to that in which she undertook the conduct of the war. An unsuspected situation was suddenly revealed to us and we hastened to make amends for past negligence. We wished to attack it wholesale, without large expenditure, and get the troublesome task over with, so as to resume the normal tenor of existence. But we are finding that the problem is more subtle than we had supposed, and that our national genius for getting quick results is balked by this situation, strange to our habitual comprehensions. We shall not be as quickly rid of this newer problem as we were of the war, and our methods must be entirely different.

THE TASK IS NEVER DONE

The war was a challenge to the efficacy of our material and spiritual forces, and its carrying out meant the production of materials, equipment, guns, and machinery, as well as the development of the spirit of courage and sacrifice. National unification presents a more complex situation,

and one that cannot be dealt with in a hurried fashion. The problem promises to be with us indefinitely, at least as long as aliens come to our shores. Even should immigration cease entirely we should probably need to await a gradual evolution of feeling and action to bring about the condition which is sought by those who hope immediately by the "drive" method to make all individuals 100-per-cent Americans. We may rightly proceed by emotional challenges to arouse public attention to the seriousness of the situation, for the securing of funds, and for the establishment of instruments suitable for an enduring function. The process of national unification, however, is primarily one of education and time; it is not to be undertaken impulsively, but systematically, persistently, and determinedly.

The act of the alien taking out his first papers means very little in relation to national unification. Thousands of aliens are taking out first papers under the coercion of employers in order to retain their employment, many others to avoid oppressive taxation. Nor does the process of naturalization mean much more in many instances. Thousands have been naturalized at the instigation of politicians who strive for party control. Naturalization of late has come to mean much more than formly, and is, consequently, a greater guaranty of desirable citizenship; but it is a mistake to assume that naturalization of the individual completes the process of unification, and that further concern about the attitudes of the naturalized citizen is unnecessary.

The problem before us, consequently, is practically permanent in so far as we can forecast the probabilities of the future. Mushroom organizations, like councils of defense, citizens' organizations, and the like, are not competent to undertake successfully the careful and persistent efforts necessary toward an effective solution. The organization to be chosen must have permanency like that of our school systems or our courts. The difficulties before us should not deter us. The chief business of a democracy is the making of citizens. The task is never done, but always in process; each child is a candidate for education for citizenship. We make the mistake of thinking that the problem of citizenship for the foreign born is essentially different from that of the native born, whereas the two are fundamentally the same.

ASSUMPTION OF SUPERIORITY

The native born, who are carrying the burden of national unification, must rid themselves of two kinds of obsessions before they will be spiritually fit to undertake the task of securing the whole-souled loyalty and co-operation of the foreign born. These delusions are, first, that native Americans constitute a superior race when compared with the foreign born, and, second, that our institutions and aspirations are peculiar and distinctive to our own people and country. It is recognized that Americans only exhibit usual nationalistic conceits in these assumptions of