while in certain respects defective, in others is clear cut and comparatively effective. California appropriates state moneys for the education of the immigrant, and exercises supervision and advisory control. The most prominent constructive feature of the California plan is the home-teacher project, by which communities maintain home teachers of immigrants, one teacher being allowed for every five hundred pupils of a school district. These teachers visit the homes of immigrants to give instruction in the English language; they are expected to render social service as well. Patriotic societies sometimes defray the expense of maintaining home teachers, as in Los Angeles. On the other hand, California has no compulsoryschool-attendance law for illiterate minors, as have Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York.

Whatever is being done in other states is largely the result of the activities of state councils of defense (1918). These programs, undertaken as war measures, now show promise of being maintained for general welfare and are being turned over to permanent state bureaus for administration.

VARIATION IN COMMUNITY PROGRAMS

To attempt to describe in detail the programs of communities for the schooling of the immigrant is obviously inadvisable within the limits of this chapter. Community programs are char

acterized by differences in range and effectiveness; in general, our largest cities which have many immigrants have definite programs and are giving serious attention to the problem. Recent reports of the United States Commissioner of Education show many communities which make little or very inadequate provision for immigrant education; even the communities showing the best returns are reaching but a small proportion of non-English-speaking immigrants.2

Yet our city school systems are less to be censured for failure to do more, than to be commended for what has been done under disadvantageous conditions. The failure of the law to compel attendance, even for illiterate minors in most states, the lack of funds for this special work, the absence of special provisions, such as suitable furniture, buildings, educational material, the established custom of obliging Ameri'canization work to conform to ordinary eveningschool routine, the conditions of employment for immigrant workmen which result in overtime work and shifts that make it impossible for them to attend regularly-all these conditions make city school programs seem somewhat abortive when viewed in the light of what would seem possible under favorable conditions.

A particular cause of failure has been inadequate funds. Few states grant subventions to

1 Report of the Commissioner of Education, Department of Interior, 1916.

2 See chap. iii.

communities for evening-school work, so that moneys for evening schools are usually provided locally. It is fair to say that the school budgets of most communities are made up on the basis of the average day-school load-namely, elementary and high schools and kindergartens. Evening-school work is assigned to the margin of funds that may be available after regular needs are provided for; the appropriations for evening schools constitute but a minute part of the total school budget. Yet New York City was obliged to curtail evening-school provision for immigrants in 1917. Cleveland in 1919 was obliged to give notice of discontinuance of evening schools because of shortage of funds; later legislation relieved the situation somewhat.

But the public-school system has justified the widespread confidence reposed in it when given conditions fairly adequate. No system of schools can succeed under conditions so unfavorable as those now surrounding the education of the immigrant. All success is relative and many communities may be praised for what they have accomplished. More complete details of community achievements are given in Chapter III.

Community efforts have been described quite fully in the special reports of the Commissioner of Education, particularly in the writings of two special agents of the Bureau of Education, H. H. Wheaton and C. F. Farrington. Two large cities, among the many, may be mentioned as having attempted particular programs of

Americanization within the past few yearsCleveland and Detroit. The efforts in Cleveland were stimulated by the criticisms and constructive suggestions of the Cleveland Education Survey. Americanization work in that city has been described in the volume entitled The Immigrant and the School, in the report of the Cleveland survey. This account, while mainly critical, presents a picture of what was actually happening in an enterprising large American city.

The example of Detroit deserves more than passing attention. The recent industrial expansion of this city and the consequent coming in of thousands of immigrants, most of them non-English-speaking,' made the problem of Americanization particularly pressing. Beginning in 1915, Detroit has made a vigorous effort to meet the situation in which it found itself with the English-speaking members of the community actually outnumbered by those of alien tongue. The co-operation of all influential forces of the community was one of the striking features of the movement; the Chamber of Commerce, the city government, the school department, and the churches of all denominations were found in active union for the common purpose of Americanizing all aliens. More adequate appropriations were secured, teachers were selected and trained, employers of labor urged their employees to join classes, the press con

1 The foreign-born population of this city increased by 300,000 in the interval between 1910 and 1915.

ducted a publicity campaign. The resulting evening-school enrollment was considered a success, in view of an increase in membership over the preceding year of 153 per cent. While this gain seems large and satisfactory, it must be remembered that the best figures of enrollment represent but a small fraction of possible membership. Detroit might have gained a 1,000per-cent increase in enrollment and yet not be reaching a half of the non-English-speaking immigrants. A similar situation obtains, of course, in all communities where non-English-speaking immigrants are to be found.

POLICY OF FACTORY CLASSES

Classes maintained in places of employment, usually called factory classes, deserve increasing attention in enumerating present agencies for Americanization. Broadly speaking, these classes are of two kinds-i.e., classes maintained wholly by corporations, and classes maintained in co-operation with public agencies. This latter group may be subdivided according to the degree in which control rests with the public or with the private agency. The procedure of the Ford Manufacturing Company of Detroit is a good example of a corporation school in which immigrants are taught to speak English. The corporation bears the full expense of instruction in this school, chooses the teachers, conducts the courses, and controls all conditions affecting the work. Foremen of the plant are usually