Part I: Immigration
Chapter Synopses
Chapter I: A New Epoch of Immigration
The question of whether America wants immigration is as unsettled as before the war. The question of whether Europe will direct its immigration to America is new since the war. Europe is averse to building America any larger because its own policy is toward racial separation and concentration. America is averse to having the colonies of other nations established in its land, because its policy is toward race assimilation. In the new epoch, the unregulated flow of immigration will give way to the placement of immigrants as an economic asset; and the immigration treaty will supplant the tradition that America is an asylum for the persecuted peoples of the world. Immigration will be lifted through scientific discussion from the plane of class legislation and partisan politics in America to the sphere of international economic statesmanship.
Chapter II: Immigration Before the War
Romance brought the early immigrant to America and he was protected; economics now brings him to America and he is exploited. The removal of all protection, when immigration was nationalized, laid the groundwork for the formulation of racial solidarities and the entrance of the representatives of foreign governments into America to protect their nationals. The racial solidarities of the thirty- two races which were organized in America before the war, has given America a dual economic system—one for immigrants, operated by the foreign born, and the other for native born and Americanized immigrants, operated by citizens. The racial society, which was first a social organization, is now becoming an economic institution. America, in the face of these tendencies, has changed from an aggressive to a defensive position regarding immigration; as was indicated by the passage of the contract labor and literacy test clauses in the Immigration Law. The integration of the two economic systems is revealed by the war to be the great problem of the future.
Chapter III: Racial Relations During the War
The war found immigrants in America working peaceably side by side; but it found also that they were concentrated in racial groups; and that our councils were thus divided by racial walls. To one- third of our people, the war had a vital interest and for the first time immigrants had to choose between the old and new worlds. The native American did not appreciate what the war meant to the immigrant, and the decentralization in the management of the war and the conflicting war orders which resulted have given the country a new crop of racial problems. The end of the war found the American afraid of immigration and the immigrant sensitive to the change and resentful. The peace "over draft" which the President gave to the races in America, as well as the spread of Bolshevism, has intensified this feeling. America is worse off in its racial relations than before the war: its racial solidarities are more fixed and are more powerful and its members now have international political ambitions; Americanization is on the wane; Bolshevism has left in its wake discontent and unrest; and policies to deal with present conditions are inadequate, visionless, and conflicting.
Chapter IV: Future Immigration
The new administration inherits, among other things, a most delicate and complex racial situation:—to unite races here that are torn asunder abroad; to restore in our institutions faith which has been shattered by the war; and to bring native and foreign born together. The international situation which ran parallel before the war now runs counter as between Europe and America. Europe favors race separation and to this end each country is urging its own nationals to return home, and is encouraging aliens to leave its boundaries. America is trying to amalgamate races, while Europe is devising plans to control emigration as an economic asset— to keep her prospective emigrants at home, to urge them to leave, or to place them in countries which will grant concessions for immigration. Furthermore, it plans to control them as much as possible after arrival in immigration countries and to give them representation at home. The immigrant lends an unconscious cooperation. Old problems of passport regulations and dual citizenship are clamoring for solution. The question is, what will immigration countries do under this new policy. South America and Canada have already adopted plans. America alone seems to be unaware of the changing status of immigration. International conferences and agreements are the first immediate step.
Chapter V: Racial Opinion in America
America is a country governed by public opinion, but it is a divided public opinion, because of the isolation of the foreign language press, which does not fully interpret America to the immigrant nor integrate racial opinion into American opinion. It supplies the needs of the immigrant for self- expression, for international news and for his business and other affairs. It has the greatest responsibility of any press in the world to maintain good relations between the races in America, whose compatriots are at odds at home, and to promote understanding between Americanizers and those who are to be Americanized. It consists of a network of publications which are the heart of the racial economic system in America. It is supplemental to the English language press with which it is scarcely in competition. It devotes its attention for the most part to foreign political affairs, and its advertising is largely about racial business. This press is not in favor with Americans who, on the whole, favor its suppression; but it has a great potential value to America if it can be put on a sound American business basis. This is what the new management of its trade organization—the American Association of Foreign Language Newspapers, Inc.—is trying to do, but it is opposed by the racial economic system which is afraid that some of its racial business will be lost. The rehabilitation of this press is in the hands of the English language press whose responsibility it is to mold public opinion in America.