Chapter XI:
Principles of Assimilation

America will succeed but ill in the task of assimilation which its millions of immigrants have created unless, in its accomplishment, the American spirit illu­mines the way. For assimilation embraces something greater than the integration of the immigrant into the American economic system, something finer than the best formulated policies can express, and something more just than American law yet embodies.

Unless this spirit which has built America sees beyond the day's work, and beyond the immediate material gain, what will it profit the country, and what will it benefit the immigrant if at the call for labor, an immigrant always responds; if at the call for money, an American bank book invariably appears; if at the opening of markets, the American brand of goods is first on display; and if at the call of war, all races through a united public opin­ion gather under the American flag? For when pros­perity wanes, and men falter in the face of adversity, or when the desire for power divides their allegiance, what is it that will hold together members of all races, and all native Americans, in an identity of interest which em­ braces the spiritual as well as the material needs of men?

Even though the war was fought for nationalism, it has not revealed to us the principles of national unity; nor has it brought peace to the thousands of foreign born scattered throughout the world. They, no less than ourselves, seek a unity of spirit as well as of race. There is one group of foreign born people which hopes to find this peace and unity in America. From the moment of arrival its aspirations, purposes and devotion are bound up in a great desire to become a part of America. This group as we have seen, has a leadership, a press and an organization which is always at the service of American interests. The assimilation of this group is but an opportunity to be used by America.

There is another group whose members believe that they can and must retain the connections and advantages of the old world; even while they aspire to embrace those of the new country. They believe that the way to do this is to combine for their own interests in America, so that they may also exercise a power here as well as in their home affairs. This attitude opposes race to race and separates them from native Americans, thus impeding the natural processes of assimilation. This is the battleground, for it is here that conflict exists in men's minds and hearts between the old allegiance and the new; between old and new points of view; between old customs and habits and new; and between dependence upon the old world and independence in the new. This group has its organizations, press, and leadership whose power depends more upon the preservation of the interests, traditions, customs, language, and literature of the racial groups, than it does upon the acceptance by them of American standards. The assimilation of this group is but a responsibility which Americans have assumed.

There is a third group whose members are openly and frankly loyal to their home countries; they have no thought of choosing America as a home, as they intend to use it only as a base for business operations in order to make money for themselves or for the corporations which they represent. Through this group we may benefit by its knowledge and contact with the world affairs, and we may also establish relationships which will further good will between nations. This group has its organizations, its press and its leaders. Its assimilation is neither feasible nor advisable, but association with it is a privilege which America should recognize.

If there is a division in spirit among the several groups of immigrants, there is no less a like division among the native born. One group of native born is in favor of immigration and constitutes the leaven of assimilation, because of its understanding and sympathy with the questions involved.

The sentiment of other groups is divided; on the one hand it desires to use racial institutions and agencies, and to fuse with American life the contributions which the immigrant brings; on the other hand it desires to suppress the languages, customs, and habits of the immigrant, and to impose Americanism upon him. This division of interests impedes the natural processes of assimilation, and creates a conflict between prejudice and tolerance; between the disposition to share benefits and the tendency to safeguard them for our own posterity; between the courage to welcome strange peoples for our progress and the complacency to rely upon ourselves for the future; between the power which believes in expression and cooperation and that which inclines to repression and ruthless competition; between the impulse to look forward and achieve greater things and the instinct to look backward and remain safe.

There is a third group which has no faith in assimilation, and is either indifferent or opposed to immigration. It has no thought of coming into contact with the immigrant or of contributing to his advancement. It may from time to time utter a warning against it but for the most part its members retire into lofty seclusion to observe the struggle going on below.

Obviously, something beyond material needs or gains. is required to unite spirits so averse to each other and interests so diverse in purpose. For important as material institutions are, they are but a mechanism through which we test our desires, achieve our hopes, and realize our ambitions. If they fail to serve these purposes the immigrant, not less than the American, in search of that perfection which man ever seeks, will look for new fields of effort. Surely there must be some key to assimilation which will open the doors of racial and American institutions alike, through which both the native and foreign born may pass freely. Surely there must be principles, susceptible of application to all of us in the association together of native and foreign born, that will establish that confidence and good will so essential to the assimilation of divergent peoples.

First of all, is there agreement upon what is meant by assimilation? Is it alone the learning of a language or the acquirement of citizenship papers; or are these but vehicles which increase American contacts and make more available the opportunities of the new country? Is it alone the immigrant's dressing and acting outwardly like an American; or are these but evidences of the first steps in his progress? Is it alone the receiving of American wages and their use to improve his living conditions; or are these but the means to an end? Is it alone the bringing of native and foreign born together; or does this leave unchanged the reaction of races toward each other.

Assimilation in the last analysis is to be found in no one of these things—alone. Rather, the test of assimilation for the American is whether in the presence of large numbers of alien peoples he retains the fundamental beliefs of his country, of its institutions, and has faith in himself; and whether his own customs, traditions, and form of government emerge triumphantly. If, as Americans are daily tested by the activities of the foreign born and by their reactions to American life, they stand firm, as shown in the character of their thinking and by the consistency of their actions, then we may be assured that assimilation is satisfactorily progressing. The presence of aliens in America during the war was such a test upon a great scale. The spread of Bolshevism in America was another such test. Both of these have been a strain upon the American's belief in liberty and justice, upon the stability of constitutional law, and upon other attributes of fundamental Americanism. Our common reaction to such tests, much more than the absence of a common language, and of a low percentage of naturalized citizens, furnish us with a true perspective of assimilation.

For the immigrant the test is whether in a strange country and in the midst of native born Americans and many other races he shows, without sacrifice of racial qualities for which America has no substitute, a capacity to adjust himself to new conditions, to acquire new standards, to follow American trends of thought, and to accept American ideals and ideas. If the immigrant can make his own racial contribution available to America and at the same time can take from the new country what is necessary for his own progress, then we may be equally sure that assimilation is satisfactorily progressing. The plight of his home country in the war and the Americanization movement were such tests. His reactions to the new found wealth and to the sudden accession of liberty and equality of opportunity without surveillance; these, and not his knowledge of the language and the way he dresses, furnish us with a true perspective of assimilation.

If assimilation is the establishment of an identity of interest expressed through common reactions to American thought and life, through a unity of public opinion, and through a common belief in American government and institutions, what then are the principles which native and foreign born alike can understand and apply in the every day affairs of life?

Recognition is the first of these principles—recognition by the American of the capacities, qualities, and contributions which the immigrants bring; and by the immigrant of the ideals and achievements of Americans. Americans, hitherto, have been inclined to “lump their appreciation” of what the various races have brought to America. They judge racial traits largely by direct and indirect contact with individual members or with isolated groups of the various races, and not by a knowledge of the history and culture of the races as a whole, of which the individual is but the product. But recently a systematic effort has been made, notably by the Literary Digest and other magazines, to bring before the American people the characteristics and achievements of the various races. This new interest on the part of America toward racial information has been one of the contributions which the war has stimulated.

But the application of this racial information to practical affairs is hardly begun. For instance, Americans regard quite differently the Italian in America who is doing rough labor, than they do the Italian in his native environment; and they seem to see little connection between the ditch digger and the literature and art of his race. Also, it scarcely occurs to us that there is reason for a joint celebration on Columbus Day by native Americans and foreign born Italians, and only recently have we begun to recognize their national holidays. By such lack of appreciation we have failed to convey to the members of almost every race whatever concept we may have had of their racial accomplishments.

This apparent unwillingness or inability of the Americans to connect in their own minds the immigrant with his heritage, has caused us to pay but little attention to the individual. On the one hand he has been admitted to the country, which in itself may be taken as a recognition, either of his desirability or of his labor. American citizenship has been offered to him—a decided recognition that he could appreciate a free government. American schools have been opened to him,—a recognition of his desire to learn our language and history. An earnest effort was made to Americanize him—a recognition, from one point of view of his worthiness, or from another point of view of its necessity to America. Coincident with the war there has also been established a number of joint societies—a recognition of the desirability of bringing the various races and native Americans together. Increasing attention has also been given to the holdings of exhibitions of the arts and crafts of the races—a recognition of the cultural contribution which the immigrants have made to America.

But what of the day's work—the place and time where most theories are tested and where most ambitions are realized? Here the tendency has been to limit our recognition of the immigrant to his value as a laborer. As a result, discriminations in employment, in promotions, in treatment and in living conditions have, to a considerable extent, usurped the place of recognition. This limitation of recognition to labor values explains in a large measure our inability to absorb or to incorporate other racial values into the native American system. This has resulted in a loss to American business, as a few observations will show.

Deterioration in workmanship, no less than low production, is creating anxiety among American manufacturers; not only because of the increased cost but because of its possible effect upon international markets. A considerable part of this deterioration is due unquestionably to the loss of immigration and to our past neglect to conserve the quality of workmanship of immigrants. It is also due to our failure to note the varying qualities in different races,—qualities which best fit them for American industry, by giving the highest return in the quality and quantity of production. What are some of these qualities that deserve recognition?

First, the immigrants of the majority of the races which supply America with unskilled labor have a capacity for faithful operation and a natural instinct for perfection. As part of the craft training of the old world they take a pride in their work, and their desire for perfection yields more slowly to the insistent pressure for quantity. Second, they have a definite "work sense," which they do not constantly seek to evade. Third, they possess a better discipline in working together. Fourth, the peasant has the patience to do the drudgery incident to monotonous work and the endurance to stand its strain. Fifth, they have a sense of frugality which eliminates waste in plant operations. Sixth, they have a capacity for self- discipline and for working together within the narrow confines of mechanical work, an asset to which Americans have given little thought.

The American producer who must compete in the markets of the world, including America, with the products which these races will make in their native lands, may well consider whether the encouragement of immigration of races possessing these qualities in a high degree is not a matter of considerable importance to American commerce. When competition with the frugal peoples of Europe, with their lower cost of production and higher quality of output, begins to make itself felt throughout the world, American employers may realize, when it is too late, the importance of knowing how to reach at its source the labor supply of the races which will ultimately produce the most of the best qualities at the least cost.

The steady capability of the immigrant workman and his resistance to change are of considerable importance in production. These qualities could be utilized to a greater extent if the employer understood his racial workmen. Before the war the average employer was skeptical if he was told that his racial workman required a special recognition. To- day many plants have a different atmosphere due to an increasing recognition of the immigrant. As an illustration, in a certain plant where more than a thousand Italians were employed, a condition prevailed which showed a lack of harmony between management and men. The management complained that the immigrant workmen did not appreciate the lunch room; and that they would not learn English, even though the classes were conducted on part company time. The men were suspicious of every advance and innovation. It was suggested to the management that it show some simple form of recognition, such as an appreciation of what the Italian national holiday meant to the workmen. On that day every member of the management appeared wearing a red carnation. The Italian workmen understood the act of appreciation and, from that simple beginning, there has grown an intelligent and sympathetic method of dealing with racial workmen.

Another quality, the value of which business has failed to recognize, is the frugality which most immigrants practice. The peasant, trained in a hard school of privation and want, is not prone to waste even when he acquires plenty in America.

In a country where the business mind tends to act without mature deliberation, the immigrant's instinct for definition may be utilized if put into play in operations where it will count for the most. Where the American business mind is only too ready to accept new propositions, the immigrant's greater power of refusal may furnish a much needed check to hasty action and may prevent the adoption of wasteful and half- baked experiments. His natural tendency to preserve traditions creates a center, however ill adapted and uniformed it may be as to American conditions, to which appeals on labor and other controversial matters can be referred for judgment.

Vast as the wealth of America is to- day, it furnishes no excuse for the neglect of small assets, one of which is the thrift of the immigrant. His tendency to hoard his savings and to withdraw them from circulation and thus destroy their immediate usefulness for capitalization purposes and also their earning power to himself, has not been recognized by the American.

If such qualities are among the resources of immigrants, which are largely unused by American business, it is also true that some races bring to America certain qualities which make their incorporation into American institutions difficult, and it is equally important to gauge their effect upon business.

The immigrant peasant moves slowly away from the beliefs, traditions and habits of his native land, and scarcely at all, unless he has the approval of some recognized authority. The processes of his mind are simple. His reactions to the complex American city are governed by a tenacity of early ideas and training, and by a routine existence which is appallingly narrow. His absorption in the day's work, with the ever present anxieties of food, shelter, and clothing, shuts him out from much of the new world about him. He is often filled with a deep- seated rancor, which is based on centuries of oppression and race feuds which have created in him an attitude of distrust, and which cause him to respond in most unexpected ways to overtures from the American. He has a credulity growing out of an unbridled imagination which prevents him from readily perceiving abstract rights. His limitations in comprehending public events in a strange country create barriers through which few Americans have yet found the way. His untrained mind, unaccustomed to reflection and with few resources to fall back upon to tide it over the break with the home country, requires that the simple ties of religion and of physical restraints be established immediately upon arrival. In the absence of these, the immigrant does not respond during crises in a way wholly understandable to the American; and indicates a slower adaptation to American business operation and life which should be reckoned with in all industrial management experiments.

But if the American has failed in his recognition of the immigrant's qualities and possible contributions to America, the immigrant has no less failed to recognize the finer traits of the American and to appreciate American achievement. He has come to know the dollar far better than he has the man. He has come to judge of American institutions, not by their illimitable possibilities but by the pettiness of his narrow experiences. He has been contemptuous of the literature of a country which he thinks is without the richer traditions and simplicity of his older world. He has by comparison not only disparaged much that the new country has to offer, but he has acquired sometimes a supercilious and even critical attitude concerning much which, not having had a hand in the building, he does not yet fully understand. He has often mistaken liberty for license and duties for privileges.

Abstract recognition of the qualities of races and of the personality of their members will not do much for assimilation, unless a way can be found to make recognition not only apparent but mutual by effecting an exchange of ideas and ideals between the various races and between them and the native born. Thus reciprocity becomes the second principle of assimilation. Much is now being done to acquaint Americans with a knowledge of the history and an interpretation of the races, many of whose members are now in America. But as yet we have done little with our interracial problems of bringing, for instance, the ideas and ideals of the races together; or of bringing about an exchange of literature and opinion and of combining them with American thought and expression.

This is essential if we are to apply the third principle of participation which will put into operation recognition and reciprocity between races and between them and Americans. For only through the full participation of each immigrant in American affairs will economic assimilation obtain. It is by drawing out the full contribution which immigrants can make and by utilizing their full powers, that identity of interest is finally established. This means giving to them the full opportunity to put into practice their ideals of freedom as well as their capacity for work. This means the elimination of discriminations, of a sense of race superiority, of imposition of regulations without consultation, and of many similar attitudes of mind which now limit the immigrants' participation in American affairs and which now turn their attention to institutions and countries where they can find a fuller expression.

Economic assimilation of immigration, then, is the application of the principles of recognition, reciprocity, and participation by native and foreign born in the day's work. It has for its objective the irrevocable integration of the immigrant into American life at every economic point.

Economic assimilation in operation means that industry recognizes his capacity for work and quality of workmanship; and that the immigrant recognizes the capacity of the American for leadership and organization. It means that this recognition is expressed in practical ways. It means that views and ideas are freely exchanged. Thus, the immigrant will participate in the full life of American industry just in proportion to his capacity, and the American will participate in racial affairs to the same degree and in the same way.

Economic assimilation means that the banker recognizes the immigrant's qualities of thrift and frugality, that his patronage is essential to American progress, and that the immigrant, on his part, comes to have faith in the American bank. Then there will follow the reciprocity which will make the immigrant a depositor, in the American bank and an investor in American securities. The banker will help the immigrant to succeed, and both will participate in financing and developing American enterprises which will bring both to them and to the country substantial returns.

Economic assimilation means that the merchant recognizes the value of immigrant trade, merchandising, and salesmanship; and that the immigrant will recognize that his interests are identified solely with those of American commerce. This will lead to reciprocity in which the American will sell goods to the foreign born, while the immigrant, in turn, will stimulate business for the American merchant here and abroad. Both will participate in building a better trade at home and in expanding American business abroad.

Economic assimilation means that the English language press recognizes the value and place of the foreign language press and that the latter will adopt the principles and standards of American journalism. This will lead to the formulation of a united opinion, based upon the recognition of the immigrant's beliefs, traditions, and customs and the consequent exchange of ideas and opinions, and participation of both racial and native American thought in maintaining American institutions.

A broader economic assimilation beyond the day's work means that Americans have found a way to incorporate into American life the spiritual contributions of the immigrants and that the immigrant has found a way to absorb the finer qualities of American life. If as a racial member he is without the experience of free education and institutions, if he has not had the freedom of full self-expression, if he has not transversed the limits of class lines, if he has not been master of his own destiny, it may be that America will mean to him the realization of these ideals. If as a nation we are without great intensity, inspiration or tragedy in our history; if we have less power of refusal than of acceptance; if we have little respect for authority; if we are slow in establishing traditions; and if we have too much loose idealism, it may be that the immigrant can make a very real contribution if his full participation in American life is assured.

But assimilation in all of these ways must be more than a hope, more than an aspiration and stronger than a desire. Americans in this great undertaking must abandon the habits of thinking a task is done when it is but begun, of taking credit for achievements which are but yet projects, and of taking for granted situations which require the most careful analysis and reflection.

When this commercial age has exhausted the treasures to be gained by adventures into the resources of the earth, and we have found a way to assure to all men the necessities and comforts of life, then men's minds may create the age of beauty in which their thoughts will turn to quality rather than toward quantity; to simplicity rather than toward ostentation; to form rather than toward bulk; to color and line rather than toward size; to continuity and precision rather than toward loose ideal- ism. Perhaps, then, the best architects will build the shops and homes of immigrants and native born alike, and the best designers will decorate them, and perfection will not be reserved for state occasions, but will find its way into the common things of life.

Then the ordinary problems of economic assimilation will no longer hold, for we shall have passed from the freedom we have gained by subduing brute force by science and skill by controlling the oppressions of men by politics and economics, to the conquest of ourselves. Thus we will be freed from petty ambitions; and peace and unity, which the end of the war has so signally failed to achieve, will become realities.

In the meantime, we must live through the practical age, in which the instruments given to us for use are commercial. We are cheered within the narrow confines of the day's work by the hope that the age which succeeds this will hold the keynote of beauty instead of profits. It is possible that we may have to wait until then for the full assimilation of the immigrant—for it may be that full identity of interest consists less in sharing what money alone will buy, than in the mutual appreciation of the spiritual qualities of men. It is the vision of this which keeps many in the economic treadmill though they know that the day of perfection is not for them to see.

THE END