We can not hope to have the love and support and loyalty of an individual upon whom we are continually casting animadversion and whose inner worth and decency we are ever impugning. The immigrant group is a asset, a bulwark, and a promise for the future. The newcomer to our shores is not to be looked upon with suspicion and distrust as a possible anarchist or criminal, but rather as our guest. He remains our guest during good behavior until he becomes a citizen, and then he becomes one of us. As both guest and citizen he is a member of the community and should be protected against unjust attacks.1

The newspapers.-Messrs. Mahoney and Herlihy, in their book, The First Steps in Americanization, point out the following ways in which the newspapers may aid in creating interest in the English classes:

The daily and weekly newspapers in a city or town are always willing to give free publicity to the notices about the opening of evening schools. This form of publicity is strictly limited, however, in its scope. The immigrant who can read in his own language most frequently relies on his own newspapers for the news which is of interest to him. The leaders in each nationality, however, do read the English papers and can be counted on to transmit the information about the opening of evening schools to many of their fellow countrymen. The notices should be telling in form, and the information presented in a style which will attract attention.

The immigrants' newspaper is a good medium for publicity, but one which is ordinarily not sufficiently used by the school authorities. The people who conduct these papers are invariably disposed to cooperate with public-school officials. It means only the effort of locating the offices of these little sheets and presenting the "stuff." And the "stuff" must be appealingly presented, as a rule, if it is to secure any results. It should be remembered that the average immigrant has had no particular reason in the past to think very highly of what the evening school had to offer. Those who attended, either perforce or voluntarily, at any time prior to the period covered by the last half dozen years, as a general rule got little. They remember that fact. They shrug a careless shoulder when the season for reopening school rolls around. This well-founded prejudice must be wiped away. Almost everywhere during the past few years one finds evening school organization and instruction improved. And the next few years will see the improvement in a much more marked degree. Through skillful and striking and persistent publicity this idea must be made to permeate our foreign quarters. Notices of the opening of evening schools should be published at least two weeks before the opening night and reprinted several times after the first week. Then, too, the editors should be reached personally. They are, ordinarily, men of unusual, sometimes of extraordinary, intelligence. If properly approached they are not at all unwilling to conduct an editorial campaign for Americanization purposes. Group leaders also prove of service here. Every little foreign settlement has these leaders. They shape and mold opinion. Sometimes it is a young lawyer, sometimes the politician, sometimes the fruit dealer or the undertaker. It is bighly important that such people be enlisted actively in the cause of the schools. The schoolman, notoriously a poor advertiser, has overlooked these people heretofore. They should not be overlooked. They should be induced to indorse in print the school's program. They should be induced to contribute in their publications occasional signed articles, setting forth their belief in the Americanization movement and urging attendance at the evening schools. Once their interest is aroused, their influence will be manifested in various ways.

1 Dr. Nathan Peyser, in Conference Proceedings.

7. In every task the committee undertakes to further the cause of Americanization the newspapers, both those in English and those in foreign tongues, can render powerful assistance. Publicity is the greatest antidote for imposition and injustice. It is the lever that must be used to pry the community out of its rut and start it upon. its way as a force in Americanization.

The churches.-The churches may aid in Americanization not only by bringing the foreign born together in classes where they may be taught by teachers (preferably furnished by the public schools), but by definite work through their men's, women's, and children's classes and organizations. This work must not be allowed to assume the slightest form of proselyting or the workers will forfeit the confidence of those they seek to help, and will bring discredit upon the whole task of Americanization.

This department is saying very frankly to church people who inquire of us as to methods of Americanization that they will not only fail in their purpose, but they will make the work very hard for us if they attempt through the work of Americanization to win converts for their own religious creed. We can succeed in Americanization only if we enter the work in a spirit of purest unselfishness. If we approach these foreign-born people with the hope of winning them to our particular religious or political faith, we will create only a resentment and a mistrust of our whole movement. Church organizations will find ample field for their efforts among people of their own faith.

The interest of America in this problem is too vital and pressing to permit the work to be used as an entering wedge for propaganda, religious or political.' Chambers of commerce.-Where these organizations are truly representative of the entire community and not merely of the business element, they offer particularly influential auspices for Americanization work. They possess funds, executives, and committees which are or should be representative of all interests of the community. Where they have committees at work upon phases of the problem, they should be careful to see that such elements as labor, the foreign born, the women, and the schools are represented in the membership of the committee and not merely business men alone. In a number of cities the work of Americanization has been initiated by the chamber of commerce, which has then gradually turned the problem over to the various organizations able to serve leaving a central federated committee in charge.

Labor unions.-These bodies, reaching as they do large numbers of foreign born through their membership and work, can be of great assistance in encouraging the foreign born to take advantage of the English classes. Sometimes classes may be formed to meet in the union halls where they could not be reached elsewhere. The American Federation of Labor has adopted a platform calling for the broadest dissemination of education and the local unions in carrying

1 Fred C. Butler, in Conference Proceedings.

out this program can help greatly with the educational work of their community. The labor leaders and newspapers should be interested in the community work at an early stage and given an active part in planning and carrying out the program.

Libraries. Adequate supplies of books written in simple English, particularly those regarding America, its customs, institutions, and history, should be provided for the intermediate and advanced students of English among the foreign born. While there remain great numbers of people in America who read only foreign languages, libraries should see that books in those languages of the proper content are provided for the instruction and entertainment of this class. Some libraries have questioned the wisdom of supplying books printed in foreign languages. To do this, however, as a temporary expedient would seem to be both wise and helpful. Until we have given all our foreign-born people an opportunity to learn English, we must see that their proper wants are cared for in such languages as they can read.

Librarians can serve the greatest need by taking the library to the foreign-born people through branches easily accessible to them and by properly advertising to them through their press and racial leaders the fact that books are available for their special needs. Teachers of classes of the foreign born may be invited to bring their pupils to the library, where the librarian may explain the book supply and methods used.

I know of a city that had an excellent public library well up in the native section of the city, and a very extensive Polish population at the other end of the city. And of course there was about as much connection between them as there is between Greenland's icy mountains and India's coral strand. Finally, a group of women, in the impetus of " children's year," established a health center in the Polish neighborhood. That meant that an American woman spent her days if not her nights there; and that meant that pretty soon she found out that one of the things those people wanted most was something to read. Many of them were literate in their own language. They could not read English, and this happened to be one of the cities where public funds for night schools had never been supplied. The library authorities decided to open a branch there in an unused room in the health center. A small collection of Polish books was secured; ideas and interest began to circulate; and it is a very dull American indeed who does not see that the interest aroused among the Poles in that neighborhood by that library of Polish books could be used to very rich advantage to introduce them to American books.1

Parent-teacher associations.-Because these organizations bring together people with a common interest-the child-they form excellent agencies for real race assimilation. Here the messages of the doctor and dentist and lawyer, the health official and policemen and firemen may be conveyed to the mothers. Here the foreign-born woman can come into full fellowship in a mutual problem with the

1 Esther Everett Lape.

native born. These associations can be most helpful in eliminating race prejudice both on the part of the parents and of the children. The parent-teacher association can become a real neighborhood power, and through it a real neighborhood spirit can be built.

Domestic science workers.-Teachers of home economics possess an excellent approach to the foreign-born woman. In fact such a worker is a teacher and preacher of Americanism in every home she enters. Home economics workers are urged to make a study of the problem of Americanization and of the racial characteristics of the people in their districts, in order that this movement may have the benefit of their great influence. They should read the chapter on The home Teacher in Mr. Mahoney's book on Training the Teacher for Americanization.

Women's organizations.-The field for service for the American women is obviously the woman in the foreign-born home. Women's organizations, whether civic or patriotic, can render a great service in supporting the home teachers of the communities where such are provided by the public schools. Where such teachers are not provided the organized women should work to secure them and in the meantime carry on the work in the best way possible through volunteer workers who have prepared themselves by study for this work.

Reciprocity is the great thing. Make Americanization an exchange of points of view as well as of seeds and plants and recipes. By all means show the foreign-born woman the importance of swatting the fly, or teach her the germ theory of disease; but let her teach you how to cook spaghetti or how to make lace; give her a pattern for the baby's nightgown, but let her give you a pattern for your embroidery. In Springfield classes of American women are studying what immigrants from the various countries have contributed to their town; it would be a healthful study for any American. But give them a chance to contribute even more than they do-in music, art, craft, or simply in the understanding of the grace of life which even the simplest peasants often possess. The Cleveland's Woman's Club which voted a group of Polish women straight into their membership had at last hit upon the real secret; and a certain other woman's club that did “Americanization work" by pinning roses on all the men in the war that became citizens had not.'

In smaller towns the same methods employed by the settlements in cities should take place-mutual visiting, social intercourse, and beyond all else the development of common tasks. Foreign-born citizens should be placed on all civic and educational committees. Nobody likes to be done good to. Everyone likes to help. Social reform agencies have been remiss in this. Neighborhood men and women should be placed on all committees relating to neighborhood problems, for the foreign born will become Americanized only as they participate in community life.'

In every city, the field for cooperation with physicians and boards of health is wide. In New York City a group of women have established a series of maternity centers for the instruction of expectant mothers by physicians in co

1 Esther Everett Lape.

2 Mrs. V. G. Simkhovitch, in Conference Proceedings.