But as a whole the civilian defense movement is confused and incoherent, not nationally coördinated, having no national guidance or even suggestion. If the various defense organizations were to get together in a spirit of coöperation, they could gather up and unite these sporadic citizens’ movements all over the country, give them standards of organization and accomplishment, start movements in different states which are as yet practically untouched by defense sentiment. Just as the Industrial Preparedness Committee of the Naval Consulting Board is working out the mobilization of industry throughout the country down to the last practical detail, so the preparedness organizations in combination could work out the mobilization of civilian resources and activities throughout the country. In some way all of these efforts should be brought into relation with each other under control and direction and discipline. They should be associated with the training camps and recognized as volunteer corps and be given the standing necessary to perfect their organization and administer their control. We have passed the stage of propaganda; we now need organization and administration of volunteer efforts if we are not to waste the precious patriotism and enthusiasm for Americanism throughout the country.
Americanization is basic preparedness. It is fundamental and enduring. The first question is how to nationalize our native-born American into doing his duty in the military training camp, in his industry, in his town, at the polls, with the welfare of the nation in his mind, and national service as his purpose. No system of laws, no plan of administration will do this—it is a problem for leaders, for education, for the spirit of the youth of America to grapple with. The reason so many public monuments, promisingly begun in America, fall through or dwindle, is because it is so difficult, so well-nigh impossible without constantly renewed stimulants, to keep individuals firm and enthusiastic in a social and national point of view. The defense movement has illustrated on a broader scale the same thing that has been illustrated in this country many times before—the American religion of individualism in arrogant array against a critical national need. Only two things—a rediscovery of a stern sense of duty among American youth; and a recovery of that stern idealism that persistently exacts of men a social responsibility, a consideration of a first claim beyond the claim of family, personal success, career—can establish American citizenship on a sound basis. With the native American these things are, as I have said, a rediscovery. The tradition exists and was incorporated in the very principles of our foundation.
With the immigrants, it is different. They come to us, mostly adults, with certain specific needs and tendencies, and here we need to assume a constructive and painstaking task—that of interpreting the principles of Americanism and the obligations as well as the privileges of American citizenship to the men we invite to come here to do American work, and permit to be a large percentage of the population of many American industrial towns.
Immigration is a great force in American life. It is not, as has often hitherto been regarded, a labor subject or a health subject. It is primarily a citizenship subject, to be administered along the broad lines of nationalism and the future best interests of all America. It is properly an interior subject, and all of our dealings with it should proceed from a consideration of conditions in America. We admit or reject people because of the effect on America; we distribute them to avoid congestion, misery, and bad conditions in cities and to develop America; we educate them for citizenship in America; we protect them, looking again toward a better citizenship. We can never have a real policy of dealing with our immigrant people, from the time they arrive until they become citizens, so long as officials remain as they are, unless the administration of existing laws, the drafting of new laws, gathering of necessary information, and formulation of broad policies, rest with some one department. Somehow we must treat this matter as a citizenship and not as a labor matter. It is useless to preach to the employer that he cease to regard the immigrant as a cog in his machinery when the government puts this stamp upon him when it admits him. We now have a probationary period of five years for citizenship. We can well use that as the period for applying our immigration policy which shall begin with his admission, exclusion, and deportation within that period—the deportation clause being extended to conform to the citizenship standard.
What does Americanization mean in national defense?
It means putting the American flag above all others, abolishing dual citizenship, and pledging open allegiance to America.
It means American citizenship for every alien within our borders, or deportation and closing our doors to political scouts and birds of passage. We can no longer endure as a “polyglot boarding house.” Citizenship will give us an intelligent body of voters, for it will mark the end of the “voting the hunkies” by ward bosses. This desecration of American citizenship cannot exist side by side with an aggressive effort on the part of the public schools of the country to instruct the foreign born, adults as well as children, in the real meaning of citizenship. It means, finally, economic stability. The thousands of immigrants that become “birds of passage” and return to their own country because they have never been able to make any American contact except through their pay envelope will be enabled really to settle their homes, their affections, and their earnings in America, increasing the prosperity of the immigrant family here, cementing its bonds with this country, and also contributing to the prestige and prosperity of the American nation.
It means one language for all America and the elimination of illiteracy. Confusion of tongues and ignorance of American institutions and opportunities are foes of efficient preparedness. This means the end of “Little Italys,” “Little Hungaries,” and the end of filthy, remote foreign villages on the outskirts of our towns and cities, inhabited by foreign-speaking men and women with no way of learning American standards of living and American customs, and with no way to protest against standards of living which in many cases they do not “lower” at all, but which they accept only because they are too ignorant to protest when the conditions are forced upon them. There are to-day thousands of communities where decent living conditions do not and cannot prevail. Our war contracts are starting boom towns that are a menace to our very civilization and a source of danger in time of war. It means a higher level of intelligence, the wiping out of illiteracy, and the establishment of the rule of the English language and of a common citizenship.
It means the abolition of class prejudices and of racial hatreds and of the intolerance of the old stock for new stock, which stand in the way of United America.
It means one American standard of living. As we cannot have a double standard of morality, we cannot have a double standard of living. We can no longer sacrifice the preservation of this country to industrial necessities. So long as our industrial communities are made up of large groups of un-Americanized immigrants, without the English language, without an understanding of American conditions, too helpless to bring their grievances to the attention of their employers, too ignorant to understand or trust compromises, if compromises are offered, too ignorant to force them in legitimate ways if they are not offered, able to understand only the radical agitators addressing them in their own language—just so long will the industrial history of America be blotted by Ludlows, Lawrences, and Wheatlands. The road to American citizenship, to the English language, and an understanding of American social and political ideals is the road to industrial peace.