Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-08
ASSIMILATION


the University of New York, in
recent public utterances, has done
much to show the difference between
chancellors. His attitude toward cer-
tain questions is in striking contradis-
tinction to that taken by Chancellor
Day, whose servile position has called
for such unfavorable criticism.
Chancellor McCracken, addressing the
summer school of his institution, said:
More than one university is today in
danger of being misunderstood because
few trust managers are giving mill
lions of dollars to them" and adds:
Such universities are in danger of
being reckoned the purchased servants
of narrow caste. The sure and ef-
f1cient way to escape this suspicion is
for them to rid themselves of idle
undergraduates who make no end of
trouble, and to devote their money and
energy to giving instruction and in
spiration to the public teachers through
out tho land. In word, let the uni
versity cease to serve so largely the
Improbable few and rather serve the
productive and industrious many.
''I admit that the other policy of Sc
curing a multitude Of undergraduates,
among them the sons of the very rich,
and of catering to their tastes, builds UP
endowments most surely; but patriot
ism commands to give aid to the men
and women on whom rests the weighty
responsibility of assimilating the mill
lions of immigrants who come to us
every year.
Only a conscience burdened with the
greatness of the last statement could
rise to such level How despicable
and puny are the defenses of tainted
wealth by Chancellor Day in COMPARE
sonl A thorough analysis of all the
problems now vexing the public mind
will show this vast duty of assimilat-
ing the great numbers of immigrants to
competent to work this change in the
alien hordes must be trained, and nor
NAL schools cannot and do not accom-
plish this. Pedagogy is the studying
of rules of routine from books; the
thing needed is the study of human
nature at first hand and the power to
apply a corrective.
New York, Philadelphia, Chicago and
all other large cities, including Los An
geles, have a threatening problem in
their French, German, Lithuanian,
Polack and Italian colonies; their
Chinatowns and japanese settlements,
which in the near future is bound to
shake the nation into a sense of its
duty and by fearful road If some
effective measure is not devised
whereby the allegiance of these for
eign elements can be won. The problem
of civil war today would not be to
master any sectional disturbance; but
to control these diverse nationalities
and keep them loyal to the flag.
It may not be done in the way sug-
gested by Chancellor ,McCracken, but
the moral courage of the man under
the circumstances compels admiration
and places him in the list of wise and
circumspect statesmen.
money, and the power of money in the
affairs of our higher schools will always
find apologists for those who possess
it, as witness Chancellor Day, but the
man who compels the homage of the
nation is he who, sinking self. looks to
and works for the general good, and the
greatest good obtainable by this nation
today is the assimilation of all its
people into a homogeneous body, and
Chancellor McCracken-may his shadow
never grow less-pilots the way to its
An illiterate con-
menaces public safety as
much in the present generation as 1t
could in the next and future ones, and
while it is our duty and pleasure to fit
the young for the duties OF citizenship
it is equally incumbent on us TO fit the
hordes of aliens now here, coming and
to come for healthy, sane and loyal
public service.