The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-23

corners whose birth rate i5 large, the
increasing number of negroes and the
declining birth rate among native An
glo-Saxon Americans there seems to be
reason for the fear that the time may
come when this country will be made
UP of groups of peoples of dissimilar
nationalities or races.
"In some sections of the country es-
pecially in the larger cities, the prob
lem of the immigrant is almost as i'm
portant and almost as difficult of So
luton as is the race problem of the
southern states. Indeed, by some 1t
is considered to be problem more
difficult of solution.
Some Aspects of Problem
among the more interesting and at
the same time the more discoura ging
aspects of the problem may be men
toned the following:
a. The large and increasing num-
Der. At the present rate of increa Sc
the time Is not far distant when each
state and each community in each state
will have in it's midst many foreign
ers.
"2. The character of the immigrant.
Many of those who come are densely
ignorant, sundeveloped physically, the
victims of disease, moneyless. charac-
terless and criminal. OF course this
is not true of all. Perhaps 1t is not
true of a large majority. We know
that certain classes of immigrants are
intelligent and well developed physic-
ally and morally. Those OF Caucasian
origin are among our best and most
progressive citizens
20. Their tendency toward clanish
ness. Large sections of our larger
cities have already been given over
to them almost completely. recall
no large city in the whole country
that has not it's foreign element and
its foreign section.
"a. Their low standards of living.
Oppressed for ages. accustomed to the
degrading standards of over-populated
countries Injured to the restrictions and
hardships of poverty, many of them
are able to exist upon smaller wages
than our native population. The re-
suit is that the natives cannot live
comfortably in competition with them,
and this brings friction and prejudice.
IS. Their color. The color Of thous-
ands of them differs from that of the
Anglo Saxon and this difference Of color
is a standing barrier to that homo
geneousness so essential in democ-
racy. A pure democracy cannot exist,
has never existed, where the citizen
ship is made up of representatives from
races that cannot naturally blend.
Wherever the Caucasian and other
| races have existed upon the same soil
the Caucasian has always predominated.
Solution Of Problem
Upon all who value the privileges and
| appreciate the duties of citizenship. the
problem of the immigrant imposes ire
mendous and pressing obligations 1t is
our bounden duty, civic and religious, to
seek a solution. Wherein lies that solu-
| ton?
at is generally conceded that this So
luton is to be found In assimilation.
| While complete assimilation, social and
civic. is not possible now, and may never
be. partial assimilation IL possible and
obligatory. II we cannot take the i'm
migrant into our homes. we can en-
courage him to build homes Of his own;
If we cannot admit him to our schools
| we can assist him in conducting schools
for himself; If we cannot at once clothe
him with citizenship. we can teach him
the principles OF democracy; IL he will
| not accept our Christianity forthwith, w
can by our treatment OF him lead him
gradually to appreciate the beauties OF
| our religion
| I'm other words, we can educate him
Indeed, outside Of the processes Of educa
ton there Is no permanent solution t
any problem. The immigrant and the i'm.
migrants child must be instructed in thu
history, the theories, tine practices and
the ideals OF Americanism. The FIRST steY
in this education will be necessarily Il
instruct them in our language. With thu
parents this process will be slow and fire.
quently unsatisfactory. With their eiii
dren 1t will be rapid, and moro salts
factory Having taught tho immisran
and his child the use of the means O.
communication the other processes will
follow with less of effort.
IN this education, where the humble
of immigrants IL smaller than that o
the native population. and there IL no
great racial dissimilarity. the ordinar.
public schools may be employed after tn,
use of English has been acquired; bu
in the beginning 1t will be necessary 4
establish special schools with speciall!
trained teachers. In communities mad
up largely OF immigrants. teachers shoul,
be selected from that race which pre-
dominates. and such instructors should b
trained by native teachers.
TT will be necessary in many places t
utilize the night school, since the parent
and mary OF the children Will md
necessary to work during the daytime. In
deed, in many localities thu natives evel
can BEST he reached with education 7
night classes chat this Ii true has beeI