The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-07-04

his grandsens.
8. There should be a change In the
naturalization ceremony. 1t should
mean something. The standard should
be raised. and yet the process sim
plified and t,le sessions adapted 10
the needs of the workingman. He
should be put to less cost of money
and less waste Of time: and on the
other hand, he should be required TO
take part in IL as a dignified pro-
cedure and to show that he has a
feeling of loyalty and understanding
as a coming citizen. The woman. In
NY Judgment. should be required her.
self to become a citizen, not to be-
come one merely by marrying a man
who Is one. She should be taught
what American citizenship means in
rights in protection to her when she
works and as a wife and mother. and
in protection TO her children. Amer
lean born women should seek out
their incoming sisters. TO carry to
them the best that there Is in Amer
lea, in the standards of living, in care
of children, in the self-respecting
performing of duty by man and wife
alike in the home. Our educational
institutions should work hand-in-
hand with the court In all these mat
ters.
MUST KNOW BEFORE
ABLE TO TEACH
s. People cannot teach what they
do not themselves know. They can
not give what they do not themselves
possess. The realization by Ameri-
can-born men and women of their
duty TO the immigrant would inevitab-
ly force them to a realization of their
own duties and make them ashamed
to come short therein. The man or
woman who shirks duty. the wife or
husband who snirks the performance
of duty to children, and above all,
who shirks having children, had best
keep away from the immigrants, be-
cause he or she is merely a noxious
feature In American life. The man
or woman who speaks of foreign
born citizens with habitual contempt
or hostility, using offensive nicknames
about them, is doing all that can be
done to perpetuate hyphenated Ameri-
canism in Its worst form. Let the
decent. self-respecting. duty perform
ing American man and American wo-
man show their real and hearty fell
low feeling with,and respect for, the
immigrant by trying to help that i'm
migrant TO a loftier patriotism and
to the practical application of such
patriotism In the everyday life of
the home and the neighborhood, the
State and the nation. Let the United
States mean to the immigrant some
thing more than digging bitches, run
ming machines or keeping boarders.
Let July Fourth be accepted as a
day when a real beginning is made
to secure equality before the law and
in tnA for
native-born and foreign-b born alike.
Let us abolish the padrone. abolish
the last vestige OF peonage, and every
thing that tends toward the slavery
of workingmen and discrimination
against immigrants Do not let the
immigrant come here who ought not
to come; but If he is allowed to come.
treat him exactly as anyone else is
treated. Let us make the Fourth OF
July an invitation TO all residents in
America. foreign born and native
born alike. to become real citizens of
the country and to realize that we are
not many peoples. but one nation
Then let us make II by law a ma.
tional holiday: for there can be nc
better national holiday Than one con-
secrated to making all dwellers with
in our boundaries desire to become
citizens. and to emphasizing the things
that unite them with, and not those
that divide them from. their fellows
In short, the proposal is that on this
Fourth of -Iuly-we- Shall inaugurats
the practise of establishing, on what
has become by custom our great ma
tional holiday, an American contact
with every immigrant in America, a
contact which shall bring personal
relationship. institutional opportunity,
industrial fellowship; a contact which
having been begun, shall then be per-
severed in.
Surely this is project which should
commend itself heartily to all our
people who seriously appreciate the
problems before us as a nation. The
events of the last few months have
brought vividly home to all of us the
extreme danger tosthis country of per-
uniting the upgrowth here of any
system of group citizenship. The n.y.
Isnenated American is danger to the
country. This is true whether he call
himself English-American or French
American, MATHEMATICIAN or irish
American; and II Is we'll TO remember
that II is also true. II in narrow
spirit of intolerant exclusiveness he
calls himself native-Americans Ameri-
canization is matter of spirit and
soul, not a matter Of a mans physi-
cal birthplace or his national origin
or his creed.
SPLENDID FOREIGN-BORN
AMERICAN CITIZENS
When I was Police Commissioner OF
New York, ] was thrown into intimate
contact with many good Americans,
with many good citizens of the great
city. On the whole, II seemed to me
that OF the men with whom l was
thus thrown into contact, the two best
and most useful Americans were ia
cob Riis, who was born in Denmark
and who. throughout his life. was one
Of the most potent influences in this
country for the highest kind of Amer
lean nationalism and good citizen-
ship, and Arthur Won Briesen, who
was born In Germany. who had fought
In our Civil War. and who, in found
ing the Legal Aid Society, had met In
efficient manner one OF the most cry