Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1920-01-22
AMERlC lCANlZATlON MUST
VITALIZE THE MELTING POT
nize the Changed Nature of Our
Foreion Colony Problems


are often susceptible of the most wear
and tear. "When make a word do lot
of work." declared quaint Lewis Carroll's
Humpty Dumpty, "I always pay it extra"
On this basis, grounded as much in truth
as in fancy, Characterization" would be
coming in for some very handsome wages
nowadays. The arrears alone amount to
a pretty sum.
For we have used that pretentious term
recklessly, selfshly, bombastically,
loosely and lazily, until it's significance
is pauperized. 1t has been employed to
mask both tyranny and license. 1t is
overworked and underpaid. A mental
bank account is sorely needed for its
nourishrnent.
Appreciation of these necessities, if not
of these metaphors, seems to be inspiring
| the new movement just launched in this
city to specialize in Americanization, to
coordinate and solidify it's meanings, to
transport them from the realm of genL
eraties and to impart this information to
! those classes of persons who have been
unenlightened and perplexed.
! The so-called minute men," marshaled
into the commendable organization which
| Harry D. Wescott heads, do not propose
to answer Bolshevist folly with mere
star-spangled denuncation. Their self
appointed mission is deeper and saner
The scheme is educational and is to be
directed along sympathetic lines.
Foreign-born populations will not be
| shown a threadbare Characterization"
but one wearing a substantial and hon.
orable raiment which it is quite willing
and even eager to share with others.
The scope of Mr. Wescott's plan, which
at present involves oral antidotes for
| lurid misconceptions of the essential
principles of this republic and the cir
culation of informative books and pam
phlets in both English and foreign lam
guages, is naturally affected by many
contingencies. The seeds of a nationwide
movement, akin in spirit to number of
contemporaneous efforts, may be soWn, or
the operation may be merely local. though
potent in its field. But the fate of these
proposals is, on the whole, of less signif-
canoe than the instant need for them.
There is something of shock in this
urgent pressure. Native-born Americans
are not little startled by their own emo
tions on the subject. For a good many
generations acceptance of the symbol of
the melting pot has been contented and
conventional. A republic extremely dis
tinctive in its purposes and ideals was
developed as direct result of migrations
from abroad.
Our habit of belittling any possible con-
Examinations in the mixture was inevi-
table. "Cosmopolitanly planned" writes
Kipling of the American spirit, "he
guards the Redskins dry reserve" There
was thrill in that characterization. We
were proud of our wondrous amalgam.
Back in the nineties, however, we
talked decidedly less of "Amercaniza-
ton than we do today. The fusion of
English, Irish, Scotch, Welsh and Ger
man races had been highly successful.
Was there any reason to fear that the
merging of Poles, Russians, Jugo-Slavs,
Czechoslovaks, Hungarians, Greeks,
Italians, Rumanians and the Balkan
peoples would be less inspiring?
Celts, Anglo-Saxons, Normans, Danes
made England. Pelasgians, Ionians,
Dorians and others made Greece. The
names of cosmopolitan peoples are writ
large on the scroll of history. Are we
justified in interpreting darkly that an
tipathy in certain clannish foreign groups
to what we call American institutions?
There is precedence for confidence to
the contrary. But such serenity will be
vain unless the fact is clearly recognized
that the problems of Americanization are
wholly different from what they were,
say, half a century ago. Settlement on
this portion of the American continent
was originally made by peoples who were
eager for demonstration of new political
and social principles.
The United States was not primarily
regarded as a huge wage-boosting con-
Germ. Europe, as a whole, in the eight
eenth century, and parts of it in the
early nineteenth was unfavorable to the
development and expansion of the tenets
of orderly freedom or the privileges of
equal opportunity. Religious liberty was
attanable here, share in the govern
ment was available to all citizens.
Americanization came quickly. Immi-
grants were delighted to be rid of Europe,
anxious to establish themselves and their
descendants in the new environment. Not
only were they more than willing to
plunge into the melting pot, but they con-
tributed to its betterment, What we are
pleased to call the American stock is
, simply that element in the nation whose
ancestors repudiated Europe not so much
with disgust as with sincere relief.
Changed conditions abroad have had
, much to do with altering the character
, of the immigration of the past thirty-fve
or forty years. Liberalism has grown in
! Europe, but populations have also; and
, the surge toward America has in the
! main been caused by economic pressure.
| Tho now millions who have thronped here
: came often to escape degraded living con-
ditions caused by overcrowding and its
{ concomitant crippling competition.
{ There is no occasion to impute to our
? later influx of foreigners inferior moral
, character, more reprehensible personal
; habits or less inherently keen mental en-.
dowments than those of their predeces-
; sors. But the flood thought primarily in