The call of the North. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1923-1924, 1923-10-31


During the fourteen years ending
with the World War period-1901 to
1914-our population was increased
fully thirteen per cent by immigra-
ton, the exact number being 1885,
SIT. Since 1920, Europe and the rest
of the world had been sending US, in
creasingly, of their peoples. Yet in
those fourteen years, which are a
part of our generation-not remote,
but immediate, not even yesterday,
but today in every vital effect and
influence-the immigrant blood was
40.5 per cent of the grand total for
the entire ninety-five years up to
1914; and at this peak but 10 per
cent was coming from the sources
that helped to make our nation what
it is, while 81 per cent represented
racial strains and standards COM
pletely incompatible with. our Amer
lean conception Of social and public
life.
Let me quote again from jerks and
Lauck, both of whom had a large
share in the work of the United
States immigration Commission in
1910. They say:
"The change in the character of
the immigration is especially marked
by the fact that during the last few
years more immigrants have come
from any one of the three countries
of Austria Hungary, Italy or Russia
than from all of the North European
countries taken together that for
merly furnished the bulk of Euro
pean immigrants"
Foreigns Elements Sectionalized
The resulting problem of assimila-
ton cannot be measured by the 80
millions of native whites as against
the Al millions of alien and colored
stock. The flood of inferior people
sweeping across the Atlantic as in
former ages they overran the plains
and valleys of the Old World has not
been at all evenly distributed. The
South is almost untouched by immi-
grafton. It is the East the North
and West that have received he inun-
dalton.
In these three great sections Of
the country
The foreign-born whites
number ................l2 ,o65,562
The whites of direct foreign
ancestry number. .21 ,233, 165
A total of. "a ,O98,72
In the same sections native
born whites number only. SO ,589, 974
For practically every white Amer
lean in the East, North and West,
there is a corresponding person born
abroad, or whose parents, one or
both, were born abroad.
Even that vital fact does not in
clude all the menacing truth, because
an overwhelming proportion of re-
cent immigration is massed in cities
and industrial centers.
We see, therefore, that the South
is reasonably free of alien influence,
but that section has the bulk of the
black race. In the East and North
east particularly do we find a con-
centration of equally unassimilable
foreign elements, not at all the de-
sirable kinds that abound on the
prairies of the middle West. To-
gether, the South with its negro
problem, and the New York-New
England section with it's hordes of
inferior immigrants, are largely re-
sponsible for much of the political
prostitution that is now a curse to
our country.
The Test of Americanism
My friends, as I said, we must
have standards by which present and
future Americanism may justly be
judged. Otherwise these immigra-
ton facts will be futile and conclu-
sions of little consequence. There are
certain vital requirements to be met,
if our citizenship is to measure up
and be maintained in harmony with
the ideals of the Republic. And I
venture the hope, nay, more, l make
the prophecy, that this great organ
ization will never for an instant lay
down its armor or sheath its sword
until all of them have been lastingly
achieved. These are:
% Education. The first and most
important duty Of a nation is the
training of its boys and girls for
economic, civic and social life. An
illiterate is always a national liza
bility. Individually he or she is Sc
riously handicapped; as a class all
those deficient in mental develop
ment do not and cannot contribute to
the common welfare; instead they are
in all ways an added burden upon the
public.
Six per cent of our present popu-
lation of youth and adult are unable
even to read and write.
That is not the American standard.
1t is the average of illiteracy, with
Immigrants included. The whole
number of uneducated. native whites
in this country is 1,242,572, or two
per cent. Eight hundred and ninety
thousand of them are in the South
ern states, and they are mostly