THE UNITED AMERICAN
6
to establish a closer contact, the period of study
should bring about a gradual and a natural conversion
of the applicant so that incidental to gaining the in
telligence required, his mental attitude would become
one of dependable conformity to American principles,
giving an assurance of fidelity on the part of the new
citizen in his citizenship, a reasonable guarantee that
he is mentally acceptable for adoption and will bring
into his new allegiance no reservation and no
hyphen.
What is the performance of naturalization of the
alien worth to America — besides what it is worth to
the alien? Surely America has a right to expect some
thing more from the naturalied citizen than purely
a measure of conformity. The burden of responsi
bility here rests with America more than with the
alien. The superficiality we display is a mirror that
can reflect nothing but superficiality. The time to
mold the clay is when it is soft. When the alien ap
proaches citizenship preparation he is going to leave
some of his fixed notions at home. Then, if never
before, America, for her own good, should make no
false move and permit no untried and untrained in
structor to “practice” teaching.
♦
*
♦
To place the Americanization movement on a recog
nized standard basis, uniform plans and uniform re
quirements, must be adopted under some definite au
thority, covering both educational and social work
and their correlations. People with a fair education,
even with some advanced American college work,
should first take definite training in the study of the
history, the national traits and characteristics, the
virtues and weaknesses of all the nationalities admis
sible into American citizenship. In short, they should
acquire a composite knowledge of racial background
and the reactions of each nationality in their contact
with American institutions and obtain intimate in
formation of the racial and nationality groups and
the innumerable other things essential by way of in
formation, before they attempt to instruct others in
Americanization either as private Americanization
instructors or as faculty members of colleges and
universities.
The American dean or college president who is him
self without Americanization training, no matter how
highly educated otherwise he may be, is certainly not
a competent authority to pass upon the fitness of any
one to instruct others in the basic ethics of Ameri
canization, as long as the applicant to teach cannot
show credentials for graduate work in the Americani
zation study from any school, college or university
where Americanization for some time past has been
a specific subject in the educational curriculum.
Anything worth doing at all is worth doing well, is
an old maxim and surely Americanization—which
already has furnished innumerable authors the sub
ject matter for far-reaching treatises and editors of
America’s leading journals the subject for constant
editorial writings — is worthy of more than passing
attention in an American educational institution, if
given any attention at all.
Good intent will not help to raise the standard of
JANUARY, 1924
Americanization from its present position at large
even if there is no intention on the part of anyone
concerned to deal with the matter somewhat super
ficially and in line with the erroneous view maintained
and expressed by an altogether too large proportion
of the native American people, that almost any kind
of an American method and standard ought to be
sufficient for work among the “foreigners.”
The chief reason that this standard in college in
struction on the subject should be adopted and scrupu
lously guarded by the authorities of advanced educa
tional institutions is primarily to be found in the
present common lack of knowledge among Americans
concerning the intellectual standards of other na
tions and peoples. True rating of values in inherent
qualities, culture and education is the first base to
successful Americanization. An American educated
to this point may safely proceed to help the foreign
born to find himself in America. He will never as
sume that the foreign born is totally ignorant and
illiterate because he never learned the English lan
guage. Such education in Americanization will never
be attained if the instructor assigned is by previous
educational training an engineer, a medical doctor or
a chemist, even a lawyer or a minister. In the East
ern centers where Americanization work has become
to a degree standardized, even social workers and
primary teachers for the foreign born are required
to take special courses of study before they are per
mitted to become teachers of the adult aliens. It
should therefore not entail any difficulty to see that
special preparation and recognized Americanization
training is necessary to prepare teachers and students
who desire thorough knowledge on the subject. These
are deemed essential requirements if we are to have
the intelligence in the work that will bring about a
deeper understanding among students how to estab
lish the contact that will be conducive to fit the alien
into his new associations and result in his complete
Americanization. Only the instructors who possess
thorough training, who have become familiar with
the aliens background, can render this service.
* .
*
*
If there is any doubt as to the correctness of this
analysis and how the erroneous rating of the aliens’
intellectual value, which frequently occurs, uninten
tionally, perhaps, reacts against the Americanization
of the foreign born, the following incident (which is
cited not by way of criticism, but only for the purpose
of illustration), may serve as a case in point:
A glaring headline over an article dealing with
books and literature in the public library of this city,
which appeared very recently in a magazine section
of the Sunday edition of one of Portland’s daily news
papers, conveyed this “double barreled” important
information: “Books for Bedridden, Feebleminded
and Foreign Born.”
The editor of that journal might not have approved
of a caption quite so blunt, but the fact that this
newspaper’s carefully trained and couched “headwrit
ers,” “capped” the inoffensive article off that way,
expressed probably unconsciously that newspaper’s
“leanings” regarding the “foreigners,” naturalized
Place Your Orders With The United American Advertisers—and Tell Them Why