" And not a few of these foreigners
sympathize with the Irishman who said to a lady against whom he had a
grievance because she insisted on having a Chinese servant, "We have a
right here that those who are here by the mere accident of birth have
not." On the other hand, it was a foreigner of wide vision who said: "I
do not believe there is any peculiar virtue in American birth, or that
Americans are (_per se_) superior to all other nations; but I do believe
that they are better fitted than all others to govern their own
country. They made the country what it is, and ought to have the first
voice in determining what it is to be. In this alone consists their
superiority."[31]
[Sidenote: The Immigration Conference of 1905]
It is significant and hopeful that men are thinking upon the subject.
What we want is full and fair discussion and thorough information.
Nothing is so perilous in a democracy as ignorance and indifference. It
is far better for men to disagree thoughtfully than to agree
thoughtlessly. What all patriotic and Christian men seek is the best
good of this country, which means so much to the whole world as the
supreme experiment of self-government. That the people are awakening was
shown by the Immigration Conference in New York in December of 1905,
when five hundred men, most of them appointed by their state governors,
gathered under the auspices of the National Civic Federation to discuss
the whole question of immigration.
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