foreign-born and eighty per cent. of foreign birth or parentage), the
metropolis is predominantly foreign, and in elections the foreign vote,
shrewdly manipulated for the most part, controls. Nor is this true of
New York alone. In thirty-three of our largest cities the foreign
population is larger than the native; in Milwaukee and Fall River the
foreign percentage rises as high as eighty-five per cent. In all these
cities the foreign colonies are as distinct and practically as isolated
socially as though they were in Russia or Poland, Italy or Hungary.
Foreign in language, customs, habits, and institutions, these colonies
are separated from each other, as well as from the American population,
by race, customs, and religion.
[Sidenote: Failure in City Government]
To believe that this makes no particular difference so far as the
development of our national life is concerned is to shut one's eyes to
obvious facts. As such an impartial and intelligent student of our
institutions as Mr. James Bryce has pointed out, the conspicuous failure
of democracy in America thus far is seen in the bad government of our
great cities. And it is in these centers that the mass of the immigrants
learn their first and often last lessons of American life.
Pages:
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203