For upon this change hangs the
answer to the question, which influence is to be strongest--ours upon
the foreigner or the foreigner's upon us.
_II. American Ideals_
[Sidenote: A Question for Patriots]
Surely this is a question to engage the attention of Christian
patriots--the influence of this vast mass of undigested if not
indigestible immigration upon the national character and life. A most
scholarly and valuable treatment of this subject is found in the
discriminating work by Professor Mayo-Smith, one of the very best books
written on the subject. The figures are out of date, but the principles
so clearly enunciated are permanent, and the conclusions sane and sound.
This is the way he opens up the subject we are now considering:
[Sidenote: The Marks of a High Civilization]
"The whole life of a nation is not covered by its politics and its
economics. Civilization does not consist merely of free political
institutions and material prosperity. The morality of a community, its
observance of law and order, its freedom from vice, its intelligence,
its rate of mortality and morbidity, its thrift, cleanliness, and
freedom from a degrading pauperism, its observance of family ties and
obligations, its humanitarian disposition and charity, and finally its
social ideals and habits are just as much indices of its civilization as
the trial by jury or a high rate of wages.
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