barrier that shut out their own kinsmen.
Some Americans of the old stock still held to the idea that the United
States should continue to be an asylum for "the oppressed of the earth."
Many employers looked upon an increased labor supply as the means of
escaping what they called "the domination of trade unions." In the babel
of countless voices, the discussion of these vital matters went on in
town and country.

=Americanization.=--Intimately connected with the subject of immigration
was a call for the "Americanization" of the alien already within our
gates. The revelation of the illiteracy in the army raised the cry and
the demand was intensified when it was found that many of the leaders
among the extreme radicals were foreign in birth and citizenship.
Innumerable programs for assimilating the alien to American life were
drawn up, and in 1919 a national conference on the subject was held in
Washington under the auspices of the Department of the Interior. All
were agreed that the foreigner should be taught to speak and write the
language and understand the government of our country. Congress was
urged to lend aid in this vast undertaking. America, as ex-President
Roosevelt had said, was to find out "whether it was a nation or a
boarding-house."

=General References=

J.R. Commons and Associates, _History of Labor in the United States_ (2
vols.).

Samuel Gompers, _Labor and the Common Welfare_.

W.E. Walling, _Socialism as It Is_.

W.E. Walling (and Others), _The Socialism of Today_.

R.T. Ely, _The Labor Movement in America_.

T.S. Adams and H. Sumner, _Labor Problems_.

J.G. Brooks, _American Syndicalism_ and _Social Unrest_.

P.F. Hall, _Immigration and Its Effects on the United States_.

=Research Topics=

=The Rise of Trade Unionism.=--Mary Beard, _Short History of the
American Labor Movement_, pp. 10-18, 47-53, 62-79; Carlton, _Organized
Labor in American History_, pp. 11-44.

=Labor and Politics.=--Beard, _Short History_, pp. 33-46, 54-61,
103-112; Carlton, pp. 169-197; Ogg, _National Progress_ (American Nation
Series), pp. 76-85.

=The Knights of Labor.=--Beard, _Short History_, pp. 116-126; Dewey,
_National Problems_ (American Nation Series), pp. 40-49.

=The American Federation of Labor--Organization and Policies.=--Beard,
_Short History_, pp. 86-112.

=Organized Labor and the Socialists.=--Beard, _Short History_, pp.
126-149.

=Labor and the Great War.=--Carlton, pp. 282-306; Beard