ing to the lack
of any public plan or measures for the distribution of the immigrants in
the country in the past the results have been astonishing. The Little
Polands, Italies, ghettos, Germanies, and others in our great industrial
centers are well known, though the word "Little" is not applicable in
every case. It is especially inapplicable where the compact immigrant
settlements exceed in numbers the largest cities of their home
countries. For instance, according to the last census figures, there
were in the city of New York more Italians (including their children)
than the population of Rome, more Germans than in Cologne, about as many
Irish as the population of Dublin and Belfast together, and about three
times as many Jews as there were in the British Empire.

All this is already known to the public at large. What is not popularly
known is the fact that there are foreign provinces in the agricultural
sections of the country. There whole counties and even a number of
neighboring counties are populated by immigrants of the same race and
nationality. Such provinces have become self-sufficient; they have their
own towns, their own schools, churches, industries, stores, select local
public officials of their own nationality, speak their own tongue, and
live according to the traditions and spirit of their home country.
These traditions and this spirit are kept alive by their schools,
churches, and libraries, and by the absence of any direct contact with
American customs and traditions. From such localities came a
considerable number of the American-born drafted men who could not
speak, write, or even understand English.

Such foreign provinces in the rural sections of the country are principally
found in the North Middle Western states and Western states. When the
writer, during his field investigation, arrived in such localities--for
instance, in the southwestern part of North Dakota--he found that the
townspeople, business men, and public officials, as a rule, understood
English, but spoke German or Scandinavian among themselves. In talking with
any man in the street the writer had to resort to the man's mother tongue,
while the farmers back in the country, as a rule, did not speak English at
all. Yet many of them were born in this country.

On the whole, the impression of the writer was that the larger the rural
immigrant colony, the less it showed evidences of American influences.
This was quite apparent in regard