the stiletto; to the American, the
divorce court. And even when the immigrant thinks that he understands
us, he nevertheless does not do this completely. At the best he
interprets our cultural traditions in terms of his own. Actually the
situation is progressively redefined by the consequences of the actions,
provoked by the previous definitions, and a prison experience is
designed to provide a datum toward the redefinition of the situation.

It is evidently important that the people who compose a community and
share in the common life should have a sufficient body of common
memories to understand one another. This is particularly true in a
democracy, where it is intended that the public institutions should be
responsive to public opinion. There can be no public opinion except in
so far as the persons who compose the public are able to live in the
same world and speak and think in the same universe of discourse. For
that reason it seems desirable that the immigrants should not only speak
the language of the country but should know something of the history of
the people among whom they have chosen to dwell. For the same reason it
is important that native Americans should know the history and social
life of the countries from which the immigrants come.

It is important also that every individual should share as fully as
possible a fund of knowledge, experience, sentiments, and ideals common
to the whole community and himself contribute to this fund. It is for
this reason that we maintain and seek to maintain freedom of speech and
free schools. The function of literature, including poetry, romance, and
the newspaper, is to enable all to share victoriously and imaginatively
in the inner life of each. The function of science is to gather up,
classify, digest, and preserve, in a form in which they may become
available to the community as a whole, the ideas, inventions, and
technical experience of the individuals composing it. Thus not merely
the possession of a common language but the wide extension of the
opportunities for education become conditions of Americanization.

The immigration problem is unique in the sense that the immigrant brings
divergent definitions of the situation, and this renders his
participation in our activities difficult. At the same time this problem
is of the same general type as the one exemplified by "syndicalism,"
"bolshevism," "socialism," etc., where the definition of the situation
does not a