safety, security and conservatism, then the
Americanization of the foreigner should be slowed down in every way
possible. No encouragement should at this time be offered to the
foreigner to abandon his native language or religion or to change his
ethical or cultural standards.

On the other hand, every possible assistance should be given to Roman
and Greek Catholic priests, Orthodox rabbis and other such leaders in
maintaining and strengthening the traditional loyalties of their
various groups. Our Mohammedans--no negligible element in recent
immigration--should be encouraged to build mosques, to read the Koran
and to obey the various other requirements of their faith. Our public
libraries should provide themselves more liberally with books in
foreign languages. Foreign language lectures and speakers of all sorts
should be much encouraged. By such means and only by such means can
the spirit of unrest and disquiet be stilled and the spirit of
conservatism and contentment with the status quo be developed among our
foreign population.

It is a most curious popular misconception that peace and quietness and
respect for law and order can be developed in the foreigner by suddenly
and violently disturbing his mental life. Changing a man's language,
upsetting his moral and social conventions, altering his inherited
traditions of conduct, unsettling his ancestral faith--these are the
very best means possible for making him a disbeliever in all
established institutions, including those of the United States. Yet
this is precisely what "Americanization" aims to do with the best
intentions.

Let us take a specific illustration. It may perhaps be theoretically
desirable to bring our new immigrant to a realization of the crudity
and superstition of his Eastern Orthodox faith, and to be a lively
recognition of the superiority of American Protestantism. Practically,
it can be seldom done and the reason is simple. When a person has been
brought to realize the faults, imperfections, and limitations of a
traditional system of belief in religion, government or what not, he
inevitably applies his new critical attitude towards whatever system of
belief is offered to him as a substitute for the one he has been
encouraged to cast aside.

Most commonly the alternative system, being human, has serious faults,
imperfections and limitations of its own, which are easily enough
discoverable. The net result of very much conscientious m