Pacific Coast, the
immigrant is there. In nineteen of the northern states of our Republic
the number of the foreign-born and their immediate descendants exceeds
the number of the native-born. In the largest cities the number is two
thirds, and even three quarters. There are more Cohens than Smiths in
the New York directory. Two thirds of the laborers in our factories are
foreign-born or of foreign parentage. New England is no longer Puritan
but foreign. So is it in the Middle and the Central West, and not only
in city and town but hamlet and valley. The farms sanctified by many a
Puritan prayer are occupied to-day by French-Canadian and Italian
aliens. Foreigners are running our factories, working our mines,
building our railways, boring our tunnels, doing the hard manual labor
in all the great constructive enterprises of the nation. They are also
entering all the avenues of trade, and few other than foreign names can
be seen on the business signs in our cities large or small.

[Sidenote: Foreignism Preserved]

Not only do you find the foreigner, of one race or another, everywhere,
but wherever you find him in any numbers you note that the most
distinctive feature is the foreignism. The immigrant readily catches
the spirit of independence and makes the most of liberty. He is
insistent upon his rights, but not always so careful about the rights of
others. He is imitative, and absorbs the spirit of selfishness as
quickly as do the native-born. He is often unkempt, uncultured, dirty,
and disagreeable. He is also impressionable and changeable, responsive
to kindness as he is resentful of contempt. He follows his own customs
both on Sundays and week days. He knows as little about American ideas
as Americans know about him. He is commonly apt to learn, and very much
depends upon the kind of teaching he falls under. Much of it,
unfortunately, has not been of the kind to make the American ideas and
ways seem preferable to his own. Made to feel like an alien, he is
likely to remain at heart an alien; whereas the very safety and welfare
and Christian civilization of our country depend in no small degree upon
transforming him into a true American. 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