e Race Problem.=--The difficulties of American democracy are
enormously enhanced by the race problem. If common problems are to be
solved, there must be common interests. The population needs to be
homogeneous, to be seeking the same ends, to be conscious of the same
ideals. Not all the races of the world are thus homogeneous; it would
be difficult to think of Englishmen, Russians, Chinese, South
Americans, and Africans all working with united purpose, inspired by
the same ideals, yet that is precisely what is expected in America
under the tutelage and leadership of two great political parties, not
always scrupulous about the methods used to obtain success at the
polls. It is rather astonishing that Americans should expect their
democracy to work any better than it does when they remember the
conditions under which it works. To hand a man a ballot before he
feels himself a part of the nation to which he has come, before he is
stirred to something more than selfish achievement, before he is
conscious of the real meaning of citizenship, is to court disaster,
yet in being generous with the ballot the people of America are arming
thousands of ignorant, irresponsible immigrants with weapons against
themselves.

The race problem of America is not at all simple. It is more than a
problem of immigration. The problem of the European immigrant is one
part of it. There is also the problem of the relation of the American
people to the yellow races at our back door, and the problem of the
negro, who is here through no fault of his own, but who, because he is
here, must be brought into friendly and helpful relation with the rest
of the nation.

345. =The Problem of the European Immigrant.=--The problem of the
European immigrant is one of assimilation. It is difficult because the
alien comes in such large numbers, brings with him a different race
heritage, and settles usually among his own people, where American
influence reaches him only at second hand. Environment may be expected
to change him gradually, the education of his children will modify the
coming generation, but it will be a slow task to make him over into an
American in ideals and modes of thinking, as well as in industrial
efficiency, and in the process the native American is likely to suffer
loss in the contact, with a net lowering of standards in the life of
the American people. To see the danger is not to despair of escaping
it. To understand the danger is the first