step in providing a
safeguard, and to this end exact knowledge of the situation should be
a part of the teaching of the schools. To seek a solution of the
problem is the second step. The main agency is education, but this
does not mean entirely education in the schools. Education through
social contact is the principal means of assimilating the adult; for
this purpose it is desirable that some means be found for the better
distribution of the immigrant, and as immigration is a national
problem, it is proper for the national government to attack that
particular phase of it. Then it belongs to voluntary agencies, like
settlements, churches, and philanthropic and educational societies to
give instruction in the essentials of language, civics, industrial
training, and character building. For the children the school provides
such education, but voluntary agencies may well supplement its secular
training with more definite and thorough instruction in morals and
religion. It cannot be expected that the immigrant problem will settle
itself; at least, a purposeful policy wisely and persistently carried
out will accomplish far better and quicker results. Nor is it an
insoluble problem; it is not even necessary that we should severely
check immigration. But there is need of intelligent and co-operative
action to distribute, educate, and find a suitable place for the
immigrant, that he may make good, and to devise a restrictive policy
that will effectually debar the most undesirable, and will hold back
the vast stream of recent years until those already here have been
taken care of.

346. =The Problem of the Asiatic Immigrant.=--The problem of the
Asiatic immigrant is quite different. It is a problem of race conflict
rather than of race assimilation. The student of human society cannot
minimize the importance of race heredity. In the case of the European
it holds a subordinate place, because the difference between his
heritage and that of the American is comparatively slight. But the
Asiatic belongs to a different race, and the century-long training of
an entirely different environment makes it improbable that the Asiatic
and the American can ever assimilate. Each can learn from the other
and co-operate to mutual advantage, but race amalgamation, or even a
fusion of customs of thought and social ideals is altogether unlikely.
It is therefore not to the advantage of either American or Asiatic
that much Asiatic immigration into the