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AMERICANS 

AN     IMPRESSION 


BY 

ALEXANDER    FRANCIS 


THOUGH  I  strive  anew 
Shadows  to  pursue, 
Shadows  vain 
Thou'lt  remain 

Within  my  heart. 

JOHN  OXENFORD. 


UNIVE-f 

OF 


OF 

- 


LONDON:    ANDREW   MELROSE 

3  YORK  STREET,  COVENT  GARDEN 

1909 


PER? 


TO 


THE  HON.   CLIFTON  R.  BRECKINRIDGE, 

WHO,   AS 

An  American  who  can  read,  in  the  early  history  of  America 
and  the  earlier  history  of  England,  the  story  of  his  own 
progenitors — 

A  Southern  Democrat  who  fought  for  individual  States'  Rights 
in  the  Inter-States'  War  and  in  later  years  represented  first 
his  own  State  in  Congress,  and  then  the  United  States 
(under  both  a  Democratic  and  a  Republican  Government) 
at  the  Russian  Court — and 

A  man  who,  in  private  and  public  life,  has  maintained  the  great 
traditions  of  a  historic  name, 

Illustrates  in  his  own  person  the  high  qualities  of  the  American 
people,  the  national  unity  of  the  United  States  of  America 
and  the  racial  unity  of  the  English  and  American  nations, 
Of  which,  inter  atia,  the  following  pages  treat, 

THIS  BOOK, 
In  token  of  gratitude  and  esteem, 

IS   INSCRIBED. 


n 


03889 


PREFACE 


THE  earlier  chapters  of  this  book  were 
written  in  America,  the  later  ones  in 
England  ;  and  all  were  revised  by  me  in  Russia, 
where  I  was  able  to  regard  the  two  English- 
speaking  nations  with  greater  detachment  than 
was,  perhaps,  possible  either  in  the  country  which 
is  my  own  or  in  the  country  which  is  my  theme, 
and  to  compare  Democracy,  as  it  is  exemplified 
in  England  and  America,  with  Autocracy,  which 
finds  its  most  notable  modern  instance  in  the 
Empire  of  the  Tsar. 

I  have  higher  appreciation  of  Russians  and 
Russian  institutions  than  most  observers  of 
them  seem  to  entertain — possibly,  because  they 
know  them  less  ;  yet,  my  sense  of  the  value  to 
a  people  of  a  democratic  government  has  been 
deepened  by  my  visit  to  America  and  my 
return  from  Russia  to  England.  The  criticism 
of  American,  and  inferentially  of  English, 
institutions  which  the  following  chapters 


viii  PREFACE 

contain  implies,  therefore,  not  depreciation  of 
democracy,  but  appreciation  of  the  need  of  a 
purer  form  and  wider  application  of  it  than 
even  the  most  democratic  governments  display. 

In  America,  as  has  seemed  to  me,  there  is  a 
drift  from  democracy  to  an  elective  despotism  ; 
and  that  I  regard  as  an  ominous  sign.  The 
election  of  Mr.  Taft  to  succeed  Mr.  Roosevelt 
as  President  may,  however,  unless  the  opinion 
that  I  have  formed  of  him  is  wide  of  the  mark, 
be  taken  as  a  guarantee  that  the  cure  of  the 
evils  of  the  democracy  will  be  sought  in  more, 
not  less,  Democracy.  Incidentally,  I  may  say 
that  what  I  have  written  upon  Socialism  in 
America,  I  had  written  before  the  Presidential 
election  had  taken  place ;  but  the  relative 
strength  of  political  parties  discovered  by  the 
polls,  does  not  make  necessary  any  modification 
of  the  views  which  I  had  ventured  to  express. 

I  regret  that,  being  removed  from  my  library 
and  my  notes,  I  am  unable  to  give  more  than 
the  titles  of  the  books  to  which  I  refer  in  the 
text. 

The  several  chapters  of  this  book  first  ap 
peared,  as  a  series  of  special  articles,  in  the 
London  Times  ;  and  I  have  pleasure  in  making 
grateful  acknowledgment  of  the  courtesy  of 
that  journal  in  allowing  me  to  issue  them  in 
their  present  form.  I  am  also  deeply  indebted 


PREFACE 


IX 


to  many  Americans,  officials  and  others,  for 
having  given  me  access  to  sources  of  informa 
tion,  and  especially  for  having  been  themselves 
as  an  open  book  for  me  to  read.  If  I  could 
hope  that  Americans  would  be  read  by  them, 
or  by  any  one,  with  a  moiety  of  the  interest 
with  which  Americans  have  been  read  by  me, 
it  would  be  with  less  misgiving  that  I  should 
send  forth  this  result  of  my  self-imposed  and 
most  pleasurable  task. 

CALCUTTA,  1909. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP. 

I.  THE  NATIONAL  TEMPER 


II.  AMERICA  AND  ENGLAND 18 

III.  NATIVES  AND  ALIENS 30 

IV.  THE  MAKING  OF  AMERICANS    ....  46 
V.  THE  JEWS            61 

VI.  RACIAL  PREJUDICES 79 

VII.  SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS 94 

VIII.  SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS  (continued)      .        .        .108 

IX.  EDUCATION 119 

X.  CO-EDUCATION 137 

XI.  SECULAR  EDUCATION 149 

XII.  COLLEGES  AND  CHARACTER       .       .        .        .159 

XIII.  COLLEGE  ATHLETICS 171 

XIV.  THE  COLLEGIATE  TASK 182 

XV.  COLLEGE  FRATERNITIES 192 

XVI.  SOCIAL  DISCONTENT 202 

XVII.  SOCIALISM 211 

XVIII.  SOCIALISM  AND  DEMOCRACY      ....  220 

XIX.  SOCIAL  PROGRESS 232 

APPENDIX  1 243 

»          II 245 

III 248 

INDEX 249 


AMERICANS 

CHAPTER    I. 
THE  NATIONAL  TEMPER. 

"  If  you  wish  success  in  life  make  Perseverance  your  bosom  Friend, 
Experience  your  wise  Counsellor,  Caution  your  elder  Brother,  and 
Hope  your  Guardian  Genius  " — ADDISON. 

False  traditional  Estimate  of  Americans — The  Charge  of 
Materialism— The  Era  of  Brag— Succeeded  by  excessive 
Self-Disparagement— The  Faith  of  the  original  Settlers— 
The  Test  of  national  Experience — The  present  popular 
Mood. 

I  VI  SI  TED  Americans  rather  than  America.  TO 
I  did,  indeed,  cross  and  recross  the  vast 
continent,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  cans~ 
Ocean  and  back  to  my  starting-point,  by  routes 
that  carried  me  over  enormous  distances,  in 
such  uninterrupted  convenience  and  comfort 
(the  promiscuous  sleeping-cars  notwithstand 
ing)  as  I  have  not  experienced  in  any,  although 
I  have  been  across  every,  other  continent  of 
the  world  ;  and  I  was  not  insensible,  I  trust, 


2  AMERICANS 

to  the  imposing  scenery  through  which  I 
passed.  But  traversing  America  was  merely 
the  necessary  means  to  meeting,  that  I  might 
know,  Americans,  which  was  my  constant  aim. 
For  I  would  fain  estimate  the  genius  of  the 
people  ;  and  how  could  that  be  known  other 
wise  than  through  knowledge  of  the  people 
themselves,  not  only  in  their  outward  actions 
but  also  in  their  inward  spirit,  in  their  dominant 
emotions  and  guiding  principles  as  well  as  in 
their  achievements  in  the  material  world  and 
the  daily  habits  of  their  social  life? 

Who  latest  attempts  this  task  has  the 
greatest  difficulties  to  overcome ;  for  the 
problem  increases  in  complexity,  and  becomes 
more  difficult  of  solution,  as  the  forces  of  the 
nation,  steadily  progressing  towards  some  far- 
off  divine  event,  daily  grow  in  energy  and' 
expand  in  range,  ever  differentiating  them 
selves  into  new  forms  and  advancing  in  the 
rapidity  of  their  interaction.  My  poor 
apparatus,  as  I  know  more  surely  than  any 
other,  can  measure  only  a  few  feet,  if  at  all, 
beneath  the  surface  of  this  fathomless  ocean 
which  many  have  sought  to  sound  ;  and  I  make 
no  pretence,  in  this  or  any  other  chapter,  to  do 
more  than  give  the  record  made  by  that 
instrument  at  such  depth  as,  here  and  there, 
it  may  have  reached. 


THE  NATIONAL  TEMPER         3 

Americans  are  pre-eminently  accessible,  and  —because, 
to  meet  them  requires  nothing  more  than  easy  easiiyUSh 
travel.  Their  houses  lie  open  to  one  another  met~~ 
and  the  road,  unenclosed  by  wall,  fence  of 
hedge,  as  if  in  token  of  the  neighbourliness 
and  friendliness  of  themselvesjl  and  during  the 
year  that  I  was  in  their  country  I  lived  literally 
chez  eux.  Excepting  a  fortnight  spent  in 
hotels,  my  home  was  with  professors  in  their 
residences,  with  students  in  their  "  fraternity " 
chapter-houses,  with  alumni  in  their  university 
clubs,  with  ministers  in  their  parsonages,  with 
social  workers  in  their  settlements,  and  with 
farmers  in  their  homes ;  and  at  the  moment  of 
writing  this,  although  under  my  own  flag,  I 
am  one  of  the  guests  of  an  American  who  has 
an  island  of  the  Canadian  Muskoka  Lakes  as 
his  summer  home.  The  strenuous  American 
at  work  is  a  familiar  sight,  but  I  have  had  the 
advantage  of  also  seeing  the  relaxed  American 
at  play ;  and  no  man  can  be  known  who  has 
not  been  seen  in  his  recreations  as  well  as  at 
his  tasks.  From  coast  to  coast  I  have  also  been 
in  touch  with  immigrants,  of  whom  I  shall  have 
much  to  say,  and  who,  while  in  process  of  trans 
formation  by  native  Americans,  are  exerting 
far-reaching  reactive  influence  upon  them. 

^ut^AmgQ^aS-ai^jQSge   easily  met   than  —They are 
JknownTv  Never   having  had  titles  of  nobility  known!17 


4  AMERICANS 

or  clearly  defined  class  distinctions  of  any  kind, 
they  have  not,  although  some  of  them  are 
striving  to  acquire,  the  haughtiness  and 
exclusiveness  with  which  Englishmen  are 
generally  charged,  and  which  are  probably  due 
in  England,  as  Coleridge  suggested,  not  to 
climate  or  natural  temper  but  to  the  encroach 
ments  of  classes  deemed  " lower"  on  classes 
deemed  "  higher,"  by  which  each  class  became 
nervous  and  jealous  in  the  general  communion. 
Yet  Americans,  like  other  people,  practise 
reticence  and  reserve ;  and,  more  than  other 
people,  they  are  other  than  they  seem  to 
undiscerning  eyes.  Without  intelligence, 
sympathy,  insight  and  breadth  of  view, 
observers  of  them  are  as  idols,  having  eyes 
but  seeing  not ;  and  the  traditional  estimate  of 
Americans  is  based  upon  the  impressions  of 
those  who,  having  merely  crushed  together 
several  partially  observed  facts  and  kneaded 
them  into  an  imperfect  generalisation  which, 
being  caught  up  by  a  violent  prejudice,  became 
a  false  theory,  have  spoken  and  have  been 
listened  to,  as  if  they  were  gods,  pronouncing 
judgment  upon  a  great  nation  which  they 
themselves  were  too  small  to  understand. 
Americans,  with  characteristic  good-humour, 
express  their  sense  of  this  weakness  of  ours  in 
V  the  story  of  one  of  us  who,  on  his  return  to 


THE  NATIONAL  TEMPER          5 

England,  reported  of  the  speech  of  Americans 
that  they  say  "  Where  am  I  at  ? "  when  we 
should  say  "  Where  is  my  'at?"  The  rebuke 
is  not  undeserved. 

I  am  painfully  aware  that  when  I  first  went  A  new 
to  America  I  was  under  the  influence  of  this  required- 
false  tradition  and  that,  in  consequence,  there 
was,  even  in  me  who  less  than  the  least  of  all 
critics  have  right  to  it,  that  "certain  condescen 
sion  on  the  part  of  foreigners  "  which  Lowell 
has  so  charmingly  described.  I  went  at  my 
own  instance,  to  satisfy  a  vagabond  curiosity 
and  under  no  promise  to  write,  provoked  partly 
by  the  contrast  between  Americans  as  I  had 
found  them  in  Europe  and  Americans  as  books 
declare  them  to  be  in  their  own  land.  And 
in  the  presence  of  the  people  and  their 
achievements,  after  living  intimately  with  them 
during  twelve  consecutive  months,  drinking  in, 
at  all  the  pores  of  my  mental  and  moral 
sensibilities,  the  signs  which  no  one  who  has 
any  habit  of  observing  men  with  open  heart 
as  well  as  open  mind  could  fail  to  discern,  I 
gained  a  new  estimate  of  the  people  whom 
I  "went  out  for  to  see."  I  shall  have  much 
adverse  criticism  to  offer  upon  certain  aspects 
of  their  municipal,  political,  commercial,  educa 
tional,  domestic  and  religious  life;  but,  at  least, 
I  shall  not  mistake  the  sea-foam  for  the  sea. 


6  AMERICANS 

—by  As  dense  as  most  foreigners'  ignorance  of 

Americans    A  A  .  ,     .  r 

them-        Americans   is  many   Americans    ignorance  of 
themselves ;    and   the    "  certain  condescension 
on     the     part     of    foreigners"     towards     all 
Americans  of  which  I  have  heard  many  com 
plaints,   is    equalled   by   the  condescension   of 
each  group  of  States  towards  all  other  groups 
in  the  United  States.     In  the  North-Western 
and  Western   States    I  have  seen   the  desert 
made  to  blossom  as  the  rose  before  my  eyes 
as   marvellously   as    I    have    seen    a    mango 
grow  from  seed  to  fruit  beneath  the  hand  of 
a   Hindu  juggler ;    and    the   settlers,    men   of 
English   stock   and  speech,   who  in  the  thick 
of    the     greatest     and     swiftest     battle    ever 
fought  with  Nature  in  her  wildest  mood  remain 
good-humoured,    hospitable    and    brave,    have 
spoken   to   me    of    the    Eastern    States    as  a 
small  world  of  little  men  who  are  doing  paltry 
tasks    in     mean    ways.       Previously,    in     the 
Eastern   States,    I    had  been  told  that,   when 
I    got   amongst   the   farmers  of  the   West,    I 
should  find  them  spending  all  their  energy  in 
planting  corn  to  feed  swine  for  sale,  in  order 
that  with   the  proceeds  they  might  buy  more 
land  on  which  to  plant  more  corn  to  feed  more 
swine,  in  order  to  get  more  money  to  buy  still 
more  land  on  which  to  plant  still  more  acres 
of  corn  to  feed  still  more  herds  of  swine. 


THE  NATIONAL  TEMPER          7 

These      charges,     brought     by     Americans  — ofThem- 
against   Americans,  are   but   new   forms   with se 
limited     application    of     the     old     charge     of 
materialism    which    has    been    long    brought 
against    the    entire    American   people   by    the 
Old  World,  and  which  was  not  disbelieved  by 
me  when  I  came,  in  much  fear  and  trembling, 
to    this    New    World.      Now,    however,    after 
visiting  Americans  in   all   parts  of  their  vast 
territory,    I    am    prepared    to    undertake    the 
defence  of  Americans  against  themselves,  and 
of  America  against  the  world   and  to  prove, 
when  occasion   shall    offer,  that  the  prevalent 
opinion   that   America   has  a  double   dose  of 
the  original   sin  of  materialism    is   the   result 
of  partial  observation  and  mistaken  judgment,^ 
and  is  due,  in  large  measure,  to  the  fallacious 
theory  that  a  people  which   has   proved  itself 
practical   and   efficient  in  handling   actualities 
must    needs    be    devoid    of    spiritual    vision, 
energy    and    power.       Undeniably,     there     is 
incessant   and    devouring    activity   in    all    the 
States  of  America,  except  the  Southern  which 
are  becoming  quickly  conformist  in  this  as  in 
other   respects.     Multitudes  of  Americans  are 
eager  for   gold  and   power   and   put   the  last 
things  first  and  the   first   things  last  in  their 
ambition  and  effort ;  and  the  prevalent  greed 
and   struggle   and   noise   tend  to  deafen   and 


8  AMERICANS 

deaden  their  highest  self  and  show  that  they 
live  at  the  periphery  of  their  being,  not 
knowing  where  its  axis  is.  It  is  also  un 
deniable  that,  as  a  people,  Americans  are 
not  as  highly  developed  in  their  rational 
and  artistic  capabilities  as  in  their  practical 
powers,  and  that  consequently  America  has 
not  yet  made  contributions  to  the  arts  and 
sciences  and  the  higher  intellectual  life  of 
the  world  commensurate  with  its  importance 
as  a  national  Power.  Mediocrity  triumphs. 
Commonness  prevails.  Yet  this  is  not  the 
whole  truth.  Beneath  the  surface,  it  is  found 
that  uniformity  does  not  really  exist.  Natural 
replace  artificial  differences  ;  and  there  exists, 
within  the  one  great  community,  a  vast  number 
of  smaller  communities,  each  having  its  special 
intellectual  and  moral  characteristics.  Further, 
it  has  to  be  said  that,  at  the  expense  of  the 
exceptional  it  may  be,  the  average  has  risen. 
The  mountains  have,  perhaps,  been  denuded, 
but  the  valleys  have  certainly  been  raised. 
Some  force  has  been  at  work,  raising  the 
whole  level  of  the  elwOora  votffj,ara,  the  ways 
of  thinking  and  feeling,  in  which  every  citizen 
grows  up.  To  see  things  in  their  beauty  is 
to  see  them  in  their  truth ;  and  this  is  the 
beautiful  thing  that,  in  America,  I  have  seen 
— the  deep  moral  foundations  on  which  alone 


THE  NATIONAL  TEMPER          9 

enduring  prosperities  rest,  in  this  divinely 
appointed  world.  The  whole  people,  more 
com^pletelyj_..p_erhaps,^than  any  other  people, 

^_  jiassjoifTS  justice;  "* 


devojdon_JgLJreedomj_  and    enthusiasm,, 
fajth^  generous  instincts   are  neither   the  root 

the  secular  spirit  makes  itself  so  apparent 
that  even  by  the  most  superficial  observer 
it  is  not  missed,  there  is  a  deeper  life  which 
has  suffered  no  permanent  evil  from  the  gusts 
of  commercial  passion  with  which  its  surface 
is  constantly  swept. 

The  boy  is  father  to  the  man ;  and  the  America 
modern  American  retains  as  his  deepest  traits  m^teriai- 
the  high  and  wholesome  ideals  of  the  original  istic~~ 
Colonial  settlers.  During  the  years  of  national 
growth,  the  inevitable  changes  have  not  been 
either  so  radical  or  so  swift  as  to  obliterate  all 
resemblances  in  the  American  Republic,  in  its 
essential  features,  to  the  simple  democracies 
of  English  Colonial  days.  Then,  there  was  a 
virile  intellectual,  moral  and  religious  life  that 
kept  all  other  interests  in  reasonable  subordina 
tion.  New  England  is  able,  and  never  forgets, 
to  boast  that  in  its  inception  it  was  "a  think 
ing,  not  a  trading  community,  the  arena  and 
mart  for  ideas."  Nor  did  the  Virginian  settlers 
go  to  America  merely  for  material  gain.^' 


io  AMERICANS 

They  were  attracted  by  the  romantic  and 
perilous  enterprise  of  laying  the  foundation 
of  a  new  commonwealth  across  the  sea ;  and 
in  their  task  they  had  the  high  hopes  and 
eager  sympathy  of  those  who  remained  in 
Old  England.  Those  settlers  built  up  the 
original  States ;  and  the  blood  of  New 
England  flows  in  the  veins  of  every  State 
to-day  and  largely  determines  the  character 
of  the  whole  American  people.  The  penetrat 
ing  influence  of  the  Puritan  idealism  is  felt  in 
every  part,  and  has  been  felt  in  every  crisis, 
of  the  national  life. 

It  is  the  rare  fortune  of  the  American  people 
that  in  their  formative  days  the  quick  moral 
and  religious  life  of  the  early  communities  left 
on  the  larger  life  of  the  nation  a  deep  impress 
which  has  never  been  effaced,  although,  as 
we  have  seen  and  yet  shall  see,  the  clear 
lines  of  its  beauty  have  been  broken  and 
confused.  By  a  process  which  has  aptly 
been  compared  to  that  of  physical  growth, 
the  living  body  of  institutions,  customs,  duties 
and  privileges  then  created  has  made  the 
vital  conditions  of  the  national  existence  of 
the  present  time.  Now,  as  then,  although 
not  as  consciously  as  then,  the  American 
people  build  upon  the  faith  that  God  is 
present  in  human  life.  Now,  as  then, 


THE  NATIONAL  TEMPER        n 

although  not  as  generally  as  then,  wealth 
is  made  the  means  of  quickening  the  higher 
feelings  and  faculties.  Now,  as  then,  and 
now  in  clear  recognition  of  the  harder  task 
than  was  then,  the  effort  is  made  to  guide 
life  in  clean  and  honest  ways  and  consecrate 
intellectual  as  well  as  material  resources  to 
wise  human  ends.  De  Tocqueville  regarded 
as  the  gravest  danger  that  threatened  a 
democracy,  the  complete  absorption  in  the 
pursuit  of  material  well-being  and  the  means 
of  material  well-doing,  to  the  disparagement 
and  disregard  of  every  ideal  consideration. 
Shades  of  this  prison-house  constantly  threaten 
to  close  in  upon  the  growing  nation.  But 
America  is  not  in  bondage  yet ;  and  less,  not 
greater,  materialism  has  marked  its  recent 
years. 

I  shall  be  more  restrained  than  Americans  —nor 
themselves  in  my  criticism  of  American  institu- 
tions.  They  are  freer  than  Englishmen  of  the 
shallow  official  optimism  that  refuses  to  see 
self-defects  and  of  the  false  patriotism  that  will 
not  acknowledge  such  defects  as  refuse  not  to 
be  seen.  TJietr^t^sgnl^f. m p e r ^ven_d IJSJTOSP.S 
them  to  excessive  self:disparagement ;  and,  in- 

__deed,  a  humbl^^^^a^^y^Y^^^^-^^I^^1 
their^  bluster  and  brag.  The  loud  depreciation 
of  themselves  that  is,  and  the  louder  appreciation 


12  AMERICANS 

of  themselves  that  was,  can  be  traced  to  a 
common  root.  It  is  easy  to  believe  that,  to 
wield  any  kind  of  influence  over  the  masses  of 
an  enormous  democratised  community  in  whom 
ultimate  power  lies,  an  individual  must  make 
his  expressed  opinions  much  more  pronounced 
than  his  inward  convictions.  Therefore,  when 
the  nation,  after  its  first  years  of  national 
inexperience,  which  were  characterised  by 
unreasonable  optimism,  was  in  danger  of 
growing  diffident  in  face  of  its  great  and 
increasing  responsibilities  and  tasks,  its  leaders 
made  conscious  exaggeration,  in  order  to 
maintain  the  nation  in  a  just  appreciation 
of  its  powers ;  and  the  people,  slow  to  see 
through  the  exaggeration,  were  quick  to  make 
it  their  own,  and  then  were  inevitably  driven 
to  spend  themselves  that  they  might  make 
sure  of  the  wealth,  and  to  throw  themselves 
into  violent  motions  that  they  might  make 
sure  of  the  powers,  which  they  had  been  told 
that  they  possessed.  By  this  process,  without 
gaining  the  assurance  that  they  sought,  they 
lost  the  secret  of  silence,  dignity  and  repose  ; 
and  more  than  ever  it  seemed  necessary,  in 
order  to  impress  the  people,  to  resort  to  noise 
and  effort,  to  act  and  effect.  Then  was  the 
era  of  brag. 
By  reason  But  when,  at  last,  the  evils  wrought  by 

of — 


THE  NATIONAL  TEMPER        13 

the  old  exaggeration  became  apparent  to 
a  few,  these,  in  order  that  they  might  be 
heard  by  the  many,  practised  new  exaggera-  —new 
tions  of  speech  and  act  in  a  direction  opposite  turns— ™~ 
to  the  old ;  and  the  unqualified  denunciation 
of  the  ills  of  the  body  politic  which  have  filled 
the  land  during  recent  years,  and  the  spec 
tacular  legislative  measures  proposed  as  a 
remedy,  have  had  so  potent  an  effect  upon 
the  popular  mind  that,  in  America,  bragging 
is  in  danger  of  becoming  a  lost  art.  Two 
distinguished  Oxford  professors  whom  I  met, 
one  in  New  England  and  the  other  in  Cali 
fornia,  said  to  me,  in  amazement  and  not  with 
out  regret,  that  during  many  weeks  spent  in 
the  country  they  had  not  heard  a  single  brag. 
My  experience  has  not  been  quite  as  happy 
as  theirs,  perhaps  because  I  have  gone  farther 
afield ;  but  candour  compels  me  to  say  that, 
in  America,  I  met  fewer  braggarts  than  I 
should  have  done  had  I  been  under  the  British  \% 
flag,  and  that  of  "  a  certain  condescension " 
I  saw  nothing  at  all.  For  Americans  are 
less  disposed  than  Englishmen  to  dwell  on 
and  exaggerate  their  own  national  virtues, 
or  to  weigh  them  by  the  opposite  vices  of 
foreigners  instead  of  by  the  virtues  which 
those  foreigners  possess  and  they  themselves 
lack. 


exces 
sive 


14  AMERICANS 

—not  "Boosters,"  indeed,  afflicted   me  every  day 

—men,  women,  and  children  who  have  pledged 
themselves  to  glorify  their  particular  States 
and  towns  in  the  hope  of  making,  by  calling, 
them  great.  In  the  West,  every  town  has  its 
"  Boosters'  Club "  whose  members  wear  a 
conspicuous  badge  ;  and  every  available  adver 
tising  spot  is  placarded  with  appeals  to  every 
inhabitant  to  "  Be  a  Booster" — and,  if  a  boast 

d 1 1 zen  will~"doubt 


t^hcUjhe^end--^ Tnthe 
village  of  Pecatonica,  Illinois,  a  man  was 
heard,  and  every  other  man  there  and  in 
every  other  American  village,  town  or  city 
may  any  day  be  heard,  solemnly  declaring, 
"  This  is  the  greatest  city  in  the  world  "  ;  and 
on  one  occasion,  when  I  foolishly  attempted  to 
"  boost  "  my  own  country  as  a  colonising  power, 
I  was  told  that,  perhaps,  there  was  a  civilising 
mission  for  England  in  such  parts  of  the  world 
as  America  might  not  ultimately  claim — and 
the  tone  was  as  solemn,  although  not  as 
sincere,  as  that  of  a  learned  Brahmin  in 
Benares  who  once  said  to  me  that  he  was 
willing  to  regard  Jesus  as  an  incarnation  of 
Vishnu  for  the  benefit  of  the  Western  world. 
But  all  this  loud  affirmation  is  always  with 
business  intent  and  rarely  without  a  saving 
sense  of  humour.  It  is  conscious  and  avowed  ; 


THE  NATIONAL  TEMPER        15 

it  is  naked  and  not  ashamed.  It  indicates  the 
essential  vigour  rather  than  the  vanity  of  the 
social  body.  It  shows  that  the  people  are 
progressing,  but  not  fast  enough  to  suit  their 
desire.  And,  in  the  grateful  sense  of  their 
exuberant  youth,  one  forgets  to  be  shocked 
by  the  lack  of  dignity,  refinement  and  restraint 
which  it  displays.  This  is  different  from  the 
national  boasting  with  which  America  is  uni 
versally  charged  and  which,  if  it  ever  was, 
no  longer  is ;  and  it  is  high  time  to  drop 
the  threadbare  gibe  that  Americans  are  a 
braggart  people. 

The  first  settlers  in  America  were  brought— but 
face  to  face  with  an  inspiring  vision ;  their 
hearts  beat  high  with  the  hope  of  a  new  social  fif1 
order ;  they  heard  the  challenge  of  liberty, 
equality  and  fraternity  ;  and  they  flung  them 
selves  with  transport  into  the  new  day  which 
seemed  to  them  to  have  dawned.  And  the 
remarkable  achievements  of  the  early  Puritans 
were  largely  due  to  their  sublime  faith  that 
New  England  was  charged  with  the  Divine 
mission  to  show  the  world  what  human  society 
might  be,  when  governed  by  constant  devotion 
to  the  revealed  law  of  God.  Soon,  shades  of 
the  prison-house  closed  in  upon  the  growing 
nation.  National  experience,  as  was  inevitable, 
modified  the  early  faith  ;  and  the  nation  would 


1 6  AMERICANS 

be   not  less,   but  more,   fitted   for   its   eternal 
task  if  it  were  merely  disciplined  and  chastened, 
and  if,  with  the  discovery  that   liberty  is  not 
a   pastime,   it   had   made  the  more  important 
discovery  that    liberty  has  greater  virtue  and 
value  on  that  account.     But,  in  the  difficulty 
—the        and  disaster  of  self-government,  the  splendid 
Mood!       vision   seems   to   have    fled   and    to    be    dis 
credited.     I  take,  almost  at  random,  an  article 
on  social  and  political  conditions  in  one  of  the 
popular  magazines,  and  in  this  sentence  I  find 
the  present   popular   mood  expressed :    "  The 
American    people   finds   itself    to-day   in    the 
position    of  a   man  with   a   dulled    knife   and 
broken  cudgel  in  the  midst  of  an  ever-growing 
circle  of  wolves."     This  temper  is  far  removed 
•  from  the  former  national  gaiety  of  heart  which 
the  nation,  still  young,  ought  still  to  possess 
and    must    regain    if    it    is    to    overcome    its 
confident    internal    foes.      The    worst    cause 
conducted   in   hope  is  ever  an  overmatch  for 
the  noblest  conducted  in  despondency  ;  and,  if 
it  could  be  done  without  impertinence,  I  should 
suggest    to   those   public  men  who   have   the 
national   welfare   at  heart   that   the   fact   that 
President  Eliot  of   Harvard  University,   Miss 
Jane  Addams  of  Chicago  Hull  House  Settle 
ment,  and  others  who  do  not  "  lift  up  the  voice 
or  cry  in  the  street,"  exert  wide  and  profound 


THE  NATIONAL  TEMPER        17 

influence,  indicates  that  America  still  has  an 
ear  to  hear  the  still  small  voice  when,  by  it, 
an~  enlightened  conscience,  an  informed  mind 
and  a  balanced  judgment  find  expression  in 
uhexaggerated  phrase. 


CHAPTER    II. 

AMERICA  AND  ENGLAND. 

"  Strong  Mother  of  a  Lion-line 
Be  proud  of  these  strong  sons  of  thine 
Who  wrenched  their  rights  from  thee  ! " — TENNYSON. 

Democracy  and  elective  Despotism — National  Conservatism — 
English  Characteristics  retained — Development  of  a  new 
human  Type — The  Master  Force  in  American  Civilisation 
— Common  Politeness — Sohrab  and  Rustum — English 
Pride  in  American  Achievements. 


An  T     ACK    of    democratic    confidence    shows 

ominous  ir     •         A 

Lack—  1  ^  itself,  m  America,  in  many  ways,  most 
obviously  although  perhaps  not  most  signifi 
cantly,  in  the  growing  fear  of  immigration  to 
which  I  shall  yet  have  occasion  to  refer.  The 
race  problem  is,  at  bottom,  a  character  problem. 
In  the  contact  and  conflict  of  different  national 
ities,  the  strongest  life  must  ultimately  prevail  ; 
and  the  influx  of  foreign  immigrants  which  now 
provokes  alarm  was  hailed  with  joy  when 
Americans  were  confident  that  the  issue  would 
be  decided  in  their  favour,  as  indeed  it  has 
hitherto  been,  by  the  superior  quality  of  the 
native  stock. 


i3 


AMERICA  AND  ENGLAND        19 

Still  more  ominous  is  the  modern  drift  to— as  at 
what  might  be  termed  an  elective  despotism. 
At  New  York  and  San  Francisco,  and  at  many 
points  between  these  geographical  extremes, 
Governors,  Mayors  and  Commissioners  have 
been  vested  for  a  term  of  years  with  larger 
powers  than  Englishmen  would  surrender  to 
any  individual,  however  worthy,  or  to  any 
Commissioner,  however  carefully  selected,  even 
for  a  day  or  an  hour.  "  The  cure  of  the  ills  of 
democracy  is  more  democracy  "  was  once  the 
American  shibboleth,  but  no  one  can  or  dares 
pronounce  it  unfalteringly  now ;  and,  as  the 
machinery  of  democratic  government,  groaning 
under  the  pressure  of  new  demands,  breaks 
down  in  any  of  its  parts,  the  attempt  is  made 
to  repair  it,  not  by  providing  a  more  vital  and 
genuinely  organised  expression  of  the  popular 
will,  but  by  giving  to  administrative  officers  more 
and  ever-increasing  power,  even  as  the  Romans, 
in  similar  stress,  were  wont  to  determine  that 
affairs  required  the  direction  of  an  absolute  power 
and  would  appoint  a  dictator  by  whom,  with 
steadiness  and  intrepidity,  it  should  be  exercised. 

I  attended  a  "  town  meeting,"  at  Wellesley  _0f  real 
Hills,   Massachusetts — a  New    England  town. 
As  completely  as  in  the  ancient  Greek  City- 
State   or   in  the   modern    Russian   mir,    pure 
democracy   was    in    action.       Every   item    of 


20  AMERICANS 

business,  great  and  small,  all  that  might  affect 
in  any  degree  any  individual  of  the  town,  from 
the  appointment  of  executive   officers   to   the 
naming  of  streets,  was  submitted  to  the  entire 
body  of  the  townsmen  for  decision   by  them 
selves.     It    was    democracy   as    it    once   was 
everywhere,  and  is  now  only  here  and  there,  in 
this  land.      I  should  be  the  last    man    in   the 
world  to  suggest  that  no  administrative  act  can 
be  truly  democratic  unless  the  people  en  masse 
assemble  to  initiate  and  approve   it.     Such   a 
doctrine  is  both  absurd  in  itself  and  the  reductio 
ad  absurdum  of  government,  as    I    heard  the 
President   of    Columbia    University   say   in   a 
vigorous  address  to  the  University  of  California, 
designed  to  prove  that  it  is  a  false,  spurious 
and  misleading  democracy  that  would  destroy 
efficiency  in  working  out  the  people's  policies 
by  insisting   that  all   the  people  shall  join   in 
A  cure      working   them   out.       But    that   is   also   false 
democracy    which,    from   fear   of    the    people, 
surrenders     popular  rights    to    Commissioners 
appointed  by  elected  officials  and  placed  beyond 
popular   control ;  and  this   is   what  is  seen  in 
America  to-day.      Massachusetts  will  serve  as 
well  as  any  other  State   to  illustrate  the   im 
potence  to  which  the  people  have  been  reduced. 
Complaints  were   made  of  gross   mismanage 
ment  of  the  prisons  of  that  State  :  for  the  press 


AMERICA  AND  ENGLAND       21 

in  America  retains  its  freedom  of  utterance, 
even  as  did  the  tribune  of  the  people  at  Rome 
under  the  dictatorship  appointed  by  the  people 
themselves.  But  upon  investigation  it  was 
found  that  the  prison  Commissioners  could  not 
be  reached  after  their  appointment  except  at 
the  trouble,  expense  and  delay  of  judicial  investi 
gation  ;  and  nothing  was  done.  This  system 
gives  great  power  without  proper  responsibility  ; 
it  tends  to  remove  the  people's  government 
from  the  people's  control ;  and  it  even  fails  to 
secure  efficiency. 

Yet   that,    if  it   be   a  democracy   at   all,    is— worse 

,  ...  .   .  -,   .  j.         than  the 

democracy  as  it  is  in  many  cities,  and  is  tending  disease- 
to  become  in  all.  It  is  an  attempt  to  cure 
the  ills  of  democracy  by  less  democracy.  It  is 
adopted  as  a  heroic  remedy  for  the  corruption 
of  the  "political  machine"  ;  and  for  a  time  it 
seems  to  succeed.  But  this  is  mere  seeming 
and  is  but  for  a  time.  The  effect  is  analogous  to 
that  sometimes  seen  in  a  sick  man  whose  mind, 
gaining  increase  of  vitality  from  a  new  hope  in 
a  fresh  mode  of  treatment,  sends  a  flush  of 
apparent  life  through  the  enfeebled  body,  even 
while  the  mind  collapses  and  death  creeps  on. 
It  is  neither  heroic  nor  remedial  to  disturb  the 
foundations  of  a  temple  in  order  to  repair  a 
rat-hole  in  the  wall ;  and  it  may  be,  as  has  been 
suggested,  that  the  corrupt  politician,  because 


22  AMERICANS 

he  is  democratic  in  his  methods,  is  on  a  more 
ethical  line  of  development  than  the  modern 
social  reformer  who  attempts  the  new  cure. 
Retrospect  This  retrograde  movement  is  likely  to  be 
Prospect,  continued,  at  an  accelerated  pace,  in  the 
immediate  future,  if  only  from  fear  of  the 
too  forward  movement  of  socialistic  and  other 
schemes  which  the  State  fears.  Americans  are 
impressionable  and  volatile  and  disposed  to  run 
to  extremes.  They  are  quick  to  take  up  new 
ideas  and  to  carry  them  to  their  utmost  extent. 
They  have  not,  nor  could  they  have,  the  long 
political  experience  which  instinctively  supplies 
counterpoises  to  partial  or  novel  impulses.  It 
may  be  that  their  crisp  and  varied  climate 
fosters  nervous  energy  at  the  expense  of 
physical  vitality  and  fits  them  for  sharp  rather 
than  sustained  effort,  for  action  rather  than 
endurance,  for  well-doing  rather  than  patient 
continuance  in  the  same.  In  the  long  and 
arduous  task  to  which  the  American  democracy 
is  committed,  will  the  endurance  of  the  future 
equal  the  splendid  energy  of  the  past  ?  That 
is  really  the  question  that  was  raised  by  the 
Secretary  of  State,  Mr.  Elihu  Root,  when  he 
recently  impressed  upon  the  students  at  Yale 
University  that,  while  democracy  has  proved 
successful  under  simple  conditions,  it  remains 
to  be  seen  how  it  will  stand  the  strain  of  the 


AMERICA  AND  ENGLAND       23 

vast  complication  of  life  upon  which  the  country 
is  now  entering. 

Of  the  answer,  no  one  who  knows  the  Origin- 
American  character  can  have  serious  doubt. 
These  movements  which  I  have  noted,  greatly 
as  they  have  affected  the  surface  of  American 
life,  still  remain  superficial.  Americans,  as 
well  if  not  as  obviously  as  Englishmen,  have 
solidity,  doggedness  and  tenacity — the  qualities 
that  make  them,  as  all  competent  observers 
have  found  them,  essentially  conservative. 
They  are  still,  as  they  were  described  by  Mr. 
Bryce,  like  a  tree  whose  pendulous  shoots 
quiver  and  rustle  with  the  lightest  breeze,  while 
its  roots  enfold  the  rock  with  a  grasp  which 
storms  cannot  loosen.  America  evinces  its 
English  origin  in  nothing  more  clearly  than  in 
a  temper  of  mind  at  once  courageous  and 
cautious,  strong  in  serious  hopes  and  free  from 
illusions,  faithful  to  the  best  traditions  of  our 
common  forefathers  yet  not  bound  in  subjection 
to  them  but  rather  pressing  forward  to  those 
high  ends  towards  which  they  and  we  work 
together.  To  meet  difficulties  as  they  arise 
rather  than  by  foresight,  to  learn  by  hard 
experience  rather  than  by  reflection  or  pre 
meditation,  to  care  more  for  dull  precedents 
than  for  brilliant  intuitions,  to  make  progress 
by  feeling  a  way  softly  step  by  step  rather  than 


24  AMERICANS 

by  projecting  a  way  boldly  with  the  easy 
assurance  of  abstract  reasoners — these  qualities 
with  their  defects,  or  these  defects  with  their 
qualities  are  American,  as  well,  although  not  as 
completely,  as  English  traits. 

The  American  is,  indeed,  other  than  an 
Americanised  Englishman.  He  is,  as  he 
claims  to  be,  a  new  man.  No  one  who  has 
lived,  as  I  have,  in  Australia  and  South  Africa 
as  well  as  in  America,  can  fail  to  realise  that 
the  American,  in  a  sense  which  does  not  apply 
to  British  colonists,  has  been  made  over  into  a 
'  new  man  by  the  new  mode  of  life  which  he  has 
embraced,  and  the  new  Government  which  he 
obeys,  in  his  new  land — a  man  who  acts  upon 
new  ideas,  new  principles  and  new  prejudices 
in  the  new  world  which  he  has  made  his  own 
— a  man  in  whom  the  climate  and  other  potent 
factors  of  his  new  physical  environment  have 
wrought  a  new  physiological  type,  while  the 
more  subtle  influences  of  a  new  continent, 
which  he  has  had  almost  to  himself  and  in 
which  he  has  long  been  kept  practically  free 
from  contact  and  entanglement  with  the  Old 
World,  were  producing  a  type  intellectually 
and  morally  new. 

_0f  Yet  the  master-force  in  American  civilisation 

Americans.  ^    been>    and    ^    fae    Anglo-Saxon    spirit 

derived  from  the  English  settlers  who  colonised 


AMERICA  AND  ENGLAND       25 

the  New  World.  The  greatest  migration  of 
historic  times  has  been  to  America  from  all  the 
other  nations  of  the  world  ;  but  the  extreme 
preponderance  of  the  English  stock  in  America 
up  to  1850  made  a  centre  of  influence  that  has 
proved  irresistible  in  moulding  into  its  likeness 
all  subsequent  settlers.  Never  was  such  an 
absorbing  and  transforming  power  as  the 
English  race  domiciled  in  America,  speaking 
the  English  language,  possessing  the  English 
moral,  legal  and  political  ideals,  and  developing 
the  precedents  of  English  freedom.  In  con 
sequence,  the  new  American  has  the  old 
English  dislike  of  great  schemes  and  of  heroic 
remedies  and  of  actions  which  are  destructive 
of  a  complex  civilisation  ;  and  in  America,  as  in 
England,  freedom  is  broadening  slowly  down 
from  precedent  to  precedent  and  will  prove  en 
during  because  broad  based  upon  the  people's 
will.  And  now  that  America,  like  England, 
impelled  by  the  Zeitgeist,  greatest  of  all 
revolutionaries,  whose  force  no  bulwarks  we 
may  raise  can  resist,  has  been  swept  into  the  — asRoose- 
general  colonising  movement  from  which  she  cent Vaise 
so  long  stood  apart,  and  there  has  devolved  ^leE^glish 
upon  her  as  upon  England,  by  an  inevitable  ?n^.ia 
sequence  of  causes,  responsibility  to  the 
national  conscience  and  to  history  —  the 
supreme  earthly  judge  of  human  actions — for 


26  AMERICANS 

peoples  in  moral  and  political  infancy,  it  is 
probable  that  a  common  task  and  common 
responsibilities  will  tend  to  fuller  mutual 
comprehension  and  closer  fellowship — perhaps 
even  to  conformity  to  a  common  type — of 
these  two  nations  with  whom  the  future  of 
Imperial  democracy  now  rests. 

American       A  wit  who  does  not  lack  wisdom  has  said 
Manners- that    the    Engjish    jove    Americans    but    not 

America,  and  the  Americans  love  England  but 
not  the  English ;  and  I  am  afraid  that  I  must 
testify  to  having  discovered  in  many  Americans 
a  prejudice  against  me  as  an  Englishman, 
which  had  to  be  overcome.  It  was  not  often 
made  plain ;  for  Americans  take  rank  with 
the  polite  peoples  of  the  world.  They  are  not, 
indeed,  as  careful  as  Europeans,  they  are  even 
much  less  careful  than  British  colonists,  to 
observe  the  gradations  of  conventional  polite 
ness  according  to  rank,  age  and  station ;  and 
I  must  confess  that  sometimes  I  have  been 
foolishly  disposed  to  resent  a  certain  ease  and 
familiarity  of  bearing  and  manner  and  tone  on 
the  part  of  men  in  positions  which,  being 
classified  as  "  inferior  "  in  other  countries,  are 
accepted  there  as  involving  an  obligation  of 
particular  deference  to  the  members  of  a 
" superior"  class.  But  this  pettiness  passed  as 
wider  experience  brought  the  discovery  of  a 


AMERICA  AND  ENGLAND       27 

new  and  more  genuine,  because  more  inclusive, 
politeness :  human  and  general,  rather  than 
individual  and  relative  to  persons.  It  may  be 
that  there  is  less  courtesy  in  America  than  in 
Europe — that  the  aesthetic  delicacy  and  distinc 
tion,  the  urbanity  and  suavity,  all  that  makes 
the  charm  of  the  aristocratic  cultivation  of  the 
Old  World,  is  lacking  in  the  New  World.  I 
do  not  dare  to  deny,  and  I  do  not  need  to 
assert  this  :  have  I  not  heard  it  asserted  by 
Americans  in  New  York  and  Chicago  who  are 
laboriously  striving  to  create  a  society  which 
shall  have  these  inestimable  qualities  ?  But, 
certainly,  common  politeness,  as  I  have  said,  is 
more  human  and  general  in  America  than  in 
any  other  land.  This  is  due  to  the  wide, 
although,  of  course,  far  from  universal, 
acceptance  of  personality  as  superior  to  all  — 
accessory  attributes,  such  as  rank  and  power  American 
or  even  wealth,  and  as  constituting  what  ism 
essentially  real  and  intrinsically  valuable ;  so 
that  to  every  person  respect,  and  to  all  persons  x/ 
equal  respect,  is  shown.  This  is  the  distin 
guishing  feature  of  American  life.  It  stamps 
the  country  as  a  democracy,  in  fact  as  well  as 
in  name ;  it  makes  it,  what  it  calls  itself, 
"  God's  Country,"  for  the  common  man  as  also 
for  the  uncommon  who  remains  sufficiently  a 
man ;  and  it  gives  an  unquestionable  sense  of 


28  AMERICANS 

personal  dignity  and  a  distinction  of  personal 
bearing  to  the  ordinary  man. 

But,  in  spite  of  the  invariable  politeness  of 
Americans,  some  traces  of  their  prejudice 
against  Englishmen  can  be  discerned.  It  has 
been  created  by  a  certain  tone  of  superiority 
over  Americans  which  Englishmen  un 
consciously,  and  therefore  all  the  more 
impertinently  and  offensively,  have  assumed. 
But  amongst  all  classes  of  Americans,  not 
excluding  even  the  Americanised  immigrants 
from  elsewhere  than  England,  there  exists  a 
deep  and  noble  desire  which  finds  expression 
in  many  forms,  sometimes  pathetic  but  always 
dignified,  that  the  Mother  Country,  whether 
or  not  she  admires  and  loves,  should  know, 
understand  and  comprehend  her  offspring  of 
the  West.  It  may  even  be  that  some  of  the 
most  hotly  contested  differences  and  disputes 
of  America  with  England  find  an  explanation 
in  this  desire  :  to  use  a  poem  of  Matthew 
Arnold's  by  way  of  illustration,  Sohrab 
challenges  his  father  Rustum  in  the  hope  that, 
by  some  gallant  action,  he  may  be  recognised 
as  a  worthy  son.  Few  traces  are  now  found 
of  the  habit,  that  once  prevailed,  of  branding 
as  servile  and  un  -  American  the  natural 
susceptibility,  the  English  instinct,  of  a 
people  of  English  descent.  That  habit  grew 


AMERICA  AND  ENGLAND       29 

patriotically  out  of  old  contentions  with 
England,  and  politically  out  of  a  desire  to 
conciliate  the  Irish- American  vote.  But  there 
are  some  faults  which  require  quiet  and  leisure 
for  their  growth  and  education ;  and  in 
America — it  is  one  of  the  great  compensations 
of  her  strenuous  life — there  is  everything  that 
can  force  a  man  out  of  a  narrow  sensitiveness, 
out  of  brooding  thoughts,  out  of  vanity  and 
egotism.  No  American  now  thinks  to  prove 
the  purity  of  his  patriotism  by  flouting  the  land 
in  which  he  has  a  legitimate  right,  or  of 
spurning  any  of  his  just  hereditary  share  in 
the  great  traditions  of  his  ancestral  country. 
And  Englishmen  are  increasingly  realising 
and  taking  parental  pride,  if  not  even  claiming 
a  parental  share,  in  the  achievements  of  the 
great  and  independent  nation  that  has  sprung 
from  their  loins.  For  myself,  I  confess  that 
the  achievements  of  Americans,  when  I  reflect 
that  they  are  those  of  my  own  race,  quicken 
in  me  such  intensity  of  feeling  that  I  have 
consciously  to  strive  constantly  for  the  impartial 
mind,  without  which  anything  that  I  might 
write  would  be  a  tinkling  cymbal,  if  it  were 
not  sounding  brass. 


CHAPTER    III. 

NATIVES  AND  ALIENS. 

"  But  Thy  most  dreaded  instrument 

Is  working  out  a  pure  intent." — WORDSWORTH. 

A  new  Terminology — Its  Significance — A  prolific  Race — Vital 
Statistics  —  Reinforcement  or  Replacement  ?  —  The  new 
Alien — Heterogenity  and  Destiny — Heredity  and  Environ 
ment  as  Factors  of  Nationality — A  grave  Problem. 

The  old—  TT  THEN  travelling  in  India  some  years 
V  V  ago,  I  discovered  that,  in  order  to 
have  a  conscience  void  of  offence  towards 
native  Indians,  it  was  necessary  to  address  them 
never  as  "  natives,"  but  always  as  "  Indians," 
the  former  term,  for  obvious  although  incon 
clusive  reasons,  being  held  to  imply  a  slight. 
In  America,  however,  in  order  to  be  all  things 
to  all  Americans,  I  found  it  expedient  to  style 
them  "  natives,"  even  those  who  had  no  strict 
right  to  the  term  in  which,  in  this  instance, 
a  compliment  is  held  to  be  implied.  Those 
who  have  been  born  in  America  are  classified 
as  "  native-born  "  and  call  themselves  "  natives," 

in  distinction  from  aliens  who  were  "foreign- 

30 


NATIVES  AND  ALIENS  31 

born."  The  natives  proper,  however,  are  the 
American  Indians,  all  others  being  the  de 
scendants  of  comparatively  recent  immigrants  ; 
and  the  new  terminology  illustrates  the  extent 
to  which  Indians  have  passed  out  of,  and 
immigrants  have  come  into,  the  national 
consciousness. 

The  original  proprietors  and  occupiers  of —and  the 
the  New  World  were  ever  present  to  the  mind 
of  the  original  immigrants.  They  were  only 
250,000,  all  told ;  but  they  were  settled  where 
the  new  settlers  wished  to  be — on  the  banks 
of  rivers  where,  the  land  being  fertile,  their 
bread  as  well  as  their  water  was  sure.  Thus, 
the  then  immigrants  were  constantly  face  to 
face,  often  in  hand-to-hand  conflict,  with  the 
then  natives  who,  relatively  to  the  invaders, 
were  a  great  multitude.  There  are  still  250,000 
Indians  in  America.  But  relatively  to  the 
80,000,000  to  which  their  supplanters  have 
grown  they  are  as  nought ;  and,  as  they  live  in 
remote  "  Reservations "  and  are  rarely  seen 
by  others  than  themselves,  they  are,  by 
these  others,  forgotten  or  ignored.  Thus  the 
descendants  and  successors  of  the  seventeenth- 
century  immigrants  have  become  the  natives  of 
to-day  ;  and  lo !  the  new  native,  who  was  the 
immigration  problem  to  the  Indian,  finds  the 
new  immigrant  a  problem  to  himself. 


32  AMERICANS 

AQuestion  I  was  told  in  England  that  I  should  be 
e<  amused  in  America  by  the  incredible  numbers 
of  the  people  who  claim  to  be  in  direct  line  of 
descent  from  the  original  English  settlers ;  and 
I  am  not  sure  that  I  did  not  anticipate  indul 
gence  in  some  pleasantries  at  their  expense. 
But  now  that  everywhere  in  America  and 
especially  in  New  England  I  have  found  the 
number  of  these  claimants  to  be  even  greater 
than  I  had  been  led  to  expect,  I  am  not  in 
credulous  ;  and  therefore  I  am  not  amused  and 
have  not  one  jest  or  gibe  with  which  to  enliven 
this  page.  For  the  original  colonists  were, 
beyond  all  precedent,  a  prolific  race.  They 
numbered  only  21,000  in  the  year  1640,  when 
increase  by  immigration  practically  ceased,  not 
to  be  resumed  to  any  appreciable  extent  till 
1830;  yet  between  these  years  the  population 
grew,  chiefly  by  natural  increase,  to  nearly 
13,000,000 — a  rate  unparalleled  in  history,  even 
after  allowance  has  been  made  for  such  im 
migration  as  was  maintained.  And  compara 
tively  recently  it  was  estimated  that,  of  the 
entire  population  spread  over  the  United  States, 
every  third  person  could  legitimately  read  in 
the  history  of  the  first  New  England  settlers 
the  history  of  his  own  progenitors.  Were  I  an 
American,  I  should,  in  the  pride  of  lineage, 
assume  and  maintain  until  it  had  been  disproved 


NATIVES  AND  ALIENS  33 

that  I  was  included  in  the  " every  third"; 
unless,  indeed,  I  claimed  descent  from  the 
settlers  of  Virginia,  who  did  not,  it  is  true,  in 
crease  and  multiply  as  mightily  as  the  settlers  in 
New  England,  but  who  yet  were  not  altogether 
heedless  of  the  invocation  addressed  to  them 
by  the  English  poet  Michael  Drayton,  who 
bade  them — 

"...  in  regions  far, 
Such  heroes  bring  ye  forth 

As  those  from  whom  we  came  ; 

And  plant  our  name 
Under  that  star 

Not  known  unto  our  north." 

In  1830  the  new  immigration,  if  it  did  not  vital 
then  begin,  did  at  least  assume  serious  pro- Statistics- 
portions.  But  where  immigration  abounded 
population  did  not  much  more  abound.  On  the 
contrary,  in  1830  the  rate  of  the  natural  increase 
of  population  began  to  decline ;  and  ten  years 
later,  in  1840,  although  during  that  period 
2,500,000  aliens  had  come  to  America,  the 
total  number  of  people  in  the  country  was  no 
greater,  or  greater  by  less  than  10,000,  than  it 
would  have  been  without  the  immigrants  if 
only  the  previous  rate  of  natural  increase  had 
been  maintained.  It  is  even  claimed  that 
statistics  show  that  this  decline  declared  itself 
first  in  those  regions,  in  those  States,  and  in 
the  very  counties  into  which  the  foreigners 
3 


34  AMERICANS 

most  largely  entered ;  and  the  conclusion  has 
been  drawn  that  by  the  great  immigration  the 
native  population  has  really  been  replaced  by 
the  immigrants  by  whom  it  is  generally  sup 
posed  to  have  been  reinforced. 
An  alien  To  reckon  up  all  the  concurrent  causes  of 

Influence.      «         i      «•  ri  •         i  •     1  i 

the  decline  of  the  native  birth-rate  at  that  time, 
it  would  be  necessary  to  write  the  economic 
and  social  history  of  the  American  people 
during  several  decades — a  task  which  is  as 
far  above  my  abilities  as  it  is  beyond  my 
present  scope.  I  understand,  however,  that 
ordinarily  population  increases  inversely  to 
its  density,  and  that  therefore  the  influx  of 
2,500,000  aliens,  congested  in  towns  as  they 
were  apt  to  be,  may  well  have  been  one  of 
the  factors  in  the  decline.  But,  on  the  other 
hand,  if  the  aliens  had  not  come,  and  if,  as  is 
contended  would  have  been  the  case,  an  equal 
or  greater  number  of  natiy.es  had  therefore 
been  born,  these  would  have  increased  the 
density,  and  then  would  have  diminished  the 
subsequent  increase,  of  population.  It  may, 
however,  be  fairly  contended  that,  in  this  latter 
case,  the  decrease  would  have  been  less  than 
it  actually  has  been.  The  aliens  emphasised 
social  distinctions,  and  the  social  factor  is  as 
powerful  as  the  economic  in  determining  the 
rate  of  population  ^  and  in  a  community  which 


NATIVES  AND  ALIENS  35 

has  groups  with  different  social  standards, 
prudential  restraint,  if  practised  at  all,  will 
be  exercised  by  the  group  which  has  the 
standard  to  maintain.  The  natives,  not  the 
aliens,  were  that  group. 

The  aliens,  doubtless,  both  reinforced  and  i 
replaced.  And  at  that  period  reinforcement  statistics. 
was  a  necessity,  while  such  replacement  as 
occurred  was  even  less  serious  in  its  effect 
than  in  its  extent.  For  immigration  then, 
was  chiefly  of  races  which,  in  habits,  institu 
tions  and  traditions,  were  kindred  to  the 
original  colonists;  and  down  to  1875  no  other 
immigration  was  sufficiently  numerous  to  have 
any  effect  on  the  national  characteristics.  A 
minister  of  religion  in  the  Mid-West,  writing 
of  his  pastoral  work,  records  that  he  would  in 
one  day  eat  breakfast  with  a  brawny  Canadian, 
visit  a  school  taught  by  a  Frenchman,  call  on 
a  district  director  who  spoke  the  dialect  of 
Hans  Breitman,  and  take  supper  with  an 
Englishman  who  said,  after  the  fashion  of 
his  native  Warwickshire,  "not  far  from  we." 
The  next  day,  he  would  take  his  morning  meal 
with  a  Scotch-  Irishman,  visit  a  school  taught 
by  a  lady  from  Alabama,  receive  a  call  from 
a  district  officer  who  was  once  a  Welsh  sea- 
captain  and  remained  a  Welshman,  inquire  the 
way  of  a  Dane,  and,  losing  it,  soon  inquire 


36  AMERICANS 

again  of  a  Swede,  and  finally  would  sleep  with 
a  New  York  politician.  All  those  foreigners 
were  his  racial  kinsmen ;  and  their  minister 
reports  that  easily  and  speedily  they  were 
transformed  to  the  American  type.  But  since 
1875,  there  has  been  a  change  which  an  in 
creasing  number  of  thoughtful  Americans  con 
template  with  grave  misgivings.  Last  year 
1,200,000  aliens  settled  in  America — the  largest 
number  ever  received  by  any,  even  by  this, 
country  in  a  single  year.  And  whereas  in 
1865,  56  per  cent,  of  the  immigrants  came 
from  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  32  per  cent, 
from  Germany,  and  2  per  cent,  from  Scandi 
navian  countries — that  is,  90  per  cent,  from  the 
Teutonic  group — and  only  a  fraction  of  i  per 
cent,  each  from  Austria- Hungary,  Italy  and 
Russia,  the  proportion  last  year  was  13  per 
cent,  from  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  and 
6  per  cent,  from  Scandinavian  countries,  while 
27  per  cent,  came  from  Austria- Hungary,  22 
per  cent,  from  Italy,  and  18  per  cent,  from 
Russia. 

National  These  immigrants  provide  cheap  labour  and 
are  found  everywhere,  although  especially  in 
large  cities,  doing  " menial"  work  which,  being 
restricted  to  aliens,  has,  even  in  this  democracy, 
come  into  some  contempt.  It  is  curious  to 
hear,  in  the  Northern  States,  arguments  for  the 


NATIVES  AND  ALIENS  37 

introduction  of  immigrants  that  were  used  in 
the  Southern  States  for  the  introduction  of 
negro  slaves ;  and  just  as  in  the  South,  owing 
to  the  negroes  there,  one  race  has  withdrawn 
itself,  socially  and  politically,  from  the  other, 
so  in  the  North,  owing  to  the  immigrants 
there,  society  is  beginning  to  experience  a 
social  stratification  which  is  tending  to  break 
up  its  former  homogeneity.  There  are,  indeed, 
in  America  little  Russias,  little  Italys,  little 
Syrias,  and  great  Jerusalems — vortex  rings  of 
nationality — closed  to  the  outside  medium  in 
which  they  live  ;  and  the  remarkable  American 
ising  process,  of  which  I  have  spoken,  has 
had  its  best  results,  it  must  be  confessed, 
rather  in  opening  fuller  intercourse  within 
these  several  racial  groups  than  in  relating 
them  to  the  American  element  in  the  popula 
tion,  so  that  America,  politically  a  federal 
union,  is  tending  to  be  that  also  in  its  racial 
character  and  its  type  of  civilisation.  Now, 
a  State  is  strong  in  proportion  to  the  number 
of  ties  operating  to  hold  it  together ;  and  the 
great  natural  ties  are  community  of  race,  of 
language,  of  religion  and  of  sentiment  or 
historical  association.  In  Australia  I  once 
heard  a  clergyman  impress  upon  his  congrega 
tion  that,  taking  history  as  a  whole,  the  nations 
which  have  left  the  greatest  mark  in  religion, 


38  AMERICANS 

art  and  literature,  such  as  Judsea,  Greece, 
Rome,  England,  Germany  and  France,  were, 
at  the  time  of  their  greatness,  essentially 
homogeneous  ;  and  Australians,  with  rare  ex 
ceptions,  believing  that  national  decadence  has 
always  followed  the  mixture  or  dispersal  of 
races,  concur  in,  or  rather  compel,  legislation 
which  is  intended  to  exclude  foreigners  from 
the  Commonwealth.  Americans,  however,  have 
long  held  that  their  country  proves  its  greatness 
by  the  presence  within  it  of  so  many  diverse 
races,  and  that  by  the  ultimate  result  of  these 
multitudinous  factors  the  national  greatness 
will  be  enhanced.  But,  within  recent  years, 
this  assurance  has  become  less  sure ;  and  I 
have  met  many  Americans  who  fear  that,  by 
the  great  increase  of  foreign  immigrants  of 
all  nationalities,  there  may  have  been  a  distinct 
lessening  of  the  national  powers  of  cohesion 
and  resistance,  through  the  weakening  of  the 
ties  by  which  alone  great  aggregations  of 
human  beings  can  be  bound  together  in  a 
State. 

The  old         The   new    immigrants   differ,    not    to    their 

new  im-    advantage,  from  the  old  in  respect  of  physique 

migrants.   an(j  personal  qualities  as  well  as  in  racial  type. 

Previously  the  physical   discomforts,  the  hard 

labour,  and  the  isolated  lives  that  immigrants 

had   to  endure  in  America  deterred   such   as 


NATIVES  AND  ALIENS  39 

were  not  vigorous,  ambitious  and  alert ;  but 
now  the  alien  goes  as  an  adventurer  eager  to 
take  advantage  of  a  widely-heralded  national 
prosperity  in  which,  he  is  led  to  believe,  he 
can  easily  share.  Fifty  years  ago,  when  it 
required  energy,  prudence,  and  foresight  to 
accumulate  the  necessary  means  to  cross,  and 
to  find  the  way  across,  the  Atlantic,  it  was 
a  rightful  presumption  regarding  the  average 
immigrant  that  he  was  amongst  the  most 
thrifty  members  of  the  nation,  whichever  it 
was,  from  which  he  came.  But  to-day,  as  was 
pointed  out  by  the  late  Dr.  Francis  A.  Walker 
when  he  was  Superintendent  of  the  United 
States'  census,  this  presumption  is  completely 
reversed — "so  thoroughly  has  the  Continent 
of  Europe  been  crossed  by  railways,  so 
effectively  has  the  business  of  emigration 
been  exploited,  that  it  is  now  amongst  the 
least  thrifty  and  prosperous  members  of  any 
European  community  that  the  emigration 
agent  finds  his  best  recruiting  ground." 

In  Italy,  Germany,  France  and  Russia, 
even  in  the  remotest  corners  of  these  countries, 
I  myself,  although  merely  a  tourist  in  them, 
have  met  steamship  emigration  agents.  In 
Europe  they  are  a  great  army  :  the  Red  Star 
Line  alone  had  at  one  time  no  less  than  1 500 
agents.  And  in  America  itself  I  found  that 


40  AMERICANS 

the  steamship  companies  have  their  agents 
whose  business  it  is  to  persuade  immigrants 
already  in  the  country  to  take  out  prepaid 
passages  for  their  relatives,  friends  and  ac 
quaintances  still  in  Europe ;  and  these  agents 
are  so  successful  that  50  per  cent,  of  recent 
immigrants  have  been  "prepaids."  It  is  true 
that  aliens,  before  being  allowed  to  settle  in 
the  country,  are  examined  by  medical  officers  ; 
but  minor  physical  defects,  of  which  26,424 
were  reported  in  1905,  do  not  exclude;  and, 
in  spite  of  admitted  laws  of  heredity,  those 
who,  having  no  definite  disease,  such  as 
trachoma  or  mental  abnormality,  are  yet  re 
ported  as  of  poor  physique,  have  no  "  certifi 
cate  of  disability "  returned  against  them,  if 
only  some  citizen  offers  a  guarantee  that  they 
will  not  become  a  public  charge.  And  in  this 
connection  it  is  significant  that,  during  the 
first  three  months  of  1906,  when  23,733 
children  in  New  York  schools  were  medically 
examined,  of  17,362  of  these  who  were  declared 
to  be  suffering  from  some  physical  abnormality, 
20  per  cent,  were  of  foreign  birth,  and  the  rest 
of  the  defectives,  although  they  were  born  in 
the  country,  bore  names  that  gave  evidence  of 
foreign  parentage  ;  and  of  88  children  examined 
in  one  ''truant  school,"  77  were  declared  de 
fectives,  and  of  these  74  were  of  foreign  birth. 


NATIVES  AND  ALIENS  41 

And  the  New  York  State  Lunacy  Com 
missioners  reported  in  1904  that,  of  all  the 
insane  patients  in  New  York  City,  60  per  cent, 
were  foreign-born. 

Many  of  the  new  immigrants  have  been  Moralist 
under  Governments  encrusted  with  age-long  stadsf- 
despotism,  corruption  and  inefficiency.  They tlclan< 
therefore  come  to  America  with  little  or  no 
training  in  constructive  citizenship,  often  with 
out  even  elementary  education,  and  having 
a  lower  economic  standard  than  that  which 
prevails  here.  They  necessarily  lack  the 
political  capacity  acquired  by  native  Americans 
from  several  centuries  of  self-government  in 
the  American  Colonies  and  in  the  United 
States,  and  inherited  from  centuries  of  political 
growth  in  England  before  the  colonisation  of 
America.  That  all  Governments  are  neces 
sarily  bad  is  an  assumption  that  has  grown 
into  their  tissues  and  become  indurated.  Com 
pulsion  has  bred  in  them  perverse  stubborn 
ness  ;  and  prohibition  has  developed  strong 
desire  for  all  forbidden  fruit.  Sophocles  said 
of  ^Eschylus  that  he  did  right,  all  unaware  of 
it.  It  is  much  easier  to  reach  the  other  habit ; 
and  many  immigrants,  doubtless,  do  wrong  by 
mere  momentum  of  acquired  conditions.  And 
as  institutions  and  beliefs  are  seen  to  lend 
strength  to  each  other,  the  teeth  that  are  set 


42  AMERICANS 

on  edge  against  American  institutions  are  easily 
brought  to  gnash  at  American  beliefs.  Hence, 
attacks  on  religion,  patriotism  and  the  family 
by  immigrants  are  sometimes  heard  ;  and  the 
most  violent  and  extreme  Socialist  and  Anarchist 
agitators,  of  whom  I  have  met  not  a  few,  are 
comparatively  recent  immigrants  whose  habits 
of  thought  and  emotional  attitude  have  been 
acquired  in  the  countries  from  which  they  have 
come.  The  tendency  of  Americans  to  des- 
potise  their  institutions  while  optimistically 
holding  that  they  retain  their  original  democracy, 
seems  to  be  largely  due  to  a  sense  of  need  to 
control  the  dissident  elements  introduced  by  im 
migration.  And  many  thoughtful  Americans  are 
found  who  ask  whether  national  industrial  pros 
perity  is  not  being  purchased  at  too  high  a  price 
if,  on  the  one  hand,  there  is  a  progress  of  things, 
while  on  the  other  there  is  a  decline  of  souls 
— if,  while  the  statistician  registers  a  growing 
progress,  the  moralist  detects  a  gradual  decline. 
A  grave  In  view  of  all  these  facts,  this  other  fact  is 
of  supreme  significance.  According  to  the 
Census  Bulletin  No.  22,  the  decrease  in  children 
born  of  native  parents  between  1890  and  1900 
was  13  per  1000,  while  during  the  same  period 
the  increase  of  children  of  foreign-born  parents 
was  44  per  1000.  Mr.  R.  R.  Kuczynski,  after 
careful  study  of  the  population  statistics  of 


NATIVES  AND  ALIENS  43 

Massachusetts,  concludes  that,  even  in  that 
New  England  State,  "the  native  population 
is  dying  out."  If  that  is  the  case,  then  the 
people  who  supplanted  the  Indians  are  them 
selves  being  supplanted  by  the  immigrants. 
And  many  do  seriously  apprehend  that 
Americans,  in  becoming  a  cosmopolitan  people, 
are  ceasing  to  have  a  distinct  national  type.  I, 
for  my  part,  although  by  no  means  insensible 
of  the  deep  and  universal  upheaval  that  has 
been  involved  in  the  incoming  of  these  millions 
of  immigrants,  am  still  convinced,  from  my 
observation  of  natives  and  aliens  during  the 
months  that  I  was  in  close  personal  contact 
with  them  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  that  the 
foundations  of  American  thought,  religion, 
character  and  type  remain  unimpaired.  The 
country  is,  indeed,  heterogeneous  in  the  com 
position  of  its  population ;  yet  the  English 
tongue  and  the  English  tradition  overbear  all 
competitors,  reconcile  in  themselves  all  rivalries, 
and  sustain  themselves  in  directive  control, 
modified,  of  course,  but  not  weakened,  by  the 
variety  of  foreign  influences  to  which  they  are 
subjected.  Doubtless  here,  as  elsewhere,  I  am 
making  an  inference  vastly  disproportioned  to 
the  facts  observed  ;  but,  equally  doubtless, 
others  whose  conclusions  are  other  than  mine 
are  doing  the  same. 


44  AMERICANS 

Congeni-        To  my  mind,  the  force  and  effect  of  American 

ality  as  a     j .  r  IA  •  ...  .  ri 

national  lite  and  American  institutions  is  one  01  the 
most  extraordinary  phenomena  of  all  history  ; 
and  I  find  myself  less  sceptical  than  many 
Americans  in  regard  to  the  power  of  American 
democracy  to  persist  and  prevail  by  transform 
ing  its  aliens  into  natives,  in  fact  as  well  as  in 
name,  by  the  new  social  and  political  respon 
sibilities  which  are  immediately  laid  upon  them, 
and  by  which,  almost  from  the  day  of  their 
arrival,  they  are  involved  in  a  new  scheme  of 
ethical  incentive  and  constraint.  A  bond  of 
nationality,  as  strong  even  as  that  of  community 
of  blood,  is  found  in  acceptance,  inbred  if  not 
inborn,  of  the  same  political  ideas,  fundamental 
laws  and  habits  of  thought,  which  regulate  the 
relations  and  intercourse  between  man  and  man 
and  constitute  congeniality  ;  and  when  to  these 
a  common  tongue  is  added,  an  environment  is 
created  which,  perhaps,  does  more  to  promote 
unity  than  it  is  in  the  power  of  kinship  alone  to 
effect.  Yet  no  one  who  grasps  with  the  moral 
imagination  the  prospective  as  well  as  the 
immediate  bearings  of  the  facts  which  confront 
this  nation  could  fail  to  recognise  that  a  grave 
problem  is  created  by  the  presence  of  these 
millions — since  1850,  21  millions — of  people 
who  have  come  from  all  parts  of  the  earth, 
sprung  from  all  races,  speaking  all  languages, 


NATIVES  AND  ALIENS          45 

believing  all  religions  and  bringing  with  them 
all  kinds  of  inherited  characteristics  and 
tendencies,  and  who  have  already  created  a 
cosmopolitan  and  complicated  life  hitherto  un 
equalled  in  any  land. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   MAKING  OF  AMERICANS. 


It 


A  strange  harmonious  inclination 

Of  all  degrees  to  reformation." — HUDIBRAS. 


A  Russian  Reminiscence — An  American  Phrase  and  Passion — 
Compassion  or  Justice  ? — The  Alien's  Case — Immigration 
and  national  Consolidation — Stasis — An  Italian  Debate — 
The  Americanising  Progess — New  economic  Conditions. 

The          T   HAPPENED  to  be  in  Russia,  some  years 

Fruit—  ,       .  .  -  r        •  i 

JL  ago,  during  a  time  of  severe  famine  when, 
from  many  foreign  countries,  contributions 
were  sent  to  aid  in  the  relief  of  the  starving 
peasantry.  I  was  then  profoundly  impressed 
by  the  generosity  of  America,  whose  gift 
greatly  exceeded  that  of  all  other  nations 
combined ;  and,  in  a  hasty  generalisation,  I 
concluded  that  Americans  were,  of  all  peoples, 
the  most  compassionate.  On  my  arrival  in 
America,  I  seemed  to  find  further  evidence  of 
this  characteristic  in  the  large  hospitality  which 
has  been  accorded  to  the  millions  of  aliens, 
multitudes  of  them  Russians,  who  have  taken 


THE  MAKING  OF  AMERICANS    47 

refuge  in  the  country  from  the  economic  and 
political  stress  which  they  had  endured  in  their 
native  lands. 

But  beneficence  has  not  always  its  roots  in 
benevolence ;  and,  on  closer  scrutiny  of  the 
unquestionable  generosity  of  Americans,  I  am 
disposed  to  ascribe  it  to  some  other,  not 
necessarily  less  noble,  motive  than  pity.  I 
should  indeed  hesitate  to  say  that  Americans 
are,  of  all  peoples,  the  least  compassionate ; 
but  I  should  hesitate  still  more  to  include 
compassion  in  any  catalogue  of  their  char 
acteristics. 

The  American  character  is  the  result  of  a  —and  the 
great  ideal  untiringly  pursued — the  ideal  of 
moral  order  founded  on  respect  for  self  and 
for  others,  that  is,  on  personal  dignity  and 
worth.  Their  very  religion  has  dignity  rather 
than  humility  as  its  note  ;  and  their  spiritual 
teachers  rarely  press  upon  their  attention  those 
dark  and  stubborn  facts  of  human  nature  by 
which  the  insignificance  of  man  and  of  all 
human  achievements  might  be  recalled.  In 
compassion,  there  is  something  which  looks 
like  weakness  in  those  who  are  subject  to  it, 
and  which  seems  to  impute  weakness  to  those 
who  are.  its  object — a  weakness  twice  cursed, 
cursing  those  who  give  and  those  who  take. 
Therefore,  in  this  prosperous  and  robust 


48  AMERICANS 

people    there    is    a    perceptible    tendency   to 
contemn     compassion,    and     the    very    word 
charity  is  to  them  taboo. 
—and  the       From  their  insistence  upon  personal  worth 

Soil—  .    ..  .    . 

and  dignity  as  inhering  in  every  human  being, 
irrespective  of  all  accessory  attributes,  they 
have  acquired  a  fine  sense  of  what  is  due  to 
themselves  and  what  they  owe  to  others  ;  and 
their  generosity  proceeds  from  this  sense  of 
justice  rather  than  from  the  sentiment  of 
compassion.  To  give  a  square  deal  is  an 
American  phrase  and  an  American  passion. 
At  the  time  of  the  Russian  famine  to  which  I 
have  referred,  America  enjoyed  unprecedented 
prosperity,  and  the  traditional  friendship  of 
Russia  towards  America  was  a  phrase  on 
every  lip ;  and  Americans  felt  that  they  owed 
it  to  Russia  and  still  more  to  themselves  to 
give  liberally  of  their  abundance  for  Russians' 
relief. 

Even  in  social  settlement  work,  in  which, 
if  in  anything,  pity  might  be  thought  to  find 
expression,  it  is  disavowed  as  a  principle  of 
action.  Mr.  Robert  A.  Woods,  the  Warden 
of  the  South  End  House  in  Boston,  explicitly 
says  that  the  sentiment  of  pity  and  mercy 
as  a  motive  of  social  service  has  become 
outworn.  The  new  motive,  he  declares,  is 
"a  certain  spirit  of  moral  adventure,  carrying 


THE  MAKING  OF  AMERICANS    49 

a  suggestion  of  statesmanship " — a  motive 
which  certainly  is  not  mortifying  to  human 
pride,  but  which,  from  close  observation  of 
settlements  in  Boston  and  elsewhere  in 
America,  I  should  agree  with  Mr.  Woods  in 
determining  as  the  motive  that  prevails.  And 
if  it  should  be  said  that  social  service  from 
such  a  motive  is  the  perfection  of  selfishness, 
I  should  reply  that  it  at  least  approximates  to 
the  selfishness  of  the  perfect  man  who  re 
cognises  that  the  good  of  others  is  his  good, 
and  that  the  way  to  do  self  the  highest 
service  is  to  serve  the  race. 

It  is,  therefore,  not  to  imply  a  reproach  that  —of 

T     .       .  i  .  -,  A  •  American 

I  insist  that  it  was  not  because  Americans  Gener- 
were  touched  with  the  feeling  of  the  infirmities  oslty~~ 
of  the  immigrants  that  these  have  been  freely 
admitted  to  America  and  to  all  the  privileges 
of  American  citizenship.  To  have  denied 
them  hospitality  would  have  been  to  put  an 
indignity  upon  them  and  would  have  been 
incompatible  with  the  dignity  of  America. 
America,  therefore,  owed  it  to  herself  and  to 
them  that  they  should  be  received.  And  the 
welcome  extended  to  them  was  certainly  not 
made  less  cordial  by  the  general  belief, 
"  carry  ing  a  suggestion  of  statesmanship," 
that,  in  addition  to  the  benefits  accruing  to 
the  immigrants,  the  economic  and  political 
4 


50  AMERICANS 

effect  of  their  settlement  in  America  involved 
an  increase  of  the    national  population,  pros 
perity,  power  and  prestige, 
—towards       Of  recent   years,  however,  as   I  have  said. 

Immi 
grants,       it    has    been     contended    by    many,    and    the 

conviction  is  spreading,  that  the  aliens  have 
weakened,  not  strengthened,  the  nation ;  and 
evidence  accumulates  every  day  that  the 
nations  from  which  they  have  come  have 
been  weakened  by  their  emigration — Sweden 
and  Italy,  for  example,  have  admitted,  even 
officially,  that  they  propose,  in  self-preserva 
tion,  to  use  every  legitimate  means,  not  only 
to  prevent  further  emigration,  but  even  to 
induce  as  many  as  possible  of  their  country 
men  now  settled  in  America  to  return  to  their 
native  lands  which  have  been  depopulated 
to  an  alarming  extent  and  are  in  actual  want 
of  able-bodied  men.  Should  this  ever  become 
the  national  conviction  in  America,  immigra 
tion  would  be  discouraged  as  heartily  as  it 
has  hitherto  been  encouraged,  and  from  the 
same  motive  of  equal  justice  to  herself  and  to 
foreign  States.  The  American  people,  in 
judicial  mood,  will  hear  the  case  against  the 
immigrants  and  will  seek  to  do  justice,  how 
ever  much  mercy  may  be  loved. 

Revised         Judicially,    therefore,    should    the    case    be 
stated.     And  in  the   first   place,  to   this  end, 


THE  MAKING  OF  AMERICANS    51 

immigration  statistics  should  be  revised.  The 
number  of  immigrants  is  not  as  great  as  is 
made  to  appear.  Before  1856,  no  distinction 
was  made,  in  statistical  returns,  between 
travellers  and  immigrants.  Even  now, 
although  it  is  known  that  so  many  foreign- 
born  American  citizens  return — as  many  as 
500,000  have  been  known  to  return,  in  a 
period  of  two  months — temporarily  to  their 
native  lands,  that  at  certain  periods  of  the  year 
the  efflux  is  greater  than  the  influx,  no  effort 
is  made  to  deduct  from  the  annual  immigration 
returns  the  numbers  of  those  who  have  been 
counted  in  previous  years.  Nor  is  due  account 
taken  of  other  important  factors.  The  stream 
of  immigration,  even  at  the  highest  estimate  of 
its  volume,  is  small,  relatively  to  the  river  into 
which  it  flows  ;  the  annual  number  of  aliens 
rarely  exceeds  i  per  cent,  of  the  receiving 
native  population ;  moreover,  the  aliens 
migrate,  not  in  organised  communities  but 
as  families,  or  still  more  frequently  as  indi 
viduals,  and  are  thus  more  easily  dominated 
and  Americanised  than  they  could  otherwise 
be,  the  mass  of  transforming  power  being  in 
creased  every  year  by  the  conquest  of  new 
comers. 

The  charge  against  the  immigrants  which  I  A  Charge 
have  heard  most   frequently  and  most  vehe-  immi-1 

grants — 


52  AMERICANS 

mently  urged  is  that,  owing  to  the  diversities 
of  race,  language  and  religion  which  they  have 
introduced  to  the  body  politic,  they  have 
broken  up  the  national  unity  and  seriously  im 
paired  the  national  powers  of  cohesion  and  resist 
ance.  I  have  already  stated  that  I  found  little 
Italys,  little  Syrias,  little  Germanys,  and  great 
Jerusalems  in  America ;  and  certainly  it  is 
unsatisfactory  that  these  aliens  should  be  as 
isolated  from  each  other  and  from  the  native 
population  as  I  have  shown  them  to  be.  But 
there  is  another  and  larger  fact  which  ought  to 
be  fully  recognised  and  frankly  admitted  in 
every  discussion  of  this  feature  of  our  problem. 
During  the  years  of  unrestricted  immigration, 
America  has  been  steadily  advancing  towards, 
not  receding  from,  substantial  unity  in  all  its 
parts. 

_dis.  When   all    Americans   were   the   direct   de- 

proved  scendants  of  the  English  colonists  of  the  seven 
teenth  century,  there  were  several  groups  of 
communities,  such  as  the  New  England  group, 
the  Middle  group  (New  York,  New  Jersey 
and  Pennsylvania),  and  the  Southern  group 
(Maryland,  Virginia,  Georgia  and  the  Caro- 
linas),  each  of  which  was  practically  a  little 
nation  differing  from  all  the  others  in  spirit,  in 
opinions,  in  social  usages  and  in  laws,  and  was 
unsympathetic  and  sometimes  even  unfriendly 


THE  MAKING  OF  AMERICANS    53 

to  them.  Then  it  was  that  there  was  no 
cohesive  principle,  no  centralising  life ;  and  in 
1765,  at  the  assembly  at  New  York  of  the  first 
Continental  Congress,  the  delegates  from  the 
several  colonies  "like  Ambassadors  from  —  Quota- 

tion  from 

remote   nations,   could   at   first   only   stare   at  M.  c. 

,  -         r  •      Tyler's 

one  another  as  utter  strangers  in  lace,  in  History  of 
character,  even  in  manner  and  speech."  This 
provincialism  of  the  several  States  is  rapidly 
dying  out,  if  it  is  not  already  dead.  America 
is,  and  acts  as,  a  nation.  The  separate  States 
are  freely  committing  themselves  to  the 
national  idea  and  to  the  central  Government. 
Sectional  lines  and  differences  are  being 
rapidly  eliminated.  The  old  claims  of  separate 
States'  rights,  or  at  least  the  claims  of  separate 
selfish  States'  interests,  are  being  voluntarily 
abandoned.  Mr.  Elihu  Root,  Secretary  of 
State,  without  provoking  serious  protest  from 
any  quarter,  recently  raised  the  issue  which 
was  that  of  the  Civil  War,  when,  on  December 
12,  1906,  he  said  that,  if  the  several  States  did 
not  exercise  in  due  measure  the  powers  re 
served  to  them  by  the  Constitution  "a  con 
struction  of  the  Constitution  will  be  found  to 
vest  the  power  in  the  central  Government." 
Immigrants  have  not  seriously  interfered  with 
the  operation  of  the  great  laws  governing 
national  growth  and  development  in  centralisa- 


54  AMERICANS 

tion,  consolidation  and  union ;  rather,  they 
have  themselves  been  caught  in  the  sweep 
of  this  tremendous  cohesive  and  centripetal 
force,  and  America  to-day,  as  never  before,  is 
one  people,  united  in  spirit,  in  thought,  in 
purpose  and  in  act.  The  majority  of  the 
"aliens"  are  even  plus  Amdricains  que  les 
Amtricains ;  and  the  Jews  of  America, 
relatively  to  their  number,  contributed  the 
greatest  proportion  of  volunteers  to  fight  for 
America  during  the  Spanish-American  war. 
The  Every  day,  as  I  ploughed  my  furrow  of 

American-  T  ,  .  ,  r      i 

ising  inquiry,  1  turned  up  new  evidence  01  the 
unprecedented  absorbent  power  of  the 
American  people  by  which,  of  all  the  diverse 
elements  pouring  into  their  country,  one  new 
nation  has  been  made.  I  met  recent  immi 
grants,  some  of  them  Russian  Jews  whom  I 
had  known  in  their  native  land ;  and  in  many 
instances  it  seemed  to  me  that  their  fibre, 
their  tissue,  the  convolutions  of  their  brain, 
their  very  nerve  fluid  had  been  changed  by 
the  genial  and  potent  influence  of  American 
national  life — even  in  external  appearance 
they  were  transformed.  Even  before  the 
immigrants  reach  America  the  Americanising 
process  begins  through  the  imagination — that 
strange  source  of  all  human  progress — which 
has  been  profoundly  affected  by  all  that  they 


THE  MAKING  OF  AMERICANS    55 

have  read  or  heard  of  the  New  World  ;  and  no 
one  could  ever  forget,  who  had  ever  seen,  the  rapt 
expression  on  the  face  of  an  immigrant  when  from 
the  steamer  as  it  enters  New  York  Harbour — 

"  Unde  totam  licet  aestimare  Romam  " — 

he  catches  his  first  glimpse  of  the  Statue  of 
Liberty  which  he  had  heard  of  and  read  of  and 
seen  pictures  of  and  dreamed  of  and  almost 
worshipped  in  his  far-off  home  in  the  Old 
World.  Even  the  stars  in  their  courses  fight 
for  America,  if  not  always  for  the  immigrant 
when  he  lands.  The  politicians  would  fain 
prevent  his  assimilation  in  order  that  his  vote 
might  be  easily  manipulated  by  them  ;  but  first 
of  all  he  must  have  a  vote  to  be  handled, 
and  to  this  end  the  politicians  provide  him 
with  naturalisation  papers,  fraudulently  it  may 
be — the  State  superintendent  of  elections  in 
New  York  estimates  that  100,000  fraudulent 
naturalisation  papers  were  issued  in  New  York 
State  alone  in  1903.  Thus  at  the  very  begin 
ning  of  his  life  in  America  the  immigrant  feels 
himself  identified  with,  and  takes  delight  and 
pride  in,  the  American  name  and  nation  ;  and 
lo !  already  the  alien  is  bound  to  the  native  by 
the  tie  of  a  common  sentiment,  the  ^#09  of  the 
Greeks,  which  is  one  of  the  most  powerful 
factors  of  nationality. 


56  AMERICANS 

—in  Of  course,  there  are  large  exceptions  to  be 

Peril—  .    .  nS     .  , 

made.  A  battery  current  flowing  through  some 
metals  disintegrates,  although  in  others  it  mole- 
cularly  reforms,  their  substance  ;  and  the  thrill 
of  new  experiences  rouses  in  many  immigrants, 
and  shocks  them  into  conformity  with,  base 
passions  rather  than  noble  aspirations — is  to 
them  a  savour  of  death  unto  death  and  not 
of  life  unto  life,  according  to  the  eternal  law. 
Finding  themselves  equal  in  one  thing — 
equally  free  and  privileged  under  the  law — 
with  all  American  citizens,  they  come  to  regard 
themselves  as  equal  in  all  other  respects. 
Having  left  behind  them  conventional  in 
equalities,  arbitrary  privileges  and  historical 
injustice,  they  go  still  further  in  their  new 
environment  and  rebel  against  the  inequalities 
of  merit  and  virtue,  of  capacity  and  wealth. 
Beginning  with  a  just  principle,  they  develop 
it  into  an  unjust  one ;  and  instead  of  the 
thraldom  of  the  traditional  from  which  they 
have  escaped,  they  subject  themselves  to  the 
more  unwholesome  thraldom  of  the  novel, 
which  is  none  the  less  dangerous  because  it 
disguises  itself  under  the  fiction  of  emancipa 
tion.  This  is  the  real  origin  and  fountain-head 
of  that  peril  to  a  State  which  Aristotle  in 
his  Politics  calls  stasis — the  assumption  and 
assertion  of  a  distinct  position  in  the  State, 


THE  MAKING  OF  AMERICANS    57 

with  malicious  intent  towards  another  party  in 
it,  from  which  arises  "a  want  of  justice  and 
proportion  in  their  aims,  leading  to  contempt 
of  moral  goodness  and  of  intellectual  worth, 
and  sometimes  to  harsh  treatment  of  old 
families  and  confiscation  of  their  properties." 

In  Boston,  a  few  weeks  after  my  arrival  in—  asiiius- 
America,  I  attended  a  debate  between  Italians  Boston— 
upon  Socialism  versus  Anarchy.  Undeniably 
there  was  abundant  evidence  of  stasis.  The 
fiercest  attacks  upon  American  institutions  pro 
voked  the  warmest  applause ;  and  the  meeting 
was  roused  to  a  high  pitch  of  enthusiasm  by 
a  fiery  orator  who  roundly  declared  that  in 
America  there  was  less  liberty,  equality  and 
fraternity  than  in  any  country  of  the  Old 
World.  An  estimable  American,  whose  literary 
work  is  neither  unknown  nor  unappreciated 
in  England,  was  in  the  chair,  and  invited 
me,  who  might  be  presumed  to  be  impartial, 
to  take  part  in  the  debate  ;  and  I  made  such 
defence  of  American  institutions  as  I  could, 
by  simply  comparing  them  with  corresponding 
institutions  in  Russia.  But  the  Italians,  so 
far  from  being  convinced,  became  still  more 
extravagant  in  their  denunciations ;  and  the 
meeting  broke  up  in  confusion,  to  the  accom 
paniment  of  wild  cheers,  when  one  of  them 
hotly  proclaimed  himself  an  Anarchist  and 


58  AMERICANS 

advocated  "the  use  of  chemicals  as  in  Russia 
to  rid  the  country  of  capitalists,  politicians  and 
even  the  President,  who  are  worse  despots  and 
bureaucrats  than  the  Tsar  and  his  officials  ever 
— buttri-  dared  to  be."  This  seemed  to  me  a  most 

umphant.  .  . 

serious  symptom  at  the  time  ;  but  I  see  it  in 
its  proper  perspective  now.  The  debate  was 
conducted  in  Italian,  and  I  did  not  then 
appreciate  the  significance  of  that  fact.  It 
meant  that  those  Italians  were  recent  immi 
grants  ;  for  all  others  have  learned,  and  prefer, 
even  in  private  and  much  more  in  public,  to 
use  the  English  tongue.  Undoubtedly,  the 
tendency  of  the  alien  to  violent  socialistic  and 
anarchistic  denunciation  is  in  inverse  propor 
tion  to  the  amount  of  liberty  he  has  enjoyed 
before  he  went  to  America  ;  but,  equally  un 
doubtedly,  this  tendency  decreases  in  direct 
proportion  to  the  length  of  time  that  he  lives 
in  his  new  country  and  the  extent  to  which  he 
mingles  with  and  becomes  part  of  the  com 
munity.  And  although  I  have  met  and  been 
in  intimate  relations  with  multitudes  of  immi 
grants,  I  have  found  in  the  ranks  of  the 
Socialists  and  Anarchists  few  citizens  who 
were  of  the  second  generation  of  aliens  and 
thus  had  taken  in  the  impressions  and  in 
fluences  of  American  life  and  education  during 
the  impressionable  period  of  childhood.  Wood- 


THE  MAKING  OF  AMERICANS    59 

bine,  in  New  Jersey,  is  a  township  of  Russian 
Jews,  few  if  any  others  than  the  public-school 
teachers  being  Gentiles.  Yet  even  there,  where 
Americanising  influences  might  be  supposed 
not  to  predominate,  I  found  that  Socialist  and 
Anarchist  aliens  quickly  shed  their  peculiar 
tenets  as  they  discover  that  in  America  the  very 
premises  of  their  arguments  are  lacking — the 
political  repression,  the  crushing  weight  of  an 
enormous  military  system,  the  career  closed  to 
the  talent  of  the  poor,  and  the  system  of  pro 
found  social  inequality.  And,  although  there 
can  easily  be  detected  amongst  the  immigrants 
an  element  of  social  unrest,  this  comes  out  of 
their  hopes,  and  not,  as  it  did  in  their  native 
lands,  out  of  their  fears,  and  may  therefore  be 
regarded  without  fear. 

Were  I  an  American  who  had  reached  these  The  Past 
conclusions  regarding  the  effects  of  immigration  Future? 
upon  the  national  life,  I  should  not  therefore 
be  inclined  to  rank  myself  among  the  advocates 
of  a  policy  of  laisser  faire.  That  the  present 
has  not  been  irreparably  injured  by  the  past 
does  not  give  any  guarantee  that  the  future  can 
be  safely  left  to  take  care  of  itself.  Except 
within  restricted  areas  which  are  becoming 
narrower  every  year,  America  has  not  the 
former  conditions  of  life  or  the  former  kinds  of 
work  to  offer  the  immigrant  who  now  finds  in 


6o  AMERICANS 

his  New  World  many  of  the  conditions  which 
drove  him  from  the  Old  World ;  and,  in  pro 
portion  as  America,  in  its  economic  structure, 
grows  into  resemblance  to  the  older  civilisa 
tions,  it  necessarily  loses,  and  in  some 
measure  it  has  already  lost,  its  capacity  to 
transmute  the  baser  elements  of  those  coun 
tries  which,  hitherto,  it  has  received,  with 
great  advantage  to  most  of  them  and  without 
irreparable  disaster,  perhaps  even  not  without 
great  advantage,  to  itself. 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  JEWS. 

Templar. 

"I've  nothing  against  Nathan,  I  am  angry 
With  myself  only. 

Saladin. 

And  for  what? 

Templar. 

For  dreaming 

That  any  Jew  could  learn  to  be  no  Jew — 
For  dreaming  it  awake. 

Saladin. 

Out  with  this  dream." — LESSING. 

Polygenous  and  Judaic  New  York — Israel  in  Russia — The 
Exodus— For  the  Children's  Sake— Yiddish  Plays— The 
Americanised  de-Judaised  Jew — A  comprehensive  Curse — 
The  real  Hebrew  Heart — Redintegration  of  Jews  and 
Judaism. 

NEW  YORK,  even  during  its  ante-natal  A  Micro- 
existence   as    New  Amsterdam  was  a " 
community  of  many  tongues,    many  customs 
and  many  faiths,  and  had  within  and  near  its 
confines  a  population  speaking  eighteen  different 
languages.     When  it  ceased  to  be  Dutch  and, 
becoming  English,  came  to  be  New  York,  it 
remained  hospitable  to    men  of  all   races   and 

61 


62  AMERICANS 

was  recognised  as  "the  most  polygenous  of 
all  the  British  dependencies  in  North  America." 
Now  that  it  is  neither  Dutch  nor  English,  it  is 
still  conspicuously  cosmopolitan  ;  and  to-day 
New  York,  more  than  any  other  city  that  is  or 
ever  was,  offers  new  and  varied  exemplifications 
of  the  age-long,  world-wide  problem  of  the 
contact  of  diverse  races  of  men.  The  city  is 
a  microcosm.  Its  European  groups  nearly 
correspond,  numerically  to  the  relative  popu 
lations,  and  geographically  to  the  relative 
positions,  of  their  respective  nations  in  the 
Old  World  ;  and  in  addition  to  this  miniature 
Europe  in  New  York,  there  are  represent 
ative  groups  from  all  other  continents  of 
the  globe.  Here,  the  immigration  problem 
assumes  its  gravest  and  acutest  form  ;  and  my 
original  impression  could  find  no  more  apt 
expression  than  in  a  sentence,  itself  a  problem, 
which  was  wrung  from  an  American  author  of 
the  seventeenth  century  by  the  vexed  question 
of  that  time  : — 

"  If  the  whole  conclave  of  hell  can  so  com 
promise  exadverse  and  diametrical  contradic- 
,.  tions  as  to  compolitise  such  a  multimonstrous 
maufrey  of  heteroclites  and  quicquidlibets 
quietly,  I  trust  I  may  say  with  all  humble 
reverence  they  can  do  more  than  the  Senate  of 
Heaven." 

V 


THE  JEWS  63 

Of  all  the  "  maufrey  "  of  immigrants,  Jews  Russian 
are  held  to  be  the  most  "  multimonstrous  "  as 
they  certainly  are  the  most  multitudinous  ;  and 
as  Jews,  especially  from  Russia,  are  flowing 
into  America,  and  especially  into  New  York, 
in  a  stream  of  rapidly  increasing  volume,  this 
chapter  upon  the  Jews  in  America  will  treat 
chiefly  of  the  Russian  Jews  in  New  York — 
that  most  Christian  city  whose  every  fifth 
inhabitant  is  a  Jew — who  will  be  the  deter 
mining  influence  on  Judaism  in,  and  of 
Judaism  on,  this  New  World. 

The  Russian  Pale,  which  was  created  in  A  new 
1843,  includes  the  old  kingdom  of  Poland  and  Exodus' 
the  north-west  provinces  of  Russia  which 
originally  belonged  to  Poland.  The  Jews  in 
this  vast  territory  number  only  about  5,000,000 
in  a  total  population  of  about  42,500,000  ;  but 
as  they  are  not  allowed  to  own  or  cultivate 
land,  they  necessarily  crowd  into  and  congest 
the  towns.  There,  some  acquire  wealth  which 
procures  protection  ;  but  multitudes  are 
huddled  together  in  poverty  and  fear,  borne 
down  in  the  press  and  strife  for  existence — 
a  despised  and  persecuted  race.  Ragged,  half- 
fed,  crushed  mortals,  without  any  hope  of 
rising  out  of  their  misery  so  long1  as  they  re 
main  within  the  Pale  beyond  which,  in  Russia, 
they  may  not  go,  they  yet  are  saved  from 


64  AMERICANS 

utter  despair  by  the  faith  which  they  cherish 
with  religious  fervour  and,  in  religious  phrase, 
express — the  faith  that  the  justice  and  mercy 
which  they  find  not  in  the  Russians  whom 
they  have  seen  are,  perchance,  in  the  Ameri 
cans  whom  they  may  one  day  see,  and  are 
certainly  and  eternally,  in  spite  of  outward 
seeming,  in  their  Unseen  Jehovah,  by  Whom, 
in  token  thereof,  in  the  holy  place  of  His 
Temple,  the  Law  and  the  Mercy  Seat  were 
enshrined.  This  faith  is  kept  alive  by  letters 
which  they  receive  from  their  sons  and 
daughters  and  from  friends  and  acquaintances 
in  America  and  which  are  sometimes  read 
aloud  in  the  synagogues,  testifying  to  a  reason 
able  chance,  even  for  Jews,  a  chance  of  getting 
a  fair  start  in  life  and  of  rising  above  poverty, 
degradation  and  shame  in  a  land  where 

"  Men  live  in  a  grander  way 
With  ampler  hospitality." 

A  greater  The  voyage  across  the  sea  seems  to  these 
'"  modern  Jews  no  less  hazardous  a  venture  than 
their  fathers'  journey  through  the  wilderness  ; 
but  they  commit  themselves  to  the  Divine 
guidance  and  protection,  and  journey — a  great 
host — to  their  new  land  of  promise  which 
already  has  15  per  cent,  of  the  Jews  of  the 
world,  who  are  only  one-half  of  i  per  cent,  of 


THE  JEWS  65 

the  population  of  the  world,  and  which  has,  in 
New  York  alone,  800,000  members  of  this  race 
— a  greater  number  than  ever  before  was 
gathered  together  in  one  place,  even  in  Jeru 
salem  in  her  palmiest  days.  How,  then,  do  they 
fare  ?  Do  they  find  at  last  a  home  ?  Or  are 
they  still  strangers  and  wanderers  as  all  their 
fathers  were  ? 

One  morning,  during  my  residence  in  the  For  the 
University  Settlement  in  New  York,  in  the 
heart  of  the  Ghetto,  as  I  was  strolling  along 
the  Bowery,  I  saw  two  Jewish  children,  both 
bonnie  bairns,  eagerly  scanning  a  poster  at  the 
door  of  a  Jewish  theatre.  Many  people,  Jews 
without  exception,  were  pressing  in,  and  the 
faces  of  the  children  showed  that  they  had 
the  desire  but  not  the  means  to  join  them. 
In  spite  of  the  Yiddish  jargon  in  Hebrew 
characters  on  the  placard,  I  read  the  announce 
ment  of  a  matinee  "for  the  children's  sake"; 
and  I  offered  to  pay  these  children's  way. 
They  accepted  on  condition  that  I  should  get 
their  parents'  consent  and  should  go  to  the 
entertainment  with  them — a  prudent  and 
proper  precaution  on  their  part.  The  parents 
neither  spoke  nor  understood  English,  but  I 
mustered  up  enough  Russian  to  convey  my 
request ;  and  when  they  learnt  that  I  was 
living  in  the  Settlement  they  accepted  me  as 
5 


66  AMERICANS 

tchestnie  tchelovek,  an  honourable  man,  and 
proved  their  confidence  in  me  by  giving 
permission  to  others  of  their  children  than 
those  whom  I  had  invited  to  go  to  the  theatre 
with  me.  I  was,  I  believe,  the  only  Shaigatz 
(that  is,  Gentile),  and  my  companions  were  the 
only  children,  there.  My  little  knowledge  of 
Yiddish  had  proved  a  dangerous  thing :  the 
title,  not  the  intention,  of  the  entertainment 
was  For  the  Children  s  Sake.  I  had  expected 
a  pantomime  ;  but  it  was  a  tragedy  of  Jewish 
life  in  New  York  that  had  been  advertised,  and 
the  children  showed  appalling  familiarity  with 
the  scenes  that  were  depicted  on  the  stage  and 
gravely  assured  me,  out  of  their  own  experi 
ence,  that  it  was  a  very  realistic  play.  We  were 
first  transported  to  Russia  where  we  found 
several  parents  discussing  letters  which  they 
had  received  from  America,  and  heard  them 
resolve  to  emigrate  there — for  the  children's 
sake.  We  came  to  America  with  a  band  of 
immigrants  and  settled  in  New  York.  There 
we  saw  the  children  becoming  Americanised  in 
speech,  in  manner  and  in  dress,  but  becoming 
also  de-Judaised  in  religion  and  morals — losing 
their  own  souls  while  they  gained  the  world. 
And,  finally,  we  beheld  the  parents  heartbroken 
over  the  disastrous  results  of  their  experiment 
and  heard  them  resolve  to  return  to  poverty 


THE  JEWS  67 

and  persecution  in  Russia — for  the   children's 
sake. 

I  have  seen  many  Yiddish  plays  since  then,  Children 
most  of  them  mere  sketches,  bits  of  local  colour  parents 
or  broad  patches  of  caricature ;  and  although  Israel> 
few  of  them  express  the  deepest  characteristics 
of  the  Americanised  Jews,  or  grasp  more  than 
what  is  exotic  and  superficial  in  them,  yet  it  is 
not  without  significance  that  all  the  characters 
in  the  end  come  to  actual  or  constructive  grief 
owing  to  the  disintegrating  and  demoralising 
effect  of  their  new  environment.  And  now 
that  I  have  had  some  insight  into  the  lives 
and  longings  of  this  people,  their  secret  sorrows 
and  joys,  their  many  shortcomings  and  crimes, 
and  the  meaning  of  them  all,  I  can  say,  with 
my  little  Jewish  friends,  that  these  are  very 
realistic  plays.  Of  course,  I  have  seen  much 
else  than  the  plays  present.  Much  else  is 
apparent  on  the  surface,  and  is  the  first  that 
all,  and  all  that  most,  observers  ever  see  ;  and 
there  is  general  complacency  on  the  part  of 
native  Americans  as  they  regard  the  American 
ised  Jews  in  their  midst. 

I      have     heard     the     voice      of     Israel's  Their 
discontent  in   Russia,   the   gathering  stir   and 
tumult  of  its  restlessness  there ;    but   I   have 
found   beneath   the   surface  of  the   Ghetto  of 
New  York,   as   deep   a   storm   and   stress   of 


68  AMERICANS 

human  life,  and  as  intense  a  ferment  of  feel 
ing,  as  is  to  be  found  in  the  Russian  Pale.  I 
have  heard  Jews  curse  America  as  deeply  as 
ever,  even  by  Jews,  Russia  was  cursed.  A 
prominent  Jew,  who  has  spent  his  life  in  the 
interests  of  his  race,  has  told  me,  and  I  have 
heard  Mr.  Zangwill  report,  that  the  elders  in 
Israel  curse  Columbus  for  having  discovered 
America,  the  land  to  which  they  came  and 
from  which,  renouncing  all  its  opportunities 
of  material  gain,  they  would  gladly  go  to 
Russia  again,  with  their  children,  for  the 
children's  sake,  were  it  not  that,  owing  to 
the  Russian  closed  door,  they  themselves 
cannot  go  back  although  they  would,  and 
that,  owing  to  the  open  doors  in  America, 
their  children  would  not  go  back  if  they  could. 
One  old  Orthodox  Russian  Jew  I  met  who 
had  resolved  to  return  to  his  native  village, 
at  the  peril  of  his  life.  In  America,  he  had 
found  nothing  to  love  during  the  years  he 
had  dwelt  in  the  land ;  and  in  the  hour  of 
leaving  it  forever,  his  one  regret  was  that  his 
children  and  grandchildren  remained,  at  the 
peril  of  their  souls.  At  the  Jews'  domestic 
celebrations  of  the  Passover  Feast  the  eldest 
son  represents  Elijah,  who  is  supposed  to 
appear  and  renew  the  Messianic  hope. 
America  needs  the  immediate  fulfilment  of 


THE  JEWS  69 

the  prediction  of  the  Book  which  Gentiles 
and  Jews  alike  revere :  "  I  will  send  you 
Elijah  the  prophet,  .  .  .  and  he  shall  turn 
the  heart  of  the  fathers  to  the  children  and 
the  heart  of  the  children  to  the  fathers,  lest 
I  come  and  smite  the  earth  with  a  curse." 

In  Russia  there  are  many  Jews  who  live  Russian 
beyond  the  Pale — merchants  of  the  first  guild  ;  American 
professional  men  with  university  degrees ; Ghetto- 
students  in  institutions  of  higher  education ; 
surgeons,  apothecaries  and  dentists  ;  and 
skilled  artisans  who  are  members  of  their 
respective  trade  guilds.  These  are  free 
to  go  to  America  and  would  make  admir 
able  immigrants ;  but  most  of  them  remain 
away,  despite  the  prejudice  that  prevails 
against  them  in  Russia.  They  have  fuller 
information  than  their  brethren  in  the  Pale 
regarding  the  dangers  to  faith  and  morals 
to  which  Jews  are  exposed,  as  well  as  the 
opportunities  of  work  and  wealth  which  they 
have,  in  America ;  and  having  with  all  Jews, 
along  with  their  hard  grip  of  the  things  of 
the  world  and  their  carefulness  in  a  bargain, 
a  just  estimate  of  the  limited  value  of  earthly 
possessions,  and  esteeming  their  faith  more 
than  gold  or  comfort  or  respectability  or  even 
life,  they  deem  it  nobler,  for  the  children's 
sake,  to  bear  the  ills  they  have  in  Russia 


70  AMERICANS 

than  to  fly  to  those  in  America  of  which  they 
know. 

A  Yiddish       There  is  a  play  by  an  Americanised  Russian 

wherein     Jew,  Gordin,  whom  I  met  in  New  York,  which 

D  catch—  mav  jlejp  us  kere  —  Q0t^  Mensch  und  Teufel. 


It  is  crude  in  conception  and  execution,  yet 
it  is  more  than  a  mere  transcript  of  observa 
tion  —  is  indeed,  in  spite  of  its  obvious  re 
semblance  in  theme  and  treatment  to  the 
Book  of  Job,  more  nearly  an  original  com 
position  than  any  other  Yiddish  play  that  I 
have  seen.  In  it,  as  in  the  sacred  Book, 
Satan  appears  as  a  moral  and  religious  censor 
of  the  human  race  ;  but,  whereas  Job  is  an 
Eastern  Emir  of  large  possessions  and  a 
non-  Israelite,  the  central  figure  of  the  modern 
play  is  a  Jewish  scribe  who  earns  no  more 
than  a  few  hundred  dollars  a  year  as  a  copyist 
of  the  law.  Poverty  tested  Job  in  his  Eastern 
world  ;  but  in  America  prosperity  is  perilous 
to  the  Jew.  Accordingly,  in  the  Prologue  of 
God,  Man  and  Devil,  when  Jehovah  directs 
the  attention  of  Satan  to  the  faith  and  zeal 
of  the  Scribe,  the  Adversary  replies  that  it  is 
easy  for  a  Jew  to  be  pious  when  he  is  poor, 
but  were  this  one  made  rich  he  would  curse 
God  to  His  face.  Authority  to  enrich  and 
so  to  tempt  the  Servant  of  the  Lord  is  given 
to  Satan,  who  meets  his  first  difficulty  in  the 


THE  JEWS  71 

refusal  of  the  Scribe  to  accept  proffered  wealth, 
which  has  no  attraction  of  any  kind  for  him. 
But  possession  no  less  than  prohibition  may 
awaken  desire ;  and  when  at  last  the  Scribe 
allows  a  lottery  ticket  to  be  left  on  his  table, 
the  Arch-Tempter  knows  that  he  has  gained 
his  immediate  end.  Ce  nest  que  le  premier 
pas  qui  coute ;  and  Satan  now  has  an  easy 
task.  Of  course,  the  Scribe  wins  a  prize, 
and  the  money  which  comes  to  him  seems 
great  wealth  ;  but  its  possession,  so  far  from 
sating,  stimulates  his  lust  for  gold,  and  soon 
seven  other  devils  worse  than  the  first  find 
place  in  his  heart,  which,  until  his  affliction 
by  prosperity,  had  been  "holy  unto  the 
Lord." 

This  is  a  play  with  a  purpose  ;  and  although  —the 
its  incidents  are  in  Russia,  it  was  written  by  an 
Americanised  Jew,  and  is  acted  by  American 
ised  Jews,  for  the  instruction,  correction  and 
reproof  of  Jews  becoming  Americanised.  It 
is  significant,  therefore,  that  in  this,  as  in 
the  other  Jewish  writings  to  which  I  have 
referred,  it  is  assumed  that  in  America 
immigrant  Jews  get  wealth  and  create  wealth. 
In  fact,  Jews  are  the  largest  productive  force 
in  New  York  and  the  greatest  contributors 
to  its  wealth  ;  and  although  many  of  them 
remain  in  poverty,  and  in  some  parts  of  the 


72  AMERICANS 

Ghetto  there  is  greater  overcrowding  than 
in  any  part  of  the  Pale  or,  indeed,  of  the 
world,  yet  in  America  Jews  nowhere  crowd 
the  workhouse  nor  are  they  ever  a  serious 
drain  on  private  charity.  Those  who  amass 
great  fortunes  are  comparatively  few  ;  but  the 
average  of  material  well-being  is  higher  than 
that  which  Jews  have  reached  elsewhere. 
But  if  to  all  everywhere,  then  especially  to 
Jews  in  America,  there  is  danger  not  only 
in  the  possession,  but  also  in  the  pursuit,  of 
wealth.  The  Jew  must  work  on  Saturday 
and  so  violate  his  Sabbath  and  disregard 
the  services  of  his  synagogue  if  he  is  to 
achieve  success.  Thus  he  begins  by  sins 
of  commission  and  omission,  doing  what  he 
believes  he  ought  not,  and  leaving  undone 
what  he  believes  he  ought,  to  do.  "  Oh, 
if  you  knew,"  says  a  character  in  The 
Children  of  the  Ghetto,  "  if  you  knew  how 
young  lives  are  cramped  and  shipwrecked 
at  the  start  by  this  one  curse  of  the  Sabbath !  " 
Many  of  the  elder  Jews,  especially  those 
from  Russia,  where  the  letter  of  the  law  is 
strictly  observed,  when  this  discovery  comes, 
make  an  heroic  sacrifice.  Prejudice  and 
proscription,  depriving  them  of  the  attractions 
of  public  life  in  Russia,  have  thrown  them 
within  themselves  to  find  happiness  in  their 


THE  JEWS  73 

idealised  hopes ;  and  rather  than  make  gain 
by  denying  their  faith,  they  leave  the  factory 
or  shop  in  which  they  have  found  employment 
and  spend  their  lives  as  pedlars  in  order  that 
they  may  be  free  to  keep  the  feasts  and  fasts, 
the  holy  days  and  holidays  appointed  by  the 
Law.  But  their  children,  almost  without  ex 
ception,  but  seldom  from  conviction,  easily 
surrender ;  and  soon  they  learn  to  despise 
the  ideals  as  well  as  the  practices  which  they 
had  been  taught  to  cherish  in  the  Russian 
Pale. 

A  very  learned  and  sagacious  Scotsman,  Redmteg- 
the  late  Thomas  Davidson,  who  founded  in 
London  the  Fabian  Society,  which  he  left 
when  it  was  captured  by  Socialists,  and  who 
wielded  remarkable  influence  in  the  New 
York  Ghetto  in  the  later  years  of  his  life, 
had  the  insight  and  courage  to  direct  a  number 
of  young  Jews  to  the  study  of  Goethe's  Faust. 
He  did  not  say,  but  in  all  his  teaching  of  young 
Jews  he  showed  that  he  knew,  that  the  story 
of  Gretchen  is  that  of  many  daughters  of 
Israel  in  New  York — that  their  nature  is  funda 
mentally  good,  like  hers,  and  would  suffice 
to  save  them  in  their  old  world  but  is  in 
sufficient  for  the  new  world  of  experience  to 
which  they  have  come — that  like  her,  they  are 
naive  where  they  ought  to  be  wise,  childish 


74  AMERICANS 

where  they  ought  to  be  experienced,  romantic 
where  they  ought  to  be  moral,  dependent  upon 
outside  ritual  and  opinion  where  they  ought 
to  be  self-poised.  And  all  this,  as  Dr. 
Davidson  implied,  is  in  their  case  as  in 
hers,  the  result  of  the  mediaeval  training 
which  prevailed  in  Germany  in  Goethe's  days 
and  prevails  in  Russian  Jewry  to  this  day, 
in  the  synagogue,  the  family  and  the  society 
of  the  Pale.  Against  the  temptations  which 
beset  them  in  their  new  environment,  the 
frail  external  buttresses  of  their  moral  life 
are  powerless,  and  before  they  win  any 
internal  support  the  sad  experience  of 
Gretchen's  life  too  often  becomes  theirs ; 
and  we  can  only  hope  that  in  their  hearts, 
as  in  hers,  God  sits  in  the  form  of  a  right  will, 
and  that  therefore  ultimately,  through  their 
very  disintegration,  they  will  redintegrate 
themselves.  And  may  we  not  also  hope 
for  the  ultimate  redintegration  of  Judaism  in 
America,  where  representatives  of  all  the 
countries  and  customs  of  the  dispersion  are 
gathered  together?  Will  not  a  new  Judaism 
emerge,  full  of  promise  both  for  the  Jew 
and  for  humanity  at  large,  when  the  breadth 
and  practicality  of  the  German  Reformed  Jews, 
the  idealism  and  spirituality  of  the  Russian 
Orthodox  Jews,  and  the  simple  dignity  and 


THE  JEWS  75 

intelligent  regard  for  the  past  of  the  Portuguese 
Sephardic  Jews  shall  have  fused  with  each 
other  and  blended  all  that  is  best  in  Gentile 
culture  with  the  sublimities  of  the  ancient 
faith  ? 

But  meanwhile  the  Jewish  parent  whose  son,  The 
having  abandoned  Orthodoxy,  can  never  say  Period— 
Kaddish  over  his  parents'  grave,  and  whose 
daughter  even  has  become  Pasha  Yisroila,  a 
sinner  in  Israel,  sees  only  that  the  glory  has 
departed  from  his  home  and  his  race ;  and 
the  discovery  makes  a  necropolis  of  his  heart. 
On  the  night  of  the  Jewish  Passover  feast,  I 
was  a  guest  in  a  Boston  Jewish  home.  I  had 
come  from  Russia,  and  therefore  if  I  could  not 
repay  hospitality  with  chiddush — some  new 
thought  on  religious  topics  or  some  ingenious 
explanation  of  a  Biblical  or  talmudic  difficulty 
— as  was  done  in  olden  days,  I  could  at  least 
give  my  hosts  some  news  of  their  own  people 
in  their  native  land.  In  Russia  I  have  wit 
nessed  many  touching  and  inspiring  religious 
rites  in  Jewish  homes.  Through  the  celebra 
tion  of  these  during  many  generations,  the 
sanctity  of  the  home  and  an  idealised  concep 
tion  of  family  life  has  become  an  elevating 
tradition  ;  and  I  have  seen  a  poor  Jew,  the 
object  of  the  derision  of  the  Gentiles  outside, 
throw  off  his  garb  of  shame  in  the  home  and 


76  AMERICANS 

clothe  himself  with  majesty  and  authority  as 
he  prepared  to  perform  the  religious  rites  of 
his  race.  But  on  the  Passover  occasion  to 
which  I  have  referred,  while  the  parents  with 
great  reverence  celebrated  the  deliverance  from 
Egypt  by  solemn  observance  of  the  prescribed 
rites,  the  son,  when  called  upon  to  take  the 
masta,  unleavened  bread,  and  pace  up  and 
down  the  room  with  it  in  symbolic  allusion  to 
the  escape  from  Pharaoh's  bondage,  and  again, 
midway  in  the  service,  to  creep  outside  the 
room  and  then  return  to  typify  the  entrance  of 
Elijah  as  the  harbinger  of  the  Messiah — flatly 
refused ;  and  he  was  upheld  by  the  other 
children  who  openly  derided  the  whole  ritual 
and  the  memories  and  hopes  which  it  was 
intended  to  keep  alive.  The  parents  were 
heartbroken  over  their  children's  apostasy ;  and 
they  had  also  the  mortification  of  knowing  that 
their  parental  authority,  once  supreme,  had 
vanished. 

—and  its  In  Russia,  to  this  day,  Jewish  parents,  often 
through  the  good  offices  of  the  shadchan,  the 
match-maker,  marry  their  children  at  an  early 
age  and  maintain  them,  it  may  be  during  many 
years,  till  they  can  support  themselves,  cheer 
fully  bearing  the  burden  because,  by  early 
marriages,  the  chastity  of  their  sons  and 
daughters  may  be  secured.  But  in  America, 


woes. 


THE  JEWS  77 

the  children  support  their  parents  who  are 
often  pathetically  dependent  upon  them,  even 
as  interpreters  of  the  speech  and  customs  of 
the  people  amongst  whom  they  have  chosen 
to  dwell ;  and  as,  in  the  altered  circumstances, 
early  marriages  are  the  height  of  imprudence 
in  those  who  wish  to  succeed,  the  parents  see 
another  of  the  safeguards  of  the  morality,  and 
often  see  also  the  morality,  of  their  children 
swept  away.  Nor  is  another  religion  or  a 
higher  morality  easily  or  often  found.  For 
although,  outwardly,  the  Jewish  immigrants, 
and  especially  the  younger  generation  of  them, 
come  quickly  to  resemble  the  Americans 
amongst  whom  they  live,  they  remain  very 
unlike  them  in  their  inner  life,  in  those  deeper 
things  which  spontaneously  express  themselves. 
Thus  they  are  prevented  from  intimate  relations 
with  the  best  Americans,  and  are  apt  to  come 
into  closest  contact  with  the  residual  heathenism 
of  the  new  civilisation  into  which  they  have 
come ;  and  often  it  is  this  which  makes  the 
most  vital  impression  upon  them  during  their 
first  years  here,  taking  hold  of  the  innermost 
sources  of  their  lives  and  colouring  their  beliefs 
and  their  acts  through  a  hundred  hidden  veins. 
Small  wonder  is  it  that  the  elders,  many  of 
them,  "  curse  their  day  "  !  The  Jewish  youths, 
indeed,  seem  to  be  content ;  but  under  even 


78  AMERICANS 

their  heedlessness  there  still  broods  silently  the 
deep  religious  and  moral  instinct  of  the  real 
Hebrew  heart.  In  the  democracy,  are  adequate 
efforts  being  made  to  meet  the  needs  of  these 
Jews  who  have  lost  their  guiding  star  of  the 
past  and  are  seeking  a  new  ideal  in  the  great 
night  that  has  fallen  upon  their  souls  ?  Or  are 
native  Americans  heedless,  or  even  unaware, 
of  the  aliens'  need?  And  is  their  own  great 
need,  a  man  of  prophetic  insight  and  poetic 
gifts  who  should  come  to  them 

"Singing  songs  unbidden, 
Till  the  world  is  wrought 
To  sympathy  with  hopes  and  fears  it  heeded  not"? 


CHAPTER  VI. 
RACIAL  PREJUDICES. 

"So  grow  the  strifes  and  lusts  which  make  earth's  war, 

So  grieve  poor  cheated  hearts  and  flow  salt  tears ; 
So  wax  the  passions,  envies,  angers,  hates  ; 

So  years  chase  blood-stained  years 
With  wild  red  feet." — EDWIN  ARNOLD. 

A  vast  Prejudice— Inevitable  Retort— Effects— A  Test  of 
Democracy — The  Negro — A  new  Feud — The  first  Clash — 
No  Afro-Americans — Exceeding  the  Chinese  Wall — An 
international  Problem. 

IT  has  been  shrewdly  remarked  that  English-  A  common 
men  and  Americans  have  in  common  a 
passion  to  set  the  world  right  and,  in  attempt 
ing  this,  to  concentrate  upon  other  people  rather 
than  themselves,  trusting  meanwhile  that  God 
will  help  those  who  forcibly  help  some  one  else. 
As  an  Englishman,  I  am  aware  that  Americans 
have  at  hand  a  tu  quoque  to  hurl  at  my  head  in 
reply  to  the  criticisms  which  I  am  about  to 
offer  ;  but,  in  specialising  upon  American  short 
comings,  I  am  encouraged  by  the  reflection 
that  I  thereby  give  evidence  of  a  characteristic 
which  is  American  no  less  than  English  and 


79 


8o  AMERICANS 

which  my  association  with  Americans  has 
perhaps  tended  to  emphasise.  I  will,  therefore, 
preface  my  strictures  with  the  words  of  a  sturdy 
American  colonist,  Nathanael  Ward,  who  wrote 
to  King  George  :  "  I  am  resolved  to  display 
my  unfurled  soul  in  your  very  face  and  to  storm 
you  with  volleys  of  loyalty  and  love." 
jews—  Inevitably,  when  new  moral  sanctions  are 

being  sought,  there  is  danger  that  some  of  the 
fundamental  and  permanent  foundations  of 
morality  will  be  ignored ;  and  when  I  consider 
how  deep  and  universal  is  the  upheaval  in 
which  immigrants  in  general,  and  Jews  in 
particular,  are  involved  by  their  transference 
to  America,  the  remarkable  fact  to  me  who 
have  seen  much,  and  heard  more,  of  their 
demoralisation,  is  that  these  foundations  have 
been  so  little  disturbed.  I  recollect  Jews  whom 
I  have  met  in  America — men  like  Secretary 
Straus,  Judge  Mack  and  Rabbi  Felix  Adler, 
prominent  in  politics,  education  and  philan 
thropy,  who  have  settled  the  ancient  quarrel 
between  the  life  of  thought  and  the  life  of 
action  by  leading  both — and  many  others  un 
known  to  fame  with  whom  I  have  lived  in 
social  settlements  and  in  their  homes,  whose 
lives  are  noble  and  serviceable  from  end  to 
end  ;  and  as  I  consider  that  the  Jewish  race 
has  proved  itself  the  greatest  historic  influence 


RACIAL  PREJUDICES  81 

to  affect  beneficially  every  aspect  of  modern 
civilisation,  I  realise  that  some  Jews  are  already 
of  the  forces  that  are  maintaining  American 
national  ideals,  and  I  grow  confident  that,  were 
all  who  are  pouring  into  the  country  properly 
related  to  the  best  American  life,  it  would  be 
with  the  co-operation,  if  not  even  under  the 
leadership,  of  Jews  that  America  would  marshal 
herself  for  a  new  intellectual  and  moral  advance. 
But,  unfortunately,  the  great  mass  of  Americans 
say,  with  placid  contentment,  that,  as  the 
immigrant  has  been  given  the  rights  of  Ameri 
can  citizenship,  all  their  obligation  towards  him 
has  been  fulfilled ;  and  so  they  abandon  him  to 
the  worst  influences  of  his  new  environment, 
and  too  often  his  citizenship  becomes  a  menace 
to  the  State. 

Nowhere  is  citizenship  a  harder  problem  than  _given 
in   the   America   of  to-day ;    and   nowhere   is  ™uutc^t 
citizenship    more    heedlessly    conferred.     Theenoush- 
cosmopolitan  population,  diverse  in  language, 
race  and  religion,  and  divided  and  subdivided 
in    industrial   occupations    and    interests,    has 
created  the  finest,  the  most  intricate  and  the 
most  delicate  of  all  worlds,  in  which  failure  as 
a  citizen  involves  greater  disaster  than  in  any 
narrower    and    simpler    world,    while    success 
demands  a  more  sensitive  moral  judgment,  a 
more  creative  imagination  and  a  deeper  sense 
6 


82  AMERICANS 

of  the  meaning  and  dignity  of  life.  Yet  so 
far  from  any  adequate  attempt  being  made 
either  to  keep  immigrants  out  of  the  country, 
or,  when  they  have  been  let  in,  to  fashion 
them  into  capable  citizens,  they  are  freely 
admitted  and  then  are  sharply  shut  off 
by  racial  prejudices  from  the  opportunity 
of  their  amplest  personal  development.  Of 
their  presence  Americans  say,  as  the  witty 
Frenchman  said  of  Catholicism  in  his  own 
country  :  "  We  can  neither  do  with  nor  with 
out  it." 
The  This  prejudice  asserts  itself  against  the  lews. 

inevitable     ~  .    f       .      .  .  . 

Effect.  Certainly,  it  is  not  as  intense  as  that  against 
which  in  earlier  times  the  Jew  has  stood,  and 
in  other  countries  in  our  own  day  the  Jew  still 
stands,  helpless  and  dismayed.  No  more  has 
he  to  endure  great  personal  disrespect  and 
mockery  ;  no  more  is  he  subjected  to  positive 
ridicule  and  humiliation.  Yet  prejudice  against 
him  exists  and  must  be  accepted  as  a  fact, 
deplorable  in  its  extent  and  fraught  with 
incalculable  danger.  And  even  in  America, 
Jews,  not  excepting  the  most  successful,  many 
of  whom  I  have  closely  scrutinised,  fail  to  shake 
themselves  entirely  free  from  the  traces  of 
self-questioning,  self-disparagement  and  lower 
ing  of  ideals  which  ever  accompany  repression 
and  are  bred  in  men  who  live  in  an  atmosphere 


RACIAL  PREJUDICES  83 

of   contempt   however   carefully  the   contempt 
may  be  veiled. 

Evidence  of  a  vast  prejudice  abounds  on  Anti- 
every  hand.  It  finds  expression  in  the  term  i^J" 
"  Sheeny,"  which  is  American  for  Jew. 
"  Do  you  think  that  I  would  go  and  hear 
a  Sheeny  talk  ? "  an  American,  whom  I  had 
not  supposed  to  be  illiberal,  asked  me,  not 
without  scorn,  when  I  had  suggested  that 
he  should  come  with  me  to  a  Reformed 
synagogue  to  hear  a  famous  Rabbi  preach. 
4 'The  house  is  full  to  overflowing,"  I  over 
heard  an  hotel  clerk  say  to  an  applicant  for 
a  room  who,  like  myself,  had  neglected  to 
make  arrangements  in  advance  of  arrival. 
But  when  those  who  were  behind,  and  of 
whom  I  was  one,  were  preparing  to  go  else 
where,  we  were  told  that  there  was  accom 
modation  for  us  all.  At  the  cost  of  a  lie  the 
clerk,  acting  under  orders,  had  protected  us 
from  contact  with  a  Jew.  And  the  Jew, 
doubtless,  merely  pretended  to  be  deceived, 
and  without  any  pretence  was  embittered, 
by  the  ruse. 

One  of  the   most   charming  women  in  the  —ail  in- 
country     whose     women     are     supposed     to c 
excel  in  charm,  proved  to  be  a  Jewess.     Her 
features  did  not  bewray  her,  and  for   a  time 
she  found  no  necessity  to   declare   her   race ; 


84  AMERICANS 

but  when  at  last,  under  an  obligation  of 
honour,  she  made  it  known,  she  was  treated 
as  a  pariah  by  many  of  those  who  had  been 
her  most  trusted  friends.  A  professor  at  a 
college  upon  which  he  sheds  lustre,  with 
whom  I  once  discussed  the  racial  problem, 
has  a  daughter  who  came  home  in  tears 
complaining  that  her  companions  had 
charged  her  with  having  crucified  their 
Lord ;  it  then  dawned  upon  the  sensitive 
soul  of  the  child  that,  although  alike  in 
heart  and  life  and  longing  to  her  playmates, 
she  was  shut  out  forever  from  their  world 
by  a  veil  which  even  her  father,  for  all  his 
fame,  could  neither  tear  down  nor  creep 
through.  Of  course,  isolated  instances  such 
as  these  may  be  found  in  every  land  where 
Jews  are  found ;  but  in  America,  more  clearly 
than  in  any  other  country  that  I  know  except 
Russia,  they  are  symptoms  of  a  disease  that 
threatens  the  life  of  the  nation.  I  met  an 
old  fellow-student  who  holds  an  important 
academic  position  in  America.  He  finds 
that  there,  as  never  in  England,  he  has  to 
keep  strict  guard  over  himself  to  prevent 
himself  from  being  vulgarised  by  anti-Semitic 
feeling,  even  although  the  Jews  of  his 
acquaintance  impress  him  as  being  worthy 
of  esteem.  While  I  was  his  guest,  it 


RACIAL  PREJUDICES  85 

happened  that  a  Jew  bought  a  house  in  the 
street  in  which  we  were.  Great  was  the 
indignation  and  loud  were  the  protests  of 
the  other  householders,  although  all  of  them 
confessed  that  they  knew  nothing  against 
the  man  except  his  race.  In  many  cities, 
as,  for  example,  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  property 
in  the  best  residential  districts  cannot  be 
acquired  by  a  Jew,  and  any  other  who  buys 
must  come  under  legal  obligation  not  to 

sell  or   lease    "to   boarding-house  keepers    or 

J» 
ews. 

Everywhere  that  men  are  there  is  a  natural  —a  Blot 
clustering  of  social  grades.  In  this  there  is  racy.eir 
not  necessarily  any  violation  of  democratic 
equality,  just  as  there  is  none  in  giving  to 
each  man  a  coat  that  fits  instead  of  giving 
to  all  men  coats  of  one  size.  But  where 
social  groupings  and  social  ostracisms  are 
determined  by  race  distinctions,  and  racial 
prejudices  exclude  men  from  society  for 
which  they  are  personally  fit,  the  great 
democratic  principles — liberty,  fraternity  and 
equality  —  are  all  denied,  and  especially 
fraternity  which  is  the  test  and  touchstone 
of  democratic  power  and  progress.  To  give 
universal  liberty  is  to  afford  every  man  the 
highest  possible  scope  for  the  play  and 
development  of  his  personality.  Equality 


86  AMERICANS 

also  means  exactly  that ;  and  racial  prejudice, 
which  is  itself  the  denial  of  fraternity,  denies 
to  all  who  are  prejudged  exactly  that  liberty 
and  that  equality.  American  democracy, 
weighed  in  the  balances  which  immigrants 
provide,  is  found  wanting.  As  voters,  aliens 
are  of  interest  to  the  unprincipled  politicians 
who  tend  to  deform  them.  When,  as  men, 
they  claim  access  to  those  by  whom  they 
might  be  transformed,  they  are  repulsed. 
They  ask  for  bread  and  are  given  a  stone. 
And  votes  are  as  dangerous  weapons  in  the 
hands  of  men  to  whom  full  opportunity  of 
becoming  enlightened,  honest  and  patriotic 
has  been  denied,  as  stones  were  in  a  sling 
which  a  Jew  called  David  used  with  deadly 
effect. 

The  Negro  Against  all  alien  groups,  and  not  against 
"  Jews  alone,  prejudice  exists ;  and  negroes 
are  the  largest  alien  class,  although  the  term 
is  seldom  held  to  include  them.  The  negro 
problem  is  a  race  problem.  Here  I  refer 
to  it  simply  in  its  relation  to  immigration, 
which  is  our  present  theme.  Owing  to  new 
economic  forces  which  are  at  work,  there  is  a 
new  demand  for  labourers  in  the  South ;  and 
in  all  the  States,  from  Virginia  to  Texas,  an 
earnest  and  systematic  effort  is  being  made 
to  induce  them  to  come.  One  of  the 


RACIAL  PREJUDICES  87 

members  of  the  Committee  on  Immigration 
recently  appointed  by  Congress  is  reported 
to  have  expressed  the  fear  that  a  large  influx 
of  European  immigrants  to  the  South  would 
occasion  "a  clash"  between  them  and  the 
negroes.  There  is  as  great  danger  from 
the  migration  of  labourers  from  the  Northern 
to  the  Southern  States.  Northerners  have 
always  claimed  to  be  dominated  by  higher 
ethical  principles  than  Southerners  in 
reference  to  the  negro.  But  fundamental 
race  antipathy  exists  in  the  North ;  and  if 
it  is  not  accompanied  by  friction,  that  is 
simply  because  there  is  little  social  and 
political  contact  of  the  two  races.  When, 
and  in  proportion  as,  such  contact  comes,  the 
Northerner,  who  has  not  the  Southerner's 
comprehension  of  the  negroes,  shows  himself 
less  tolerant  of  their  faults  and  more  hostile 
to  their  claims  than  ever  the  Southerner  was. 
The  negro  problem  is  ever  shifting  its  phases  ; 
and  now  that  industrial  prosperity  is  attract 
ing  the  working  classes  of  the  Northern 
States  and  immigrants  from  abroad  to  the 
Southern  States,  the  race  feud  in  the  South 
is  slowly  becoming  one  between  the 
Northerners  who  fought  to  free  the  slave, 
on  the  one  side,  against  the  negro  whom 
with  shedding  of  blood  they  freed,  on  the 


88  AMERICANS 

other  side ;  and  the  Northerners  now  have 
alien  immigrants  and  the  negroes  have 
their  old  Southern  masters  as  their  respec 
tive  allies. 

This  new  feud  is  only  at  its  commencement ; 
but  it  threatens  to  be  as  bitter  as  ever  the  old 
struggle  was,  even  in  the  dark  reconstruction 
days  that  immediately  succeeded  the  Civil  War. 
The  first  "  clash  "  was  heard  by  all  the  world  in 
the  Atlanta  riots.  Commenting  upon  these,  the 
author  of  The  Autobiography  of  a  Southerner 
says :  "  There  is  a  dark  and  unfathomable 
abyss  of  race  feeling.  While  I  write,  my  hope 
recedes  and  the  pathos  of  my  country  deepens. 
This  is  the  most  serious  and  threatening 
problem  with  which  the  American  nation  is 
faced."  He  traces  the  riots  to  the  machina 
tions  of  unprincipled  politicians.  But  he  is  on 
the  wrong  scent  unless  indeed,  as  is  possible,  he 
means  by  politicians  the  labour  leaders.  The 
new  industrialism,  reinforced  by  the  old  race 
hatred,  was  the  cause.  Atlanta  has  become 
an  industrial  centre  of  some  importance  and 
has  attracted  numbers  of  those  whom  the 
negroes  call  "po'  white  trash,"  whose  bitterness 
gave  the  riot  its  intensity  and  scope.  There 
were,  indeed,  rapes,  real  and  fictitious,  to  be 
avenged.  But  when  Southern  men  take 
revenge  for  such  offences,  they  hunt  down 


RACIAL  PREJUDICES  89 

the  individual  who  has  committed  the  crime 
and,  when  possible,  bring  him  before  the 
victim  to  get  evidence  of  guilt  before  applying 
lynch  law.  At  Atlanta,  however,  there  was 
undiscerning  fury  against  a  race.  The  new 
alignment  to  which  I  have  referred  is  already 
in  process.  A  committee  of  Southern  negroes 
and  Southern  white  men  has  been  formed  for 
the  protection  of  the  negro  race.  Booker  T. 
Washington  pronounces  the  formation  of  this 
committee  the  most  important  step  ever  taken 
by  Southern  white  men  for  the  solution  of 
the  race  problem.  But  it  is  merely  a  new 
phase  of  the  old  problem.  It  is  the  defence 
of  the  negro  by  the  Southern  white  man  of 
the  old  slave-holding  class  which  the  negro 
traditionally  respects,  against  the  "po'  white 
trash  "  from  the  North  and  from  abroad. 

This  struggle  is  not  restricted  to  the  Southern  Spon 
States.  In  the  North,  side  by  side  with  a 
general  altruistic  sentiment,  there  is  a  quiet 
but  growing  movement  adverse  to  the  social 
and  economic  advancement  of  the  negro  ;  and 
when  Northerners  group  together  in  the  South 
and  form  a  majority  of  the  population  of  any 
town,  their  prejudice  asserts  itself  in  measures 
more  inimical  to  the  negroes  than  Southerners 
ever  adopted,  as,  for  example,  at  Mena,  Arkan 
sas,  where  at  least  two-thirds  of  the  residents 


90  AMERICANS 

are  Northerners,  and  where,  in  consequence, 
no  negroes  are  allowed  to  reside  or  even  to 
pass  a  night.  In  the  Middle  States,  there  is 
a  stricter  social  ostracism  of  the  negro  and  an 
active  and  open  opposition  to  his  industrial 
and  political  ascendancy ;  and  recently,  when 
negroes  were  being  imported  as  labourers  to 
the  State  of  Illinois,  the  labour  unions  took 
action,  and  the  Governor  of  the  State  threat 
ened  that,  if  the  migration  continued,  the  negroes 
would  be  encountered  at  the  frontier  of  the 
State  with  Catling  guns.  More  recent  events 
in  that  State  have  served  to  illustrate  still 
more  vividly  the  violent  racial  antipathy 
that  exists.  And  it  has  to  be  borne  in  mind 
that  in  America  there  is  no  differentiation  of 
the  offspring  of  mixed  parentage  from  that 
of  parents  who  are  both  of  pure  negro 
blood.  I  found  "  Eurasians"  in  India  and 
4 'coloured"  people  in  South  Africa,  separate 
from  " natives"  in  church  and  school  and  in 
social  life,  and  asserting  superiority  to  them. 
But  I  have  found  no  Afro-Americans,  only 
American  negroes.  All  who  are  connected 
by  blood,  however  remotely,  with  the  negroes, 
and  however  white  they  may  be  of  skin  and 
temperament  and  thought,  are  forced  to  rank 
with  the  African  race.  Amongst  them  are 
many  scholarly  and  cultured  men,  some  of 


RACIAL  PREJUDICES  91 

whom,  such  as  Professor  Du  Bois,  have  studied 
with  distinction  in  American  and  German 
universities.  All  their  affinities  are  with  the 
whites  who  are  no  whiter  than  they,  yet  all 
their  associations  must  be  with  blacks.  These 
men,  with  grim  determination,  some  of  them 
not  without  bitterness,  are  educating  and  train 
ing  the  race  into  which  they  have  been  thrust 
for  the  struggle  with  the  race  that  has  thrust 
them  forth. 

Immigration    from    Oriental     countries   hasAWorid- 

!  r  o         Problem. 

attracted  attention  by  reason  of  events  at  San 
Francisco.  There,  East  and  West  have  come 
into  touch  with  each  other ;  the  scouts  have 
already  exchanged  shots,  and  the  world's 
greatest  conflict  is  hourly  growing  more 
imminent.  It  is  claimed  that  the  economic 
demands  of  Japanese  and  Chinese  immigrants 
are  so  few  that  they  threaten  the  economic 
standard  of  living  for  the  working  classes  of 
the  community.  The  argument  has  special 
force  in  a  country  that  has  a  high  protective 
tariff.  If  the  wage-earner  cannot  import  cheap 
goods,  the  capitalist  should  not  be  free  to 
import  cheap  labour  from  abroad.  Protection 
should  be  for  the  equal  benefit  of  all  classes. 
But  the  demands  of  the  labour  unions  are 
reinforced  by  race  prejudice,  which  has  found 
expression  in  the  indignities  and  insults  that 


92  AMERICANS 

have    been    heaped    upon    immigrants     from 
China  and  Japan  ;  and  the  Outlook,  one  of  the 
least  sensational  of  all  American  journals,  says 
that  an  attempt  is  being  made  to  build  along 
the    Pacific   a   wall   of  racial   prejudice,   more 
enduring   than    the   famous   Chinese  Wall,   to 
prevent   all   free   commercial    and    intellectual 
intercourse  between  this  Western  nation  and 
those  nations  of  the  East.     In  San  Francisco 
I     found     a     "  Japanese  -  Korean     Exclusion 
League " ;    and  at   Seattle  I  learned  that  this 
league  had  sent  its  representative,   Mr.  A.  E. 
Fowler,    to   organise    branches    there   and   in 
other  parts  of  the   State  of  Washington.     In 
Collier  s   Magazine,    I    find    a    description   of 
this  man  :    "  A  labour   agitator — Japanese  his 
specialty.     He  has  a  compelling  kind  of  crude 
eloquence  and  his  one  idea  is — hatred  of  the 
Oriental."     This    race    hatred    burns    fiercely 
along  the  whole  Pacific  Coast.     It  reaches  to 
Canada  and  is  not  less  intense  in  British  than 
in    American    breasts.     Immigration    is   more 
than   an    American    problem.     It   is   a   world 
problem.     As  such,  its   effective  regulation   is 
only  to  be  found  in  international  treaties.      It 
is   probable   that,    after  the   Committee    upon 
Immigration     has     submitted     its     report    to 
Congress,  the  American  President  will  call  an 
international  conference  to  consider  the  whole 


RACIAL  PREJUDICES  93 

subject.  Italy  proposed  such  a  plan  informally 
some  years  ago,  and  Greece  and  Sweden  are 
known  to  be  ready  to  join  the  Powers  in  some 
agreement  that  will  check  the  emigration  of 
their  citizens.  America,  as  the  country  which 
receives  the  most  immigrants,  would  have  the 
best  right  to  be  heard  at  such  a  conference  ; 
but,  unfortunately,  America  does  not  know 
her  own  mind.  There  are  Restrictionist, 
Selectionist  and  Exclusionist  camps ;  and, 
perhaps,  in  the  multitude  of  counsellors  wisdom 
will  be  found.  But  there  are  no  Expulsionists ; 
and  it  is  certain  that  the  millions  of  immigrants 
already  in  America  are  here  to  remain.  The 
immediate  need,  therefore,  is  that  these  should 
be  Americanised.  Fortunately  for  America, 
social  settlements  and  other  agencies  are, 
without  prejudice,  addressing  themselves  to 
this  task. 


sation. 


CHAPTER   VII. 

SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS. 

"  May  I  reach 

That  purest  heaven,  be  to  other  souls 
The  cup  of  strength  in  some  great  agony." 

GEORGE  ELIOT. 

Outer  Service— Inner  Relationship—"  Unsettlements  "?— Charge 
of  Irreligion — Jewish  Sabbath  and  Christian  Sunday — Hull 
House  and  South  End  House — "America's  one  Saint" — 
Reformers  in  a  hurry— Influence  of  "  Head  Workers." 

Compen-  HAVE  described  the  social  injustice  that 

eofi/-»i-»  •* 

JL  is  inflicted  upon  large  classes  of  " aliens" 
by  the  racial  prejudices  with  which  large  classes 
of  " natives"  are  afflicted.  It  is  Meredith,  is 
it  not,  who  says  that  the  compensation  of  in 
justice  is  that  in  that  dark  ordeal  we  gather 
the  worthiest  around  us  ?  In  American  social 
settlements,  the  worthiest  citizens  are  rendering 
to  immigrants  and  others  the  service  which  we 
have  seen  to  be  required — bringing  them  under 
the  play  of  the  higher  influences  of  American 
civilisation ;  uniting  the  scattered  industrial, 
social,  racial  and  religious  elements  that  are 

94 


SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS          95 

thrown  together  to  make  up  the  community 
and  the  nation  ;  giving  to  all  equal  opportunity 
for  the  development  of  each  personality  ;  and 
enabling  them  to  hold  family  life  together  while 
they  become  part  of  the  new  national  life  into 
which  they  have  come. 

This  is  a  national  service  which  is  rendered  The  Plan 
by  the  men  and  women  who,  in  settlements,  scope— 
identify  themselves  with  the  life  and  interests 
of  these  and  other  classes  of  the  community, 
and  by  individual  and  organised  effort  guide 
them  into  channels  in  which  the  prevailing 
influence  is  the  common  good.  Their  achieve 
ments  range  from  personal  influence  upon  in 
dividual  lives  to  collective  influence  upon 
national  legislation,  and  the  instinct  of  self- 
preservation  should  suffice  to  awaken  national 
interest  in  them  and  their  work.  Many  of  the 
immigrants  come  from  countries  in  which  the 
Government  has  destroyed,  in  its  subjects,  all 
respect  for  objective  law.  Where  no  law  is 
fixed,  none  can  be  sacred ;  and  many  aliens, 
up  to  the  moment  that  they  embarked  for 
America,  have  known  no  other  law  than  the 
arbitrary  will  and  the  changing  sentiments  of 
officials  in  the  Russian  Pale.  The  settlements, 
many  of  which  have  arranged  their  plan  and 
scope  with  special  reference  to  immigrants,  and 
are  practically  institutions  for  the  Americanisa- 


96  AMERICANS 

tion  of  the  foreigner,  take  these  restless  and 
lawless  spirits  on  their  arrival  on  American 
soil  and  teach  them  that  in  a  democracy  liberty 
and  law  go  together,  that  the  rights  of  citizen 
ship  imply  duties,  and  that  government  is  of 
the  people,  by  the  people,  for  the  people.  The 
Educational  Alliance  to  which  I  have  already 
referred,  and  which  is  rightly  included  in  the 
list  of  settlements  issued  by  the  College  Settle 
ments  Association,  every  Friday  at  a  patriotic 
demonstration  gathers  800  or  1000  children 
who  have  recently  arrived  from  Russia  and 
pledges  them  to  allegiance  to  the  American 
flag  in  the  following  comprehensive  formula : — 
"  Flag  of  our  Great  Republic,  inspirer  in 
battle,  guardian  of  our  homes,  whose  stars  and 
stripes  stand  for  Bravery,  Purity,  Truth,  and 
Union,  we  salute  thee !  We,  the  natives  of 
distant  lands  who  find  rest  under  thy  folds,  do 
pledge  our  hearts,  our  lives,  our  sacred  honour 
to  love  and  protect  thee,  our  Country,  and 
the  Liberty  of  the  American  people  forever !  " 
By  bringing  such  influences  to  bear  upon  the 
imperfectly  assimilated  mass  of  the  population, 
settlements  have  done  much  to  give  a  legiti 
mate  direction  to  the  great  social  forces  of 
democracy  and  cosmopolitanism  which  else  had 
been  even  more  disturbing  as  a  factor  in  the 
life  of  the  nation  than  we  have  seen  them  to 


SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS          97 

be  ;  and  in  proportion  as  the  nation  perceives 
the  greatness  and  glory  of  this  result,  the  task 
will  evoke  still  deeper  enthusiasm  and  elicit  a 
more  adequate  response. 

To  estimate  settlement  work,  one  must  know  — and  the 
individual  settlement  workers  and  corporate 
settlement  life.  Always,  it  is  out  of  the  central 
absolute  self-core  that  a  man's  real  influence 
comes ;  and  especially  in  the  case  of  a  com 
munity  of  educated  men  and  women  who  have 
made  a  breach  with  their  own  environment 
and  established  their  home  amongst  people 
whom  they  seek  by  neighbourliness  to  help 
to  social,  intellectual  and  moral  betterment,  a 
large  part  of  any  good  that  may  be  accom 
plished  must  simply  irradiate  in  ways  hidden 
to  their  self- consciousness,  without  deeds, 
without  words  of  counsel  or  teaching,  simply 
through  the  atmosphere  of  a  higher  order  of 
life.  Next  in  importance  to  the  personal 
character  of  each  worker  is  the  adjustment 
of  all  the  workers  to  each  other  and  to  their 
work  in  the  settlement  in  which  they  reside  ; 
for  the  influence  on  the  people  outside  its  walls 
can  be  no  better  or  more  real  than  the  relation 
of  the  residents  under  its  own  roof.  Settle 
ments  have  been  compared  to  the  mediaeval 
monasteries  ;  and  it  holds  of  these,  as  it  held 
of  those,  that  the  standard  of  outer  service  can 
7 


98  AMERICANS 

be  no  higher  than  the  tone  of  the  inner  relation 
ship.  What  any  settlement  has  to  contribute 
to  the  neighbourhood  is  determined  by  what 
it  is  in,  and  has  for,  itself. 

Ajewish—  The  charge  is  frequently  brought  against 
settlement  workers  that  they  are  not  religious 
and  that  they  eliminate  all  religious  elements 
from  their  work.  "  I  call  the  settlements  un- 
settlements," — a  young  and  Orthodox  Jew — a 
rara  avis — said  to  me,  attempting  &jeu  de  mots, 
11  because  they  unsettle  the  religious  faith  of 
my  race."  His  contention,  as  I  understood  it, 
is  not  without  force.  Immigrants  in  general, 
and  Jews  in  particular,  have  a  passion  for 
being  quickly  Americanised.  They  are  at 
tracted  to  settlements  by  the  means  to  that 
end  which  they  provide.  Their  ambition  is 
to  be  genuine  American  citizens,  and  the  settle 
ment  resident  is,  in  their  eyes,  the  representative 
citizen.  When,  therefore,  they  whose  whole 
religion  has  been  ritual  find  no  religious  ex 
ercises  of  any  kind  in  the  settlement,  they  infer 
that  the  resident  has  no  religion.  Religion, 
therefore,  is  not  necessary  to  American  citizen 
ship — quod  erat  demonstrandum.  This  argu 
ment  was  confided  to  me  when  I  was  living 
in  the  University  Settlement  in  New  York. 
The  district  in  which  this  settlement  is 
established  is  almost  entirely  Hebrew.  Of 


SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS          99 

the  thousands  whom  I  met  in  the  institution, 
there  was  not  one,  excepting  some  of  the 
workers,  who  was  not  a  Jew.  On  neither 
the  Christian  Sunday  nor  the  Jewish  Sabbath 
was  there  any  sort  of  sacred  service.  The 
ordinary  Sunday  programme  is  as  follows  : — 
10  a.m.,  meetings  of  four  clubs  and  an  athletic 
association;  2.30  p.m.,  meeting  of  the  Central 
Federated  Labour  Union  ;  3  p.m.,  a  children's 
entertainment  and  meetings  of  four  clubs  and 
a  choral  society ;  and  at  8  p.m.,  a  popular 
concert  and  meetings  of  six  clubs.  On  the 
Jews'  Sabbath,  which  commences  on  Friday 
evening,  there  are  meetings  of  literary,  dramatic 
and  whist  clubs,  and  dancing  classes.  At  Hull 
House,  Chicago,  when  I  was  there,  a  new 
venture  of  a  "  Five-cent  Theatre,"  in  which 
"living  pictures,"  not  of  sacred  incidents,  were 
shown,  was  started  on  a  Sunday  evening,  and 
attracted  Italians,  Greeks,  and  Jews.1  The 
settlements,  I  know,  are  between  Scylla  and 
Charybdis.  Christian  services  would  savour 
of  proselytism  and  offend  those  for  whom  the 
settlement  exists  ;  and  Jewish  services  would 
suggest  apostasy  and  offend  the  Christians  by 
whom  the  settlement  is  maintained.  But  it 
would  seem  that  a  middle  course  is  not  steered 
by  making  Sunday  and  Sabbath  days  of  un- 
1  See  Appendix  III. 


ioo  AMERICANS 

interrupted  entertainment.  Nor  does  the  fact 
that  Jewish  settlements  devote  the  Sabbath 
to  religious  services  for  old  and  young,  and 
for  "Orthodox"  and  "  Reformed"  Jews,  make 
the  danger  less.  The  simultaneous  entertain 
ments,  say  the  elder  Jews,  keep  the  young 
from  the  observance  of  their  own  sacred  rites  ; 
and  the  omission  of  sacred  rites  in  the  Christian 
settlements,  which  are  regarded  as  distinctively 
American,  is  accepted  by  the  Jewish  youth  as 
proof  that  the  observance  of  religious  ceremonies 
—and  a  is  merely  a  sign  of  being  still  un-Americanised. 

Gentile—          T  ^i  •  i 

In  a  Chicago  newspaper  I  came  across  a 
reference  to  an  attack  that  had  been  made, 
in  a  Christian  denominational  magazine,  upon 
Hull  House  Settlement  as  an  irreligious  institu 
tion  "  still  surrounded  by  an  undiminished 
tide  of  vice  and  degradation,"  and  as  being 
in  unpleasant  contrast  with  a  mission  station 
which  "  in  a  similar  neighbourhood  had  revolu 
tionised  the  condition  of  things."  I  know 
nothing  of  the  mission  station  referred  to  ;  but 
certainly  Hull  House  has  not  rid  its  district  of 
vice  and  degradation.  One  of  the  most  vicious 
places  of  entertainment  which  I  came  across  in 
America  I  found  practically  cheek  by  jowl  with 
this  settlement.  But  Hull  House  is  not,  and 
has  different  aims  and  methods  from,  a  mission 
station.  It  has  wisely  resisted  the  temptation 


SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS         101 

to  lay  stress  upon  what  Miss  Jane  Addams  has 
called  geographical  salvation.  Its  endeavour 
has  been  to  make  its  neighbourhood  realise 
that  it  belongs  to  the  City  as  a  whole,  and  can 
improve  only  as  the  City  improves  ;  and  it  has 
not  been  unsuccessful  in  its  endeavour  to  create 
a  consciousness  of  solidarity.  —Charge 

The  charge  of  irreligion  is,  however,  serious,  settle* 
I    am   old-fashioned    enough    to   believe   thatments~ 
without  a  religious  motive  no  life  can  rise  to 
great  heights  of  self-abnegation,  far  less  achieve 

"  The  most  difficult  of  tasks,  to  keep 
Heights  which  the  soul  is  competent  to  gain," 

and  that  no  community  which  is  not  welded 
together  by  a  religious  faith  can  find  the  glow 
and  inspiration  necessary  for  sustained  altruistic 
effort.  Religious  features,  as  they  are  ordin 
arily  understood,  are  indeed  conspicuous  by 
their  absence  at  Hull  House,  as  elsewhere. 
Social  settlements,  in  which  I  do  not  include 
churches  which  have  absorbed  some  of  the 
methods  of  these,  are  a  particular  sign  of  a 
general  attempt  that  is  being  made  in  America, 
and  not  in  America  alone,  to  restore  souls  to 
order  and  righteousness  by  enlightening  vice 
and  lawlessness.  This,  in  turn,  is  a  token  of 
a  superficial  notion  of  evil  which  forgets  or 
ignores  the  natural  instinct  of  perversity  which 


102  AMERICANS 

is  contained  in  the  human  heart ;  and,  owing 
to     this     fundamental     error,     many    fanciful 
extravagances  are  mingled   with  great  gener 
osity  in  religious,  educational  and  legislative, 
as   well   as   in    social    work.     In    America   in 
general,    and    particularly    in    New    England, 
which  at  first  was  Calvinistic,  many  are  seeking 
to  correct  an  undiscriminating   narrowness  by 
an    equally    undiscriminating    breadth.      The 
great  positives  of  the  Puritan  theology  have 
been  abandoned  before   the  greater  positives 
of  any   new   theology   have   been   won ;    and 
undoubtedly  many  settlements,   having  "  sup 
pressed  sin  "  (to  adopt  Kenan's  phrase),  do,  in 
their   work,    refuse   its    remedy — doubting   its 
poison,  they  merely  film  over  its  wound.     And, 
to  be  perfectly  frank,  I  have  met  residents  in 
settlements  of  whom,  as  of  the  fly  in  the  amber, 
one  wonders  "how  the  devil  it  got  there" — 
men  and  women  who  had  lost  their  vision  of 
God  and  of  the  spiritual  world  ;  who  had  no 
sense  of  mission  or  of  message  ;  who  had  not 
even  an  adequate  sense  of  the  significance  and 
value  of  life.     But    I    have   met    in   churches 
also,  those  who  lack  the  vision  which  is  alone 
granted  to  high  thought  and  noble  purpose  ; 
and  in  settlements  they  are  relatively  few.     I 
have  tried  to  discover  their  motives.     Ordin 
arily,  they  have  not  been  accurately  analysed 


SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS         103 

by  themselves.  Some  simply  seek  the  activity 
natural  to  every  young  and  healthy  intellect, 
and  find  in  work  amongst  the  poor  an  outlet 
for  superfluous  energy  and  a  satisfaction  of 
intellectual  craving  such  as  the  ordinarily  con 
genial  American  task  of  money-making  could 
not  afford.  A  few  are  merely  incumbents  of 
university  fellowships  founded  for  behoof  of 
sociological  students — mere  statisticians  who 
regard  the  poor  simply  as  specimens  to  be 
analysed  and  tabulated — mere  creatures  who 
would  "peep  and  botanise  upon  their  mother's 
grave." 

Most,  however,  are  young  men  and  women  —refuted, 
of  generous  instincts,  who,  in  college,  have 
learned  to  apply  to  their  conduct  a  social  test 
— a  lesson  which  is  being  so  well  learned  that 
the  long-standing  reproach  against  Americans 
that  their  cultured  and  leisured  classes  do  not 
devote  themselves  to  the  public  good  will 
certainly  some  day  be  wiped  out.  These  are 
good  Samaritans,  whom  to  repulse  were  to 
show  the  irreligion  with  which  they  are 
charged.  Those  who  love  and  serve  their 
fellow-men,  and  seem  to  be  cold  towards  God, 
are  more  religious  than  those  who  seem  to  love 
and  serve  God  and  are  cold  towards  their 
fellow-men.  The  Church,  claiming  to  renew 
all  things  through  Christ,  cannot  be  Christian 


104  AMERICANS 

and  be  hostile  to  those  who  strive,  however 
imperfectly,  to  wrest  the  direction  of  social 
progress  from  the  enemies  of  Christ.  And, 
indeed,  only  those  whose  minds  have  been 
cramped  into  believing  that  their  conceptions 
of  truth  and  service  have  exhausted  all  the 
possibilities  of  the  Eternal  Spirit  could  fail  to 
find  in  the  Social  Settlement  a  revival,  as  a 
real  force  for  the  guidance  of  human  life,  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  divine  image  in  man  and 
the  divine  life  of  service  of  man  taught  by 
Jesus  Christ.  Living  in  American  settlements, 
I  have  found  myself  in  an  atmosphere  of 
ideality  and  fellowship  which  exerts  its 
pressure  upon  all,  giving  the  uplift  of  a 
common  purpose  to  men  and  women  of 
various  races,  religions  and  predilections  and 
of  differing  antecedents  and  outlook  on  life, 
who  exhibit,  not  the  neutrality  of  indifference, 
but  the  tolerance  of  those  who  deeply  believe. 
Who  could  fasten  irreligion  upon  Miss  Jane 
Addams,  of  Hull  House  ? — who  has  written  : — 
"The  Hebrew  prophet  made  three  require 
ments  of  those  who  would  join  the  great 
forward-moving  procession  led  by  Jehovah. 
To  love  mercy  and  at  the  same  time  to  do 
justly  is  the  difficult  task ;  and  it  may  be  that 
these  two  can  never  be  attained  save  as 
we  fulfil  still  the  third  requirement,  to  walk 


SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS         105 

humbly  with  God,  which  may  mean  to  walk 
for  many  dreary  miles  beside  the  lowliest 
of  His  creatures,  not  even  in  the  peace  of 
mind  which  the  company  of  the  humble 
is  popularly  supposed  to  offer,  but  rather 
with  the  pangs  and  throes  to  which  the  poor 
human  understanding  is  subjected  whenever  it 
attempts  to  comprehend  the  meaning  of  life." 

Or,  upon  Mr.  Robert  A.  Woods,  the  head 
worker  of  the  South  End  House,  Boston  ? — 
who  has  written  : — 

"  Professor  James  has  suggested  that  the 
religious  feeling  at  its  best  seems  to  depend  upon 
some  sort  of  fresh  ethical  discovery.  There  is 
a  certain  recognised  spiritual  light  that  lies  over 
all  the  many  different  sorts  of  human  effort 
that  make  up  the  present-day  historical  move 
ment  toward  a  higher  social  system  and  a  nobler 
type  of  personality." 

I  have  quoted  from  these  two  because   the  Founders 
character   of    a    settlement   and    of    its   work  ments— " 
depends  upon  its  head  workers,  and  the  foremost 
of  these  are  these  two.     England  has  Florence 
Nightingale  ;  America  has  Jane  Addams  who 
is    easily    the    foremost    woman    in    America. 
Mr.  John  Burns,  I  believe,  called  Miss  Addams 
America's    one     saint.       Hers    is,    indeed,    a 
devout,    benignant,  valiant   womanhood.     She 
has  a  woman's  full  share   of  sensibilities   and 


io6  AMERICANS 

sympathies,  yet  she  is  accurate,  circumspect, 
and  symmetrical.  She  is  of  a  meek  and  quiet 
spirit,  yet  she  has  the  self-possession  of  the 
woman  of  culture  and  experience.  To  say  that 
a  woman,  and  that  this  woman,  is  one  of  the 
greatest  influences  affecting  American  life  is  the 
highest  praise  that  can  be  spoken  of  it  and  of 
her.  Mr.  Robert  A.  Woods  is  not  as  popularly 
known  as  Miss  Addams,  but  he  has  been,  and 
is,  one  of  the  formative  forces  acting  upon 
settlements.  He  is  a  man  of  clear  insight, 
sensitive  imagination,  comprehensive  mental 
grasp  and  fertility  of  ideas ;  and  he  also, 
although  his  mind  is  moved  by  energies  that 
rush  into  it  from  the  heart,  has  intellectual  and 
moral  poise. 

—and  These  qualities  which  characterise  the  leaders 

flue^ce."  of  American  social  settlements  have  proved  in 
valuable  to  their  cause.  Men  prone  to  "  impetu 
ous  eagerness,  hectic  mental  spasms,  and  the 
appetency  for  change "  went  into  settlements 
before  these  had  gained  public  confidence. 
The  newspapers  gave  great  prominence,  for 
example,  to  Mr.  Stokes  as  a  settlement 
resident.  He  is  a  man  materially  wealthy, 
by  repute  a  millionaire,  but  not  mentally 
affluent,  who  yielded  to  the  propensity  which 
some  persons  have  to  renounce  their  accidental 
advantages ;  proclaimed  himself  a  Socialist ; 


SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS         107 

took  up  his  abode  in  the  University  Settlement 
of  New  York ;  and  married  a  Russian  Jewess, 
a  cigarette-maker,  I  understand,  whom  he  met 
there.  Here  was  a  man  anxious,  doubtless, 
to  be  genuine  and  to  do  good,  but  impatient  of 
slow  methods  and  easily  deluded  by  his  own 
hopes,  and  easily  led  into  extravagance  by  a 
sensibility  which  domineered  over  all  his 
faculties ;  and  he  with  others  like  himself 
sought  to  rush  forward  social  reform  irrationally 
and  emotionally  and  in  disregard  of  established 
economic  principles.  But,  being  met  with 
firmness  and  discretion,  he  and  they  have 
publicly  avowed  their  disbelief  in  settlements 
and  so  established  public  confidence  in  them. 


CHAPTER   VIII. 

SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS  (continued'). 
"  Bear  ye  one  another's  burdens." — ST.  PAUL. 

Movement  towards  Federation — A  new  Profession — Settlement 
Workers  and  the  Universities — Moral  Value  of  Education 
— English  and  American  Settlements  compared  —  The 
relationship  of  Equals  in  a  Democracy. 

Anew  A  MERICAN  settlements  are  cautiously 
n'  /~~\.  moving  towards  a  national  federated 
union.  Already  in  New  York,  Boston, 
Chicago  and  other  large  cities  there  are  local 
federations ;  and  an  effort  is  being  made, 
under  competent  direction,  to  co-ordinate  the 
work  of  all,  so  that  while  each  settlement 
retains  its  own  essential  qualities,  and  con 
centrates  upon  its  own  district  and  its  own 
special  problems,  the  combined  intelligence 
and  motive  of  a  comprehensive  and  organised 
body  may  be  brought  to  bear  upon  the 
larger  questions  of  social  reform — the  common 
general  problems  of  all  settlements.  Even 
now,  settlement  workers  in  their  own  localities 

108 


SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS         109 

are  a  compact   phalanx   of  conscientious,  up 
right   men    and  women,  friends  of  the  public 
good,  v/ho  are  sanely  seeking  the  amelioration 
of  the  common   lot.     The   great   majority  of 
them  are  only  of  average  faculty  and  have  no 
great   elevation   or   breadth    or   profundity   of 
mind ;   but,   by  living   a   broadly  human   life, 
they   inspire    confidence    and    trust,    and    by 
organised   effort   under   wise   leadership,   they 
exert  an  influence  that  is  sometimes  powerful 
and  is  always  salutary  upon  public  sentiment, 
municipal    action,    and     State     and     national 
legislation    in    regard    to    some    of    the   most 
pressing   problems   of    American   life.      They 
do  not,  indeed,  take  direct  part  as  largely  as 
their  English  confreres  in  municipal  work  as 
representatives  of  the  districts   in  which  they 
have    chosen    to    live.      This,    I    think,    is   a 
grave  reproach  ;   for  there  is  no  greater  need 
in  America  than   that   an   end  should  be  put 
to   the   exclusion,    self-imposed,    of    the   more 
cultured     classes     from     their     proportionate 
share    of  authority    and    responsibility  in    the 
governing    machinery   of    local    and    national 
politics. 

Notwithstanding,  settlement  residents  in 
America  are  perhaps  more  influential  in 
public  affairs  than  the  residents  in  English 
settlements.  Not  only  are  they  better 


i  io  AMERICANS 

organised ;  they  have  a  larger  opportunity 
in  America,  where  the  public  service  is  not 
professional,  and  there  is,  therefore,  much 
less  jealousy  of  outside  interference  than  in 
England,  and  much  more  readiness  on  the 
part  of  local  authorities  to  accept  the  advice 
and  assistance  of  settlement  workers.  The 
head  of  a  Federal  Department  has  more  than 
once  requested  a  settlement  to  transform  into 
readable  matter  a  mass  of  material,  which 
had  been  carefully  collected  into  tables  and 
statistics,  for  the  good  of  tenement  -  house 
people  who  sadly  needed  this  information. 
Besides,  probation  officers  connected  with 
the  Juvenile  Court  often  reside  in  settlements 
and  render  help  to  the  Judges  in  many  ways. 
Adjoining  Hull  House,  really  a  part  of  it,  is 
a  complete  boys'  club-house  in  charge  of 
Mr.  Joseph  Riddell,  who  is,  or  was,  pro 
bation  officer  to  the  district — a  house  built 
by  a  benevolent  lady  who,  as  president  of  the 
Juvenile  Court  Committee,  raised  money  to 
pay  probation  officers  until  they  were  pro 
vided  for  by  law.  It  is,  indeed,  settlement 
workers  who  are  becoming  "  professional."  I 
have  said  that  a  social  sentiment  is  growing 
in  America  which  leads  men  of  independent 
resources  to  devote  themselves  to  the  interests 
of  the  community ;  but  the  number  of  such 


SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS         in 

men  is  still  small,  and  the  proportion  of 
salaried  workers  is  higher  than  in  English 
settlements.  In  a  pamphlet  addressed  speci 
ally  to  students,  and  entitled  Social  Work, 
a  New  Profession,  the  Warden  of  South  End 
House,  Boston,  says,  with  American  directness 
of  speech,  that  means  are  provided  which 
on  an  average  are  on  a  par  with  those  of 
the  clerical  and  educational  professions.  This 
method  works  well  in  America.  That  the 
labourer  is  worthy  of  his  hire,  is  a  doctrine 
that  commends  itself  to  the  American  mind  ; 
and  the  labourer  is  made  to  prove  its  truth 
by  his  works.  This  secures  efficiency ;  and 
in,  and  in  connection  with,  colleges  and 
universities,  courses  of  study  are  provided 
for  students  who  are  preparing  themselves 
for  this  new  profession.  In  Boston,  the 
school  is  conducted  directly  by  Simmons 
College  and  Harvard  University  ;  in  Chicago, 
the  institution  is  part  of  the  University  ;  and 
in  New  York,  there  is  a  complete  affiliation 
with  Columbia  University  through  which 
students  of  the  school  enjoy  all  the  privileges 
of  students  of  the  University,  although  the 
school  is  conducted  by  the  Charity  Organisa 
tion  Society,  in  order  that  it  may  be  kept  in 
closest  possible  relation  to  practical  work. 
I  have  met  many  college  graduates  who  are 


ii2  AMERICANS 

in  these  schools  taking  a  post-graduate  year 
in  professional  training  which  will  count 
towards  higher  degrees ;  and  I  have  known 
school  -  teachers,  physicians  and  clergymen 
who  were  in  attendance  at  them  in  order  to 
gain  a  first-hand  acquaintance  with  social 
needs  and  to  be  in  a  position  to  judge 
rationally  of  proposed  social  remedies.  There 
is  a  beginning  in  England  of  such  courses 
of  social  training  on  the  initiative  of  Miss 
Helen  Gladstone  and  Mr.  C.  S.  Loch ;  but 
America  leads. 

Anew  It  seemed  to  me,  on  my  first  acquaintance 

Force.  with  settlements  in  America,  that  excessive 
time  and  energy  were  devoted  to  theatrical 
and  other  entertainments,  and  especially  to 
dancing :  in  one  settlement  I  attended  a  dance 
every  night  of  one  week,  including  Sunday, 
and  some  of  the  permanent  residents  were  not 
less  heroic.  Now,  I  should  bear  the  affliction 
with  greater  resignation  than  I  did  then  ;  for  I 
have  discovered  that  local  conditions  impose 
the  abundant  provision  of  amusements  upon 
the  settlement  if  it  is  to  fulfil  its  mission.  The 
corrupt  political  leaders  have  hitherto  directed 
and  controlled  a  large  proportion  of  the  social 
agencies  in  their  communities,  in  order  that 
they  might  more  easily  manipulate  the  social 
forces  of  their  particular  wards.  The  settle- 


SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS         113 

ments  in  such  districts  render  no  mean  service 
by  devoting  equal  initiative  and  enterprise  in 
making  themselves  a  social  force  that  asserts 
moral  standards.  Any  dancing  that  I  endured 
was  with  Jewesses  from  Russia.  As  a  rule 
they  were  very  well  dressed — adorned,  not 
decorated.  Some  of  them  looked  better  clad 
than  fed,  as  if  they  practised  the  precept  of  the 
Rabbinical  proverb,  "  Put  the  costly  on  thee 
and  the  cheap  in  thee,"  or  had  paid  heed  to  the 
advice  of  the  famous  translator  of  Maimonides, 
who  wrote  to  his  son,  "  Withhold  from  thy 
belly  and  put  on  thy  back."  Beauty  is,  indeed, 
of  ethical  importance,  even  mere  beauty  of 
raiment,  as  those  Jewish  teachers  understood  ; 
and  at  the  settlement  entertainments,  the 
desire  of  youth  to  appear  finer  and  better  and 
altogether  more  lovely  than  it  really  is  gets  its 
proper  direction  and,  when  necessary,  its  proper 
curb.  I  asked  every  Jewish  maiden  who  was 
partner  of  mine  whether  she  had  ever  danced 
before  coming  to  America.  Few,  if  any,  of 
them  had.  The  besyeda  of  the  Russian  village 
is  not  found  in  the  villages  of  the  Jewish 
Pale  where  the  conventions  forbid  the 
dance.  But  in  the  new  conditions  the  old 
conventions  are  soon  flung  aside  ;  and  there 
are  few  young  Jews  of  either  sex  who  do  not 
learn  to  "trip  the  light  fantastic  toe,"  and  to 
8 


ii4  AMERICANS 

speak  of  dancing  in  this  Miltonic  phrase,  almost 
as  soon  as  they  set  foot  on  American  soil. 
The  Ghetto  has  few  public-houses,  but 
innumerable  "  dancing  saloons";  and  it  is  un 
doubtedly  a  safeguard  which  young  men  and 
women  win  when,  at  settlement  dances,  they 
form  new  conventions  which  impose  restraints 
upon  themselves  and  upon  those  whom  they 
meet  in  their  own  social  life. 

New  Education  is  undertaken  in  American,  as  in 

English,  settlements.  It  is  the  weakness  of 
this  work  in  both  countries  that  academic 
methods  are  too  exclusively  employed,  so  that 
only  a  few  of  the  people  of  the  neighbourhood 
who  happen  to  be  of  the  academic  type  of 
mind  are  reached  and  influenced.  This  was  to 
be  expected  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  residents 
are,  for  the  most  part,  college  men  who  are 
imbued  with  academic  ideas  which  it  is 
most  difficult  for  them  to  modify.  But  more 
completely  than  in  England,  although  still 
incompletely,  settlements  in  America  are  shak 
ing  themselves  free  from  the  methods  employed 
in  schools  and  colleges  and  are  adapting  educa 
tion  to  the  special  needs  of  the  working  people 
of  their  districts.  Speaking  generally,  I  should 
say  that  American  settlements  have  more 
flexibility,  a  power  of  quicker  adaptation,  larger 
hospitality  of  mind  to  new  ideas,  greater  readi- 


SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS         115 

ness  for  experiment,  and  greater  ease  in  chang 
ing  methods  as  environment  may  demand,  than 
the  English  settlements  have  hitherto  shown. 
So,  in  America,  amongst  the  Jews  who  are  a 
music-loving  race,  a  music  school  settlement 
has  been  established  ;  and  people  interested  in 
it  send  tickets  for  the  best  musical  events,  so 
that  the  pupils  are  able  to  hear  the  finest  inter 
pretations  of  the  great  musical  compositions. 
I  found  a  large  nurses'  settlement  which,  in 
addition  to  the  ordinary  organised  social  and 
educational  features  of  the  settlement,  has  a 
large  band  of  trained  nurses  distributed 
throughout  the  city,  and  has  besides,  as  a 
unique  feature  in  educational  work,  an  apart 
ment  which  serves  as  a  schoolroom  for  classes 
in  domestic  sciences,  where  a  systematic  course 
is  taken  in  the  care  of  the  home.  Each  pupil 
must  master,  for  example,  the  cleaning  of  the 
stove,  and  the  building  of  the  fire,  before 
being  promoted  to  the  more  advanced  course 
on  cooking.  In  one  settlement,  I  sat  down 
to  a  meal  which  had  been  prepared  and  set 
by  neighbourhood  children  who  waited  upon 
their  teachers  and  me.  These  girls  may  not 
go  into  domestic  service ;  but  such  training 
will  prove  useful  to  them  in  their  parents'  home 
and  when  they  take  up  homes  of  their  own  ; 
and  I  learned  that  many  girls  of  the  neighbour- 


n6  AMERICANS 

hood  apply  for  special  instruction  of  this  kind 
before  marriage. 
A  Success-      This  social    method   of  teaching   has  often 

ful  Experi-  r  ,  .  ,  A  .  _  ••     i 

ment.  far-reaching  results.  A  series  of  "  gay  little 
Sunday  morning  breakfasts  "  was  given  in  the 
Hull  House  Nursery  to  a  group  of  Italian 
women  who  were  wont  to  bring  their  unde 
veloped  children  to  the  settlement  for  hygienic 
treatment.  At  these  social  gatherings  the 
mothers  were  educated  to  the  recognition  of 
"the  superiority  of  oatmeal  over  tea-soaked 
bread  as  a  nutritious  diet  for  children  "  ;  and 
as,  under  the  influence  of  baths  and  cod-liver 
oil,  the  children  grew  straight  and  strong, 
there  disappeared  from  the  children's  necks 
certain  bags  of  salt  originally  hung  there 
to  keep  off  the  evil  eye  which  had  been  sup 
posed  to  give  the  children  crooked  legs  and  to 
cause  them  finally  to  waste  away — disappeared 
also  from  the  parents'  minds  an  old  superstition 
which,  by  academic  methods,  would  never  have 
been  overcome. 

Anew  In  America,  more  completely,  I  think,  than 

ship!10  in  England,  settlement  residents  become  part 
of  the  common  life  of  the  neighbourhood,  share 
in  the  joys  and  sorrows,  the  occupations  and 
amusements,  of  the  people,  and  associate  with 
them  on  equal  terms,  without  patronage  on  the 
one  side  or  subserviency  on  the  other.  The 


SOCIAL  SETTLEMENTS         117 

relationship  is  accepted  as  that  of  equals,  in  a 
manner  and  with  a  completeness  which,  in  a 
less  democratic  country,  neither  party  to  it 
would  allow.  In  England,  where  class  dis 
tinctions  are  undoubtedly  more  clearly  defined, 
social  workers  are  tacitly  admitted,  by  those  in 
whose  interests  they  work,  to  be  of  a  superior 
class  and  are  treated  as  men  and  women  who 
have  come  down  voluntarily  from  a  higher 
sphere  to  minister.  The  "  neighbours,"  by 
their  looks  and  words  and  bearing,  confess 
inferiority  and  dependence ;  and  so  they  un 
consciously  offer  a  subtle  form  of  flattery  which 
gives  * 'philanthropy"  a  fictitious  charm.  In 
America  there  is  no  trace  of  this  ;  and  settle 
ment  residents  are  winnowed  by  the  relation 
ship  of  equals  which  obtains  and  which  is  much 
more  difficult  to  sustain  than  that  of  superior 
to  inferior.  In  consequence,  if  there  is  less 
culture,  there  is  perhaps  more  character  in 
American  than  in  English  settlements ;  and,  if 
there  are  fewer  residents  who  are  men  of  in 
dependent  resources,  there  are,  it  may  be,  more 
resourceful  men. 

There  are  more  than  200  social  settlements  A  new 
in   America.     In   them,    the   best   minds    and 
hearts  of  the  nation  are  found,  fully  alive  to 
the   need   of  breaking   down  all  barriers  that 
separate  the  different  races  of  a  common  land. 


n8  AMERICANS 

Therein  is  ground  for  hope.  The  rays  that 
give  to  the  valleys  light  and  warmth,  first 
gilded  the  topmost  peaks  alone  ;  and,  by  an 
inevitable  law,  the  entire  community,  within 
reasonable  time,  will  be  permeated  by  the 
spirit  that  now  animates  only  the  noblest 
citizens.  The  influence  of  settlements  to  this 
end  is  not  less  important  than  that  of  the 
Churches :  many  of  these,  indeed,  retreat 
before  the  flowing  tide  of  immigration,  sell 
their  consecrated  buildings  for  conversion  into 
synagogues,  and  salve  their  consciences  with 
the  reflection  that  the  poor  have  the  settle 
ments  always  with  them.  And,  possibly, 
immigrants  who  have  fled  from  the  perse 
cutions  of  Christian  rulers,  will  be  more  dis 
posed  to  accept  the  Christian  faith,  when  they 
shall  have  partaken  of  such  of  its  fruits  as 
settlements  provide. 


CHAPTER    IX. 

EDUCATION. 

"  Why,  if  the  Soul  can  fling  the  Dust  aside 
And  naked  on  the  Air  of  Heaven  ride, 

Wer't  not  a  Shame — wer't  not  a  Shame  for  him 
In  this  clay  carcase  crippled  to  abide?" — OMAR  KHAYYAM. 

Idealism  of  first  Settlers— Its  permanent  Influence— Seen  in 
educational  System — Progress  in  Education — Education 
and  Speech — The  Language  of  America  and  England — 
The  Future  of  English — Education  as  Discipline,  and  as 
democratic  Training — English  and  American  Methods 
and  Results — Dangerous  Tendencies. 

IN  nothing  can  the  traces  of  colonial  American  The  edu 
influence  be  more  clearly  seen  than  in  the 
educational  system  of  the  modern  American 
Republic.  It  was  not  until  after  the  Revolution 
that  it  was  generally  recognised  that  education 
in  all  its  phases  and  grades  must  be  encouraged 
and  made  universal  under  a  democracy  in  which 
the  rights  of  opportunity  were  to  be  equal ;  and 
it  was  only  during  the  nineteenth  century  that 
the  present  great  system  of  schools  completely 
covered  the  land.  Yet,  as  early  as  1649  every 
New  England  colony  except  Rhode  Island  had 


120  AMERICANS 

made  public  instruction  compulsory,  and  re 
quired  that,  in  each  community  of  50  house 
holders,  there  should  be  a  school  for  reading 
and  writing,  and  in  each  town  of  150  house 
holders  a  grammar  school  with  teachers  com 
petent  to  fit  youths  for  the  university.  The 
Virginian  settlers  did  not  show  equal  en 
thusiasm  for  education ;  and  for  about  three 
centuries  there  were  few  schools  in  Virginia, 
which,  indeed,  was  long  without  any  towns  of 
150  householders,  or  even  of  50,  the  Southern 
settlers  having  tended  to  dispersion  and  isola 
tion  on  large  tracts  of  land,  unlike  the  New 
England  settlers,  who  gathered  in  groups  of 
families,  forming  villages  and  towns.  Now, 
however,  a  common  school  system,  with  modi 
fications  to  suit  local  conditions,  prevails  in  all 
the  States  of  the  Union,  from  the  Atlantic 
to  the  Pacific,  and  from  Mexico  to  British 
America ;  and,  although  the  Southern  States 
still  lag  behind,  they  are  rapidly  moving 
towards  equality  in  this  respect  with  the  other 
States  to  which  they  have  always  been  superior 
in  other  and  not  unimportant  respects.  There 
is  in  the  schools  great  inequality  of  equipment, 
instruction  and  organisation  ;  but  everywhere 
there  is  manifest  a  movement  towards  uni 
formity  of  improved  methods  of  instruction,  ' 
and  public  schools  are  rapidly  coming  to  be 


EDUCATION  121 

related  together  in  a  system  of  schools,  flexible 
and  adaptable  to  American  manner  of  living, 
American  social  ideals  and  American  national 
ambitions. 

In  the  wide  sweep  of  this  educational  system,  —is  be- 
some  angles  and  eddies  are  still  missed.  There  un^Trfai 
are  illiterates  in  every  State.  A  considerable  m  Scope> 
proportion  of  the  negroes  and  "mean  whites" 
of  the  Southern  States  can  neither  read  nor 
write,  and  many  of  the  adult  immigrants  never 
learn  so  much  as  the  English  speech.  By 
reason  of  the  high  average  intelligence  in 
America,  the  ignorance  of  these  classes  seems 
denser  and  is  more  dangerous  than  that  of 
analogous  classes  in  other  countries.  An 
illiterate  class  in  the  midst  of  an  educated 
community  presents  such  a  complete  state  of 
discord  that  the  effect  is  out  of  all  proportion 
to  its  cause ;  and  many  of  the  worst  evils  of 
American  municipal  and  political  life  spring 
from  the  remnant  of  American  citizens  whom 
the  national  system  of  education  has  left  un 
touched.  As  poverty  in  the  midst  of  wealth 
is  aggravated,  so  ignorance  in  the  midst  of 
intelligence  is  intensified,  by  the  contrast ;  and 
the  evil  of  illiteracy  forces  itself  so  constantly 
upon  public  attention  that,  by  evening  adult 
classes  for  immigrants,  special  schools  for 
negroes,  and  laws  making  attendance  at  ele- 


122  AMERICANS 

mentary  schools  compulsory  between  the  ages 
of  8  and  14,  strenuous  and  not  unsuccessful 
efforts  are  being  put  forth  to  make  education 
universal  in  its  scope.  Nearly  one-fifth  of  the 
whole  nation  of  80,000,000  people  is  constantly 
at  school ;  and  one  in  every  160  Americans  is 
a  teacher.  Many  of  the  teachers,  it  is  true, 
lack  a  broad  background  of  knowledge,  especi 
ally  those  in  the  rural  schools  which  enrol  half 
of  the  entire  number  of  school  children  ;  and 
when  a  teacher  teaches  right  up  to  the  edge  of 
his  knowledge,  and  the  pupils  detect  in  him 
a  constant  fear  of  falling  into  the  abyss,  the 
teacher  necessarily  lacks  the  sense  of  assured 
power  which  alone  can  make  his  words  com 
pulsive  and  fructifying,  and  the  pupils  feel  most 
impressively  the  influence  of  what  the  teacher 
is  careful  not  to  say.  But  the  equipment  of 
the  teacher  is  improving  every  year,  and 
secondary  and  collegiate  education  are  making 
such  rapid  strides  that,  while  between  1876 
and  1904  the  population  of  the  United  States 
increased  only  one  and  three-quarter  times, 
the  attendance  at  high  schools  and  colleges 
increased  thirty-fold.  In  an  evening  school 
for  immigrants  I  saw  written  on  a  blackboard  : 
''If  the  torch  of  liberty  is  to  enlighten  the 
world,  it  must  be  fed  from  the  lamp  of  know 
ledge  "  ;  and  Americans  are  so  persuaded  that 


EDUCATION  123 

this  is  truth,  and  the  whole  truth,  that  they  are 
apt  to  ascribe  too  much  rather  than  too  little 
power  to  education  as  a  civilising  force,  forget 
ful  that  the  sources  of  human  action  lie  deeper 
than  the  brain. 

Much  that  relates  to  the  common  schools  of  its  influ- 

,  *  i      r  1  ence  seen 

a  country  can  be  learned  from  the  common  in_ 
speech  which,  indeed,  reveals  so  much  that  it 
is,  perhaps,  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  the 
soul  of  a  people,  the  quality  of  their  deepest 
life,  the  secret  of  their  spiritual  state,  is  dis 
covered  by  the  new  meanings  that  old  words 
have  gained,  and  the  old  meanings  that  they 
have  lost,  and  even  in  the  modifications  in 
pronunciation  of  them  that  have  taken  place. 
Therefore,  while  I  cannot  pretend  that  in 
America  I  spoke  little,  I  certainly  was  care 
ful  to  listen  much,  in  mindfulness  that,  as 
rare  Ben  Jonson  said,  language  most  shows 
a  man. 

I  do  not  profess  to  speak  with  any  authority  —the 
upon  the  vexed  question  of  the  relative  merits  s 
or   demerits   of  the   speech  of  the  two  great 
nations  which  have    English  as  their  mother- 
tongue.     To  be  in  a  position  to  judge  imparti 
ally  and  adequately,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
have  been  born  and  educated  in  both  countries, 
and  to  have  mingled  freely  with  all  classes  of 
society  in  every  English  county  and  in  every 


124  AMERICANS 

American  State.  This  initial  impossibility 
accounts,  in  great  measure,  for  the  grave  and 
often  ludicrous  errors  into  which  all  have  fallen, 
even  those  learned  in  philological  science,  who 
have  attempted  the  task.  What  hope,  then, 
is  there  for  an  unlearned  Scot  who  was  at 
school  in  England  and  has  spent  many  years 
furth  of  all  lands  in  which  English  is  the 
common  tongue,  hearing  and  perforce  speaking 
other  languages  than  his  own  ?  Yet,  to  one 
poor  negative  qualification,  I  may  dare  to  lay 
claim.  By  virtue  of  long  residence  abroad, 
my  ear  has  not  become  dull  to  the  peculiarities 
in  speech  of  either,  and  quick  only  to  those  of 
the  other,  country.  When,  in  an  American 
school,  a  child  is  uncorrected  for  saying  "  he 
done  it,"  my  ear  is  certainly  offended;  but  not 
more  than  when,  in  an  English  school,  there 
is  no  challenge  of  "he  had  got,"  in  which  no 
less  than  in  the  American  phrase,  preterite  and 
past  participle  are  confused.  And  if,  in  common 
with  most  Englishmen,  I  foolishly  resent  the 
American  constant  use  of  the  word  "sick"  in 
the  sense  of  Shakespeare  and  the  liturgy  of 
the  English  Church,  I  resent  equally,  and  with 
equal  folly,  in  common  with  all  Americans,  the 
English  occasional  use  of  the  word  "stink"  in 
the  direct  fashion  of  the  Gospel  according  to 
St.  John.  This  is  my  infirmity;  and  I  have 


EDUCATION  125 

learned  in  suffering  what,  in  these  paragraphs, 
I  seek  to  express  in  prose. 

In  neither  England  nor  America  is  the  The 
mother-tongue  as  well  spoken  as  in  either 
Germany  or  France.  The  minutice  of  the  com- 
plicated  grammar  of  their  respective  languages 
is  and  must  be  carefully  drilled  into  French  and 
German  children  in  the  schools ;  and  between 
those  who  have,  and  those  who  lack,  the' mastery 
of  these  languages,  speech  makes  a  gulf  which 
is  necessarily  greater  and  more  fixed  than  that 
which  separates  educated  from  uneducated 
among  a  people  whose  language,  like  the 
English,  has  few  grammatical  changes. 
Absolute  accuracy  of  speech  is  rare,  in 
both  England  and  America,  by  reason  of 
the  very  ease  with  which  relative  correctness 
may  be  gained  in  the  English  tongue  ;  and 
to  English  and  Americans  alike,  in  the  matter 
of  speech,  as  in  many  other  matters,  one  has 
constantly  to  say  :  "  Who  art  thou  that  despisest 
thy  brother?" 

Many  Americans  have  assiduously  taught  me,  — a  Hv- 
in  correct  English  phrasing,  the  nice  shades  of  ism— rsan' 
meaning  of  American  slang  which,  as  it  ap 
peared  to  me,  is  different  from,  more  expressive 
and  not  more  vulgar  than,  English  slang ;  and 
such   of    it   as   is    unstained   by   vulgarity   or 
unweakened  by  foolish  extravagance  of  idea  or 


126  AMERICANS 

phrase,  although,  unfortunately,  not  such  alone, 
is  gradually  making  a  place  for  itself  in  the 
speech  of  Americans  and  Englishmen,  to  the 
enlargement  if  not  the  enrichment  of  our 
common  language.  Against  the  evils  of  this 
process,  the  increase  and  diffusion  of  education 
is  the  only  defence.  The  court  of  final  appeal 
upon  language,  in  every  country,  is  all  the 
speaking-people  of  the  country ;  and  they,  by 
their  own  usage,  enforce  their  own  decrees 
which  may  be  modified,  but  are  never  wholly 
determined,  by  the  presumptive  authority 
vested  in  precedent  or  in  the  rules  and  standards 
which  purists  provide  in  a  conscious  effort 
towards  the  logical  precision  and  symmetrical 
completeness  which  no  language  has  ever 
attained.  Language  is  a  living  organism  ;  and 
as  the  specific  experience  of  those  by  whom 
it  is  used  grows  larger  and  more  complex,  it 
responds  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  this  expan 
sion,  yielding  new  terms,  or  new  shades  of 
meaning  to  old  terms  ;  and,  therefore,  only  by 
common  education,  giving  fineness  of  feeling, 
and  an  instinct  of  consideration,  for  the  instru 
ment  of  common  communion,  can  its  perpetual  in 
crease  in  strength  and  beauty  be  ensured.  This 
is  especially  true  of  America.  For  there,  the 
tendency  is  stronger  than  in  England  to  consider 
the  speech  of  any  man,  as  any  man  himself,  as 


EDUCATION  127 

good  as  any  other;  and  this  application  of  a 
principle  that  is  deemed  democratic  is  pushed 
to  an  extreme  by  those,  and  they  are  many, 
who  forget  that  in  speech,  as  in  art  and  morals 
and  everything  that  man  undertakes,  the 
freedom  and  originality  are  spurious  which 
cannot  move  along  other  than  novel  paths 
and  which  refuse  to  obey  those  simple  out 
ward  laws  which  have  been  sanctioned  by  the 
authority  of  the  foremost  men  and  the  experi 
ence  of  mankind. 

Yet,    as   the   level   of  popular  education  in  —has 

.  ,  T  I'l-i         differenti- 

Amenca  is,  at  least,  not  lower — I  rank  it  higher  ated  in 
— than  in  England,  I  was  not  surprised  to  find  Am( 
the  average  speech  in  America  not  less  accurate 
or  refined  than  in  England,  when  I  compared 
it,  not  with  the  speech  of  the  cultured  section 
of  English  society,  which  is  the  misleading 
comparison  that  is  ordinarily  made,  but  with 
the  average  speech  in  England — the  only  just 
comparison.  The  American  voice  differs  from, 
and  to  the  undoubted  advantage  of,  the  English 
in  inflection  and  pitch.  In  pronunciation, 
however,  the  American  seemed  to  me  to  excel 
in  distinctness  and  the  Englishman  in  dis 
tinction  ;  and  this,  perhaps,  is  what  was  meant 
by  W.  D.  Howells  when,  in  a  reference  to 
Harvard,  he  spoke  of  the  "  beauty  of  utterance 
which,  above  any  other  beauty,  discriminates 


128  AMERICANS 

between  us  and  the  English,"  and  by  Professor 
Jowett  who  said  that  in  his  lecture  room  at 
Oxford,  he  had  seen  pass  before  him  "  several 
generations  of  inarticulate-speaking  English 
men."  The  superior  distinctness  of  the 
American  is  due,  I  suppose,  to  conscious 
efforts,  as  the  superior  distinction  of  the 
Englishman  is  due  to  habitual  and  uncon 
scious  ease,  in  conforming,  each  in  his  measure, 
to  the  standard  which  educated  persons  in  both 
countries,  even  in  America,  accept. 

Strenuous,  and  not  unsuccessful,  efforts  are 
made  in  American  day  schools  and  night 
schools  to  counteract  the  pernicious  effects 
of  foreign  influence  upon  the  English  speech. 
The  number  of  new  foreign  words  or  phrases 
grafted  on  to  the  language  is  remarkably  small 
relatively  to  the  number  of  foreign  immigrants, 
whose  influence  is  greatest  upon  pronunciation, 
especially  of  complex  consonantal  sounds  ;  and 
such  alterations  in  speech  as  result  from  the 
fusion  of  the  heterogeneous  elements  of  the 
American  population  is  not  a  deterioration 
of  the  language.  The  original  substratum 
of  Anglo-Saxon  in  our  common  language 
was  overlaid  with  multitudes  of  conversational 
words  from  the  French,  of  literary  and  ecclesi 
astical  words  from  the  Latin,  and  of  technical 
words  from  the  Greek,  long  before  there  was 


EDUCATION  129 

any  America  to  have  any  speech ;  yet  the 
mixture  of  Normandised  -  Gallicised  -  Latin 
with  a  base  of  Anglo-Saxon  gave  us  "  Chaucer's 
well  of  English  undefiled."  And  although 
now,  the  robust  American  people,  especially 
in  the  Western  States,  too  often  seem  to 
think  that  in  order  to  be  vigorous,  they  must 
be  vulgar,  in  their  speech,  and  there  is  to  be 
found  in  all  the  States,  on  the  one  hand,  a 
passion  for  coining  new  and  unnecessary  words 
and,  on  the  other  hand,  a  tendency  to  banish 
from  use  a  number  of  the  most  useful  and 
classical  expressions  by  the  poverty-stricken 
device  of  making  one  do  duty  for  a  host  of 
others  of  somewhat  similar  meaning,  yet,  as 
successfully  as  in  England,  the  corrosive  and 
debasing  influences  that  always  act  upon  the 
substance  and  texture  of  a  language  are  being 
resisted  in  America ;  and  the  vitality  and 
freshness  of  Americans'  speech,  springing 
from  the  fulness  of  American  life,  is  ample 
compensation  for  the  anaemic  refinement  of 
speech  in  which  Englishmen  are  apt  to  take 
pride.  And  every  increase  of  popular  educa 
tion  in  America  is  a  new  guarantee  of  the 
security  there  of  the  English  tongue. 

In   other   directions,    the    influence    of    theTheedu- 
American  educational  system  is  powerful  and  system 
far-reaching.     In  no  proper  sense  can  children 
9 


1 30  AMERICANS 

be  said  to  desire  education  ;  but  "  the  system  " 
has  come  to  be  regarded  by  practically  all  the 
children  in  America  as  a  vague,  mysterious 
force,  irresponsible  and  irrevocable,  over  which 
they  have  no  control.  It  is  as  one  of  the 
processes  of  nature  to  them.  They  cannot 
accommodate  it  to  their  whims.  Violations 
of  its  requirements,  like  violations  of  the  laws 
of  health,  bring  their  own  certain  penalties. 
The  tasks  which  it  imposes  cannot  be  shirked, 
transferred  or  postponed.  This  is  valuable 
discipline,  and  it  is  almost  the  only  discipline 
which  multitudes  of  American  children  receive. 
For,  while  American  family  life  has  a  pervasive 
quality  of  tender  devotion  and  considerate 
courtesy  unexcelled  in  any  land  and  the  moral 
standards  retain  much  of  the  potency  of  their 
puritanic  origin,  the  puritanic  severity  has 
entirely  disappeared  from  the  family  discip 
line  ;  and  in  nearly  every  home  in  which  I 
have  been,  whether  of  the  rich  or  the  poor, 
the  children  were  the  masters  of  the  house, 
believing  as  a  principle  that  everything  turns 
upon  them,  and  seeing,  in  any  rare  order  that 
might  come  to  limit  their  encroachments,  an 
abuse  of  power,  an  arbitrary  act.  The  children 
are  the  test  of  the  domestic  system,  and  that 
system  in  America  laisse  a  ddsirer.  And  I 
failed  to  understand  how  the  children  grew 


EDUCATION  131 

into  law-abiding  citizens  until  I  left  the  home 
and  went  into  the  school.  There  I  found 
them,  by  a  rule  which  is  impersonal  and  in 
variable — as  domestic  rule  should  be — learning 
obedience,  order,  integrity  in  work,  steadfast 
ness  in  spite  of  moods  and  submission  to  the 
rightful  demand  upon  each  individual  of  the 
entire  community  in  order  to  the  harmonious 
action  of  all.  Thus,  by  a  discipline  that  is 
ethical  and  is  maintained  during  the<  formative 
years,  the  children  acquire  the  social  and  civic 
habits,  and  are  formed  for  liberty — not  the 
false  liberty  allowed  in  the  home,  which,  if 
unchecked  in  the  school,  would  breed  lawless 
ness  and  chaos,  but  the  liberty  of  work,  of 
service  and  of  growth. 

The  spirit  of  democracy,  which  is  essential  —and  de- 
in  the  great  Republic,  is  maintained  by  many  ising 
of  the  institutions  of  the  country,  and  especially  Effect- 
by  the  public  schools.     There  are,  as  I  have 
said,   many  private   schools    for    such    families 
as  prefer  their  exclusive  ways  :  it  is  estimated 
that  the  number   of   children   attending  these 
is  one-twelfth  of  the  number  in  public  schools, 
and  that,  I  understand,  is  about  the  proportion 
which   is   to   be    found    in   England.      But   the 
significant  fact  is  that  there  is  a  steady  decrease 
in   the  number  of  private  schools  and   in  the 
number  of  pupils  attending  those  that  survive. 


132  AMERICANS 

Private  high  schools  for  a  time  showed  greater 
vitality  than  private  elementary  schools  ;  but 
even  in  these  there  has  been  a  decrease  of  no 
less  than  1500  since  1902,  in  spite  of  an  in 
creasing  population.  The  sceptre  has  passed 
from  the  private  schools  ;  and  in  the  common 
schools,  not  only  rich  and  poor  but  also  natives 
and  immigrants  meet  together  on  a  footing  of 
strict  equality,  taking  their  places  according  to 
what  they  are  and  not  what  they  are  called, 
each,  under  its  undiscriminating  rule,  finding 
his  natural  level  wholly  regardless  of  the  con 
ventional  circumstances  of  life.  In  America, 
freedom  was  gained  only  by  sacrifice  :  the  first 
settlers  won  it  by  exile  ;  the  founders  of  the 
Republic  bought  it  a  second  time  with  shedding 
of  blood.  Liberty,  thus  had  and  held,  became 
their  passion,  and  thus  America  has  been  saved 
from  the  danger  to  which  other  democracies 
have  succumbed  in  preferring  equality  so  far 
above  freedom  that  they  were  willing  to  be 
in  servitude  if  only  they  had  equality  in  it. 
Equality  they  always  had — the  first  colonists 
started  as  equals.  What  was  so  easily  gained 
was  not  so  highly  prized  ;  and  Americans  have 
never  taken  as  jealous  and  constant  care  to 
preserve  equality  as  to  maintain  freedom.  But 
by  the  public  schools,  as  one  of  their  inci 
dental  but  most  important  influences  upon  the 


EDUCATION  133 

national  life,  equality  has  at  least  been  so  far 
retained  that  it  is  more  nearly  realised  in 
America  than  in  any  other  modern  State. 

I   have   never   had  the  advantage  of  being  its  char- 

*  -,  .  r        •  i  T    i  i  acteristic 

in  the  teaching  profession ;  but  I  have  long  Methods. 
understood  that  in  America,  more  than  in 
England  or  any  other  country,  text-book  in 
struction  predominates  over  oral  instruction. 
In  the  schools  which  I  visited,  I  found  that  harm 
to  the  pupils  from  the  method  of  throwing  them 
upon  the  printed  page  and  holding  them  re 
sponsible  for  its  mastery  was  averted  by  most  of 
the  teachers.  These,  by  a  process  of  question 
and  answer,  sometimes  most  informally  carried 
out,  forced  the  pupils  to  assume  a  critical 
attitude  towards  the  statements  of  the  book, 
to  test  and  verify  them  or  else  disprove  them 
by  appeal  to  other  authorities  or  by  actual 
experiments.  Text-book  memorising,  if  it  is 
not  being  supplanted,  is  at  least  supplemented 
by  the  method  of  critical  investigation.  In  the 
very  lowest  classes  great  attention  is  paid  to 
answering  questions  in  complete  sentences, 
arranging  thoughts  in  the  child's  own  language, 
and  describing  objects  exhibited  to  the  class. 
Arithmetic,  which  receives  more  attention 
than  in  any  other  country,  probably  on  account 
of  its  commercial  value,  is  generally  mental 
arithmetic.  Written  work  is  rarely  called  for, 


134  AMERICANS 

and  slovenliness  characterises  such  of  it  as 
there  is ;  but  always  the  pupil  is  prevented 
from  being  a  mere  recipient,  and  is  called  on 
to  think,  to  observe,  to  form  his  own  judgments, 
even  at  the  risk  of  error  and  crudity.  So  the 
mind  reacts  for  itself  on  what  it  receives,  and 
education  is  made  to  unfold  the  learner  as  well 
as  the  facts.  This  is  very  different  from  the 
English  methods  which  tend  to  deify  correct 
ness  and  exactness  in  written  exercises  and  to 
repress  individuality  of  thought ;  and  here  we 
come  upon  the  secret  of  some  differences 
between  the  American  and  English  peoples. 
Englishmen  are  methodical  and  accurate ; 
Americans  are  ready  and  alert.  Englishmen 
write  better  than  they  speak  ;  Americans  speak 
better  than  they  write.  A  writer  who  com 
bines  broad  information  with  the  power  of 
clear  and  convincing  expression  is  rarer  in 
America  than  in  England.  In  American 
newspapers  and  books,  there  is  a  great  blaze 
of  talent  but  a  lack  of  distinction  of  style — the 
accent  of  good  company  is  wanting  ;  English 
literature  has  metaphors,  it  has  music,  it  has 
colour,  but,  compared  with  American  literature, 
it  lacks  soul  and  life.  Some  explanation  of  these 
differences  is  found  in  the  common  schools. 
Both  countries  must  educate  their  masters  and 
teach  those  of  each  to  unite  the  methods  of  both. 


EDUCATION  135 

We  have  seen  that  in  the  primary  and  its  doubt- 
secondary  schools  education  is  free  and  that  dendes. 
the  principle  of  free  education  has  been  carried 
further  by  the  establishment  of  free  training 
schools  for  teachers,  and,  in  some  States,  of 
free  universities.  The  principle  has  been 
pushed  further  still ;  and  in  the  primary  and 
secondary  schools,  text-books  and  stationery  are 
provided  at  the  public  expense.  It  may  be  that 
the  just  demands  of  the  citizen  upon  the  State 
have  not,  in  these  measures,  been  exceeded. 
But  there  are  ominous  signs  of  the  growth  in 
America  of  what  Burke  called  a  valetudinary 
habit  of  making  the  extreme  medicine  of  the 
State  its  daily  bread.  In  many  quarters,  I 
have  heard  the  demand  that  school  children 
should  be  supplied  with  food  and  clothing  at 
the  expense  of  the  State  ;  already,  in  the  States 
of  Colorado,  Indiana  and  Vermont,  clothing  is 
furnished  by  taxation,  to  enable  children  to 
attend  school.  During  my  first  visit  to  New 
York,  a  movement  was  on  foot,  in  responsible 
quarters,  to  provide  skilled  oculists  to  treat  all 
pupils  in  the  schools  who  have  defective  eye 
sight,  and  to  give  eye-glasses  to  all  for  whom 
they  are  prescribed,  the  entire  expense  to  be 
borne  by  the  State,  regardless  of  the  ability  of 
all  or  some  of  the  parents  to  meet  the  cost 
involved.  This  was  urged  as  a  natural  develop- 


136  AMERICANS 

ment  of  the  work  which  has  been  done  in 
providing  free  books  and  stationery  ;  and, 
although  the  representatives  of  the  Charity 
Organisation  Society  and  other  philanthropic 
societies  laboriously  pointed  out  that  this  new 
proposal  was  not  a  logical  outcome  of  the 
old  practice,  the  distinctions  which  they  drew 
seemed  to  the  general  mind  distinctions  with 
out  a  difference,  and,  as  if  in  recognition  of 
this  fact,  emphasis  was  put  elesewhere  than 
on  principle  in  the  opposition  to  the  proposed 
extension  of  the  "free  system" — e.g.,  upon  the 
inability  of  the  Board  of  Education  to  raise 
sufficient  funds  for  other  and  more  necessary 
work.  Eternal  vigilance  will  be  required  to 
prevent  the  growth  in  America  of  paternalism 
of  the  most  complete  and  demoralising  kind. 
The  combined  evils  of  trusts  and  municipal 
corruption  which  are  being  eradicated  are  less 
disastrous  than  this  evil  will  prove  if  it  is  allowed 
to  take  root ;  for  it  would  affect  every  individual 
in  the  nation  and  breed  manikins  where,  if 
anywhere,  men  of  unimpaired  independence, 
individuality  and  force  are  required.  As  it  is, 
there  are  many  who  fear  that  by  "electives," 
"co-education,"  the  great  preponderance  of 
women  teachers  and  the  lack  of  religious  teach 
ing  in  the  schools  and  colleges,  the  educational 
system  is  threatening  the  virility  of  the  nation. 


CHAPTER   X. 

CO-EDUCATION. 

"  For  woman  is  not  undevelopt  man 
But  diverse." — TENNYSON. 

"  The  Teacher's  Face  "—Teachers'  Attractions  and  Distractions 
— Their  freedom  from  sordid  Aims — The  preponderance  of 
Women — Its  Effects — Advantages  of  Co-education — Some 
serious  Defects — A  Chicago  Experiment — A  national  nega 
tive  Failing. 

THE  educational  process  is  not  the  Teachers' 
mechanical  impact  of  text-book  or  salaries— 
even  of  idea  upon  the  intellect,  but  the 
impact  between  living  beings ;  and  in  the 
interaction  of  these,  vastly  more  is  given  and 
received  than  is  ever  formulated.  What  the 
teacher  is,  expresses  itself;  and  always  the 
teacher's  personality  is  the  greatest  educa 
tional  influence.  It  is,  therefore,  necessary 
to  know  American  teachers  in  order  to  appre 
ciate  American  education.  It  was  inevitable 
that,  during  a  year  amongst  Americans,  I 
should  meet  some  of  the  500,000  teachers 
who  are  in  the  United  States.  Not  only  did 


137 


138  AMERICANS 

I  not  seek  to  avoid,  I  courted,  my  fate,  in 
spite  of  a  paragraph  which  I  had  read  in 
the  Educational  Review.  "We  all  know  the 
teacher's  face  ;  it  is  worn,  sacrificial,  anxious, 
powerless."  Doubtless,  there  are  American 
teachers  to  whom  those  words  would  apply  ; 
but  I  have  rarely  met  them.  The  Jewish  face  I 
have  often  seen.  And  not  infrequently,  I  have 
seen  at  the  scholar's  bench  and  the  teacher's 
desk  a  face  which  gave  a  hint,  mysterious  and 
elusive,  of  all  ages  and  all  nations  ;  and  I  have 
wondered  whether  that  is  the  type  that  will 
be  and  will  prevail  in  this  land  to  which,  'from 
all  the  ends  of  the  earth,  all  races  have  come 
to  be  the  ingredients  of  the  ethnic  stew1! 

A  meagre  salary  may  cause  a  meagre  face  ; 
and  neither  in  school  nor  in  college  will  a 
teacher's  ordinary  income  carry  him  much  above 
want.  Americans  spend  vast  sums  of  money 
upon  every  part  of  their  schools'  equipment, 
except  the  human  which  alone  is  indispensable. 
Teachers  are  legion,  and  therefore  the  aggre 
gate  amount  paid  to  them  is  imposing ;  but 
the  average  salary  is  small  and  inadequate. 
It  cannot  be  said  that  teachers  take  no  thought 
for  income ;  in  Los  Angeles,  I  heard  much 
of  a  Miss  Margaret  Haley,  of  Chicago,  who 
has  sought  to  organise  teachers  into  a  union 
which  should  federate  with  labour  unions  for 


CO-EDUCATION  139 

common  ends.  The  good  sense  of  the  great 
majority  of  representative  educators  and  educa 
tionists  assembled  in  convention  at  Los  Angeles 
led  them  to  repudiate  this  movement  as  de 
rogatory  to  themselves  and  their  profession, 
and  antagonistic  to  the  principles  of  public 
education  at  public  expense ;  and  all  over 
the  country  hosts  of  men  and  women  are 
following  the  profession  of  teaching  with  a 
devotion  that  takes  no  undue  account  of 
pecuniary  reward.  The  great  attraction  for 
them  is  that  they  find  special  facilities  for  the 
use  of  powers  which  they  rejoice  to  use  ;  and 
I  have  found  teachers  the  most  attractive  class 
in  the  nation,  because  more  than  any  other 
class,  not  excepting  the  clergy,  they  are  free 
from  sordid  aims. 

Each  State  "  raises  "  its  own  teachers  ;  but  —but 
in  summer,  at  vacation  schools  for  teachers,  at  Life?  a 
Chautauquas,  and  at  educational  conventions, 
teachers  from  all  States  meet  and  mingle  in 
the  closest  fellowship.  Those  whose  work 
lies  in  small  towns  and  country  districts 
ordinarily  select  a  great  city  of  a  distant 
State  for  their  summer  resort  in  order  that, 
while  pursuing  studies  which  shall  enable  them 
on  their  return  to  their  schools  to  use  them 
selves  to  the  top  notch  of  their  value,  they 
may  also  enjoy  a  complete  change  from  their 


140  AMERICANS 

ordinary  conditions  and  cultivate  interests 
unconnected  with  their  official  tasks.  This 
policy  is  pursued  every  year  by  a  large  pro 
portion  of  American  teachers,  in  spite  of 
their  meagre  salaries  ;  and  I  had  the  privilege 
of  giving  letters  of  introduction  to  five  of 
them  who  had  arranged  to  spend  their 
"  Sabbatical  year"  on  the  Continent  of 
Europe,  two  in  Germany,  two  in  France  and 
one  in  Russia,  studying  educational  and  eco 
nomic  conditions  in  those  countries.  Doubtless, 
some  merely  get  familiarity  with  names  that, 
at  some  sacrifice  of  sincerity,  does  duty  for 
knowledge ;  but  the  majority  are  honest  in 
their  desire  and  effort  to  learn  more  and 
be  better  able  to  teach,  and  undoubtedly 
these  do  at  least  contrive  to  maintain  such 
freedom  from  exhaustion  and  such  mental 
hospitality  as  are  valuable  assets  in  a  teacher 
and  can  only  be  had  by  uniting  some  dis 
interested  pursuit  with  professional  work.  In 
America,  more  completely  perhaps  than  in 
England,  teachers  keep  the  roots  of  their 
being  fed  by  the  cultivation  of  their  individual 
tastes  in  books,  amusement  and  travel ;  and 
powerlessness,  according  to  my  observation, 
is  peculiarly  absent  from  the  teacher's  face. 
It  should  also  be  said  that,  by  the  intermingling 
of  the  teachers  of  the  several  States,  there 


CO-EDUCATION  141 

is  being  fostered  a  sense  of  fraternity  in  effort, 
achievement  and  destiny  ;  and  thus  a  vital 
relation  between  the  schools  in  all  parts  of 
the  vast  continent  is  being  established  and 
is  already  having  a  beneficial  influence  upon 
the  educational  interests  of  each  part,  especially 
in  raising  the  standard  of  education  in  those 
parts  where  hitherto  it  has  been  lower  than 
the  average  which  prevails.  In  consequence, 
there  is  an  approach  towards  uniformity  in 
the  educational  standards  of  the  different 
States,  although  there  is  not  even  the  sem 
blance  of  national  control. 

Meeting  American  teachers  was  not  made  women 
less  attractive  by  the  fact  that  it  meant 
meeting  American  women.  In  1870  there 
were  77,528  men  and  122,795  women  teach 
ing  in  the  elementary  and  secondary  public 
schools.  Last  year  the  number  of  men  had 
increased  to  109,179;  but,  as  the  number 
of  women  had  risen  to  356,884,  the  preponder 
ance  of  women  teachers  is  greater  to-day  than 
ever  before,  and  there  is  every  indication  that 
it  is  destined  to  be  greater  still.  Already, 
of  every  group  of  ten  teachers  in  "  cities " 
with  a  population  of  25,000  and  over,  eight 
are  women ;  women  number  seven  of  every 
group  of  ten  teachers  in  smaller  "  cities," 
towns  and  villages ;  and  throughout  the 


142  AMERICANS 

whole  country,  of  every  four  teachers  three 
are  women.  If  any  man  suddenly  addresses 
any  American  boy  who  is  under  eighteen  years 
of  age,  he  is  likely  to  be  styled  "M'am"  in 
reply  :  I  tried  the  experiment  many  times  and 
gave  it  up  lest  I  should  become  confused  as 
to  my  own  sex.  Women  are  the  teachers 
of  the  American  youth.  This  may  be  as  it 
should  be  in  elementary  schools ;  and  perhaps 
American  sentiment  is  right  in  depreciating 
a  man  who  is  willing  to  spend  his  time  and 
strength  in  the  details  of  the  primary  school, 
where  a  woman's  patience,  discrimination  and 
sympathy  can  best  understand  and  train  the 
fickle  fancies,  moods  and  impulses  of  a  child. 
But  in  the  high  schools,  boys  of  eighteen  years 
of  age  whose  physical  nature  needs  the  most 
careful  development  are  taught  by  women 
who  sometimes  are  not  many  years  their 
seniors  ;  and  men  have  told  me  that  they 
now  recognise  that  serious  injury  was  wrought 
upon  them  at  that  period  of  their  school  life 
when,  lonely,  shy  and  sullen,  they  were  left 
to  fight  through  their  crisis,  not  knowing 
that  it  was  a  crisis  that  came  to  all  and 
was  necessary  in  the  development  of  life. 
I  met  few  serious  teachers  of  either  sex  who 
did  not  deplore  the  excessive  preponderance 
of  women  on  the  teaching  staffs  of  secondary 


CO-EDUCATION  143 

schools  and    the  higher  classes  of   elementary 
schools. 

These  facts  must  be  considered  in  connection  Mixed 

...  r  ,  .  .  -,       Classes 

with    the    system    of    co-education  —  i.e.,    the  and  the 


education  of  boys  and  girls  in  the  same  classes 
—  which  is  the  general  practice,  not  only  in 
the  primary  schools,  but  also  in  the  secondary 
which,  it  must  be  remembered,  pupils  ordinarily 
enter  at  fourteen,  to  remain  until  they  are 
eighteen  years  old.  Richter  said  that,  to 
ensure  modesty,  he  would  advise  the  education 
of  the  sexes  together,  but  that  he  would  not 
guarantee  anything  in  a  school  where  girls, 
still  less  where  boys,  were  alone  together. 
He  would  be  a  bold  man  who  should  guarantee 
anything  in  any  conditions  ;  but  the  consensus 
of  opinion  amongst  American  teachers,  than 
whom  none  have  a  better  right  to  be  heard, 
is  that  sexual  perversion  and  sexual  tension  are 
appreciably  diminished  by  the  co-educational 
system  of  American  schools.  So  far  as  this  claim 
can  be  established,  the  system  must  receive  the 
sympathetic  consideration  of  all  who  realise  the 
gravity  of  the  moral  problem  of  our  schools. 

But  other  results,  less  obvious  and  far  from  The 
excellent,     are    forcing    themselves    upon    the  andPmost 
attention  of  American  teachers.     The  deepest 
and  most  permanent  effect   of  co-education  is 
upon   adolescent    boys.     A    girl    reaches   and 


144  AMERICANS 

passes  the  period  of  adolescence  at  an  earlier 
age  than  a  boy.  When,  therefore,  pupils  of 
fourteen  enter  the  high  school,  the  girl  is  from 
two  to  three  years  more  matured  than  the  boy. 
In  seriousness  of  purpose,  in  power  of  applica 
tion  and  in  womanly  instincts,  she  is  already 
a  woman ;  but  the  boy  is  still  under  the 
ferment  of  mind  and  body  which  in  him  also, 
but  not  until  two  or  three  years  later,  is  to 
—AS  re-  result  in  nubility.  Consequently,  in  all  work 
bygais€  that  requires  concentration  the  girl  excels ; 

teacher°       an<^  aS  *n  m°St»  ^  nOt    a^>  high    Schools  the  girls 

greatly  outnumber  the  boys,  the  courses  of 
study,  by  an  inevitable  process  of  evolution, 
have  become  adapted  to  the  special  capacities 
of  the  girls.  Thus,  in  classes  taught  by 
women,  boys  are  taught,  with  girls,  studies 
that  are  peculiarly  suited  to  girls,  and  the  boys 
do  not  have  from  the  teacher,  who  is  a  woman, 
the  comprehension  of  themselves  and  their 
moods  that  the  girls  receive.  The  boys  are 
in  a  minority ;  and,  as  the  irrepressible 
tendency  to  imitate  the  majority  asserts  itself, 
they  become  an  inferior  copy  of  girls,  winning 
a  girl's  gentleness  and  sensitiveness  but  not 
the  proper  strength  of  either  sex.  Tried  by 
a  woman's  and  by  a  girl's  standards,  the  boys 
prove  inferior ;  and  when  at  last  they  enter 
upon  their  full  heritage  they  are  irreparably 


CO-EDUCATION  145 

wounded  in  their  dignity  and  have  lost  the 
faith  in  themselves  of  which,  in  order  to  play 
a  man's  part  in  life,  they  have  the  utmost  need. 
There  is  no  greater  danger  to  character  than  this. 

Impressed  by  these  considerations,  a  highisSex 
school  principal  in  Chicago,  with  the  consent 
of  the  Education  Board  of  that  city,  began 
recently  to  separate  boys  and  girls  during  their 
adolescence,  in  order  "  to  accustom  them  in 
their  early  teens  to  differentiate  in  their  charac 
teristics  so  that  they  shall  be  prepared  for  the 
higher  complementary  relations  of  life."  This 
is  surely  a  wise  and  necessary  step.  The  same 
thing  may  be  strength  in  the  woman  and 
weakness  in  the  man,  and  what  is  good  in  the 
woman  may  be  evil  in  the  man.  Below  the 
virtue  which  is  evangelical  and  sexless,  there 
is  a  virtue  of  sex.  This  deeper  virtue  the 
American  man  must  take  heed  to  retain  ;  for 
a  man,  a  nation,  an  epoch  become  effeminate 
sinks  in  the  scale  of  things.  The  question 
with  regard  to  America  which,  more  frequently 
and  urgently  than  any  other,  has  forced  itself 
upon  me,  relates  to  the  national  virility  upon 
which  national  greatness  ultimately  depends. 
I  was  in  New  York  when  an  election  campaign 
was  afoot;  and  I  met  a  typical  political  "boss" 
— a  man  who  knew  how  to  mingle  truth  with 
lies,  to  appeal  to  the  generous  as  well  as  the 

IO 


146  AMERICANS 

baser  instincts  of  men,  to  overawe  as  well  as 
cajole,  and  to  assume  the  air  of  superiority  to 
self-interested  passions  while  most  devoured 
by  selfish  greeds.  I  am  aware,  and  I  make 
large  allowance  for  the  fact,  that  it  is  a  failing 
of  mankind,  and  not  merely  of  Americans,  that 
evils  to  which  we  have  become  accustomed  do 
not  strike  us  with  the  horror  and  dismay  which 
would  be  wrought  in  us  by  a  new  evil  of  less 
degree ;  and  Americans  have  grown  familiar 
with  the  political  corruption  which  is  the  shame 
of  American  public  life.  Yet,  it  is  an  attack 
upon  the  very  foundations  on  which  a  democ 
racy  rests ;  and  by  the  manner  in  which  it  is 
met  the  democracy  must  be  judged. 
—in  the  From  time  to  time,  in  New  York  and  else- 
American  w}jere — for  fae  evjj  js  everywhere — the  superior 

social  section,  always  sensible  of  the  danger 
and  disgrace,  works  itself  up  into  a  flurry  and 
demands  legislative  and  other  contrivances  to 
deliver  the  nation  from  its  peril.  But  while 
all  are  willing  to  be  saved,  few  are  resolved  to 
work  out  their  own  salvation,  and  none,  it 
would  seem,  glory  in  the  privilege  of  suffering 
for  that  end.  If  it  could  be  gained  without 
effort,  or  by  one  spasmodic  effort,  or  by  the 
continuous  effort  of  some  power  not  themselves 
that  made  for  righteousness,  or  if  personal 
effort  did  not  involve  personal  sacrifice,  the 


CO-EDUCATION  147 

better  men  and  women  would  overcome  the 
corrupt  politicians  who  are  numerically  an 
insignificant  fraction  of  the  people.  But, 
finding  that  they  cannot  do  everything  easily 
and  at  once,  they  see  no  alternative  but  to  do 
nothing  at  all ;  and,  being  unwilling  to  pay 
the  price  of  freedom,  they  cease  to  assert 
their  right  to  govern  themselves,  and  submit  to 
government  by  a  gang  of  unscrupulous  men 
who  are  organised  to  limit  and  restrain  the 
exercise  by  the  democracy  of  its  political 
powers  and  who  joyfully  sully  their  reputation 
for  an  end  the  very  opposite  of  that  of  Danton, 
who  exclaimed :  "  Que  mon  nom  soil  flttri, 
pourvu  que  la  France  soil  libre."  It  is  not  the 
honesty,  it  is  the  moral  courage  of  Americans, 
the  splendid  virility  of  the  early  settlers,  that 
seems  not  to  have  been  adequately  maintained. 
The  corrupt  minority  prevails  because  the 
majority  weakly  shrinks  from  the  strain  and 
stress,  the  toil  and  turmoil,  the  opprobrium 
and  slander,  and  the  prolonged  endurance  of 
these,  which  is  the  price  that  must  be  paid  for 
the  reform  which  is  desired. 

In  Les  Femmes  Savantes  of  Moliere,  Ariste  —being 
says  to  his  brother  Chrisale — 

"Your  wife,  between  ourselves, 
Is  by  your  weaknesses  your  ruler. 
Her  power  is  only  founded  on  your  feebleness." 


148  AMERICANS 

The  negative  failings  of  the  honest  men  in 
America  form  a  basis  for  the  positive  wrong 
doing  of  the  men  who  are  corrupt ;  and  the 
penalties  of  duties  neglected  are  ever  to  the 
full  as  terrible  as  those  of  sins  committed — 
more  terrible,  perhaps,  because  more  palpable 
and  sure.  And,  with  the  best  will  in  the 
world,  I  cannot  find  in  American  co-education 
of  the  sexes  by  women  teachers  any  promise 
of  adequate  correction  of  the  tendency  to 
prefer  the  hard  to  the  easy  course  even  when 
the  hard  happens  to  be  the  right  course,  which 
is  seen,  in  its  consequences,  not  only  in 
politics  but  equally,  and  with  equally  disastrous 
effects,  in  other  phases  of  American  life.1 

1  See  Appendix  II. 


CHAPTER  XI. 

SECULAR  EDUCATION. 

"The  soul  of  politics  is  the  politics  of  the  soul." — ARISTOTLE. 

National  Virility  and  the  national  Schools — An  educational 
Catchword — Church  and  State — The  passing  of  religious 
Instruction  from  the  Schools — Moral  Values  of  secular 
Studies — Sunday  Schools — Absence  of  sectarian  Strife — 
Contrast  with  England. 

IN  the  last  analysis,  national  virility  depends  Educa- 
upon  ethical  and  spiritual  vitality ;  and  I  Fallacies. 
have,  therefore,  been  specially  interested  to  see 
how  far  this  is  nourished  in  the  national  schools. 
Often  I  have  asked  teachers  what  they  consider 
to  be  the  chief  necessity  in  education.  More 
than  once  the  answer  has  been  given  in  a 
phrase  which  seems  to  be  the  present  educa 
tional  catchword :  "  Send  the  whole  child  to 
school."  I  ventured  once  to  suggest  to  a 
group  of  teachers  that,  in  this  phrase,  a  demand 
is  made  which  is  by  law  implicitly  disallowed. 
The  teachers  were  quick  to  see  my  drift ;  and, 
in  the  course  of  an  interesting  discussion  upon 
religious  education  that  ensued,  an  admirable 


150  AMERICANS 

precis  was  given  of  a  significant  article  or 
lecture  upon  that  subject  by  an  American 
college  professor.  The  restriction  of  religious 
education  to  the  Church,  involving  the  exclu 
sion  of  it  from  the  schools,  was  held  to  imply 
three  educational  fallacies.  First,  it  divides 
the  historical  content  of  culture  into  parts  and 
assumes  that  these  parts  can  be  communicated 
separately  ;  secondly,  it  divides  the  pupil  into 
parts  and  assumes  that  these  parts  can  be 
developed  independently  of  each  other ;  and 
thirdly,  it  divides  the  teacher  into  parts  and 
assumes  that  certain  elements  of  his  own  culture 
can  be  kept  out  of  the  class-room.  Thus,  only 
a  part  of  the  child,  a  part  of  the  teacher,  and 
a  part  of  culture  is  by  law  admitted  into  the 
schools  ;  and  in  proportion  as  this  theoretical 
denial  of  the  child  and  the  teacher  as  each  an 
indivisible  unit,  and  of  the  vital  correlation  of 
studies,  prevails  in  practice,  the  American 
educational  system  is  a  thing  of  shreds  and 
patches,  the  American  child  is  only  partially 
educated,  and  the  American  teacher's  person 
ality  is  incomplete  in  the  school. 

indirect          Some  teachers    vaunt    their   limitations  and 
influence   openly  proclaim  their  belief  that  religion  is  not 
Teachers    essential  to  human  life  and  will  gradually  dis 
appear.     They,   and   such    as   they,   push    the 
principle  of  secular  education  to    an  extreme, 


SECULAR  EDUCATION         151 

and  show  a  narrow  and  nervous  determination 
to  banish  from  the  schools  and  from  school 
books  all  reference  to  Christianity  and  its 
positive  beliefs.  But  undeniably  their  number 
is  small  and  their  influence  is  not  great.  Most 
teachers  are  themselves  religious  ;  and,  in  spite 
of  constitutional  and  statutory  prohibitions, 
they  take  the  whole  self  to  school  and  bring 
their  entire  personality  to  bear  upon  those 
whom  they  teach.  In  one  way  or  another, 
within  or  beyond  the  limits  imposed  upon 
them,  the  teachers  make  education  a  con 
structive  religious  influence.  Undoubtedly,  it 
proves  such  to  multitudes  of  the  children  who 
are  taught  in  the  public  schools  ;  and  this,  not 
direct  religious  teaching,  is  the  real  religious 
influence  on  a  child,  even  as  the  atmosphere, 
transparent  to  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun, 
receives  its  heat  from  the  rays  given  off  by 
the  surface  of  the  earth. 

Yet   here    may   apply   the    precept :    "  This  Moral 
ought  ye  to  do,  and  not    to    leave   the    other  secular  ° 
undone."      Americans     maintain     that     their Studies- 
Republic   rests   upon   a    religious    idea.     But, 
having   disavowed    external    authority    in    the 
State  and  refused  to  allow  the  Christian  religion 
to  be  taught  in  the    schools,  they  have  never 
frankly  introduced   into   either  the  ideal  upon 
which   the    State   is    declared    to    rest.     Thus 


152  AMERICANS 

both  State  and  school  are  really  without 
religious  sanctions,  except  such  as  are  surrep 
titiously  introduced  from  the  religion  which  is 
disallowed. 

Substitutes  It  was  otherwise,  perhaps  more  completely 
Religious  than  was  wise,  in  the  earliest  days  of  education. 
Education.  Theii)  schools  were  founded  "  to  baffle  that 


deluder  Sathan  "  by  bringing  every  pupil  to 
"  a  lively  faith  in  Jesus  Christ."  The  State 
was  to  be  strengthened  by  the  development  of 
the  character  of  the  citizens,  and  direct  religious 
education  was  the  principal  means  to  that  end. 
An  Spiritus  Sancti  Operatic  in  Menti  sit 
Causa  Naturalis  impropria  Erroris?  —  "  May 
the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  mind  be 
the  improper  cause  of  natural  errors  ?  "  —  is  a 
specimen  of  questions  that  had  to  be  discussed 
by  candidates  for  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts 
at  Harvard  University  in  1742  ;  and  so  recently 
as  fifty  years  ago  there  were  at  Williams 
College  sixteen  compulsory  religious  services, 
four  noon  class  prayer-meetings,  one  college 
prayer-meeting,  and  six  other  regular  but  not 
prescribed  religious  exercises  every  week. 
Then,  the  aim  was  to  make  the  human  will  as 
a  strong  house,  barred  and  bolted,  that  could 
withstand  every  blast  of  any  storm.  Now,  the 
aim  is  to  protect  the  house,  as  by  a  forest  on 
which  the  fury  of  the  storm  shall  be  spent. 


SECULAR  EDUCATION         153 

^Eschylus      attributed      all      wrong-doing     to 
TrapaicoTrd,  false  coinage,  the  impress  of  a  false 
affectional  value  on  things.     American  educa 
tion  seeks  to  distribute  the  affections,  in  their 
intensity  and  proportion,  according  to  the  true 
worth  of  things  ;  and  the  attempt  is  made,  by 
education   that   is  not   religious,  to   bring  the 
motives,  which  are   the   forest   protecting   the 
house,  into  harmonious  relations,  and  produce 
that  equilibrium  of  good  which  is  accepted  as 
the  perfection  of  human    conduct.     In  conse 
quence,  one  hears,  on  all  sides,  of  the  relative 
"  moral  values "  of  the  secular  studies  of  the 
schools ;  and  there  is  perceptible,   I    think,  in 
every  rearrangement  of  courses  of  studies  an 
effort,  whose  motive  does  not  always  rise  into 
consciousness,    to     give     greater     place     and 
emphasis  to  those  subjects  which  are  supposed 
to    have    the    value    which   was    ascribed   to 
religious  teaching  in  former  days.     History,  it 
is  said,  illustrates  ethical  principles,  and  enlists 
the  dispositions  on  the  side  of  right ;  and  history, 
therefore,  which  has  been  the  most  neglected 
of  all  the  main  lines  of  study,  is  gaining  greater 
recognition  in  the  schools.     Choice  works  of 
plastic  and  pictorial  art,  and  other  objects  of 
sense  perception,  are  rapidly  finding  their  way 
into  the  classrooms  because  of  the  moral  values 
which   they  are   held  to  possess ;    and   music, 


i54  AMERICANS 

for   the   same   reason,  is    steadily  growing   in 
importance. 

The  chief  But  reliance  is  chiefly  placed  in  imaginative 
and  dramatic  literature  ;  and  I  have  listened  to 
discourses  to  teachers  upon  the  moral  value  of 
Dante's  Hell  and  Purgatory  as  showing  the 
nature  of  sin,  of  his  Paradise  as  showing 
the  nature  of  righteousness,  and  of  Shake 
speare's  The  Merchant  of  Venice  as  showing — 
But  why  trouble  to  show  the  moral  value  of 
that  play?  Do  not  the  Jews  insist  that, 
because  of  its  unlovely  Jew,  it,  along  with  the 
Bible,  shall  be  excluded  from  the  schools? 
And  is  not  the  insistence  of  the  Jews  likely, 
sooner  or  later,  to  prevail  ?  The  end  of  all 
earthly  learning,  as  Sir  Philip  Sidney  says, 
is  virtuous  action,  and  the  best  educational 
method  is  certainly  that  which  "moveth  us  to 
do  that  which  earthly  learning  doth  teach." 
But  the  majority  of  teachers,  even  in  America, 
are  not  able  to  perceive,  in  every  subject 
that  they  teach,  the  processes  of  humanity's 
effort  toward  ideal  living  and  to  give  it 
definite  and  direct  moral  value  to  a  child ; 
and  indeed,  the  value  of  literature  in  form 
ing  high  ideals  of  conduct  and  in  inspir 
ing  to  their  realisation  will,  perhaps,  always 
prove  to  be  in  proportion  as  moralising  is 
eschewed. 


SECULAR  EDUCATION         155 

It  is  claimed  that  the  educational  system  has  Functions 
the  day  schools  as  merely  one  of  its  parts,  the  and  state. 
other  part  being  the  Sunday  schools,  and  that, 
as  the  function  of  the  State  is  to  teach  secular 
subjects,  to  teach  religion  is  the  function  of 
the  Church.  Whatever  educational  or  other 
fallacies  may  underlie  this  theory,  a  noble  and 
vigorous  effort  is  being  made  to  give  effect  to 
it  by  bringing  the  Church  to  realise  and  fulfil 
its  responsibilities  with  reference  to  that  part  of 
national  education  ascribed  to  it.  Religious 
teaching,  excluded  from  the  day  schools,  is 
being  systematically  and  thoroughly  promoted 
in  the  Sunday  schools  which  in  America, 
although  they  are  still  shamefully  inferior  to 
the  public  schools,  are  greatly  superior  in  their 
teachers,  their  methods,  their  equipment,  their 
curriculum,  their  grading  and  their  results,  to 
similar  institutions  in  England.  The  Sunday 
school  has  not  become,  but  it  is  becoming, 
entitled  to  rank  as  part  of  the  educational 
system  of  the  United  States.  The  State  sees 
that  democracy  cannot  rest  upon  an  ignorant 
demos  and,  by  the  secular  education  of  the 
children,  is  ensuring  general  enlightenment 
and  a  great  increase  of  material  wealth.  The 
Churches  see  that  democracy  cannot  rest  upon 
an  unspiritual  demos  and,  by  the  religious 
education  of  the  children,  are  ensuring  that  the 


156  AMERICANS 

wealth  of  the  nation  shall  not  be  a  mere  mass 
of  things  in  which  a  nation's,  as  a  man's,  life 
"  consisteth  not."  This  is  one  of  the  most 
hopeful  features  of  American  life  ;  for  America 
is  committed,  apparently  irrevocably,  for  weal 
or  for  woe,  to  exclusively  secular  education 
in  the  public  schools, 
is  Faith  It  remains,  however,  to  be  seen  whether  the 

found? — 

Churches  will  maintain  the  educational  activity 
which  they  have  begun.  I  confess  that  some 
times  I  fear  that  in  this,  as  in  the  political 
sphere  there  will  be  preference  of  the  easy  to 
the  hard  course  when  it  is  found  that  every 
thing  cannot  be  done  easily  and  at  once.  For 
even  that  aspect  of  American  life  which  most 
favourably  impressed  me  immediately  on  my 
arrival  in  America — the  toleration  and  charity 
that  prevail  in  the  ecclesiastical  world — and 
which  the  Bishop  of  London  and  many  others 
have  contrasted  with  conditions  that  prevail  in 
England,  gives  me  pause.  Assuredly,  it  is 
pleasant  to  be  in  a  land  where  there  is  not 
such  fierce  strife  of  sects  as  exists  in  England 
and  was  not  always,  in  America,  unknown. 
But  what  if  the  present  generation  of 
Americans  be  not  as  loyal  to  truth  and  to  the 
spirit  of  sacrificial  service  for  truth  as  were 
their  Puritan  forefathers  whose  convictions 
were  shaped  by  a  severer  creed  and  whose 


SECULAR  EDUCATION         157 

characters  were  disciplined  by  a  more  rigorous 
social  and  religious  atmosphere  in  home  and 
church  and  school  ?  What  if,  in  religion  as  in 
politics,  the  American  is  genial  simply  because 
he  is  latitudinarian,  is  liberal  only  because  he  is 
not  intense,  and  is  tolerant  of  the  convictions 
of  others  merely  because  theirs  are  not  deep 
and  his  are  no  deeper  than  theirs?  In-— if  lost, 
difference  to  religion,  as  well  as  indifference  to  Avails?56 
politics,  is  as  disintegrating  a  social  force  as 
excessive  zeal.  To  have  no  creed  to  inscribe 
upon  a  banner  is  as  anti-social  as  the  flaunting 
of  the  banners  of  competing  and  conflicting 
parties  and  sects. 

I  am  a  man  of  peace,  but  not  of  peace  at 
any  price  ;  and  sometimes  I  have  found  myself 
wishing  that  American  pruning-hooks  were 
turned  into  swords.  The  dull  level  of  caution 
and  kindness  seen  everywhere  except  in 
commerce  ;  the  hard  pursuit  of  material  things 
and  the  easy  abandonment  of  facts  and  rights 
by  which  a  people  must  live  or  die — these 
things  have  seemed  to  me  the  most  ominous 
spectacle  of  American  life.  If  ever,  in 
England,  I  should  find  myself  tempted  to 
despondency  by  reason  of  the  fierceness  of 
political  and  ecclesiastical  contentions,  I  shall 
put  to  myself  the  question  which,  without 
particular  reference  to  England  or  America, 


158  AMERICANS 

is  asked  by  M.  Tardz  in  his  Les  Lois 
d Imitation-.  " Which  is  worse  for  a  society 
— to  be  divided  into  parties  and  sects  fighting 
over  opposing  programmes  and  dogmas,  or  to 
be  composed  of  individuals  at  peace  with  each 
other  but  each  striving  within  himself,  a  prey 
to  scepticism,  irresolution  and  discourage 
ment  ? "  I  quoted  these  words  one  day  to  an 
American  Bishop  who  had  quoted  the  Bishop 
of  London  to  me.  The  surrejoinder  was  a 
quotation  from  St.  Paul :  "Now  abideth  faith, 
hope,  charity,  these  three  ;  but  the  greatest  of 
these  is  charity."  It  is  not  for  me  to  dispute 
such  points  with  Bishops  ;  but  I  ask  myself : 
4 'What  if  charity  'abideth,'  but  not  faith  and 
hope  ? "  To  apostolical  authority  I  submit — 
when  it  applies. 


CHAPTER   XII. 

COLLEGES  AND  CHARACTER. 

"I  bless  God  I  have  been  inured  to  difficulties." 

OLIVER  CROMWELL. 

Growth  of  American  Colleges — Their  educational  Efficiency — 
Their  Ideal— American  Graduates  at  English  Colleges— 
The  elective  System — Its  Abuse — The  fundamental 
Idea  sound — The  Future  of  Electives — Self-Supporting 
Students— Self- Government. 


O 


WING  to  disreputable  institutions,  call- College 

ing  themselves  colleges,  which  have  and™ 
sold  honorary  degrees,  American  academic  Desrees- 
honours  and  even  American  colleges  have 
fallen  into  disrepute  abroad.  Bogus  colleges, 
however,  are  and  always  were  relatively  few 
and  they  are  in  process  of  rapid  extinction. 
The  State  of  New  York  has  prohibited 
the  use  of  the  name  of  college  or  university 
where  the  requirements  of  the  State  Board 
of  Regents  are  not  met.  The  tendency  to 
similar  legislative  control  is  apparent  in  all 
the  States ;  and  all  the  reputable  institutions 
welcome  such  supervision  as  a  means  by 
which  their  status  may  be  certified  and  they 


159 


i6o 


AMERICANS 


may  gain  recognition  as  part  of  the  educational 
system  of  their  State.  In  1897  there  were 
472  colleges,  properly  so-called,  excluding 
those  for  women  alone ;  and  the  large  recent 
increase  in  the  number  of  those  who  enter 
the  institutions  of  higher  education  may  be 
seen  by  the  following  statistics  of  four  of 
the  State  universities  which  I  visited  : — 


1885 

1904 

University  of  Michigan     .... 
University  of  Wisconsin   .... 

524 
313 

2,900 
2,810 

University  of  Minnesota  .... 

54 

3>7oo 

University  of  California    .... 

197 

3,057 

In  1904,  there  was  a  total  attendance  of 
119,496  undergraduate  students  in  American 
universities  and  colleges ;  and  the  number 
of  graduate  students  is  increasing  every 
year.  Some  Englishmen  have  complacently 
assumed  that,  because  American  students 
come  to  English  universities,  American 
higher  education  has  nothing  of  comparative 
value  to  offer.  They  forget  that  students 
also  come  from  German  universities  which 
are,  perhaps,  the  best  organisations  in 
existence  for  the  enlargement  of  the 
bounds  of  knowledge,  furnishing  opportunity 
and  incentive  to  the  student  to  learn,  from 


COLLEGES  AND  CHARACTER  161 

libraries,  laboratories  and  living  teachers, 
the  best  results  of  investigation  and — in 
some  respects  of  more  importance  still — 
giving  to  students  and  instructors  golden 
opportunities  for  continued  and  successful 
research. 

The  American  universities  have  elements 
of  strength  and  greatness  which  the  English 
lack ; l  and  I  am  not  disposed  to  quarrel 
with  a  Rhodes  scholar  who,  in  making  a 
report  to  his  own  college  in  America,  which 
came  when  I  was  there,  maintains  that,  admir 
able  as  is  the  training  in  classics,  philosophy, 
history  and  other  branches  of  study  which 
Oxford  offers,  yet  from  the  sole  standpoint 
of  scholarship  it  was  not  necessary  for  him 
to  leave  America  to  find  the  best.  Professor 
Miinsterberg,  whom  Harvard  succeeded  in 
taking  over  from  Germany  and  who  has 
never  hesitated  to  point  out  the  defects  of 
either  American  or  German  institutions, 
acknowledges  that  the  American  degree  of 
Doctor  is  superior  to  the  average  degree  in 
Germany ;  and  at  the  present  time,  when 
Oxford  feels  discontent  with  her  methods, 
her  forces  and  her  conditions,  and  a  com 
mendable  spirit  of  inquiry  regarding  the 
university  and  college  administration  pre- 

1  See  Appendix  I. 
ii 


1 62  AMERICANS 

vails,  it  is  a  distinct  advantage  to  her  to  have 
a  number  of  picked  American  graduates  in 
her  schools. 

Colleges  Colleges,  however,  have  as  their  ideal  the 
Character,  development  of  moral  and  social  as  well  as 
intellectual  qualities  ;  and  at  present  my  chief 
concern  is  the  influence  of  collegiate  life  upon 
the  character  of  the  students  upon  whom, 
as  the  future  leaders  of  the  nation,  the 
national  destiny  in  great  part  depends.  Some 
one  has  well  said  that  it  is  the  essence  of 
indolence  to  be  industriously  doing  easy  and 
obvious  things  while  arduous  duties  go  un 
done  ;  and  in  this  sense  I  have  ventured  to 
say  that  the  strenuous  American,  no  less  if 
not  more  than  other  men,  is  apt  to  be  an 
indolent  man  preferring  the  easy  to  the 
hard,  even  when  the  hard  happens  to  be 
the  right  course.  I  have  also  suggested  that 
this  tendency  does  not  find  adequate  cor 
rectives  in  the  secular  co-educational 
primary  and  secondary  schools.  Of  the 
higher  education,  it  has  to  be  said  that  it 
is  possible  to  graduate  in  it  also  without 
submitting  to  the  severities  and  virilities 
which  are  a  yoke  which  it  is  good  for  a  man 
to  bear  in  his  youth.  More  than  once  I 
have  been  asked  by  youths  of  eighteen  years, 
who  were  about  to  pass  from  high  school  to 


COLLEGES  AND  CHARACTER   163 

college,  to  advise  them  in  the  "  election "  of 
studies  which  they  should  pursue.  I  knew 
nothing  of  their  individual  tastes,  predilec 
tions,  aptitudes,  gifts  or  purposes ;  and  on 
questioning  them  with  regard  to  these,  I 
found  that  my  ignorance  was  equalled  by 
theirs.  I  as  little  thought  of  blaming  them  as 
myself  for  that.  I  did,  indeed,  blame  one  of 
them  who  indubitably,  from  the  wide  election 
allowed  him,  chose  a  course  of  study  known 
in  college  slang  as  "softs"  or  "snaps"  or 
"  cinches,"  because  the  work  and  the  liability 
of  failure  in  it  were  least.  But  I  laid  greater 
blame  upon  the  elective  system  which  pre 
supposes  that  the  average  youth  of  eighteen, 
fresh  from  school,  has  defined  aptitudes, 
understands  himself,  has  adequately  given 
shape  to  his  ultimate  purpose,  and  can  be 
depended  upon  to  select  with  insight,  courage 
and  judgment  the  studies  best  adapted  to 
himself  and  to  the  achievement  of  his  destiny. 

Originally,  in  American  colleges,  the  course  The 
of  instruction  was  fixed.      It  was  assumed  thatTouch" 
all   men  were   alike,    and  that  certain  studies 
were   necessary   to,    and    necessarily   gave,    a 
liberal  education ;   and  therefore   no  deviation 
from  a  prescribed  course  was  allowed.      The 
educational    disadvantages  of  such   a   system, 
rigidly  applied,  are  obvious ;    but   at   least  it 


1 64  AMERICANS 

supplied  wholesome  discipline  for  many  youths 
by  making  them  take  what  was  to  them  the 
hardest,  when  they  would  have  preferred  the 
easiest  course.  With  the  vast  enlargement  of 
the  field  of  knowledge,  a  larger  view  of  culture 
and  a  better  knowledge  of  human  nature,  con 
siderable  modification  of  the  old  system  was 
inevitable  ;  and  the  fundamental  idea  of 
electives  is  sound.  But  in  America,  the 
election  goes  too  often  by  fragmentary  sub 
jects  ;  and  incentives  to  a  weak  and  foolish 
choice  are  found  in  the  method  of  awarding 
the  degree,  not  for  final  proficiency  in  a 
coherent  and  well-balanced  course  of  study  in 
which,  within  reasonable  limits,  freedom  of 
election  has  been  allowed,  but  for  a  pass  in  four 
subjects  in  each  of  four  successive  years,  the 
whole  number  of  subjects  being  in  some 
colleges  as  disconnected,  even  as  chaotic,  as 
the  student  may  please.  This  crude  and  un 
scientific  system  came  into  being  as  a  hurried 
and,  therefore,  ill-considered  accommodation  to 
the  demands  of  the  large  and  growing  number 
of  undergraduates  who  go  to  college  to  prepare 
for  a  commercial  or  industrial,  as  distinguished 
from  a  professional,  career.  Intellectual  pur 
poses  do  not  dominate  such  students.  The 
scholarly  motive  is  not  primary.  They  seek, 
and  it  must  be  admitted  that  they  get, 


COLLEGES  AND  CHARACTER  165 

"  the  touch  of  college  life  "  which   often  gives 
them  considerable  charm. 

During  a  long  railway  journey  I  once  had 
two  fellow-travellers   who   proved    themselves 
men  of  some  culture  if  not  of  high  intellectu 
ality,  men  not   of  a   parish  but  of  the  world, 
vigorous  and  attractive  all-round   men   whose 
talk   was   of    the    relative    merits   of    certain 
colleges  in   athletics,  in  debate  and  in   study, 
and  who  themselves  discussed  intelligently  and 
reverently  Comparative  Religion  and  Rontgen 
rays.     I  exchanged  cards  with  them  and  found 
that  one  of  them  was  a  manufacturer  of  boots 
and  shoes  and  the  other  a  commercial  advertiser, 
whatever  that  may  be.     Such  pleasant  surprises 
are  more  frequent  in  America  than  in  England 
where,  indeed,  they  are  an  experience  I  have 
yet  to  find ;  and  such  men  give  new  dignity  to 
commercial  life  and  do  much  to  redeem  their 
communities    from     intellectual    poverty    and 
from  a  social  barbarism  which  has  too   much 
afflicted  American  democracy.     And  who  shall 
say   that,    in    the   complex  academic  life  of  a 
nation,  occasion  and  methods  shall  not  be  given 
for  the  education  which  consists  of  intellectual 
conditions  and  associations  as  well  as  for  that 
which  consists  of  intellectual  forces  compelling 
to  hard  intellectual  toil  which,  of  course,  must 
always    be    a    university's    chief   end  ?      Yet, 


1 66  AMERICANS 

undoubtedly,  under  the  system  which  grants  a 
wide  choice  between  departments  and  between 
courses  in  each  department,  the  students  who 
most  need  compulsion  are  conceded  undue  and 
mischievous  indulgence  in  their  whims  and 
caprices,  as  they  follow  the  lines  of  least  resist 
ance  in  the  elections  which  they  make.  Even 
Charles  Francis  Adams  has  said  that,  at  college, 
he  "browsed  about,  sampling  this,  that,  and 
the  other."  He  gave  up  the  classics  and  got 
rid  of  mathematics ;  and  he  now  devoutly 
wishes  that  he  had  never  been  allowed  a 
—and  the  choice.  Electives  will  never  be  disallowed 
of  College  again  in  American  colleges  ;  but  already  they 
are  being  intelligently  restricted,  and  it  may 
reasonably  be  expected  that,  before  long,  all 
students,  and  not  merely  such  as  choose, 
will  be  subjected  to  the  discipline  proper 
to  academic  life. 

Students        The  best  men,  and  not  infrequently  the  best 
in  order"'  students,  are  found  amongst  the  large  class  of 
that  they    undergraduates   who   are    "  self-supporting" — 
learn—      a  term  which   casts    no    shadow    of  slight   or 
reproach.     These  earn  their  college  expenses, 
in  whole  or  in  part ;  and  they  are  finely  disci 
plined   by    their   four   years'  warfare  for  their 
four  years'  course.     Some  one  has  said  that  he 
first    met    the    self-supporting   student  on  the 
steps   of  the   college   library    and   found   him 


COLLEGES  AND  CHARACTER   167 

reading  from  a  volume  of  Xenophon  which  he 
held  in  his  right  hand,  while  with  his  left  he 
sold  socks,  suspenders  and  collar-buttons  to 
the  undergraduates ;  and  this  pleasant  inven 
tion  does  not  exaggerate  the  perseverance  of 
this  class  of  students  in  their  twofold  task 
of  learning  and  earning.  Undoubtedly,  some 
are  seriously  hampered  in  their  studies  by  their 
other  work ;  but,  in  most  cases,  the  time  spent 
in  making  money  is  snatched  from  idleness, 
recreation  or  repose  rather  than  from  classes 
and  preparation  for  these,  and  often  the  addi 
tional  work  is  tutoring,  night-school  teaching, 
laboratory  and  library  assistance,  or  other 
occupations  which  are  aids  rather  than  hin 
drances  to  strictly  academic  tasks. 

The     ingenuity     and     resourcefulness,     the  —and  who 
decision  and  energy,  the  endurance  and  cheer-  pifned" 
fulness   of    these   students    is   worthy   of    the  thereby* 
highest  esteem ;  and  equal  esteem  is,  perhaps, 
due  to  the  other  students  for  their  frank  and 
generous  admiration  of  those  of  their  fellows 
in  whom  these  qualities  are  developed  by  their 
pecuniary  need.     I    was   assured   by  the  pro 
fessors  of  more   than  one  college  that  under 
graduates  who  both  learn  and  earn  well,  receive 
too  much  rather  than  too  little  regard.     Always, 
when  visiting  a  college,  I  took  care  to  get  into 
touch  with  the  self-supporting  students  ;   and, 


1 68  AMERICANS 

when  far  from  all  colleges,  I  met  them  at 
every  turn.  At  the  colleges,  I  found  them  in 
charge  of  furnaces  and  lawns,  tending  homes 
and  gardens,  and  acting  as  janitors,  bell- 
ringers  and  caretakers ;  at  Yale  University 
students  told  me,  with  satisfaction,  of  some 
of  their  number  who  served,  on  occasions,  as 
pall-bearers  at  funerals  in  town ;  and,  when 
I  was  travelling,  it  often  happened  that  students 
on  vacation  were  my  drivers,  my  waiters  and 
baggage-clerks  at  hotels,  and  my  engine- 
drivers,  conductors  and  ticket-collectors  on 
trains.  Yet,  of  them  all,  I  can  recollect  only 
three  who  seemed  to  lack  self-respect.  At 
one  college,  in  the  Middle- West,  professors 
and  students  were  justly  proud  of  a  Rhodes 
scholar,  at  Oxford  now,  a  blacksmith's  son, 
who,  arriving  without  a  cent,  after  a  long 
tramp,  in  the  college  town,  had  passed  his 
first  night  there  on  the  steps  of  the  town-hall, 
and  had  afterwards,  during  his  curriculum, 
earned  his  lodging,  his  food  and  his  fees  by 
any  and  every  kind  of  work  that  he  could  find 
in  college  or  in  town.  Some  colleges  and  uni 
versities  have  as  many  as  90  per  cent,  while 
others  have  no  more  than  10  per  cent.,  of  this 
class  of  students  ;  but  of  the  entire  body  of 
American  undergraduates,  the  average,  on  a 
conservative  estimate,  of  those  who  are  self- 


COLLEGES  AND  CHARACTER   169 

supporting  is  45  per  cent.  Thus,  there  are 
no  less  than  50,000  students  in  the  country 
who  are  constantly  under  this  kind  of  discipline  ; 
and,  perhaps,  the  Scotch  universities,  which 
have  an  analogous  class,  are  the  only  other 
educational  institutions  in  the  world  that  have 
as  robust  a  body  of  men  on  their  rolls. 

Being  unfettered  by  traditions,  American  seif- 
colleges  are  able  to  strike  out  on  interesting 
and  original  lines  ;  and  some  collegiate  author-  DlsclPlme- 
ities,  if  the  term  may,  in  this  connection,  be 
allowed,  delegate  their  authority  to  the  students, 
on  the  assumption  that  self-discipline  is  the 
best  discipline,  even  for  youths.  This  system 
of  self-government  has  gained  much  ground  in 
recent  years.  I  found  it  established,  in  highly 
elaborated  form,  even  in  elementary  schools. 
There,  without  question,  its  deepest  defects  are 
disastrous.  The  authority  of  age,  of  know 
ledge,  of  position  and  of  function,  rarely  found, 
as  I  have  said,  in  the  home,  disappears  also 
from  the  school ;  the  scholars  learn  to  claim 
the  privileges  and  liberties  of  men  and  also 
those  of  children  ;  and  the  intelligence  and  will, 
which  the  system  is  intended  to  strengthen,  are 
insensibly  impaired.  This  innovation  is  but  a 
specimen  of  a  large  crop  of  mushroom  experi 
ments  which  spring  up  in  America.  Some  of 
the  fungoid  growths  are  grotesque ;  many  of 


1 70  AMERICANS 

them  are  beautiful ;  nearly  all  of  them  are  non- 
fibrous  and  experimental.  Perhaps,  when  they 
have  done  their  work,  the  right  seed  will  ger 
minate  and  true  reform  grow  in  the  mould 
which  they  have  prepared.  Self-government 
in  colleges  is  still  in  the  experimental  stage  ; 
and  it  may  be  that,  properly  safeguarded,  so 
that  the  Faculty  shall  not  shirk  its  proper 
responsibility  and  the  students  shall  not  have 
too  heavy  a  burden  of  responsibility  laid  upon 
them,  the  system  will  unite  the  Faculty  and  the 
students  in  the  common  effort  to  make  scholars 
and  men  at  the  colleges,  by  training  them  in 
self-direction,  self-restraint  and  self-control. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

COLLEGE  ATHLETICS. 

"  I  like  a  clamour  whenever  there  is  an  abuse.  The  fire-bell  at  mid 
night  disturbs  your  sleep,  but  it  keeps  you  from  being  burned  in  your 
bed."  —  EDMUND  BURKE. 

Undue  Importance  of  Athletics  —  Their  Degradation  —  A  Market 
for  Athletes  —  The  Extent  of  the  Evil  —  Russian  Tchinovniks 
and  American  Managers  of  College  athletic  Teams  —  A 
faulty  Generalisation  —  American  Students  undemoralised  — 
Explanation  —  The  Beginning  of  the  End  of  the  Evil. 


athletics  demand  more  serious  The 
attention  than  even  college  electives. 
According  to  the  sayings  of  Confucius,  the  Athlete- 
philosopher  K'iung,  whose  learning  was 
extensive,  took  up  charioteering  in  order  to 
remove  the  reproach  that  he  did  nothing  to 
render  his  name  famous.  In  America,  neither 
the  colleges  that  give,  nor  the  students  who 
receive,  extensive  learning  render  their  names 
famous  until  they  "take  up,"  and  excel  in 
football,  baseball,  or  some  other  form  of  sport 
and  prove  their  prowess  in  inter-collegiate  con 
tests,  by  the  results  of  which  the  relative  merits 


AMERICANS 

of  the  colleges  are  determined  from  year  to 
year.  Professor  Simon  Newcombe,  one  of 
the  foremost  of  living  American  men  of  science, 
in  answer  to  his  own  question  why  students  of 
Harvard  and  Yale  join  the  athletic  teams  of 
their  universities,  replies  that  for  the  most  part 
the  game  is  not  a  pleasure  to  them,  but  a 
severe  strain  which  they  undertake  in  order  to 
command  the  esteem  of  their  fellows  and  excite 
the  admiration  of  the  public.  If  they  devoted 
themselves  to  purely  intellectual  improvement, 
they  would  have  to  wait  long  years  before 
getting  into  the  limelight,  while  in  the  athletic 
team  they  find  themselves  there  at  once. 
A  mean  Perhaps  it  would  be  more  correct  to  say  that 
it  is  to  get  their  college  into  the  limelight  that 
students  join  the  college  teams.  I  happened  to 
be  in  residence  at  one  of  the  best  colleges  in  the 
Middle- West  when  its  students  were  victorious 
in  the  annual  State  inter-collegiate  contests. 
Yielding  to  the  generous  insistence  of  the 
students  who  were  celebrating  their  victory 
round  a  huge  bonfire  in  the  college  campus,  I 
said  a  few  words  of  congratulation  which  were 
sincerely  spoken ;  but  it  would  have  been 
impossible  for  me  to  utter  them  had  I  then 
known  one  half  concerning  athletics  in  American 
colleges  that  I  have  since  learned.  I  had  my 
first  nibbles  at  the  tree  of  knowledge,  and  my 


COLLEGE  ATHLETICS         173 

eyes  were  partially  opened,  at  that  very  college. 
The  students,  recognising  my  surprise  at  their 
extreme  elation,  explained  that  it  was  due  to 
the  fact  that  one  of  the  competing  colleges  had 
meanly  enticed  their  trainer  from  them  by  the 
offer  of  a  higher  salary  than  their  college  could 
afford  to  pay.  Later,  a  professor  said  to  me 
that  the  Faculty  and  trustees  rejoiced  with 
exceeding  joy  because  the  enhanced  renown 
which,  by  the  victory,  the  college  had  gained 
would  attract  many  new  students  who  other 
wise  would  have  gone  wherever,  elsewhere, 
success  had  gone. 

This  spirit  of  rivalry  between  the  various  A  demean- 
colleges  is  one  of  the  most  obvious  and  most  s^tem. 
repugnant  features  of  American  academic  life,  as 
compared  with  Germany  whose  universities  are 
superior  to  those  of  both  England  and  America, 
in  this,  as  in  some  other  important  aspects.  All 
German  universities  are  parts  of  one  great 
governmental  system,  and  are  in  large  measure 
considered  to  be  equal ;  and  it  is  the  ambition 
of  many  students  to  take  each  of  their  six 
semesters  in  a  different  university,  passing  freely 
from  one  to  the  other.  In  America,  however, 
excessive  devotion  to  one  seat  of  learning  is 
mingled  with  a  hostile  and  depreciatory  spirit 
towards  all  others ;  and  any  student  who  may 
migrate  from  one  college  to  another  has  to  bear 


174  AMERICANS 

the  imputation  of  disloyalty.  Even  graver  mis 
demeanours  are  apt  to  be  imputed  to  him, 
should  he  have  the  misfortune — I  must  use  the 
terms  of  the  market-place,  which  alone  are 
appropriate  here — to  be  good  athletic  material 
which  it  would  pay  another  college  to  buy  in 
order  to  render  its  name  famous  by  achieving 
superiority  in  inter-collegiate  contests.  At  a 
meeting  of  college  presidents  held  recently  at 
Cornell  University,  it  was  stated  by  one  of  the 
presidents,  and  contradicted  by  none,  that  the 
various  league  teams  of  the  colleges  are 
"bought  and  sold  in  the  open  market." 

This  seems  to  hold  true  of  all  the  States, 
even  of  Oklahoma  which  attained  the  dignity 
of  Statehood  only  the  other  day.  This  State 
resolved  to  protect  itself  against  the  evils  which 
attended  the  growth  of  the  other  States.  To 
that  end,  it  constructed  a  Constitution  of  which 
it  has  been  facetiously  said  that  to  worship  it 
would  be  no  sin,  since  it  is  unlike  anything  in 
the  heavens  above,  or  in  the  earth  beneath,  or 
in  the  waters  under  the  earth,  and  therefore 
stands  outside  the  limits  of  the  Biblical  injunc 
tion  as  to  idolatry.  But  the  Constitution  which 
seeks  by  its  provisions  to  protect  the  State 
from  numberless  specific  evils  such  as  trusts, 
gambling,  drunkenness  and  even  drinking,  has 
omitted  to  provide  against  the  establishment 


COLLEGE  ATHLETICS         175 

within  the  State  of  an  open  market  where 
league  teams  may  be  bought  and  sold  ;  and  I 
met  a  pupil  of  an  Oklahoma  High  School  who, 
having  proved  himself  good  athletic  material, 
had  received  from  athletic  managers  of  more 
than  one  college  in  other  States  competitive 
offers  of  board,  tuition,  books,  "coach"  and 
other  inducements  to  aid  him  in  determining 
the  choice  of  his  college  on  leaving  school.  I 
am  told  that  the  great  private  schools  even 
send  agents  to  the  elementary  schools  to  buy 
up  athletic  material  with  which  to  build  up  the 
reputation  of  the  school. 

Much  has  been  heard  of  the  physical  and  Extremes 
intellectual  evils  of  modern  athletics.  In  ness  meet. 
American  colleges,  as  in  England  outside  of 
the  colleges,  the  chief  evil  is  moral.  Of 
recent  years,  in  order  to  repress  professionalism 
in  college  games,  a  rule  has  been  adopted  by 
which  no  student  is  held  to  be  eligible  for 
admission  to  a  college  team  who  does  not 
declare  that  he  has  never  in  his  life  received 
any  compensation,  direct  or  indirect,  for  the  use 
of  athletic  knowledge  or  skill.  The  declaration 
is  solemnly  made ;  and  yet  no  college  team 
ever  meets  another  with  actual  faith  in  the  other's 
eligibility.  I  recollect  being  much  perplexed  in 
a  club  in  Russia  by  the  pleasure  which  a  member 
found  in  losing  a  considerable  sum  of  money 


176  AMERICANS 

to  his  opponent,  a  Government  official,  in  a 
game  of  cards.  When,  however,  I  heard  that 
the  following  morning  the  loser  had  received 
from  the  winner  a  favourable  answer  to  a 
petition  that  he  had  made  haste  to  present,  I 
recognised  that  I  had  seen  an  official  bought 
and  sold  in  the  open  market  in  such  a  manner 
as  left  me  without  a  shred  of  evidence  in  proof 
of  the  offence.  Les  extremes  se  touchent  \  and 
athletic  managers  of  American  college  teams 
have  been  known  to  make  wagers  with,  and 
lose  them  to,  students  who  afterwards  have 
enrolled  in  the  colleges  from  which  the  agents 
came.  Who  doubts,  and  yet  who  can  prove, 
that  these  athletes  were  bought  ?  By  these 
and  other  equally  disreputable  methods,  the 
rules  against  professionalism  are  systematically 
circumvented  ;  and,  of  course,  athletes  who  are 
thus  dishonourably  secured  must  "in  honour" 
play  to  win,  even  although  they  play  in  dis 
honourable  ways.  I  have  heard  certain  college 
athlete  trainers  described  as  " great"  in  teach 
ing  the  art  of  dexterously  maiming  an  opponent ; 
and  a  college  president  has  publicly  stated 
that  to  decieve  the  umpire,  to  wrangle  over  a 
doubtful  decision,  to  rattle  the  pitcher  (that  is 
to  confuse  the  thrower  at  baseball),  to  dis 
concert  the  fielder  who  is  trying  to  bring  off  a 
catch,  and  many  other  forms  of  discourtesy  and 


COLLEGE  ATHLETICS         177 

fraud,  "are  openly  practised  and  unblushingly 
condoned." 

From    these  particulars    it   would    be    easy  The  Mass 

r      ,  ,.  ,.         of  Students 

to  make  a  faulty  generalisation  regarding  not  de- 
American  students  and  American  colleges. meaned- 
It  is  true  that  no  man  trained  in  such  devices 
as  those  which  I  have  described  can  be 
expected  to  show  sensitiveness  of  conscience 
in  the  commercial  and  political  world ;  and 
I  have  heard  the  prevalent  corruption  of 
American  public  life  ascribed  to  the  debased 
athletics  of  the  colleges.  But  the  college 
graduate  is  ordinarily,  in  commerce  and 
politics,  a  power  that  makes  for  righteous 
ness  and  few  corrupt  politicians  have  had  a 
college  career.  English  institutions  are  some 
times  better  than  individual  Englishmen.  In 
America  the  individuals  are  ordinarily  better 
than  the  institutions  :  the  individual  conscience 
is  higher  than  the  public  conscience.  Mr. 
W.  D.  Howells,  whom  I  met  in  New  York, 
said  with  reference  to  a  recent  visit  to  England 
that,  had  he  met  Harvard  men  coming  and 
going  in  mortar-boards  and  cropped  gowns  in 
the  quadrangles  and  gardens  of  Oxford,  he 
should  not  have  known  them  from  the  Oxford 
men  whom  he  actually  saw  :  the  Harvard  men 
might  look  sharper,  tenser,  less  fresh  and  less 
fair,  not  so  often  blue  of  eye  and  blond  of  hair, 

12 


1 78  AMERICANS 

more  mixed  and  differenced,  but  they  and  the 
Oxford  men  would  be  easily  recognised  as  of  a 
common  race.  The  resemblances  are  not  less, 
and  the  differences  are  not  greater,  in  the  inner 
life  and  character  of  American  and  English 
students.  In  America,  as  Baron  Pierre  de 
Coubertin  perceived  and  said,  the  students  are 
"  les  vrais  Amdricains,  la  base  de  la  nation, 
lespoir  de  I'avenir" 

Their  That  the  demoralised  athletics  of  American 

exSphuned.  colleges  have  left  American  students  as  a  body 
undemoralised,  is  due  to  three  facts,  each  of 
which,  however,  is  itself  a  misfortune,  if  not  a 
fault,  in  academic  life,  (i)  Few  students  take 
an  active  part  in  athletics.  All  are  interested 
but  few  play.  The  great  majority  are  mere 
spectators  of  the  game.  I  was  astonished  by 
the  numbers  of  students  whom  I  found,  at  all 
colleges,  content  to  sit,  day  after  day,  on  the 
"  bleachers  "  and  see  their  fellow-students  play  ; 
and  they,  on  the  other  hand,  were  astonished 
by  the  statements  of  the  American  Rhodes 
scholars  at  Oxford  that,  there,  so  many  students 
take  part  in  college  sports  that  ordinarily  none 
are  free  to  be  spectators.  More  than  once  I 
have  been  asked  whether  it  is  the  case,  as  an 
American  has  declared,  that  the  average  for 
boating,  which  in  American  colleges  is  one  man 
in  seventy,  is  at  Oxford  one  in  seven,  and 


COLLEGE  ATHLETICS          179 

whether   the   average    Oxford   college  of    150^ 
men  maintains  two  football  teams,  an  eight  and  atox 


two  torpids,  a   cricket   eleven,  and   a   hockey  9uoted- 
eleven  and  has,  besides,  the  men  who  play  golf, 
lawn  tennis,  court  tennis,  rackets  and  fives,  and 
the  men  who  swim,  box,  wrestle  and  shoot  ? 

Such  statements,  made  by  Americans  who 
are  suspected  of  having  become  too  much 
Anglicised,  I  have  almost  persuaded  some 
American  students  to  believe  ;  but  I  do  not 
believe  that  I  have  succeeded  in  convincing 
one  that  there  is  no  organised  and  systematic 
coaching  of  athletic  teams  such  as  is  practised 
in  American  colleges  where  professional  trainers 
ordinarily  receive,  for  a  few  weeks'  work,  more 
than  the  best  professors  get  for  a  year's 
academic  service.  First,  then,  few  students 
play  ;  and  of  these  few,  only  some  are  bought 
and  sold.  (2)  Of  the  members  of  the  athletic 
teams,  few  ever  achieve  other  than  athletic  dis 
tinction.  Such  severe  training  as  the  modern 
college  athlete  gets  is  not  shaped  in  reference 
to,  and  is  not  a  basis  for,  mental  training.  It 
is  not  easy  to  make  the  transition  from 
excessive  physical  activity  to  intellectual 
activity  or  to  reverse  the  movement.  The 
two  forms  of  expenditure  cannot  go  on 
together,  or  be  added  to  each  other,  without 
an  excessive  drain  on  vital  forces.  Thus,  the 


i8o  AMERICANS 

athlete  becomes  a  mere  athlete  and  rarely 
gains  a  position  in  the  commercial,  political, 
literary  or  educational  world  in  which  he  could 
make  his  influence  widely  felt.  The  American 
Rhodes  scholars  at  Oxford  are  athletic,  but 
they  are  not  ordinarily  chosen  from  their 
college  athletic  teams.  Thus,  the  corrupted 
men  do  not  greatly  corrupt,  and  the  incorrupt 
represent  worthily  American  academic  life. 
(3)  Few  others  than  the  corrupt  few  have 
any  knowledge  of  the  corruption  that  prevails. 
The  President  of  Clark  University  has  said 
that  one  of  the  great  dangers  of  the  play  of 
American  students  is  that,  instead  of  being  a 
school  of  honour,  it  will  be  a  school  of  dis 
honour.  It  is  such  to  those  who  are  bought 
and  sold ;  and  it  would  be  such  to  all  the 
students,  were  it,  as  so  large  a  part  of  students' 
activities  ought  to  be,  within  their  ken  and 
did  they  yet  tolerate  and  condone  the  evil. 
Recently,  some  professors  and  alumni,  as  I 
have  intended  to  show  by  frequent  references 
to  their  utterances,  have  courageously  set 
themselves  to  the  ungrateful  but  most 
necessary  task  of  exposing  the  evil ;  and 
that  marks  the  beginning  of  its  end.  Such 
defects  as  I  have  cited,  are  incident  to  the 
youth  and  rapid  growth  of  American  institu 
tions  ;  and  they  are  being  overcome.  The 


COLLEGE  ATHLETICS          181 

American  educational  system  is,  as  Browning's 
poetry  was  regarded  by  himself, — 

"Certes,  incomplete, 
Disordered  with  all  Adam  in  the  blood, 
But  even  its  very  tumours,  warts  and  wens 
Still  organised  by  and  implying  life." 

To  nothing  devised  and  wrought  by  men  could 
higher  praise  be  given.  English  colleges  also 
have  "all  Adam  in  the  blood";  and  it  will  be 
well  for  us  if  we  prove  as  quick  to  see,  as  frank 
to  admit,  and  as  resolute  to  amend  defects  as 
later  chapters  will  show  Americans  to  be. 


CHAPTER   XIV. 

THE  COLLEGIATE  TASK. 

"Act    so    that    the    maxim    of   thy   conduct    shall    be  fit   to    be 
universal  law."  —  I  MM  AN  u  EL  KANT. 

Academic  Jewish  and  other  Aliens  —  Their  Influence  in  dissi 
pating  racial  Prejudices  —  Collegiate  Task  :  its  fulfilment 
a  national  Benefit  —  The  Collegiate  Task  frustrated  by 
College  Fraternities. 


The  nr^EN  days  after  my  arrival  in  America,  I 
1  found  at  one  of  the  best  colleges  that  the 
most  influential  professor  was  a  Jew  who  exerts 

jews.  considerable  influence,  as  author  and  lecturer, 
throughout  the  United  States.  I  thus  got 
my  first  hint  that  in  America  the  scholar  and 
teacher  are  quietly  and  surely  taking  the  place 
of  the  money-lender  and  financier  as  repre 
sentatives  of  the  Jews.  The  genius  of  this 
people,  not  only  for  commerce  and  trade  but 
also  for  literature,  law,  medicine,  music  and 
the  fine  arts,  is  making  its  Americanised 
members,  as  artists,  poets,  philosophers, 
barristers  and  statesmen,  an  important  factor 


182 


THE  COLLEGIATE  TASK       183 

in    the    highest    development    of    the    nation. 
They  are  amongst   the   most   capable   public- 
school    teachers    and    college    and    university 
professors  ;   they  are  prominent  as  journalists, 
essayists   and   pamphleteers  ;    and   the   extra 
ordinary  musical    development   of   America  is 
largely  due  to  them.     In  social  settlements,  in 
civic  federations,  in  municipal  reform  leagues, 
in  city  clubs  and  in  citizens'  unions — in  a  word, 
in  all  societies  whose  aim  is  to  purify  political 
and  social  life — they  are  active  and  influential 
members.     Oscar  Straus,  the  most  intellectual 
and   one   of    the    most    efficient   members    of 
President    Roosevelt's     Cabinet,     is     a    Jew. 
Judge    Mack,    the    greatest    Juvenile     Court 
Judge,    is   a   Jew.     Jacob    Schiff,    one  of  the 
sanest  of  American  philanthropists,  is  a  Jew. 
Felix   Adler,  to  whom  all  sections  of  cosmo 
politan  New  York  turn   for  eloquent  support 
of  pure  idealism  and  high  moral  standards,  is 
a  Jew.     Leroy  Beaulieu   has   said   that  Israel 
runs  the  risk  of  being  the  victim  of  the  Jew's 
enfranchisement  and  of  perishing  in  his  victory. 
The  risk  is  great,  as  I  have  shown.     But  in 
America,  many  Jews  show  that  it  is  possible 
for  the  Jewish  race  to   maintain  and  develop 
intellectual  and    spiritual  qualities  even  better 
when  enfranchised  than  when  enslaved.     Being 
a  Gentile  who  has   lived   much  in  Russia,  in 


1 84  AMERICANS 

close  contact  with  the  governing  classes  there, 
I  was  not  easily  convinced  of  this  fact  which, 
however,  now  that  I  myself  am  at  last  en 
franchised  from  prejudices  to  which  I  was  too 
long  enslaved,  I  find  no  less  a  pleasure  than  a 
duty  to  record. 

HisSer-  Social  antipathy  to  Jews,  I  have  said,  exists 
that  of  the  in  America,  in  spite  of  all  the  religious  toler- 
u>°th?es  ance,  the  civic  and  political  liberty,  and  the 
Nation,  opportunity  for  men  of  all  nations,  races  and 
creeds  of  which,  not  without  reason,  Americans 
are  proud.  This  prejudice,  with  its  conse 
quent  misunderstanding  and  alienation,  in  a 
nation  which  has  so  many  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  Jews  and  is  receiving  hundreds 
of  thousands  more  every  year,  not  only 
suggests  a  war  of  classes  in  the  future  but  is 
narrowing  and  blinding  to  both  races  now, 
making  both  poorer  and  meaner  and  pre 
venting  the  growth  of  the  relations  which 
should  exist  between  the  common  citizens  of 
any  State  and  most  completely  in  the  demo 
cratic  United  States.  The  separating  barriers, 
however,  the  educated  Jews  overleap ;  and 
from  the  other  side  they  begin  to  break  them 
down.  This  holds  true  of  other  immigrant 
races ;  for  although  not  so  many  of  their 
members  pursue  the  higher  education,  there  is, 
on  the  other  hand,  less  prejudice  against  them 


THE  COLLEGIATE  TASK       185 

to  be  overcome.  The  colleges,  in  thus  re 
inforcing  the  sense  of  fraternity  in  civic 
destinies  through  fraternity  in  learning  and 
letters,  are  continuing  their  earliest  mission ; 
for  the  claim  made  on  their  behalf  must  be 
conceded,  that  the  intellectual  was  the  first 
kind  of  commerce  to  overstep  the  barriers 
which  kept  the  original  colonies  apart,  and 
that  it  was  through  the  colleges  that  this 
commerce  was  begun  and  maintained. 

This  is  no  small  part  of  the  benefit  which  Culture 
American  universities  and  colleges  have  con-  character. 
ferred  and  still  confer  upon  the  nation.  The 
race  problem,  more  sternly  than  any  other, 
presses  for  solution.  A  nation  is  made  and 
maintained  great,  not  by  the  number  of  in 
dividuals  contained  within  its  boundaries,  but 
by  the  strength  that  comes  from  common 
national  ideals  and  aspirations.  No  nation  can 
be  great  that  is  not  homogeneous  in  this  sense. 
I  have  said,  and  every  one  who  has  eyes  can 
see,  that  this  homogeneity  is  promoted  by  the 
elementary  and  secondary  schools  ;  but  perhaps 
there  is  not  proper  appreciation  of  the  colleges 
as  a  constant  and  pervasive  force  that  is  tending 
gradually  to  fuse  the  diverse  racial  elements 
into  one  common  nationality,  having  one 
language,  one  literature,  one  patriotism  and 
one  ideal  of  social  and  political  development. 


1 86  AMERICANS 

Progress  is  more  often  a  pull  than  a  push— 
"a  surging  forward  of  the  exceptional  man 
and  the  uplifting  of  his  duller  brethren  slowly 
and  painfully  to  his  higher  level."  The  edu 
cated  men  and  women  of  the  different  races 
in  America,  with  their  larger  vision  and  deeper 
sensibilities,  are  ordinarily  wise  and  conservative 
leaders  of  their  fellows  whom  they  serve  in  a 
thousand  ways,  giving  more  adequate  standards 
of  living  and  loftier  ideals  of  life  to  those  whose 
ignorance  of  letters  is  less  dangerous  than  their 
ignorance  of  life. 

inter-  And,  in  appreciable  measure,  they  are  dis- 

smTRace  sipating  racial  prejudices.  In  the  higher  realms 
isticsacter"  °f  intellectual  commerce,  as  in  an  oasis  amid  a 
wide  desert  of  caste  and  proscription,  the  best 
representatives  of  all  races  meet  and  mingle, 
aiding  each  other's  growth  and  all  striving,  in 
generous  rivalry,  to  a  high  ideal ;  and  thus 
mutual  respect  is  won.  Even  in  the  kingdom 
of  culture — the  purest  democracy  in,  because  it 
is  not  of,  this  world — the  old  base  prejudice  too 
often  raises  its  head  and  the  heartburning  jars 
and  slights  of  deep  race  dislike  are  not  un 
known.  For  race-feeling  is  older  than  intellec 
tual  development ;  and  reason,  based  on  larger 
knowledge  and  experience,  does  not  quickly 
bring  to  the  emotional  life  the  intimate  sense 
of  kindred  humanity  in  which  alone  the  super- 


THE  COLLEGIATE  TASK       187 

stitions  bred  of  race-feeling  can  wholly  die. 
But  the  men  of  broadest  reason  and  widest 
catholicity  give,  and  ultimately  compel  less 
noble  souls  to  yield,  generous  acknowledg 
ment  of  a  common  humanity  and  a  common 
pursuit.  At  every  university  and  college  that 
I  have  visited,  I  have  heard  ungrudging  praise 
of  the  exceptional  ability  of  the  Jewish,  especi 
ally  of  the  Russian  Jewish,  students — men  who 
went  as  steerage  passengers  from  Europe  and 
on  their  arrival  in  America  seemed,  to  undis- 
cerning  eyes,  the  most  unpromising  material 
that  any  country  could  import.  But  these  dry 
sticks  of  a  rotten  branch,  like  the  rod  of  Aaron, 
and  quite  as  miraculously,  have  "  brought  forth 
buds  and  bloomed  blossoms  and  yielded 
almonds  " ;  and  what  these  have  accomplished 
many  more  will  attempt  in  the  great  democracy 
where,  to  the  educated  men  and  women  of 
any  nation  or  race,  all  careers  are  open.  Nor 
is  it  unworthy  of  notice  that  statistics  show 
that  most  of  the  intermarriages  of  immigrants 
of  any  nationality  with  immigrants  of  other 
nationalities  and  with  native-born  Americans 
are  between  the  educated  men  and  women  of  the 
different  races  ;  and  these  are  found  everywhere 
in  places  of  influence  and  authority.  It  is  one 
of  the  favourite  theories  of  social  philosophers 
that  mixed  races  are  the  best ;  and  it  is  true, 


1 88  AMERICANS 

\ 

as  a  matter  of  history,  that  the  most  progressive 
peoples  of  Europe  are  of  mixed  blood.  The 
American  nation  of  the  future  promises  to  be 
a  new  race,  composed  of  many  diverse  elements  ; 
and  it  is  the  belief  of  many  that  it  will  be  a 
race  not  only  different  from,  but  superior  to, 
any  of  the  older  nationalities.  This,  however, 
can  only  be  if  the  constituent  elements  of  this 
amalgamation  are  of  fine  quality  ;  and  as  the 
quality  is  being  largely  determined  by  the 
colleges  which  attract  the  best  and  make  it 
better,  there  is  reason  for  the  hope  of  Americans 
that  the  fusion  that  is  in  process  will  produce  a 
people  possessing  the  highest  characteristics  of 
the  several  elements  that  unite. 

The  Aim  The  democratic  character  of  American 
Colleges,  universities  and  colleges  has  enabled  them  to 
render  this  high  national  service.  Americans, 
when  in  generalising  mood,  say  that  the 
German  university  has  in  mind  the  scholar, 
the  English  university  the  gentleman,  and 
the  American  university  and  college  the 
citizen.  The  generalisation,  if  pressed  too  far, 
becomes  untrue  ;  but  it  fairly  indicates  that  the 
conscious  aim  of  the  founders  and  supporters 
of  American  institutions  of  higher  education  has 
been,  and  is,  to  educate  a  democracy  in  democ 
racy.  The  President  of  Dartmouth  College  has 
said  that  he  would  find  it  a  congenial  task  to 


THE  COLLEGIATE  TASK       189 

educate  the  scholar  after  the  German  fashion,  and 
an  easy  task  to  determine  the  social  standards 
of  a  college  through  those  rigid  inquiries  which, 
he  says,  guard  the  entrance  to  academic  life  at 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  ;  but  that  the  American 
task  is  to  take  the  average  product  of  a  de 
mocracy  and  qualify  as  much  of  it  as  possible 
for  independent  scholarship,  mould  as  much  of 
it  as  possible  into  the  habits  of  a  gentleman, 
and  fit  it  all,  by  all  the  means  and  incentives  at 
command,  for  the  high  estate  of  influential 
citizenship  in  a  democracy. 

The  ends  considered  secondary  are  being  in  its  Defeat 
large  measure  achieved ;  nor  is  the  primary 
aim  altogether  missed.  But,  entrenched  in 
American  universities  and  colleges,  are  institu 
tions  called  fraternities  which  have  successfully 
repulsed  a  general  attack  which  has  developed 
against  them  in  recent  years.  These  fraternities 
are  secret  societies,  based  upon  kindred  interests 
and  tastes.  They  bear  Greek-letter  names, 
such  as  Alpha  Delta  Phi,  Delta  Kappa  Epsilon, 
and  Psi  Upsilon,  which  have  some  significance 
which  none  but  the  initiated  may  know.  Some 
fraternities  have  as  many  as  seventy  "  chapters  " 
distributed  through  as  many  colleges ;  and  the 
chapters  bear  to  each  other  a  relation  similar  to 
that  which  exists  between  Masonic  lodges.  In 
college  grounds,  there  are  often  costly  chapter- 


190  AMERICANS 

houses  which  provide  for  the  fraternity  members, 
and  exclusively  for  them,  all  that  is  fundamental 
in  the  life  of  a  young  man — "a  pleasant  place 
to  sleep  in  and  to  dine,  and  a  pleasant  fellow 
with  whom  to  work  and  to  play."  Membership 
of  certain  fraternities  confers  social  distinction 
and  is  greatly  coveted  ;  and,  as  popularity  is 
ordinarily  the  most  important  condition  of 
obtaining  election,  to  become  popular  becomes 
the  ruling  passion  of  many  who  are  ambitious 
of  the  honour.  These  resort  to  pretence  some 
times  ;  and  from  Yale  graduates  I  have  heard 
strange  tales  of  the  sudden  lapse  from  such 
grace  as  membership  of  the  Students'  Christian 
Association  may  be  held  to  imply,  on  the  part 
of  candidates  who  have  failed  of  election  to  the 
"Skull  and  Bones"  or  "Scroll  and  Key" 
which  are  secret,  although  not  Greek-letter 
fraternities,  and  to  which  members  are  elected, 
not  as  ordinarily  from  amongst  the  freshmen  or 
sophomores  but  from  the  incoming  senior  class, 
by  graduating  members,  on  the  eve  of  "  Com 
mencement" 

Con:  Fraternity     members     wear     and     display 

badges  of  various  kinds,  such  as  a  key  or 
a  shield  bearing  the  Greek  letter-name,  and 
have  secret  hand-grips,  watchwords,  hailing 
signs  of  recognition  and  membership  tests. 
Most  colleges  that  have  any,  have  many, 


ties. 


THE  COLLEGIATE  TASK       191 

fraternities ;  and,  at  the  beginning  of  each 
session,  social  attentions  are  paid,  often  in 
competition,  by  the  members  of  the  several 
societies  to  such  freshmen  as  may  be  deemed 
desirable  as  fellow-members  on  account  of 
some  distinction,  which  is  not  infrequently  that 
of  wealth,  which  they  are  supposed  to  possess 
— an  undignified  scramble  which,  not  inappro 
priately,  is  called  "rushing."  Election  is  for 
life  and,  after  college  days,  close  relations  are 
maintained  between  graduate  and  under 
graduate  members,  and  any  man  who  has  been 
to  college  and  cannot  wear  a  fraternity  badge 
has  forever  to  overcome  a  certain  presumption 
against  him  in  the  public  mind.  It  will  be 
interesting  to  consider  what  gave  birth  to  these 
institutions,  and  what  kind  and  degree  of 
influence  they  have  upon  the  life  of  individual 
students  and  upon  corporate  collegiate  life. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

COLLEGE  FRATERNITIES. 

"Dum  vitant  stulti  vitia,  in  contraria  currunt." — HORACE. 
"Trust  me,  you  have  an  exceeding  fine  lodging  here — very  neat 
and  private."— BEN  JONSON. 

Fraternities  and  Sororities — Their  raison  d'etre — Their  mani 
fold  Evils — Their  undemocratic  Character — Ineffectual 
Attempts  at  Suppression — The  better  Way :  Reconstruc 
tion — Social  Life  in  American  and  some  English  Colleges — 
The  Rhodes  Scholars  and  their  Task. 

Fellow-  T^RATERNITIES,  as  a  strict  interpreta- 
X  tion  of  the  name  implies,  are  exclusively 
for  men.  But  women,  when  they  were 
admitted  to  the  universities  and  colleges 
and  when  women's  colleges  were  founded,  set 
themselves  to  secure  the  advantages,  such  as 
they  might  be,  of  fraternities  by  organising 
similar  institutions  for  themselves ;  and  these 
are  now  found  in  most  of  the  western  co 
educational  colleges  and  State  universities,  in 
some  colleges  for  women,  and  even  in  many 
high  schools,  both  east  and  west.  These  are 
sometimes  called  sororities ;  but  generally  they 

call  themselves  and  prefer  to  be  called  fraterni- 

192 


COLLEGE  FRATERNITIES      193 

ties.     To   a  Greek-letter  fraternity,  connected 
with  a  woman's  college,  I  brought  an  introduc 
tion  from  a  relative  of  mine  who,  not  altogether 
unwisely,     had     studied     American      women's 
colleges  from   within  as   a  student  at  one   of 
them,  and  who  was,  and  therefore  is,  a  frater 
nity    member.     The    introduction    ran  :    "  My  —as 
dear  Girls, — I   introduce  to   you  by  this  note  byJthe 
your  Uncle  Alick."     Curious  to  know  whether  Author~ 
sorority  was  so  fully  recognised  in  this  society 
that   my  relationship  to    one    of  its   members 
would    be    accepted    as    involving    the   same 
relationship    to  all  her  fellow-members,   I  for 
warded  the  letter,  with  a  formal  covering  note 
from  myself,  immediately  on  arrival  in  America. 
By  return  post,   I  received    the  reply  :    "  Our 
dear  Uncle  Alick,  Come  along  immediately  and 
we    will    take    care   of  you.     Rushing  will  be 
in  full  swing  soon.     We  want  your  help."     I 
went   and    was   taken    care   of;   and   I  found, 
as  I  have  found  in  men's  fraternities,  that  the 
bonds  of  fellowship  were  many  and  strong. 

It  was  to  promote  social  union  that  frater- — is  the 
nities  were  first  formed.  They  have  increased 
in  number  and  strength,  in  spite  of  persistent 
opposition,  because  the  colleges  failed  to  make 
proper  provision  for  the  social  life  of  the 
students ;  and  they  became  secret,  partly 
because  of  a  certain  hostility  between  pro- 
I3 


194  AMERICANS 

fessors  and  students  and  chiefly  because  the 
investiture  of  a  little  mystery  made  them  more 
attractive  to  youthful  minds  :  what  happens,  for 
example,  within  the  stone,  windowless,  tomb- 
like  halls  of  the  "Skull  and  Bones"  is  a  con 
stant  and  attractive  riddle  to  the  students  at 
Yale.  In  many  colleges,  the  conditions  which 
determined  the  character  of  the  original  frater 
nities  have  been  modified,  but  the  original 
character  of  these  societies  has  persisted  ;  and, 
although  American  institutions  of  higher  educa 
tion,  which  at  first  closely  followed  one  type, 
are  now  greatly  diversified  and  are  governed 
by  widely  differing  social,  educational,  moral 
and  political  influences,  yet  in  all  kinds,  and 
in  most  of  each  kind,  fraternities  are  found. 
Although,  as  I  have  said,  the  best  American 
universities,  for  the  purposes  of  scholarly 
instruction  in  general  and  of  instruction  in 
modern  sciences  in  particular,  are  perhaps 
superior,  yet  in  all  social  aspects  they  are 
inferior,  to  English  colleges  which,  in  this 
latter  respect,  as  Americans  testify,  are  as 
nearly  perfect  as  human  institutions  are  capable 
of  becoming.  Fraternities  represent  an  attempt, 
on  the  part  of  American  students,  to  satisfy 
their  social  cravings  by  providing  in  their 
chapter-houses  an  equivalent  of  the  English 
college  residential  halls. 


COLLEGE  FRATERNITIES      195 

The  attempt  is  laudable  ;  but  the    result  is  —often 
necessarily  inadequate  and  fraught  with  harm  Of e' 
to    the    highest    interests   of  the  students  and Frater' 


nities. 


colleges.  At  Oxford  and  Cambridge  there  are 
clubs  ;  but  a  student  who  belongs  to  one  or 
more  of  them  is  still  bound  up,  in  his  general 
life,  with  the  life  of  his  college.  The  member 
of  an  American  fraternity,  however,  is,  by  the 
very  nature  of  its  organisation,  withdrawn  from 
all  of  his  fellow-students  who  are  not  fellow- 
"frats";  and  his  first  loyalty  is  not  to  his 
college,  but  to  his  fraternity.  The  disabilities 
under  which  non-fraternity  students  lie  are 
serious ;  and  about  one-third  of  the  students 
are  outside  their  college  fraternities.  All  of 
these  are  socially  unaffiliated  with  the  college  ; 
and  they  lack  all  the  facilities,  social  and 
intellectual,  that  come  from  fraternal  life. 
This  evil  is  found  in  many  non-residential 
English  universities  ;  but  in  America,  it  is 
intensified  by  the  custom,  which  obtains  in 
most  colleges,  of  organising  the  social  life  in  the 
first  year  of  the  undergraduate's  course.  Thus, 
students  who  fail  of  election  to  a  fraternity  in 
their  freshman  year  are  doomed  to  perpetual 
exclusion.  "  Some  fellows,"  it  has  been  said,  An 
"  starve  physically  without  a  friend  with  whom 
to  share  their  hardships  ;  and  some,  after  a  few  quoted- 
months  of  lonesomeness  and  neglect,  give  up 


i96  AMERICANS 

their  university  career,  broken-hearted,  and  so 
take  perhaps  their  first  step  in  a  life  of  failure  "  ; 
and  even  those  who  graduate,  even  if  it  be 
with  honours,  can  never  wear  a  fraternity 
badge  which  is  ordinarily  more  highly  prized 
than  any  distinction  that  is  legitimately 
academic. 
The  Defeat  Possibly,  however,  evil  is  subtly  wrought 

of  the  J\  ,  , 

Aim— seen  more  surely  upon  those  who  are,  than  upon 
ters^-1""  those  who  are  not,  fraternity  members.  The 
dominant  ambition  of  each  society  is  to  make 
itself  strong  and  influential  and  to  draw  into  it 
those  who  will  increase  its  power.  These  are 
not  usually  the  most  refined  and  scholarly 
students ;  and  their  influence  becomes  more 
pernicious  in  the  confined  atmosphere  in  which 
it  is  exerted  than  it  would  be  in  the  general 
college  life.  Many  fraternities  certainly  have 
excellent  fellows  as  members ;  but  their  fellow 
ship  is  restricted  to  their  own  exclusive  set  and 
thus  they  lose  the  great  benefit  that  should 
come  from  familiar  association  in  college  with 
many  dissimilar  minds.  And,  in  their  "  rushes  " 
to  secure  the  most  coveted  members,  and 
especially  in  their  combinations  in  favour  of 
the  fraternities  as  against  the  colleges,  these 
societies  give  rise  to  some  of  the  most  disturb 
ing  and  belittling  factors  of  college  life.  There 
are  one  or  two  fraternities  to  which  these 


COLLEGE  FRATERNITIES      197 

strictures  do  not  apply.  The  Phi  Beta  Kappa, 
for  example,  has  chapters  in  most  universities ; 
but,  it  has  no  dormitory  buildings  or  dining 
halls,  it  is  not  primarily  social,  and  it  is  not  a 
secret  society.  Its  members  are  elected  by  the 
University  Faculty  for  excellence  in  proper 
academic  work  ;  and  as  long  as  the  ordinary 
"  pass  "  degree  is  no  real  distinction,  such  a 
fraternity  will  have  a  legitimate  place  in  the 
academic  life  of  the  nation.  The  other  is, 
however,  the  prevailing  kind  ;  and  I  have 
not  overstated  the  evils  to  which  it  gives 
rise. 

But  the  chief  objection  urged  by  American  —and  in 

r    r  .   .          .7  /  general 

opponents  of  fraternities  is  that  they  are  un-  College 
democratic  and  tend  to  emphasise  social  dis 
tinctions  and  foster  cliques.  Even  in  so 
aristocratic  a  country  as  Germany,  students 
meet  upon  terms  of  fraternal  equality  :  a 
common  devotion  to  knowledge,  without 
destroying  the  distinctions  of  birth  and 
fortune,  creates  above  them  a  higher  university 
where  the  most  intelligent  and  laborious  take 
the  first  place.  American  colleges  and  univer 
sities  fall  below  this  level ;  and  perhaps  their 
greatest  need  is  a  purer  and  better  democracy 
in  which  there  shall  be  neither  need  nor  place 
for  the  present  social  organisations  and  com 
binations  which  reproduce  the  class  distinc- 


198  AMERICANS 

tions  based  chiefly  on  wealth  which  are  arising 
in  all  parts  of  the  country. 

Bold  Many  attempts  have  been  made  to  suppress 

fraternities.  But  opposition  has  only  served 
to  make  them  more  secret,  and  perhaps  to 
change  their  name  to  clubs.  Princeton  pro 
hibited  them  in  1853;  and  to-day  that 
university  is  honeycombed  with  clubs  which 
cause  heartburnings  by  their  exclusiveness, 
break  up  the  solidarity  of  the  students  and 
interfere  with  their  proper  work.  Now,  saner 
methods  are  advocated.  Recognising  that 
fraternities  persist  because  they  supply  in 
some  measure  a  vital  need  of  college  life, 
educational  reformers  propose  to  reorganise 
the  social  life  of  the  college  and  provided 
intelligently  what  the  students  are  blindly 
striving  to  secure.  Educational  experiments 
are  being  attempted  in  American  universities, 
based  upon  experiences  in  other  countries, 
and  notably  in  England.  Two  years  ago, 
President  Wilson  introduced  a  modified  form 
of  the  Oxford  tutorial  system  into  Princeton. 
This  reform,  which  marks  a  spirit  of  reaction 
from  the  advance  of  German  methods,  is 
being  effected  with  ease  and  enthusiasm  and 
is  restoring  the  close  and  intimate  contact  of 
pupil  and  teacher  which  had  been  lost,  with 
so  much  else  that  was  valuable,  in  the  rapid 


COLLEGE  FRATERNITIES      199 

growth  of  American  colleges.  While  this 
system  is  still  in  the  experimental  stage, 
President  Wilson  boldly  addresses  himself  to 
the  problem  of  fraternities,  from  which  many 
college  presidents  have  turned  in  dismay,  and 
announces  a  plan  to  establish  quadrangles  at 
Princeton — that  is,  small  self-contained  colleges 
within  the  university,  after  the  manner  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge,  with  a  common  living 
room  and  dining  hall  in  which  the  students  of 
all  the  four  years  shall  reside  together ;  and 
the  President  suggests  that,  as  an  act  of 
supreme  self-sacrifice,  the  existing  clubs  at 
Princeton,  one  of  which  owns  a  house  valued 
at  $100,000,  should  turn  their  property 
over  to  the  university  to  be  transformed  into 
the  new  "  quads."  The  University  of  Wis 
consin,  one  of  the  best  and  most  democratic 
State  institutions,  has  discovered  that  the 
influence  of  fraternities  is  wholly  undemocratic, 
and  is  bent  upon  building  up  a  college  resi 
dential  life.  Many  years  ago,  President  Eliot 
of  Harvard  suggested  that  the  manifold 
problems  that  have  come  up  with  the  growth 
and  prosperity  of  American  universities  might 
be  solved  by  building  up  colleges  within  each 
university  ;  and  now,  Charles  Francis  Adams 
proposes  a  comprehensive  scheme  which,  if 
carried  into  effect,  would  make  the  present 


200  AMERICANS 

Harvard  cease  to  exist  except  in  continuity 
and  in  name,  the  chief  change  being  the 
formation  of  a  group  of  colleges,  each  inde 
pendent  and  so  limited  in  size  that  individuality 
should  be,  not  only  possible  but  a  necessary 
part  of  the  scheme,  the  students  and  instructors 
in  each  constituting  a  large  household  under 
several  roofs  and  with  common  grounds.  It 
is  claimed  that  if  this  plan  were  adopted,  the 
university  would  revert  to  the  original  idea  of 
the  American  college  :  it  would  also  conform 
in  many  respects  to  the  present  idea  of  the 
English  university  on  which,  originally,  the 
American  college  was  formed. 

In  the  consideration  and  application  of  these 
proposals,  the  Rhodes  scholars  at  Oxford  from 
American  colleges  who  have  come  into  close 
personal  contact  with  the  ideals  and  purposes 
of  both  the  English  and  American  systems  of 
education,  now  so  widely  different  in  their 
development  and  applications,  and  who  thus 
can  properly  estimate  the  elements  of  the 
strength  and  greatness  of  each,  will  doubtless 
give  effective  aid.  Rhodes  knew  that  he 
builded  ;  but  he  builded  better  than  he  knew. 
And  the  American  university,  when  it  succeeds 
in  combining  with  its  present  instruction  the 
new  social  life  after  which  it  is  so  earnestly 
striving,  will  see  the  evils  of  fraternities  and 


COLLEGE  FRATERNITIES     201 

of  athletics  die  a  natural  death  ;  will  fulfil  the 
expectations  regarding  it  which  many  close 
and  competent  observers  entertain ;  and  will 
perhaps  be,  as  Americans  are  determined  that 
it  shall  become,  the  most  perfect  educational 
system  in  the  history  of  civilisation.  America 
looks  to  the  Rhodes  scholars  for  impulse  and 
guidance  to  this  goal. 


CHAPTER   XVI. 

SOCIAL  DISCONTENT. 

"Poverty  is  an  odious  calling." — BURTON,  Anatomy  of  Melancholy. 

Poverty  that  is  Clothed,  but  Ashamed— Some  Statistics— Wage- 
Earners  and  Salary-Earners — Sensitiveness  to  Poverty — 
Contrasted  with  England— Mere  Law-Honesty—Fettered 
by  the  Constitution  —  Trusts  and  Individualism — Legal 
Ethics. 

The  Poor.  T  HAVE  never  indulged  in  the  fashionable 
JL  pastime  of  slumming.  I  have,  however, 
acquaintance  with  the  poorest  quarters  of  most 
of  the  capitals  of  the  world  ;  and,  in  analogous 
districts  of  American  cities,  I  have  been  im 
pressed  by  the  comparative  absence  of  the 
outward  and  visible  sign  of  deep  and  wide 
spread  poverty  which  is  seen,  by  the  most 
casual  observer,  in  the  dress  of  large  classes 
of  citizens  in  other  lands.  It  seems  as  if 
Americans,  alone  of  all  peoples,  had  not  the 
poor,  at  least  in  appreciable  number,  always 
with  them. 

Their  But  things  are  not  what  they  seem ;  and  the 

for°ug       appearance  of  Americans  is  a  deceptive  guide 

Raiment.  2°2 


SOCIAL  DISCONTENT          203 

to  their  true  estate.  The  poor  are  here.  Their 
democratic  training,  however,  has  led  them  to 
presuppose  that  a  common  standard  belongs 
to  all ;  and  to  this  standard  they  are  constantly 
striving  to  conform.  It  is  easier  for  the  poor 
to  approach  to  conformity  to  the  rich  in  their 
dress  than  in  any  other  particular.  Therefore, 
the  poor  in  America  take  more  thought  for 
raiment,  and  devote  to  it  a  larger  proportion 
of  their  income,  than  the  poor  in  other  lands  ; 
and  the  appearance  of  general  prosperity  in 
dicates  an  effort  towards  democratic  expression, 
rather  than  the  universal  possession  of  adequate 
means  of  existence.  The  familiar  tokens  of  Their  low 
poverty  are  found  in  the  homes  of  multitudes 
of  those  whom  one  sees  elsewhere  in  brave 
attire.  I  first  made  acquaintance  with  this  fact 
by  visiting  in  their  homes  some  men  and  women 
whom  I  had  met  at  social  settlements ;  and, 
later,  statistics  confirmed  my  personal  view. 
In  New  York  City,  according  to  official  reports, 
two-thirds  of  the  inhabitants  live  in  tenement 
houses  that  have  over  350,000  living  rooms 
into  which,  because  they  are  windowless,  no 
ray  of  sunlight  ever  comes.  In  fairly  prosper 
ous  years  there  are  at  least  10,000,000 — some 
careful  statisticians  say  from  15,000,000  to 
20,000,000 — people  in  America  who  are  always 
underfed  and  poorly  housed ;  and  of  these, 


204  AMERICANS 

4,000,000  are  public  paupers.  Little  children, 
to  the  number  of  1,700,000,  who  should  be  at 
school,  and  about  5,000,000  women  are  wage- 
earners  in  America.  Yet  the  Bureau  of  Labour 
for  Wisconsin  reports  that  less  than  3  per  cent, 
of  the  families  of  Wisconsin  have  an  income 
of  over  $600,  while  nearly  52  per  cent,  live  on 
less  than  $400  a  year ;  and  Lavasseur,  in  his 
book  The  American  Worker,  estimates  the 
total  income  of  all  the  wage-earners  in  an 
average  American  family  at  about  $657. 

The  case  of  " salary-earners"  must  also  be 
taken  into  consideration.  The  prosperity  of 
the  country,  which  has  brought  some  material 
benefit  to  wage-earners  and  to  men  of  wealth, 
has  brought  no  corresponding  improvement 
in  the  condition  of  the  professional  class. 
On  the  contrary,  hand  in  hand  with  general 
prosperity  has  come  a  proportionate  increase 
in  the  cost  of  living ;  and  the  professional 
class — the  most  important  element  in  the 
citizenship  of  the  country — has  not  shared  in 
the  increased  riches  of  the  time.  I  have 
referred  to  the  inadequate  salaries  of  teachers 
in  the  primary  and  secondary  schools.  Those 
of  college  and  university  professors  come 
under  the  same  condemnation.  For  example, 
at  Harvard,  during  the  administration  of  its 
actual  president,  the  higher  salaries  have, 


SOCIAL  DISCONTENT          205 

indeed,  been  raised  25  per  cent.,  but  the 
average  salary  has  been  diminished  by  40  per 
cent. — from  $3444  in  1867-8  to  $2070  in 
1902-3.  Thus  the  men  and  women  who  are 
the  real  forces  of  the  democracy  find  them 
selves,  along  with  the  wage-earners,  brought 
face  to  face,  in  their  own  experience,  with  the 
tremendous  modern  problem  of  the  distribution 
of  wealth,  and  are  in  constant  danger  of  mis 
taking  their  personal  malaise  for  altruistic 
sympathy  with  mankind.  And,  as  I  have 
indicated,  there  is  a  large  pauper  class  with 
which  to  sympathise.  A  report  of  the  "  De 
partment  of  Correction  "  shows  that  one  person 
in  every  ten  who  dies  in  New  York  has  a 
pauper's  burial ;  that,  at  the  present  ratio  of 
deaths  from  tuberculosis,  10,000,000  persons 
now  living  will  succumb  to  that  disease,  which 
is  largely  due  to  insufficiency  of  food  and  light 
and  air  ;  and  that  60,463  families  in  the  borough 
of  Manhattan,  New  York,  were  evicted  from 
their  homes  in  the  year  1903. 

I  know  little  of  statistics ;  and  these  figures  Their 
may  compare  favourably  with   those  of  other  Mind. 
countries.     But  the  poverty  in  America  that 
seeks  to  hide  itself  beneath  fine  apparel  may 
be   more    bitter    and    more    dangerous,    even 
although   it    be    less   than    the    poverty   that 
elsewhere   is   naked    and    unashamed.     At    a 


2o6  AMERICANS 

meeting  of  "  Christian  Socialists "  which  I 
attended  at  Hull  House,  Chicago,  an  Ameri 
canised  Scot  won  the  sympathy  of  his  audience 
by  vehemently  protesting  against  "the  life 
long  and  unpardonable  indignity "  that  had 
been  put  upon  him  by  those  who  had  called 
the  school  in  Edinburgh  in  which  he  had 
been  fed,  clad  and  educated,  "  the  Ragged 
Boys'  School."  "  I  will  never  forgive  them 
that  word  '  ragged,' '  the  man  exclaimed. 
Social  settlements  in  America  and  in  England 
provide,  without  charge,  legal  advice  for  those 
who  need  or  desire  it,  and  cannot  afford  to 
pay  a  lawyer's  fee  ;  but  in  America  no  settle 
ment  ventures  to  wound  the  susceptibilities 
of  the  recipients  by  announcing  a  "poor  man's 
lawyer,"  which  is  the  term  frankly  used  in 
England  without  shadow  of  offence.  These 
things  are  of  small  moment  in  themselves ; 
but  they  serve  to  indicate  the  habit  of  mind 
that  prevails — a  habit  that  is  not  without  its 
dangers ;  for  are  we  not  apt  to  hold  ourselves 
dispossessed  of  whatever  we  are  reluctant  to 
acknowledge  ourselves  unpossessed  ?  Lasalle 
complained  that,  in  Germany,  the  industrial 
classes  were  so  insensible  to  their  indigence 
that  the  first  indispensable  task  of  Socialists 
was  to  teach  them  their  misery.  This  pre 
liminary  work  is  not  necessary  in  America. 


SOCIAL  DISCONTENT          207 

The  indigent  are  more  than  sensible  of,  they 
are  sensitive  to,  their  lack. 

In  America,  as  is  generally  known,  there  The 
is  great  concentration  of  wealth.  Twenty  Esti 
per  cent,  of  the  entire  wealth  of  the  country 
is  owned  by  three  one-hundredths  of  i  per 
cent,  of  the  population  ;  and  the  total  number 
of  millionaires  in  New  York  City  alone  rose 
from  28  to  1103  between  the  years  1885-92. 
Some  of  these  fortunes  have  been  well  won 
and  others  ill  won ;  but  nice  discriminations 
are  not  made  in  the  popular  judgment  upon 
the  possessors  of  great  wealth ;  and  those 
whose  fortunes  have  been  made  as  an 
incident  to  performing  great  services  to  the 
community  are  victims  of  the  general  resent 
ment  which  has  been  aroused  by  those  who 
have  fraudulently  grown  rich.  And  it  must 
be  admitted  that  the  goats  would  probably 
be  found  to  outnumber  the  sheep  if  any 
unerring  separation  were  made,  at  least  if 
those  were  included  among  the  unrighteous 
whose  righteousness  did  not  exceed  that  of 
the  "  merely  law-honest,"  to  adopt  President 
Roosevelt's  term.  And,  indeed,  law-honesty 
in  money-making  may,  in  America,  cover 
many  acts  which  the  law  of  other  lands — 
leaving  out  of  consideration  the  tribunal 
which  has  higher  than  human  sanctions — and 


208  AMERICANS 

the   public    conscience    in    America,    as   else 
where,  treat  as  crimes. 

The  Fight  Nor  can  Americans  easily  bring  their  law 
^Trusts "—  into  closer  agreement  with  their  conscience. 
They  are  held  in  fetters  forged  by  their 
forefathers  in  the  very  act  which  these 
thought  had  guaranteed  that  they  and  their 
posterity  should  be  forever  free.  In  the 
endeavour  to  prevent  any  intrusion  into  the 
domain  of  individual  activity  they  encased  the 
powers  of  the  State,  local  and  national,  in  a 
system  of  constitutional  limitations  unpre 
cedented  in  the  history  of  the  world ;  and 
an  unforeseen  effect  has  been  to  provide 
private  corporations  with  peculiar  vantage 
ground,  by  giving  them  such  immunity  from 
State  control  as  has  never  been  guaranteed 
to  them  by  English  law  or  by  Roman  law  as 
administered  in  Europe.  A  decision  of  the 
Supreme  Court,  in  what  is  known  as  the 
Dartmouth  College  case,  made  the  situation 
plain.  It  was  then  held  that  the  charter  of 
a  private  corporation  is  a  contract  within  the 
meaning  of  that  clause  in  the  United  States 
Constitution  which  declares  that  no  State 
shall  make  any  law  impairing  the  law  of 
contracts.  This  has  secured  " Trusts"  im 
munity  from  State  control ;  and  thus  they 
have  been  able  to  give  the  rein  to  their 


SOCIAL  DISCONTENT          209 

dominating  impulse  to  organise  and  con 
solidate,  within  and  beyond  the  limits  of 
"  mere  law-honesty,"  so  that  the  will  and 
identity  of  the  individual  worker,  in  every 
department  of  life,  should  be  obliterated  and 
lost  in  aggregations  which  swallow  up  all 
minor  competitors.  This  is  the  elimination 
of  individualism  as  the  foundation  of  the 
national  life ;  and  this  evil,  wrought  by 
capitalists,  is  the  very  head  and  front  of 
the  offending  with  which,  by  capitalists, 
Socialism  is  charged. 

The  battle  against  "predatory  wealth,"  no— a  Fight 
less  than  that  against  Socialism,  is  a  fight  National 
for  the  very  life  of  the  nation.  It  is  sure  to  Llfe 
be  a  long  and  hard  struggle  ;  for  legal  skill 
has  combined  with  wealth  to  defraud  and 
despoil  the  public,  even  in  defiance  and 
contempt  of  law.  "We  all  know,"  President 
Roosevelt  said  recently  at  Harvard,  "we  all 
know  that  as  things  actually  are  many  of  the 
most  influential  and  most  highly  remunerated 
members  of  the  Bar  in  every  centre  of  wealth 
make  it  their  special  task  to  work  out  bold 
and  ingenious  schemes  by  which  their  wealthy 
clients,  individual  or  corporate,  can  evade  the 
laws  which  were  made  to  regulate,  in  the 
interests  of  the  public,  the  uses  of  wealth." 
Let  Harvard  take  the  hint.  Legal  ethics 
14 


210  AMERICANS 

receive  scant  attention  in  American  university 
law  schools — at  Yale,  merely  five  lectures  in 
a  three  years'  course ;  at  Chicago,  merely 
lectures  which  are  relegated  to  the  "  non- 
credit  courses " ;  and  at  Harvard,  as  at 
Columbia,  no  recognition  at  all. 


CHAPTER   XVII. 
SOCIALISM. 

"They  made  me  the  keeper  of  the  vineyards  ;  but  mine  own  vine 
yards  have  I  not  kept." — THE  SONG  OF  SOLOMON. 

Presumptions  against  the  Rich — Munificence  or  Restitution  ? — 
Unchivalrous  Faineants  —  Theological  and  Sociological 
Readjustments  —  Marxian  Calvinism  —  A  Confession  of 
Faith — The  Prospects  of  Socialism  in  America. 

THUS  wealth  has  developed  without  any 
proportionate  development  of  the  moral, 
social  and  legal  sanctions  by  which  its  pursuit,  rePut 
possession  and  use  ought  to  be  controlled. 
Consequently,  in  America,  a  rich  man  lies 
under  such  presumptions  and  prejudices  that 
he  must  prove  himself  innocent  before  he  is 
believed  to  be  guiltless  of  malpractices  in  the 
acquisition  of  his  wealth  ;  and  the  opportunity 
of  proof  is  even  less  frequently  given  than 
sought.  This  prejudice  is  not  confined  to  the 
very  poor  and  very  ignorant.  I  happened  to 
be  in  correspondence  with  a  college  while  I 
was  the  guest  of  a  reputed  millionaire — a 
friend  of  many  years.  When  I  got  to  the 


212  AMERICANS 

college  and  was  amongst  the  professors,  I,  who 
alone  knew  my  friend,  was  alone  in  believing 
him  to  be  an  honourable  man ;  and  my  belief, 
I  fear,  was  suspected  to  be  merely  from  the 
teeth  outwards — professed  on  account  of  the 
hospitality  that  I  had  received.  So  it  is 
everywhere  in  America,  and  I  have  not  found 
it  so  elsewhere. 

Nor  are  these  prejudices  softened  by  the 
great  gifts  to  education  and  charity  which  fall 
upon  the  nation  in  golden  showers  from  the 
coffers  of  millionaires.  Their  moral  title  to 
their  gold  is  challenged,  and  their  chanty  is 
cynically  interpreted  as  an  attempt,  by  the 
restitution  of  a  part,  to  compensate  for  injustice 
in  gaining  the  whole.  The  generous  bene 
factors  are  living  in  a  fool's  paradise  if  they 
imagine  that  their  gifts  awaken  public  gratitude 
towards  themselves  and  their  class.  I  have 
sometimes  thought  that  colleges,  libraries  and 
other  buildings  bearing  their  donors'  names, 
from  the  sight  of  which  one  cannot  escape, 
tend  in  the  present  popular  mood  to  keep  the 
public  mind  inflamed.  Often  I  heard  the 
couplet  quoted — 

"Who  builds  a  church  to  God  and  not  to  fame 
Will  never  mark  the  marble  with  his  name " ; 

and,  because  I  strive  to  cultivate  restraint  in 


SOCIALISM  213 

speech,  the  language  used  by  the  alumni  of 
colleges  with  reference  to  names  of  millionaires 
imposed  upon  ''donated"  buildings  must  go  unre- 
ported  by  me.  Nor  does  it  go  unnoticed  that  the 
rich  do  not  give  themselves  to  the  public  service 
or  the  general  welfare.  Some  of  them  have  intel 
lectual  and  moral  sanity  and  refinement,  and  do 
not  seem  to  lack  the  specifically  social  qualities, 
virtues  and  amenities  which  are  supposed  to  be 
the  exclusive  possession  of  an  hereditary  aristo 
cracy.  Even  these  men,  however,  with  one  or 
two  notable  exceptions,  are  unchivalrous  faine'- 
ants  in  relation  to  the  social  and  political 
problems  that  press  for  solution  ;  and  the  baser 
sort,  more  completely,  I  think,  than  the  ana 
logous  class  of  any  other  country  are  content, 
in  heartlessness  and  selfishness,  to  follow  the 
thoughtless  pursuits  and  conventions  of  their 
"  set,"  in  which  the  greatest  consideration  is 
given  to  those  who  have  amassed  enough  wealth 
to  rank  amongst  multi-millionaires.  They  are, 
undoubtedly,  a  powerful  class  ;  but  their  power 
is  largely  unsocial,  a  solvent  of  society  and  a 
disintegrating  force  in  the  national  life,  in  spite 
of,  and  sometimes  even  by  reason  of,  occasional 
bequests  to  "  endow  a  college  or  a  cat."  The 
gift  without  the  giver  is  bare ;  and  the  rich  as 
a  class  will  remain  in  disrepute  as  long  as  they 
remain  so  absorbed  in  becoming  richer,  or  in 


214  AMERICANS 

spending  or  even  giving  their  wealth,  that  they 
cannot  take  their  proper  part,  without  fear  or 
favour,  in  the  tasks  which,  in  a  democracy,  no 
individual  can  honourably  avoid. 

These  sharp  social  contrasts  and  divisions 
were  not  always  found  in  the  New  World.  In 
the  early  days  of  New  England,  a  rhymster, 
accounted  a  poet,  wrote,  ungrammatically  and 
perhaps  untruthfully,  that  all  the  people  dwelt 

"  Under  thatch'd  huts,  without  the  cry  of  rent, 
And  the  best  sauce  to  every  dish — content." 

"  We  are  all  freeholders"  was  the  proud  message 
sent  back  to  England  by  one  of  the  settlers. 
"  Rent  day  doth  not  trouble  us  ;  and  all  good 
blessings  we  have  in  their  season  for  the  taking." 
This  release,  enjoyed  in  measure  for  generations, 
from  the  hard  pressure  of  European  life — its 
great  cities,  its  dense  crowds,  its  mean  com 
petitions  and  its  fierce  temptations — produced 
general  social  contentment,  and  there  super 
vened  a  complacent  view  of  human  nature  in 
which  the  grim  doctrines  of  human  depravity, 
elaborated  by  Augustine  amid  the  corruptions 
of  a  decadent  Rome,  and  by  Calvin  in  the  days 
of  the  Medicis,  and  imported  by  the  Puritans, 
seemed  far  removed  from  truth  as  taught  by 
actual  fact  in  the  New  World.  Accordingly, 
in  course  of  time,  Calvinism  was  dethroned,  in 


SOCIALISM  215 

New  England  at  least,  by  Unitarianism  which, 
in  its  ultimate  analysis,  is  distinguished  by  its 
insistence  on  human  nature  as  essentially  good  ; 
and  the  supporters  of  this  new  theology  con 
fidently  expected  that,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
it  would  establish  itself  everywhere  in  the  New 
World  as  a  positive  and  commanding  faith.  In 
course  of  time,  however,  and  in  proportion  as 
America  reproduced  the  social  conditions  of 
Europe,  it  was  seen,  in  the  result,  that  human 
nature  remained  the  same  in  the  New  World 
as  in  the  Old.  And  later  attempts  to  make  an 
adjustment  between  theology  and  the  facts  of 
life  led  to  a  return,  not  indeed  to  the  old 
Calvinism,  but  to  the  old  doctrines  of  human 
sin  and  Divine  grace. 

But  sociologists,  as  well  as  theologians,  felt  Calvinism 
the  need  of  adjusting  theory  to  fact ;  and,  Sociology, 
under  the  pressure  of  the  new  social  conditions, 
they  imported  from  Europe  the  doctrine  known 
as  Socialism,  and  especially  that  form  of  it 
advocated  by  Karl  Marx.  According  to  Marx, 
"the  manner  of  production  for  man's  material 
life  determines  (bedingf]  the  social,  political 
and  mental  life.  It  is  not  the  mind  of  man 
that  determines  his  life ;  it  is  this  life  that 
determines  mind."  This,  which  is  perilously 
near  the  doctrine  that  Mann  ist  was  er  isst,  is 
the  essential  element  of  Marxian  Socialism — 


216  AMERICANS 

its  materialistic  conception  of  history.  It  is 
materialism  applied  to  history.  According  to 
materialism,  everything  is  the  result  of  neces 
sary  movements  of  matter,  everything  is 
determined  in  a  link  of  causation.  According 
to  Marxism,  everything,  even  religion,  is 
determined  by  social  conditions,  and  Socialism 
is  predetermined  and  is  as  certain  as  the  rising 
and  setting  of  the  sun.  Lo !  here  are  the 
familiar  terms  of  Calvinism  ;  and,  in  fact,  the 
Socialist,  so  far  as  he  is  Marxian  and  material 
istic,  is,  as  some  one  has  said,  a  Calvinist — 
without  God  :  a  distinction  with  a  tremendous 
difference  !  And,  curiously  enough,  the  method 
and  style  of  Karl  Marx  carry  us  back  to  the 
ecclesiastical  schoolmen.  His  Das  Kapital 
has  been  called,  not  inappropriately,  the  sacred 
book  of  Socialism ;  and  I  have  found  Jews 
who  reverence  it  as  a  new  Torah,  and  Gentiles 
who  accept  it  as  a  new  Gospel.  They  do  not 
understand  it,  as  I  confess  that  I  do  not ; 
probably  they  have  not  even  read  it.  But 
what  of  that  ?  Credo  ut  intelligam. 
A  Con-  If  it  be  true,  as  Karl  Marx  asserts,  that 
Faith!10  Socialism  is  a  necessary  product  of  capitalism, 
and  if,  as  Stahl  maintains,  Socialism  is  an 
inevitable  corollary  of  democracy,  it  follows 
that  America,  which  is  a  democracy  and  has 
the  highest  capitalistic  development,  must 


SOCIALISM  217 

also  be  the  classic  land  of  Socialism,  and 
its  labouring  class  must  take  the  lead  in  the 
most  radical  Socialist  movement.  But  I, 
too,  would  test  theory  by  facts ;  and  there 
fore  I  gave  myself,  in  America,  to  Socialist 
leaders,  Socialist  literature  and  Socialist  meet 
ings  with  such  constant  devotion  that  any 
who  judged  me  by  the  company  that  I 
kept,  possibly  concluded  that  I  was  devoted 
to  Socialism  itself.  And  as  the  opinions 
of  an  observer  regarding  the  growth  and 
strength  of  any  movement  are  apt  to  be 
influenced  by  his  personal  beliefs,  it  is  due 
to  any  by  whom  my  reflections  may  be  read 
that  I  should  state  that  I  neither  accept  the 
Socialist's  programme  nor  share  the  Socialist's 
aim.  I  believe  that,  as  Aristotle  says,  virtue 
consists  in  avoiding  the  too  little  and  the  too 
much  ;  and  I  equally  distrust  rigid  revolution 
ary  conservatism  and  reckless  revolutionary 
radicalism,  both  of  which,  as  it  seems  to  me, 
risk  the  treasures  painfully  accumulated  during 
many  years  of  progress  by  the  human  race. 
If,  indeed,  Socialism  meant  enthusiasm  for 
humanity,  fervent  desire  for  and  endeavour 
after  the  highest  welfare  of  every  human  being 
— and  that  is  the  true  meaning  of  the  term 
— then  I  should  humbly  claim  the  wish  to 
be  a  Socialist.  But  the  term  has  been 


218  AMERICANS 

degraded  from  its  true  significance  and  made 
to  mean  an  economic  system  in  which  private 
capital  shall  be  prohibited  and  the  State  shall 
own  all  the  means  of  production.  Such  a 
Socialism  is  "a  matter  of  kitchen  and  scullery," 
and  I  repudiate  it.  The  true  economic  task, 
as  I  apprehend,  is  to  teach  the  meaning  and 
function  of  material  possessions,  so  that  all 
may  realise  in  what  true  wealth  and  true 
life  consist.  When  this  lesson  has  been 
learned,  the  conflict  between  capital  and 
labour  will  cease,  and  we  shall  see  the 
ministration  of  every  class  to  every  other 
class  in  a  democracy  that  lifts  all  and  humbles 
none.  The  most  precious  thing  in  the  world 
is  the  individual  mind  and  soul  with  unfettered 
capacity  for  service  and  growth ;  and  while 
I  am  painfully  sensible  of  the  great  evils 
wrought  under  the  present  economic  system, 
I  would  not  seek  to  remove  them  by  the 
system  of  Socialism,  which,  in  order  that 
the  ends  of  mediocrity  might  be  served,  would 
hold  the  best  minds  and  souls  in  check, 
denying  them  full  political,  social  and  moral 
utterance,  and  so  would  irretrievably  reduce 
the  true  wealth  of  nations,  as  well  as  the 
"  abundance  of  things"  in  which  neither 
individual  nor  national  life  "consists." 

I    ask   myself  what   effect    upon   myself  as 


SOCIALISM  219 

an  observer  of  facts  my  personal  opinions 
upon  Socialism  have  had ;  and  I  answer — 
the  ordinary  effect  of  dislike  and  fear.  I 
am  predisposed  to  see  Socialism  where  it  is 
not,  rather  than  not  to  see  it  where  it  is, 
and  to  overestimate,  rather  than  to  under 
estimate,  its  growth  and  strength.  Yet  the 
conclusion  has  been  forced  upon  me  that 
Socialism  has  found,  finds  and  is  fated  to 
find,  in  the  American  democracy,  uncongenial 
soil.  If  this  be  a  just  conclusion,  it  confutes 
the  theory,  which  many  accept,  that  Socialism 
must  have  its  speediest  and  its  highest 
development  wherever  there  is  the  highest 
capitalistic  development ;  the  Marxian  "  in 
evitable  future "  is  disproved  by  the  facts. 
There  can  be  no  more  important  work  for 
the  statesman  or  the  sociologist  than  to  fathom 
this  phenomenon.  But  merely  to  state,  not 
to  fathom  it,  is  my  modest  part.  " Je  n  impose 
rien,  je  ne  propose  m£me  rien  ;  f  expose. " 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

SOCIALISM  AND  DEMOCRACY. 

"On  the  strong  and  cunning  few 

Cynic  favours  I  will  strew, 

I  will  stuff  their  maw  with  overplus  until  their  spirit  dies." 

WILLIAM  VAUGN  MOODY. 

Socialist  Political  Parties  —  German  and  Russian  Socialists  — 
The  Foreign  Vote  —  No  Distinctions  exist,  but  not  a 
Class  System  —  This  Social  Equality  a  Bulwark  against 
Socialism  —  Defection  of  Americanised  Immigrants  from 
Socialism  —  Socialism  and  Liberty  —  Socialist  "  Intel 
lectuals  "  —  The  Universities  and  Socialism  —  Social 
Struggle  not  mere  Class  Strife. 

Socialism    "  I  ^WO  of  the  political  parties  in  America  are 
butanota      -L        organised  on  a  Socialistic  basis  ;  and  at 


Menace,—  the  j^  Presidential  election  they  cast  453,338 
votes.  This  figure  may  be  accepted  as  re 
presenting  their  full  strength  at  that  time. 
Owing  to  the  confusion  of  issues  at  that 
election,  and  the  tendency  of  all  Americans, 
except  extremists  such  as  Socialists,  to 
subordinate  measures  to  men  in  their  con 
siderations  at  all  elections,  many  undoubtedly 
voted  the  Socialist  "ticket"  who  would  not, 


SOCIALISM  AND  DEMOCRACY     221 

in  any  circumstances,  support  the  Socialist 
programme ;  and  these,  probably,  were 
numerically  equivalent  to  those  convinced 
Socialists  who  were  willing  but  unable  to  go 
to  the  polls.  Now,  453,338  is  an  imposing 
figure.  Yet  it  represents  only  a  small  fraction 
of  the  number  of  qualified  voters,  and  one-half 
of  i  per  cent,  of  the  population,  of  the  United 
States.  It  indicates  that  while  Socialism  has 
a  place  and  is  not  without  force  in  American 
politics,  it  has  not  gained  a  foothold  that  need 
cause  alarm,  although  its  presence  should  cause 
vigilance,  on  the  part  of  those  citizens  who 
consider  Socialism  a  menace  to  national  life.  — m 

T  ,         r  America — 

The  important  question  relates  to  the  future. 
In  America,  do  present  social  conditions  and 
the  present  condition  of  Socialism  indicate  the 
triumph,  or  do  they  presage  the  defeat,  of 
Socialistic  propagandism  ?  The  conclusion  is 
not  so  clear  that  it  can  be  enunciated  in  a 
definite  form.  The  utmost  which  can  be  safely 
hazarded  is  to  relate  honestly  such  facts  as  I 
seem  to  have  observed,  and  to  refrain  as  far  as 
possible  from  judicial  sentence  upon  them. 

Socialists   find   their  best  recruiting  ground  _in 
amongst  recent  immigrants  ;    and  this  makes  Jfir^"e 
Socialism    especially   formidable    at    elections,  mocracy 

*  '  having 

Under  "universal   suffrage"  adult  males,  and  secured— 
only   they,  are  qualified   to  vote  ;   and  as  the 


222  AMERICANS 

"  foreign-born "  have  an  abnormal  proportion 
of  adults  and  of  males,  the  numerical  strength 
of  the  "  native-born "  in  the  population  is  not 
fully  represented  by  their  strength  at  the  polls. 
Excluding  negroes  from  our  calculations,  we 
find  from  the  census  returns  of  1880  that  the 
native-born  and  foreign-born  males  of  twenty- 
one  years  and  over  constitute,  the  former  only 
2  2 '4  per  cent,  and  the  latter  as  much  as  46  per 
cent,  of  their  respective  populations.  Owing 
—to  im-  to  the  short  period  required  for  naturalisation, 

migrants —    i  i    i      •  •  .  .  . 

the  adult  immigrants  early  acquire  votes,  and 
perhaps  the  majority  of  them  incline  to 
Socialism  in  the  first  years  of  their  citizenship. 
Germans  and  Russians  have  probably  been 
avowed  and  active  Socialists  in  the  countries 
which  they  have  left.  Until  recently  this  easy 
and  rapid  increase  of  the  foreign  vote  has 
excited  little  apprehension ;  but  now  the 
question  is  often  asked  whether  the  continuous 
incorporation  by  the  body  politic  of  these 
multitudes  of  voters  who  have  had  no  training 
in  self-government  does  not  tend  to  weaken 
the  political  capacity  of  the  nation  and  to 
prevent  the  proper  adjustment  of  democratic 
institutions  to  the  expanding  national  life. 
Certainly,  the  policy  hitherto  pursued  has  not 
been  unattended  by  grave  dangers  ;  yet  it  may 
be  held  to  be  justified  by  its  results.  It  has 


SOCIALISM  AND  DEMOCRACY     223 

been  one  of  the  most  powerful  forces  tending 
to  preserve  the  measure  of  social  equality 
which  America  has  always  enjoyed ;  and  this, 
in  turn,  has  preserved  the  State  from  Socialistic 
schemes. 

Of  course,  there  have  been  from  the  —Social 
beginning,  and  there  are,  social  distinctions,  v 
In  the  beginning,  the  social  hierarchy  was 
based  on  education,  public  service  and  the 
acknowledged  importance  of  the  ministers  of 
religion.  Till  1885  the  Quinquennial  Cata 
logues  of  Harvard  University  marked  with 
italics  the  names  of  graduates  who  had  attained 
the  dignity  of  ministers,  and  with  capital  letters 
the  names  of  such  as  had  become  Governors 
or  Judges.  Those  were  the  "  quality"  of  that 
time.  As  the  complexity  of  the  national  life 
developed,  the  squire,  the  lawyer  and  the 
doctor  gained  social  consideration  and  main 
tained  careful  observance  of  the  social  tradition. 
And,  from  the  first,  a  certain  inferiority  attached 
to  those  who  never  reached  intellectual  eminence 
and  to  immigrant  servants  and  their  descend 
ants.  Yet,  all  enjoyed  equally  all  the  dignity 
that  is  given  by  a  vote  in  a  democratic 
community ;  and  this  prevented  the  growth, 
not  of  classes,  but  of  a  well-defined  system 
of  classes  and  of  a  servile  class ;  and  this 
policy,  persistently  pursued  to  the  present 


224  AMERICANS 

day  in  relation  to  immigrants,  has  maintained 
.  this  measure  of  social  equality.  This,  in  turn, 
'  has  proved  a  bulwark  against  Socialism. 
Equality—  For  Socialism,  as  Americans  have  been 
quick  to  recognise,  would  have,  as  one  of  its 
first  and  most  disastrous  effects,  the  creation 
of  such  class  distinctions  as  the  democracy 
has  hitherto  abjured.  To  give  inefficient  or 
unfortunate  groups  of  people  a  claim  upon 
the  labour  of  other  and  more  efficient  or  more 
fortunate  groups,  would  be  to  introduce  the 
oldest  kind  of  inequality  based  upon  the  old 
claim  of  privilege  ;  and  I  have  found  American 
citizens,  and  not  only  those  of  them  that  are 
rich,  as  ready  to  oppose  any  claim  of  privilege 
on  the  ground  of  poverty  as  they  have  always 
been  to  resist  the  claim  when  it  has  been 
offered  on  the  ground  of  rank  and  birth. 
— asim-  Immigrants,  when  they  become  American 
™c?g-ns  citizens,  quickly  take  pride  in  and  bravely 
shoulder  the  responsibilities  and  results  of 
their  new  status.  By  their  migration,  they 
severed  the  ties  by  which  they  were  pulled 
down  in  the  countries  which  they  left ;  and 
they  make  no  demand  for  other  ties  by  which 
they  may  be  pulled  up.  Their  demand  is  for 
opportunity  to  rise  by  their  own  efforts ;  and 
that,  in  large  and  ever- increasing  measure,  as 
free  men  in  a  free  democracy  they  have. 


SOCIALISM  AND  DEMOCRACY     225 

Consequently,  the  Socialism  which  they  had 
embraced  in  their  native  countries  or  on  their 
arrival  in  America,  they  tend  to  renounce  in 
proportion  as  they  become  Americanised  ;  and 
the  Socialists'  ranks  would  quickly  show  the 
effect  of  this  process  were  they  not  perpetually 
reinforced  by  new  immigrants  whom,  in  turn, 
they  lose  and,  in  turn,  replace.  The  defection 
of  Russians  and  Germans  is  especially  decided 
and  rapid.  In  the  countries  which  they  have 
left,  the  economic  conditions  of  Socialism  exist, 
but  political  rather  than  economic  conditions 
are  favourable  to  its  growth  ;  and  the  increase 
of  Socialism  in  Russia  and  Germany  has  been 
largely  due  to  the  presence  of  revolutionary 
elements  that  have  been  bred  in  the  long 
struggle  for  political  emancipation.  In  America, 
the  economic  conditions  favourable  to  Socialism 
undoubtedly  exist  ;  but  they  exist  only  in  a 
greatly  modified  form  and  the  revolutionary 
element  does  not  exist  at  all  ;  and  the 
socialistic  doctrines  imported  to  the  New  World 
have  not  the  success  which  they  gain  in  the  Old. 

Freedmen   value    freedom   above   all    else  ;  —and 
and    the    immigrants,    who    became    free    on  incom-y~ 


their     advent     to    the    free    democracy, 
Socialism,  as  all  else,  by  the  degree  to  which  Sociahsm- 
it  guarantees  liberty.     To  them,  liberty  is  not 
a  means  to  equality  or  any  other  social  end. 
15 


226  AMERICANS 

There  are,  to  them,  no  major  considerations 
for  which  liberty  may  be  impaired.  And, 
rather  more  than  less  than  others,  they  are 
quick  to  understand  that,  in  the  absence  of 
equality  of  ability  and  efficiency,  the  socialistic 
scheme  of  universal  economic  equality  could 
only  be  effected  at  the  cost  of  individual  liberty. 
The  equality  of  opportunity  in  liberty  for  which 
the  democracy  stands,  they  demand  ;  but  the 
equality  of  conditions,  by  compulsion,  in  servi 
tude,  which  Socialism  stands  for,  they  renounce. 
The  most  effective  opponent  of  Socialism,  as 
of  many  other  ills,  in  America  is  democracy. 
And  perhaps  a  more  menacing  evil  than 
Socialism  is  what  I  have  called  the  elective 
despotism  to  which  I  have  frequently  referred 
and  under  which  the  Constitution  is  being 
changed  by  a  show  of  constitutional  means — as 
happened  in  Athens  where  the  phantom  of 
democracy  was  long  maintained  by  a  body 
of  5000  which  never  met.  The  Republic  is 
imperilled  in  proportion  as  its  democratic 
character  is  lost.  The  cure  for  the  ills  of 
democracy  is  more  democracy. 

Wanted—  Socialism  was  imported  to  America  by 
Germans  in  the  seventies  when  the  Labour 
Party  was  formed,  and  for  fifteen  years  it  was 
in  America,  as  it  has  been  described,  a  mere 
episode  of  German  Socialism.  In  recent  years, 


SOCIALISM  AND  DEMOCRACY     227 

however,  considerable  headway  has  been  made 
among  native-born  Americans,  owing  partly 
to  the  social  conditions  which  I  described,  and 
which,  if  they  were  not  created,  were  at  least 
promoted  in  their  growth,  by  immigration. 
But  Socialists,  in  their  eagerness  to  disprove 
the  charge  that  they  are  an  alien  party,  are 
apt  to  claim  and  proclaim  as  of  their  number 
all  native-born  Americans  who  so  much  as 
hold  that  the  present  industrial  organisation 
is  not  in  correspondence  with  their  idea  of 
right,  or  who  even  express  generous  sympathy 
with  the  poor  man's  case.  In  a  current 
magazine  there  is  an  article  on  "  Socialist 
'Intellectuals,'"  in  which  the  names  of  some 
whom  I  had  the  privilege  of  meeting — 
James  B.  Reynolds,  Charles  B.  Stover,  Miss 
Jane  Addams,  and  Mrs.  Robbins — have  pro 
minent  place.  These  are  eminent  and  in 
fluential  Americans  who  would  be  a  tower 
of  strength  to  any  cause.  I  found,  in  each 
of  them,  a  vivid  sense  of  justice,  vital  and 
far-reaching  human  sympathy,  deep  pity  for 
sorrow  and  suffering,  and  genuine  enthusiasm 
for  social  reform  ;  but  I  do  not  think  that  any 
one  of  them  is  a  Socialist.  In  claiming  such 
as  these,  Socialists  perhaps  show  that  they 
realise  that  a  great  personality  is  their  most 
pressing  need.  Many  foremost  men  show 


228  AMERICANS 

theoretical  and  platonic  interest  in  their  creed  ; 
but  I  did  not  find  any  man  in  their  ranks  who 
has  impressed  himself  upon  the  national  mind 
as  an  intellectual  or  moral  force.  I  know 
Socialists  in  Engla'nd  who  have  the  rare  power 
of  dispersing  the  conventional  acceptations  by 
which  men  live  on  easy  terms  with  themselves 
and  of  obliging  them  to  examine  the  grounds 
of  their  social  and  moral  opinions  ;  but  I  do 
not  know,  or  know  of,  one  in  America  who  can 
give  this  hochst  angenehmer  Schmerz  which  must 
precede  any  great  political  or  economic  change. 
If,  however,  the  term  "intellectuals"  covers 
TheDis-  all  who  have  had  a  college  career,  a  consider- 
tiOTMof*"  a°le  number  of  them  may  be  said  to  have 
Professors.  professec[  Socialism.  Socialist  societies  have 
established  themselves  at  the  universities  ;  and 
Secretary  Taft,  speaking  at  Yale,  referred 
somewhat  scornfully  to  these  "  dreamers  and 
impracticable  thinkers  at  the  universities  of 
this  country  who  would  abandon  the  system 
lying  at  the  base  of  modern  society."  Well, 
youth  everywhere  is  prone  to  be  full  of  im 
petuosity  and  self-confidence,  at  once  purblind 
and  bold ;  and,  in  its  state  of  half-culture, 
undergraduate  youth  is  peculiarly  apt  to  seize 
with  enthusiasm  upon  a  general  principle,  re 
gardless  of  its  limitations  or  relations  to  other 
principles.  But  I  met  not  a  few  professors 


SOCIALISM  AND  DEMOCRACY     229 

who  hold  and  teach  socialistic  doctrines  ;  and 
it  is  significant  that  most,  certainly  the  most 
extreme,  of  these  have  positions  in  colleges 
and  universities  which  have  received  large 
pecuniary  gifts  from  millionaires.  Influences 
are  subtly  operating  to  prevent  these  men 
from  seeing  truly  and  seeing  harmoniously,  or 
from  expressing  truly  and  harmoniously  what 
they  see.  The  trustees  of  the  Leland-Stanford 
and  other  privately  endowed  universities  en 
deavoured  at  one  time  to  subject  their  pro 
fessors  to  doctrinal  tests  in  political  economy  ; 
and  everywhere  I  heard  unpleasant  stories  of 
dismissal  from  positions  in  such  seats  of 
learning  on  account  of  " advanced"  views 
upon  social  and  political  questions.  Doubtless 
there  has  been  exaggeration  ;  but  it  has  laid 
upon  professors  the  necessity  of  proving  that 
they  have  not  surrendered  their  independence. 
If  this  does  not  unconsciously  incline  them  to 
opinions  contrary  to  those  which  are  popularly 
supposed  to  be  acceptable  to  the  wealthy  bene 
factors  of  their  institutions,  it  does  at  least  lead 
them  to  express,  with  conscious  emphasis,  such 
heterodox  conclusions  as,  by  purely  intellectual 
processes,  they  may  have  reached,  and  to  do 
so  without  having  previously  fused  and  com 
bined  their  material  according  to  the  laws  of 
what  is  practicable.  On  the  other  hand,  those 


23o  AMERICANS 

who  oppose  the  socialistic  creed,  men  like 
Chancellor  Day,  of  Syracuse  University,  are 
popularly  suspected  of  the  not  wholly  unworthy 
motive  of  gratitude  for  past  favours,  or  of  the 
wholly  ignoble  motive  of  gratitude  for  favours 
to  come  ;  and  their  teaching  falls  on  deaf  ears. 
The  men  of  wealth  who  lavish  their 
Thedis-  gifts  upon  institutions  of  learning  may  be 
disinterested  in  their  effort  to  promote 
education ;  and,  doubtless,  they  have  their 
reward.  But  their  reward  does  not  include 
any  increased  public  regard  for  the  rights 
of  property.  These,  indeed,  their  pecuniary 
gifts  tend  to  jeopardise  rather  than  safeguard. 
Mr.  Andrew  Carnegie,  in  whose  favour  the 
utmost  admission  that  I  could  secure  was 
that,  perhaps,  he  acquired  his  fortune  by  less 
objectionable  methods  than  those  of  some  other 
prominent  capitalists,  recently  founded  a  Pro 
fessors'  Pension  Fund,  by  which  university 
and  college  teachers  are  to  be  henceforth 
consoled,  in  their  economic  feebleness  in  old 
age,  by  the  benisons  of  wealth  to  which  no 
direct  contribution  has  been  made  by  them 
selves.  One  professor,  who  is  already  entitled, 
refuses  to  become  a  beneficiary  of  this  fund. 
He  has  publicly  declared  that  he  would  die 
in  his  own  poverty  rather  than  accept  an 
outdoor  relief  that  rested  on  the  doctrine 


SOCIALISM  AND  DEMOCRACY     231 

that  the  labours  of  the  mass  of  men,  "  even 
educated  men,"  are  not  sufficient  to  relieve 
them  from  chanty.  It  is  not  anticipated, 
however,  that  many,  if  any,  others  will  decline 
to  feed  at  the  crib  which,  by  Mr.  Carnegie's 
generosity,  will  be  perpetually  supplied ;  and 
consequently  greater  intensity  and  wider  sweep 
will  be  given  to  the  prevalent  suspicion  that 
professors  are  influenced  by  illegitimate  con 
siderations,  whether  they  defend  or  whether 
they  oppose  the  present  industrial  system  on 
which,  it  is  supposed,  the  endowments  of  their 
colleges  and  their  own  prospective  pensions 
depend.  Thus  these  institutions  and  these 
men  are  being  disqualified  for  their  high  voca 
tion  of  dealing  authoritatively  with  the  great 
problems  on  the  solution  of  which  the  national 
destiny  in  great  measure  depends.  One  definite 
influence,  however,  the  Socialist  "  intellectuals  " 
exert.  They  tend  to  prevent  the  social  struggle 
from  degenerating  into  a  mere  class  strife  be 
tween  organised  labour  and  organised  private 
capital ;  and  class  divisions,  class  antagonisms, 
class  hatreds,  and  even  class  consciousness  are 
not  becoming  intensified  as  the  contentions 
over  social  questions  become  more  intense. 
And  I  think  that  one  hears  less  of  the  rights  of 
working  men  and  more  of  the  rights  of  men  in 
America  than  in  England. 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

SOCIAL  PROGRESS. 

"  I  have  no  answer  for  myself  or  thee, 
Save  that  I  learned  beside  my  mother's  knee : 
'  All  is  of  God  that  is  and  is  to  be  : 
And  God  is  good.'     Let  this  suffice  us  still, 
Resting  in  childlike  trust  upon  His  will, 
Who  moves  to  His  great  ends  unthwarted  by  the  ill." 

WHITTIER. 

American  Conservatism  —  Diffusion  of  Wealth  — Discontent 
rooted  in  Hope,  not  Fear — Proletariat  and  Bourgeoisie — 
A  true  Conception  of  the  State — Nationalism — Ideals  of 
the  People — Relative  not  absolute  Error — The  national 
Destiny — From  high  to  higher  Civilisation. 

Unreadi-  CONSERVATISM  has  been  declared,  by 
v-x  all  competent  observers,  to  be  a  char- 
acteristic  of  the  American  democracy  ;  and  this 
shows  itself  sometimes  in  regard  to  petty 
customs  which  do  not  affect  the  vitality  of  the 
State  and  always  in  respect  of  all  great  principles, 
written  or  unwritten,  on  which  society,  as  it 
is  organised,  is  based.  The  general  political 
habits  of  the  people  have  made  them  rigidly 

practical  and  have  strengthened  their  aversion 

232 


SOCIAL  PROGRESS  233 

from  sweeping  and  untried  solutions  of  any 
problems.  An  American  writer  has  said  of 
them  that  in  no  way  do  they  more  clearly 
declare  their  English  origin  than  by  the  serenity 
with  which  they  forbid  logic  to  meddle  with 
the  substantial  maintenance  of  legal  institutions, 
and  defend  customs  which  at  least  have  proved 
tolerable  against  theory  which  has  never  been 
put  to  the  test. 

This  was  said  without  special  reference,  but  —actual 

i  •  v  o       •    1»  TM       Condition 

it  has  its  application,  to  Socialism.  The  not  being 
economic  condition  of  the  American  working  h°Peless- 
man,  far  from  satisfactory  as  we  have  seen  it 
to  be,  is  at  least  tolerable,  if  only  because  it 
is  not  hopeless.  Much  of  his  discontent  springs 
from  his  hopes  and  not  from  such  fears  as 
provoke  disturbance  in  other  lands.  In  spite 
of  the  "Trusts,"  and,  occasionally,  even  by 
their  aid,  capital  is  falling  into  the  hands  of 
an  ever-increasing  number  of  people.  There 
is  a  wide  and  widening  diffusion  of  it,  even 
amongst  the  working  classes,  in  the  shape  of 
stocks  and  bonds.  Statistical  data  are  in 
complete,  but  such  as  are  available  show  that 
the  securities  of  the  great  corporations  are 
scattered  among  a  great  and  growing  number 
of  shareholders.  Not  only  are  the  propertied 
classes  not  diminishing,  they  are  increasing  both 
relatively  and  absolutely  ;  and  a  vast  majority 


234  AMERICANS 

of  the  people  may  make  their  own  the  lines 
which  were  aptly  quoted  to  me  by  an  American 
working  man  with  whom  I  had  been  discussing 
the  social  conditions  and  prospects  of  his 
class  : — 

"  Fortune,  you  say,  flies  from  us  ?    She  but  circles 
Like  the  fleet  sea-bird  round  the  fowler's  skiff- 
Lost  in  the  mist  one  moment,  and  the  next 
Brushing  the  white  sail  with  her  whiter  wing, 
As  if  to  court  the  aim.     Experience  watches 
And  has  her  on  the  wing." 

And  as  the  changes  in  the  law  and  the  economic 
situation  which  are  actually  in  process  conduce 
to  a  still  wider  dispersion  of  property,  the 
temptation  to  force  distribution  by  socialistic 
reconstruction  is  being  farther  removed  from 
the  working  classes,  which  grow  ever  more 
reluctant  to  endanger  either  their  present 
possessions  or  their  present  hopes.  And,  to 
the  dismay  of  the  early  Socialists,  there  has 
sprung  up  a  new  and  influential  class,  whose 
members  have  one  foot  in  the  camp  of  the 
proletariat  and  the  other  in  the  camp  of  the 
bourgeoisie. 

immi-  Sometimes  in  Germany,  often  in  Russia,  and 

more  than  once  in  America  amongst  recent 
Russian  immigrants,  I  have  heard  the  notorious 
statement  of  the  Communistic  manifesto  that 
the  proletarian  has  no  fatherland  quoted  with 
fervent  approval.  Russian  Socialists  are,  as 


SOCIAL  PROGRESS  235 

German  Socialists  in  the  forties  were,  a  party 
of  revolution,  not  of  reform.  Their  aim  is 
radically  to  alter,  even  to  abolish,  the  State  ; 
and  partial  reforms  that  make  conditions  more 
tolerable  meet  with  their  sternest  opposition, 
since  they  weaken  that  antagonism  within  the 
present  order  that  might  drive  society  to 
reconstruction  on  a  socialistic  basis.  For  a 
time,  immigrants  are  prone  to  use,  in  their 
new  land,  the  old  arguments,  in  the  old  phrases, 
of  their  old  lands  where  Socialists  use  the  term 
"State,"  as  they  use  the  term  "Capital,"  in  a 
technical  sense  peculiar  to  themselves.  There, 
Socialists  are  democrats  who  live  in  a  State 
which  is  undemocratic  and  stands  for  a  class 
whose  interests  it  promotes  by  repressive 
measures  designed  to  keep  every  other  class 
down.  They,  therefore,  fear  the  State  and  look 
with  disfavour  upon  plans  to  extend,  or  even 
maintain,  its  economic  functions.  In  America, 
however,  immigrants  soon  discover  that  the 
political  institution  of  the  State  is  democratic 
and  can  be  readily  made  to  serve  the  interests 
of  all  classes,  without  radical  political  changes. 
Gradually,  they  shed  their  peculiar  tenets  in 
a  land  where  the  very  premises  of  their  argu 
ments  are  lacking.  Even  if  they  continue  to 
profess  themselves  Socialists,  they  drop  the 
old  revolutionary  ideas  and  terms,  and  regard 


236  AMERICANS 

the  State  as  a  positive  agency  for  securing  to 
all  classes  and  individuals  in  the  nation  the 
rights  which  they  are  entitled  to  possess,  and 
especially  for  providing  a  ladder  of  education 
and  opportunity  on  which,  if  he  be  capable, 
the  humblest  citizen  may  rise  to  the  topmost 
rung — a  Cultur-Staat  in  distinction  from  a 
Rechts-Staat  or  Polizei-Staat. 

—and  Properly  guarded,   this  is  a  true  conception 

of  the  State.  It  avoids  the  error  of  attributing 
to  the  State  a  separate  entity,  endowed  with 
conscience,  power  and  will,  sublimated  above 
human  limitations  and  constituting  a  tutelary 
genius  over  all  who  are  subject  to  its  authority  ; 
and  while  it  recognises  that  the  State  is,  as  it 
has  been  described,  All-of-Us,  it  recognises  also 
that  it  is  All-of-Us  united  into  a  moral  whole 
which  multiplies  a  millionfold  the  aggregate 
of  the  powers  of  each.  The  demand  which 
I  heard  from  a  hundred  Socialist  platforms, 
that  the  State  should  guarantee  equal  rights 
to  all,  proved  to  refer  to  equal  chances,  not  equal 
things,  to  all ;  and  this,  which  is  not  necessarily 
socialistic,  is  the  utmost  demand  that  is  made 
by  many  who  suppose  that  they  have  adopted 
the  Socialists'  creed.  And  when  immigrants 
discover  that  the  American  State,  in  large  and 
ever-increasing  measure,  provides  this  equal 
chance  to  all,  they  turn  from  the  dislike  of 


SOCIAL  PROGRESS  237 

patriotism  and  the  national  spirit  to  an  acknow 
ledgment  of  national  interests,  and  from  hatred 
of  the  State  to  appreciation  of  all  that  govern 
ment  as  organised  in  an  individualistic  democracy 
can  do  for  all  classes ;  and  they  identify  them 
selves  with  the  State  which  at  first  they  had 
assailed,  not  knowing  what  they  did. 

Herr  Sombart  regretfully  reports  to  his  — Con- 
fellow-Socialists  in  Germany  that,  in  America,  the  state. 
the  centrifugal  force  that  leads  to  class  hatreds 
is  weak,  while  the  centrifugal  force  that  leads 
to  endorsement  of  the  national  political 
commonwealth — to  patriotism — is  strong  ;  and 
he  concludes  that  consequently  there  is  a  lack 
among  American  Socialists  of  "that  enmity 
to  the  State  so  characteristic  of  Continental 
European  Socialists."  This,  I  believe,  is 
sober  truth.  If  there  is  any  American  type 
of  Socialism,  it  is  Nationalism.  It  does  not 
present  Socialism  as  a  class  movement.  It 
hopes  to  avoid  class  struggles.  It  is  nearer 
the  Bernstein  than  the  Marxian  wing  of  the 
Social  democracy.  It  hopes  to  see  its  ideal 
fulfilled  through  the  extension  of  co-operation, 
not  through  the  assumption  of  direct  control 
of  all  production  by  a  central  political  power. 

Even    the     evils     which     flourish     in     the  Politics 
American      State      seem     to      moderate     the 
Socialists'  aims ;  and  not  infrequently  I  heard 


238  AMERICANS 

extremists  asked  with  some  alarm,  in  view  of 
the  prevalent  political  corruption,  who  is  to 
guarantee  the  integrity  of  the  officers  in  whose 
hands,  in  the  Socialistic  State,  political  and 
economic  control  would  be  centred  ?  A  most 
pertinent  inquiry !  For  even  if  the  functions 
of  government  were  reduced  to  the  lowest 
term  compatible  with  Socialism,  the  officials 
would  still  have  tremendous  powers  and 
tremendous  temptations  to  betray  their  trust ; 
and,  however  they  might  be  selected  and 
approved,  they  would  still  have  the  common 
frailties  of  humanity.  You  cannot  overcome 
by  adding  together  the  individual  imperfec 
tions  of  men.  Behind  political  economy  lies 
personal  character.  Not  Socialism,  or  any 
outward  readjustment,  but  the  inner  life  of 
Socialists  and  all  other  citizens,  is  the  ultimate 
fact  of  the  human  problem.  The  true  politics, 
as  Socrates  said,  is  first  of  all  a  politics  of  the 
soul.  And  it  is  pleasant  to  be  able  to  add 
that  American  Socialism  has  turned  from 
materialism.  I  was  much  in  the  company  of 
Socialists  during  my  year  in  the  country  ;  and 
I  can  say  that  I  found  Socialists,  as  a  class, 
essentially  moral  and  religious,  opposing,  some 
times,  organised  Christianity  but  nearly  always 
advocating  the  religion  of  Jesus  as  it  was,  not 
unworthily,  interpreted  by  themselves.  Few 


SOCIAL  PROGRESS  239 

of  them  are  so  blind  to  historical  and  actual 
phenomena  as  to  believe  the  Marxian  doctrine 
that  everything,  even  religion,  is  merely  a 
product  of  economic  life.  Even  those  of  them 
who  repudiate  the  churches  recognise  religion 
as  an  independent  force,  and  the  Christian 
religion  as  a  beneficent  force,  sufficient  to 
modify  and  even  shape  economic  conditions ; 
and  as  often  from  Socialist  platforms  as  from 
Christian  pulpits  I  have  heard  powerful 
appeals  to  ethical  sentiment.  Nor  can  it  be 
truthfully  said  that,  among  Socialists,  attacks 
upon  the  binding  character  of  the  marriage 
tie  in  the  absence  of  love,  or  after  love  has 
disappeared,  are  more  frequent  in  speech  or 
act  than  among  other  classes  in  the  State. 

This  is  all  to  the  good.  Every  class  needs,  A 
above  all  else,  ideals ;  and  any  class,  in  such 
mistakes  as  it  may  make  in  its  forward  effort, 
will  be  less  disastrously  mistaken  in  proportion 
as  it  possesses  a  vigorous  morality.  But  all 
this  reveals  a  departure,  not  necessarily  from 
Socialism,  but  from  the  non-ethical  Socialism 
of  Karl  Marx,  which  at  first  was  the  pre 
dominant,  if  not  the  only,  type.  And,  in  fact, 
many  who  are  classed  as  Socialists  ought  to 
be  called  social  reformers.  In  common  with 
Socialists,  they  do  not  believe,  as  I  who  am 
no  Socialist  do  not  believe,  that  the  highest 


240  AMERICANS 

forms  of  material  progress  can  be  evolved 
through  any  merciless  competition  that  is  out 
of  harmony  with  Christian  idealism  and  at 
variance  with  every  great  system  of  ethics ; 
and  they  strive,  as  many  citizens  who  are  not 
Socialists  are  striving,  for  the  overthrow  of 
every  combination  of  force  and  craft  that,  as 
its  end  or  its  means,  seeks  to  thrust  weakness 
into  a  yawning  pit  that  it  may  ineffectually 
struggle  there,  in  black  darkness,  for  breath 
and  life.  But  they  do  not  find  in  Socialism 
any  panacea  for  all  social  ills.  They  hold 
that,  because  society  is  many  and  complex, 
the  remedies  of  its  evils  must  be  numerous 
and  various,  with  a  thousand  modifications 
nicely  adjusted  to  the  thousand  varieties  of 
circumstances,  situations  and  characters  of 
the  individuals  to  whom  they  are  applied. 
And  while  they  recognise  the  duty  of  the 
State  to  the  individual,  they  do  not  overlook 
the  duty  of  the  individual  to  the  State ;  nor 
do  they  forget  the  supreme  duty  of  the 
individual  to  himself.  And  while  they  strive 
for  all  that  solidarity  can  give,  they  strive  also 
for  all  that  may  develop  individuality.  They 
may  be,  and  in  my  humble  judgment  many 
of  them  are,  in  grave  error  as  regards  the 
particular  remedies  of  existing  evils  that  they 
propose ;  but  theirs  is  the  relative  error  of  the 


SOCIAL  PROGRESS  241 

social  reformer,  not  the  absolute  error  of  the 
Socialist. 

The  immediate  danger,  some  fear,  is  that  The  Con 
the  State,  exaggerating  the  strength  ofj 
Socialism,  shall  become  socialistic  and,  by Matter- 
summoning  Beelzebub  to  cast  out  devils, 
subject  itself  to  their  prince.  This  fear  is 
often  no  more  than  the  nervousness  of  con 
fused  thinkers  who  apprehend  an  approach 
to  Socialism  in  any  measure  which,  in  any 
direction  and  on  any  principle,  extends  the 
functions  of  the  State — even  in  measures  that 
have  as  their  aim  and  effect  the  increase  of 
individualism  by  the  suppression  of  the  tyranny 
of  consolidated  corporate  wealth  organised  to 
obliterate  the  will  and  identity  of  the  individual 
toiler  in  every  department  of  life.  Yet  there 
are,  perhaps,  to  be  found  in  the  words  of  some 
legislators  and  the  Acts  of  some  legislatures, 
possibly  in  reaction  from  excessive  energy, 
signs  of  a  desire  to  secure,  by  socialistic 
measures,  absolute  quiescence  for  every  citizen, 
in  a  provision  for  the  easy  gratification,  without 
personal  effort,  of  all  the  wants  of  each.  That 
achievement  would,  of  course,  create  a  society 
from  which  would  quickly  disappear  patience, 
courage,  perseverance,  sympathy  and  other 
high  qualities  of  the  soul,  any  one  of  which 

is  worth  all  the  universe  of  material  things — 
16 


242  AMERICANS 

would  disappear  also  all  possibility  of  even 
material  progress,  since  the  soul  of  all  improve 
ment  is  the  improvement  of  the  soul.  But  the 
national  mind  is  sane  and  the  national  heart 
is  sound.  Americans,  like  other  men,  are 
endowed,  not  only  with  selfish  instincts  but 
also  with  instincts  which  prompt  them  to  curb 
their  selfishness  when  it  would  disturb  the 
balance  between  the  body  and  the  soul  and 
between  the  individual  and  the  community  in 
which  he  lives ;  and  while  many  citizens  will 
continue  to  be  swept  into  the  backwaters  of 
Socialism,  the  State  will  continue  in  the 
natural  order  of  progress,  preventing,  not 
selfishness  but  selfishness  in  excess,  and 
leaving,  to  all,  the  perpetual  stimulus  of  their 
individual  and  social  instincts  to  still  higher 
civilisation  under  the  influence  of  that  religion 
which  alone  of  all  forces  has  power  to  give 
beauty  of  the  inward  soul  and  make  the  out 
ward  and  inward  be  at  one. 


APPENDIX  I. 

THE  following  letter  to  the  Editor  of  the 
Times  contains  no  word  of  commendation  of 
American  Universities  with  which  the  author  of 
the  article  to  which  reference  is  made  does 
not  heartily  agree  : — 

"  SIR,  —  The  many  American  students  of 
English  institutions  will  read  with  great 
interest  the  article  in  the  Times  of  to-day  under 
the  title,  'A  Year  amongst  Americans.'  Your 
correspondent's  strictures  on  the  form  of  the 
elective  system  adopted  by  some  of  the  Univer 
sities,  and  more  especially  his  condemnation 
of  certain  aspects  of  college  athletics,  will,  I 
think,  meet  with  the  hearty  approval  of  the 
great  majority  of  the  college  graduates  in 
America.  Nor  will  they  be  disposed  to  object 
to  his  generous  statement  that  the  American 
Universities  have  elements  of  strength  and 
greatness  that  the  older  English  Universities 
lack.  It  would  have  been  extremely  interest 
ing  to  learn  what,  in  your  correspondent's 
judgment,  those  elements  are.  May  I  suggest 
as  among  the  number  the  following,  chosen 
somewhat  at  random  : — 

"  i .  The  very  liberal  provision  for  all  branches 
of  study,  and  the  extent  to  which  the  colleges 


243 


244  AMERICANS 

have  rid  themselves  of  the  idea  that  culture 
comes  exclusively  from  any  one  course.  Cam 
bridge  is  not  illiberal  in  what  she  offers,  but 
most  of  her  more  recently  established  triposes 
attract  only  a  handful.  In  America  almost 
every  subject  finds  somewhere  a  large  number 
of  devotees  ;  and  it  would  require  some  research 
to  discover  which  is  the  most  popular. 

"  2.  The  endeavour  to  keep  pace  with  the 
actual  needs  of  the  day.  By  this  I  do  not 
mean  that  *  bread-and-butter '  studies  are  wholly 
predominant,  or  that  a  narrow  utilitarianism 
prevails.  This  common  English  view  is 
simply  false.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  the  best 
Universities  do  not  neglect  those  studies  that 
play  the  leading  parts  in  the  older  Universities. 
Indeed,  a  very  earnest  endeavour  is  made  to 
make  such  studies  of  living  interest.  At  the 
same  time,  they  do  not  absorb  all  the  intel 
lectual  energy  of  the  American  student,  nor 
even  the  greater  part  of  it.  Modernism  is 
in  the  saddle,  and  whatever  may  be  the 
disadvantages  of  such  a  state  of  affairs,  it 
interests  thousands  in  the  Universities  who 
would  otherwise  be  apathetic,  and  makes  it 
possible  to  provide  liberally  for  the  prosecution 
of  all  branches  of  learning. 

"  3.  Very  great  attention  is  paid  to  organisa 
tion,  and  the  administration  of  the  Universities 
is  conducted  on  what  are  regarded  as  business 
like  methods.  In  most  cases  responsibility  and 
power  are  centred  in  one  man, — the  president, 
— and,  rightly  or  wrongly,  he  is  thought  to 


APPENDIX  II.  245 

exercise  the  most  powerful  influence  on  the 
destinies  of  his  college — in  striking  contrast  to 
the  common  view  as  to  the  average  master 
of  a  college  at  Oxford  or  Cambridge.  The 
president's  is  very  far  from  being  merely  a 
position  of  dignified  ease.  He  is  expected  to 
throw  himself  with  true  American  energy  into 
the  task  of  advancing  the  interests  of  his  college. 
"  4.  There  is  very  little  tendency  to  rest 
satisfied  with  laurels  already  won,  or  to  trade 
largely  on  the  achievements  of  the  past. 
Those  of  us  who  have  spent  the  early  years 
of  our  manhood  at  Cambridge  or  Oxford  will 
always  readily  acknowledge  their  unequalled 
charm  and  greatness ;  but,  if  we  really  know 
anything  of  the  spirit  that  animates  the  best 
American  colleges,  we  will  agree  with  your 
correspondent  that  *  it  will  be  well  for  us  if  we 
prove  as  quick  to  see,  as  frank  to  admit,  and 
as  resolute  to  amend  defects  as  they.' 


"(St.  John's  Coll.,  Cambridge,  and 
Columbia  University,  New  York)." 


APPENDIX  II. 

THE  following  extract  from  an  article,  which 
appeared  in  the  Boston  Herald,  illustrates  the 
statement  of  the  first  chapter  of  this  book : 
"  I  shall  be  more  restrained  than  Americans 
themselves  in  my  criticisms  "  :  — 


246  AMERICANS 

"  THE  NATIONAL  FAILING. 

"Wendell  Phillips,  who  had  the  great  civic 
virtue  of  courage  and  of  saying  what  he 
thought,  once  pointed  out  that  entire  equality 
and  freedom  in  government  and  social  structure 
1  almost  invariably  tend  to  make  the  individual 
subside  into  the  mass  and  lose  identity  in 
the  general  whole.'  In  which  case  public 
opinion  becomes  not  only  omnipotent,  but  also 
omnipresent,  and  the  result  is  *  that,  instead  of 
being  a  mass  of  individuals,  each  one  fearlessly 
blurting  out  his  own  convictions,'  the  nation 
becomes,  as  he  said  the  United  States  then 
was,  compared  with  other  nations,  *  a  mass  of 
cowards.'  '  More  than  all  other  peoples,'  he 
added,  'we  are  afraid  of  each  other.' 

"It  was  this  same  combination  of  'extra 
ordinary  mutual  respect  and  kindness '  and 
'  deficiency  of  moral  independence '  that 
Harriet  Martineau  noted  when  in  this  country 
in  1837.  De  Tocqueville  also  saw  it,  and 
Charles  Pollen  commented  upon  it  in  contrast 
with  the  spirit  of  the  Germany  he  had  fled 
from  to  find  greater  liberty.  Emerson  and 
Channing,  in  their  day,  admitted  the  charge  as 
justly  resting  against  their  countrymen.  Now 
it  occurs  again  in  the  letters  of  '  An  Occasional 
Observer,'  which  are  appearing  in  the  London 
Times  and  which  are  based  on  a  year's  study  of 
us  by  a  man  of  much  insight,  whose  obser 
vation  has  been  international  in  scope,  and 
which  includes  Russia  and  Asia  as  well  as 
Europe. 


APPENDIX  II.  247 


"  There  are  vital  issues  dividing  men  and 
parties  in  this  country  to-day,  dividing  also 
men  within  parties.  How  are  they  met  ?  By 
square  debate,  plain  speech,  triumph  of 
argument  over  argument,  fact  over  fact,  and 
then  acquiescence  of  the  minority  in  the 
decision  of  the  majority  because  based  on 
a  victory  in  rational  conflict?  Not  at  all. 
Within  parties  and  between  parties  the  policy 
is  to  adjust,  reduce  friction  to  a  minimum, 
bring  about  results  through  manipulation  ;  and 
the  electors  will  go  to  the  polls  next  fall  with 
nebulous  notions  as  to  principles,  and  vague 
sentiment  controlling  their  choice  as  to  men. 

"  The  fault  with  President  Roosevelt  as  a 
denouncer  of  men  and  of  measures  has  been, 
not  that  he  was  candid,  but  that  later,  as  a 
politician,  he  has  made  terms  with  the  men 
he  has  denounced  ;  and  that  he  has  resented 
equally  candid  talk  in  rebuttal  from  men  and 
from  corporations  whom  he  has  judged.  It 
has  been  educational  for  the  country  to  have  an 
executive  who  was  plain  spoken,  but  it  would 
have  been  vastly  more  so  if  there  had  been 
within  his  own  party  or  in  the  party  of  opposi 
tion  more  men  who  had  dared  to  question  his 
judgments  and  oppose  his  will  when,  like  all 
men  of  his  temperament,  he  has  erred  or  been 
unwise.  And  this  has  been  the  more  necessary 
because  of  the  swift  mass  movement  or  lurch 
of  the  American  democracy  in  the  direction  of 


248  AMERICANS 

hero  worship,  and   the  tyranny  of  the   public 
opinion  of  the  hour." 


APPENDIX  III. 

RECENTLY,  individual  workers,  Jews  and 
Christians,  have  cautiously  introduced  religious 
studies,  if  not  religious  services,  into  the 
University  Settlement  at  New  York ;  and  Dr. 
Hamilton,  its  Warden,  as  all  must  recognise 
who  have  had  the  advantage  of  coming  under 
his  influence,  is  a  profoundly  religious  man 
who,  by  the  simplicity,  integrity  and  devotion 
of  his  life,  which  has  known  the  veiled  pros 
perities  of  affliction,  worthily  represents  Chris 
tianity  to  the  multitudes  of  Jews  in  his  institution 
and  the  still  larger  multitudes  in  its  neighbour 
hood.  At  Hull  House,  Chicago,  at  least  one 
modest  Bible-class  has  been  maintained  for 
some  years.  At  some  Women's  Settlements, 
such  as  Denison  House,  Boston,  regular 
religious  offices  are  observed  by,  and  for,  the 
Residents.  At  the  Frances  Willard  Settle 
ment,  Boston,  there  are  Christian  services  for 
the  neighbourhood  ;  and  by  many  Institutional 
churches,  in  which  some  of  the  features  of 
Social  Settlements  are  found,  continuous  and 
aggressive  religious  work  is  done. 


INDEX 


Accessibility  of  Americans,  3. 
Adams,  Charles  Francis — 
\     elective  system  at  colleges,  166. 

scheme  of  University  reform,  199. 
Addams,   Miss  Jane,  of  Chicago  Hull 

House  Settlement — 
position  and  influence,  16,  105,  227. 
quotations  from,  100,  104. 
Anglo-Saxon  spirit,  23-6,  232—3. 
Arts  and  sciences,  limited  progress  in,  8. 
Athletics  in  colleges,  see  Colleges  and 

Universities. 
Atlanta  Riots,  88-9. 
Author's  attitude,  modification   by  ex 
perience,  5. 

Bar,  use  of,  by  Trusts,  209. 

Beaulieu,  Leroy — enfranchisement  of  the 
Jew,  danger  to  Judaism,  183. 

Birth-rate- 
decline  of  native  birth-rate  from  1830 

onwards — causes,  33-5. 
native    and     foreign    born    parents, 
children  of — birth-rate  between 
1890  and  1900,  42. 

"Boosters,"  14. 

Brag — origin  of  habit,  tendency  to  dis 
appear,  11-3. 

Capitalism  and  Socialism,  216,  219. 

Carnegie,  Mr.  A. — Professors'  Pension 
Fund,  230-1. 

Character,  see  National  Temper  and 
Character. 

Chicago — recognition  of  dangers  of  co- 
bȣA  education,  145. 

Children — position  in  the  family,  educa 
tional  system  the  only  dis 
ciplinary  force,  129-31. 


349 


Clark  University,  President  of — college 

athletics,  180. 
Class  distinctions — 

nature  of  existing  distinctions,  4. 

origin  of  social  distinctions,  223. 

Socialism,  danger  of,  224. 
Climate   and    physical    environment — 

effect  on  character,  22,  24. 
Co-education,  effect  on  character — 

adolescent  boys,  injurious  effects  on, 

143-5- 
political    corruption,    relation    to, 

145-8. 

sex  morality,  143. 
Colleges  and  Universities — 

aim  of — education   of  a  democracy, 

188-9. 

fraternities,  defeat  by,  189-91,  197. 
athletics — 

moral  evil  of  debased  athletics,  175- 

7,  App.  I.  p.  243. 
reasons    for    limited    extent    of 

evil,  177-81. 

motive  of  the  athlete,  171-3. 
number    of   students    taking  part 

in  athletics,  178. 

undue  importance  attached  to,  171. 
comparison  with  English  and  German 

Universities,  161. 

elements  of  strength  and  greatness 
lacking  in  the  older  English 
Universities,  App.  I.  pp. 
242-5. 

social  aspects,  194. 
disrepute  abroad  due  to  sale  of  degrees 

by  bogus  colleges,  159. 
elective  system — 

character,  effect  on,  162-6,  App. 
I.  p.  243. 


25° 


AMERICANS 


Colleges  and  Universities — continued. 
elective  system — continued. 
origin  and  purpose  of,  164-5. 
restriction,  movement  towards,  166. 
fraternities,  evils  of,  etc. — 
anti-democratic,  189-91,  197. 
origin  and  attractions,  193-4. 
qualifications  for  membership,  190, 

196. 
recruiting     methods — "Rushing," 

191,  196. 
reform    schemes,    introduction    of 

college  residential  system,  etc., 

198-200. 
social     distinction     conferred     by 

membership,     disabilities     of 

non -fraternity    students,    190, 

191,  195- 
women's  fraternities,  192. 

legal  ethics,  neglect  of,  209-10. 

legislative  control,  tendency  to,  159. 

number  of,  and  attendance  at  — 
statistics,  160. 

race  problem  in  regard  to  Jews,  etc. 
— help  given  towards  solution, 
service  to  the  nation,  184-7. 

rivalry  between  colleges,  173. 

salaries  of  professors,  204. 

self-government,  experiment  in,  169- 
70. 

self-supporting  students,  166-9. 

Socialism   and    college    professors — 
disqualification  of  socialist  pro 
fessors  and  suspicion  of  inter 
ested  motives  in  anti-socialist 
professors,  228-31. 
Conservatism,  232. 
Corruption  in  politics — 

co-education,  relation  to,  145-8. 

elective  despotism  as  a  remedy — 
apparent  only,  21. 

socialist  aims,  effect  on,  238. 
Coubertin,  Baron  Pierre  de — American 
students,  178. 

Dartmouth     College     case  —  Supreme 

Court  decision,  208. 
Davidson,  Dr.  Thomas — Jews  in  New 

York,  73-4. 
Democracy — 

despondency  in  regard    to — present 

popular  mood,  16. 


Democracy — continued. 

despondency  in  regard  to — continued. 
evidences  of,  see  Elective  Despot 
ism  and  Immigration, 
educational     system,     democratising 

effect,  131-2,  185. 
future  of,  22-6,  242. 
manners,  effect  on,  26-7. 
real    democracy    in    action — "town 
meeting"  at  Wellesley  Hills, 
Massachusetts,  19. 
Despondency — present   popular  mood, 

1 6. 

Dress — not   a  criterion   of  prosperity, 
202-3. 

Educational  Alliance,  New  York,  96. 
Educational  system — 

co-education,  effect  on  character, 
etc.,  143-5. 

colleges  and  universities,  see  that  title. 

Colonial  America — 

influence,  traces  of,  119. 
provision  in  —  difference   between 
North  and  South,  119-20. 

date  of  origin  of  present  system,  119. 

democratising  effect  of  public  schools, 
promotion  of  homogeneity, 
131-2,  185. 

disciplinary  value,  129-31. 

existing  common  school  system,  120. 

free  education,  extent  to  which  prin 
ciple  had  been  carried,  tend 
ency  to  further  and  extreme 
extension,  135-6. 

illiterate  class — 

evil  aggravated  by  prevailing  high 

average  of  intelligence,  121. 
special     efforts      to     cope     with 
illiteracy,  121. 

importance  attached  to — too  much 
rather  than  too  little,  123. 

inequality  in  equipment,  etc.,  of 
schools,  tendency  to  disappear, 
120. 

methods,  comparison  of  English  and 
American  methods  and  their 
results,  133-4. 

private  schools,  decay  of,  131-2. 

religious  education  question,  149-51. 
Sunday-schools,    work    and   pros 
pects  of,  155-8. 


INDEX 


251 


Educational  system— continued. 

secondary  and   collegiate  education, 

increase  in,  122. 
self-government       in       elementary 

schools,  169. 

social  Settlement  work,  114-6. 
speech,  influence  on,  123. 

defence  against  abuse  of  slang,  1 26. 
teachers — 

equipment,  122. 

opportunities  for  study  of  educa 
tional  and  economic  conditions 
in  other  states  and  countries, 
cultivation  of  outside  interests, 
etc.,  139-40. 
results,  140-1. 

percentage  to  population,  122. 
personality,  importance  of,  137. 
religious    influence    exercised    by 

majority,  150-1. 
salaries,  138. 

union  which  should  federate  with 
labour  unions,  refusal  to 
organise,  138-9. 

women  teachers,  preponderance  of 
— effect  on  adolescent  boys, 
141-2. 

"  teacher's  face,"  138. 
Elective  despotism,  drift  towards,  19. 
continuation     and     acceleration     oi 

movement  probable,  22. 
evils  of,  danger  to  democracy,  2O-I, 

226. 

immigration — political   incapacity  o 

preponderating  type  of  immi 

grant  since  1875,  contributing 

cause  of  tendency,  42. 

instance  in   regard   to  state   prisons 

of  Massachusetts,  20. 
Eliot,    President,     of    Harvard     Uni 

versity — 
influence,  16. 
University    reform,     proposals     for 

199. 
England    and     Englishmen,    relation 

with — 
American  desire   for   comprehensioi 

by  England,  28-9. 
evidences   of  English   origin,    23-6 

232-3- 

parental  pride  of  Englishmen,  increas 
in,  29. 


ngland  and  Englishmen — continued. 

prejudice  against  Englishmen,  origin 
of,  etc.  —  traces  still  to  be 
found,  5,  26,  28. 

Equality  and  Liberty,  comparative  im 
portance  attached  to,  132. 

amily  life  —  qualities  and  defects, 
absence  of  discipline,  etc., 
130. 

bowler,  Mr.  A.  E. — representative  of 
Japanese  -  Korean  Exclusion 
League,  92. 

German  Universities,  comparison  with 

American    institutions,    160- 

161. 
Gladstone,    Miss   Helen — initiation   of 

courses  of  social   training  in 

England,  1 1 2. 

laley,  Miss  Margaret,  of  Chicago— 
attempt  to  organise  Teachers' 
Union,  138. 

Hamilton,  Dr.,  Warden  of  University 
Settlement    at   New  York — 
religious  influence,  App.  III. 
p.  248. 
Harvard  University — 
legal  ethics,  neglect  of,  210. 
religious  education  in  1742,  I52- 
salaries  of  professors,  204. 
Homogeneity  of  the  nation — 

educational  system,  effect  of,  131-2, 

185. 

immigration — dangers    of   the    new 
immigration,  etc.,  37-8,41-2, 
44,  50,  52-4,  81-2,  86,  222. 
Housing  of  the  poor  in  New  York,  203. 
Howells,  Mr.  W.  D.— 

Harvard  and  Oxford  undergraduates, 

speech,  comparison   of  English  and 

American  speech,  127. 
Hull  House  Settlement,  Chicago- 
aims  and  methods,  100. 
nursery — Sunday  morning  breakfasts 

for  Italian  women,  116. 
probation  officer  connected  with,  1 10. 
religious  teaching,  App.  III.  p.  248. 
Sunday  entertainments,  99. 

Illiteracy,  extent,  etc.,  121. 


252 


AMERICANS 


Immigration — 

absorption  question — 

absorbent  power  of  the  American 

people,  43-4,  54-5. 
decrease   in    power    inevitable    as 
conditions  assimilated  to  those 
of  older  civilisations,  59. 
exceptions  —  evidences    of   stasis, 

extent  of  danger,  5^~9- 
families  and  individuals,  migration 
by — absorption  facilitated,  51. 
gravity  of  the  problem — increasing 
doubt  as  to  capacity  of  America 
to  absorb  immigrants,  possible 
loss   of  cohesion   and   homo 
geneity,  37-8,  44,  50,  52-3. 
See  also  sub-heading  Naturalisation, 
adult  males,  proportion  of — effect  on 

voting  strength,  222. 
attitude  of  Americans — 

divided   councils,  but   there   were 

no  expulsionists,  93. 
fear   of  immigration — evidence  of 
despondency     in     regard     to 
future  of  democracy,  18. 
class  and  race  of  immigrants — 

English    or    kindred    stock,    pre 
ponderance  up  to  1850,  25,  35. 
new    immigration,   see    that    sub 
heading. 

country  of  origin,  effect  on,  50. 
illiteracy  among  immigrants,  12 1. 
intermarriage    between     immigrants 
and  native  born  Americans — 
educated  classes,  restriction  to,  187. 
possible  results  of  fusion  of  races — 
qualities  of  mixed  races,  187-8. 
Jews,  see  that  title, 
naturalisation   and    enfranchisement, 
ease  and  speed  in  obtaining,  55. 
danger  of,  81-2,  86,  222. 
justified  so  far  by  results,  222-4. 
motive        underlying       American 

generosity,  49. 

politicians,  interests  of — fraudulent 
naturalisation  papers,  etc.,  55- 
new  immigration  (since  1875),  in 
creased  proportion  from  Latin 
and  Sclavonic  countries,  33, 
36. 

occupations    followed     by    immi 
grants,  36. 


Immigration — continued. 
new  immigration — continued. 

physique  and  character  —  inferior 

type,  38-40. 
statistics  from  New  York  schools 

and  lunatic  asylums,  40-1. 
political     capacity,     absence     of, 
tendency     to     socialism     and 
anarchism,  41-2. 
elective  despotism,  contributing 

cause  of,  42. 

social     stratification     and    federal 
union  of  races  and  civilisations 
— resulting  tendencies,  37. 
numbers  of  immigrants,  proportion  to 

native  born  population — 
annual  immigration,  proportion  to 

native  population,  51. 
natural  increase   of  population  in 
relation  to  immigration,  33-5. 
Oriental  immigration,  91-3. 
racial   prejudice,  see   that   title,  also 

Jews. 

reactive  influence  on  native  Ameri 
cans,  3. 

social  Settlement  work,  see  that  title. 
Socialism — 

immigrants  as  recruits,  41-2,  221. 
patriotism  and  socialism,  effect  of 
American    conditions   on   the 
Socialist       immigrant,      225, 

234-7-.  . 

statistics — revision  needed,  51. 
Indians — decline  in  importance,  change 
in       application       of      term 
"native,"  31. 

"Intellectuals"    and    socialism,     228, 
231. 

Japanese  -  Korean   Exclusion    League, 

92. 

Jews — Russian  Jews  of  New  York,  etc. — 
arts,  sciences  and  professions,  emin 
ence  in,  182-3. 

ability  of  Jewish,  especially  Russian 
Jewish  students,  in  colleges  and 
universities,  187. 

de-Judaisation  and  demoralisation  of 
young  Jews  in  American 
environment,  conditions  of 
material  success  inimical  to 
Judaism,  66-9,  72-3,  113. 


INDEX 


253 


ews — Russian  Jews  of  New  York,  etc^ 

— continued. 

abseaisation — continued. 

nee  of  substitute  for  abandoned 
religion  and  morality,  77-8. 

better  informed  Jews,   refusal  to 
emigrate  to  America,  69. 

extent  of— limited  extent,  80,  183. 

Goethe's   Faust,  analogy  afforded 

by,  73-4- 

instance  in  a  Boston  Jewish  home, 
75-6. 

marriage,   age  of,   effect    of  con 
ditions  in  America,  76-7. 

redintegration      of     Judaism      in 
America,  prospects  of,  74- 

Yiddish  plays,  evidence  of,  65-7, 

70-1. 

material  well-being  in  America,  71-2. 
number  of — 

proportion  to  total   population   of 
America,  64. 

Russian  Jews,  proportion  to  total 
population  of  New  York,  63, 

65- 

object  of  immigration,  For  the 
Children's  Sake,  65-6. 

race  prejudice  and  social  antipathy, 

evils  of,  82-5,  184. 
character    of    victims,    effect    on, 

82. 

colleges  and  universities,  work  in 
dissipating  prejudice,  184-7. 

representative  Jew,  moneylender  and 
financier  replaced  by  scholar 
and  teacher,  182. 

Russian  Pale,  conditions  of  existence 
in,  63-4. 

Spanish-American    War,    volunteers 

for,  54. 

Juvenile  Court — probation  officers  resi 
dent  in  Social  Settlements,  1 1  o. 

Kuczynski,  Mr.  R.  R.  —  decline  in 
native  population  of  Massa 
chusetts,  42. 

Language,  see  Speech. 

Legal  ethics,  neglect  of,  in  universities, 
209-10. 

Liberty  and  equality,  comparative  im 
portance  attached  to,  132. 


Literature— educational  causes  of  differ 
ent  characteristics  of  American 
and  English  literature,  differ 
ences  in  educational  methods, 
134. 

Loch,  Mr.  C.  S. — initiation  of  courses  of 
social  training  in  England,  112. 

Manners — 

comparison  with  Europe  and  British 

colonies  —  less    courtesy    but 

more      inclusive      politeness, 

26-7. 

personality   rather   than   rank,    etc., 

deference  to,  26-7,  47-8. 
prejudice  against  Englishmen,  origin, 

present  extent,  etc. ,  26,  28. 
Marxian  Socialism,  215-6. 
Massachusetts — 

elective    despotism  —  State    prisons' 

instance,  20. 

native  population,  decline  in,  43. 
pure   democracy   in    action — "town 
meeting"  at  Wellesley  Hills, 
19. 
Materialism,  charge  of — reply  to  charge, 

7-1 1. 
Millionaires — 

education  and  charity,  gifts  to,  attitude 
of  recipients  and  public,  212, 
230. 

number  of,  207. 

presumptions  against — not  unjusti 
fied,  211-4. 

Miinsterberg,  Professor  —  American 
degrees,  161. 

National  temper  and  character — 

Anglo-Saxon  spirit,  preponderance, 
23-6,  231-3. 

bragging  and  boosting,  1 1-5.  **-"•'' 

climate  and  physical  environment, 
effect  on  character,  22,  24. 

colleges  and  universities,  effect  of, 
see  that  title. 

compassion  or  justice  —  American 
contributions  in  time  of 
Russian  famine,  46-8. 

difficult  to  know  Americans,  accessi 
bility  counterbalanced  by 
reserve,  2-4. 

materialism,  charge  of — reply,  J-n. 


254 


AMERICANS 


National  temper  and  character  —  contd. 

mediocrity  triumphant  but  the  average 
had  risen,  8. 

present  mood  —  defect  rather  than 
excess  of  confidence,  15-6. 

Puritan  ideals,  persistence  of,  9-n.y 

toleration  and  charity  in  ecclesiastical 
matters,  root  of  —  was  the 
American  tolerant  because  he 
had  no  deep  convictions? 


traditional  estimate  —  ignorance  shown 
,      by  foreigners  and  by  Americans 

of  each  other,  4-7. 
virility,    moral    independence,    etc., 
lack  of  —  causes,   141-2,   145- 
8,  App.  II.  pp.  246-8. 
Native  —  change   in   meaning   of  term, 

30-1. 
Negro  problem  — 

middle  states,  attitude  of,  90. 
mixed    parentage,    offspring    of,    in 

clusion  with  negroes,  90-1. 

Southern  States,  white   immigration 

—  danger    of    clash    between 

immigrants  and  negroes,  86-7. 

north    and    south,    attitude    of  — 

Atlanta  riots,  etc.,  87-90. 
New  England  States  — 
education  in  1649,  119-20. 
See  also  Massachusetts. 
New  York  — 

housing  of  the  poor,  203. 

Jews,  see  that  title. 

polygenous  New  York  —  acute  form  of 

immigration  problem,  61-2. 
New  York  State  —  legislative  control  of 
colleges  and  universities,  159. 
New  York  University  Settlement  — 
religious  studies,  religious   influence 
of  Warden,  App.  III.  p.  248. 
Sunday   and   Sabbath    programmes, 

98-9. 

Newcombe,    Professor   Simon  —  motive 
of  the  athlete,  172. 

Oklahoma,  State  of  —  constitution,  174 
Oriental  immigration  problem,  91-3. 

Paternalism  —  growing  tendency,  136. 
Personality,    deference   paid   to,   26-7 
47-8. 


Physical  environment,  effect  on  char 
acter,  22,  24. 
Politicians  and  aliens,  55,  86. 
Population,  native  born  and  immigrant, 

see  Birth-rate. 
Poverty — 

dress  not  a  criterion,  202—3. 

habit  of  mind  of  poverty  in  America, 

205-6. 

income  of  wage  earners,  204. 
number     of     paupers,     number     of 
children    and    women    wage 
earners,  204. 

professional  class,  poverty  of,  204. 
tuberculosis,  prevalence  of,  205. 
Press,  freedom  of,  20. 
Princeton  University — campaign  against 

fraternities,  198-9. 
Professional  classes,  poverty  of,  204. 
Pronunciation,  see  Speech. 
Puritan  ideals,  persistence  of,  9-11. 

Race- 
original  English  settlers,  number  of 

descendants,  32-3. 
preponderance  of  English  stock  up  to 

1850,  25,  35. 

type  in  process  of  evolution,  138. 
Racial  prejudice — 
anti-democratic,  85-6. 
colleges  and  universities,  work  of,  in 

dissipating   prejudice — service 

to  the  nation,  184-7. 
common  to  English  and  Americans, 

79- 

Jews,  see  that  title. 

Negro  problem,  86-91. 

Oriental  immigration,  91-3. 
Red  Star  Line — emigration  agents,  39. 
Religion — 

social  condition,  effect  on  creed,  214. 

socialist  ideals,  238-9. 
Religious  education — 

absence     from    National    Schools — 
educational  fallacies  involved, 
.  149-50. 

colonial  days,  provision  in,  152. 

"moral  values"   of  secular  studies, 

153-4- 

social  settlements,  see  that  title, 
teachers,  indirect  religious   influence 
exercised  by  majority,  150-1. 


INDEX 


255 


Rhodes'  scholars — 

advantage  to  Oxford  at  the  present 

time,  161. 

university  reform  in  America,  assist 
ance  looked  for  from  Rhodes' 
scholars,  200. 

Riddell,  Mr.  Joseph — probation  officer 
connected  with  Hull   House, 
no. 
Roosevelt,  President — 

fault   as  a   denouncer    of  men    and 

measures,  App.  II.  p.  247. 
"law-honesty"     in    money-making, 

207. 

Trusts  and  the  Bar,  209. 
Root,  Mr.  Elihu — 

future  of  democracy,  22. 
States'  rights  and  the  Central  Govern 
ment,  53. 

Schools,  see  Education. 
Self-confidence,  lack  of,  16. 
Slang- 
comparative  merits  of  American  and 
English  slang,  125. 

education  as  defence  against  foolish 
or  vulgar  slang,  126. 

greater  toleration  of  in  America  than 

in  England,  126,  129. 
Social    condition,    effect    on    religious 

creed,  214-5. 

Social  distinctions,  origin  of,  223. 
Social  Settlement  work   among  immi 
grants,  etc. — 

common  life  of  neighbourhood,  close 
and  equal  relationship  with, 
comparison  with  English 
Settlements,  116-7. 

education  —  academic  methods  still 
too  prevalent  but  the  Settle 
ments  were  rapidly  adapting 
themselves  —  instances,  114- 
116. 

entertainments,  especially  dancing, 
reasons  for  prominence  of, 
1 12-4. 

federation  movement,  108. 

formula  pledging  to  allegiance  to  the 
American  flag  in  use  by 
Education  Alliance,  96. 

individual  and  corporation,  work  of, 
97- 


Social  Settlement  work,  etc. — continued. 
irreligion,  charge  of — 

exclusion  of  religious  elements  did 
not  exclude  the  possibility  of  a 
middle  course,  98-101. 
refutation  of  charge,  103-5. 
religious  studies  and  services,  App. 

III.  p.  248. 
leaders  of  the   movement   and  their 

influence,  105-7. 
motive,  48. 
municipal  work,  failure  to  take  direct 

part  in,  109. 

number  of  Settlements,  117. 
plan  and  scope,  94-7,  118. 
public  affairs,  influence  of  residents 
in,  larger  opportunity  afforded 
by  a  non- professional   public 
service,  109-10. 
residents — 

classes  of,  general  atmosphere   of 

settlements,  102-4. 
qualifications      of      the      average 

resident,  109. 
salaried    workers,    proportion    of, 

success  of  system,  in. 
training  —  courses     of     study     at 
colleges  and  universities,  1 1 1-2. 
Socialism — 

author's  confession  of  faith,  216-8. 
character  of  existing   Socialism,  de 
mands  of  Socialists,  etc.,  231- 
40. 

religious  and  moral  ideals,  238-9. 
class  distinctions   that  would  result, 
equality  and  liberty  incompat 
ible  with  socialism,  224-6. 
colleges  and  universities — 

disqualifications   of    socialist    pro 
fessors,  228-9. 

illegitimate  considerations  sus 
pected  to  influence  anti- 
socialistic  professors,  230-1. 
corruption,  political  corruption  — 
influence  against  the  spread  of 
Socialism,  238. 

democracy  and  capitalism,  condi 
tions  favouring  development 
of  Socialism  —  contradiction 
offered  by  the  American  demo 
cracy  if  the  author's  conclu 
sions  were  just,  2 1 6,  219. 


256 


AMERICANS 


Socialism — continued. 

economic  conditions  favourable  to 
Socialism,  225. 

immigrants,  recruiting  ground  pro 
vided  by,  41-2,  221-2. 

"  intellectuals,"  influence  of — preven 
tion  of  class  strife,  231. 

Marxian  Socialism,  215-6. 

native  born  leaders,  lack  of — 
"intellectuals"  claimed  as 
Socialists,  226-8. 

patriotism  and  Socialism,  effect  of 
American  conditions  on  the 
socialist  immigrant,  234-7. 

prospects  of,  221. 

State  socialism,  possible  danger  of, 
241. 

strength  at  the  polls,  220-1. 
Sohrab  and    Rustum  —  illustration    of 
American     attitude     towards 
England,  28. 
Sombart,    Herr — American    Socialism, 

237- 

Southern  States — 
education,  120. 
Negro  problem,  86-90. 
Spanish- American  War — Jewish  volun 
teers,  54. 
Speech — comparative  merits  of  English 

and  American  speech — 
accuracy,    equally   rare    in   England 

and  America,  125. 
author's     qualifications     to     decide, 

123-4. 
average  speech  the  only  just  medium 

of  comparison,  127. 
foreign    influences,   effect    of,    128- 

9- 

slang,  125-6,  129. 
voice  and  pronunciation,  127-8. 
States  and  groups   of  states,  relations 

between,  6. 
States'  rights — abandonment  of  claim, 

53- 

Steamship  Companies,  exploitation  of 
emigration  business,  39-40. 

Stokes,  Mr. — relations  with  the  Settle 
ment  movement,  106. 

Sunday  Schools,  work  and  prospects 
of,  155-8. 


Tardz,   M.  —  extract    from    Les    Lois 

limitation,  158. 

Traditional  estimate  of  American  char 
acter,  4. 

Travelling — convenience  and  comfort,  I. 
Trusts- 
individualism,  elimination  of,  analo 
gous    results    of    trusts    and 
Socialism,  209. 

legal  position — Supreme  Court  judg 
ment  in  Dartmouth  College 
case,  208. 

legal  skill,  use  made  of,  209. 
Tuberculosis,  205. 

Voice — comparison   of  American    and 
English  voice,  127. 


Walker,  Dr.  Francis   A. — exploitation 

of  emigration,  39. 

Washington,      Booker      T.  —  alliance 
between  negro  and  his  former 
masters,  89. 
Wealth- 
concentration  of,  207. 
diffusion    of    wealth,     increase     in, 

233-4- 
predatory  wealth — 

"law  honesty"  in  money-making 
covering  what  would  elsewhere 
be  treated  as  crimes,  207. 
See  also  Trusts  and  Millionaires. 
Williams    College — religious    exercises 

fifty  years  ago,  152. 
Wilson,  President — reforms  at  Princeton 

University,  198. 
Wisconsin    University — introduction  of 

residential  colleges,  199. 
Woods,    Mr.    Robert   A.— Warden   of 
South  End  House  in  Boston — 
motive  of  social  service,  48. 
religious  feeling — sources,  105. 
Social   Settlement   movement,  influ 
ence  on,  106. 

Yale     University  —  neglect     of     legal 
ethics,  210. 

Zangwill,  Mr. — elders  in  Israel,  hatred 
of  America,  68. 


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The  Evening  Standard  says  :  "  This  delightful  series  of  eclogues." 

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FROM  MR.  MELROSES  CATALOGUE. 


EDITION   DE  LUXE. 


MEN    OF   THE    COVENANT. 

By  ALEXANDER  SMELLIE,   D.D. 

This  Edition  of  Dr.  Smellie's  well-known  book  is  in  some  respects 
a  new  work.  It  has  been  thoroughly  revised,  in  large  part  re-written, 
and  the  author  has  added  new  chapters.  Forty-eight  spirited  and  careful 
drawings  have  been  specially  prepared  by  A.  Scott  Rankin  and  E.  A.  Pike. 
These  Illustrations  are  printed  on  Japanese  Vellum,  and  form  an  important 
and  attractive  feature  of  the  work. 

The  Edition  is  limited  to  920  numbered  copies  and  the  type  has  been 
distributed.  Every  copy  is  signed  by  the  author.  Only  850  copies  are 
offered  to  the  public,  the  remainder  being  reserved  for  press  purposes  and 
the  author ;  each  copy  is  numbered. 

The  work  is  in  Two  Volumes,  full  crown  quarto,  bound  in  maroon  buck 
ram,  with  rough-trimmed  fore-edges  and  gilt  top,  price  £1,  11s.  6d.  net. 

The  Glasgow  Herald  says:  "Dr.  Smellie's  prose  epic  was  thoroughly 
worthy  of  the  honour  of  an  Edition  de  Luxe,  and  these  volumes  are  not  less 
worthy  embodiments  of  his  narrative." 

The  Scottish  Review  says :  ' '  Dr.  Smellie  has  given  us  a  book  which  will 
live,  and  in  this  handsome  form  it  ought  to  find  a  place  on  the  shelves  of 
every  student  of  covenanting  literature." 

The  Daily  Telegraph  says  :  ' '  Alexander  Smellie  is  to  be  congratulated  on 
the  care  and  taste  which  his  publishers  have  bestowed  upon  the  production  of 
this  very  handsome  Edition  de  Luxe.  .  .  .  These  volumes  afford  a  notable 
example  of  the  perfection  of  modern  book-making." 

The  Birmingham  Post  says :  ' '  Dr.  Alexander  Smellie's  '  Men  of  the 
Covenant'  has  obtained  the  honour  which  sooner  or  later  befalls  all  honest, 
painstaking  literature  with  the  indefinable  charm  of  style — the  honour  of  an 
Edition  de  Luxe.  The  publisher,  Mr.  Andrew  Melrose,  now  presents  the 
achievement  in  two  stately  volumes.  .  .  .  Happy  the  private  citizen  who  can 
afford  to  possess  himself  of  the  set ;  ill-furnished  the  public  library  where  the 
volumes  are  not  to  be  borrowed." 

The  Western  Mercury  says:  "This  new  Edition  of  Dr.  Smellie's  most 
valuable  work  on  the  Covenanters  will  give  tremendous  pleasure  both  to  the 
historical  student  and  to  the  lover  of  fine  books.  .  .  .  The  publishers  have 
done  their  part  to  admiration." 

ANDREW  MELROSE,  3  York  St,,Covent  Garden,  London,  W.C. 


FROM  MR.   MELROSES  LIST, 


NOVELS    AT    6s. 

The  25O  Guineas  Prize  Novel. 

THE    FAITH    OF    HIS   FATHERS. 

By  A.  E.  JACOMB.  This  fine  and  powerful  study  of  tragedy  following 
upon  rigid  adherence  to  a  narrow  creed,  was  selected  by  Mr.  ANDREW 
LANG,  Mr.  W.  L.  COURTNEY,  and  Mr.  CLEMENT  K.  SHORTER  as 
the  winner  of  the  prize  in  Mr.  MELROSE'S  First  Novel  Competition  of 
last  year. 

The  Westminster  Gazette  finishes  a  highly  appreciative  review  as  follows  : — "Alone 
in  the  wreck  of  his  family  and  home  ...  he  (the  hero)  stands  with  uplifted  head. 
'  What  shall  a  man  give  in  exchange  for  his  soul?  I've  kept  mine  alive.  ...  I  followed 
the  truth,  and  I  thank  Him  I  had  strength.1  It  is  the  cry  of  the  individual  as  against  the 
universal.  It  is  a  point  of  view  which  has  sustained  and  strengthened  many,  that  has 
moved  _men  to  great  deeds.  That  it  is  not  for  all  is  perhaps  as  well ;  but  Miss  Jacomb 
has  painted  it  in  tragic  splendour,  while  maintaining  all  our  sympathies  for  those  who 
were  crushed  under  the  Juggernaut." 

THE    PILGRIMS'   MARCH. 

By  H.  H.  BASHFORD,  Author  of  "A  Trail  Together." 

The  Times  says  :  "  This  is  a  clever  book  and,  what  is  rarer  in  these  days,  a  human 
and  moving  story." 

The  Morning  Post  says  :  "  He  has  a  wistful  humour  which  makes  him  treat  of  things 
in  the  spirit  of  comedy,  but  behind  this  power,  or  because  of  it,  we  seem  to  hear  '  the 
everlasting  minute  of  creation.'  " 

The  Dundee  Advertiser  says:  "The  novel  is  much  more  than  an  attractive  and 
well-developed  story  written  with  literary  effect ;  it  is  also,  and  even  principally,  a  far- 
reaching  and  heartening  philosophy  of  the  everyday  world,  glistening  at  times  with  tears, 
anon  moved  with  smiles,  and  here  and  there  noisy  with  laughter,  or  shadowed  by  the 
solemnity  that  finds  an  excuse  in  religion." 

A  COMEDY  OF  AMBITION. 

By  A.  GOWANS  WHYTE.  Mr.  ANDREW  LANG,  Mr.  W.  L. 
COURTNEY,  and  Mr.  CLEMENT  SHORTER  gave  second  place  to  the 
above  Novel  in  the  250  Guineas  First  Novel  Competition  in  which 
these  front-rank  critics  acted  as  adjudicators. 

The  reader  who  selected  the  final  list  of  MSS  to  be  submitted  to 
the  judges,  has  made  the  following  report  to  the  publisher  : 

"'A  Comedy  of  Ambition'  while  it  failed  to  get  the  prize,  is  of  such  dis 
tinguished  literary  and  dramatic  merit,  that  its  discovery  alone  would  have 
justified  the  Competition.  It  is  a  novel  that  is  bound  to  command  attention." 

LOVE   AND    BATTLES. 

By  FRANK  SIDGWICK.  This  novel  was  included  in  the  selected  short 
list  of  novels  submitted  to  Messrs.  LANG,  COURTNEY,  and  SHORTER 
in  the  First  Novel  Competition,  and  took  a  third  place. 

ANDREW  MELR08E,  3  York  St.,Covent  Garden,  London,  W.C. 


14  DAY  USE 

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