ate their conception of the
rights of men in a democracy. Neither party to the contest understood
the other, and each one felt himself to be on the defensive. Neither one
would have confessed himself the aggressor, and yet each one was
invading the supposed rights of the other. Judicial consideration could
readily have averted the whole distressing affair.

=Foreign concept of democracy.=--The foreigners had come to our country
with roseate dreams of democracy. To their conception, this is the land
where every man is the equal of every other man; where equal rights and
privileges are vouchsafed to all men without regard to nationality,
position, or possessions; where there is no faintest hint of the caste
system; and where there are no possible lines of demarcation. Their
disillusionment on that train was swift and severe, and the observer
could not but wonder what was their conception of a democracy as they
walked about the streets of the city or gave attention to their bruised
faces. Their dreams of freedom and equal rights must have seemed a
mockery. They must have felt that they had been lured into a trap by
some agency of cruelty and injustice. After such an experience they must
have been unspeakably homesick for their native land.

="Melting pot."=--Their primary trouble arose from the fact that they
had not yet achieved democracy, but had only a hazy theoretical
conception of its true meaning. Nor did the conductor give them any
assistance. On the contrary he pushed them farther away into the realm
of theory, and rendered them less susceptible to the influence of the
feeling for democracy. Before these foreigners can become thoroughly
assimilated they must know this feeling by experience; and until this
experience is theirs they cannot live comfortably or harmoniously in our
democracy. To do this effectively is one of the large tasks that
confront the American school and society as a whole. If we fail here,
the glory of democracy will be dimmed. All Americans share equally in
the responsibility of this task. The school, of course, must assume its
full share of this responsibility if it would fully deserve the name of
melting pot.

=Learning democracy.=--Meeting this responsibility worthily is not the
simple thing that many seem to conceive it to be. If it were, then any
discussion appertaining to the teaching of democracy would be
superfluous. This subject of democracy is, in fact, the most difficult
subject w