if I were American-born, and, of course, I was left dangling
in the air, with no conception of what I was trying to do.

My father worked with me evening after evening; I plunged my young mind
deep into the bewildering confusions of the language--and no one
realizes the confusions of the English language as does the
foreign-born--and got what I could through these joint efforts. But I
gained nothing from the much-vaunted public-school system which the
United States had borrowed from my own country, and then had rendered
incompetent--either by a sheer disregard for the thoroughness that
makes the Dutch public schools the admiration of the world, or by too
close a regard for politics.

Thus, in her most important institution to the foreign-born, America
fell short. And while I am ready to believe that the public school may
have increased in efficiency since that day, it is, indeed, a question
for the American to ponder, just how far the system is efficient for
the education of the child who comes to its school without a knowledge
of the first word in the English language. Without a detailed
knowledge of the subject, I know enough of conditions in the average
public school to-day to warrant at least the suspicion that Americans
would not be particularly proud of the system, and of what it gives for
which annually they pay millions of dollars in taxes.

I am aware in making this statement that I shall be met with convincing
instances of intelligent effort being made with the foreign-born
children in special classes. No one has a higher respect for those
efforts than I have--few, other than educators, know of them better
than I do, since I did not make my five-year study of the American
public school system for naught. But I am not referring to the
exceptional instance here and there. I merely ask of the American,
interested as he is or should be in the Americanization of the
strangers within his gates, how far the public school system, as a
whole, urban and rural, adapts itself, with any true efficiency, to the
foreign-born child. I venture to color his opinion in no wise; I
simply ask that he will inquire and ascertain for himself, as he should
do if he is interested in the future welfare of his country and his
institutions; for what happens in America in the years to come depends,
in large measure, on what is happening to-day in the public schools of
this country.

As a Dutch boy I was taught a wholesome res