do,' Many parents have learned good English in order
to escape being laughed at or despised by their children."[87]

[Sidenote: The Young American]

The language is not classic, but it is that of real life such as these
children have to endure. The rapidity with which foreigners become
Americanized is illustrated, said Dr. Charles B. Spahr, by the
experience of a gentleman in Boston. In his philanthropic work he had
gotten quite a hold on the Italian population. A small boy once asked
him: "Are you a Protestant?" He said "Yes," and the boy seemed
disappointed. But presently he brightened up and said, "You are an
American, aren't you?" "Yes." "So am I!" with satisfaction. Children
become American to the extent that they do not like to have it known
that they have foreign parents. One little girl of German parentage said
of her teacher: "She's a lady--she can't speak German at all." Where
assimilation is slow, it is quite as likely to be the fault of the
natives as of the immigrants, much more likely, indeed. How can he learn
American ways who is carefully and rudely excluded from them? We build a
Chinese wall of exclusiveness around ourselves, our churches, and
communities, and then blame the foreigner for not forcing his way
within.

In a thoughtful treatment of this whole subject, Mr. Sidney Sampson
says:[88]

[Sidenote: The Real Question]

"It has become a pressing and anxious question whether American
institutions, with all their flexibility and their facility of
application to new social conditions, will continue to endure the strain
put upon them by the rapid and ceaseless introduction of foreign
elements, unused, and wholly unused in great measure, to a system of
government radically differing from that under which they have been
educated. Can these diverse elements be brought to work in harmony with
the American Idea? The centuries of subjection to absolutism, or even
despotism, to which the ancestors of many of the immigrant classes have
been accustomed, has formed a type of political character which cannot,
except after long training, be brought into an understanding of, and
sympathy with, republican principles. This is by far the most important
aspect of the question, much more so than questions of industrial
competition."

If the republic will not ultimately endure harm, he believes industrial
questions will slowly but surely right themselves; if otherwise, none
even of the wisest can foresee the res