no power to weld them nationally, instead of uniformity so striking as to force itself upon the acute observer, diversity would be the most salient characteristic. Mr. Bryce would have been as much impressed by their dissimilarity as he must have been by the difference between Englishmen and Frenchmen when for the first time he crossed the twenty miles of open water that separates England from France. But in America, although three thousand miles had to be spanned between East and West, he found a people who in their essential characteristics were in all things the same, whose civilization had absorbed into itself that of the foreigner instead of having been modified by foreign influence.

A constant effort is made to have it appear that the civilization of America is like unto a desert, the sands of which are the foreign element, with here and there an oasis, which is the "native" or "American" element; and that the oasis is continually in danger of being engulfed by the ever-increasing sand. It would, I think, be more correct if the simile were reversed. In some of the Western states there are great stretches of desert land, valueless and incapable of supporting life, an alien and rebellious element in a land of peculiar bounty. This may be likened, although the comparison is extreme, to the newly arrived immigrant. These worthless arid lands are brought under control and become productive by artificial irrigation, and the desert, now made tractable, takes on the character of the land

in more favored regions and performs its useful part in the American economy. The bringing under cultivation of the desert is analogous to the physical process that is constantly in progress in the mental and racial assimilation of the immigrant. The desert does not encroach on the farm or the city; the farm and the city are projected into the desert; daily there is less desert and more farms. Similarly we do not see the alien submerging the American or pulling down his civilization. He is the desert to be reclaimed, and he is reclaimed. In a few years the desert has lost all traces of its origin and makes excellent farming-land, frequently better than any other, for it is one of the peculiarities of these arid lands that they need only water to yield phenomenally. So with the human desert, the alien. Alien he was, but fertilized by the influences of American civilization his character has been changed; he has become as much assimilated with America as the once desert land has been transformed and incorporated into the productive land of the nation.

As far back as 1782, St. John Crèvecœur, a land cultivator in New York, and later French consul in New York City, observed the phenomenon never absent in America of the melting process of race. Remarking that the Americans are a "mixture of English, Scotch, Irish, French, Dutch, Germans, and Swedes," he thus explains the welding of these diverse nationalities into the American: "He is either an European, or the descendant of an Euro

pean, hence that strange mixture of blood, which you will find in no other country. I could point out to you a family whose grandfather was an Englishman, whose wife was Dutch, whose son married a Frenchwoman, and whose present four sons have now four wives of different nations. He is an American, who, leaving behind him all his ancient prejudices and manners, receives new ones from the new mode of life he has embraced, the new government he obeys, and the new rank he holds. He becomes an American by being received in the broad lap of our great Alma Mater. Here individuals of all races are melted into a new race of men, whose labors and posterity will one day cause great changes in the world. . . . The Americans were once scattered all over Europe; here they are incorporated into one of the finest systems of population which has ever appeared, and which will hereafter become distinct by the power of the different climates they inhabit."1

From 1782 to 1909 is a far cry, as far as from St. John Crèvecœur to the anonymous editorial writer of the daily newspaper. The Frenchman was able to see what would happen, the American has seen the prediction verified. Discussing the "Effects of Immigration" the Washington Post says:2

That each race brings its influence is not to be denied, but it would seem that the genius of the nation proves 1 Crèvecœur: Letters from an American Farmer, p. 48 et seq. * August 23, 1909.

too powerful. The newcomers apparently imbibe a new spirit and the old customs and prejudices insensibly melt away. Within three generations, or even less, the controlling stamp of a foreign ancestry, dominant for ages, has been known to disappear. English, German, and French forget their antipathies. They commingle and intermarry, and soon there is posterity that is none of these, but altogether American.

Even among the nationalities that keep the blood unaltered, the character of the social life and the trend of thought are soon affected. The Jews may be cited as an instance. Uninfluenced for centuries by contact with the people of other countries, they have not so well withstood the breadth of the American spirit and its modifying effects, and the old orthodox generation, strict in its observances, stands aghast at the enthusiasm with which the new generation adopts the free manners of the country, ignoring those exclusive barriers which the race itself has set.

Should an attempt be made to stem this tide of immigration, who would be the "Americans" to lead in the movement? It could not be other than amusing to trace their ancestry. Whatever their origin, all would be alike in their patriotism.

Mr. Burbank has said that man is not able to prescribe for the development of a race. This is true, but man can indicate the path along which that development will lie. Let us see what man has done in America to prevent a reversion to original types, to secure the stability of the new type, and to make an American Nation.

CHAPTER XII

THE CONSTITUTION

A MONUMENTAL episode in the world's history the American Constitution. Never was there anything like it except when the lawgiver delivered to his people the Ten Commandments, which, like the American Constitution, was not only a code of civil law but a moral code; the precepts of life for a nation; its material as well as spiritual guidance. The American Constitution changed the whole thought of mankind; it affected all the world; it introduced a new system of political philosophy; it gave to man, the individual, a dignity he had not before possessed; it re-created the relations between the individual and society; "humanity stands forth in more grandeur and power."1

Excessive and extravagant praise this, it may be said, and yet a philosophical examination of the Constitution and the results that have flowed from it will sustain this view. The history of mankind is a struggle for liberty and equality. From the time that there were men to teach and to preach,

1 "In America the leading principle of constitutional liberty has from the first been, that the sovereignty reposed in the people.” ― Cooley: General Principles of Constitutional Law, p. 23.