Evening Star Newspaper, May 28, 1922, Page 41

NATIONAL EDITORIAL PAGE SPECIAL ARTICLES - PROBLEMS ~__EDITO R IAL SECTION Part 2—12 Pages 'AIM IS TO HELF ALIENS TO BECOME U. S. CITIZENS Central Organization in Washington Pro- posed, the Work of Which Would Be Supported by Registration Fees. BY ‘6. GOULD LINCOLS. YPHENATED. Americans were closed when the war came on is to be eliminated. not popular in this country |'Welsh Are Most Enger during the war. either an Amerlcan or he was not an American. When the selective draft law became effective and mil- A man was | To Become Americans. highest percentage of natyralized American citizens among their for- lions of young men were drawn into |ejgn born, Wales stands at the top. the military service of the country it |with 74.4 per cent naturalized and was found that thousands upon thou- sands- of aliens living in the United States—many of them having lived here for years—could not speak or read or write American—English, as it is commonly called. America had ceased, it seemed, to function” as a “melting pot” or'at Jeast it was functioning badly. The demand for “Americanization” of all the aliens within the borders of the country, and of the countless thou- sands who will come here in the fu- ture, was insistent. Americanization classes were established in the pub- lic schools. Various organizations and institutions undertook to aid in the work, and it has been pressed in various ways and in various degrees in different parts of the country ever since the war. To Federal Superv The administration, however. has reached’ the conclusion that the ef- forts to Americanize the aliens with- in the borders of the country should have the aid fo the powerful federal government; that for greater effi- ciency in carrying on this most im- portant work, there should be some central organization. The ideas of the administration have been embod- ied in a bill, and this bill has been Introduced in the Senate by Senator Shortridge of California, republican, and is now before the Senate com- mittee on immigration. The proposal of the administration, however. had scarcely taken definite form before there was a burst of criticism from radicals and from per- sons who perhaps were not fully in- formed in regard to the proposals. It was charged that the proposed law established a kind of esplonage over the aliens in this country, repugnant to the principles of America. Of course, the anarchistically inclined ‘were up in arms against the measure. i The bill is comprehensive. It not Of the ten nationalities having the‘ 25.6 per ocent unnatutalized. Ger- many stands next, with 73.6 per cent naturalized and 26.4 per cent unnatus ralized. The others in order are Luxemburg. Denmark, Sweden, Nor- way, Ireland, England, Scotland and Canada (other than French), the last having 61.7 per cent naturalized and 38.3 per cent unnaturalized. If this showing is not good, what then is the showing made by, na- tionalities having the idwest per cent of naturalization ong their for- eign born here? Mexico, for instance, has 5.5 per cent naturalized and 94.5 'er cent unnaturalized: Albania, 7.3 Per cent naturalized and 92.7 per cent unnaturalizéd; Spain, 10.7 per cent naturalized and $9.3 per cent unnatu- ralized; Bulgaria, 11.7 per cent naturalized and 88.3 per cent un- naturalized; Greece, 17.4 per cent naturalized and 826 per cent un- naturalized, and so on down the line. Proposed to Establish Bureau of Citizenship. The proposed new law known as the is to be “naturalization and registration act.” It provides for the establishment of a “bureau of citi- zenship,” a bureau in the Department of Labor, under a “director of cltizen- ship.” to be appointed by the Preki- dent and confirmed by the ' Senate. The duties of this bureau shall be to promote the welfare of the foreign born in the United States and admin- ister the uniform rule of naturaliza- tion. The bill gives especial attention to the registration and education of aliens. Before an immigrant comes to the United States we must first obtain from a consular officer of the United States a certificate of regis-- tration. A wife and minor children may be included in the husband and father’s certificate. This certificate is to give a kind bf history of the immigrant. No fee is charged for it. The certificate must be examined only provides a uniform rule of natu- ralization, but it also amends and codifles the laws relating to the ac- quisition and loss of citizenship in this country; it equalizes the citizen- ship status of men agnd women; it es- tablishes a method for the registra- fion of allens “for their better guid- ance, education and protection.” 9 L Legislation Has Backing ©Of Seeretary of Labor. Secretary James J. Davis of the De- partment of Labor, under whose jurisdiction the enforcement of the proposed law would come, is a strong believer in the advisability of the legislation. In this connection it is interesting to remember that the Secretary himself came to America as an immigrant. He came to this coun- try when he was eight years old, from Wales, with his mother and four thers and a sister. His father had already preceded them to the land of promise, and had sent back for the rest of the family. He still distinctly remembers, he says, the confusion’ and the difficulties which faced aliens when they landed in this- country. His desire, he says, is to make it easier and simpler for them, and par- ticularly does he desire to make it possible for them to become Ameri- canized as rapidly as possible and to get the full enjoyment and benefits derived from citizenship in the great republic. The chief necessity in bringing about the Americanization of aliens, the Secretary holds, and so does Sena- tor Shortridge, is to bring about a full understanding of America, it institutions and the principles for which the nation stands. For this a knowledge of the language of the eountry is essential. They must have this knowledge to a considerable ex- tent to become naturalized.” Tables prepared by the Department of Labor show the percentage of naturalized American citizens among the foreign born of various nationalities, and the showing is by no means what it should be, if the bad sitpation—dis- and inddrsed by an immigration of- ficer at the port of entry. No im- migrant may enter the country with- out such a certificate. Registration Provided Each Calendar Year. After the alien is admitted to the country he or she becomes a “regis- terable alien,” and as such must reg- ister with a registrar once -each calendar year, under regulations laid down by the Secretary. The regis trar is to issue to each alien a cer- tificate of registration, making a du- plicate which is to be filed. The certificate will show the age, sex, name. nationality, residence, ability to speak, read or write, etc., sand attached to it must be a photograph of the allen. For such registration fees are to be charged—$24 for any alien who will be over twenty-one years of age at the end of the year, paying in quarterly installments of $6 each. or $20 if paid in the first quar- ter; $10 for any other registrant who will be over eighteen years at the end of the year. Payment of the fee may be deferred in the case of registrants who are financially un- able to meet the payment. Pen- alties are imposed for failure to register, $50 for each year. This registration will apply, of course, to any aliens now in the country, as well as_to the new immigrants. The fees so collected are to be placed in a fund to be known as the “citizenship instruction fund,” and provision is made for the aid of the states In educating the aliens, and also for the establshment of in- stitutions for the care, training and attention of widows and minor chil- dren of deceased aliens, to fit them for citizenship. Under existing con- ditions they are destitute and may be deported. The proposed law also deals with the citizenship of married women. It .provides that marriage shall not of itself confeér citizenship. It also provides that an American woman marrying a foreigner shall not lose her American citizenship. Demand for Money Orders aSure Barometer of Business Outlook ‘Business men, big and little, finan- ciers of influence the country over, have pondered over masses of fig- ures, interviewed hundreds of peo- ple and done numerous other things to determine just when the business depression through which the coun- try passed subsequent to the war would begin to lift. They tried every instrument of commerce to ascertain when the delicate hand would start the upward movement which would show that release of pressure, which would reduce unemployment, start factories on full time, and send the freight trains speeding over the coun- try and to the seaports, there to start the ships overseas. The government has sent experts throughout the country, and the world, .,gathering data and trying to hdtlummhlpulu.nnmld] be first to tell business when to pre-, pare for the upward movement. But in the government printing of- fies here there is a man who can forecast the raising of the mercury in the 7-!-- Barometer with keener T accuracy than any of the bulky nn-l tistical gathering machinery that was ever set to work. And his barometer is_likely to be, and has proven to be, more accurate than any other, be- cause it gets closer to the people, the spenders—the ultimate consumers who must buy before the factories can get up speed. ' Millions of money order blanks are printed by the government printink office each year, and in them the chief of the money order division of the Big government print shop has found the most certain barometer by which business conditions, efther depression or boonis, can be forecasted with greater accuracy than by any other means. Practically every post office in the country has authority to issue and pay money orders. These orders are issued to them “m book form, amé, they must keep a certain number on hand. When they get,down to the low mark they must order more from the Post Office Department, and ln|:,°‘:":,'" turn, when the department's n\unly WASHINGTON, D. O, SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 2, 1922. | Things in Washington in an Awful Mess, According to Views of Weary Statesmen BY N. 0. MESSENGER. ERE'S a state of things; here’s a prétty mess, in this fair capital of -our great republic. Congress, ad- ministration, the plain people, all vexed and perturbed and rubbed the wrong way. President Harding has his 'troubles keeping the fighting roosters in some of the departments from spurring each other; the Senate has to sit up o’ nights with the tariff bill; the House smarts under a lot of unjust criticism from the country; some of tne de- partment heads are under partisan fire; the cook is mad because of that early hour; the children are cross from loss of sleep; the teachers worn out—'most everybody peevish about something or othey. _ B-r-r! It's a sad story, and there is no hope! . <k ok ok K Let’s take up the troubles of the Senate first—and there are enough of them to suf- fice for the chapter, at that. They are all about the tariff bill and the other important legislative measures which are backing up behind it, like water behind a dam. The Senate has had the tariff bill for six weeks, and for more than two weeks that body has been in session eleven hours a day, yet com- paratively little progress has been made in disposing of the 2,000 pending amendments to the bill. . Apd the clock is remorselessly ticking away the hours that make up the days bridg- ing the approach to the congressional cam- paign and the November election. * * Senator Kellogg had the worst case of blues of anybody in the Senate the other day when he predicted that at the rate things are going—or, he may have meant not going —the tariff bill cannot be passed within two vears. Senator Simmons, democrat, was a little more optimistic and thought the bill could be disposed of by the Senate by July, but in the same breath he solemnly warned the majority that plenty of opportunity must be given the minority to expose the iniqui- ties of the measure, as the minority views them. T * * * % Indicative of the feeling of irritation over the delay in action upon the pending amend- ments, Senator McCumber, in charge of the bill, in a semi-serious vein called the atten- tion of the Senate to one instance last Thurs- day. He pointed out that the pending amend- ment was to strike out the word “if,” be- tween two words, as it was superfiuous. “We have been two hours and fifteen min- utes in session this morning,” said Senator McCumber, and we have not succeeded in striking out that word “if.” A glance at the Congressional Record shows that twenty columns of “debate” occurred before “if” went out. < * k ¥ ¥ Along toward the end of the week the senators began to talk of cloture, to limit debate on the tariff bifl. That immediately “got a rise” out of the democrats. They arose in mighty protest, not so much against the geaeral proposition of limiting debate, but because the majority party would apply it to what the democrats termed a strictly party measure,"and to this they objected. Serator Underwood, the minority deader, in unequivocal terms, served notice that while he would discuss, with a favorably in- clined mind, a general proposition for clo- ture at a propitious moment, he would never consent to allow the majority to impose it in connection with a party measure. The Senate already has a form of cloture which can be applied with a two-thirds vote, but the latest proposition contemplated clo- ture by a majority vote. * Lk ok ok Xk Notwithstanding the existence of ground for complaint against extraneous debate in connection with the tariff bill, observers in the Senate declare that there has been a great deal of valuable information contrib- uted upon the many items of the schedule now under consideration. Those who follow the Congressional Record have been struck by the fact that the debate has disclosed that many segators have given close and tech- nical study to many of the items, involving wide research as to industrial conditions in this country, as to imports and cost of production. There can be no question that a number of senators, especially on the democratic side, are burning the midnight oil informing themselves upon technical and statistical facts. When you talk about some of these involved tariff schedules you have to have the facts, or some better-posted senator will be likely to trip you up. ~ * % ¥ Xk The senators manage to get a good deal of dry fun out of the debate as they go salong, however, and especially enjoy turning the talk to the political discomfiture of the other side at every opportunity. If it were not for the danger of being charged with lese ma- jeste, some of the statements could be classed as smdcking strongly of “for home consump- tion only,” but that is to be expected in the or- der of things. Indeed, it is taken for granted to such an exteént that it is seldom rebuked at the time, the auditors allowing it to pass as ~ views An unsophisticated person, reading the speeches, might be torn between the thoughts that the republican tariff makers are all pirates, highbinders, robber barons, second- story workers and porch-climbers, or, that thq democratic revisionists are all concerned with turning the American laboring man aver to the tender mercies of famished Eu- rope and rice-fed ‘Asia, leaving this country to the ultimate fate of cold furnaces, smoke- less chimneys, silent looms and spindles and general dependency upon foreign manufac- turers. * k ¥ % 3 “Oh, consistency, thou art a jewel,” sighed Senator Heflin of Alabama in debate the other day, protesting against the apparént inconsistency of the attitude of some sena- tors on protective rates. It was in the course of a fight for a duty on graphite, where party and sectional lines split up. itrtha! time the Alabama senator, who insisted that he is not a free-trader, but a’tariff-for-reve- nue man, said he had no objection if inci- dental protection were given to labor. Senator McCumber threw a spotlight on the seemingly conflicting attitude of senators on that item. “We fina here among the ar- dent protectionists,” he said, “the senator from Colorado, Mr. Nicholson, asking for a protection of about 100 per cent ad valorem. We find the ardent protectionist from the state of Michigan, Mr. Townsend, demand- ing that the article be placed upon the free list. Here we have a divergence of upon the republican side. We then go to the other side of the cham- ber and find the senator from Ken- tucky, Mr. Stanley, declaring that he would not give a cent of protection to anything in the world, and immediately we hear from the senator from Alabama, Mr. Heflin, who, in the twinkling of an eyé is metamorphised from an ardent free-trader to a protectionist of the deepest dye. When we have these sudden conversions on the other side of the chamber and the divergence of views on this side of the chamber, I think senatbrs can realize some of the difficuities which have beset our path for the past two or three months while we were discussing this ele- ment.” * %k ¥ % Senator Borah, in his incisive way, after listening to it all, made his observation. He allowed “that there is no difference between the republican and the democratic parties on the tariff, just the same as there is practical- ly no difference between the two parties on any other thing—ex®ept that some are in and some are out.” Can such things be? gets low, it must order more from the government printing office. Now, when the people begin to hoard their money and stop spending, the money order business falls off and the postmasters do not need to constantly send in their orders for blanks. When the demand falls off it is immediately noticeable in Wash- ington, and it is seen promptly that there is a depression cloud forming. But on the other hand, When the peo- ple of the country—the people who do the spending—are ready to loosén up, hundreds of thousands of them use the money order. The postmaster’ supply gets low. He orders more. Concentration of the orders in Wash- ington is a sure indication that pros- pertiy is on the upgrade. By this means it even can be determined ‘whether one section of the country is picking up faster than another; for instance, whether the boom is in the farming belts or in the industrial belts. The country has been passing through the post-war depression, and business men, government officials and others have kept their ears glued to the ground to hear the first faint murmur of’returnihg prosperity. Sev- eral months ago, while these people were waiting for these murmurs to register, the chief of the government printing office’s money order division informed the-public printer trat the demand for money orders was steadily increasing. A man of long ex- perience in the government, he also imparted the information that this was an unfailing indication of better business conditions and positive as- surance that the people were prepar- ing again to open up‘their Dpocket- books—that event for which the busi- ness men had been looking for through their intricate statistics- gathering machinery. Tre new pub- lic printer watched, and sure enough, along, came the renewed business wave which opened up factories that had been standing idle, returned to employment men who had been thrown out of work by the closing down, and the money order demand is still increasing. So, if you want a real line on the business trend as indicated by the spending of money by the people, see your local postmaster, and find out from him whethér the issuance orl payment of money orders at his office ! is increasing or diminishing, and you { can gain a beat on the man at Wash- | ington who discovered this sure hu.l-i ness barometer that has never failed to work. H Farm Crops Fail To Keep Up Gain The purchasing power of farm crops for April was unchanged compared with March, while ' the prices of crops and live stock at'the farm improved slightly from March 15 to April 15, the Department of Agriculture announced yesterday. The unchangéd condition was attriputed SpOn increase, in the o drice of odities, excluding farm products and food. a matter of course. Through Antipodean Eyes BY NELLIE MARGARET SCANLAN of Wellington, New Zealand S I bowed my head devoutly in church, my eye lit on a fan on the seat in front. On that fan was the inscription: “This fan is the property of-the church. Please do not abuse or take away.” Common sense in religion! The old idea of having the church beautiful, but uncomfortable, is evidently here yielding to the modern demand for ease. To sit and stew in summer, and not conducive to devotion, nor does it_encourage stragglers into the fold. The hardy Christian will attend whether the seat be hard, the kneeler rough, the temperature a hundred or zero. That was the old way of con- verting the converted. Many American women talk so learnedly it makes my head ‘ache. I am not used to it.. Take one after- noon, and mix into it two aged spinsters, three blonde matrons (plus weight), a temporary widow, and seven club presidents sprinkled with college degrees, and the air instantly -~ §'.\ Leoks hurt when you sugwest that you'll kave a pound of mutten chope. thickens with pyscho-analogy. It Is hen I long for one other simple fool to share some quiet spot, where we can be at peace and talk dbout the price of fish. To- eat 'is to eat in American pariance. “Shall we eat here?' “Will you eat with me?’ This phrase, how- ever, is used mostly in the machine- made business world. You encounter the verbs “to luneh and-‘to dine™ :.,.'? z; im the hand-tucked social sphere. But to eat means to eat. Your consumption’ of food, per head, in the states is about one-third of our! ‘With us it is not a little and often, but a lot and often. I find you can live on less—you have to, at American prices. Some people here are afraid .to have lunch for fear of spolling their dinner; others for ‘kneel and freeze in winter really isifear of ruining their figure. We risk both. Three full meals a day, with morning tea, afternoon tea, and bed- tiio supper to sustain us in between, is the regular ration. ‘We eat more simply cooked red meat and less creamed by-products. I had been in America three months be- fore I saw a leg of lamb on the din- ner table. I wanted to pat it. It looked like a childhood friend. One Maorilander; wearying of the con- stant round of creamed doo-dads, de- jcided to have a banquet of the very best beef, “like father carved at home on Sunday Four pounds of tenderloin at $1.50 a pound—$6, or approximately 30 shillings. She gasped; that was the average meat bill for a fortnight at home. After a moment's” hesitation’ she compro mised on three pork chops. Here you buy potatoes by the pound —in New Zealand we buy them by the ton. Paris has decreed longer skirts- America will not accept the Parisian |dictum. Whatever excuse there may have been in Paris for the introduc- tion ‘of this fashion, there has been revealed little physical justification for its continuance in Washington. Corinthian columns are magnificent in architecture—but not in shoes. . It is a great pity there are only two political parties in America— there are so many potential.party leaders. Politics is a splendid outlet for leadership. Most American women are born leaders; the others stay mar- ried. The manipulation of nourishment with a lome fork is the greatest achievement of Americans to date. I stand amaseq at their dextirity with this . unsupported implement. With 1h¢nmlubll courage they attack a leathery lettuce, a slice of ham, breakfast bacon, pork chops, cakes, 'fruit, vegetables and other suste- jmance. The knife'is regarded 2 ‘survival of savagery, a mere British tradition. True, it is placed upon the 'ubl-. but so are the decorations. In case of great emergency, it may be called into use, kind of surreptitously, but it is hurriedly dropped before any one sees it, and the fork, imme- dintely transferred to the right hand, maintains rapid transportation be- tween the alternate little plates and the facial front door. These little plates—one with po- tatoes, one with beass, another as- paragus and so on—sit in a ring round the big central plate, like chickens round a hen. From these a really skilled American can, with a twitch of the wrist and a fork, con- jure a piece of meat, a stack of beans, or a dripping, lanquid asparagus, with the neatness of an illusionist. Now you see it; now you don’t. At first 1 was apprehensive, and spread my napkin with care, and well toward the American border, but the antici- pated lapful never came. Many Americans are in such a hurry they have not time to pause and note the difference between cost and worth. In their splendid enthusiasm It is a sleek youth whe strokes your silken amkle. they rush around showing the vis- itor the wonders of America. “Look a that bridge—cost a million dollars.” “See that statue. Cost half 2 mil- lion dollars.” “Some building, that— cost three million dollars” Buy a packet of post cards to indicate to your friends abroad some of the vast achievements of American engineers and architects, and in nine cases out of ten you will find the cost of build- ings printed in the corner. What might require two millions today be- fore the war could have been erected for one million, and for half a mil- lion twenty years ago. But as a na- tional monument or work of art it has no grester value. In thif America may learn from older countries. Rheims and Milan cathedrals did not base their claim to admiration on the cost. - Cut off the price tags from your greatest works of art and struc- tural achievements and let their beauty and dignify and simple gran- deur speak for themselved. You nat- urally resemt the name “dollar-wor- (Continued on Third Page.) lcn congress will provide the oppor- y for definite action. LATIN AMERICAN NATIONS Dispute Between Chile and Peru, Now Being Adjusted Here, Considered Chief Obstacle in thé Way. N BY, BEN McKELWAY. IMITATION of armament for Latin America, already tenta- tively suggested as a leading topic for discussion at the fifth Pan-American congress, which nvenes in Santiago next year, is one of the many interesting questions which awalt an answer in the success or failure of the Chilean-Peruvian conference, which -has been drifting along without gaining’ much head- way for the last two weeks. If the conference succeeds and the old quarrel arising from the Ancon treaty is settled to the satisfaction of all concerned, there is every indi- cation that the question of limiting armament among the nations of South America will be discussed a the Pan-American congress and a foundation laid upon which definite action toward the desired end may be based. But should the conference fail limitation of armament in South America will never get beyond the stage of discussion, if it reaches even that point., South America Bears Heavy Armamest Burden. There seems little doubt that Latin America, collectively speaking. would welcome 2 move to reduce expenses of government by doing away with a percentage of armament. Since the conference which ended so success- fully here jn Washington Latin Amer- ican republics have come to feel that the sentiment which prompted the leading powers of the world to agree on limiting armament can just as well be applled among themselves. ‘The leading countries of Latin Amer- ica are as heavily burdened, propor- tionately, with the expense of main- taining fighting forces as were the powers represented at the recent conference. They are more closely allied racially, temperamentally and geographically. The fifth Pan-Ameri- But limitation of armament cannot be discussed with any hope of suc- cess until the reasons for armament are removed. And if Chile and Peru' fail to adjust their quarrel there will be mighty good reasons on the part of more than one republic of Latin America to maintain and eveh in- cru!s‘lhelr armed forces and equip- ment. Dispute a Survival Of the Pacific War. A diplomat (who would cease to be one if he allowed his name to be pub- lished), discussing the Chilean-Peru- vian quatrel over the provinces of Tacna and Arica, said it reminded him of two bald-headed men Nghting for possession of a snaggle-toothed comb. That very adequately describes one comment following each day's ses- sion of the armament conference and the meeting at Gemoa, the develop- ments of the Chilean>Peruvian meet- ings, until yesterday, as the pub- lic is concerned, have been nil With the exception of the Chilean and Peruvian replies to the applications of Bolivia for a hearing, nothing has come out of the council chamber ex- cept the delegates themselves and terse, dry ‘“communiques” announc- ing what was self-apparent—that the conference met and adjourned. Conferees Unwilling Te Discuss ject. A belief in certain quarters lust week that the conference had hit ithg rocks before getting fairly un- derway was strengthened to a cer- tain extent by a reticence on the part of the conferees to discuss the subject at all. Perhaps if they were a little more familiar with the ways of the American press, the Chilean and Peruvian délegates might have thrown out a morsel now and then. which could have done no harm in itself and which certainly would have served to dispel . an atmosphere growing thicker every day. It was with decided relief, there- fore, that those interested in the outcome of the conference learned at the close of yesterday's session that the delegates at last had agreed upon some “formula” of procedure The inability on the part of the con- ferees to decide exactly what thes intended to do has been the cause of delay so far, for as a matter of fact they have not yet approached the stage of a deadlock. What the future plan of action adopted by the conferees is remains to be seen. But many believe it to be one of two courses which have been offered from the outset: First. the settlement between Chile and Peru of their own difficulties, and, second, gnediation. The opinion held by many long since, that the dispute will have to be mediated by a third party. has gained strength in the ap- parent unwillingness by either the Chilean or Peruvian delegates o wield an inch from the stand taken by their respective countries since the forty-year-old dispute started Both parties are aware of the tre- mendous public sentiment in both Chile and Peru against surrendering = single point, and both know the dei- icacy with which this sentiment mus: be dealt and the consequences which would follow a move in the wrong direction. Unmele Sam May Have To Take Steering Wheel. Mediation, many believe, will be phase of the present controversy. But it isn’t the mere possession of the territory, which has no great value, that threatens to wreck the present attempt at settlement of this long- standing dispute. Chile could part with Tacna-Arica and still be as well off as ehe was before. Peru could gain the disputed ground without ma- terially enriching herself. It's the principle of the thing that counts. Tacna and Arica have been merely the concrete embodiment of a spirit of hate inflamed by thé war of tie Patific, and which did not die with the signing of the treaty of Ancon. The first two weeks of the present conference have shown to those who have followed the progress of the conferees in their dally meetings just how difficult and delicate a problem they have to solve. In striking con- trast to the flood of publicity and the ultimate course adopted. B even that is fraught with difficul There remains the question of wheth- er the issue to be mediated has tc deal only with the territories of Tacna and Arica, or whether it wil! embrace, as Peru would have it, th “questions of the Pacific,” which in- clude other disputed points arising from the treaty of Ancon. The most hopeful thing about the whole conference is the fact that the prestige of the United States in Latin America is at stake, and that this country does not intend that this ef- fort to remove the most serious ob- stacle in the way of amity and friend- ship in Latin America shall fail. 1¢ the delegates themselves fear to even approach the rocks. there is a pilot who will take the helm and head for them, with fair prospécts of getting clear. Solve Immigration Problem by ~ Sending Immigrants to Farms New light on the Americanization of the immigrant—a problem about which the entire future of the United States si intimately bound—is shed by a high official of the Department of Labor, a man long an authority on American immigration problems, himself the son of immigrants. Here are some of the salient points he makes: The immigrant comes to America to get back to the land. He wants to be a farmer, but under better conditions than those in his home country. The American government has no means whatever to direct these aliens to the farms where their labor is needed. Labor profiteers take advantage of their ignorance of English, and they eventually land In the mines or mill towns. o This &55tem breeds discontent. It makes radicals of men whose fond dreams of America are shattered by long hours of labor in coal mines, steel foundries and constfuction work, for which they have never been fitted. the tales they have been told of the fertile fields and of liberty. Dumped into New York from Ellis Island he naturally falls in among the people who speak his own tongue, and un- fortunately their Infiuences in the congested centers of our cities are, not always for the best. And here is this officer’s solution of the problem: Pick ount the best of the immi- grantse” put them on the soil and make real Americans of them. As ap illustration of his theory he points to the thrifty farmers of the middle west. Many of them, or their fathers, were once aliens. Swedes, Danes, Germans and Dutch, who set- tled the soil in Wisconsin, Michigan. Nimgls, lowa and Indiana, did mo¥ Their love for America comes lr.-l become malcontents. They became real Americans, and the reason, this official is convinced, is that they were taken to the soil and given an oppor- tunity to produce food, the supply of which is becoming less &nd less each vear in America, and escaped the vicious labor system in our mines and steel mills. | The official praised the efforts of | the Americanization societies, espe- cially those of Washington, but added: “You can't make an American of |a man by teaching him to speak the language several hours each week. That helps, of course, but his living conditions must be improved so that in his heart will grow & respect for the flag under which he finds refuge.” The solution s a government agency for placing immigrants, an agency which will take them to the farms to do the work they are fitted for and which they have done since childhood, and save them from the hordes of foreign-speaking laborers which infest the mining and steel | districts. Such an agency did exist once. It Was known as a publicity bureau and its work was to direct immigrants to centers where employ- ment could, be obtained. It passed out of existence, its friends say, be- cause of influence brought by in- terests which preyed on the igno- rance of the alien laborer and sought to obtain his services at a price lower than an American could exist on. In other clared, you can't make Americans of aliens by landing them on American #oil. They must live like Americans, not under the same sordid conditions of the European peasantry. They| words, this official de- be achieved by putting them on the| soll, where America needs them and must be contented and this can only| ‘where they long to go. -