Adventure Magazine Cover — page 199: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Png LOOKING AHEAD FOR DEMOCRACY. M*Y BLUNDER. In a former issue of this de- partment I stated that a motorman is paid sixty cents an hour, a college president only eigh- teen. I took that data from New York news- paper reports of a speech by President Hadley of Yale. Since it was practically the basis or key to the whole speech, which advocated higher pay for. educators, it seemed beyond the bounds of reason that this statement had not been made by President Hadley. And if it were made by him in a public speech it would be accepted unques- tioningly. I kept one of the clippings on my desk for a month or so to be sure of my data when needed. Having written my little article, I threw away the clipping. After it was printed some one in the office challenged the comparison. I started to reason it out for myself and found the eighteen too low to be possible on any but one basis. The sixty could stand. ; The one basis upon which the eighteen is sound is that of reckoning a college president’s whole time, or much of his time, from his entering upon self-supporting work, counting such work, what- . ever its nature, as part of the necessary prepa- ration for his eventually becoming a college president. My blunder, and I offer my sincere apologies. But it does not spoil my argument. It was used as an illustration. There are plenty of other il- lustrations that could have been used. The main fact stands. Educators and other highly trained brains are paid far less than are many who perform manual labor needing little or no preparatory training or mental equipment. And that condition of affairs spells ruin to the civiliza- tion that clings to it. Stop immigration. Stop immigration until we can assimilate and Americanize the millions and millions we already have in the United States. Their presence and the fact that they are not Americanized are Capital’s crime, though all_ of us are guilty. because of our indifference. That sO many immigrants, not only un-Americanized but unnaturalized and not citizens of our country, are permitted to play so large a part in our eco- ae and social problems and unrest are Labor’s aut. Only fools or knaves will let the flood of immi- gration continue to pour in on us. To do so is to commit suicide as Americans and as a democ- racy. The platitude about being a refuge to all oppressed peoples, an open door to liberty and opportunity, is bosh. If this flood keeps on pouring in there will be here neither refuge nor liberty nor opportunity. Only a chaos of strife, greed and stupidity. They may be as good as we, or better or worse. The point is that under such a deluge of various and conflicting races, creeds, economic and social beliefs, training and outlook, all so far beyond our ability to assimi- late, there can be no cohesion, no common life, no unity of purpose, no permanence of institutions. We can best serve the other peoples of the world by seeing to-it that in this country are preserved things that -will be really worth their having when we become able to make them a part of what we have, instead of ruining what we have by un- limited adulteration. And to ensure what we have and develop it into what it should be we must turn our organized effort directly to the task, not only of American- izing the foreign element we already have, but of Americanizing ourselves, of learning and teaching and practising the real democracy we think we have and haven’t, of realizing the obligation and responsibility of ordinary every-day citizen- i —A. S. H. ship in a democracy.