It is recommended that advanced classes be organized with reg ular officers. The foreign-born men and women like this recognition and they may gain their first lessons in self-government in this way.

g. School equipment.

The school should be provided with suitable chairs, desks and textbooks for adults. Primers and elementary texts should not be used.

5. Make the school, the library, and the neighborhood house the center of the social and recreational life of the community. This may be done through community "sings," dances, parties where general games are played, gymnasium exercises, indoor athletic meets, outdoor entertainments, pageants.

6. Secure the interest and cooperation of employees, factory owners, managers, foremen, foreign leaders, and labor organizations in forming and maintaining factory classes by.

a. Informing the employees, through their leaders, of the advantages of learning English and becoming American citi

zens.

b. Personal interviews with factory owners, superintendents or managers, leaders among foreign groups, and representatives of labor organizations.

c. Meeting of employees to discuss formation of classes, time and place of meeting, subjects to be taught and kind of instruction. It is important to have the management represented at this meeting to assure the employees of their approbation and cooperation.

d. Appointment of a committee which shall be the special Americanization agent in the plant and shall keep records of the results obtained through the classes.

7. Secure the hearty support and cooperation of all foreign interpreters, bankers, clergymen, nurses, business men and law

yers.

8. Arrange for exhibits of foreign handicrafts, for folk dances, folk songs, and the use of quaint old-country musical instruments to show "the gifts of mind, heart and hand" which the foreignborn have brought to America.

9. Establish an information center. It is recommended that each community designate a certain office or building, centrally

located and easily accessible, where intelligent, sympathetic, tactful, and socially-minded men and women will be on duty at regular hours on certain days in the week to give advice on all matters that require the help of an interested American. Very often unimportant matters can be kept out of court by such helpful advice. Questions concerning noisy or disorderly neighbors, keeping animals on the premises, a misunderstanding between employer and employee, a contractual relationship between two persons might be brought to such a service station and satisfactorily adjusted.

10. Establish a legal aid bureau. Because of the serious exploitation of the foreign-born by unscrupulous lawyers, doctors and others, it is desirable that legal aid bureaus be established in communities where the need is imperative.

11. Appoint a speakers' bureau which shall arrange for mass meetings and supply speakers for community gatherings.

12. Make the clinics usable. Urge that the number of clinics be increased and their facilities enlarged so that everyone may receive just, careful, and sympathetic treatment.

13. Make the public baths usable.

14. Form mothers' clubs with English classes, for foreign-born women and lessons in homemaking as a part of the regular pro

gram.

15. Carry out a campaign against "calling names," the use of epithets commonly applied by the unthinking to our foreign-born, which anger them and arouse interracial hatred. Girl and boy scouts may carry out such a campaign.

16. Advertise all the resources and public institutions of the community.

17. Give receptions to new citizens.

18. Stimulate real, active work in all Americanization committees.

The time has come to act.

The federal census will be taken in 1920.

What will New York show?

5. AMERICANIZATION THROUGH WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS The State Department of Education has been asked to present a program of work for organizations that are particularly interested in problems of foreign-born women. Illiterate and non-English-speaking women in the homes have suffered serious handicaps

for they have had fewer means than their sisters in industry of becoming acquainted with our language and customs. Now, with lessons from the war fresh in our minds, all of us who believe in fair play and equal opportunity are eager to provide these homekeepers with knowledge necessary for their protection and advancement.

Unless we have a strong realization that these new Americans from other lands bring invaluable gifts to our life and culture, our desire to help them is doomed to failure. Dr. Stephen S. Wise has well said: "Our country seems destined, in the providence of God, to be the world's experimental station in brotherhood, all of us learning that other nations are not barbarians, that other races are not inferior, that other faiths are not Godless." Only in this spirit of give and take can we fulfil our hopes of real democracy. Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the Interior, emphasized the necessity of close association in order to become a strong nation when he said: "We are trying a great experiment in the United States. Can we gather together peoples of different races, creeds, conditions and aspirations who can be merged into one? If we cannot do this, we will fail; indeed, we have already failed. If we do this, we will produce the greatest of all nations, a new race that will long hold a compelling place in the world."

New York State is one of the largest and best equipped laboratories in the country for trying out this experiment. The State Department of Education has undertaken the task and asks every organization of women for hearty co-operation.

WILLIAM C. SMITH,

Supervisor of Immigrant Education.

ELIZABETH A. WOODWARD,

Assistant, in Charge of Home Classes.

THE PROBLEM

The number of illiterate girls and women ten years of age and over in New York State, according to the census of 1910, was 218,913.

This statement means that many of these women are isolated in their homes and neighborhoods because:

1. They are unable to talk with English-speaking people.

2. They are at a disadvantage with their children, who have learned English in the public schools.

3. They cannot read or sign the reports of children in school. This encourages deception on the part of the children and causes them to lose respect for their parents.

4. They are deprived of the pleasure of reading or answering letters in English by their children away from home.

5. They are unable to read books, magazines, newspapers, notices, warnings, signs or announcements of any kind.

6. They cannot read or sign any official or legal document. 7. They are dependent upon others to transact business for them.

8. They are unable to vote intelligently.

WAYS IN WHICH THE PROBLEM MAY BE SOLVED

1. By helping every foreign-born woman to come into association with at least one American woman of ideals, sympathy and breadth of spirit.

2. By making it possible for every foreign-born woman to learn the language of this country in order:

a. That she may maintain the authority and discipline of the home.

b. That she may associate with English-speaking people outside of the home.

c. That she may vote intelligently. Aliens who have served in the army have become American citizens during the war. They have been educated in the army. Their wives have not had these advantages and, to many, citizenship has come before they are able to use our language or understand our government and its ideals.

d. That she may unite with native-born women in bringing about better conditions in the home, in politics and in industry. 3. By making every foreign-born woman appreciate all that she may contribute to our American life.

WAYS IN WHICH WOMEN'S ORGANIZATIONS MAY ASSIST IN SOLVING THE PROBLEM

General Plan

To insure co-operation and to avoid duplication it is suggested: 1. That each club or society appoint an Americanization committee.

2. That each Americanization committee send a representative to a general council of Americanization workers which shall act as a clearing house.

3. That the general council co-operate with the State Department of Education in carrying out the following program:

a. Make clear the meaning of Americanization. Dr. A. E. Jenks of the University of Minnesota says: "Our people are in three groups, so far as Americanization education is concerned: (1) the educated, old-line citizens; (2) the immigrant racial groups; (3) the illiterates, both native and foreign-born.

"For educated old-line citizens, Americanization means the purposeful continuous squaring of our private and public practices with our ideals in all fundamental relationships of life. It means not just fair play talk, but actual fair play practice.

"For the immigrants, Americanization means an intelligent understanding of our national ideal standards, and a definite desire to approximate, as nearly as may be, their realization by means of legal practices and authorized institutions.

"For the native-born illiterates, Americanization means, as a first step to any understanding of America, an opportunity for at least an elementary education."

b. Develop a sympathetic and appreciative attitude toward the foreign-born.

(1) Persuade your organization that race prejudice, class prejudice and religious prejudice cannot exist in a real democracy.

(2) Influence your organization to appreciate that our country is "in the making," that we need to conserve the contributions of all national groups.

(3) Lead your organization to realize that native-born women must work with rather than for foreign-born women.

c. Assist in the community survey of conditions among foreignborn women.

d. Help in a publicity campaign to explain the meaning of Americanization and to recruit members for classes in English and citizenship by making calls on foreign-born women. If such calls are made in a spirit of genuine friendliness and human interest, they may be the most effective means of understanding immigrant women and of winning their sympathy. Punctilious courtesy should be observed in entering the homes, for Europeans are notably more ceremonious than Americans.

e. Provide short unit courses or a series of lectures to train volunteers for teaching (1) English and citizenship, (2) home nursing, (3) principles of homemaking, cooking, sewing and other handiwork.