The material in this volume was gathered by the Division of Rural Developments of Studies in Methods of Americanization. Americanization in this study has been considered as the union of native and foreign born in all the most fundamental relationships and activities of our national life. For Americanization is the uniting of new with native-born Americans in fuller common understanding and appreciation to secure by means of self-government the highest welfare of all. Such Americanization should

This volume is the result of studies in methods of Americanization prepared through funds furnished by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. It arose out of the fact that constant applications were being made to the Corporation for contributions to the work of numerous agencies engaged in various forms of social activity intended to extend among the people of the United States the knowledge of their government and their obligations to it. The trustees felt that a study which should set forth, no

Students of economics know that the roundabout methods of capitalistic production are far more fruitful than the direct methods of the primitive economy. As we advance, we introduce new intermediaries between the beginning and the end of production. This thought occurs to one in the study of Americanization. If we would Americanize the immigrant we must seek him out in his daily economic life and see to it that the influences under which he works are calculated to give him the right feeling towa

This report summarizes the results of a preliminary survey of rural developments in the United States from the viewpoint of the Americanization of immigrant settlers conducted by the writer for the Study of Methods of Americanization. The field study covered a period of about four months, from June to September, 1918, inclusive, during which time the writer with his wife, Frances Valiant Speek, as his assistant, visited fifty-four cities and rural immigrant colonies in New England, the North Mid

One of the strongest ties uniting human beings is found among the members of a family, the unit which is the foundation of the structure of organized society. Each family requires a home for its normal life and development. A normal home, especially in rural districts, means a piece of land and a suitable house for the family; it implies also an opportunity to earn the family living either on the same land—if it is large enough, as in the case of truck gardens or farms—or in a near-by industrial

The immigrant desiring to settle on land is constantly on the lookout for an opportunity to acquire land. The most general way of learning of such opportunity is through personal acquaintance or through correspondence with relatives and friends of the immigrant's own nationality who have previously settled on land. These sources of information are considered by the immigrant to be the most reliable, although they have certain drawbacks. First, immigrants on the land are always desirous of increa

The experiences of the Russian sectarian peasants in America in their attempts to settle on land are illuminating in regard to existing conditions of land dealing and colonization as they affect the immigrant. There are in the Western states about a thousand families (or six thousand individuals) of Russian peasant sectarians—Molokans, Holy Jumpers, Wet and Dry Baptists, and others. They were all engaged in agriculture while they lived in Russia. As a result of persecution by the Russian monarch

Except for government land grants and homestead acts, land dealing and colonization in the United States have, up to very recent times, been entirely in private hands. Land is one of the necessities of life; land dealing, consequently, is one of the most important features in social and economic relations. Yet it has been left unregulated, with the result that land dealing is now the most chaotic sort of business, one which has not worked out its own definite methods, rules, and traditions, as b

The earlier so-called city and empire builders were in most cases nothing more than dealers in land. When a lot or farm was sold, there the company's interest ended. The modern colonization company goes much farther. When a man settles on land, the company of the better type usually looks out for him, backs him with credit, affords him the service of an expert agricultural adviser, cares for his health, and promotes his social interests and activities through a salaried community worker. All thi

California is the first, and so far the only state in the Union to undertake the public colonization of land. Its first experiment is very recent and on a comparatively small scale. Its leaders are ably utilizing their knowledge of the experiences in public land colonization in foreign countries such as Australia, New Zealand, the Scandinavian states, and Great Britain. Although it is impossible to foresee the outcome, the writer is inclined to believe that the public land colonization in Califo

Most of the land-reform programs, beginning with those of the extreme conservatives, laissez-faire theorists of various schools, and ending with those of the extreme radicals, anarchists, and socialists of various leanings, are primarily concerned with the question of land ownership. These programs might be, in the main, classified as follows: Comparing these programs one with another and with the existing conditions, one reaches the following conclusions: All the programs tend to treat the land

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The term "Americanization" is used in two senses. In the narrower one it applies to our immigrant population only, and in a broader sense it applies to everybody, natives and immigrants alike. This means the Americanization of America. This broader meaning embraces the whole national life in all its conditions, tendencies, and forms of expression. When the writer accepted the invitation of the Study of Methods of Americanization to make a field investigation of rural developments from the viewpo

One of the greatest negative agencies, and in a large number of cases consciously negative agencies, affecting the Americanization of immigrants in our rural districts has been private schools. Among these—the writer wishes to be entirely outspoken—the most conspicuous have been immigrant Catholic and Lutheran parochial schools and Hebrew schools. Many of them are run in the spirit of preference for the old country and for the immigrant race or nationality to America and the American nationality

Immigrant or foreign-language churches are needed by the immigrants so long as they have not learned to understand the English language. But for those immigrants who have been long enough in this country to know English and for the immigrants' children born in America no foreign-language churches are needed. If the church authorities conduct the church services and activities in a foreign tongue for those immigrants who understand and speak English, they then do this for racial or nationalistic

The preceding three chapters show how important is the public school as an instrumentality of Americanization. The question is whether the rural public school meets present-day requirements. Field investigations and search through both public and private reports have convinced the writer that the rural public school is the most neglected class of all the educational institutions in the country. It is far behind the times. It not only does not adequately meet the problem of immigrant children, bu

The adult immigrant settlers need American education, the women more than the men. This fact was clearly impressed upon the writer during his field investigation. The women do not penetrate the American world; they live in the Old World, their children live in the New, and the men in a mixed world. No matter how brokenly or how fluently their husbands speak English, with but few exceptions the wives either speak it not at all or attempt a few syllables of the strange language with a hesitation a

So far as Americanization is a question of education and so far as the printed word is an instrument of education, the reading of American literature by the immigrant is of inestimable value. It might be safely stated that almost every time an immigrant reads something in English, be it only a trade label on a tomato can or an advertisement in a street car, he learns something about the country, at least a word or two of the country's language. As a rule a newly arrived immigrant is eager to lea

Schooling of the Immigrant. Frank V. Thompson, Supt. of Public Schools, Boston America via the Neighborhood. John Daniels Old World Traits Transplanted. Robert E. Park, Professorial Lecturer, University of Chicago Herbert A. Miller, Professor of Sociology, Oberlin College A Stake in the Land. Peter A. Speek, in charge, Slavic Section, Library of Congress Immigrant Health and the Community. (In press) Michael M. Davis, Jr., Director, Boston Dispensary New Homes for Old. (In press) S. P. Breckinri