A Humanitarian Study of the Coming Immigration Problem on the Pacific Coast: Being a Digest of the Pacific Coast Immigration Congress Held in San Francisco, California, April 14-15, 1913, and Showing Its Relation to the Tacoma Immigration Conference Held in Tacoma, Washington, February 21-22, 1912

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Art Press, 1913 - California - 63 pages
 

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Page 24 - And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt : I am the Lord your God.
Page 24 - Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land within thy gates : at his day thou shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down upon it ; for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it : lest he cry against thee unto the Lord, and it be sin unto thee.
Page 40 - You may be incredulous if I tell you that I do not realize that I was not born and educated here; that I am not thrilled by the sight of my cradle home, nor moved by my country's flag. I know no Fatherland but America; for after all, it matters less where one was born, than where one's ideals had their birth; and to me, America is not the land of mighty dollars, but the land of great ideals.
Page 42 - Whether we shall enrich this New American by our own ideals, whether we shall implant in him the broad culture of our own spiritual and intellectual heritage, is a real problem whose solving may puzzle even future generations.
Page 31 - ... language, become acquainted with American institutions, or adopt American standards. In the case of families, however, the process of assimilation is usually much more rapid. The families as a rule live in much more wholesome surroundings, and are reached by more of the agencies which promote assimilation. The most potent influence in promoting the assimilation of the family is the children, who, through contact with American life in the schools, almost invariably act as the unconscious agents...
Page 41 - ... glorious country of ourn," voiced the common prejudice which rests itself entirely upon its ignorance. It is true that many criminals come, especially from Italy. Many weak, impoverished and poorly developed creatures come from among Polish and Russian Jews, but they are only the tares in the wheat. The stock as a whole is physically sound; it is crude, common peasant stock, not the dregs of society, but its basis. Its blood is not blue but it is red, welcomely red, which is more to the purpose....
Page 23 - ... in the train of Zeus, the god of strangers. And for this reason, he who has a spark of caution in him, will do his best to pass through life without sinning against the stranger. And of offences committed, whether against strangers or fellow-countrymen, that against suppliants is the greatest.
Page 42 - THE miracle of assimilation wrought upon the older type of immigration, gives to many of us, at least the hope, that the Slavs, Jews, Italians, Hungarians and Greeks will blend into our life as easily as did the Germans, the Scandinavians and the Irish. The new immigrant, or the new American, as I call him, is however in many respects, more of an alien than that older class which was related to the native stock by race, speech, or religious ties.
Page 40 - Shut the gates," and not the last one to exile myself for your country's good. I think that the peril lies more in the first cabin than in the steerage ; more in the American colonies in Monte Carlo and Nice than in the Italian colonies in New York and Chicago. Not the least of the peril lies in the fact that there is too great a gulf between you and the steerage passenger, whose virtues you will discover as soon as you learn to know him.
Page 34 - I do solemnly bind myself, in the sight of God, that when I shall be called to give my voice touching any such matter of this state, wherein freemen are to deal, I will give my vote and suffrage as I shall judge, in my own conscience, may best conduce and tend to the public weal of the body, without respect of persons, or favor of any man. So help me God. in the lord Jesus Christ.

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