AMERICANIZATION 142 AMERICANIZATION tribute to the process of race assimilation in America. Interest in this fundamental problem of American democracy had been increas- ing for many years before such programs were designated "Americanization." The publication of the report of the United States Immigration Commission in 1911 marked the culmination of an attempt to formulate a constructive national policy toward immigration and naturalization and has been the basis of many of the programs adopted since. Public interest in the foreign born was quickened by the outbreak of the Great War which revealed the intense nationalistic feeling of many foreign- born groups in America and their utter ignorance of and even estrangement from the daily life of the American people. This situation came to be seriously con- sidered as a problem of national defense when it became clear that the United States would enter the conflict, and a systematic campaign of patriotic edu- cation among the foreign born was com- menced at once by the Councils of Na- tional Defense, the United States De- partment of the Interior, the Food Ad- ministration and other Government agencies charged with the task of unit- ing the American people in support of the war aims of the nation. The em- phasis was gradually shifted from emer- gency propaganda to a long-time edu- cational program, when a study of con- ditions in the draft army made by the Surgeon-General's Office showed con- clusively that from 18 per cent, to 42 per cent, of the men in army camps were unable to read a newspaper or to write a letter home, and that in the Northern and Middle Western States these illiter- ates were almost entirely foreign born whites. Indications were that barriers to any understanding of American aims and interests were even more marked than this among the older men and the women in the foreign colonies within America. The hole nation was aroused to the situation and hundreds of Ameri- canization agencies sprang up overnight. National Program. — The leadership in the national movement was assumed by Franklin K. Lane, Secretary of the In- terior, who enlisted the co-operation of the National Council of Defense and the National Americanization Committee, through the Bureau of Education, In March, 1919, connection with the Na- tional Americanization Committee was severed and a Federal Division of Amer- icanization, headed by Mr. Fred C. Butler, was organized as a part of the Bureau. Eleven "regional directors" represented the Washington division throughout the United States. Permanent financial support of this division was pro- vided for in the Smith-Bankhead Ameri- canization bill, but the failure of this measure to pass caused the discontin- uance of the division at the close of 1919. Interest in Americanization legislation was again roused by the investigation of the steel strike in the fall of 1919 by the Education and Labor Committee of the Senate. This committee became convinced of the need of education of the adult foreign born and introduced the Kenyon bill which (amended) pro- vided for an appropriation of $6,500,000 for the year 1920-1921 for the purpose of educating illiterates and non-English- speaking adults. This sum was to have been spent through the various States, on condition that each State should ap- propriate a sum equal to its share of the Federal grant and should make at- tendance at classes compulsory for il- literate and non-English-speaking per- sons from 16 to 45 years. The measure passed the Senate in January, 1920, but was not voted upon in the House. Simultaneously with the Americani- zation program of the Department of the Interior, the Department of Labor, through its Bureau of Naturalization, has been active in stimulating a pro- gram of education in citizenship through- out the country, working through State and local boards of education, as well as through the courts and the industries. State and City Programs. — Prior to the war, practically nothing had been done in the individual States toward develop- ing a definite policy toward immigration. Notable exceptions to this rule were Cali- fornia and New York, where permanent Commissions on Immigration have been functioning for some years. During 1917 and 1918, thirty States organized Americanization committees — usually as a part of State Defense Council pro- grams — and six had appointed State di- rectors of Americanization. A large number of these States passed laws pro- viding facilities for the education of adult immigrants ; a few made attendance at school compulsory for non-English- speaking adults under 45. Most of these State committees went out of existence with the Defense Councils, but a number have been continued and developed, either as departments of State Divisions of Uni- versity Extension {e. q. Massachusetts, New York) or as separate departments, attached more or less closely to the State Boards of Education (e. g., Connecticut Delaware, Maryland). A number of city Americanization committees survived the armistice and developed constructive pro- grams. Outstanding features of typical
