The Weber Literary Journal And now, after all these years of national development, equality, liberty and democracy are still the cornerstones of the American mansion equality of opportunity and before the law liberty to be one's own master and act independently as long as it does not interfere with the freedom of others democracy, the right of all to participate in government. Every American document that has been given to the world has been colored with one of these ideals. At times these documents have been born in bloodshed and sacred devotion on the field of battle; but they have been preserved to the America of the future. One hundred thirty years have passed since the United States began its journey in the then unknown wilderness of representative government, but the "Ark of the Covenant" the constitution is still the supreme law which guides the nation. But in the growth from a scattered sea-coast of four million souls, to a world power of one hundred ten million nationals, great problems have arisen. Out of numerous tendencies which today threaten American ideals and the constitution there is one that is fraught with dangerous consequences to our democratic institutions. The peril of America today is not war with Asia, invasion from Europe, or trouble with Mexico, but the anti-American immigrant. While in the beginning all the founders immediately became Americans partaking of the same environment, speaking the same language, living for the same purpose, achieving the same ends and being loyal to the same laws yet today America is a polyglot of nationalities, a variety of hopes, a colony of sordid ambitions, a diversity of tongues and a haven of dissipated mongrel ideals. The Mayflower fathers and other American founders came here to establish homes, build the government and to raise up children to themselves and their God, staunch in the love of freedom. If any person, in those days, left the land of his adoption, it was generally because of banishment. Deportation at that time represented, next to murder, the 44 The Weber Literary Journal most extreme of penalties. Under this happy situation is it any wonder that American civilization flourished? But today! Go back in your minds to Ellis Island and picture the thousands of immigrants who come daily to this country, not because they want to build homes or to contribute to our government, but because they would reap the fruits sown by the sturdier immigrants of '76. Over one-third of the immigrants that gain entrance today remain in this country only to extract from our already over-taxed industries, the means by which they can return to native lands and live in luxury. Unlike Shylock, they take the sheckles and exact the pound of flesh from those native sons deprived of work in our industries. Millions of dollars are snatched away from American industry each year only to be sent away while the babe in the cradle at home is deprived of the necessities of life. Allow this to continue unabated and you will remove the economic necessities of life from those who are native Americans. America might be able to tolerate the immigrant if his transiency were his only evil. But, to our sad regret, we have come to know that this evil begets others more dangerous and destructive. They who come here for the sordid dollar undermine the intrinsic American standard of living. The cotton textile industry of New England was originally operated by the sons and daughters of American stock. Through cutting wages the Irish and French Canadians displaced them. When these demanded wages necessary for an American standard of life, they were displaced by the Portuguese. Then followed displacement after displacement. Greeks came next, they were followed by Syrians, then Poles, and then Italians. This cannot last long for if American living standards are lost, education will vanish and democracy will perish. The immigrant of today will not or cannot assimilate with the American population. In the city of New York, alone, there are more Jews congregated together, paying no attention to American government, than in Jerusalem; there are more Greeks than in Athens; and more Italians than in Rome. Just as water always seeks its level, these people have sought their own kind and are creating classes within our own country 45