I  believe  now,  as  I  did  ten  years  ago,  that  this  is  the  most
vital  and  far-reaching  problem  of  the  time.  By  its  side
unionism,  boycotting,  arbitration  and  cooperation,  import-
ant as  they  are,  for  the  present  sink  into  minor  significance.
The  hobby-riders  in  these  several  domains  will  not  admit
this;  but,  let  me  ask,  how  can  the  stream  be  otherwise  than
unclean  so  long  as  the  fountain  is  to  any  extent  impure?

The  nation  is  like  the  family;  its  welfare  is  controlled  by
the  same  principles.  No  matter  what  rigid  rules  the  head
of  the  house  may  establish  for  the  government  of  its  in-
mates, morality  and  domestic  peace  and  felicity  can  never
be  maintained  if  he  opens  his  doors  to  all  sorts  of  charac-
ters; if  he  admits  the  dishonest,  the  slothful,  the  scheming,
the  destructive,  the  polluting.
Are  socialism,  land-confiscation,  "  general  leveling  day"
and  anarchy  products  of  American  society  and  institutions?
Were  not  our  Mosts,  Fieldens,  Spieses,  Linggs,  Gruenhuts,
Grottkaus,  Schwabs,  Liebnechts,  Hirths,  Schnaubelts,  and  a
score  of  others  like  them,  born  and  trained  in  the  old  coun-
try? Can  not  all  the  demonstrations  in  America  against  law,
society,  property,  government  and  peace  be  traced  to  for-
eigners —  that  is,  foreign-born?

Is  it  not  absurd  to  enter  upon  a  struggle  to  wipe  up  the
water  while  still  permitting  the  faucet  to  run?


XXVI  REPORT  OP  THE

Are  we  not  geese  to  continue  to  gabble  about  making-
America  the  asylum  for  all  the  world,  when  a  part  of  the
stream  we  are  letting  in  comes  only  to  destroy  that  asylum?
Very  soon  there  will  be  no  asylum  here,  not  even  for  our-
selves, if  we  shall  take  no  steps  to  protect  and  preserve  it.
