workmen, urge them to become naturalized, and lead them to think and act as Americans. In his labor-union the new citizen learns to take an interest in public affairs, gains courage and self-confidence, develops foresight, and is taught to elect and to obey his own officers. He thus learns the first principles of good citizenship in a self-governing country. But the public school is the most far-reaching and influential of all the agencies that are helping to make Americans. It begins by giving the children of the immigrants of every race a The public school makes common language, the English speech of their new country. Americans It tends to remove any hostile feelings that may have existed between nationalities that formerly quarreled or clashed with one another in the Old World and to make all the children think of themselves as Americans. It teaches them the songs of American patriotism, the stories of American heroes, and the history of American institutions. It quickens and enlarges their minds, stimulates their ambitions, and inspires in them. higher aspirations and nobler ideals. In all these ways our public schools are training a vast host of young Americans, native and foreign-born alike, for loyal and useful citizenship when they become men and women. REFERENCES. Ross, The Old World in the New; Commons, Races and Immigrants in America; Jenks and Lauck, The Immigrant Problem; Steiner, The Immigrant Tide; Haworth, America in Ferment; Washington, The Story of the Negro; Ogg, National Progress. TOPICAL READINGS. 1. What is an American? Washington, 16-20. Henry Van Dyke, The Americanism of 2. The Original Make-up of the American People. Ross, The Old World in the New, 2-23. 3. The Irish in America. Ross, The Old World in the New, 24-45. 4. The German Element in Our Population. Ross, The Old World in the New, 46-66. 5. The Scandinavians. Ross, The Old World in the New, 67-92. Ross, The Old World in the New, 95-119. 8. A Black Boy's Struggle for an Education. from Slavery, 42-62. Washington, Up 9. Booker T. Washington's Address at the Atlanta Exposition. Washington, Up from Slavery, 217-225. 10. The Social Effects of Immigration. Ross, The Old World in the New, 228-256. ILLUSTRATIVE LITERATURE. The Experiences of Americans in the Making: Steiner, On the Trail of the Immigrant; Mary Antin, The Promised Land; Riis, The Making of an American; Ravage, An American in the Making; Washington, Up from Slavery; Dubois, The Souls of Black Folk. QUESTIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. 1. In what ways does the physical geography of your home community influence the life of its people? What advantages had boys and girls in pioneer times that they do not have now? What advantages have you that the children of the pioneers did not possess? Would you prefer to grow up in the city or in the country? Why? 2. How many of the children in your school were not born in America? How many of them are native born but have parents who came from Europe? To what countries in Europe can you trace your own ancestry? 3. What can white Americans do to help black Americans to become better citizens? In what ways can our negro citizens help themselves? 4. What arguments can be advanced in favor of admitting Chinese and Japanese laborers to the United States? Do you favor the literacy test for all immigrants? Ought immigration to be restricted further? Why? 5. In what ways can we help newcomers to our country in becoming good Americans? Our American Neighbors.-In his Farewell Address Washington urged his countrymen to steer clear of all entangling relations with other nations, and for many years our people The Panwere so absorbed in developing their own country that it was American easy for them to follow his advice. But as the nineteenth movement The Latin-American Lands about the Caribbean Sea century drew to a close, we began to cultivate closer relations with the Latin American countries south of us in the hope of increasing our trade with them. James G. Blaine was especially interested in this policy, and when he was secretary of state in President Harrison's cabinet, a great Pan-American Congress, or meeting of delegates from all the countries of North and South America, was held in Washington in 1889. Since that time similar conferences to promote friendship among the nations of the New World have been held in the City of Mexico, in Rio Janeiro, and in Buenos Aires, and now these nations maintain a Bureau of American Republics at Washington to help the people of their respective countries to become better acquainted with each other and to encourage commerce among them. One hundred years ago the United States warned the nations of the Old World to keep their hands off the states of In all our later history we have Doctrine shown a steadfast determination to maintain the Monroe The Monroe North and South America. maintained and discussed The international organization maintained by the twenty-one American Republics. Doctrine. When a dispute arose in 1895 over the location of the boundary line between British Guiana and Venezuela, and Great Britain refused President Cleveland's request to arbitrate the matter, Cleveland promptly sent a message to Congress declaring that the United States ought to investigate the question for itself, and that when it had determined what was the rightful boundary of Venezuela it ought to maintain that boundary by every means in its power. Great Britain yielded before this forceful stand and agreed to arbitrate her difference with Venezuela. In 1902 Great Britain and Germany blockaded the Venezuelan ports to collect claims of their subjects against that country, and only the positive warning of President Roosevelt kept Germany from landing troops in Venezuela. But by this time it was beginning to be seen that if we did not let European powers interfere with small American nations we must not permit the little American states to defraud their European creditors. Accordingly, when the little negro republic of Santo Domingo would not pay its debts we took charge of its financial affairs, and by an agreement with that island state we still manage them. In 1911 we made a similar financial arrangement with Nicaragua, and two years later that country practically put itself under the protection of the United States. with Canada As the American people and their Canadian neighbors speak the same language and are very much alike in their industrial, social, and political life, it is natural that the relations Friendly between them should be peculiarly intimate and friendly. relations Neither fortresses nor soldiers guard their common boundary line of more than three thousand miles. Many Canadians have migrated to the United States, and large numbers of American farmers have found new homes in the wheat-growing provinces of the Canadian Northwest. Differences over the right to fish off the shores of Newfoundland and Labrador, about the right to catch seals in Bering Sea, and over the boundary line between Canada and Alaska have arisen from time to time between Canada and her mother country, Great Britain, on the one side and the United States on the other, but these matters have all been peaceably settled by impartial arbitration. freedom The War with Spain. We have seen how the Spaniards colonized the West Indies and conquered Mexico and a large part of South America during the first half of the sixteenth The Cuban century. Early in the nineteenth century the Spanish colonies struggle for on the mainland won their independence, and the island provinces of Cuba and Porto Rico were all that Spain retained of her once vast empire in America. In 1868 the Cubans began to fight for their freedom, but after struggling for ten years they were forced to yield. By 1895, Spanish misgovernment in Cuba could be borne no longer, and a second revolt broke out in that island. In the war which followed, both sides were guilty of glaring outrages. The country was laid waste, and finally the Spanish captain-general required the inhabitants of |