All through this study we have sought to remember that there are two sides to every question, and two to every phase of this great immigration question. Especially is this true when we come to estimating effects upon character, for here we are in the domain of inference and of reasoning from necessarily limited knowledge. Here, too, temperament and bias play their part. One person learns that of every five persons you meet in New York four are of foreign birth or parentage, notes the change in personality, customs, and manners, and wonders how long our free institutions can stand this test of unrestricted immigration. Another answers that the foreigners are not so bad as they are often painted, and that the immorality in the most foreign parts of New York is less than in other parts. [Sidenote: Different Opinions] A third says it is not fair to count the children of foreign-born parents as foreign; that they are in fact much stronger Americans in general than the native children of native parentage; and instances the flag-drills in the schools, in which the foreign children take the keenest delight, as they do in the study of American history. But a fourth says, with Professor Boyesen, that it takes generations of intelligent, self-restrained, and self-respecting persons to make a man fit to govern himself, and that if the ordinary tests of intelligence and morality amount to anything, it certainly would take three or four generations to educate these newcomers up to the level of American citizenship. [Sidenote: Conflicting Views] One observer of present conditions says there is a lowered moral and political tone by reason of immigration; and another agrees with a leader in settlement work who recently said to the writer that he sees no reason to restrict immigration, that wages will take care of themselves and the foreigner steadily improve, and that there is in the younger foreign element a needed dynamic, a consciousness of Americanism, an interest in everything American in refreshing contrast to the _laissez-faire_ type of native young person now so common. His conclusion, from contact with both types, is that the intenseness and enthusiasm of the foreign element will make the native element bestir itself or go under. [Sidenote: Mean between Extremes] So opinions run, pro and con. There must be a mean between the two extremes--the one, that God is in a peculiar sense responsible for the future of the United States, and cannot afford to let our experiment of self-government fail, however foolish and reckless the people may be; and the other, that unless Congress speedily passes restrictive laws the destiny of our country will be imperiled beyond remedy. We find such a mean in that Americanization which includes evangelization as an essential part of the assimilating process. [Sidenote: Foreigners Everywhere]