Americanization; Civics; Immigrants -- United States; Naturalization -- United States; Noncitizens -- United States
There is just as much democracy in those people as we have, and we
do not want to lose sight of the fact that they are human beings
just like everybody else. I am the son of an immigrant from another
part of Europe. The immigrants from the southern part have just as
much ambition as the immigrants from the northern part.
I. M. Wise of Cincinnati in the same discussion said:
We have had a very fine example of the independence of the foreign
voter during the last few years in Cincinnati. We had a movement
started for the purpose of electing a prosecutor, and we found,
after investigating the returns of the election, that the victory
was due almost entirely to the foreign vote. But we had another
example some years ago when there was a movement to sell the
Cincinnati Southern Railway. This measure was defeated by a small
majority, due entirely to the German citizens who usually show more
independence than the other foreign citizens.
William Bennett Munro, in his _Government of American Cities_,[172]
discussing the reasons for the political misleading of the
foreign-born voter by corrupt leadership, points out that “the
discreet and sober use of the ballot is something not to be learned
in a day or even in a generation,” and that “it is not a matter for
surprise, then, if alien-born voters have often proved easy prey to
the sophistry and cajolery of claptrap politicians.” He says, further:
We have the testimony of seasoned campaigners that the alien-born
voter is inclined to think for himself if he has the opportunity;
but too often he does not secure even that small amount of fair
information which is necessary to furnish food for thought. As
a rule, practically all he gets concerning the facts of the
municipal situation comes to him in such form that it leads to one
conclusion only.... Experience has proved that he cannot always be
stampeded by appeals to class prejudice, or delivered blindly to
some political faction. Given a fair chance, he is, according to
authoritative testimony, a voter of at least normal independence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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