Things were not so ordered. Immigrants were permitted to come in staggering numbers, and once in the country were admitted to the ballot with a light-hearted ease that seemed sheer insanity to many observers. The corrupt politician improved the opportunity and marshalled them to the polls in droves, often to the loudly expressed disgust of the native born. Every method of coercion, deceit, and corruption, was employed to keep the foreigner in the ranks. But this policy was foredoomed to failure from the start. In his native country the immigrant was either ignored or else kicked and cuffed about by those in authority; imagine his surprise at being courted for his political influence in the land of his adoption. The few dollars or few petty favours at first offered him for his vote may have been a very despicable method of acquainting him with the value of his political rights, but the lesson had the merit at least of being adapted to every grade of intelligence, including the lowest. Good government tracts on the duties of citizenship would hardly have proved so effective. On the whole it would be hard to imagine a worse school for citizenship, and the only wonder is that in the end it has turned out so many good citizens. A large part of the foreign vote has learned to repudiate the leadership of designing native politicians. It has developed leaders and aims of its own. Many of these leaders are doubtless quite as purely selfish as the former American leaders, and many of the aims pursued are not so high as they should be, but the political capacity to reach higher things is there; and that, after all, is the main consideration.[14] It would be easy to find fault on much the same grounds with the political ideals and leaders of those parts of the country which have been little if at all affected by immigration.