How can we expect people from all the nations of the earth, from all kinds of governments and traditions, to understand the principles of liberty, as they have been handed down to us? The one thing they do understand is that the surveillance that prevails in the old country does not prevail here. Take the small business man or small factory operator of foreign birth in New York, the frequenter of the bankruptcy court, the owner of flimsy factory lofts which, when they have been burnt down, show the evasion of the most obvious laws. These men as youths in new America see that every man is free to try his hand at anything he wishes. Seeing _only_ this, they get the idea that the great American game is the strife of one man against the other, that this island of Manhattan and this country are a land of single combat on a large scale, of which competition is the real secret, endurance and cunning and aggression the winning qualities. When they once get this idea, and they often get it very rapidly, they follow it as the dominating principle of their practical existence in America. I say their practical existence, because the methods pursued by many immigrant traders, business and professional men in this country do not represent at all _any moral point of view which they have evolved themselves_. What they do represent is a practical routine, a thoughtless application of the principles they see Americans practicing all around them. And unlike the Americans, they have no background of American tradition which will interpret differences and distinctions to them and give them a _general_ criterion. Certain things are essential to elucidating and preserving Americanism. One of these is a common language. Not until the necessity for national defense was thrust upon us have we considered seriously requiring that all American residents learn English. It is true we said in 1906 that all naturalized citizens must have a knowledge of the English language, but we neglected to define what we meant, so the knowledge may consist of as many words as each of several hundred judges may decide is a fair test. Not until the business man found that a knowledge of English reduced accidents did he indorse night schools. Only two states require compulsory attendance of minors under eighteen years of age to learn the English language. This lack of a common language has prevented the American born and foreign born from getting together in a common Americanism. It has been a closed door to nationalism.