The average native American is local, provincial, self-interested, constitutionally opposed to any change that may threaten his particular established local order. The average native employer looks askance at anything that may upset his labor supply, be that a shop census or workmen’s compensation. The average native employee does not take to such new-fangled ideas as health insurance and promotion based on record. It is the native-born American woman who crosses to the American side of the street and who still meets and discusses the immigrant as a problem. I suspect it was a native American who dubbed the Italians “dagoes,” the Hungarians, “hunkies,” the Lithuanians “round heads,” and so on. There is no better invention for prolonging personal conflict than derisive nicknames, and America seems to have done its share in this direction. It is natural that those who carry responsibilities should be conservative, but the native American seems to me to carry this responsibility to the verge of reaction and antagonism. I am reminded of a time when I had occasion to summon an employer and employee before me for a hearing upon a wage dispute and was reminded that it was presumption to set the employee opposite the employer to discuss such a trivial matter on equal terms. I am constantly asked to entertain women’s clubs who find immigration “interesting,” but whose members shrink from the neighborly services which they might render in their own communities. There are always many exceptions to any general statement. But this does not alter the fact that the native American has a point of view, a state of mind, a prejudiced observance, a sense of superiority--which makes him greatly in need of Americanization. This is acquired by the native boy and girl early in life. What opportunity has the average native-born boy and girl to learn about American citizenship and its duties and rights? The public and parochial schools give little more than history and an indifferent kind of civil government, which seems to us as we learn it to have little to do with us or our future. Our patriotic days are largely holidays from school, filled with fun and pranks, but rarely with any sense of their real significance. They seem to have nothing to do with the very freedom we enjoy on those days. The boy becomes a voter by the mere act of registering his name. The average girl is unconscious that she ever _becomes_ a citizen unless she is interested in suffrage or anti-suffrage, or unless practical property questions arise. We can hardly expect under these conditions much realization of what nationalism means, or that a call to national service will meet with much response. The surprising thing is that in spite of our official neglect and indifference, youths are filled with patriotism and desire to serve, if it can be utilized before the shop and home absorb all their energies.