It is not too late for the American to face about from his nativism, from his contentment with considering only the needs and interests of the native born, and to consider the needs of America as a whole, America as he sees it and meets it every day, in his shop or mill,--the America of the native born _and the foreign born as well_. Let him but recognize once for all that the foreigner’s needs are the same as his needs, that everyone wants a decent home and a place to sit in, and book or paper to read, a safe place to keep his savings, a chance for himself and his family to keep well,--all the varied needs of the body and the soul,--let him but recognize that the alien and the native-born both need and desire these things, and then make it his responsibility to provide them and the battle will be won. _We_ are the great adventure of the twentieth century. And the foes we have to fear are not the hosts that come to us to profit by our liberty and opportunity, but the lack of wisdom and of courage that makes us unfit to administer our heritage and to meet our destiny. Nativism is no substitute for Americanism. CHAPTER IV AMERICA-MADE CITIZENS When is a citizen not a citizen? The great game of hide and seek in America might well be called citizenship. Every naturalized male alien is a citizen as long as he stays here; but if his home country was Turkey, it is not safe for him to get back into its jurisdiction. In New York state the alien waits five years to become a citizen and vote; in Nebraska and half a dozen other states he has only to declare his intention to become a citizen and then qualify under the election law. We deny men the right to work in certain occupations unless they are citizens, yet we make them wait five years to become citizens, meanwhile failing to provide them with facilities for meeting the educational requirements for citizenship. We tolerate a system of seasonal labor and shifting of the working population which makes it physically impossible for the migratory workman to meet the legal requirements. We permit women to vote and still retain the law that naturalization follows the husband or father--thereby making it possible for the alien woman who marries a citizen or is the child of a naturalized citizen to vote as soon as she complies with the residence law, however ignorant she may be. At the same time we deny the privilege of citizenship to native-born American women who marry aliens. One of the great questions facing us to-day is the adaptation of our citizenship requirements to the needs of the country. We cannot have real Americanization until this is done. A man or woman unfit for citizenship is not wanted in America. The fit man or woman should be in every way encouraged to become the best kind of citizen and to remain so.