The Naval Consulting Board, representing the best brains in the country yet called together for industrial preparedness, pays its own bills, largely because of our national lack of vision and the “Pork barrel” methods of Congress. In the growing demand for a more united America it is apparent that America needs a national spirit which shall combine reverence and service; a national consciousness which shall be willing to give as well as to receive benefits and to put something into politics as well as take something out; an ideal, which shall make every resident give something of his interest, service, time, and money _voluntarily_ to America without waiting for conscription and without quibbling over “rights,” “emergencies,” “time of need,” or “obligations of business.” The practical questions before America are how to become Americanized and how to stay Americanized. The answer to the first question comprehends all measures of preparedness adapted to our present needs. The answer to the second question comprehends America’s policy after the war. In the measure in which we answer the first question so shall we answer the second. Let no one suppose that anything short of a national policy, purpose, and consciousness in which each one of us does his full share, will meet the critical need of the hour. We are agreed in the hope that America shall endure as a great nation; that we wish to preserve our free institutions and constitutional guarantees. We are also generally agreed that America shall rank in the world as a nation of vision, courage, ideals, opportunity, and achievement; and that, last of all, out of this democracy we hope to get the greatest amount of aspiration, happiness, and achievement _per man_ that it is possible for a strong nation to have. These are not to be achieved by inaction or by misdirected action. We are at the point where every act counts for or against the future of America. I believe our capacity for nationalism is in exact proportion to the measures we take for its achievement. The war has taught us that it cannot be left to the complacency of the native American or to the voluntary efforts of the immigrant. A general melting pot tended by no one in particular does not necessarily brew a nation. This is even more true when we find so many other self-interested nations and people stirring this pot. The war has also taught us that the demand for cheap labor cannot continue to be the chief determining factor in the admission of immigrants--because of America’s new interest in aliens as prospective citizens. We not only have a present nation-size job of assimilation, but we need to prepare ourselves for the problems that will accompany negotiations for peace. We shall have at least three questions of great and far-reaching importance--incoming immigration, outgoing emigration, and citizenship status in America and abroad.