THE CALL OF THE LAND 



thetic spirit, not avoided, scolded, or dealt 

 with in a patronizing way. 



Severer naturalization and franchise laws 

 are not to be commended. They would turn 

 the evil into a positive danger. A vast pop- 

 ulation of well-meaning residents in a state 

 wishing the franchise but denied it is a 

 peril of the first magnitude. Our laws in 

 these matters require, not change, but 

 honest administration and enforcement. 

 Present statutes excluding undesirable for- 

 eigners should be carried out with dis- 

 crimination and in good faith. 



Were immigration to continue indefin- 

 itely on the vast scale witnessed in recent 

 years, there would be much to say in favor 

 of keeping out classes of foreigners now 

 welcomed, but the present inrush cannot go 

 on, for the reason, among many, that our 

 free arable land is gone. 



Improvement in our civic life will aid 

 whatever purifies Americanism and holds it 

 to its high ideals all that tends to good 

 morals, justice, regard for man as man. 

 Better wages would ameliorate the situation 



148 



