THE COMPOSITE OF RACES AND RELIGIONS IN AMERICA. 243 



3. Tlic Social Coiiipositc. 



It was my thought, in forming the outline of this paper, to 

 discuss the psychologic composite in America. But apart from 

 the extremely difficult nature of this task and my own inability 

 to accomplish it, is the fact that it is inextricably entangled in 

 the social and religious composite which I desire to present as 

 fully as possible. Psychology touches both of these at every 

 turn, and can scarcely be considered apart from them. 



The American people in origin, in history, and by the very 

 necessity of their living conditions, have been characteristically 

 individualists. If there is in them one dominant and universal 

 trait, this is it. The unlimited resources and wide-stretching 

 free lands have spelled opportunity, have required industrial 

 initiative, have demanded and developed hardihood and 

 courage, and have produced a type of manhood which thinks, 

 chooses, determines, acts for itself in every emergency and 

 upon every question. Not only have conditions fostered 

 individualism, but the immigrants brought it with them. It 

 was another of the causes and the fruits of the Eeformation. 

 Pennsylvania with its Quaker, German, and Ulsterman, all 

 intense individualists, has already been referred to. 



This quality will not disappear, but it will manifest itself in 

 new ways. Already the change is rapidly coming about. At 

 this time about one-half of America's population is urban. In 

 the industrial north-eastern part three-fourths of it is so. 

 Here dwells 85 per cent, of the immigrant people. Social 

 maladjustment has been inevitable. The congestion of foreign 

 peoples in sections of large cities has accentuated the situation. 

 Health and housing problems must be solved. Slavic people, 

 for instance, living for centuries in the open country, do not 

 know how to adapt themselves to the city environment. To 

 create an agency wise enough, discreet and skilful enough, to 

 direct the arriving immigrant to the section of country and 

 form of employment best suited to his past tastes and training 

 is most difficult. It is obvious that untoward social conditions 

 have been unavoidable, and equally obvious that a remedy 

 cannot at once be applied. Out of this situation, the social 

 reformer, the wise one and the foolish one, has arisen. Peril is 

 not absent. Multitudes feel that wrong and injustice lurk in 

 conditions, but they do not know how to find or remove them. 

 The good man and the bad man are equally at a loss. All 

 unite in this, however, that organized society must somehow 

 discover the evil and provide the remedy. 



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