Theodore Roosevelt describes the problems he observes in a county that has absorbed successive waves of immigrants. Some of the newcomers to the county are wealthy, and for the most part, they do not dwell there and contribute to community life. The people who do have roots in the county are made up of a mix of “old native stock” and new immigrants, and each group has its own problems. Among the old families, the philosophy of individualism, with no responsibility owed to others, has degraded the sense of community. Although material prosperity has grown, many families have regressed. Rather than stewarding their good fortune wisely, they frittered it away in get-rich-quick schemes or simply stopped working. In addition to being seduced by wealth, many of them lost church connections. This loss leads to a tendency “to let the home run down and to be shiftless in labor.”
The immigrants offer a different set of problems. They value hard work, but they prize self-reliance so highly as to lack a sense of duty to the community. The Germans and the Irish were able to assimilate into the community over time, but the recent immigrants, predominantly Poles and Italians, find assimilation more difficult. The public school is the only “Americanizing institution” they encounter, and while the school does admirable work, other agencies must reinforce and supplement the schools’ work. The church is among those agencies, along with guilds and societies and clubs for men and women.
Finally, Roosevelt discusses the need to provide healthy entertainment, including hard sport. The YMCA and the Boy Scouts are commended for their contributions to the growth of young men. These organizations may be key to stemming the tide of migration from the rural areas into the cities.
This article was published in Ladies Home Journal in October 1917.
