Finally, I spent an evening with Seth Low, and, of course, got the
desired information.
But fancy the quest I had been compelled to make to acquire the simple
information that should have been placed in my hands or made readily
accessible to me. And how many foreign-born would take equal pains to
ascertain what I was determined to find out?
Surely America fell short here at the moment most sacred to me: that of
my first vote!
Is it any easier to-day for the foreign citizen to acquire this
information when he approaches his first vote? I wonder! Not that I
do not believe there are agencies for this purpose. You know there
are, and so do I. But how about the foreign-born? Does he know it?
Is it not perhaps like the owner of the bulldog who assured the friend
calling on him that it never attacked friends of the family? "Yes,"
said the friend, "that's all right. You know and I know that I am a
friend of the family; but does the dog know?"
Is it to-day made known to the foreign-born, about to exercise his
privilege of suffrage for the first time, where he can be told what
that privilege means: is the means to know made readily accessible to
him: is it, in fact, as it should be, brought to him?
It was not to me; is it to him?
One fundamental trouble with the present desire for Americanization is
that the American is anxious to Americanize two classes--if he is a
reformer, the foreign-born; if he is an employer, his employees.
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