After the Conference he asked me whether he could see me that afternoon
at my hotel; he wanted to talk about contributing to the magazine.
When he came, before approaching the object of his talk, he launched
out on a tirade against the President of the United States; the
weakness of the Cabinet, the inefficiency of the Congress, and the
stupidity of the Senate. If words could have killed, there would have
not remained a single living member of the Administration at Washington.
After fifteen minutes of this, I reminded him of his speech and the
emphasis which he had placed upon the necessity of inculcating in the
foreign-born respect for American institutions.
Yet this man was a power in his community, a strong influence upon
others; he believed he could Americanize others, when he himself,
according to his own statements, lacked the fundamental principle of
Americanization. What is true of this man is, in lesser or greater
degree, true of hundreds of others. Their Americanization consists of
lip-service; the real spirit, the only factor which counts in the
successful teaching of any doctrine, is absolutely missing.
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