American labor. While this is so, the standard of living of the Oriental could witht doubt be promptly raised if his participation in American life were freed from the itating incumbrances which now make it so difficult. The situation on the Pacific, oreover, becomes doubly significant in view of its international bearings. We cannot, reason, expect any degree of good will from the Asiatics, above all from the Japanese, we persist in making their immigration to our shores and their subsequent fates here little attractive as we do at present. The Japanese as a world-power have received me strenuous schooling and they have learned only too well. The insincerity, selfishess, and greed which have characterized the white man's dealings in Asia, including our wn, have evoked a protective reaction on the part of the Japanese, and they are today ady to meet us on our own terms unless there is a radical change in our Asiatic policy. To thoughtful American, when considering the problems of the coast, has a right to orget that in the distant background there is an Asiatic coast to conciliate. On the Jewish situation I shall touch but briefly. As a problem it is of recent oriin, but with regret we must note that the rise of anti-Semitic sentiment threatens to reate before long a situation not unlike those which the Jew has often had to face in is European past. All that can be said here is this: no fair-minded student or observer an fail to recognize that no valid racial or cultural grounds for discrimination or friction re present in this case. The problem is therefore one of pure prejudice. The more of t we have, the heavier will be the shadow cast upon our own culture. All present ndications notwithstanding, let us hope that we will have less and less of it. With reference to our minor racio-cultural problems, I want to note the following ew suggestions. If we are to deal effectively with the European immigrant, not only must we help him to know us, but we must learn to know him. As the case stands today, he is helped but little to know us. As to knowing him, our ignorance of the cultural background of our European guests is as amazing as it is distracting. Another costly error in our attitude toward the immigrant refers to the matter of naturalization. There is no reason whatsoever why naturalization should be prompted and hurried as it is today. Those of the immigrants who like us well enough to stay and participate in our political life will soon enough be prompted by self-interest to become full-fledged citizens. Those, on the other hand, who want to return to the other country may do so without causing by their departure either loss or regret. Those, finally, who may want to stay without naturalization, should be permitted to do so in a spirit of fair play, for the give and take of culture involves much more than mere legalized participation in political life. With reference to the policy of restriction, I want to say that I regard it as resting on bad biology and worse psychology. The political doctrine implied, moreover, is equally vicious. I believe in free immigration as I do in free trade, and it is my conviction that a tariff on imported human commodities will not result in a wholesome stimulation to the breeding and education of men and women within the country. As a final word to these somewhat rambling remarks, let me say this. National problems such as these cannot be solved satisfactorily if self-interest is the only consideration. The time is upon us when a degree of idealism must enter into the solution of national and international problems, and immigration is not only a national but an international problem. For generations the bigness of world-issues has blinded men The reference is to the alleged biological and psychological inferiority of other races to the white and of other white stocks to the Nordic. to the cheapness of the ethical foundations involved in our policies. It is time to learn that national ethics must rise to the level of the ethics of the individual at his best. Idealism in national behavior must grow up as a worthy companion to the idealism which is so essential an ingredient in the ethics of the individual. HELPING THE HOSPITAL SOCIAL WORKER TO Michael M. Davis, Jr., Executive Secretary, Committee on Dispensary The primary requisite for real success in social work with the foreign born is knowledge and understanding of the people, their backgrounds, and characteristics. We talk much about making the patient understand what the doctor or the social worker wants. The first step in "making the patient understand" is to see that the patient is understood! Italian, Pole, Russian, Armenian, Jew, Greek, come to the clinic or hospital with ideas, customs, and habits which are distinctive, which may seem "queer" to the American born, because they are different, but which have roots in the life and customs of a people and are as much a part of the patient's personality as our personal habits and customs and points of view are. Many foreign born patients, for instance, are afraid of hospitals. They have been brought up in small towns or in peasant communities in which the only hospitals were at a distance, and they learned to regard hospitals as strange places to which people went to die. Of the modern hospital, as a place of healing, and prevention, and education, they have no conception whatever. We must understand something of the patient's background and emotions if we are to substitute understanding and confidence for ignorance and fear. Many foreign born are accustomed to very different food from that which Americans are used to. They dislike the hospital because they do not get there food that they like, since they are used to something different. In the clinic the doctor's work with the undernourished child, with the case of kidney disease or diabetes, is seriously handicapped because his prescriptions for diet are not adapted to the patient's established food habits or the mother's century-old customs of cooking. To understand something about the habitual foods and food habits of the chief groups of foreign born needs to be part of the possession of every social worker in hospital or clinic. Then she is in position to help doctor and patient intelligently. There is much need of interpreters in hospitals and dispensaries. Comparatively few institutions have realized the need, or have been able to employ skilled persons to meet it. The financial obligation would indeed be impossible to meet if the ordinary hospital or dispensary, among whose patients only a comparatively small number of each particular foreign country was represented, had to employ a special person for each of these languages, or even chief groups of languages. There would not be enough work to keep them all busy all the time, and part-time employment is unsatisfactory. Consequently, it is only in very large institutions with a great number of foreign speaking patients of a few languages, that one or more paid interpreters can be employed on full time. The social worker in the hospital or dispensary can not usually be familiar with many foreign languages, rarely with more than one. She can, however, greatly assist the hospital and dispensary in the problem of interpretation in two ways: first, by co-operative work with the foreign born themselves, that is, patients and organizations; and second, by the use of foreign language literature and phrase books. Patients can be drawn upon to interpret for one another. This arrangement, however, is often unsatisfactory as a regular dependence. Organizations of the foreign born, however, exist in all communities where there are any large number of a single immigrant race. These organizations are frequently eager to take advantage of the opportunity to co-operate with an institution like a hospital or dispensary, to assist in providing volunteer interpreters or visitors who, at periodical intervals, will come to the institution to act as interpreters and advisers to the hospital staff, and in particular to the social service department in its endeavors to understand more adequately the personal and environmental problems of patients. This plan of co-operation helps very much with the hospital; less with the dispensary patients, since the hours at which the out-patients can attend cannot always be adjusted to those at which the foreign speaking volunteer can be present. Routine interpretation at the admission desk of a dispensary or hospital can only be provided by paid service, as this is a full-time job, but the co-operation with patients and with organizations of foreign born will often be sufficient to provide social workers with enough service for their case work. The use of literature in foreign languages is helpful, but literature should be regarded as a supplement to the spoken word, not as a substitute for it. The social worker herself who is called upon to deal with many foreign speaking patients can, without undue effort, learn a little of at least one of the chief languages of her clientèle. Of much practical assistance are phrase books giving the words and sentences frequently used in medical and health work. The English-Italian Phrase Book for Social Workers, by Miss Edith Waller, with its special supplement for the use of physicians, is a good example. There was published in 1916 A Handbook of Phrases in Four Languages (Italian, Bohemian, German, and English), especially for the use of district nurses. This was issued by the Visiting Nurses' Association of Cleveland, Ohio, under the auspices of the National Organization for Public Health Nursing. In 1918 the national organization itself published a smaller handbook of phrases in Spanish and English. The Visiting Nurses' Association of Topeka, Kansas, prepared a brief list of phrases for its nurses, "just to give them a start." More important than interpreting the language is interpreting the patient; more important than understanding what the patient says is understanding what the pat is. This means a knowledge of his racial background and the characteristic * view which members of his group have in this country. This can be gotten books and special study of the history of the races most prominent amor worker's clientèle; from lectures or appropriate college courses. Acad alone, however, is almost valueless without personal contact with the i Case work conferences and periodical meetings of the staffs of soc ments and other groups of social workers may well include a certain nu to which local leaders of the chief immigrant groups are invited (one & Immigrants themselves, influential in local organizations of their race, a sons who are familiar at first hand with these races locally, should be invited. arouses more interest or better understanding of an immigrant group than hearing it described or discussed by a man or woman of the right type who is close to the people. Considerable time and effort is required to arrange such conferences, for the right contact with the right individuals or organizations must be made, but the time is well worth while, and has often a transforming influence upon the attitude of an entire staff of social workers toward important groups with whom they have to deal. Once the social worker secures the right start in understanding the racial background and personal characteristics of the Italian, the Pole, the Lithuanian, the Jew, the Greek, etc., there rapidly builds upon this foundation a body of knowledge and appreciation out of her continuing contact with her "cases." In conclusion perhaps I may quote seven recommendations which I have made in a recent book in reference to the adaptation of social work and of social workers to effective service to the immigrant: 1. The first necessity of the field worker is to find a medium of communication with the foreign born. The majority will have to depend upon interpreters. Since the employment of trained, paid, full-time interpreters is rarely practicable, some plan for securing them when needed must be developed. The chief point is that securing interpreters must be systematic, not haphazard. In field work, calling in or taking along one of a certain number of regular local interpreters is much better than calling in a chance neighbor or child. Valuable means exist here of building up organized co-operation with and among the foreign born. In so far as the field agents are equipped with enough knowledge of the backgrounds and characteristics of the immigrants to understand them in general, and with enough knowledge of the language to get the main points of the situation, interpretation will almost take care of itself. 2. Knowledge of the immigrant's language is a great help. It enables the health worker to use her interpreter intelligently; it also creates a feeling of confidence and appreciation on the part of the patient and of sympathy and readiness of approach on the part of the worker. 3. Experience in using foreign language literature establishes two facts: first, where literature of any kind is to be given those not speaking English, it should be in their mother-tongue. Second, literature is comparatively ineffective except as a supplement to the spoken word. When so used, and when followed up by a personal conference with the professional worker, it helps to drive things home, to serve as a reminder, and to spread a little more widely the message given to the individual patient. It is important that the persons preparing such literature be sufficiently informed about the subject-matter and also have enough facility in the foreign language to present the ideas simply and interestingly. Such highly skilled persons are often beyond the command of a local organization, and this is one good reason why much of the foreign language literature giving instruction in hygiene and in the care of various diseases should be prepared by national or state authorities who could make it available to an indefinite number of local agencies. 4. The children, because of their superior knowledge of English and of American customs, sometimes offer the readiest means of access to immigrant parents. Great caution, however, must be observed in utilizing children "to teach their parents," lest the disintegration of family life be encouraged. 5. Localization of field work, restricting one set of workers to a compact area with headquarters in the district, fosters familiarity and subsequent confidence. 6. To secure the co-operation of the foreign born themselves is one of the most important and difficult tasks confronting field workers. 7. The primary requisite for success in field work with the foreign born, the point upon which all other measures depend, is knowledge and understanding of the people, their backgrounds, and characteristics. COMMUNITY ORGANIZATION AND THE IMMIGRANT John Daniels, English Speaking Union, New York For the most part community organizers still view the community from the outside only. They conceive of the "organization" of the community not as its own natural internal organization, corresponding to the natural organization of the body, but as something largely external and applied from without, like a string that moves the arms and legs of a toy-man, or a spring that can be wound up to operate a mechanism, or some design to which the community must be made to conform. In other words, community organization is thought of, not as the real organization which already exists, but as something artificial which must be devised, brought in, and operated. De Tocqueville, writing in 1830, said of the New England township that it was an "association which is so perfectly natural that wherever a number of men are collected it seems to constitute itself." Every community has an organization which is perfectly natural and constitutes itself. Sometimes, as under rural conditions, this organization is very rudimentary. Sometimes, as under city conditions, it is very complex. But always it is present and, if carefully looked for, is discernible. Is not the essential task of the community organizer to become sufficiently familiar with this natural organization of the community in general, and of each given community in particular, to be able to correct its ills or weaknesses, develop it at certain points as needed, properly co-ordinate its functions, and in short make it more effective? This paper is intended to deal especially with community organization involving the immigrant. In such study of this field as the writer has made no fact emerges more clearly than that in such attempts as have been made at community organization affecting the immigrant, few, comparatively, have been the instances where the organizers first familiarized themselves, from the inside, with the natural organization of the immigrants themselves, and then proceeded to co-ordinate that organization with the natural organization of the community as a whole. es to The truth of this general statement may be left to shift for itself. Though illustrations could be multiplied, time will be taken here to cite only one the methods of community councils, which were heralded as t! their professed purpose being to represent and co-ordinate all nity. The writer had access to certain inner records of the co midwestern state. Here are some excerpts. In one town, "foreign societies, union labor, and the attend" because "they have always remained by themsel town, "union labor and foreign groups" were not invited, on of the Council was not really understood" by them. The i nity were referred to as "accustomed to keeping together to the The Americans thus excluded, however, announced at the m |