Americanization is a common citizenship. Does it make any difference what kind of citizenship, and over what road a man travels mentally, spiritually… - Frances Kellor

The first principle in race fusion is the opportunity to establish a home base in a country and a genuine love for that home. The home sense in the many peoples that have come to America is inseparable from the sense of the soil itself. Many immigrants have lived close to it, dug their hands into it, planted in it, watched their crops grow, and had a home stake around which cluster a thousand associations. Whatever there is of poetry in their lives is associated with the soil, and their worship is inseparable from it. Whatever there is heroic in their memories comes to them through it. In America it is not so. The majority of immigrants, with this land allegiance strong within them, find their way into crowded cities and unsightly industrial towns. They have little chance to plant and to harvest and to acquire a home stake; and when they do acquire it they cling to America. What do these men know, until perhaps it is too late, of the beauty of the expanse of America, and of the citizenship which gives them a partnership in national parks? What do they know of the traditions and achievements of Americans, inseparably linked with American soil? That allegiance of America which is part of real Americanization must somehow find a way of establishing affection for the soil.

Americanization is the process, then, of guaranteeing these fundamental requisites to each man, native and foreign-born alike, and just in proportion as the English language and citizenship interpret these requisites, they are Americanization agencies. The failure of Americanization in the past years is identical with the failure of these guarantees. It is in the home, the shop, the neighborhood, the church, and the court that Americanization is wrought, and the mutual relations of races in America as expressed in them will give the eternal principles of race assimilation that we seek. Today these basic points are disregarded and it is thought that committees and community councils piled high upon one another will do the work. The chief value of most of such organizations is in educating the native-born American; there is abundant evidence that the foreign-born adult is not greatly drawn to this country as a result of them.

The immigrant looks to us to exemplify our Constitution and our ideals, and in his heart he respects us less for not maintaining our own standards for all people alike. So long as we fail to realize that the desire for education, for the opportunity to worship, for fellowship, and for community service are big factors in men's lives, we shall not reach the basis of Americanization, especially in the small industrial towns now coming into new life throughout the country by the rearrangement of industries through government contracts. Neighborhood Americanization means the opportunity of each individual citizen to establish personal sympathetic relations. It is mutual cooperation in neighborhood affairs. It is the development of the school. as a community center. It is the neutral ground upon which men meet in recreation, in social relationships, and in intellectual debate.