summarize this text: “Our swarming immigrants do not wish for a wilderness, nor for enemies. They like an established nation, with free education, free hospitals, free nursing, and more remunerative [high-paying] employment than they can find at home. The amazing thing is the cheerful willingness with which the American people are giving up their country to other people, so rapidly that they are already reduced to a scant half of the population. No one is to blame but ourselves. The noble spirit of our founders, and their complete ignorance of sociology began the trouble. They honestly imagined that one kind of man was as good as another if he had the same opportunity—unless his color was different. Consequently they announced…that this country was ‘an asylum for the poor and oppressed of all nations.’ Never was a nation founded at so high a level of political idealism. However, there were …things which our generous founders could not foresee…colossal selfishness ready to sacrifice the good of the country to private profit…[W]hen we scour Europe for “cheap labor,” deliberately seeking poor citizens instead of good ones …the resultant flood of low-grade humanity is not immigration at all, but sheer importation. We used fondly to take for granted that the incoming millions loved the country as we did, and felt eager to join it. Some of them do. Enormous numbers do not. It is quite true that we ourselves are a mixed race—as are all races today—and that we were once immigrants. All Americans have come from somewhere else. But all persons who come from somewhere else are not therefore Americans…The American people, as representing a group culture, brought with them from England and Holland and Scandinavia the demand for freedom and the capacity to get it.

1 answer

The text discusses the presence of immigrants in America who are seeking a more stable nation with better opportunities, such as free education, healthcare, and higher-paying jobs. The author criticizes the American people for giving up their country so willingly, attributing this to the noble yet naive ideals of the country's founders. The text emphasizes the importance of understanding the differences between true immigration and simply importing cheap labor, and highlights the need to preserve the values that America was founded upon.