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207 In the West one is frequently confronted by the questions, What will be the effect on the Americans of the Future of the vast hordes of Germans which yearly invade & settle in the country? Whole districts are occupied by them, beginning in Pennsylvania, to the exclusion of the English language. In the Western towns you will see street after street in which half, or more than half, the names are German. They have their own Hotels, their own newspapers, their own theatres. It seems a greater invasion than that of the Roman Empire by their Fathers. That overthrew the Empire, & for a time disorganized society, however it did not extend the language of the Fatherland into Italy, Spain, or France. But here is a continuous stream of between 200,000 & 300,000 every year, coming, not with sword & torch, to slay & to burn, or to perish themselves, but with the ax & the plough, to clear away the forest, & to cultivate the soil. Every one that comes is taken up into that entity which will be the America of the Future. What then will be the effect? Many Americans fear that it will not be good. "Because," say they, "the Germans are deficient in spirituality". That is the word they use. "They have no religious "devotion: this element appears to have been left out of their com"position." I am disposed to think that they will have very little power to modify the future character of the nation. First; because they are all learning,