Let the states decide

摘要

In A rare lapse of judgment, Benjamin Franklin once complained that German immigrants "swarm into our settlements" and "will never adopt our Language or Customs". Today, 97% of German-Americans speak only English at home. And although they are perhaps America's largest single ethnic group-46m claim German ancestry-their neighbours barely notice them, so thoroughly have they assimilated (see page 25). Agreeable Teutonic customs, such as drinking beer with pretzels and watching sports on Sunday, have spread throughout the land. Tedious ones, such as reading Nietzsche, have not. The success of people who arrived poor and now prosper mightily, is evidence that the melting pot works. It is a rebuke to those who demand ever-higher fences to keep foreigners out.