TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
 

CHAPTER XXIII

A   SOCIO-ETHNIC   PROBLEM

THE  PROBLEM  STATED — SYNTHETIZATION

The task of democracy from the socio-ethnic stand¬
point is primarily synthetization rather than assimila¬
tion. These two latter ideas are different. Assimilation
is the process of growing alike or a "process of growing
resemblance"* and "is a mental and moral process."**
It is different from amalgamation in the sociological
sense which means "that homogeneity of blood deter¬
mined by marriage — or the tendency to form about
certain norms crystallized by marriage"t and which is
essentially a part of the process of synthetization.

When we think of synthetization we think of some¬
thing not synonymous with the former. Synthetization
means fusing in such a way as to have the product dif¬
ferent from any of its constituent parts — something
higher and more refined, as in a chemical compound
where as a result of the fusing of two constituents we
get by the synthesis a compound that is neither one nor
the other of the solubles that have entered into its com¬
position, but something more complex and entirely new
and different.

The ethnic task of our democracy has been eloquently
described in a recent address by the present Secretary
of the Interior.t In telling what Americanism was he
went on to say "it is SYNTHETIZATION or the gather¬
ing together of different races, creeds, conditions, and
aspirations and merging them into one." But this must
not be thought of as patterning itself after a copy already
existing. "There is no such thing as an American race
excepting the Indian.   WE ARE FASHIONING A NEW

*F. H. Giddings, "Inductive Sociology," p. 101.

** Lectures by F. H. Giddings at Columbia University, 1915

t Lectures by F. H. Giddings at Columbia University, 1915.

t Address by Franklin Lane before the Educational Confer¬
ence at Washington (see National Geographic Magazine, April,
1918.   What is it to be an American? page 348.)