counterproductive to the long-rangernfuture of America that it often doesrnseem Hke a conspiracy. Yet the problem,rndear Brutus, lies not so much in the FordrnFoundation as in our natural ambivalencernabout immigration. The real problemrnis how tightiy Americans still cling tornthe mvths surrounding the Statue ofrnLiberty. Historically, immigration hasrnbeen an important part of American historv:rnwe have taken in an amazing numberrnof poor people whose children andrngrandchildren arc, today, our leading citizens.rnBut immigration is a policy thatrncannot be blindly continued.rnThe biggest challenge is how tornchange a policy which, though oncernsuccessful, has outlived its usefulness.rnWhat once made sense when we were anrncmpt continent with vast extents ofrnempt- land no longer does so in a countr-rnof 260 million people who have constructedrna massive social welfare systemrnthat, for good reason, is increasingly subjectrnto challenge. It seems to me that therntime is long past for a national debate onrnthe justification for future immigrationrnin which we ask ourselves some hardrnquestions, including:rn—How manv people do we want inrnthe America of our grandchildren?rn—Docs the United States need morernpeople for purposes of national defense?rn—Docs it have excess land in need ofrnpopulation?rn—Do we require more people to growrnfood?rn—Will more people improve thernqualit- of our health care or the qualityrnof our education?rn—Do we need additional workers forrnour economy?rn—Is the United States a too-homogeneousrncountry requiring more infusionsrnof “diversity”?rn—Does it make sense for America tornimport a new generation of poor peoplerneach year?rn—Is it in our national interest to createrna second underclass before we havernsolved the problems of the existing one?rnI submit that every problem I tried tornsolve during my 12 years as governor ofrnColorado was made worse by immigration.rnThe American economy does notrnneed more unskilled workers; it needs tornfind ways to employ our own unskilled.rnOur school systems were marginalrnenough before the influx of great numbersrnof people with new and expensivernlinguistic needs. Additional immigrantsrnalso make the problems of congestion,rnair pollution, water pollution, and thernclosing of open space worse, not better.rnThe Ford Foundation is only a smallrnpart of the problem. Its motive lies notrnso much in subversion as in the unchallengedrnnational myth. The heavy immigrationrnthat we are now experiencing isrnnot due so much to the efforts of thernNew Left as to the inarticulate middlernwhich instinctively realizes that we arernnot strengthening our country by yearlyrnwaves of Third World immigration,rnbut fails nevertheless to disenthrall itselfrnfrom the myth.rnWilliam Hawkins does perform arnvaluable service by bringing together fullrnevidence of the cumulative contributionrnof the Ford Foundation to the openborderrncause; he is less inaccurate thanrnsimply incomplete. The Marxists are arncheering section for immigration, notrnthe driving force. They would be as irrelevantrnto demography as they are to economics,rnbut for the schizophrenia of thernAmerican public. I came away from hisrnbook deeply regretting missed opportunitiesrnfor aiding our own poor. What anrnirony that, by its policies, the Ford Foundationrnshould have intensified the problemrnof poverty in the United States,rnwhile at the same time contributing tornthe further Balkanization of America.rnThe people at Ford are guilty, not of treasonrnor subversion, but of public policyrnmalpractice, pure and simple.rnRichard D. Lamm, governor of Coloradornfrom 1975 to 1987, is director of thernCenter for Public Policy andrnContemporary Issues at thernUniversity of Denver.rnBeyond Trashrnby Clyde WilsonrnBattle Flagrnby Bernard CornwellrnNew York: HarperCollins;rn384 pp., $20.00rnIn the middle part of this century onernof the main staples of the Anglo-rnAmerican reading public was the historicalrnnovel, or romance. Such “swashbucklers”rnwere not great literature, but theyrnhad their virtues. In the hands of skilledrnwriters like C.S. Forester or KennethrnRoberts, they introduced a great manyrnpeople to some decent history whichrnthey would not otherwise have encountered.rnOf course, “historical” themes havernoften been employed by great writers—rnas in War and Peace, George Garrett’srnElizabethan novels, or, in the case of thernWar Between the States, such works asrnAndrew Lytle’s The Long Night, CarolinernGordon’s None Shall Look Back, or GorernVidal’s Lincoln. But I am speaking ofrnwriters a cut below this level—thoughrnthe dividing line between a great and arnvery good writer is not necessarily thatrnsharply defined. Historical novelists likernForester and Roberts and many othersrnflourished in a day when millions readrnthem along with William Faulkner in thernold Saturday Evening Post.rnForester’s Captain Horatio Hornblower,rnRoberts’ Northwest Passage, RafaelrnSabatini’s Captain Blood and Scaramouche,rnand Kathleen Winsor’s ForeverrnAmber, along with many others,rnbecame lavish movie productions thatrnbrought to the masses a not-contemptiblernelementary introduction tornimportant epochs of the past (and managedrnto entertain them without gore,rnfour-letter words, or onscreen copulation)rn. Similar works that were excellentrnbut which did not make it into thernmovies were the Civil War and WorldrnWar stories of John W. Thomason andrnJames Warner Bellah, and the colonialrnnovels of Inglis Fletcher. Though romanticized,rnsuch works were generallyrnaccurate in historical setting. Their fictionalrncharacters were genuinely representative,rnif somewhat unnaturally highlighted,rnpersons, and they mingled withrnreal historical figures who were authenticallyrnportrayed and brought to life.rnIf there is any merit in this genre of literature,rnwe have indeed fallen on evilrntimes. The staples of the reading public,rnand the viewing public, are now suchrnpseudohistorieal fictions as the works ofrnthe execrable John Jakes and the fakerrnAlex Haley. The trouble with such booksrnand the sordid television docudramasrnthat are made from them is that, whilernTo order these books, (24hrs, 365 days)rnplease call (800) 962-6651 (Ext. 5200)rnJUNE 1995/35rnrnrn