CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 In memory of 
 
 Lou CoNKLiN Ginsberg 
 
 Class of 1927 
 
 and 
 
 Alexander Ely Ginsberg 
 Class of 1926 
 
 OLIN RESEARCH LIBRARY 
 
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 3 1924 064 104 254 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924064104254 
 
i 
 
 <ji^&^Xi ^. ^iaXC 
 
IMMIGRATION 
 
 AND OTHER INTERESTS OF 
 PRESGOTT FARNSWORTH HALL 
 
 nM 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 MRS. PRESGOTT F. HALL 
 
 trbe iftnfcherbocfter press 
 
 NEW YORK 
 1922 
 
This book 
 
 I dedicate to the small group of 
 
 Immigration Restriction League men 
 
 with whom 
 
 PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL 
 
 worked so long, so painstakingly, and 
 
 so earnestly, and to whom 
 
 he threw the torch 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 vii 
 
 Foreword 
 
 Prescott Farnsworth Hall .... xiii 
 
 Selection of Immigration i 
 
 The Future of American Ideals ... 23 
 
 The Building Situation in Brookline . . 35 
 
 Brief in Favor of the Numerical Limitation Bill 44 
 
 Eugenics, Ethics and Immigration ... 52 
 
 Immigration Restriction and World Eugenics 67 
 
 Aristocracy and Politics 72 
 
 Immigration and the World War ... 78 
 
 The Present and Future of Immigration . 85 
 
 Birth Control and World Eugenics ... 98 
 Representation without Taxation . . .105 
 
 The Personal Side 119 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 By Madison Grant 
 
 The opportunity seldom offers of paying a tribute to 
 a friend who has passed away without receiving from his 
 fellow countrymen in this life the recognition that was 
 his due, but fortunately for the welfare of the nation 
 there are still among us 
 
 Men who do their work and hold their peace 
 And have no fear to die. 
 
 Such a man was Prescott P. Hall and the writer doubts 
 whether Prescott HaU himself appreciated the magni- 
 tude of his work or the debt of obligation he placed upon 
 his countrymen. Certainly during his hfe he showed no 
 signs of it nor indicated the slightest impatience at the 
 scant appreciation by the nation at large for his work. 
 
 The League for the Restriction of Immigration was 
 not only of Prescott Hall's creation but it was he who 
 kept it alive during the long decades of apathy and 
 neglect from its friends and hostiUty from its enemies. 
 
 Thanks to Mr. Hall's work, never did a legislative 
 measure receive such huge majorities time and again, 
 when restrictive bills differing in form but of similar 
 purpose finally came before Congress. 
 
 Three times restrictive measures were vetoed by 
 Presidents of profoundly different characters and acting 
 on profoundly different motives. The first veto was by 
 President Cleveland, who was impatient at the so- 
 
viii FOREWORD 
 
 called Corliss amendment, which had been improperly 
 tacked on the bill as a rider. He lived to repent his 
 action when he saw his hasty veto had opened the flood 
 gates of the Polish Ghettos into the United States, 
 draining that great swamp of human misery into the 
 Eastside of New York to spread throughout the United 
 States. In the closing years of his life, President Cleve- 
 land manfully admitted in this veto he had made a 
 terrible blunder. 
 
 During President Roosevelt's administration the 
 racial elements seeking to force their way into this coun- 
 try knew that there was no chance of a veto from that 
 sturdy American and they took refuge in the ingenious 
 scheme of postponing the issue by a prolonged investiga- 
 tion under the control of a notorious advocate of free 
 admission. This committee, after studjdng the subject 
 here and in Europe, finally recommended a Literacy 
 Test as the best practical means of restriction. This 
 Literacy Test was later embodied in a bill and passed 
 by the House and Senate and sent to the President. 
 President Taft did not understand the issues involved, 
 was confused by conflicting advisors and finally vetoed 
 the bill. 
 
 When Mr. Wilson was elected it was realized that 
 we had in the White House for the first time a man who 
 openly sympathized with the races seeking admission. 
 President Wilson himself did not come from native 
 American stock and consequently had little pride in 
 American antecedents or traditions and readily adopted 
 an international point of view. 
 
 The Literacy Test finally passed both Houses by an 
 enormous vote but President Wilson promptly vetoed 
 it. His veto was over-ridden in both Houses and be- 
 came law. This was Mr. Wilson's first real defeat by a 
 heretofore subservient legislature. In the closing days 
 
FOREWORD ix 
 
 of his administration another restrictive bill even more 
 potent than the Literacy bill, was passed by both 
 Houses and sent to him. Not daring to veto it because 
 he knew that it would be repassed by more than the 
 needed two-thirds vote, he took refuge in the device of a 
 pocket veto, which proved effective and defeated the 
 bill. 
 
 In the next administration a similar bill was passed by 
 the House of Representatives 276 to 33 and by the 
 Senate 78 to i and was promptly signed by President 
 Harding. 
 
 During this long fight from Cleveland to Harding the 
 guiding hand was that of Prescott Hall, who ceaselessly, 
 untiringly and skilfully labored year after year until he 
 finally steered the ship safely to port. He lived to see 
 not only the success of his work but the acceptance 
 throughout the country of the principles he fought for. 
 
 It took the Great World War to arouse America to 
 the danger of free immigration, whereas Prescott Hall 
 had foreseen it for thirty years or more. It was he who 
 pointed out that the alien in our midst remained an 
 alien, sometimes a good alien, more often a bad alien 
 but always an alien. 
 
 All this now seems quite obvious but it is only lately 
 that America has awakened to the fact that there were 
 two distinct sections of population within our bound- 
 aries, one native American and the other hyphenate - 
 American, some of the latter in sympathy with the 
 native Americans and others thinking that they could 
 improve our institutions and Constitution into con- 
 formity with the new standards of Eastern Europe. 
 
 When the writer looks back on his long years of as- 
 sociation in this great work with Prescott Hall he real- 
 izes the latter's unfailing steadfastness in a struggle 
 which often seemed hopeless. It is hard to understand 
 
X FOREWORD 
 
 how he was able to endure the strain, but endure it he 
 did, and to the day of his death asked for nothing for 
 himself and everything for his country. In so doing he 
 gave his countrymen the hardest of aU tasks, namely, 
 to ask them to save themselves from themselves and it 
 is for those of us who are left to carry on his work. 
 
 Prescott Hall was the first to demonstrate that when 
 immigrants of a low standard enter an American com- 
 munity it paralyzes the birth rate of the higher stock 
 and that each immigrant that lands supplants and re- 
 places a native American. 
 
 With this in mind the question of restriction becomes, 
 not a question of Labor Supply, nor of Steamship Rates 
 nor of "Refuge for the Oppressed" but solely the ques- 
 tion of whether we are willing to have our own stock 
 replaced by the peoples of southern and Eastern Europe 
 and of Western Asia. There is no problem of equal im- 
 portance before this nation. If America goes wrong and 
 allows our native Nordic stock to be replaced by half 
 Asiatic mongrels the hope of the world is gone. 
 
 This issue Prescott Hall saw and saw with the vision of 
 a prophet a full generation ahead of his countrymen. 
 Unlike most prophets he lived to see his prophesy come 
 true and his fellow countrymen awakened to the danger. 
 
 Prescott Hall served America well. He asked no 
 reward and I know of no one of our generation to whom 
 America owes so much. There are very few of us, who, 
 when our turn comes, will have the satisfaction that 
 Prescott Hall had in his last hours in knowing that his 
 work had been well done. 
 
 The lonely sentry of the outposts has been relieved 
 but he "kept the faith" and more than that can no man 
 do. 
 
PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL 
 His Life, His Activities, His Writings 
 
PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL 
 
 HIS LIFE, HIS ACTIVITIES, HIS WRITINGS 
 
 Prescott F. Hall was born in Boston, Mass., in 
 1868. After preparation at Noble's School in Boston he 
 entered Harvard, graduating from the College in 1889 
 and from the Law School in 1892. He then entered the 
 office of Hon. Robert M. Morse and afterwards that of 
 Ball & Tower. From July, 1894 to August, 1904 he 
 practised law with offices at 53 and later at 89 State 
 Street. In 1904 he formed a partnership with Edward 
 A. Adler imder the name of Adler & Hall with offices at 
 60 State Street. From 1896 to 1904 he was a member of 
 the executive committee of the Democratic Club of 
 Massachusetts, and in 1901 was elected its secretary. 
 1902-1904 he was the Chairman of its Executive Com- 
 mittee. 1902-1904 he was also a member of the Execu- 
 tive Committee of the New England Democratic League. 
 In 1904, he became a Republican, and was a member of 
 the Republican Club of Massachusetts. For some time 
 he was a member of the executive committee of the 
 New England Free Trade League and chairman of its 
 publication committee. He was a member of the Execu- 
 tive Committee of the Economic Club of Boston from 
 its foundation, and Vice-President since 1914. In 1896 
 he was a delegate to the gold Democratic convention at 
 Indianapolis, and was a member of the National Demo- 
 cratic State Committee. Later he acted as New Eng- 
 land Secretary for the Executive Committee of the 
 
xiv PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL 
 
 Monetaxy Convention of which Mr H. H. Hanna was 
 chainnan, and did considerable work in the way of 
 bringing influence to bear upon the Congressmen from 
 New England for the reform of currency. In May, 1894 
 he became one of the founders of the Immigration Re- 
 striction League, designed to secure the exclusion of the 
 most undesirable immigration and the better enforce- 
 ment of the immigration laws. He was secretary of this 
 organization from 1896 and prepared much of its 
 statistical literature. In 1905 he was chairman of 
 Massachusetts Delegation to the National Immigration 
 Conference. In 1902-1903 Mr. Hall was president of 
 the Brookline Education Society, and from 1901 was a 
 member of the corporation of the Franklin Square 
 House working girls' hotel. In 1903 he was secretary 
 of the School Committee of Brookline, Mass. From 
 1913 he was Chairman of the Immigration Committee 
 of the American Genetic Association. He was also for 
 several years interested in investigations in psychical 
 research, and in philosophy. He was a member of the 
 Union Club of Boston. During most of his life he re- 
 sided in Brookline. His family was one of the old-time 
 families which spent the winters in Boston and sum- 
 mers in Brookline. Latterly the Boston house was 
 given up. 
 He published the following books and articles: 
 
 Books 
 
 Reference List of Wills construed by the Supreme Court 
 oj Massachusetts (1896). 
 
 Massachusetts Law oj Landlord and Tenant (1899); 
 Supplement (1903); 2d ed. (1908). 
 
 Practice Schedule of Massachusetts (1902). 
 
 Examination oj Land Titles in Massachusetts (1902). 
 
PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL xv 
 
 Massachusetts Business Corporations (1903); 2d ed. 
 (1908); 3d ed. (1917). 
 
 Immigration and its Effects on the United States (1906) ; 
 2d ed. (1908). 
 
 Articles 
 
 "Voluntary Assignments and Insolvency in Massa- 
 chusetts," 8 Harvard Law Review, 265 (1894). 
 
 "The Federal Contract Labor Law," 11 Harvard Law 
 Review, 525, (1898). 
 
 "Proximate Cause," 15 Harvard Law Review, 541 
 (1902). 
 
 "Italian Immigration," 163 North American Review, 
 252 (1896). 
 
 "Immigration and the Educational Test," 163 North 
 American Review, 393 (1897). 
 
 "Present Status of Immigration Restriction," 18 
 Gunton's Magazine, 305 (1900). 
 
 "New Problems of Immigration," 30 Forum, 555 
 (1901). 
 
 "Selection of Immigration," 24 Annals American 
 Academy of Political & Social Science, 167 (July, 1904). 
 
 "Standardizing of Psychical Research Records," 
 Annals of Psychical Science (1908). 
 
 "Eugenics, Ethics, & Immigration," Publication, 
 Immigration Restriction League, No. 51 (Dec, 1908). 
 
 "Article of Immigration," Cyclopedia of Social Sci- 
 ence (1908). 
 
 "Fire Test Experiments," Journal American Society 
 for Psychical Research (1910). 
 
 "Account of Sittings with Mrs. Keeler. Journal of 
 American Society for Psychical Research (1911). 
 
 "Future of American Ideals," North American Review 
 Qan., 1912). 
 
XVI 
 
 PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL 
 
 "Recent History of Immigration and Immigration 
 Restriction," 21 Journal of Political Economy, 735-51 
 (Oct., 1913). 
 
 Review of "Immigration and Labor," by Isaac A. 
 Hourwich in American Economic Review (191 3). 
 
 Article on "Immigration" for Brookline Press (1913)- 
 
 "Experiments with Mrs. Caton" (Proceedings Amer- 
 ican Society for Psychical Research, March, 1914). 
 
 Article on "Immigration" for Cyclopedia of Social 
 Reform (1915). 
 
 Review of Fairchild's "Greek Immigration" in 
 American Economic Review (1915). 
 
 "Experiments in Astral Projection," 12 Journal 
 American Society for Psychical Research (Jan., 191 8). 
 
 Review of Jenks & Lauck "The Immigration Pro- 
 blem," 4th ed., American Economic Review. 
 
 "Immigration Restriction and World Eugenics," 10 
 Journal of Heredity (reprinted as Publication, Immigra- 
 tion Restriction League No. 71.) (1919.) 
 
 "The Harrison Case," 13 Proceedings American So- 
 ciety for Psychical Research (1920). 
 
 Review of Samuel P. Orth's "Our Foreigners" for 
 American Historical Review (1920). 
 
 Review of 10 books for American Society for Psychical 
 Research (1920). 
 
 ' ' Immigration and the World War, ' ' gs Annals Amer- 
 ican Academy of Political and Social Science (1921). 
 
 Review of 5 books for American Society for Psychical 
 Research (192 1). 
 
 Mr. Hall was a member of the following clubs and 
 societies : 
 
 Union Club of Boston. 
 Twentieth Century Club. 
 Massachusetts Reform Club. 
 
PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL xvii 
 
 Republican Club of Massachusetts. 
 
 Immigration Restriction League. 
 
 American Academy Political and Social Science. 
 
 Brookline Education Society. 
 
 First Parish Club of Brookline. 
 
 Economic Club of Boston. 
 
 Brookline Friendly Society. 
 
 Civic Federation of New England. 
 
 New England Education League. 
 
 Bostonian Society. 
 
 Trustee Franklin Square House. 
 
 The notices and letters, and extracts from letters, 
 which follow, will show further both the very wide 
 range of Mr. Hall's interests and activities and some 
 of the results which they produced. No letter refers to 
 a service which he rendered the Town of Brookline by 
 his work for the law which forbids the erection of 
 wooden apartment houses within the limits of the town ; 
 but the address itself which he delivered against the so- 
 called wooden "three-decker" will testify to his zeal and 
 activity in that direction. Though Mr. Hall, so far as is 
 known, wrote no article on music, that was none the 
 less one of his very greatest interests throughout life. 
 He was a finished pianist, and often when he was in the 
 mood would devote an entire evening to piano-playing. 
 His interest was deep, too, in the other fine arts. His 
 taste may not have been always orthodox (he was too 
 independent and original a thinker for that); but in 
 general it was keenly appreciative of what was best in 
 sculpture, architecture, painting and literature. 
 
 CONCERNING PARK STREET CHURCH 
 
 In the early part of 1900, the Park Street Church and 
 Congregation, of Boston, had decided that owing to the 
 
XVlll 
 
 PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL 
 
 depleted numbers in the Congregation and the appar- 
 ent hopelessness of the situation, it would be best to 
 move Park Street Church to some other location, and 
 action was taken which would have resulted in a demoli- 
 tion of the present edifice. Mr. Hall, with his loyalty to 
 Boston, her institutions, and her best architectural 
 examples, threw his whole energy into an effort to pre- 
 vent what he thought and felt to be a most unfortunate 
 move. He was successful in securing a temporary in- 
 junction, until a more definite action could be taken, 
 with the result that the Church was kept at its present 
 location. 
 
 Again, in 1906, when Dr. Conrad assumed the Pastor- 
 ate of Park Street Church, he called on Mr. Hall for his 
 assistance in securing funds for the rehabilitation of the 
 Church. Mr. Prescott F. Hall, Mr. Joseph Lee and 
 Mr. Edward R. Warren co-operated with Dr. Conrad in 
 securing ten thousand dollars for the complete renova- 
 tion of the Chiu-ch. Mr. Hall was intensely active in 
 this movement and to him great credit is due for what 
 was then accomplished. His wisdom has been vindi- 
 cated in that the Church congregations for the past 
 fifteen years have guaranteed the future of the Church 
 for a long time to come. Dr. Conrad has repeatedly 
 expressed his high esteem and great appreciation of Mr. 
 Hall and the assistance he rendered. 
 
 FROM A LETTER OF A BROOKLINE PHYSICIAN 
 
 No one could have known Prescott Famsworth Hall 
 from his boyhood, through his years at college, and then 
 on through his professional life, without being impressed 
 by the fact that in him was merged the analytical mind 
 in a supersensitive body. 
 
 The why and wherefore of things always interested 
 
PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL xix 
 
 him and the solution of difficult problems was his great- 
 est delight. He might justly be called a student in all 
 fields. Especially is this true in the field of medicine. 
 In his college days he seriously considered entering the 
 medical profession ; and always he read the best medical 
 journals and knew all the present-day theories concern- 
 ing diseases, medicines and germs. 
 
 It can be truly said of him that the mind ruled the 
 body and the latter was unequal to the strain. 
 
 FROM ANOTHER DOCTOR FRIEND 
 
 I have never known a layman and, indeed, I have 
 never known a medical man who had such singular 
 wealth of knowledge of the domain of Medicine in its 
 broad sense. 
 
 He was conversant with the status of Medicine as it 
 was presented in the current literature to a phenomenal 
 degree. He was abreast of the very latest progress in 
 Biology. Of human Psychology he conversed with a 
 breadth of understanding and thorough grasp of his 
 subject that used to make me gasp for breath. He 
 seemed able to instantly grasp the thought of the writers 
 and investigators of the day, almost before they had 
 uttered it, and then to seize their standard of results and 
 carry it on triumphantly ahead of the very originator! 
 
 Psychology, as applied to Medicine, had a great lure 
 for him and he brought to its discussion a mind whose 
 acumen was extraordinary. Like all men who are 
 possessed of great lucidity of thought, and a memory of 
 marvelous retentiveness, he handled the vast knowledge 
 gleaned as a master-workman would his tools and it was 
 a joy as well as a marvel to me to get glimpses into the 
 innumerable chambers of his knowledge which he 
 seemed to enter with the utmost security and familiarity. 
 
XX PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL 
 
 He had the investigating and analytical mind to an 
 exceptional degree. All things were of interest and to 
 them all he seemed to give a tolerant ear. He was es- 
 sentially a listener. 
 
 FROM A SCIENTIFIC FRIEND 
 
 I count my meeting Mr. Hall one of the most pleasant 
 experiences of my life. Perhaps that feeling arose from 
 the fact of his being such an ardent student, vmafraid 
 to delve into any science that would add to his already 
 great store of knowledge. 
 
 It was a delight to discuss the many problems of my 
 scientific researches with him. In all cases, however 
 different these problems were, his mind grasped not 
 only the details, but it would add many facts concern- 
 ing them that always surprised me, indicating an ex- 
 tremely unusual knowledge obtained only through great 
 application. 
 
 The great problem that brought us together was 
 nearly always . . . that much misunderstood and 
 unjustly ridiculed one known as the fourth dimension. 
 His ability to grasp this problem was an amazing thing 
 to me, and more than in any other way indicated a very 
 unusual mentality. 
 
 FROM DR. WALTER FRANKLIN PRINCE, 
 
 Head of the American Society for Psychical Research 
 
 Mr. Hall's participation in psychical research was 
 only incidental to his more engrossing occupations, and 
 yet it was keen and did good service. He entered fully 
 into its spirit, which may be thus expressed: all unde- 
 termined phenomena are worthy of investigation, and 
 investigation consists in dogged study of facts, and in 
 following the trail of facts, indifferent to its destination 
 
PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL xxi 
 
 Probably his interest in this subject was of longer 
 standing than I am aware, but I find it manifested in the 
 Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research 
 in 1908, wherein he reported some incidents obtained by 
 him, and also an investigation made by him of a singu- 
 lar case of Fire Tests, a physical phenomenon. The 
 latter is a very model for a report of this character. It 
 covers all the important particulars desirable to bring 
 out with a thoroughness which would do credit to a 
 professional scientist, in clear, definite and precise 
 language, and in the fewest possible words. 
 
 In April, 191 1 the Journal printed his "Some Ac- 
 count of Sittings with Mrs. M. E. Keeler." In this he 
 says: "The author is not a spiritualist, and is not thus 
 far convinced of the genuineness of any of the commun- 
 ications" — ^meaning those received through this med- 
 ium. I do not know that he ever was thoroughly 
 convinced that any communications come from spirits, 
 though it is certain that he was impressed by much 
 of the evidence, and fairly certain that he was in sym- 
 pathy with Hamlet's oft-quoted aphorism. At any 
 rate, he was ready to make any investigations for which 
 he had time, or to conduct any personal experiments, 
 which offered a chance for furthering knowledge of the 
 various subjects embraced in psychical research. He 
 tried out the directions of the medium just named, to 
 see if he could develop ' ' astral projection. ' ' The results, 
 as well as the statements of Mrs. Keeler which he 
 thought worthy to be compared with statements by 
 other psychics, he further reported in the Journal of 
 November, 1912, November, 1916, and January, 1918. 
 He insists, here and elsewhere, on the importance of 
 comparative study of alleged communications, teach- 
 ings, etc., in order to observe what I am accustomed to 
 call the "spectrum" lines running through them, or the 
 
xxii PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL 
 
 lack of these, as the case may be. He was willing to 
 experiment in his own person as to the possibility of the 
 development of certain peculiar powers of the Yoga 
 description, without any antecedent convictions in their 
 practicability. He did not regard that the promises held 
 out to him were more than imperfectly realized. Never- 
 theless he attained to some singular psychical, or per- 
 haps we had better term them psychological, results, 
 which he had the courage, which is curiously rare, to 
 publish for what they might be worth. 
 
 In the Proceedings of the same Society for 19 14 may 
 be found the Burr experiments with Mrs. Caton, a 
 report of some one hundred and fifty pages, edited by 
 Mr. HaU. It is cautious, critical, judicial. Again he 
 adverts to the fact that the value of carefully made and 
 recorded experiments is likely to increase as the experi- 
 ments accumulate in number, from the light that they 
 will throw on one another. His orderly mental habit 
 is manifested strongly in his painstaking handling of the 
 material in this report. They are classified according 
 to their nature, and each division is prefaced by a lucid 
 statement which is not intended to save the reader from 
 the task of thinking for himself, but which removes from 
 the path of clear thinking those obstacles which are 
 often allowed to remain by editors who have less mas- 
 tery of analysis and synthesis. 
 
 In the Proceedings of 1919 he edited the lengthy 
 Harrison case of purported communications of eviden- 
 tial quality, with his usual care and clarity, and con- 
 cludes with what is a laborious and critical task, a 
 statistical summary of the material. 
 
 During the last year it was my good fortune to secure 
 Mr. HaU's help in writing book reviews, and these, 
 some of which are yet to appear, are admirable in their 
 lucidity, critical acumen and erudition. Probably the 
 
PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL xxiii 
 
 last literary work he did, an invalid but with unclouded 
 intellect, was the preparation of reviews of the books I 
 sent him. 
 
 His correspondence, both with Dr. Hyslop and my- 
 self, equally displays the independence and versatility 
 of his mind. One of his letters is accompanied by a sug- 
 gested standardized report blank for reporting cases of 
 physical phenomena which is the best of its kind which 
 I have seen. There can be little doubt that, had Pres- 
 cott F. Hall given his attention predominantly to 
 psychical research, he would have achieved a notable 
 career in that field. 
 
 REV. GEORGE WINSLOW PLUMMER 
 
 Head of the Rosicrucian Society 
 
 It was my good fortune to be intimately acquainted 
 with Prescott Hall, although I met him personally at 
 his home in Brookline but once. I use the term "in- 
 timately" advisedly, for two men will often express 
 themselves and their inner natures and interests more 
 completely in an intimate correspondence, than by 
 actual contact. 
 
 My acquaintance with Prescott Hall may be said to 
 date from early March in 191 8 and continued to his 
 transition in 192 1 . It is one of the rare associations the 
 writer has been permitted to enjoy in this entire life 
 expression, for the continuous contact with his keen, 
 analytical mind was a source of constant practical bene- 
 fit and an incentive to progress. 
 
 What was Hall's greatest interest in Ufe? Who 
 knows? Was he himself quite sure? His was the type 
 of mentalism that found every phase of human interest 
 matter for his analysis. As a critic he was unusually 
 keen, analytical and correct. His criticisms and re- 
 
xxiv PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL 
 
 views were always to the point, often cutting, sometimes 
 sardonic, never unjust or captious. 
 
 In the domain of Economics, Eugenics, Immigration 
 and other departments of vital statistics he was a re- 
 cognized authority. But it was as a student of mystic- 
 ism and occult science that the writer knew him best, 
 being fields of thought in which we were mutually 
 interested and in which we had much in common. 
 
 In his researches in this realm of knowledge, Prescott 
 Hall made many adventures. It is safe to say that there 
 was not a single avenue of investigation left unexplored 
 by him. He was not of the credulous type of mind, — far 
 from it. He subjected every phase of psychic and men- 
 tal phenomena from Yoga practice to Spiritualism to 
 the most caustic and critical examination and his powers 
 of discrimination were nowhere so well recognized as in 
 this uncharted ocean of the unknown forces of Nature 
 and Man. His association with Professor Hyslop and 
 other eminently creditable investigators in Psychical 
 Research was undoubtedly of greater value to them than 
 to himself, for Hall assumed nothing, took nothing for 
 granted, but gave credence only to what he could 
 prove, and even then reserved a large percentage of 
 judgment, feeling that later investigations would clarify 
 many points which were in his life time and are still, 
 those of controversy and not accepted facts. 
 
 Prescott Hall was a wonderful personaHty, a man 
 highly and intensely individuaUzed, yet free from the 
 noxious egoism that has embarrassed so many other of 
 the world's intellectual workers and the circumstance 
 of the single personal contact the writer had with him 
 will ever be remembered. It was at the conclusion of a 
 long motor trip back from the Shrine of Ste. Anne de 
 Beaupre at Quebec, and we were engrossed in a lengthy 
 discussion of the alleged miraculous healing that is 
 
PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL xxv 
 
 claimed for the Shrine. His conceptual explanation of 
 the occurrences at Beaupre based entirely upon accepted 
 psychological laws was vigorous and logical and although 
 the writer did not at the time wholly coincide with his 
 opinion, later events have made him more inclined to do 
 so. 
 
 I am glad to have known Prescott Hall. It was a 
 privilege. His suggestions and opinions have been 
 invaluable to me in my own work and his passing leaves 
 one almost with the feeling as though a vacuum had 
 been created in the social fabric, the feeling that the 
 space he occupied even corporeally, can never be filled 
 by another. 
 
 FROM A LETTER OF A CO-WORKER OF THE IMMIGRATION 
 RESTRICTION LEAGUE 
 
 Prescott and I were schoolmates, College classmates, 
 and ever since graduating saw each other frequently. 
 For over twenty-five years we worked together, in- 
 timately, whole-heartedly, and with never the slightest 
 disagreement on immigration. Back in school-days 
 I came to know his extraordinarily logical, clear, effec- 
 tive mind, and in all the later years I never ceased to 
 marvel at his wonderful grasp of essentials and at his 
 ability to express his views, always sound and logical, 
 either verbally or in print. I have never known just 
 such an intellect as his. I do not remember any occa- 
 sion when we failed to work in perfect harmony together. 
 
 He was, from the very first, the backbone, the main- 
 spring, the absolutely reliable one man of our League. 
 We always knew that he had every bit of information we 
 needed; that his advice was always right; that he was 
 always ready to do every job that would help our cause. 
 To him, this country owes far more than to anyone else 
 
XXVI 
 
 PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL 
 
 every improvement in our immigration laws. He did 
 the work of ten men, and did it patiently, uncomplain- 
 ingly, effectively. I know that restrictionists all over 
 the United States who know his name and recognize 
 what he did, will feel, as I do, that the guiding spirit 
 
 is gone. 
 
 Take comfort in the thought that Prescott did such 
 splendid, important and patriotic work. He has well 
 earned his rest. 
 
 FROM THE SIXTH ANNUAL BULLETIN 
 
 Class of 1889 of Harvard College, 1920-192 1 
 
 Prescott Farnsworth Hall died at Brookline, 
 Mass., May 28, 192 1 . He was born September 27, 1868, 
 at Boston, Mass., the son of Samuel and Mary Elizabeth 
 (Farnsworth) Hall. He prepared for College at G. W. 
 Noble's School in Boston. In College, he attained 
 high rank as a scholar, and was a member of the 
 Hasty Pudding, O. K. Signet, Finance Club, Philo- 
 sophical Club, Deutscher Verein, and St. Paul's Society. 
 .... In 1894 he was one of the founders ... of 
 the Immigration Restriction League, of which he was its 
 Secretary for many years. His thorough research, his 
 book and numerous articles on Immigration made him 
 a leading authority on the subject ; to his persistent work 
 is due much of the improvement in the legislation of the 
 United States on immigration; and he may be justly 
 regarded as the chief factor in the enactment of the 
 educational test for immigrants. He was Chairman of 
 the Committee on Immigration of the Eugenics Section 
 of the American Genetic Association for many years. 
 He also took a great interest in psychical research and 
 occult matters, as to which he wrote many articles. He 
 took an active part in politics at one time, being Secre- 
 
PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL xxvii 
 
 tary in 190 1 and Chairman of the Executive Committee 
 of the Democratic Club of Massachusetts from 1902 to 
 1904; and he served on the Brookline Town Committee 
 in 1903. He was a member of the Bostonian Society, 
 the Rosicrucian Society, the American Society for 
 Psychical Research; he was Vice-President of the Eco- 
 nomic Club of Boston in 1914; President of the Brook- 
 line Education Society in 1903. His legal writings are 
 considered as standard authority. . . . 
 
 For the past five years he suffered greatly from ill 
 health and withdrew himself largely from participation 
 in Class reunions. . . . Hemarriedat Denver, Colo., 
 October 17, 1908, Eva Lucyle Irby, of Virginia who 
 survives him. 
 
 The following fine tribute by Joseph Lee, '83, was 
 published in the Boston Herald, June, 192 1 : 
 
 "Although Prescott F. Hall was practically unknown 
 to the public, he had when he died probably done more 
 to affect for the better the future of this country than 
 almost any man of his generation. 
 
 "He saw nearly thirty years ago what others began 
 to see during the war, that the most important question 
 for this country was the kind of human material of 
 which its future citizenship should be composed, and 
 that its mission was not to be an asylimi and a breeding 
 grovmd for the defective and the oppressed — the beaten 
 members of the beaten races — but to be an example of 
 successful democracy and of the attainment to a high 
 standard of character and happiness. He saw that it 
 would benefit a nation very little if it gained a wide 
 reputation for philanthropy and lost its own soial. 
 
 "Mr. Hall, accordingly, initiated the agitation for 
 restricting immigration that was to occupy the greater 
 part of his time and all of his heart during the rest of his 
 life. The final success of the Literacy Test in 191 7 marked 
 
xxviii PRESCOTT FARNSWORTH HALL 
 
 the close of what must have been, I think, the longest 
 legislative fight on record. The adoption of the present 
 more satisfactory percentage bill came just in time for 
 him to hear of the victory before he died. 
 
 ' ' During all these years Mr. Hall kept track of immi- 
 gration laws and of their administration and their 
 results in a most able and painstaking manner, and was 
 the backbone of the agitation for restriction on the 
 technical and legal side. Without him the gates would 
 have still been unguarded and the deterioration of our 
 human standard would still be at the flood. 
 
 "Mr. Hall's work was unknown, unpaid, unrecog- 
 nized. It was a sheer labor of love, the love of country 
 and consideration for the future of mankind. But it 
 achieved success, and that was, after all, the only 
 recompense that he desired." 
 
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES ARE SELEC- 
 TIONS FROM MR. HALL'S PUBLISHED 
 AND UNPUBLISHED WORK 
 
SELECTION OF IMMIGRATION' 
 
 The two factors of race migration and race survival 
 have had most potent effects upon the world's history. 
 But, while these factors are conspicuous when we look 
 backward through the centuries, we often fail to ap- 
 preciate the importance of their influence in the im- 
 mediate past and in the present. The immigration 
 question in this country has never had the attention 
 paid to it which its importance entitles it, but has been 
 sometimes the scapegoat of religious and racial preju- 
 dices, and always in recent years an annual sacrifice 
 to the gods of transportation. 
 
 The causes of such indifference are not far to seek. 
 In the early days of this country the people were busy 
 with other matters. Immigration was small, and not 
 especially objectionable in quality. Later, the doctrines 
 of the laissezfaire school, and the obviously narrow and 
 prejudiced theories of the Know Nothing movement, 
 helped to continue the existing status of free movement. 
 More recently, a misapprehension of the doctrine of 
 "survival of the fittest" has led many intelligent citi- 
 zens to adopt an easy-going optimism, in many re- 
 spects kindred to the benumbing fatalism of Oriental 
 peoples. This misapprehension is caused by the fact 
 that the doctrine of the "survival of the fittest" is 
 usually stated in a catchy and condensed formula, with 
 the authority of modern science, and accepted without 
 
 'Reprinted from The Annals of the American Academy oj Political 
 and, Social Science for July, 1904. 
 
2 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 critical understanding. The doctrine is that the fittest 
 survive; fittest for what? The fittest to survive in the 
 particular environment in which the organisms are placed. 
 The only teleological valuation in this formula is the 
 almost mechanical one of survival in time. Those who 
 survive need not be the fittest for any other purpose 
 whatsoever, except the continuation of life and repro- 
 duction. Were the citizens of the Netherlands inferior 
 to the soldiers of Alva, or many of the victims of the 
 French Revolution to those who slew them ? Were the 
 Polish patriots inferior to their Russian conquerors, or 
 are the Finns inferior to those who are now engaged in 
 taking away their constitutional rights ? Yes, but only 
 in the matter of survival in time. But if the duration 
 of human life on this earth is limited, as we are told it is 
 by the same scientists who lay stress upon the "siu:- 
 vival of the fittest, ' ' the mere success in duration for any 
 race seems of no great value in itself, and may it not be 
 worth while to consider other valuations as we go along, 
 so that the whole world history shall be as valuable as 
 possible from all points of view? 
 
 I have dwelt on this point because, while the value of 
 artificial selection in breeding animals, in producing 
 seedless fruits and new grains, in fact in nearly every 
 department of life, is now generally recognized; and 
 while some advanced persons are talking of regulating 
 marriage with a view to the elimination of those unfit 
 for other purposes than mere survival; yet most people 
 fail to realize that here in the United States we have a 
 unique opportunity, through our power to regulate 
 immigration, of exercising artificial selection upon an 
 enormous scale. What warrant have we for supposing 
 that the Divine Power behind things does not intend 
 human reason to be applied to these matters as well as 
 hunger, steam, steel, and the lust for gold? 
 
SELECTION OF IMMIGRATION 3 
 
 In such cases as the present an appeal is usually made 
 to the fathers of the Republic, and to the argument that 
 they recognized the right of every human being to mi- 
 grate wherever he chose, and to produce as many chil- 
 dren as he pleased, and, in general, to pursue happiness 
 by living the kind of life that suited him. However the 
 fathers may have been influenced by the French political 
 theories of their time, they were practical men with 
 much common sense, and it is by no means certain that 
 if they were present to-day, the vastly changed condi- 
 tions would not lead them to hold the views of the pres- 
 ent article. Washington writing to John Adams in 
 1794, said: 
 
 ' ' My opinion with respect to immigration is that ex- 
 cept of useful mechanics and some particular descrip- 
 tions of men and professions, there is no need of en- 
 couragement, while the policy or advantage of its taking 
 place in a body (I mean the settling of them in a body) 
 may be much questioned ; for by so doing they retain the 
 language, habits and principles, good or bad, which 
 they bring with them." 
 
 Can there be any question how Washington would 
 feel about excluding the thousands of immigrants who 
 have recently come to create and to occupy the slum 
 districts of our Northern and Eastern cities? 
 
 But even the prophetic vision of Washington could 
 not possibly have seen the unparalleled change in the 
 conditions of immigration from his day to ours. From 
 182 1, when statistics were first kept, to 1900, a total of 
 19,115,221 immigrants has come to our shores; and the 
 annual immigration has increased from 9,127 in 1821 to 
 857,046 in 1903. The modern immigration problem, 
 however, dates from 1870; and it is necessary to empha- 
 size this point because much of what is said in recent 
 
4 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 discussion ignores the profound change which has taken 
 place in the character of immigration since that date. 
 It may be frankly admitted that this country owes a 
 large share of its development, its wealth, its power and 
 its ideals, to the early immigration as well as to the best 
 part of the later immigration ; but any arguments based 
 upon the effects of early immigration cannot be applied 
 to the new comers as self-evident truths, for the data 
 are by no means the same. 
 
 However much social prejudice there may have been 
 against the Irish and German immigrants of the forties 
 and fifties, and while even that immigration tended to 
 diminish the native stock as I shall show later, it still 
 remains true that prior to 1870 immigration was chiefly 
 of races kindred in habits, institutions and traditions 
 to the original colonists. Mr. Lodge said upon this 
 point in addressing the Senate, March 16, 1896: 
 
 "It will be observed that with the exception of the 
 Huguenot French, who formed but a small percentage 
 of the total population, the people of the thirteen col- 
 onies were all of the same original race stocks. The 
 Dutch, the Swedes and the Germans were simply 
 blended with the English-speaking people, who like 
 them were descended from the Germanic tribes whom 
 Caesar fought and Tacitus described. During the pres- 
 ent century, down to 1875, there have been three large 
 migrations to this country in addition to the always 
 steady stream from Great Britain; one came from Ire- 
 land about the middle of the century, and somewhat 
 later one from Germany, and one from Scandinavia, in 
 which is included Sweden, Denmark and Norway. The 
 Irish, although of a different race stock originally, have 
 been closely associated with the EngHsh-speaking people 
 for nearly a thousand years. They speak the same 
 language, and during that long period the two races 
 have lived side by side and to some extent have inter- 
 married. The Germans and Scandinavians are again 
 
SELECTION OP IMMIGRATION 5 
 
 people of the same race stock as the English who built 
 up the colonies. During this century then, down to 
 1875, as in the two which preceded it, there had been 
 scarcely any immigration to this country except from 
 kindred or allied races, and no other which was suffi- 
 ciently numerous to have produced any effect on the na- 
 tional characteristics, or to be taken into account here." 
 
 How marked the change in nationality has been since 
 1869 is shown by the fact that in 1869 less than one 
 per cent, of the total immigration came from Austria- 
 Hungary, Italy, Poland and Russia, while in 1902 there 
 were over seventy per cent. ; on the other hand, in 1869, 
 nearly three-quarters of the total immigration came 
 from the United Kingdom, France, Germany and 
 Scandinavia, while in 1902, only one-fifth was from 
 those countries. Or, to put it in another way: in 1869 
 the immigrants from Austria-Hungary, Italy, Poland 
 and Russia were about one one-htmdredth of the num- 
 ber from the United Kingdom, France, Germany and 
 Scandinavia; in 1880, about one-tenth; in 1894, nearly 
 equal to it; in 1902 three and one-half times as great. 
 In 1903 the largest element in immigration was the 
 South Italian with 196,117 souls, and the next largest 
 was the Polish, with 82,343. 
 
 It does not, therefore, at all follow that because this 
 country has been able to assimilate large numbers of 
 kindred races in the past, it can in the future assimilate 
 vastly larger numbers of races alien in customs, tradi- 
 tions and ideals. Immigration in 1903 amounted to 
 over 850,000 persons. In 1923 or 1943 it may be two 
 million a year, and the mere fact that the two million 
 may bear no larger proportion to the total population 
 of that day than the immigration did to the population 
 in 1870 is no guaranty of our power of assimilating such 
 a ntmiber of such races, especially when our total popu- 
 
6 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 lation will contain such a large proportion of these very 
 races which are difficult of assimilation. Within the 
 last year or two there has been a marked increase in 
 the number of sailings from Europe, and especially from 
 the Mediterranean ports. Recently, the White Star 
 Line has estabUshed a Mediterranean service, the Cu- 
 nard Line has a guaranty of thirty thousand emigrants 
 per year from Austria-Hungary, and a new line has 
 been established between Odessa and New York; also 
 the steamers which formerly ran between Austria and 
 Central America now are to run to New York. There 
 are increased sailings of the North German Lloyd and 
 Hamburg- American lines, and the size of all new vessels 
 has enormously increased. All these steamship lines are 
 in the business for profit, and immigrants, who require 
 no loading and unloading, are by far the most profitable 
 cargo. The thousands of agents of these lines all over 
 Europe, Asia Minor and Northern Africa are bound to 
 create all the business they can for their respective lines, 
 and naturally they are concerned only with the selection 
 of such applicants for tickets as will not certainly be 
 rejected under the laws of this country. 
 
 The influence of these conditions upon the quality of 
 immigration has been forcibly expressed by General 
 Francis A. Walker, formerly Superintendent of the 
 Census, as follows : 
 
 "Fifty, even thirty, years ago, there was a rightful 
 presumption regarding the average immigrant that he 
 was among the most enterprising, thrifty, alert, adven- 
 turous and courageous, of the community from which 
 he came. It required no small energy, prudence, fore- 
 thought and pains to conduct the inquiries relating to 
 his migration, to accumulate the necessary means, and 
 to find his way across the Atlantic. To-day the pre- 
 sumption is completely reversed. So thoroughly has 
 the Continent of Europe been crossed by railways, so 
 
SELECTION OF IMMIGRATION 7 
 
 effectively has the business of emigration there been 
 exploited, so much have the rates of railroad fares and 
 ocean passage been reduced, that it is now among the 
 least thrifty and prosperous members of any European 
 community that the emigration agent finds his best 
 recruiting ground. . . . Illustrations of the ease and 
 facility with which this Pipe Line Immigration is now 
 carried on might be given in profusion. . . . Hard 
 times here may momentarily check the flow; but it will 
 not be permanently stopped so long as any difference oj 
 economic level exists between our population and that of 
 the most degraded commimities abroad." 
 
 Speaking of the probable effect of recent immigration 
 General Walker continues : 
 
 "The entrance into our political, social and industrial 
 life of such vast masses of peasantry, degraded below 
 our utmost conceptions, is a matter which no intelligent 
 patriot can look upon without the gravest apprehension 
 and alarm. These people have no history behind them 
 which is of a natvu-e to give encouragement. They have 
 none of the inherited instincts and tendencies which 
 made it comparatively easy to deal with the immigra- 
 tion of the olden time. They are beaten men from 
 beaten races; representing the worst failures in the 
 struggle for existence. Centuries are against them, as 
 centuries were on the side of those who formerly came 
 to us." 
 
 The main point to remember in regard to recent im- 
 migration is that much of it is not voluntary in any true 
 sense of the term. The limits of this article do not per- 
 mit a detailed statement of the facts supporting this 
 allegation, but anyone who will read in the report of the 
 Commissioner-General of Immigration for 1903 the 
 remarks of Special Inspector Marcus Braun, who has 
 just been upon a tour of investigation in Europe, will 
 find abundant evidence. The same thing was brought 
 
8 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 out in the investigations of our Industrial Commission. 
 The race migration at present going on is not, therefore, 
 even a ' ' natural ' ' movement . It is an artificial selection 
 of many of the worst elements of European and Asiatic 
 populations by the steamship companies. 
 
 It is significant that no general immigration legisla- 
 tion was found necessary until some years after the 
 newer kind of immigration had begun to come hither. 
 The first general immigration act was passed in 1882 and 
 imposed a head tax of fifty cents ; the contract labor acts 
 were passed to prevent the immigration of the cheapest 
 mining labor in 1885 and 1887; the general law was 
 revised in 1891 ; an administrative act was passed in 
 1893 ; the head tax was raised to one dollar in 1895 ; and 
 a general codifjdng act was passed in 1903, raising the 
 head tax to two dollars. These Acts were passed in 
 pursuance of the principle that the nation, as an attri- 
 bute of its sovereignty or under the commerce clause of 
 the Constitution, has a right to exclude or to expel from 
 its borders any aliens whom it deems to be dangerous to 
 the public welfare. This principle has been sustained 
 by several decisions of the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, the most recent one being in the case of Turner, 
 the Anarchist. 
 
 So far from it being an established principle of our 
 country to admit any and all persons desiring to come, 
 it was early recognized that Congress has complete 
 control over this matter, and Congress has established 
 numerous classes of persons to be excluded, (i) An 
 Act of 1862 prohibited the importation of Oriental 
 "cooHe" labor, and the later "Chinese Exclusion Acts" 
 have rigorously enforced this principle. The Act of 
 1875 added (2) convicts, except those guilty of political 
 offenses, and (3) women imported for immoral purposes. 
 The Act of 1882 added (4) lunatics, (5) idiots, (6) persons 
 
SELECTION OF IMMIGRATION 9 
 
 unable to care for themselves without becoming public 
 charges. The Act of 1887 added (7) contract laborers. 
 The Act of 1 89 1 added (8) paupers, (9) persons suffering 
 from loathsome or dangerous contagious diseases, (10) 
 polygamists, (11) "assisted" immigrants, i. e., those 
 whose passage has been paid for by others, unless they 
 show affirmatively that they are otherwise admissible. 
 The Act of 1903 added (12) epileptics, (13) persons who 
 have been insane within five years previous, (14) pro- 
 fessional beggars, (15) anarchists, or persons who be- 
 lieve in or advocate the overthrow by force or violence 
 of the Government of the United States or of all govern- 
 ment or of aU forms of law, or the assassination of public 
 ofl&cials, (16) persons attempting to bring in women for 
 purposes of prostitution, (17) persons deported within 
 a year previous as being contract laborers. 
 
 It is apparent that, however formidable the foregoing 
 list of excluded persons looks upon paper, it practically 
 is by no means an adequate protection to the country. 
 Out of the 857,046 immigrants arriving in 1903, only 
 9,316, or a trifle over one per cent., were debarred or 
 returned within one year after landing. In previous 
 years the percentage has usually been less than this. 
 The theory of the law is that the transportation com- 
 panies will not sell tickets to persons liable to be ex- 
 cluded, and this undoubtedly keeps some undesirables 
 away. But, after all, the present system of excluded 
 classes utterly fails to attack the main problem of the 
 proper selection of immigrants. In the Report of the 
 Commissioner-General for 1903, the Commissioner at 
 New York speaks of this matter as follows : 
 
 "I believe that at least two hundred thousand (and 
 probably more) aliens came here, who, although they 
 may be able to earn a living, yet are not wanted, will be 
 of no benefit to the country, and will on the contrary be 
 
10 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 a detriment, because their presence will tend to lower 
 our standards; and if these two hundred thousand per- 
 sons could have been induced to stay at home, nobody, 
 not even those clamoring for more labor, would have 
 missed them. Their coming has been of benefit chiefly, 
 if not only, to the transportation companies which 
 brought them here." 
 
 It is probable that most citizens would agree on a 
 definition of "undesirable" immigration. At any rate, 
 for the purposes of this paper, I shall call that immigra- 
 tion undesirable which is ignorant of a trade; which is 
 lacking in resources; which has criminal tendencies; 
 which is averse to country life and tends to congregate 
 in the slums of large cities; which has a low standard of 
 living and lacks ambition to seek a better; which fails 
 to assimilate within a reasonable time, and which has no 
 permanent interests in this country. 
 
 Now how far does our recent immigration fulfil this 
 definition? It is to be remembered that in 1903 about 
 three-quarters of it came from Southern and Eastern 
 Europe and Asia; 65 per cent, of it was destined for the 
 four States of Illinois, Massachusetts, New York and 
 Pennsylvania. Over 80 per cent, was totally unskilled 
 or had no occupation at all. On the average, each im- 
 migrant had only $19 with him, and many only one or 
 two dollars. Those from Southern and Eastern Europe 
 admitted an illiteracy of 39.7 per cent., as against 3.9 
 per cent, for those from Northern and Western Europe. 
 The true illiteracy was probably much higher for the 
 former class, as they are known to be coached on this 
 subject in view of the agitation for an illiteracy test, 
 and whenever the writer has made practical examina- 
 tions of immigrants he has found considerable misrepre- 
 sentation in this regard. Taking up first the matter of 
 distribution, we see a marked difference between the 
 
SELECTION OF IMMIGRATION ii 
 
 immigration prior to 1870, which built up the North- 
 west, and the races which now come to us. The census 
 of 1900 shows that in the 160 principal cities of the 
 country there were only ^/^ to Vj of the Scandinavians, 
 less than ]4 of the British, and about yi of the Germans, 
 as compared with over Yj of the Irish, Italians and Poles 
 and ^ of the Russian Jews. Of the Poles in Illinois, 
 91.3 per cent, were in Chicago; in New York State, 
 75.5 per cent, were in New York City and Buffalo; in 
 Michigan and Wisconsin, over ^ were in Detroit and 
 Milwaukee. Of the Italians in Illinois, 72 per cent, 
 were in Chicago ; of those in New York State, 79.8 per 
 cent, were in New York City. Of the Russian Jews in 
 the United States, 71.8 per cent, were in six States, as 
 compared with 54 per cent, in 1890. Of the Russian 
 Jews in Illinois, 84.2 per cent, were in Chicago; of those 
 in New York State, 93.7 per cent, were in New York 
 City; of those in Pennsylvania, 56.8 per cent, were in 
 Philadelphia. Only 3.9 per cent, of the Poles, 4.4 per 
 cent, of the Hungarians and 8.7 per cent, of the Russian 
 Jews live in the Southern or Western States. 
 
 The Seventh Special Report of the United States 
 Commissioner of Labor shows that Southeastern Europe 
 has furnished three times as many inhabitants as North- 
 western Europe to the slums of Baltimore, 19 times 
 as many to the slums of New York, 20 times as many to 
 the slums of Chicago, and 71 times as many to the slums 
 of Philadelphia. In these same slums the illiteracy of 
 Northwestern Europe was 25.5 per cent., that of South- 
 eastern Europe 54.5 per cent, or more than double, while 
 the illiteracy of the native American element in the 
 slums was only 7.4 per cent. 
 
 The concentration of these large bodies of ignorant 
 foreigners in the slums of our Eastern cities is a serious 
 matter. Forming racial settlements, they do not tend 
 
12 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 to assimilate, but, as Washington predicted, keep to 
 their native customs and standards of living. They 
 cannot even read the newspapers, board of health 
 notices and trade journals printed in their own language, 
 and as a necessary consequence are slow to become ac- 
 quainted with any other standards except those of their 
 immediate neighbors. The census of 1 890 seems to show 
 that, taking an equal number of the foreign element and 
 of the native element, the foreigners furnish lyi times 
 as many criminals, 2*73 times as many insane, and 3 
 times as many paupers as the natives. It is not strange 
 that there should be many foreign-bom paupers when 
 we consider that the South Italians bring on the aver- 
 age $8.84, the Hebrews, $8.67 and the Poles, $9.94 each, 
 as compared with $41.51 brought by the Scotch, $38.90 
 brought by the English and $28.78 brought by the 
 Germans. The statistics as to the nationality and 
 parentage of dependents and delinquents in the various 
 States are as yet too incomplete for very accurate con- 
 clusions, but it is evident that the present laws do not 
 exclude the unfit. In the final report of the Industrial 
 Commission, p. 967, it is stated that "the second gen- 
 eration, i.e., the native children of foreign parents, 
 furnish the largest proportion of commitments and 
 prisoners of all race elements in the population." Ac- 
 cording to a recent investigation in New York State 
 there were 13,143 persons of foreign birth in the public 
 institutions of that State. Recent testimony of the 
 New York State Limacy Commission was to the effect 
 that the State of New York is paying $10,000,000 an- 
 nually for the support of the alien-bom insane alone. 
 Two of the largest hospitals in New York City have been 
 obliged to suspend part of their activities on account of 
 the burden of the foreign patients. The point of this is 
 that things were not thus until the change of national- 
 
SELECTION OF IMMIGRATION 13 
 
 ity took place. One of the managers of the House of 
 Refuge in New York City writes: 
 
 "I notice the large number of children that are placed 
 in charitable institutions for no crime or misdemeanor, 
 but to relieve their parents of their support. They are 
 principally from Southern and Eastern Europe." 
 
 In 1902 the number of arrests of Greeks in New York 
 City exceeded the entire Greek population of the city 
 for the year 1900 ; Vg of the foreign whites in the United 
 States over ten years of age cannot speak English, and 
 of these 89 per cent, are over 20 years of age; that is to 
 say, they are not likely to receive any schooling. Con- 
 sidering New York State alone, these persons who can- 
 not speak English are chiefly Italians, Russian Jews and 
 Austro-Hungarians. 
 
 In addition to perpetuating a low standard of living 
 and a willingness to tmderbid native labor, this ignor- 
 ance has a bad side politically. On the one hand, it 
 means an indifference to civic matters, and a lack of 
 knowledge of and interest in our institutions ; and, on the 
 other hand, it means bad material out of which to make 
 citizens. The average percentage of British, Germanic 
 and Scandinavian aliens among the males of voting age 
 in 1900 was 1 1.5; of the Slav, Latin and Asiatic aliens, 
 45.3. Of these aliens, Vio had been in this country long 
 enough to be naturalized. This in the face of the great 
 inducements to naturalization held out by political 
 party leaders, and the fact that many municipalities 
 insist on the employment of citizens only upon public 
 works. It has recently been estimated that there are 
 fifty thousand fraudulent naturalization papers held in 
 New York City alone. However this may be, it is 
 evident that many of our present immigrants are not 
 the stuff of which patriots are made. This is a highly 
 
14 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 dangerous condition in a country where we are once for 
 all committed to the principle of government by force of 
 numbers. 
 
 Some persons who are in favor of indiscriminate im- 
 migration admit, as indeed they must, the force of facts 
 like those recited above; but they say the whole matter 
 is a question of distribution. Let us get these people 
 out of the cities, they say; let us put them upon the 
 unsettled regions of Texas or Oklahoma, and the results 
 will be very different. In regard to this plan several 
 things may be said, (i) The immigrants will not go 
 there of their own accord, as appears from what has been 
 already said. Most of them cannot afford to go inland 
 if they would. (2) The experience of the Hebrew Chari- 
 ties on a small scale shows that even where colonization 
 is successful — and in many cases it has been an utter 
 failure — it is altogether too expensive to be applied on 
 a large scale. (3) If it could be applied to those already 
 in the city slums, the slums would fill up faster than 
 they could be bailed out, unless we adopt some further 
 regulation of immigration as to newcomers. (4) It is, 
 therefore, proposed to bar aliens not destined to an in- 
 terior locality. But it would require a policeman for 
 each immigrant to see that he did not sell his ticket on 
 landing, and that he actually went to his destination. 
 (5) Even if our recent immigrants were able and willing 
 to go to the West and South, these States do not want them. 
 In 1896 every one of the associations formed to encour- 
 age immigration into the Northwest petitioned Congress 
 for an illiteracy test for immigrants and stated that 
 they did not want Southeastern European immigrants. 
 A Government Commission in 1896 took steps to ascer- 
 tain the wishes of the States in this matter by communi- 
 cating with their governors, labor commissioners and 
 other officials. Of 52 replies received all expressed a 
 
SELECTION OP IMMIGRATION 15 
 
 preference for native bom or Northwestern Europeans, 
 chiefly for British, Germans and Scandinavians. There 
 were only two requests for Southeastern Europeans and 
 these were for Italian farmers with money. Within a 
 month the Immigration Restriction League has repeated 
 the experiment of the Government Commission, and 
 the thirty replies received to date are most instructive. 
 Of the States desiring immigrants practically all wish 
 native bom, or immigrants from Northern Europe, 
 Britain, Germany and Scandinavia. All are opposed to 
 having the sltmis of Eastern cities dumped upon them. 
 In regard to immigrants not desired, three States desire 
 no immigrants at all; two, no foreign bom. Five desire 
 no Southern and Eastern Europeans. Eight wish no 
 illiterates. Of the rest, immigrants settling in cities, 
 the Latin races, persons who cannot speak English, 
 Asiatics, and in general any but the best classes of im- 
 migrants, are objected to. 
 
 Before considering remedies for the existing state of 
 things, I wish to return to what was said at the outset 
 and to emphasize the most important reason of all for 
 further selection in admitting immigrants. The late 
 Bishop Brooks, who was a large-hearted man if there 
 ever was one, in a public address used these words: 
 
 "If the world, in the great march of centuries, is 
 going to be richer for the development of a certain na- 
 tional character, built up by a larger type of manhood 
 here, then for the world's sake, for the sake of every na- 
 tion that would pour in upon us that which would dis- 
 turb that development, we have a right to stand guard 
 over it. . . . We have a right to stand guard over 
 the conditions of that experiment, letting nothing in- 
 terfere with it, drawing into it the richness which is 
 to come by the entrance of many men from_ma,ny 
 nations, and they in sympathy with our Constitution 
 and laws." 
 
i6 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 Now in order to develop our institutions in the spirit 
 of those who built them up we must guard our power of 
 assimilation, and not only refuse to take in immigrants 
 whom we cannot assimilate, and refuse to take any im- 
 migrants in faster than we can assimilate them, but we 
 must see to it that we ourselves and those whom we 
 assimilate shall continue to exist and to hand on the 
 torch of civilization to worthy successors. All statistical 
 discussions of immigration and its effects are defective 
 in two respects. First, tmder our census system the 
 children of immigrants are classed as native Americans. 
 Second, no account is taken of the children which are 
 never allowed to be bom. In other words, the question 
 is not really between us and the immigrants now coming, 
 but between their children and the children of future 
 immigrants and our children. To put the matter con- 
 cretely, the greatest danger of unselected immigration 
 is its effect upon the native birth rate. 
 
 Take a teacher in New York City with a high stand- 
 ard for himself and his children. He has but two be- 
 cause he cannot give them what he wants to give them in 
 education and the decencies of life. Compare him with 
 a Southern Italian or a Syrian living not a mile away 
 who has ten children, and who brings them up regardless 
 of any high standard of living, any education they get 
 being paid for by other people. Once on a time half of 
 these would have died. Now, with our improved public 
 sanitation, they live. Perhaps, as stated above, some 
 of these children are supported at the public expense 
 until they are able to go into a sweatshop. There can 
 be no doubt which is the higher type of citizen or of 
 family, yet the higher barely tends to perpetuate itself 
 and the lower "survives" to five times the extent of the 
 higher. 
 
 Of course the falling of a birth rate may be due to 
 
SELECTION OF IMMIGRATION 17 
 
 many causes which I have not time here to discuss. But 
 in general it is caused by the desire for the "concentra- 
 tion of advantages," and one of the principal provoca- 
 tives of this desire is the effects of immigration. Con- 
 sider for a moment the typical town of a hundred years 
 ago with its relatively homogeneous society. The young 
 men drive the omnibus and tend the store. Everybody 
 knows them, and, while not ranking with the judge, or 
 the parson, or the doctor, they are in general as good as 
 anybody. Now suppose a small factory is started and 
 some of the village girls are employed there. For a time 
 no great change occurs. Then a number of unskilled 
 immigrants settle in the town. Being unskilled they 
 naturally take up the easiest kind of manual labor. At 
 first they are regarded as curiosities. More come, 
 enough to form a class. They naturally group more or 
 less by themselves. They do not enter into the existing 
 clubs and amusements of the town. After a time they 
 constitute the larger part of the help in the factory. 
 Being poor, they live in the cheapest location and in the 
 most frugal style. The natives gradually withdraw 
 from social contact with them, the girls dislike to work 
 with them in the factory, the boys do not want to be 
 with them in the fields and the mills. After such a caste 
 system invades a town the natives are tmwilling to 
 marry, or, if they do marry, to have children, unless 
 they can be sure of enough means to secure employment 
 for their children in an occupation where they will not 
 be classed with the immigrants. The girls no longer go 
 out to service, but go into bookkeeping, or certain 
 kinds of stores ; and the boys are sent to the High School 
 or, if possible, to coUege. At any rate, the children of 
 the natives seek only the so-called better grades of em- 
 ployment. After a time there is an invasion of French 
 Canadians or Italians into the town, and the same proc- 
 
1 8 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 ess tends to operate in the case of the earlier immi- 
 grants. 
 
 That this is no flight of the imagination but an actual 
 description of what happens is testified by many stu- 
 dents of the question. The writer has personally in- 
 quired as to the cause of the small families in various 
 parts of our Eastern States and has been repeatedly 
 told by parents that this social reason was the controll- 
 ing one in their own families. Dr. Roberts and Dr. 
 Warne report the siame thing in the mining regions of 
 Pennsylvania. General Walker says : 
 
 "The great fact protrudes through all the subsequent 
 history of our population that the more rapidly for- 
 eigners came into the United States, the smaller was the 
 rate of increase, not only among the native population 
 of the country as a whole, including the foreigners. 
 ... If the foregoing views are true, or contain a 
 considerable degree of truth, foreign immigration into 
 this country has, from the time it assumed large propor- 
 tions, amounted not to a reenforcement of our popula- 
 tion, but to a replacement of native by foreign stock." 
 
 The Industrial Commission also says in its report, p. 
 277: 
 
 " It is a hasty assumption which holds that immigra- 
 tion during the nineteenth century has increased the 
 total population." 
 
 R. R. Kuczynski has shown that in Massachusetts 
 the foreign-born mother has two-thirds more children 
 than the native-born mother, and three-fifths more 
 children living. 
 
 Now in many discussions of this question it is said 
 
 that the natives are displaced by the foreigners, but are 
 
 crowded up" into higher occupations. I do not believe 
 
SELECTION OP IMMIGRATION 19 
 
 that this can be shown to be true, even of the natives in 
 existence at the time the process operates. Some are 
 undoubtedly crowded up, some are crowded out and go 
 elsewhere, many are crowded down and become public 
 charges or tramps. But the main point is that the na- 
 tive children are murdered by never being allowed to 
 come into existence, as surely as if put to death in some 
 older invasion of the Huns and Vandals. 
 
 In this question of immigration we are dealing with 
 tremendous social forces operating on a gigantic scale. 
 How careful should we be, then, to turn these forces in 
 the right direction so far as we may guide them. It is 
 no doubt true that hybridization has often produced 
 better stocks than those previously existing; and some 
 infusion of Mediterranean and Alpine blood into the 
 Baltic immigration of the last century may perhaps be a 
 good thing. But if we were trying such an experiment 
 on plants or animals would we not exercise the greatest 
 care to get the best of each stock before mixing them? 
 And has it not been said that human beings are of more 
 value than many sparrows ? The success of the Amer- 
 ican Republic is of more value to the world than the 
 good of a few thousand immigrants, whose places are 
 filled up at home almost before they reach this side of 
 the Atlantic. It is by no means certain that economic 
 reforms would not already have taken place in Europe 
 which have been delayed because those countries have 
 had the safety valve of emigration to the United States, 
 and have thus been able to keep up the frightful pres- 
 sure of militant taxation in their own domains. 
 
 If we are to apply some further method of selection to 
 immigrants, what shall it be? The plan of consular in- 
 spection in Europe, once popular, has been declared 
 impracticable by every careful student of the subject. 
 A high headtax might accomplish something, but it is 
 
20 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 not a discriminating test, and hits the worthy perhaps 
 harder than the unworthy. 
 
 Two plans have been suggested. One, more in the 
 nature of a palliative than a cure, is to admit immigrants 
 on a five-year probation, and to provide that if within 
 five years after landing an immigrant becomes such a 
 person as to be within the classes now excluded by law, 
 whether the causes of his changed condition arose prior 
 or subsequent to his landing, he shall be deported. 
 There are various practical difficulties with such a plan, 
 the chief one being that of identification, but, in view of 
 the decision in the Turner case, such a plan would prob- 
 ably be held to be constitutional. 
 
 The other plan is to adopt some more or less arbitrary 
 test, which, while open to theoretical objection — as any 
 practicable test must be — nevertheless will on the whole 
 exclude those people whom we wish excluded. It must 
 be a definite test, because one trouble with the "pubHc 
 charge" clause of the present law, under which most 
 exclusions now occur, is that it is so vague and elastic 
 that it can be interpreted to suit the temper of any of 
 the higher officials who may happen to be charged with 
 the execution of the law. As I have elsewhere repeated- 
 ly shown those persons who cannot read in their own 
 language are, in general, those who are also ignorant of a 
 trade, who bring little money with them, who settle in 
 the city slums, who have a low standard of living and 
 Httle ambition to seek a better, and who do not assimi- 
 late rapidly or appreciate our institutions. It is not 
 claimed that an illiteracy test is a test of moral char- 
 acter, but it would undoubtedly exclude a good many 
 persons who now fill our prisons and almshouses, and 
 would lessen the burden upon ovir schools and machinery 
 of justice. In a country having universal suffrage it 
 is also an indispensable requirement for citizenship, and 
 
SELECTION OF IMMIGRATION 21 
 
 citizenship in its broadest sense means much more than 
 the right to the ballot. The illiteracy test has passed the 
 Senate three times and the House four times in the last 
 eight years. It has been endorsed by several State 
 legislatures, a large proportion of the boards of asso- 
 ciated charities of the country, and by numerous in- 
 telligent persons familiar with immigration matters, 
 including the State associations for promoting immi- 
 gration above referred to. This test has already been 
 adopted by the Commonwealth of Australia and by Bri- 
 tish Columbia, and would have certainly been adopted 
 here long since but for the opposition of the transpor- 
 tation companies. 
 
 It is no doubt true that many of the newer immigrants 
 are eager to have their children educated, and that many 
 of these children are good scholars. But this fact 
 strikes us the more forcibly because it is the one ray of 
 hope in a dark situation. I do not know that anyone 
 has ever claimed that these foreign-bom children are 
 superior in any way to native-bom children, and the 
 latter acquire the most valuable part of civic education 
 by hearsay and imitation in their own homes, while the 
 foreign bom have their only training in the school. 
 Furthermore, everyone admits the enormous burden of 
 educating such a large mass of children, illiterate as to 
 even their own language. This is in addition to the 
 burden of the adult illiterates imposed on a country 
 which already has its problems of rural and negro educa- 
 tion. There is no doubt that an illiteracy test would not 
 only give us elbow room to work out our own problems 
 of education, but would greatly promote elementary 
 education in Europe. Why should we take upon our- 
 selves a burden which properly belongs to the countries 
 from which these immigrants come? 
 
 Whatever view we may take of the immigration ques- 
 
22 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 tion there can be no doubt that it is one of the most itn- 
 portant, if not the most important, problems of our 
 time, and, as such, it deserves the careful study of all 
 our citizens. We are trustees of our civilization and in- 
 stitutions with a duty to the future, and as trustees the 
 stocks of population in which we invest should be 
 limited by the principle of a careful selection of im- 
 migrants. 
 
THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN IDEALS' 
 
 GoBTNEAU once said, "America is likely to be, not the 
 cradle of a new, but the grave of an old race." Is there, 
 indeed, a danger that the race which has made our coun- 
 try great will pass away, and that the ideals and in- 
 stitutions which it has cherished will also pass ? 
 
 It seems to be generally agreed that down to the 
 period of fifteen years or so after the close of the Civil 
 War there was a fairly definite American type, which 
 had expressed itself, not so much in literature or art, as 
 in politics and invention, and in certain social ideals. 
 Washington and Lincoln, however different in some re- 
 spects, both represented a certain type of English civi- 
 lization, and both stood for certain political, social, and 
 ethical points of view. The original settlers of this 
 country were mainly Teutonic, belonging to what is 
 now called the Baltic race, from Northern Europe,which 
 has always been distinguished for energy, initiative, and 
 self-reliance. Impatient of much government, relying 
 upon self-help rather than the paternalism of the State, 
 this race was none the less firm in its allegiance to cer- 
 tain pretty definite religious and social standards. It 
 insisted from the beginning on general education, and 
 where opportunities for schooling were wanting there 
 was nevertheless a wide training given by interchange of 
 ideas in the home, on the farm, in the church, and in the 
 town meeting. In town affairs every citizen was ex- 
 pected to take part, and usually did so, thus conferring 
 ' Reprinted from The North American Review, January, 1912. 
 
 23 
 
24 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 a benefit on the community and receiving something 'n 
 exchange. The result of this common racial origin and 
 of these relatively homogeneous institutions was, as I 
 have said, the amalgamation of the people into a fairly 
 definite national type. ^ 
 
 What has happened since then? To-day, less than 
 one-half of our people are descendants of the original 
 stock and of the early settlers. Since 1820, we have 
 received from Europe and Asia some twenty-eight 
 millions of people. About one-third of these came 
 prior to 1880 and were of races kindred to those already 
 here; in other words, they had a common heritage of 
 institutions if not of language, and were assimilated into 
 the general population with comparative ease. The 
 other two-thirds, the eighteen millions who have come 
 since 1880, have been, on the other hand, of entirely 
 different races — of Alpine, Mediterranean, Asiatic, and 
 African stocks. These races have an entirely different 
 mental make-up from the Baltic race; they bring with 
 them an inheritance of widely differing political and 
 social ideals, and a training imder social and political 
 institutions very different from ours. The Slavic races, 
 for example, differ from the Teutonic in temperament 
 as much as the emotional nations of the Mediterranean. 
 The South Italian, which constitutes the largest ele- 
 ment in our present immigration, is one of the most 
 mixed races in Europe and is partly African, owing to 
 the negroid migration from Carthage to Italy. The 
 modem Greek is by no means the Greek of the time of 
 
 ' Perhaps the best statement of the proper conditions of race mixture 
 is in Houston Stewart Chamberlain's Foundations of the XlXth Century, 
 vol. I, chap, iv, " The Chaos." He points out that the successful cases 
 of amalgamation have been those where there has been an immigration 
 of kindred races only, and such immigration has continued for a com- 
 paratively brief period and then ceased. This was precisely the situation 
 in the United States prior to 1880. 
 
THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN IDEALS 25 
 
 Pericles, either in race or temperament. The Hebrew, 
 which constitutes the next largest element of immigra- 
 tion, in spite of long residence in Europe is still, as it 
 always has been, an Asiatic race; while the Syrians, 
 Chinese, Japanese, and Hindus are still more removed 
 from the civilization of Northern Europe and America. 
 
 This movement of peoples from the Old World to 
 the New is on a scale unprecedented in history, and its 
 effects cannot fail to be profound and far-reaching. 
 What will they be? 
 
 Americans have hitherto paid very little attention to 
 this question : first, because they have not considered 
 the difference between hostile and peaceful invasions in 
 history, and second, because they fail to observe that 
 recent immigration is of an entirely different kind from 
 that which our fathers knew. The earlier immigration 
 having been of kindred races and having produced no 
 profound changes, our people became used to the phe- 
 nomenon and took it as a matter of course. At the 
 present time, most of us consider that the movement 
 now going on is similar to that which has been, and 
 anticipate results no different from those previously 
 observed. 
 
 If the million people coming every year came not as 
 peaceful travelers, but as an invading hostile army, pub- 
 lic opinion would be very different to what it is ; and yet 
 history shows that it has usually been the peaceful mi- 
 grations and not the conquering armies which have 
 undermined and changed the institutions of peoples. 
 To take the classical error on this subject, we have been 
 told repeatedly that, on the one hand, it was the 
 conquering Goths and Vandals, and on the other hand, 
 their own vice and luxury, which cost the Romans their 
 empire. The real cause of the fall of Rome was neither 
 of these things. It was the constant infiltration into 
 
26 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 Roman citizenship of large numbers of "barbarians" — 
 that is, of races alien in instincts and habits of thought 
 and action to the races which had built up the Roman 
 Empire. For a time, indeed, the mold of political struc- 
 ture and social habit, though cracking, did not break; 
 but the newcomers assimilated the Romans faster 
 than they were themselves assimilated, and in time the 
 mold broke in pieces. In precisely the same way some 
 provinces of France are to-day becoming German, and 
 others Italian, while the Germans are consciously mak- 
 ing use of this method in their attempt to Prussianize 
 Poland. 
 
 The "barbarians" of the present time, however, do 
 not come from the plateaus of central Asia or from the 
 jungles of Africa; they are the defective and delinquent 
 classes of Europe — the individuals who have not been 
 able to keep the pace at home and have fallen into the 
 lower strata of its civilization. 
 
 Formerly, America was a hard place to get to, and a 
 hard life awaited those who came, although the free 
 and fertile land offered rich prizes to those with the 
 energy to grasp them. To-day, the steamship agent is 
 in every little town in Europe ; fast steamers can bring 
 thousands in a few days, and wages, often indeed not 
 enough for an American to live decently on, but large 
 in the eyes of the poor European peasants, await the 
 immigrant on landing. There is, moreover, abundant 
 testimony to the fact that much of the present immigra- 
 tion is not even a normal flow of population, but is 
 artificially stimulated in every possible way by the 
 transportation companies which have many millions 
 invested in the traffic. 
 
 Now there are two hopeful attitudes with regard to 
 the possible dangers from this "peaceful invasion." 
 One of them is that we can continue, as we have in the 
 
THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN IDEALS 27 
 
 past, to assimilate all this material and turn it into good 
 American citizens. This was the general attitude until 
 recently, and is still the attitude of the average man who 
 does not fear the future. The other attitude is that, 
 although perhaps we cannot do this, although the aliens 
 may to some extent assimilate us, yet the seething of 
 the melting-pot will remove the dross and turn out a 
 product, possibly new, but at any rate as good, if not 
 better, than the old. 
 
 It is important to consider the truth of these points 
 of view, because the social and political institutions of 
 any country depend upon the type of its citizenship and 
 are molded by it. Ruskin long ago observed that the 
 only real wealth is human character, and what boots an 
 extended railroad mileage or the fact that all our coal 
 and minerals are dug up or all our trees cut down some 
 years or decades sooner, if at the end our democracy 
 goes to pieces ? We have heard much lately of the con- 
 servation of natural resources, but the conservation of 
 ideals is surely much more important. 
 
 Those who believe that we can assimilate all the aliens 
 who may come usually qualify their belief by saying 
 that, although we may not succeed entirely with the 
 parents, we can succeed with the children, and that the 
 salvation of the situation is the public school. They 
 also point out that many immigrants have had little 
 opportunity for improvement in their own countries 
 and may develop rapidly in a new environment. Now 
 just as the Latin races make a fetish of the State, we 
 Americans are apt to make a fetish of education, and 
 we constantly fail to discriminate between education 
 as the molding of character and education as the im- 
 parting of information. Far the larger part of a child's 
 education comes from his home and his companions, 
 rather than from his schooling. Emulation and imita- 
 
28 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 tion are the two mainsprings of his growth. We should 
 never forget the somewhat hackneyed truth that educa- 
 tion, in general, brings out what is in the man, be it 
 good or bad, and seldom puts much there which was not 
 there before. For this reason it is very questionable 
 whether the small amount of schooling the children of 
 most aliens receive plays a very large part in the total 
 of influences brought to bear upon them ; and it is still 
 more debatable whether it appreciably alters their char- 
 acters, or does anything more than bring out their 
 inherited instincts and tendencies. Undoubtedly immi- 
 grant children crowd our schools because it aids them in 
 the struggle for existence, and is usually paid for by 
 someone else. Undoubtedly, also, many of them ob- 
 tain high marks and show considerable capacity for 
 storing up information. 
 
 Nevertheless, as has been said, schooling is but a small 
 part of the influences to which the child is subject, and 
 the tendency of recent immigrants to crowd into the 
 cities and to settle in racial groups means that a very 
 large part of the influences affecting the children will be 
 those of their neighbors and co-workers of the same race. 
 As in John Bunyan's parable, a small quantity of oil 
 poured secretly and steadily upon a fire will cause it to 
 withstand a large quantity of water poured upon it 
 from all directions. Moreover, to a great extent this 
 water of public-school education will fail to quench 
 hereditary passions, because the latter are so strong 
 that the former will be vaporized, so to speak, and pass 
 off without closely touching them. Dr. Gustav LeBon, 
 in his Political Psychology, has thus expressed this 
 phase of the matter : 
 
 "Education merely sums up the results of a civiliza- 
 tion; the institutions and the beliefs representing the 
 needs of such civilization. If, then, a civilization does 
 
THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN IDEALS 29 
 
 not harmonize with the ideas and sentiments of a people, 
 the education setting forth this civilization will remain 
 without effect upon it ; in the same way that institutions 
 corresponding to certain needs will not correspond to 
 different needs." 
 
 The result in such a case will be, not a true amalgama- 
 tion of races, but a mixture of peoples as in Austria- 
 Hungary, living side by side, sharing certain interests 
 in common, but never wholly merging into a general 
 national type. 
 
 This is, indeed, what many educators like Dr. Charles 
 W. Eliot expect and rejoice in. Dr. Eliot does not share 
 in the second view — that the melting-pot will fuse the 
 various races into one. And he rejoices because, in his 
 view, half-breeds of any races are inferior to their 
 parents, just as alloys of metals are not as valuable as 
 the metals themselves. And he is right. The evidence 
 on this point is convincing. Dr. Alfred P. Schultz, in 
 his Race or Mongrel, gives numerous examples drawn 
 from history, one of the most conspicuous being that of 
 the Jews, who, wherever they have kept their racial 
 purity, have kept also their fine qualities of energy, 
 push, and mental alertness, but have deteriorated 
 rapidly when intermarried with other races. Hum- 
 boldt and Darwin have declared the same truth. Agas- 
 siz, in a well-known passage, says : 
 
 ' ' Let any one who doubts the evil of the mixture of 
 races and who is inclined from mistaken philanthropy 
 to break down all barriers between them come to Brazil. 
 He cannot deny the deterioration consequent upon the 
 amalgamation of races, more wide-spread here than in 
 any country in the world and which is rapidly effacing 
 the best qualities of the white man, the Indian, and the 
 negro, leaving a mongrel nondescript type deficient in 
 physical and mental energy." 
 
30 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 The same thing has happened in Cuba, in Mexico, and 
 other countries to the south of us. But is there any 
 danger of this occurring in the United States? It has 
 not occurred in the past because the only race outside of 
 the Teutonic immigrants present in large numbers has 
 been the negro, and the Baltic races have an insur- 
 mountable prejudice against intermarriage with the 
 black races. The Mediterranean and Asiatic races, on 
 the other hand, have much less of this feeling. The 
 negro strain in the South Italians has been already men- 
 tioned, and there are some examples of intermarriage 
 between negroes and Jews. What would happen if a 
 large Mediterranean population should be colonized in 
 our Southern States and should interbreed with the 
 negro population it finds there? This is not an imagin- 
 ary possibility, for the dark-skinned races are more 
 likely to settle in the southern part of this country; 
 indeed, it must be so if Major Woodruff is correct in his 
 view that the blond races cannot permanently live south 
 of the fortieth parallel on accoimt of the effects of the 
 light on their nervous systems. Let us assiune that 
 some interbreeding with the negroes takes place. Will 
 the descendants of the emotional, fiery Italians submit 
 to the social judgment that a man with a sixteenth or a 
 thirty-second part of negro blood is a colored man who 
 must occupy a position socially, if not politically, in- 
 ferior? Assuredly not, and thoughtful Southerners are 
 already alarmed by this prospect and have announced 
 through many of their industrial conventions that they 
 do not desire the immigration of southeastern Euro- 
 peans. The Western States feel the same way about 
 Asiatics, both for racial and economic reasons. 
 
 Even if the result of the immigration of southeastern 
 Europeans to the South should not immediately be an 
 interbreeding, the result may be to add other problems 
 
THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN IDEALS 31 
 
 to the one we already have there. Mr. Booker T. 
 Washington, who has recently been investigating con- 
 ditions in Europe, expresses this view when he says : 
 
 "I greatly fear that if these people should come in 
 large numbers and settle in colonies outside the cities, 
 where they would have comparatively few educational 
 advantages, and where they would be better able and 
 more disposed to preserve their native customs and 
 languages, we might have a racial problem in the South 
 more difficult and more dangerous than that which is 
 caused by the presence of the negro."' 
 
 But whether the result be an amalgamation or a 
 mixture, it is evident that the nation will be profoundly 
 altered by the addition of large numbers of persons with 
 alien habits and ideals, and that the social and political 
 structure will be changed accordingly. Dr. LeBon, in 
 the work above quoted, says : 
 
 "A preponderating influence of foreigners is a stue 
 solvent of the existence of States. It takes away from a 
 people its most precious possession — ^its soul. When 
 aliens became numerous in the Roman Empire it 
 ceased to be." 
 
 And again: 
 
 ' ' It was a very sure instinct which taught the ancients 
 the fear of strangers: they well knew that worth of a 
 country is not measured by the number of its inhabi- 
 tants, but by the number of its citizens." 
 
 Can we not already see certain effects of the newer im- 
 migration upon our social life? In many places the 
 
 ' The first part of this quotation is almost the exact language used by 
 George Washington in a letter to John Adams, November 27, 1794. Of 
 course, he was speaking of the relatively homogeneous immigration of 
 his day. 
 
32 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 Continental Sunday, with its games and sports, its 
 theatrical and musical performances, and its open bars, 
 is taking the place of the Puritan Sabbath. In some of 
 our factory towns there are many operatives living 
 under the system of free marriage, and in at least one 
 place the method of building tenements has been altered 
 to correspond to this system. Professor Commons notes 
 that we have already begun to despotize our institutions 
 in order to deal with large masses of citizens not capable 
 of intelligently supporting representative government. 
 We see, also, the phenomena of political parties and 
 groups on racial lines, with their own newspapers in 
 foreign languages, seeking representation as racial 
 units precisely as in Austria. These groups have al- 
 ready taken a conspicuous part in opposing immigration 
 legislation, already existing or proposed, which makes 
 it more difficult for their friends and relatives to come 
 here; and, under our political system, these foreign- 
 born groups already hold the balance of power in many 
 places. This means that they often divide, not on public 
 policy, but on some matter of racial advantage. In any 
 case they do not and cannot combine to make parties 
 like those of the older population. 
 
 All these changes may be good or bad, but they can- 
 not fail to impress us; and, if these changes rise above 
 the swirling mass of events and catch our eyes, we may 
 be sure that more profound changes are in process 
 beneath the surface. 
 
 "We have to contend not only with ahen habits and 
 ideals, and with the fact that these differences cannot 
 be effaced by education in one or even two generations, 
 but also with the fact that we are getting a, great many 
 immigrants who are below the mental, moral, and 
 physical average of both om country and their own. A 
 recent writer in a leading German review has said: 
 
THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN IDEALS 33 
 
 "The immigration of the last decade has increased the 
 number of hands, but not the number of heads, in the 
 United States." While this may be an extreme state- 
 ment, there is the unanimous testimony of the Commis- 
 sioner-General of Immigration, the Commissioner at the 
 Port of New York, and the Immigration Commission, 
 which has recently spent several years studying the 
 matter, to the fact that for one immigrant whose defects 
 are so marked as to put him in the classes excluded by 
 law there are hundreds, if not thousands, who are below 
 the average of our people, and who, as George William 
 Curtis put it, are "watering the nation's life blood." 
 
 Recent investigations in eugenics show that heredity 
 is a much more important factor than environment as 
 regards social conditions — ^in fact, that in most cases 
 heredity is what makes the environment. This is con- 
 firmed by the practice of the insurance companies 
 which attach the chief importance to the hereditary 
 characteristics of an individual. If this position is 
 sound, education and distribution can only palliate the 
 evils and delay fundamental changes. As Professor 
 Karl Pearson says: "You cannot change the leopard's 
 spots, and you cannot change bad stock to good; you 
 may dilute it, possibly spread it over a large area, spoil- 
 ing good stock, but until it ceases to multiply it will not 
 cease to be." 
 
 Intelligent foreigners, like Bourget, H. G. Wells, and 
 LeBon, are continually surprised that Americans pay so 
 little regard to these matters. Already our neighbor to 
 the north has become much more strict as to those she 
 admits than we are ; and, in fact, the Dominion is now 
 rejecting at the border many whom we have admitted. 
 And in our own practice we are not very logical, for we 
 are much more stringent in regulations as to importing 
 cattle, sheep, hogs, dogs, and horses than we are as to 
 
34 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 human beings. The English sparrow and the gypsy 
 moth were not considered dangerous when first im- 
 ported, but by their multipHcation have done serious 
 damage. The history of the Jukes family in New York 
 State shows how much harm can be done by immigra- 
 tion of a single pair of defectives. 
 
 The foregoing is not intended to be a pessimistic wail. 
 Our people are successful in part because they are op- 
 timistic, and in general they have little use for prophets 
 of evil. Nor has the writer forgotten for a moment 
 either what the country owes to past immigration, or 
 that much of the present immigration is desirable and 
 valuable. But our optimism should not be blind. Sum- 
 ner once said of Garrison that he would go straight 
 ahead even if the next step were over a precipice. If 
 there is a precipice ahead we should avoid it while there 
 is time, not merely for our own sake, but that the United 
 States may continue strong to uphold the cause of 
 democracy and liberty throughout the world. 
 
THE BUILDING SITUATION IN BROOKLINE' 
 
 Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
 
 Some of the other speakers to-night will give us, I 
 hope, the benefit of experience in other towns, notably 
 Mr. Parker, of the Housing Committee of the Massa- 
 chusetts Civic League, who will be here presently. 
 Meanwhile I wish to outline a little of the situation as it 
 is to-day in Brookline. 
 
 It is a commonplace of history that geography has a 
 great deal to do with the development of commtmity 
 life, and Brookline is divided, I think, because many or 
 most of us live along certain radial streets leading out of 
 Boston. One result of that is that we do not get to- 
 gether in many things as could be wished, and one object 
 of the Civic Society is to overcome that difficulty and 
 bring people together on questions of this sort. How- 
 ever, whatever the explanation may be, Brookline has 
 been very slow about adopting some things, and one of 
 them is in relation to the building law in regard to 
 wooden tenements. Brookline has been four years 
 behind other communities in recognizing what the 
 Delphic Oracle told the Athenians a great many years 
 ago, that the way to destroy a nation is by the use of 
 wooden walls. Although the wooden walls of Themis- 
 tocles happened to be on the water, they were, neverthe- 
 less, three-deckers and did great service. Brookline is 
 
 'An address before the Brookline Civic Society, May 31, 1916. Re- 
 printed from the Brookline Chronicle of June 3, 1916. 
 
 35 
 
36 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 the thirty-sixth town, chronologically speaking, to 
 forbid wooden walls. Only Cambridge, Somerville, 
 Waltham, and Needham, and parts of Boston, are 
 behind it on this subject, and Cambridge hopes to 
 pass an ordinance very soon. 
 
 The present Brookline law defines tenements as 
 apartment houses for more than two families or for two 
 families above the first floor, and including lodging 
 houses, hotels, and what were originally called tenement 
 houses. Since last year aU tenement houses are to be 
 second class, that is brick. First class construction is 
 fireproof throughout ; second class houses have wooden 
 or frame interior and brick outside walls ; the third class 
 construction means wooden walls and wooden frames. 
 The only third class houses to-day which can be erected 
 are single and two-family houses, and the second class 
 covers tenements of not more than three stories and of 
 not more than four stories if certain partial fireproofing 
 is used, also apartment houses of three stories with six 
 apartments and of four stories with eight apartments if 
 certain fireproofing is used in those. All other apart- 
 ment houses must be first class. 
 
 It is interesting to know that there are not over six 
 first class apartment or tenement houses in this town 
 at present. That siu-prised me and I think will surprise 
 you. Last year we asked for this amendment prohibit- 
 ing wooden walls. We might have asked for the general 
 town law, but we did not because the law contains 
 many provisions some of which are not considered as 
 good as the Brookline building law, and it was thought 
 better not to adopt it in its entirety. The result of the 
 delay in this matter is that twenty-three towns have 
 got ahead of us in adopting the Town Tenement House 
 Act. These towns are Arlington, Bedford, Belmont, 
 Braintree, Concord, Dedham, Hingham, Lexington 
 
BUILDING SITUATION IN BROOKLINE 37 
 
 Lincoln, Millis, Milton, Nahant, North Andover, 
 Reading, Stoneham, Swampscott, Walpole, Watertown, 
 Wenham, Weston, Weymouth, Winthrop, and Wake- 
 field. This Act requires all tenement houses over two 
 and one-half stories or for more than two families to be 
 fireproof, and Winchester, Medford, and Maiden also 
 require apartment houses to be fireproof. Now the 
 result of this action in the surrounding towns is the 
 invasion of Brookline by jerrybuilders, so-called. These 
 people come into a town which has not adopted the law 
 to protect itself by legislation : this has been the result 
 in other places. 
 
 Last year a member of the Economics Department of 
 Harvard University made a special study of the Town 
 Tenement House Act, and went about among the towns 
 and inquired about the workings of the Act. He found 
 that in nearly all cases the Act was adopted to prevent 
 invasion from outside. Thus Arlington adopted it on 
 account of people coming in from Cambridge and 
 Somerville; Belmont adopted it to prevent people com- 
 ing from Waltham; Swampscott adopted it to prevent 
 people coming from Lynn; Salem adopted it because 
 people came from Wenham and Beverly. The builders 
 in most cases who erect cheap buildings live outside the 
 town. They do not as a rule build for owners in the 
 town. This is also true of Brookline : in other words, 
 builders who live somewhere else, chiefly in Chelsea 
 and Dorchester, find that they are able to buy land and 
 build at fairly cheap prices in Brookline. They come in 
 and put up such buildings as they want, not for sale 
 to Brookline people but in order to sell the lands and 
 buildings as a speculation for the best price they can. 
 The builders claim that this is "improving" the land, 
 although that is a gift like the Trojan horse; but we 
 have at least insisted that the Trojan horse shall 
 
38 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 not be made of wood, but shall be of clay outside 
 instead. 
 
 What was the building situation in Brookline in 1914? 
 We had a total of 294 buildings during the year, and I 
 may say that there has been a great boom in building 
 recently. The total cost of these buildings was 
 $2,172,000. 
 
 In 1915 there were 232 wooden buildings erected and 
 174 brick buildings or 406 buildings altogether, as 
 compared with 294 the year before ; and the total cost 
 was $4,132,050 as compared with $2,172,000 the year 
 before. In other words the value of buildings last year 
 was nearly double what it was in 1914. 
 
 Now, of apartments alone in 191 5, 140 permits were 
 issued for wooden three-deckers. Of these 96 were re- 
 voked and six surrendered, making 102 representing a 
 value of $724,000. There were actually erected, there- 
 fore, only 38 wooden three-deckers last year, and of all 
 the apartments erected last year there were one of the 
 first class, 99 of the second class — these buildings had 
 brick walls — and 38 of the third class, — a total of 138 
 apartment houses as compared with 194 other frame 
 buildings which were not apartment houses. 
 
 For this year so far there have been 32 permits issued 
 for second class apartments, and none for first class. 
 And of the 32 permits 29 are three-deckers; one of which 
 was a nine-apartment house and two were six-apartment 
 houses. As I said before, at present there are not over 
 six apartment houses of first class construction in town, 
 even among the larger high buildings which are numer- 
 ous along Beacon Street and other parts of the town. 
 That being the situation and the wooden three-decker 
 being cut off, unless something is done there will be a 
 very large increase of the brick second class apartment 
 house, and large areas of Brookline will be built of the 
 
BUILDING SITUATION IN BROOKLINE 39 
 
 three-apartment houses in the same way as the Back 
 Bay region between the Fenway and Boylston Street 
 and Huntington Avenue and on Huntington Avenue 
 coming towards Brookline, and out towards Allston and 
 Cambridge. 
 
 All the arguments used against wooden three-deckers 
 apply to the three-decker of brick, except that as to 
 appearance. There is first the argument as to the effect 
 on land values,^ — the fact that the apartment house, 
 whether the walls are brick or wood, where numbers are 
 brought into a single house, causes the neighborhood 
 immediately to depreciate. The value of houses and 
 lands depreciates and therefore the taxable values are 
 reduced. The fact that the brick apartment house 
 brings in, in many cases, a class of people who do not 
 have the same permanent interest in the town as those 
 who own their own single homes and perhaps do not 
 take as much interest in town government and affairs, — 
 the fact which I spoke of before, that the town loses a 
 considerable sum in taxable value owing to the deprecia- 
 tion of the land value in houses and lands which are 
 affected by the new class of people and the increase in 
 town expenses which are necessary to provide accommo- 
 dation in school and fire and police departments, — all 
 such drawbacks of this large tenement house population 
 are not balanced by the increased personal property 
 which this population brings in. It is perfectly true 
 that anybody who pays rent pays a certain amount of 
 tax in that rent, but it is also true that the man who 
 owns his own single house pays taxes on his house and 
 land and also in most cases pays a personal tax beside, 
 so that the tax which the tenement house brings in the 
 form of additional rent probably does not bring the town 
 nearly the same return for the increased outlay which 
 would be the case with people owning their own homes. 
 
40 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 Now in the towns that have adopted the Town Tene- 
 ment House Act there has been a great satisfaction with 
 the result . The same member of the Economics Depart- 
 ment of Harvard College of whom I spoke interviewed 
 nimierous people in Lexington, Belmont, and other 
 places. Several people in Lexington said the Act was 
 the minimum of what should be done in house erection ; 
 and one of the Belmont inspectors, and a leading real 
 estate man, said that low price housing for wage earners 
 could be satisfactorily worked out under the Town 
 Tenement House Act. Another building inspector said 
 that buildings not constructed under that Act are 
 economic waste which sooner or later falls on the poor 
 man. The general testimony was that while first class 
 construction costs 20 to 30 per cent more than second 
 class construction it has not checked legitimate building 
 in those towns. 
 
 I will not take time to go into the figures here. We 
 have them from Belmont, Watertown, Arlington, and a 
 number of other places for a number of years; but it 
 appears that except inWinthrop, which is under special 
 conditions, the values have increased — ^very much in- 
 creased, and the property has likewise increased. In 
 other words, the adoption of the Act rather encouraged 
 persons to go into towns and those already there were 
 encouraged to build more valuable structures. The 
 Act has not been a detriment but a benefit to the towns. 
 
 Of course in the case of fireproof buildings the insur- 
 ance risk and fire risk is much less also. One possible 
 objection is made to this movement requiring all tene- 
 ment houses three stories or more to be fireproof, and 
 that is this : it is true that if a man is to build a first class 
 building it will be cheaper for him to build a high build- 
 ing than a low one, therefore if we adopt this provision 
 it will tend to send apartment houses up in the air. In 
 
BUILDING SITUATION IN BROOKLINE 41 
 
 fact I was told this morning that one or two of the build- 
 ing companies were anxious to have such an amendment 
 go through, with the idea of building high structures 
 with small kitchenettes. Whether that is a sincere 
 expression of their idea I doubt. But experience in other 
 places has not borne out the idea of danger in that direc- 
 tion. If there is a danger then we must take up the 
 question of the limitation of height. The Planning 
 Board is now considering the question of revising the 
 rules. If we should find there are too many high apart- 
 ment houses, houses running up too high, we must re- 
 vise the building restrictions to take care of that. Such 
 a prohibition in Chicago for the last ten years as to four 
 stories or more has kept Chicago down to a three-story 
 city. They have a provision that all tenement houses 
 of four stories or more in the residential section shall be 
 fireproof. The result has been that it has practically 
 kept that section of the city down to a three-story level 
 in nearly all cases, so we have considerable doubt 
 whether if such an amendment were adopted it would 
 result in sending buildings to any extent up in the air. 
 The real question is. What sort of development do we 
 want in Brookline ? The question of the poor man is not 
 really involved in this case, because in the first place the 
 poor man does not live in the kind of brick tenement 
 which is erected now in the second class, at least until 
 it has become relatively old and undesirable. Also the 
 question of the poor man can be solved in other ways. 
 When I studied the matter last year in reference to 
 wooden buildings I felt that it was possible to build 
 brick buildings of two or two and one-half stories on 
 low-priced land which could compete with the wooden 
 three-apartment house and also with the brick three- 
 apartment house. But in some way or other that matter 
 can undoubtedly be taken care of. So far as the argu- 
 
42 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERES:rS 
 
 ment sometimes made is concerned, that we should con- 
 sider our building laws with reference to the greatest 
 number of people that can possibly get into Brookline, 
 I have never been able to understand such a point of 
 view. Of course we all realize that certain persons who 
 work for us in various ways have to be housed reason- 
 ably near by, but there is no very great difficulty on that 
 score as yet, and in the near future we hope that certain 
 experiments now under way will demonstrate that it is 
 possible to erect neat, attractive, workingmen's cottages 
 to rent from $i8 to $20 per month which will take care 
 of such working people as we have got here. Many 
 of them do not need to be here. Many of them 
 have come in the past from Roxbury and other places 
 to work in Brookline. That was the case with the 
 Holtzer-Cabot people, a large number of whom came 
 from Roxbury. 
 
 But at any rate there does not seem to be any neces- 
 sity for letting things drift. It seems to me that we 
 ought to take up this subject and consider what sort of 
 development we want in Brookline, and that in view of 
 the action taken by the surrounding towns, unless we 
 do something of this sort we shall immediately become 
 the dumping ground for all the cheaper builders and 
 cheaper dwellers, comparatively speaking, who live in 
 cheap buildings. Of course there are many desirable 
 people who live in cheap buildings — I do not deny it — 
 but taking it in a large way, which is necessary in deal- 
 ing with this subject, I think it may be said that unless 
 we take some action we shall deteriorate our land values 
 and buildings and to some extent deteriorate the average 
 population. What will be proposed next fall to the town 
 will be what I have indicated, namely, requiring tene- 
 ment and lodging apartments of three stories or more to 
 be fireproof. That will bring the town into harmony 
 
BUILDING SITUATION IN BROOKLINE 43 
 
 with the Town House Tenement Act although we do not 
 formally adopt the Act. It is a question of what Brook- 
 line people really want, and it devolves upon you to give 
 consideration to the matter and decide about it. 
 
BRIEF IN FAVOR OF THE NUMERICAL 
 LIMITATION BILL' 
 
 (,66th Congress, H. R. 10837, contained in Publication No. 6q of the League; 
 
 see also ^gofH. R. 12320, introduced by the Chairman of the 
 
 House Committee on Immigration, Feb. 4, ig2o) 
 
 The League's bill limits the number of aliens from any nation who 
 may come in, during any year, to such percentage between twenty and 
 fifty of the number of males of such nationality naturalized in the 
 United States at the date of the preceding census, as the Secretary of 
 Labor may fix, having regard to labor conditions here. 
 
 Aliens returning from a temporary visit abroad, aliens coming to join 
 certain relatives, and certain classes of professional persons may enter in 
 addition to the maximum fixed by the bill. 
 
 The bill does not apply to natives of the Western Hemisphere; and 
 leaves Oriental immigration to be regulated as at present. 
 
 A. Further restriction of inunigration both as to 
 quantity and quality is essential to the preservation of 
 American ideals and institutions. 
 
 Prior to 1880, immigration was chiefly from races akin 
 to the original settlers in race, institutions and historical 
 background. Since 1880, the opposite is the case. In 
 1880, 65 per cent of the total immigration came from 
 Northern and Western Europe. In 1914, the last year 
 of large immigration before the war, 68 per cent of the 
 total immigration was of the Slavic and Iberic races of 
 Eastern and Southern Europe. Whatever the merits of 
 these latter races of immigrants, they are not familiar 
 with democratic institutions, are largely ignorant of the 
 
 'Publications of the Immigration Restriction League, No. 73. 
 
 44 
 
NUMERICAL LIMITATION BILL 45 
 
 English language, and until the Act of 1917 were 
 more than one third illiterate even as to their town 
 language. 
 
 As Gustav Le Bon says, too large a preponderance of 
 foreigners (meaning those foreign in ideas and customs) 
 destroys that most vital possession of a nation — ^its own 
 soul. The downfall of nearly every great civilization 
 has been due in large part to the peaceful invasion of 
 large numbers of persons having different aims and 
 customs. 
 
 B. Further restriction of immigration, both as to 
 quantity and quality, is essential to the Americanization 
 of immigrants already here and those to be admitted 
 hereafter. 
 
 To attempt to assimilate the enormous immigrant 
 population already here, to teach it our language and 
 something of our history and government, above all, to 
 imbue it with our traditions and ideals, in the face of an 
 additional immigration of a million or more a year, is a 
 hopeless task. It is like trying to keep a leaking boat 
 dry without stopping the leak. 
 
 Adequate assimilation means not only great labor and 
 expense, but it requires time. It requires something 
 more than evening classes for adults, and flag exercises in 
 the schools. Many aliens are settled in communities 
 where they hear only their own language, and read, if 
 they are able to read, only newspapers in that language. 
 The most potent assimilative force is contact and ex- 
 change of ideas with the native population. This re- 
 quires time, even in the case of the children. Meanwhile 
 we need elbow-room to make adequate progress with 
 those already here; as is shown in League Publication 
 No. 74 by Robert De C. Ward. 
 
46 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 C. The preservation of American institutions and 
 the assimilation of immigrants demand that the bulk 
 of further immigration should be of kindred races. 
 
 It is obvious that those whose home government, 
 institutions and habits are more akin to our own will 
 most easily fit into our life here and be the easiest to 
 assimilate socially, economically and politically. 
 
 D. The proposed bill operates along the same lines 
 as the reading test in the Act of 1917, but is needed to 
 supplement that test. 
 
 In the opinion of government officials and expert 
 students of the matter, the reading test has proved to 
 be one of the most valuable features of the law. In 191 7, 
 the total ntunber of illiterates over fourteen years of age 
 admitted was 35,510; in 1918, the total number of 
 illiterates admitted over sixteen years of age, under the 
 exceptions in the law, was 3,772. This reduction was 
 effected chiefly in the aliens from Southern and Eastern 
 Europe, where the rate of illiteracy is high. The reading 
 test has also proved valuable in excluding feeble-minded 
 and other defective persons who might not have been 
 excluded without it. 
 
 But the effect of the reading test will presently di- 
 minish; partly through the natiual spreading of educa- 
 tion to the countries backward in that respect, partly 
 because those same countries will make special efforts to 
 promote elementary education. This latter effect of 
 the law is noticeable in Italy, where, since the passage 
 of the test, preparations are being made to make reading 
 available to all intending emigrants. The increase in 
 popular education abroad is one of the beneficial results 
 of onr present immigration law. 
 
 Therefore some measure operating along the same 
 
NUMERICAL LIMITATION BILL 47 
 
 lines is needed to supplement the reading test before the 
 latter begins to lose its effect. 
 
 E. The proposed bill, while reducing the total 
 volume of immigration, reduces it chiefly as to those 
 countries of Eastern and Southern Europe whose 
 emigrants are less easily assimilated here. 
 
 As stated above under A and B, what is needed is that 
 aliens shall not be allowed to come in faster than they 
 can be assimilated. This implies a reduction of the total 
 number from the million a year who came to us before 
 the war ; and especially a reduction in such a way that 
 the bulk of immigration shall be of the kindred races of 
 Northern and Western Europe. 
 
 The proposed bill, under its maximum provision of 50 
 per cent, would have had the following effect in a year 
 of normally large immigration like 19 14: 
 
 Actually Admissible 
 
 admitted under bill 
 
 Northern and Western Europe 189,177 1,090,500 
 
 Southern and Eastern Europe 945,288 279,288 
 
 In other words, the total European immigration 
 would have been reduced to 43 per cent of the actual 
 volume by reducing the immigration from Southern and 
 Eastern Europe to 29 per cent of its actual volume. 
 
 The proposed bill, tinder its minimum provision of 
 20 per cent, would have had the following effect in 1914 : 
 
 Actually Admissible 
 
 admitted under bill 
 
 Northern and Western Europe 189.177 436,200 
 
 Southern and Eastern Europe 945.288 111.715 
 
 In other words, the total European immigration 
 would have been reduced to 26 per cent of its actual 
 
48 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 volume, by reducing the immigration from Southern and 
 Eastern Europe to 12 per cent of its actual volume. 
 
 It will be noticed that the number, admissible under 
 the bill, from Northern and Western Europe, is much 
 larger than actually came in 1914, and than is likely to 
 come in any future year. 
 
 It is possible that some increase of these races might 
 take place when they are no longer so subject to the 
 overwhelming competition of the races from Southern 
 and Eastern Europe. In the past, such competition 
 has been a powerful factor in checking immigration 
 from Northern and Western Europe. But much in- 
 crease is not likely, and if it took place, being of kindred 
 races it would be more easily assimilated. 
 
 F. The proposed bill would discriminate against 
 those less assimilable. 
 
 Most of the arguments in favor of the reading test 
 (set forth in Publications Nos. 56 and 63) support this 
 bill also. The races of Eastern and Southern Europe are 
 relatively illiterate; and investigation has shown that 
 illiteracy goes hand in hand with various other undesir- 
 able qualities which make assimilation difficult. 
 
 The recent immigration, for example, does not dis- 
 tribute itself over the country to build up new communi- 
 ties, as did the earlier ; but tends to congregate in certain 
 States, in the large cities of those States, and in the 
 congested districts of those cities. 
 
 The Census of iQio, Volume I, Population, page 814, 
 showed that the States of New York, New Jersey and 
 Pennsylvania contained 67.8 per cent of all the Rouma- 
 nians in the United States; 64.0 per cent of all the Hun- 
 garians; 58.4 per cent of all the Italians; and 55.7 per 
 cent of all the Russians. This compares with 34.8 per 
 
NUMERICAL LIMITATION BILL 49 
 
 cent of the English, 33.8 per cent of the French, 30.2 
 per cent of the Germans and 13.2 per cent of the Swedes. 
 
 Volume I, page 818, showed that 78.6 per cent of those 
 from Eastern and Southern Europe live in cities as 
 compared with 68.3 per cent of those from Northern and 
 Western Europe. Volume I, page 1273, shows that, of 
 those unable to speak English, 69.2 per cent live in cities. 
 
 In 1900, Chicago contained 91 per cent of all the Poles 
 in Illinois, and 84 per cent of all the Italians. New York 
 City contained 47 per cent of all the Poles in the State, 
 80 per cent of all the Italians and 94 per cent of all the 
 Russian Jews. The Seventh Special Report of the United 
 States Commissioner of Labor (1894, P- 44) shoWed that 
 natives of Austria-Hungary, Italy, Poland and Russia 
 constituted 6 times their normal proportion in the slums 
 of Baltimore, 7 times in Chicago, 5 times in New York 
 and 26 times in Philadelphia. 
 
 This tendency to slum Ufe is largely due to ignorance 
 of gainful trades, and in part to lack of savings. The 
 Report of the Industrial Commission showed that in 
 1900, while the British and Germans brought with 
 them $30 to $40 per capita, the Southern Italians, 
 Poles and Hebrews brought less than $10. 
 
 G. The basis of exclusion in the bill, namely an 
 annual immigration limited to from 20 to 50 per cent 
 of the males of any nationality naturalized at the date 
 of the last census, is a sound one. 
 
 The best test of assimilation and of the desire of those 
 of any race to throw in their lot with us permanently 
 is the degree to which they become naturalized. Races 
 who do this are in general those most nearly kindred to 
 us, as appears from the following table. 
 
 The Census of igio, Volume I, page 1072, gave the 
 
50 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 proportion of foreign-born males of voting age who were 
 naturalized, for the nations specified, as follows : 
 
 Northern and Western Europe Eastern and Southern Europe 
 
 Germany 69.5 Turkey in Europe 43-0 
 
 Wales 69.2 Roumania 28.8 
 
 Ireland 67.8 Russia 26.1 
 
 Sweden 62.8 Portugal 24.9 
 
 Switzerland 61.8 Austria 24.6 
 
 Denmark 61.6 Turkey in Asia 21.2 
 
 Norway 57.1 Italy i7-7 
 
 Netherlands 56.8 Spain 16.4 
 
 France 49.6 Hungary 14.3 
 
 Belgium 43.0 Greece 6.6 
 
 H. This bill does not in any way repeal or modify 
 the present laws excluding Oriental iimnigration. It 
 is entirely different from the so-called "Gulick" bill. 
 
 This League believes that, whatever the merits of 
 the Chinese, Japanese and Hindus may be, the public 
 opinion of this country is entirely justified in demanding 
 that they be substantially excluded, as at present, and 
 not allowed to come into economic competition here 
 with our manual workers. It has therefore opposed and 
 now opposes the Gulick bill, which repeals all specific 
 Oriental exclusion and retains as the only barrier a per- 
 centage limitation. Although the/Gulick bill is also a 
 numerical limitation plan, its basis for exclusion is 
 different from that of the League's bill ; and, in the opin- 
 ion of experts, the Gulick plan might allow several 
 million Orientals to be here at the end of fifty years. 
 We have had a troublesome experience with the African 
 races, and we ought not to risk any repetition of this 
 trouble with the Asiatic races . It may be noted that the 
 exclusion of Orientals from Australia, New Zealand and 
 Canada is much more rigid than from the United States. 
 
NUMERICAL LIMITATION BILL 51 
 
 The League's bill should not be associated with the 
 Gulick bill. They are entirely different propositions. 
 
 I. The time to adopt adequate measures of restric- 
 tion is now. 
 
 The war acted for several years as the strongest kind 
 of a check upon all immigration. The best expert opin- 
 ion is that immigration will increase very rapidly from 
 now on. For some years to come, work of reconstruc- 
 tion may tend to keep at home the better sorts of work- 
 ingmen in Northwestern Europe. On the other hand, 
 the disturbed political conditions in Eastern Europe, 
 and the destruction of many homes, will tend to uproot 
 many families and make them more ready to try life 
 on another continent. The steamship companies, who 
 know that immigrants are the most profitable cargo they 
 can carry, will be eager to turn this feeling of unsettle- 
 ment to their profit by inducing as many as possible to 
 come hither. Those having the least stake in their own 
 country, and those not likely to have a large interest 
 in any country are the easiest to persuade. 
 
 We should therefore be prepared for a largely in- 
 creased immigration, probably of a lower grade than 
 heretofore; and should adopt adequate legislation now, 
 before the rush begins. 
 
 Issued by the Immigration Restriction League, ii Pemberton Sq., 
 Boston, Mass. 
 
EUGENICS, ETHICS AND IMMIGRATION' 
 
 The word "Eugenics" has appeared in periodical 
 literature only within the last ten years, chiefly through 
 the writings of Sir Francis Galton and of Karl Pearson, 
 professor of mathematics in the University of London. 
 The thing itself is, indeed, not new. The effort to im- 
 prove the breeds of men has been expressed in many 
 ways from early times. Not to mention the exposure of 
 weakling children by the various races, restrictions on 
 marriage of one kind or another have been imposed by 
 almost all peoples. 
 
 Since Christianity and civilization have emphasized 
 the worth of the individual, the voluntary elimination of 
 the unfit has been limited to the execution of offenders 
 against political or religious laws, and the forced segre- 
 gation of certain other classes, like paupers, insane 
 persons, idiots and lepers. 
 
 The attempt to improve race stocks in recent times 
 has, therefore, taken the form, not of killing off the less 
 fit, but of preventing their coming into the State, either 
 by being born into it or by migration. Eugenics in- 
 cludes, not only the prevention of unfit, but the con- 
 scious attempt to produce the more fit ; indeed, it is in 
 the latter sense that the word is most often used. 
 Strictly speaking, however, it must include all attempts 
 to improve the physical equipment of the individual in 
 so far as he acquires it by heredity. 
 
 The recent emphasis upon eugenics is a direct out- 
 
 ' Publications of the Immigration Restriction League No. 51. 
 
 52 
 
EUGENICS, ETHICS AND IMMIGRATION 53 
 
 come of modern science. On the one hand, Darwin and 
 his followers have shown us the methods and the possi- 
 bilities of I the production of new species of plants and 
 animals. This knowledge has been applied, in countless 
 ways, — to improve breeds of sheep and cattle, to de- 
 velop race horses, to create new and improved kinds 
 of grains, grasses and fruits. The marvellous work of 
 Luther Burbank and others has opened our eyes to 
 what can be done along these lines. So much has been 
 done, indeed, that it would not be too much to say that 
 artificial selection has been applied to almost every liv- 
 ing thing with which man has close relations except 
 man himself; and people are now asking why the breed- 
 ing of the most important animal of all should, alone, be 
 left to chance. 
 
 On the other hand, the weakening of theological dog- 
 ma, resulting from the spread of science, has turned 
 men's gaze in large part from the next world to this. 
 The centre of effort has in large part been shifted from 
 preparing for death to enlarging life, from cultivating 
 holiness to producing wholeness. Comte, Herbert 
 Spencer, in fact nearly all modem philosophers, have 
 laid emphasis on making this world better, without 
 reference to what may happen in any other world. The 
 culmination of this movement is found in such men as 
 Nietzsche, Bernard Shaw and President Roosevelt. 
 The Christ ideal is no longer one of religious contempla- 
 tion, but of human perfection; the superman, working 
 in a strenuous life to produce a better world here and 
 now, is the one who attracts the admiration of men 
 to-day. 
 
 Science has aided this movement in another way by 
 showing that, in the last century, too much emphasis 
 was laid upon environment and too little upon heredity. 
 Education, environment, can develop and modify; 
 
54 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 they cannot create. Modem biology shows how differ- 
 ent organisms react upon the same environment; and 
 that, by selecting individuals who react in certain ways, 
 more can be accomplished than by merely changing 
 environment of the total number. 
 
 And thus it has come about that at last men are ask- 
 ing how the advent of the superman can be hastened, 
 and are beginning to discuss the application of artificial 
 breeding and selection to mankind itself. Nietzsche's 
 definition of marriage, as the union of two with the 
 object of producing beings higher than themselves, is 
 beginning to be seriously considered. 
 
 In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Europe 
 attempted to improve its race stocks by the exportation 
 of the less desirable individuals. Each country had its 
 penal colonies, and in addition used the United States 
 as a dumping ground for its convicts, paupers and in- 
 sane. The immigration laws of the United States, which 
 purport to exclude some twenty-one classes of mentally, 
 physically, morally and economically undesirable per- 
 sons, were originally intended to protect the country 
 from the dumping process above described. But, inas- 
 much as they operate equally in the cases of assisted and 
 of normal immigration, they really go further than this; 
 and, so far as they are enforced, tend to eugenic results 
 by selecting the better classes of aliens for the fathers 
 and mothers of future citizens. 
 
 Within the United States, in addition to the usual 
 segregation of criminals and insane, we hear from time 
 to time suggestions as to sterilizing certain classes of the 
 unfit or regulating the marriage of those afflicted with 
 hereditary diseases. Until public opinion has been 
 much more educated in this matter, however, little is 
 likely to be done on these lines. The clause of the Con- 
 stitution of the United States forbidding "cruel and 
 
EUGENICS, ETHICS AND IMMIGRATION 55 
 
 unusual punishments" is likely to stand in the way of 
 measures of sterilization like those enacted in Indiana; 
 and it may be questioned whether marriage regulations 
 will have any effect other than to increase illegitimacy, 
 except among the more intelligent and public spirited, 
 who would probably act in the same way without legis- 
 lation. Marriage regulations in Europe, as applied to 
 men in the army, have never been very successful ; and 
 in Bavaria, for example, worked such harm that they 
 had to be modified. 
 
 One of the chief troubles with the extension of eugenic 
 ideals is the fact above mentioned that the very people 
 who most need them are the last to be influenced by 
 them. Thus, according to Professor Pearson, more than 
 one half the births in Great Britain occur among less 
 than one sixth of the population, and the latter are 
 composed of the less intelligent portion of the commu- 
 nity; and not only less intelligent, but less developed 
 physically. It is on account of this last fact that we 
 hear so much now about the physical deterioration of 
 the British people, as shown in the examination of 
 recruits for the army. Nature abhors extremes, and 
 weeds out both the laggards and the pioneers. 
 
 This tendency of the less intelligent to multiply more 
 rapidly becomes doubly important in a country where, 
 in some years, immigration ranges from one to one and 
 one quarter per cent of the poptilation, ' and is chiefly 
 made up of the working classes. Admitting, for the 
 sake of argument, that a mixture of race stocks may be 
 desirable, it is apparent that the individuals who are to 
 be the progenitors of the mixed stock should, at least, 
 be as good, mentally and physically, as the average of 
 
 ■ It is true that the "net addition to population" by immigration, in 
 any year, is less than this; but returning aliens may leave children behind 
 them, and, in any case, exert a profound influence on the community. 
 
56 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 those already here, if there is not to be a gradual de- 
 generation of our people. 
 
 PRESENT LAWS NOT SUFFICIENT 
 
 The fact is, that our immigration laws, as at present 
 administered, do not screen out the unfit so as to pre- 
 serve the status quo, to say nothing of promoting eugenic 
 improvement. Dr. Darlington of the New York City 
 Board of Health has pointed out ' that over 80 per cent 
 of the aliens certified by the examining surgeons as 
 being of poor physique or as having some physical 
 abnormality were landed recently at Ellis Island. Ac- 
 cording to the Surgeon-General, 3774 aliens were certi- 
 fied at Ellis Island from July i to December 31, 1907, 
 as having physical disabilities affecting their capacity 
 for self-maintenance ; and, during the same period, 3073 
 of such aliens were admitted. Of 4846 certified during 
 the year 1904, or remaining over from the previous year, 
 3478 were landed. 
 
 The result of this laxness is shown in the further facts 
 cited by Dr. Darlington, that the 40 per cent of foreign- 
 born school children in New York City furnished, in 
 1906, over 70 per cent of the defectives in the schools; 
 while in 1902 a foreign-born population of New York 
 City, constituting a little over one third of the total 
 population of New York City, furnished 89 per cent of 
 the deaths from tuberculosis, and, in 1904, 60 per cent 
 of the insane patients. 
 
 It further appears that the races which have recently 
 begun to come to us, some of which are coming in large 
 numbers, are those which have the largest proportion of 
 serious physical defects. Thus, in 1901, the proportions 
 
 ' North American Review, vol, 183, p. 1262 (Dec. 21, 1936). 
 
EUGENICS, ETHICS AND IMMIGRATION 57 
 
 of defectives to the totals landed, according to Dr. 
 McLaughlin, ' were as follows for certain races : — 
 
 Syrian i in 29. 
 
 Hebrew i in 42. 
 
 Magyar i in 148. 
 
 Finn i in 163. 
 
 ItaUan i in 172. 
 
 Slav I in 664. 
 Lithuanian i in 1906. 
 
 Hebrew immigration has for several years been the 
 second largest element in the total immigration. 
 
 The census of 1900 shows that, roughly speaking, the 
 foreign-born furnish one and one-fifth times their pro- 
 portion of criminals, one and one-half times their 
 proportion of juvenile offenders, nearly twice their pro- 
 portion of insane, and nearly three times their propor- 
 tion of paupers. 
 
 If we had proper immigration laws properly enforced, 
 most of those who are or become defectives and depend- 
 ents would never be admitted, and we should be pro- 
 tected, not merely from the burden of them, but from 
 what George William Curtis called that "watering of the 
 nation's life-blood" which is the result of their breeding 
 after admission. 
 
 After great efforts, a new class of excluded persons was 
 added to the immigration law in 1907, consisting of 
 persons "who are found to be and are certified by the 
 examining surgeon as being mentally or physically de- 
 fective, such mental or physical defect being of a nature 
 which may affect the ability of such alien to earn a liv- 
 ing." It was further provided that there should be no 
 appeal from the decision of boards of special inquiry 
 
 ■ Popular Science Monthly, vol. 62, p. 407. 
 
58 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 excluding such aliens. This was intended to be a purely 
 physical test ; in practice, however, it has been made an 
 economic test. It is held by some of the officials that 
 the defect must interfere with any particular occupation 
 which the alien states he intends to pursue; that the 
 function of the surgeon is merely advisory; and that the 
 question whether the decision of a board of special 
 inquiry was, in any case, based on the medical certifi- 
 cate, can be reviewed by the Secretary of Commerce 
 and Labor. As a result of these refinements, the ' ' poor 
 physique" clause has become a dead letter, and the pro- 
 tection, which it was intended to furnish to the public 
 health, has been done away with. 
 
 Admitting that immigration is to be regulated at all, 
 there seems to be no reason why the same care should 
 not be exercised in admitting human beings that is now 
 exercised in relation to animals, insect pests and disease 
 germs. The admission of undesirable individuals does 
 not necessarily improve the world as a whole. There are 
 as many English sparrows in England as there were 
 before they were imported to become a nuisance in this 
 country. 
 
 The opponents of regulation of immigration have 
 largely relied upon the doctrine that free competition of 
 individuals will result in the ' ' survival of the fittest " by 
 natural selection. This belief is based upon a misun- 
 derstanding of the expression "survival of the fittest." 
 This really means the survival of those most fitted for 
 survival, and not necessarily those most fitted for any 
 other purpose. As Dr. Pearson has pointed out, ^ this 
 practically means the survival of the most fertile. The 
 poor drunkard in the slums who has, perhaps, ten chil- 
 dren survives five times as much as the college president 
 with two, but no one would think of claiming that the 
 
 " "National Life from the Standpoint of Science." 
 
EUGENICS, ETHICS AND IMMIGRATION 59 
 
 ten are as valuable as the two. Formerly, the ten, or 
 most of them, would have been eliminated by disease, 
 and only the strongest would have survived. To-day, 
 owing to modern sanitation, they all live, though often 
 handicapped in the struggle for existence. 
 
 A variation of this argimient usually takes the form 
 of pointing out some dramatic single instance, where a 
 child of the slums or one immigrating from some Euro- 
 pean ghetto, has risen to distinguished rank and done 
 valuable service to the community. In view of the 
 recent work of Hugo de Vries, Biurbank and others, it 
 cannot be denied that spontaneous variation does pro- 
 duce occasional "sports" very different from the parent 
 stock. But, although we cannot predict that X, a child 
 of A, will be of type A, any more than we can predict the 
 date of his death, we can be absolutely certain what a 
 class X of children of persons of type A will be, just as 
 we can certainly predict the average life of that class; 
 and we can also predict that the more valuable class A, 
 the more valuable will be class X. 
 
 On account of the tendency, discussed above, for 
 those. classes of the community which have a lower 
 physical and mental development to breed more rapidly, 
 we must consider classes and not individuals. Wars and 
 pestilences no longer eliminate the unfit as formerly, 
 and what harm can be done by the breeding of a single 
 pair of undesirables has been shown by the history of 
 the Jukes family in New York State. That heredity 
 counts for more than environment is shown by the im- 
 portance attached to the former, as compared with 
 the latter, by the insurance companies. According to 
 Galton, the individual inherits in some degree from 
 everyone of his ancestors, but in inverse geometrical 
 proportion to their remoteness. If, therefore, we have 
 a class of immigrants mentally and physically defective, 
 
6o IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 we can be mathematically certain that the children of 
 that class will contain a preponderating amount of 
 degeneracy, no matter what the environment. As 
 Professor Pearson says: "You cannot change the leop- 
 ard's spots, and you cannot change bad stock to good; 
 you may dilute it, possibly spread it over a wide area, 
 spoiling good stock, but until it ceases to multiply it 
 will not cease to be." 
 
 The United States, from its geographical position, 
 has an opportunity to perpetuate its unique advantage 
 in having been founded and developed by a picked class 
 of immigrants. Only recently has the greed of transpor- 
 tation companies brought to our shores a selection, not 
 of the best, but often of the worst elements of European 
 and Asiatic populations. Pending the development of 
 further eugenic ideals, the least we can do is to see that 
 the best specimens of each race are chosen for the 
 parents of our future citizens. 
 
 THE ETHICS OF IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION 
 
 In an address before the Economic Club of Boston, 
 President Eliot, of Harvard University, once took for 
 his text the proposition that restriction of immigration 
 was not a ' ' generous thought. ' ' As this phrase sums up 
 the objection felt by a number of public-spirited persons 
 to any rigorous regulation of immigration, it deserves 
 careful consideration. At the first, the term "free im- 
 migration' ' has an attractive sound. Freedom has been 
 the watchword of democracy, of anti-slavery, of relig- 
 ious liberty. It was the war cry of that school of eco- 
 nomics which was dominant until recent years, and 
 found expression in the doctrine of laissez faire. In po- 
 litical life, liberty meant until recently the minimum of 
 control necessary to secure equal opportunity. 
 
EUGENICS, ETHICS AND IMMIGRATION 6i 
 
 The chief difference between the viewpoint of the 
 nineteenth century and that of the twentieth will be 
 found, I think, in the more positive and constructive 
 attitude of the latter. We have begun to realize the 
 control of man over nature, and to see that the highest 
 results come from collective effort consciously directed 
 to an end. We have seen, for example, both in biology 
 and in history that individuals with traits of the highest 
 value may disappear before the onslaughts of lower 
 tsrpes which in one way or another are better fitted to 
 perpetuate themselves. 
 
 Do we, therefore, say that such is the Divine purpose, 
 and acquiesce in the result ? Not at all. We say there is 
 no ground for supposing that the Divine purpose does 
 not intend to work as much through man's reason as 
 through the forces of nature ; and we set about interfer- 
 ing with natural selection in almost every department 
 of life. We not only weed out the tares and thistles to 
 plant wheat and figs, but Mr. Burbank and others 
 create .better kinds of wheat and figs and they supplant 
 what we had before. The race horse and the seedless 
 orange are triimiphs of man's brain applied to artificial 
 selection. In human affairs we find that we must go 
 far beyond the doctrine of equal opportunity, and by 
 compulsory education, pure food laws and countless 
 other regulations, protect the people from harm and 
 raise them to a higher type. We even lie awake nights 
 devising how to get better men into oiu- municipal 
 offices, utterly regardless of the question whether the 
 average citizen wishes better government or not; and, 
 when the bad citizen gets too bad, we sometimes inter- 
 fere with his natural activity by putting him in jail. 
 
 Now, all these considerations have a direct bearing 
 upon the question of immigration regulation, for the 
 migration of peoples is one of the matters in which con- 
 
62 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 scious human agency may produce the greatest results, 
 by the selection of the future races. 
 
 Restriction of immigration can be justified from two 
 points of view. The first point of view is, that any 
 political unit has the right to exclude whatever will not 
 help it to a higher development than it now has. Prob- 
 ably the world is not yet ready for eugenic ideals such as 
 Messrs. Pearson and Galton are preaching in England, 
 whether they be by regulation of marriage or by preserv- 
 ing the purity of certain races. So let us pass to the 
 second point of view. 
 
 This is, that any political unit has the right to protect 
 itself from the invasion of anything tending to retard its 
 normal life and development, whether it be noxious 
 weeds or animals, germs of infectious disease, immoral 
 books, immoral people, criminals, or persons whose 
 presence tends to lower the average of intelligence, 
 political capacity, or mental and physical health. 
 
 This right has never been questioned legally; it is an 
 inherent attribute of sovereignty. It rests on the prop- 
 osition that a political and social community is the 
 creation and property of those who have established 
 and developed it, and that they have the right to say 
 who shall be admitted into its life. The nation is larger, 
 but not unlike the state, the city, the church, the club, 
 the family. In these smaller units the right to regulate 
 admission is unquestioned. The college, of which the 
 president above referred to is the distinguished head, is 
 by no means indifferent to educational tests for admis- 
 sion to its privileges. 
 
 But the right of the nation to exclude individuals may 
 be questioned upon moral grounds just because it is 
 larger than the other units we have mentioned. The 
 surface of the earth is limited in extent; and while in 
 most parts of Europe the birth rate is falling, in Asia 
 
EUGENICS, ETHICS AND IMMIGRATION 63 
 
 and Africa it is probably rising, and in all parts the 
 death rate is diminishing. What, it will be asked, are 
 these teeming multitudes to do if they overcrowd their 
 native territory? 
 
 This problem suggests two preliminary practical con- 
 siderations. One is that most nations do not restrict 
 immigration to any extent, so that if the United States 
 were to impose additional restrictions, most of the re- 
 maining countries would still be open. Another is, 
 that free immigration, in many if not in all cases, results 
 in an absolute increase in population in the country 
 from which it takes place, so that the problem is not 
 solved but renewed. There are ten times as many 
 Englishmen in England as at the time of the first English 
 emigration. Unless we admit the right of any human 
 type, no matter how low, not only to move about the 
 earth's surface but to propagate indefinitely at will, we 
 must consider what types it is desirable to have popu- 
 late the now unsettled portions of the world. There 
 might be no fewer Hindus in Asia after a few years if 
 one himdred millions out of the eight hundred millions 
 now there were to come to America ; but the effect on 
 America would be profound and permanent, while the 
 effect on India would be slight and temporary. 
 
 Now, if the facts show, as I believe they do, that a 
 considerable proportion of the immigrants coming to- 
 day are below the average of our citizenship, mentally, 
 morally and physically, and if they have tended to lower 
 that average, why is it imgenerous to say, "You shall 
 not come faster than we can lift you to our level or 
 higher, and those of you who are very far below our 
 level shall not come until they fit themselves for our 
 conditions." Observe the question which the college 
 president raises is not one of fact but of the moral 
 law. He proclaims that restriction of immigration is 
 
64 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 ungenerous no matter what the quality of that immi- 
 gration is. 
 
 Now if a thing is ungenerous, it must be because it is 
 ungenerous toward somebody. Restriction of immigra- 
 tion, under the assumed state of facts, is certainly not 
 ungenerous to the native-bom in the United States, nor 
 to the foreign-bom already here. Is it ungenerous to 
 the intending immigrants, who may soon number two 
 millions a year ? That must be considered in connection 
 , with the effect of exclusion upon all the population of the 
 other countries. If the standard of civilization and 
 progress which the United States stands for were low- 
 ered, either by thinning the life blood of the people or by 
 supplanting the existing races by others whose ideals 
 are different, the damage to the rest of the world might 
 be enough to much more than offset the benefit to the 
 individuals admitted. For nations, like individuals, 
 progress by emulation and imitation, and if there is 
 nothing of value to imitate, such progress becomes 
 delayed. 
 
 Just at this point I seem to hear something said of the 
 colossal Teutonic conceit which thinks its race better 
 than others. I frankly accept the challenge. I do be- 
 lieve that in recent centuries, the Teutonic stock has 
 been the finest in the world. The Iberic had its day ; but 
 compare the history of the Spanish-American republics 
 for three hundred years with that of England, Germany, 
 Scandinavia and the United States. If our country had 
 been settled by Galicians, Croatians, Sicilians or Greeks, 
 can anyone suppose that our institutions and achieve' 
 ments would have been what they have or that 
 the movement toward political and religious liberty 
 throughout all the world would have been the same? 
 
 Besides the advantage of continuing the higher prog- 
 ress of an advancing nation for its service to the world. 
 
EUGENICS, ETHICS AND IMMIGRATION 65 
 
 there are certain benefits of restriction of emigration 
 which are often overlooked. Emigration has been used 
 as a safety valve by the governments of Europe to 
 enable them to continue despotic rule, burdensome taxa- 
 tion, indifference to educational and industrial advance. 
 It is probable that certain European countries would be 
 further ahead today if the pressure of population and 
 poverty had been present to force their rulers to more 
 enlightened policies. A few years ago the mere rumor 
 that the United States would adopt an educational test 
 for immigrants sufficed to cause the Italian Minister of 
 Education to take steps to enforce the primary educa- 
 tion law, previously a dead letter in many parts of 
 Italy. 
 
 And it must be remembered that there are many 
 kinds of intending immigrants. By excluding the less 
 fit, we make room for the more fit, who would otherwise 
 be unable to come. The great recent influx of South 
 Italians and Slavs has had a perceptible effect in check- 
 ing immigration from Northern and Western Europe. 
 Restriction is, indeed, not a condition of our making. 
 It is a result of the fact that even the largest country 
 has only a certain amoimt of employment to offer at 
 any given time. The admission of the less desirable 
 means the exclusion of the better class. To which of the 
 two does the future more justly belong? Then, again, 
 in so far as immigration lowers the standards of things 
 in this country, it injures the prospects of aU future 
 immigrants. We who are living today are trustees of 
 what has been accomplished, not merely for otu- own 
 people, but for all who may inhabit this country in the 
 future. The trouble with the college president's view 
 is that it contemplates using the principal of trust funds 
 for temporary almsgiving, and presently there will be no 
 funds to take care of future deserving cases. For it 
 
66 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 must never be forgotten that assimilation works both 
 ways; that immigrants are assimilating us, and if too 
 numerous and too alien they destroy our power of lift- 
 ing them, just as a strong man may be made feeble by 
 the smallest germs. 
 
 To sum up, the open hand may not be the most gen- 
 erous attitude, either toward our foreign-born citizens, 
 toward present immigrants, toward future immigrants, 
 or toward the world at large. In the words of Phillips 
 Brooks: "If the world, in the great march of centuries, 
 is going to be richer for the development of a certain 
 national character, built up by a larger type of manhood 
 here, then for the world's sake, for the sake of every 
 nation that would potu- in upon it that which would 
 disturb that development, we have a right to stand 
 guard over it." 
 
 For publications and membership in the Immigration 
 Restriction League, address the Secretary, loi Tremont 
 Street, Boston, Mass. The dues for membership are as 
 follows : For annual membership, one dollar, payable 
 in advance upon admission and upon January ist of each 
 year; for life membership, ten dollars, payable upon 
 admission, life members being exempt from anntial 
 dues. 
 
 The League is a strictly non-partisan and non-sectarian 
 organization, with members from all parts of the United 
 States. It advocates a more careful selection of immigra- 
 tion, but not the exclusion of any immigrants whose 
 character and standards fit them to become citizens. 
 
IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION AND WORLD 
 EUGENICS' 
 
 There is one aspect of immigration restriction in the 
 various countries which does not often receive much 
 attention, namely, the possibility of its use as a method 
 of world eugenics. Most persons think of migration in 
 terms of space, — as the moving of a certain number of 
 people from one part of the earth's surface to another. 
 Whereas the much more important aspect of it is that 
 of a functioning in time. 
 
 This comes from two facts. The first is that the 
 vacuum left in any country by emigration is rapidly 
 filled up through a rise in the birth rate. There are 
 more people in England today than in the time of Eliza- 
 beth, in spite of the enormous emigration from that 
 country to all parts of the world ; and there are just as 
 many sparrows in England today, in spite of the unfor- 
 tunate spread of those birds in the United States. The 
 vacuum is chiefly filled by the breeding of the lower 
 classes. Thus, according to Professor Pearson, more 
 than one half the births in England are now from the 
 lowest one sixth of the population. In Italy, a similar 
 condition fills the vacuum left by the very large emigra- 
 tion from there to North and South America. 
 
 The second fact is that immigration to any country of 
 
 ' Publications of the Immigration Restriction League, No. 71. 
 (Reprinted from the Journal of Heredity (Organ of the American 
 Genetic Association), Vol. X, No. 3, Washington, D. C, March, 1919.) 
 
 67 
 
68 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 a given stratum of population tends to sterilize all strata 
 of higher social and economic levels already in that 
 country. So true is this that nearly aU students of the 
 matter are agreed that the United States would have a 
 larger population today if there had been no immigra- 
 tion since 1820, and, it is needless to add, a much more 
 homogeneous population. As long as the people of any 
 community are relatively homogeneous, what differ- 
 ences of wealth and social position there may be do not 
 affect the birth rate, or do so only after a considerable 
 time. But put into that community a number of im- 
 migrants, inferior mentally, socially, and economically, 
 and the natives are unwilling to have their children 
 associate with them in work or social life. They then 
 limit the number of their children in order to give them 
 the capital or education to enter occupations in which 
 they will not be brought into contact with the new 
 arrivals. This result is quite apparent in New England, 
 where successive waves of immigration from lower and 
 lower levels have been coming in for eighty years. In 
 the West, the same New England stock has a much 
 higher birth rate, showing that its fertility has in no way 
 diminished. In the South, where until very recently 
 there was no immigration at all, and the only socially 
 inferior race was clearly separated by the accident of 
 color, the birth rate has remained very high, and the 
 very large families of the colonial period are even now 
 not uncommon. 
 
 This is not to say that other causes do not contribute 
 to lower the birth rate of a country, for that is an almost 
 world-wide phenomenon. But the desire to be sepa- 
 rated from inferiors is as strong a motive to birth control 
 as the desire for luxury or to ape one's economic supe- 
 riors. Races foUow Gresham's law as to money; the 
 poorer of two kinds in the same place tends to supplant 
 
IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION 69 
 
 the better. Mark you, supplant, not drive out. One 
 of the most common fallacies is the idea that the na- 
 tives whose places are taken by lower immigration are 
 ' ' driven up" to more responsible positions. A few may 
 be pushed up; more are driven to a new locality, as 
 happened in the mining regions ; but most are prevented 
 from coming into existence at all. 
 
 "What is the result, then, of the migration of a million 
 persons of lower level into a country where the average 
 is of a higher level? Considering the world as a whole, 
 there are, after a few years, two million persons of the 
 lower type in the world, and probably from half a mil- 
 lion to a million less of the higher type. The proportion 
 of lower to higher in the country from which the migra- 
 tion goes may remain the same; but in the country 
 receiving it, it has risen. Is the world as a whole the 
 gainer? 
 
 Of course, the euthenist says at once that these im- 
 migrants are improved. We may grant that, although 
 the improvement is probably much exaggerated. You 
 cannot make bad stock into good by changing its me- 
 ridian, any more than you can turn a cart horse into a 
 hunter by putting it into a fine stable, or make a mon- 
 grel into a fine dog by teaching it tricks. But such im- 
 provement as there is involves time, expense, and 
 trouble ; an d, when it is done, has anything been gained ? 
 Will any one say that the races that have supplanted the 
 old Nordic stock in New England are any better, or as 
 good, as the descendants of that stock would have been 
 if their birth rate had not been lowered ? 
 
 Further, in addition to the purely biological aspects of 
 the matter, there are certain psychological ones. Al- 
 though a cosmopolitan atmosphere furnishes a certain 
 freedom in which strong congenital talents can develop, 
 it is a question whether as many are not injured as 
 
70 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 helped by this. Indeed, there is considerable evidence 
 to show that for the production of great men, a certain 
 homogeneity of environment is necessary. The reason 
 of this is very simple. In a homogeneous community, 
 opinions on a large number of matters are fixed. The 
 individual does not have to attend to such things, but is 
 free to go ahead on some special line of his own, to con- 
 centrate to his limit on his work, even though that work 
 be fighting the common opinions. But in a community 
 of many races, there is either cross-breeding or there is 
 not. If there is, the children of such cross-breeding are 
 liable to inherit two souls, two temperaments, two sets 
 of opinions, with the result in many cases that they are 
 unable to think or act strongly and consistently in any 
 direction. The classic examples are Cuba, Mexico and 
 Brazil. On the other hand, if there is no cross-breeding, 
 the diversity exists in the original races, and in a com- 
 munity full of diverse ideals of all kinds much of the 
 energy of the higher type of man is dissipated, and in 
 two ways. First, in the intellectual field there is much 
 more doubt about everything, and he tends to weigh, 
 discuss, and agitate many more subjects, in order to 
 arrive at a conclusion amid the opposing views. Second, 
 in practical affairs, much time and strength have to be 
 devoted to keeping things going along the old lines, 
 which could have been spent in new research and de- 
 velopment. In how many of our large cities today are 
 men of the highest type spending their whole time 
 fighting, often in vain, to maintain standards of honesty, 
 decency, and order, and in trying to compose the various 
 ethnic elements, who should be free to build new struc- 
 tures upon the old ! 
 
 The moral seems to be this : Eugenics among individ- 
 uals is encouraging the propagation of the fit, and limit- 
 ing or preventing the multiplication of the unfit. World 
 
IMMIGRATION RESTRICTION 71 
 
 eugenics is doing precisely the same thing as to races 
 considered as wholes. Immigration restriction is a 
 species of segregation on a large scale, by which infe- 
 rior stocks can be prevented from both diluting and sup- 
 planting good stocks. Just as we isolate bacterial in- 
 vasions, and starve out the bacteria by limiting the area 
 and amount of their food supply, so we can compel an 
 inferior race to remain in its native habitat, where its 
 own multiplication in a limited area wiU, as with all 
 organisms, eventually limit its numbers and therefore 
 its influence. On the other hand, the superior races, 
 more self -limiting than the others, with the benefits of 
 more space and nourishment will tend to still higher 
 levels. 
 
 This result is not merely a selfish benefit to the higher 
 races, but a good to the world as a whole. The object 
 is to produce the greatest number of those fittest not 
 ' ' for survival ' ' merely, but fittest for all purposes. The 
 lower types among men progress, so far as their racial 
 inheritance allows them to, chiefly by imitation and 
 emulation. The presence of the highest development 
 and the highest institutions among any race is a distinct 
 benefit to all the others. It is a gift of psychological 
 environment to any one capable of appreciation. 
 
 It is important, therefore, that nothing in the con- 
 stitution of the League of Nations should limit the right 
 of any nation to decide who shall be admitted into its 
 life; for, as Le Bon says, a preponderance of foreign 
 elements destroys the most precious thing it possesses 
 — ^its own soul. 
 
ARISTOCRACY AND POLITICS' 
 
 Mr. Alleyne Ireland's article ' ' A Biological View of 
 Politics," in the December number of the Journal, states 
 a view with which many serious students are in sym- 
 pathy, but which few have the courage to state. I say 
 "courage" because the opposite view is so universal in 
 popular discussion that it seems to be crying in the 
 wilderness to preach against it. 
 
 The widespread and fatuous belief in universal 
 suffrage and in what Goncourt called the "barbarism of 
 number" is largely due, I think, to the increasing pre- 
 valence of a new psychological type. For lack of a 
 better term I have coined the word "expansile" to 
 designate it. Just as we have "motiles," "audiles" and 
 "visuels," depending upon which sense is most active, 
 so we have "expansiles," whose characteristic is that 
 they are the victims of any idea which is broader or more 
 inclusive quantitatively than some other. What bodily 
 variation is correlated with this is not clear ; but it may 
 be a symbol, in the psycho-analytic sense, of claustro- 
 phobia, and may signify a reaction from the increasing 
 urban life. The expansile tendency is especially marked 
 in the desire for "equality" of any kind, this being a 
 species of inclusiveness. In fact, in some persons, the 
 lust for equality becomes a form of paranoia. Thus, if 
 the discussion is of suffrage, everyone shotild have a 
 
 • Reprinted from the Journal of Heredity (Organ of the American 
 Genetic Association), vol. x., No. 4, Washington, D. C, April, 1919. 
 
 72 
 
ARISTOCRACY AND POLITICS 73 
 
 vote; if of wages, everyone should have an equal wage; 
 if of education, everyone should have an equal oppor- 
 tunity. The idea of proportional opportunity, by which 
 those most gifted should have the best chance, is ob- 
 noxious to the expansile. The kind of thing often ex- 
 pressed in the phrase "brotherhood of man" implies the 
 maximum of expansion and equality; although logically 
 altruism is perfectly consistent with inequality. 
 
 The most disastrous example of false reasoning under 
 the influence of the expansile tendency was provided 
 by the French Revolution. It is well known that cer- 
 tain Masonic societies had a good deal to do with this 
 event, notably the Grand Orient o£ France, and the 
 PhUathetes of Paris organized by Cagliostro. The false 
 reasoning consisted in assuming that certain principles 
 of equality, which had worked very well among the 
 picked and chosen members of the lodges, could be 
 extended at a stroke to the whole population of France. 
 The writers of our Declaration of Independence and 
 Constitution, being Masons, adopted the language of 
 these principles when this country started on its sepa- 
 rate existence. Fortimately, the population of the 
 United States at that time consisted of picked specimens 
 of the Nordic race, selected by the perils of voyaging 
 hither and of exploiting a new country. These people 
 had sense enough to entrust the management of their 
 affairs to the most capable among them; so that, for 
 some sixty or seventy years the government, although 
 democratic in form, was aristocratic in fact. At the 
 present time this is no longer true. Respect for intelli- 
 gence and ability have so far disappeared that it is 
 almost impossible for a strong and able man of inde- 
 pendent views to be elected to high office. To get into 
 office, a man must now play the demagogue. 
 
 The result is a lowering both of ideals and of execu- 
 
ARISTOCRACY AND POLITICS' 
 
 Mr. Alleyne Ireland's article "A Biological View of 
 Politics," in the December number of the Journal, states 
 a view with which many serious students are in syva.- 
 pathy, but which few have the courage to state. I say 
 "courage" because the opposite view is so universal in 
 poptilar discussion that it seems to be crying in the 
 wilderness to preach against it. 
 
 The widespread and fatuous belief in universal 
 suffrage and in what Goncourt called the "barbarism of 
 number" is largely due, I think, to the increasing pre- 
 valence of a new psychological type. For lack of a 
 better term I have coined the word "expansile" to 
 designate it. Just as we have "motiles," "audiles" and 
 "visuels," depending upon which sense is most active, 
 so we have "expansiles," whose characteristic is that 
 they are the victims of any idea which is broader or more 
 inclusive quantitatively than some other. What bodily 
 variation is correlated with this is not clear; but it may 
 be a symbol, in the psycho-analytic sense, of claustro- 
 phobia, and may signify a reaction from the increasing 
 urban life. The expansile tendency is especially marked 
 in the desire for "equality" of any kind, this being a 
 species of inclusiveness. In fact, in some persons, the 
 lust for equality becomes a form of paranoia. Thus, if 
 the discussion is of suffrage, everyone should have a 
 
 ' Reprinted from the Journal of Heredity (Organ of the American 
 Genetic Association), vol. x., No. 4, Washington, D. C, April, 1919. 
 
 72 
 
ARISTOCRACY AND POLITICS 73 
 
 vote; if of wages, everyone should have an equal wage; 
 if of education, everyone should have an equal oppor- 
 tunity. The idea of proportional opportunity, by which 
 those most gifted should have the best chance, is ob- 
 noxious to the expansile. The kind of thing often ex- 
 pressed in the phrase "brotherhood of man" implies the 
 maximum of expansion and equality; although logically 
 altruism is perfectly consistent with inequality. 
 
 The most disastrous example of false reasoning tmder 
 the influence of the expansile tendency was provided 
 by the French Revolution. It is well known that cer- 
 tain Masonic societies had a good deal to do with this 
 event, notably the Grand Orient of France, and the 
 Philath^tes of Paris organized by Cagliostro. The false 
 reasoning consisted in assuming that certain principles 
 of equality, which had worked very well among the 
 picked and chosen members of the lodges, could be 
 extended at a stroke to the whole population of France. 
 The writers of our Declaration of Independence and 
 Constitution, being Masons, adopted the language of 
 these principles when this country started on its sepa- 
 rate existence. Fortimately, the population of the 
 United States at that time consisted of picked specimens 
 of the Nordic race, selected by the perils of voyaging 
 hither and of exploiting a new country. These people 
 had sense enough to entrust the management of their 
 affairs to the most capable among them; so that, for 
 some sixty or seventy years the government, although 
 democratic in form, was aristocratic in fact. At the 
 present time this is no longer true. Respect for intelli- 
 gence and ability have so far disappeared that it is 
 almost impossible for a strong and able man of inde- 
 pendent views to be elected to high office. To get into 
 office, a man must now play the demagogue. 
 
 The result is a lowering both of ideals and of execu- 
 
76 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 in many cases; so that I am not now contending for 
 special power based solely on ancestry. 
 
 But even where the better sort of men have the leader- 
 ship, they are often subject to the temptation to weaken 
 it for the benefit of a temporary advantage. Nearly 
 every extension of the suffrage has been the result of a 
 bargain in which some party in power has traded the 
 public good for the adherence of some faction hitherto 
 denied the ballot, and usually in the name of progress 
 and reform. Ludovici has pointed out the deterioration 
 in the British House of Lords through the successive 
 creations of life peers, mostly made to tide over some 
 political crisis; and that the addition of men unused to 
 legislation, even though able in other lines, weakened 
 the average capacity of the House. The same thing can 
 be said of the broadening of the electorate itself. And 
 yet the recent abolition of plural voting in Belgium has 
 been hailed as a step on the road to the New Jerusalem ! 
 In this country, so far as I am aware, there have been 
 only three cases where the suffrage has been changed 
 from a broader to a narrower basis. In early Massa- 
 chusetts, it was limited by a vote of all the colonists to 
 chtirch members and property owners; in New Jersey, 
 woman suffrage was abolished early in the nineteenth 
 century; and in Rhode Island, the property-owning 
 qualification of $75 was recently raised to $300. 
 
 In my opinion, we never shall have good government 
 until the suffrage is limited to those having a certain 
 education, or paying a certain tax; perhaps also allow- 
 ing those to vote who are willing to pay a fee for the 
 privilege. We never shall have good financial manage- 
 ment in cities where, as in Boston, 118,000 non-tax- 
 payers spend the money of 18,000 tax-payers. For, 
 taking things on the average, as we always have to do in 
 sociological questions, the Hability to a tax implies a 
 
ARISTOCRACY AND POLITICS 77 
 
 certain measure of success and ability. That is why 
 the Bolshevist, who is a mentally and nervously irrit- 
 able person, filled with hate in the form of envy, is so 
 against property as an institution. 
 
 Limitation of the suffrage may seem impossible of 
 accompUshment in these times, when we are seeking the 
 smallest possible political unit, even as we try to split 
 up the atoms of physical matter; and yet, if everyone 
 would speak out who desires it, the achievement might 
 not be so remote. Perhaps the most pregnant saying of 
 Goethe, which embodied a generalization from his wide 
 study of biology and other sciences, was that anything 
 to succeed must have " Beschraenkung" — limitation. 
 Goethe was not what I have called an expansile. He 
 would doubtless have recognized that the chief danger 
 of the American people today is the tendency to follow 
 out logically abstract ideals without reference to the 
 concrete situation. This, as Le Bon has shown, is a 
 tendency indigenous to the Latin but not to the Nordic 
 spirit. We are developing it partly through the dilu- 
 tion of our national character by immigration, and 
 partly by hearkening to the catchwords of expansile 
 leaders and those who wallow in humanitarian 
 platitudes. 
 
 Therefore we should all be grateful to Mr. Ireland for 
 stating the case so clearly, and for his testimony to the 
 value of aristocracy, based on his long and thorough 
 study of various experiments in government. 
 
IMMIGRATION AND THE WORLD WAR' 
 
 The World War verified at least two things about 
 immigration which had been previously asserted by 
 experts, but doubted or ignored by the public. The 
 latter knows very little about anthropology or the 
 history of various past migrations; and its opinions are 
 largely influenced by its local experience and by the 
 articles and news items in the newspapers, most of which 
 are inspired by various interests, and which give usually 
 a narrow and immediate rather than a long range point 
 of view. 
 
 The first point proved by the war was that the immi- 
 gration of a million aliens a year is not necessary to 
 sustain the industries of this country. During the war, 
 there was practically no immigration, and at the same 
 time millions of men were taken out of industry for the 
 army and navy. It is true that production in many 
 lines was curtailed ; but in many others it was vastly 
 extended. It is also true that to attract workers to the 
 expanding trades money wages, and in some cases real 
 wages, were sharply advanced. But, in the long run, 
 high wages are a good thing for a country if a fair day's 
 work is given for them. If there had been a great gen- 
 eral shortage of labor as a result of the war there would 
 not even now be requests to the Division of Distribu- 
 tion of the Bureau of Immigration to stop sending 
 
 ' Publications of the Immigration Restriction League, No. 76, 
 (Reprinted from The Annals of the American Academy of Political and 
 Social Science, Philadelphia, January, 1921. Publication No. 1473.) 
 
 78 
 
IMMIGRATION AND THE WORLD WAR 79 
 
 aliens into various localities. Undoubtedly there was, 
 for a time, a shortage of workers in certain places and 
 certain industries. The newspaper reports of this were, 
 however, undoubtedly exaggerated. We must remem- 
 ber that the ideal condition, from the point of view of 
 some employers of cheap labor, is to have two men 
 waiting for every job, in order to keep down wages. 
 Such a condition results in an immense amount of un- 
 employment and misery, and shows that labor which is 
 economically cheap for the employer is seldom socially 
 cheap for the community. 
 
 The second point demonstrated by the war, and the 
 most important one, was in regard to assimilation. A 
 great deal of nonsense had been preached and swallowed 
 whole by the people, to the effect that environment is 
 all important and heredity of little account, in consider- 
 ing the effects of immigration. That falsest of all 
 shibboleths "the melting-pot" had hypnotized states- 
 men and legislators. That inversion of Darwin's real 
 teaching, which pronounced that survival indicated 
 fitness for things other than mere survival, had per- 
 meated the public mind and made it careless of current 
 changes and of the future. 
 
 Down to i860, as Eliot Norton pointed out in The 
 Annals,^ the United States had begun to develop a 
 definite national character based on well-known Nordic 
 traits. The colonial population had consisted of picked 
 specimens of Nordic races. The Irish immigration of 
 1846 contributed further Nordic strains; and, what is 
 important to observe, the German emigration of 1848 
 was also Nordic, whereas the more recent German immi- 
 grants are largely Alpine. Things having gone so well 
 down to i860, the policy of the "open door" became 
 fixed, in spite of the warnings of Washington, Jefferson, 
 
 » Vol. 24, p. 163 Quly, 1904). 
 
8o IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 Adams, Madison and Franklin as to the danger of un- 
 guarded gates. 
 
 From i860 and especially after 1880, the whole situa- 
 tion changed. In 1914, nearly three-quarters of all alien 
 immigrants were Alpine, Mediterranean or Asiatic and 
 only one-quarter Nordic. In other words, 863 thousand 
 of those coming in that year were from races with a 
 different historic background, different customs and 
 different ideals. This change had been proceeding with 
 increasing intensity for forty years. 
 
 Now the temperamental optimist, the social worker 
 and the average citizen had insisted that in the new 
 environment of America the alien rapidly changed into 
 a "good American." When the evidence did not en- 
 tirely bear this out, some said that although the alien 
 might be assimilating us instead of our assimilating 
 him, nevertheless this was a good thing, and that the 
 mixture of conflicting types was a benefit. 
 
 The World War completely knocked out these cheer- 
 ful conclusions by revealing that the superficial changes 
 constituting "Americanization" were entirely inade- 
 quate to affect the hereditary tendencies of generations ; 
 and that a mixture of conflicting t3rpes and opinions 
 seriously affected the capacity of the nation to think 
 and to act as a imit. 
 
 Take first the hostile attitude of many of the immi- 
 grants from the Central Powers. Probably a large 
 majority of those of German descent, especially of those 
 descended from Germans coming before 1870, were 
 loyal. But the term "German" as used in statistical 
 publications is quite ambiguous. Dr. W. S. Sadler has 
 pointed out' that in 1600 Germany was almost entirely 
 Nordic. Then, owing to the Thirty Years' War and 
 other wars, the Nordic element was largely killed off 
 
 ' Sadler, W. S. Long Heads and Round Heads. 
 
IMMIGRATION AND THE WORLD WAR 8i 
 
 and its place taken by Slavic Alpines, so that in 1914, 
 Germany was 90 per cent Alpine and only 10 per cent 
 Nordic. This, in his opinion, accounts largely for the 
 fact that the World War was fought on the German side 
 so much more lawlessly and cruelly than was the War 
 of 1870. The characteristics of the Nordic race are 
 individual initiative, love of personal liberty, and a 
 certain chivalry and sportsmanship. The Alpine and 
 Mediterranean races on the other hand tend to cen- 
 tralization of authority, reliance upon the state, and in 
 war to subservience and absence of moral quality. 
 Another element, the Semitic, is largely international 
 or racial in its interests. 
 
 The resistance to the draft law, whether from coward- 
 ice, indifference or conscientious objection revealed the 
 difference in attitude between the earlier and the later 
 immigration, and this again showed that apparent 
 "Americanization " was built in many cases upon quick- 
 sand. The imanimous opinion of American and French 
 observers was to the effect that those American regi- 
 ments composed chiefly of Nordic stock or led by Nordic 
 officers were by far the most valuable. 
 
 It is estimated that at the present time from 40 to 
 55 per cent of our population are still Nordic. It is also 
 stated that at least ten million aliens of non-Nordic 
 races are anxious to come here at once. If this should be 
 kept up for the next twenty years, it is easy to see that 
 anywhere from twenty to forty millions or more of non- 
 Nordic races might come, utterly changing the balance 
 of race-stocks in this country. And, as ever3rthing 
 depends upon the people who are here to do things, 
 especially under universal suffrage, this would mean 
 at the worst a profound change in our institutions and 
 ideals, and at the best an ineffectiveness bom of the 
 mixture of diverse elements. 
 
82 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 And still we do not leam the lesson. We forget that 
 Egypt, Greece and Rome, as well as Chaldea, Phoenicia 
 and Carthage, perished from the peaceful invasion of 
 alien races. "■ Still we are led away from facing matters 
 squarely by the red herrings of distribution of aliens and 
 "Americanization." Neither distribution nor Ameri- 
 canization is possible while one or two millions of alien 
 t3T)es are being poured into the country. I do not say 
 that the aims and efforts of those engaged in the Ameri- 
 canization movement are wrong, but I maintain that 
 the energy of many good men and a vast amount of 
 money are being diverted from the only path by which 
 success can be attained. I have no doubt also that they 
 are encouraged by those who wish immigration left 
 practically tmrestricted. It has always been so in the 
 past. Any important change in habits of thought and 
 racial tendencies requires at least several generations. 
 As I have said elsewhere,^ "you can not make bad 
 stock into good by changing its meridian, any 
 more than you can turn a cart horse into a hunter 
 by putting it into a fine stable, or make a mongrel 
 into a fine dog by teaching it tricks." We must get 
 away from the one-dimension, sentimental point of 
 view that all men and all races are potentially equal, 
 and from the two-dimensional economic view which 
 considers man as merely a producing and a con- 
 suming animal, and face the truths of history and 
 anthropology. 
 
 How much has "Americanization" changed the 
 revolutionary communists in our large cities? How 
 many more agitators are being allowed to come in to- 
 
 'See an excellent historical survey by Charles W. Gould, America, a 
 Family Matter (Scribners, 1920); see also, Alfred P. Schultz, Race or 
 Mongrel (Boston, 1908). 
 'Journal of Heredity, vol. x., No. 3, March, 1919. 
 
IMMIGRATION AND THE WORLD WAR 83 
 
 day to make trouble in the future? They can not be 
 detected by ordinary methods of inspection. 
 
 While immigration was at a low ebb and patriotic 
 fervor was at its height during the war, there was a 
 splendid chance to pass a stringent immigration law, 
 even over a probable veto. We did nothing, as usual. 
 It took twenty-six years to get the reading test into the 
 law, although it is the most valuable restrictive clause 
 we have. We are dallying with our future safety just 
 at the time when, as Lothrop Stoddard so clearly shows, ' 
 there is a probability that the brown and yellow races 
 of Asia will soon resume that western movement which 
 was checked for a time by Charlemagne. Bolshevism is 
 essentially such a movement of oriental Tartar tribes 
 led by Asiatic Semites against Nordic bourgeoisie. 
 Japan is arming. Before the war she was poor; now she 
 is rich. " The next big war may be in the Pacific. To 
 prepare for that, indeed merely to maintain our present 
 development, we need to become and to remain a strong, 
 self-reliant, united country, with the only unity that 
 counts, viz., that of race. 
 
 What, then, shall we do? Exclude the black, the 
 brown and the yellow altogether ; as to the white, favor 
 the immigration of Nordic and Nordicized stocks. 
 This will best be attained by limiting immigration from 
 any country annually to a certain per cent of those 
 from that country already naturalized here. ' Naturali- 
 zation, when not artificially fostered, is one of the best 
 tests of assimilability, and experience shows that it is 
 the Nordic races that become naturalized. The effect 
 
 ' The Rising Tide of Color. (New York, Scribners, 1920.) 
 
 " See Thomas F. Millard, The New Par East, pp. 33-35; Our Eastern 
 
 Question, p. 217. 
 
 ' This proposition is embodied in H. R. 10837 of the 66th Congress 
 
 and in §9 of H. R. 12320 introduced by the Chairman of the House 
 
 Committee on Immigration, Feb. 4, 1920. 
 
84 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 in a year like 1914 under a 50 per cent limitation, would 
 have been as follows : 
 
 Actually Admissible 
 
 Northern and Western Eurooe 
 
 admitted 
 189,177 
 945,288 
 
 under hill 
 1. 000. SCO 
 
 Southern and Eastern Europe 
 
 279,288 
 
 In other words, the total European immigration 
 would have been reduced 47 per cent by reducing that 
 from southern and eastern Europe 71 per cent. 
 
 Some such measures as these are essential to the per- 
 petuation of what the United States stands for, not only 
 within its boundaries, but to the world at large. 
 
THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF 
 IMMIGRATION' 
 
 The prediction of the best experts that, after the end- 
 ing of the World War, immigration to this covmtry 
 would again reach the high-water mark of a million a 
 year, which it made during the decade before the war, 
 seems almost certain to be fulfilled. Although the net 
 addition to population during the fiscal year 1920 was 
 only about 193,000, the best testimony is to the effect 
 that the numbers likely to come in the next few years 
 will be limited only by the capacity of the steamships 
 to bring them; in other words that a million to a million 
 and a half will come annually. 
 
 The only influences likely to keep aliens at home are: 
 First, a revival of racial and national aspirations in the 
 newly created states of Europe; second, the amount of 
 reconstruction work in countries within the war zone; 
 third, the efforts of the various countries to keep their 
 citizens at home for military reasons, until the political 
 outlook is clearer; fourth, the adoption of prohibition 
 by this country. The increased cost of passports and 
 steerage rate has been shown already not to be an 
 influence deterring from emigration. 
 
 The influences in favor of migration are much more 
 potent than those above-mentioned. There has been a 
 tremendous uprooting of families and individuals all 
 through Europe. Persons who have once left their 
 
 ^ North American Review {The) May, 1921. 
 
 85 
 
86 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 homes, who perhaps have no homes to return to, are 
 very likely to seek to start life again in a new country, 
 although they might never have thought of it under 
 normal conditions. It remains to be seen whether the 
 League of Nations can be counted as a factor for war or 
 for peace ; and, until the outlook is clearer, the demands 
 of the various countries for military service are not 
 likely to diminish. Added to this is the frightful burden 
 of war taxation, sure to be continued for a long period. 
 If, by any chance, some disarmament agreement should 
 lessen the demand for military service, this would be 
 offset by the relaxation of regulations against migration ; 
 for European countries will know the great value of 
 colonies of their citizens in America who send home large 
 sums to their relatives in Europe. 
 
 We may be sure that the steamship companies will 
 seek to turn to their profit any unsettlement of mind 
 among the various peoples. For emigrants, who load 
 and unload themselves and their effects, and cost but 
 little to feed during the voyage, are the most profitable 
 cargoes that can be carried. ' And the normal activities 
 in this direction are likely to be further stimulated by 
 a large increase in merchant shipping, and of commerce 
 especially with the United States, resulting in keen 
 competition with temporarily lower rates. Great 
 Britain and this country will have an enormous tonnage 
 for commercial purposes, and Germany has already 
 taken steps to restore her merchant marine and to 
 compete for her former place in transportation. Never 
 have the steamship companies been more active at 
 Washington than at present; and the fact that more 
 ships are flying the American flag than before the war 
 helps the arguments of the transportation interests. 
 America is also sure to be better known and more talked 
 about in Europe than ever before; and the comparative 
 
IMMIGRATION— PRESENT AND FUTURE 87 
 
 scale of wages and comfort which we provided for our 
 soldiers will be an object lesson to reinforce the letters 
 of earlier immigrants here, and their remittances to 
 Europe on which whole districts have prospered. 
 
 For the past thirty years a large part of our annual 
 immigration has not been what might be called a normal 
 flow of population ; but has been artificially stimulated 
 in every way by the transportation companies. Al- 
 though there has been legislation both here and abroad 
 to check misrepresentation and fraud, there has been an 
 emigration propaganda carried on by thousands of 
 steamship agents reaching into the most remote hamlets 
 of Europe and Western Asia. The schoolmaster and 
 the parish priest have been agents to sell tickets on 
 commission; and much use has been made of former 
 emigrants returning home for a visit. Although, just 
 at the moment, no persuasion is needed to secure enough 
 immigrants to fill the ships, this sort of thing will be 
 resumed whenever necessary, and on a larger scale than 
 ever before. 
 
 In addition to the foregoing general considerations, 
 there are special conditions in several countries which 
 call for notice. What may happen in Russia no man 
 knows; but it is pretty safe to say that at the present 
 moment a considerable part of the people of Russia 
 would like to be somewhere else. What was said above 
 as to the uprooting of home ties and the fear of future 
 disturbances will a fortiori apply to Russia for some 
 time to come. Mr. Schiff, who was as well informed as 
 anyone, expected three million Jews to come to this 
 country after the war. Russia contains more Jews than 
 any other European country, and most of those millions 
 will come from there. Others will come from Turkey 
 and the Balkan States. For the Zionist movement is 
 more sentimental and formal than practical; and Pales- 
 
88 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 tine under any system of government, and with the 
 help of extensive irrigation works and industrial plants, 
 is yet incapable of supporting any large population. 
 
 The British Government took steps, even before the 
 war, to make India more self-governing. Lord Morley 
 started this movement; and, since his time in the India 
 office, much more has been done in the same direction. 
 If India becomes in fact a self-governing commonwealth, 
 this will tend to assimilate it in the pubhc mind to the 
 other commonwealths in the British Empire, and to 
 validate the idea of a similar treatment of its citizens. 
 At the present time, Hindus are, with few exceptions, 
 excluded from the United States under the geographical 
 limitations in the act of 191 7. They are likewise ex- 
 cluded from Australia under the law which requires an 
 immigrant to be able to read in any language prescribed 
 by the inspecting officials. From Canada they are 
 excluded by the indirect actions of two Orders in Coun- 
 cil. But now India has contributed most important aid 
 in protecting the Empire as a whole ; and may not this 
 fact change her status not only within but without the 
 British possessions? 
 
 Of more immediate interest is the Japanese situation. 
 Japanese of the laboring class are now theoretically 
 excluded from this country by an agreement with Japan, 
 made in 1907 and commonly referred to as the "Gentle- 
 men's Agreement." They are also excluded under the 
 law of 19 1 7 as being among those excluded at the time 
 of the passage of the law by an arrangement with a 
 foreign country, although the specific compact with 
 Japan was not mentioned in the law. Japanese laborers 
 exceeding five hundred in any year are also excluded 
 from Canada, under an agreement with Japan. Here, 
 again, the future of Russia creates uncertainty; and for 
 the following reason. Japan is not a democratic coun- 
 
IMMIGRATION— PRESENT AND FUTURE 89 
 
 try. She is absolutely governed by the Genre, a body 
 of not over seven men, choosing its own successors. 
 Neither the emperor nor the Parliament really counts. 
 These seven men make their plans for many years ahead. 
 Hitherto, the eyes of the governing body have been 
 fixed on two things: the commercial supremacy of the 
 Pacific, and the right to colonize in the Western hemi- 
 sphere. But to these has been added recently another 
 element, — a Monroe doctrine for Asia, of which Japan 
 is to be the administrator, coupled with a free hand in 
 leading the awakening of the East. Now if she can 
 play the r61e which she aspires to in the peaceful pene- 
 tration and development of China, Mongolia, Man- 
 churia and perhaps Siberia, her attention may be turned 
 in that direction for some time. Both England and the 
 United States gave her a free hand during the war, 
 partly in consideration of her services to the Allied 
 cause, partly from the necessities of the situation. 
 Before the war Japan was poor; now she is relatively 
 rich. But she has not put her money into redeeming 
 land for cultivation, although she is always complaining 
 of pressure of population. She has instead doubled her 
 army, and probably her navy. These things may assure 
 her freedom of action in Asia, if Russia should for a 
 long time be disorganized and helpless. On the other 
 hand, if Russia should be rehabilitated speedily, and 
 England be free to interfere, Japanese ambitions on the 
 continent may be checked, and in that case she would 
 concentrate on the other two points of her policy. It 
 must be remembered also that at the present time there 
 is little inducement for Japanese laborers to settle in 
 Asia to compete with coolies who can live on two or 
 three cents a day. They would much rather come to 
 this country and underbid a wage of two or three dollars 
 a day. Japan acquired Formosa twenty years ago; yet 
 
90 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 to-day there are only 120,000 Japanese there as com- 
 pared with 3,000,000 natives. A similar situation exists 
 in Korea. 
 
 But, while developing her scheme of the hegemony of 
 Asia, Japan does not forget the other two principles of 
 her policy. Commercial supremacy in the Pacific is 
 practically already hers; and she means to keep it. 
 And this leads directly to the third principle — that of 
 colonizing in the Western hemisphere; for trade requires 
 agents and immigrants in the various countries; and the 
 steamship agents of Japan are no different from those of 
 other countries, and would like to build up a large 
 emigrant business. The campaign for the right of free 
 immigration, apart from asking for it at the peace 
 conference, which will be referred to later, takes two 
 forms. First, colonizing in Central and South America 
 wherever opportimity offers, with the idea of later 
 exerting pressure upon North America. The relations 
 between Japan and Mexico are close, and not entirely a 
 dream in the brain of a futile Zimmerman. A case 
 might arise in one of these southern countries where we 
 should either have to assert the Monroe doctrine or 
 abandon it. If we abandon it, the logic of uniformity 
 would be invoked to change our policy as to oriental 
 immigration to the United States. 
 
 The second form of propaganda consists in a direct 
 agitation in this cotmtry to place Japanese immigration 
 upon the same footing as that from other countries; 
 and particularly to secure the right of naturalization. 
 This agitation has been skilfully and vigorously directed. 
 Able publicists, both Japanese and American, are en- 
 gaged in the work. Churches maintaining missionaries 
 in the East have been pressed into service, and they in 
 turn have enlisted large numbers of philanthropists 
 and social workers in the cause. The arguments em- 
 
IMMIGRATION— PRESENT AND FUTURE 91 
 
 ployed are well set forth in a recent article by Mr. K. K. 
 Kawakami, in the Yale Review. Some of the agitators, 
 and many publications in Japan, even hint at the use 
 of force if necessary ; and it is known that the Philippine 
 authorities organized for possible trouble in the early 
 spring of 1914. A bill has been prepared, representing 
 the views of the committee on oriental relations of the 
 Federal Cotmcil of Churches in Christ, designed to put 
 all immigration upon a percentage basis, and to abolish 
 the special treatment of orientals. Organized labor is, 
 however, tmalterably opposed to permitting the eco- 
 nomic competition of oriental labor; and the statesmen 
 of the Pacific Slope are equally opposed to admitting 
 Japanese, Chinese and Hindus on social and other 
 grounds. Under certain conditions in Asia, no trouble is 
 likely to arise : with other conditions there may yet be a 
 war between the white and the yellow races. Mean- 
 while Japan, according to Mr. Uyehara, a member of 
 the Parliamentary Commission which visited the United 
 States two years ago, intended to ask at the Peace Con- 
 ference for the right of free immigration to Australia, 
 India, Canada and this country. Furthermore, she 
 would like to have asked for the independence of the 
 Philippines, and the neutralization of Hawaii. These 
 last demands probably would have been makeweights, 
 but were in line with the principle of Japanese hegemony 
 of the Pacific. 
 
 Over and above these special perplexing questions 
 remains the perpetual problem of a sound immigration 
 policy. There are those who take account of racial 
 differences, and who believe that the legislators of the 
 present are trustees of the inheritance of our past for the 
 benefit of future generations of citizens ; and who do not 
 wish to see extensive race substitutions in this country. 
 On the other side, those who value present wealth 
 
92 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 created by cheap labor join hands with certain philan- 
 thropists who believe that all men are brothers and 
 equally entitled to any part of the earth's surface. 
 
 It is often falsely said that this country was founded 
 to be a refuge for men of all lands ; yet even in the days 
 of sparse settlement Washington, Adams, Jefferson and 
 many others were strong in their demand for immigra- 
 tion restriction, and since 1882 it must be considered to 
 have been the fixed policy of the nation. Under the 
 present law, passed in 191 7, thirty classes of persons are 
 prohibited from landing, constituting from two to eight 
 per cent of those applying for admission. It is, however, 
 characteristic of this country that there has to be much 
 more law on any subject than one expects to get en- 
 forced; and the lengthy enumeration of debarred classes 
 does not prevent the entrance of most of the physically 
 and some of the mentally defective, or of many who 
 quickly become public charges in our hospitals, prisons 
 and charitable institutions. Nor does the requirement 
 that an immigrant must be able to read in some lan- 
 guage, valuable as it is, prevent the entrance of those 
 who remain aliens in mental outlook and traits of 
 character. 
 
 The facts that immigration practically ceased when 
 the war began, and that, in spite of the millions taken 
 for warlike occupations, business went on with as little 
 disturbance as it did, conclusively prove that the neces- 
 sity of a million immigrants a year to keep our industries 
 going is a myth. Undoubtedly, there is always a de- 
 mand on the part of employers for labor willing to work 
 at less than the current wage. But, if wages are to be 
 kept down, how is the average citizen to progress in 
 comfort and refinement, or indeed in consuming power? 
 It must not be forgotten that every wave of inferior 
 immigration to some extent sterilizes every stratum of 
 
IMMIGRATION— PRESENT AND FUTURE 93 
 
 our population above it; so that the question is not of 
 adding new racial elements, but of substituting the new 
 for the old. Indeed, many eminent economists agree 
 that our population would be larger to-day than it is, if 
 we had received no immigration since 1820; and, what 
 is more important, that it would be more homogeneous 
 in ideals and national spirit. For there is no shibboleth 
 that can in a twinkling change a man's heredity. 
 Neither naturalization, nor the expensive but very 
 superficial "Americanization" campaign now going on, 
 nor the public schools, can effect any fundamental 
 change in a short time. This is well shown by the 
 recent testimony of Capt. Trevor, formerly of the U. S. 
 Military Intelligence Department, before the Senate 
 Committee on Immigration. He pointed out that in 
 every case centers of revolutionary and communistic 
 agitation are found in the colonies of recent immigration. 
 Everyone knows that many of those prominent in the 
 Russian revolution had lived for a considerable time in 
 New York. A nimiber of agitators personally known to 
 me are well educated, speak English fluently, and are 
 entirely familiar with the Constitution and history of 
 the United States. In this connection, I may say that 
 the argument against the reading test, because it does 
 not exclude persons of this sort, is quite illogical. It 
 was never intended for this purpose. The reading test 
 does exclude much of the ignorant material upon which 
 agitators can best work, as well as many of the mentally 
 and physically defective who might not be excluded 
 under the express provisions dealing with such classes. 
 But for dealing with the revolutionist other provision 
 must be made. 
 
 I do not object to the "Americanization" movement 
 in itself, although it is expensive. I doubt if it will be 
 very successful in the case of aliens whose habits, ideals 
 
94 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 and historical background are different from ours. But 
 I maintain that no plan of Americanization can or will 
 succeed if a million new aliens come in every year; and 
 I do object to its being used, as it frequently is, to draw 
 attention away from the need of immigration restriction. 
 
 Still another favorite red herring of the anti-restric- 
 tionists is the matter of distributing immigrants. They 
 say that the trouble is not that there are too many 
 immigrants, but that they do not go to the right places. 
 We have had a Division of Distribution in the Immigra- 
 tion Bureau for a number of years. It has spent a good 
 deal of money and has accomplished very little. The 
 alien wants to go where his friends are, and to the big 
 centers where construction jobs are easier to get. It 
 has been suggested that an alien should not be allowed 
 to come in unless he agrees to go to a certain place. 
 Well and good, but how are you going to keep him there ? 
 The city of Charleston some years ago imported a picked 
 shipload of immigrants; within a few months not one 
 could be found within the State. Of the Mexican 
 laborers recently imported, under what is practically a 
 peonage system, to do agricultural work for a certain 
 time and then be returned to their homes, already over 
 twenty per cent have disappeared, according to the 
 Report of the Commissioner General of Immigration, so 
 that they cannot be deported according to contract. It 
 would require a Russian police system to enforce any 
 permanent distribution of aliens. There is also some 
 question as to the legality of favoring particular locali- 
 ties and trades in the matter. 
 
 Another suggestion often made is that matters would 
 be much improved if inspection were made at the ports 
 of emigration instead of at our ports. Assuming that 
 inspection were equally efficient on each side of the 
 water, the gain would be entirely that of the aliens and 
 
IMMIGRATION— PRESENT AND FUTURE 95 
 
 steamships. But the proposition assumes that the 
 whole theory of our immigration laws since 1882 has 
 been wrong. This theory is that the steamships, to 
 avoid carrying inadmissible aliens back and the fines 
 imposed for bringing them, will cause inspection to be 
 made at the place where the ticket is sold. Counting in 
 local agents, priests, teachers and returned immigrants, 
 there are probably not less than 50,000 ticket agents 
 in Europe. These men know the native dialects and 
 often know the intending immigrants personally; and 
 they execute our laws without expense to us. Further, 
 the steamships have their own doctors to make a medi- 
 cal examination at the ports of embarkation, again 
 without expense to us. Now it is obvious that an Ameri- 
 can inspector at Danzig knows no more about an immi- 
 grant from the interior of Poland than if he were in 
 New York. We must therefore have inspectors in 
 interior places. But where are we to get 50,000 or even 
 20,000 men who know the native dialects and are com- 
 petent to inspect, at any wages we are likely to pay? 
 And if inspection is often defective at our ports where 
 we can watch it, what assurance have we that it will be 
 any better thousands of miles away with almost no 
 oversight? Many natives will certainly be employed 
 as assistants, and our recent experiences with medical 
 inspection in Italy show that these cannot always be 
 depended on. But the conclusive argument against 
 inspection abroad is that foreign governments have 
 always refused to allow it. It amounts to a species of 
 extra territorial sovereignty engaged in taking their 
 good citizens and leaving the defectives, delinquents 
 and agitators. Why should the foreign governments 
 favor it? If they do not, political and trade considera- 
 tions will probably always prevent our attempting to 
 force them to sanction it, 
 
96 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 In view of the foregoing, those who feel that we need 
 some elbow room to work out our problems with regard 
 to the aliens already here, are convinced that we should 
 cut down substantially the annual total of immigration; 
 and, further, that this cutting down should be done in 
 such a way as to favor the races kindred to those which 
 originally built up the country. Before the Civil War 
 the population was almost entirely Nordic, and our 
 political and social institutions were developed along 
 the lines of the Nordic spirit. To-day, perhaps a little 
 over one half our population is Nordic, while oiw immi- 
 gration is almost entirely Alpine, Mediterranean, Semi- 
 tic and Asiatic. If such immigration is allowed to come 
 in at the rate of a million a year, the balance of race- 
 stocks will be changed in a very few years. 
 
 The best plan in sight for cutting down the total 
 number of immigrants and at the same time favoring 
 the kindred Nordic races is that based on the natural 
 capacity of the alien for assimilation. Such a capacity 
 is indicated roughly by his desire to become naturalized, 
 when this is voluntary, and not the result of what seems 
 to the writer shortsighted and misguided zeal on the 
 part of others to induce him to change his allegiance. 
 A bill now pending in Congress' limits immigration 
 from any country in any year to from twenty to fifty 
 per cent of the natives of such country who were natu- 
 ralized at the date of the last census. The exact per- 
 centage is to be fixed each year by the Secretary of 
 Labor, with reference to labor conditions. The bill in 
 practice would let in all who want to come from Western 
 Europe, but would cut down the numbers from Eastern 
 Europe and Western Asia. In 1914, under the maxi- 
 mum limitation, the effect of such a bill would have 
 been as follows: 
 
 • H. R. 10837, 66th Congress. 
 
IMMIGRATION— PRESENT AND FUTURE 97 
 
 Actually Admissible 
 
 admitted under bill 
 
 Northern and Western Europe 189,177 1,090,500 
 
 Southern and Eastern Europe 945,288 279,288 
 
 If the United States is to continue to stand for that 
 which it has always represented, not only within its 
 borders, but to the world at large ; if it is to be protected 
 from that preponderance of those who are foreigners, 
 not only in name but in character, which as Le Bon says 
 destroys a nation's soul, some such legislation shovild be 
 speedily enacted. ' 
 
 ' Since this article was written, the Dillingham bill passed the 66th 
 Congress by very large votes, and was pocket-vetoed by President 
 Wilson. This limited immigration annually from any country to three 
 per cent (with some exceptions) of the natives of such countries who 
 were residents here according to the census of 1910. The three per cent 
 in the Dillingham bill is nearly equal to seventeen per cent under the 
 bill referred to above, as regards Southern and Eastern Europeans; but, 
 the bill based upon the naturalized would allow proportionally more 
 Northern and Western Europeans to come in, and therefore, in the 
 opinion of the writer, is a better bill. But either measure would be a 
 long step in the right direction. The Dillingham bill will be introduced 
 into the new Congress, and is likely to be speedily enacted. 
 7 
 
BIRTH CONTROL AND WORLD EUGENICS' 
 
 I HAVE elsewhere called attention to the possible use 
 of immigration restriction as a means of race segrega- 
 tion and world eugenics. But immigration to any 
 country is only one half of the problem; the other half 
 is the migration coming from "heaven," that is through 
 births. 
 
 The two methods of addition to the population have 
 precisely similar advantages and dangers. With immi- 
 gration, a selection can be made not only of the better 
 individuals of any race, but of those of the better races. 
 If immigration is not selected, not only personally unfit 
 individuals mlay come, but less desirable races, which 
 tend to supplant the better ones. In precisely the same 
 way, with births left to chance, as is largely the case at 
 present, many defective individuals may be bom, and 
 an unduly large number of normal individuals may be 
 bom from less desirable stock. To make the parallel 
 complete, we have in each case the strongest forces at 
 work to increase numbers: in the case of immigration, 
 the desire for material advantage and the cupidity of 
 the transportation companies; and, in the case of births, 
 the sex instinct. 
 
 There are certain other respects in which immigration 
 and births resemble each other. It is more difficult to 
 induce prosperous, successful and efficient persons in 
 any coimtry to migrate to another, just as the same 
 
 " Unpublished. 
 
 98 
 
BIRTH CONTROL AND WORLD EUGENICS 99 
 
 class within any country is more prudent and less 
 prolific. On the other hand, the ignorant, the poor, the 
 incompetent, those having no great stake in their own 
 land, are easily induced to move elsewhere; and such a 
 class in any country is not only ignorant of the means of 
 regulating births, but only too ready to relieve the 
 dreary round of a narrow life by means of the most 
 exciting passion known to man. 
 
 It is a general principle of biology that the lower and 
 less valuable the organism, the more prolific. In all 
 parts of the world, the lower classes of men breed more 
 rapidly than the higher ; and, but for sanitary and other 
 causes, would presently swamp the better elements in 
 the community. With the increase of public hygiene 
 these checks tend to operate less radically, so that when 
 population reaches a certain pressure there is a strong 
 movement to migrate, such as we see to-day in Italy and 
 Japan. Thus the birthrate may be a cause of migration, 
 and immigration may have a profound effect upon the 
 birth rate. 
 
 For example in 1900 the birth rate in certain places 
 in this country was 2.7 for whites of native parentage, 
 and 4.4 for whites of foreign parentage. It was 6.2 for 
 Poles, 5.6 for Russians, as compared with 4.2 for Swedes, 
 3.5 for EngUsh Canadians, and 3.4 for English. The 
 largest birth rates were: first generation of Poles, 6.2; 
 first generation of French Canadians, 5.8. These rates 
 are more than double that of the native stock; and it is 
 obvious that, granted fairly hygienic surroundings, the 
 continuance of such rates would result in swamping the 
 native element in the areas tabulated. As a matter of 
 fact, there is some diminution of the birthrate among 
 immigrants in the second and third generations, owing 
 to the increase in the standard of living and the learning 
 of contraceptive methods from natives. Thus the birth 
 
100 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 rate of the second generation of whites of foreign parent- 
 age was 3.9 as compared with 4.7 for the original immi- 
 grants; but this rate was still more than one and one 
 half times the rate of the native whites, and has prob- 
 ably been offset by a stiU further fall in the native rate. 
 
 It is apparent that it will in any case require a con- 
 siderable time for an immigrant population to reach a 
 state where the same checks on fecundity will operate 
 which have operated on the natives; and this will, in 
 general, not occur unless successive migrations of in- 
 ferior strata arrive to exert the same steriUzing effect 
 upon the first comers which they in turn exerted upon 
 the natives. 
 
 Logically "birth control" of the less desirable and 
 "birth release" of the more desirable should go hand in 
 hand. But, although from time to time temporary 
 fashions in favor of large families among the upper 
 classes may here and there prevail, and although per- 
 sons like Roosevelt may preach large families, neverthe- 
 less that social and economic pressure which demands 
 ' ' concentration of advantages ' ' through smaller families, 
 is too powerful to make birth release possible to any 
 useful extent. 
 
 If, then, there is to be any movement to put the 
 breeding of the more desirable and of the less desirable 
 in any country on a proximate equality, it must be one 
 involving the teaching of birth control methods to the 
 lower classes ; for the upper classes already know them. 
 Formerly, nature favored such equality through disease, 
 poor food and lack of sanitation operating amongst 
 the more prolific. To-day it is different; and indeed it 
 was one of Darwin's last reflections that sxirvival was 
 being made so easy that natural selection would be 
 seriously interfered with. I knew an Irish emigrant of 
 1850 who had fourteen children, of whom only three 
 
BIRTH CONTROL AND WORLD EUGENICS loi 
 
 survived him. To-day, he might have only ten, but most 
 of them would grow to maturity. 
 
 It is an unfortunate thing that the United States is 
 about the only country in the world where information 
 as to how to prevent too frequent conceptions cannot 
 be freely given. There is a federal postal law against 
 sending it through the mails. In the statutes of many 
 States prevention of conception is classed with abortion. 
 Most of these statutes were passed many years ago 
 before the hygienic advantage of the proper spacing of 
 children had received any attention. In New England, 
 where legislation was largely founded on the Penta- 
 teuch, and discussion of sexual matters was considered 
 obscene ; and contraceptive literature was coupled in the 
 laws with abortion and blasphemy. Even as recently 
 as 1917, a young man was convicted in Massachusetts 
 for giving away a pamphlet containing contracep- 
 tive information, under a statute regarding obscene 
 publications. 
 
 In England, France, Germany, in fact throughout 
 Europe such information can be freely distributed. In 
 HoUand, Australia and New Zealand there are birth 
 control clinics sanctioned by the government where 
 poor women can be taught how to limit their famiUes. 
 The results in Holland, where there are fifty-two such 
 clinics, have been very interesting. The charity cases 
 have been cut in half; the stature of the army has risen 
 in a very marked manner ; and the net addition to popu- 
 lation has risen also, because, although the birth rate 
 has fallen, the death rate has fallen still more. In other 
 words, every child has a better show. 
 
 I want to speak particularly of the effect in Holland 
 upon the army enlistments, because it has a direct bear- 
 ing upon my main thesis. According to the Official 
 Statistical Yearbook of the Netherlands, the proportion of 
 
102 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 enlistments over five feet seven inches in height has 
 increased from 24.5 to 47.5 per cent since 1865; and 
 the proportion of those below five feet, two and one half 
 inches has fallen from 25.0 to 8.0 per cent. Now this 
 increase in height is not due solely to improved living 
 conditions, but chiefly to the fact that the birth control 
 clinics operate among the Alpine and Mediterranean 
 elements of the population, which are smaller in stature 
 than the Nordic. The result of checking the birth rate 
 of the former has been to give the latter a better oppor- 
 tunity; and the Nordic element, relieved from the 
 economic pressiire of the others, has increased its birth 
 rate, and furnishes a larger proportion of the recruits 
 than formerly. 
 
 To illustrate in our own cotintry. If the so-called 
 "old immigration," which came here before 1880, to- 
 gether with the native stock could be put on an equality 
 as to birth rate with the "new immigration" coming 
 since 1880, the Nordic element here would have at 
 least an even chance; whereas, as things are, it will have 
 a difficult time to hold its own. 
 
 There is not only the direct competition of the num- 
 bers of the lower classes and lower races ; but there is the 
 indirect burden upon the more fit of carrying the less 
 fit. Schools, hospitals, charitable enterprises of all 
 kinds, the attempt in countless ways to raise the aver- 
 age by raising the backward, prevent those advances 
 which might otherwise take place. I remember six- 
 teen pages, in the report of a New York charity, of 
 entries of visits, relief and various kinds of action 
 taken in the case of one feeble-minded woman with 
 fourteen children. 
 
 Now one of the chief causes of defective children 
 is their too frequent arrival, which not only brings 
 physiological poverty to both mother and child, but in- 
 
BIRTH CONTROL AND WORLD EUGENICS 103 
 
 creases economic want. In 191 1, in Johnstown, Pa., a 
 field study showed deaths per 1000 births as follows : 
 
 Families 1-2 children 108.5 
 
 3-4 " 126.0 
 
 " 5-6 " IS2.8 
 
 " 7-8 " 176.4 
 
 " 9 or more i9i-7 
 
 The same thing was found in Chicago. 
 
 Families of 4 children and less 118 
 
 " "6 " 267 
 
 " "7 " 280 
 
 "8 " 291 
 
 " "9 and over 303 
 
 Dr. S. Adolphus Knopf, a high authority upon tuber- 
 culosis, reports that the tuberculous cases are almost 
 always, in cases of large families, among the children 
 later than the fourth. 
 
 The international conventions of workingmen have 
 frequently demanded, not only free rights of migration, 
 but a wage based upon the cost of adequately support- 
 ing a family of five or six children. If this latter demand 
 were to be sustained, the burden put upon the more 
 successful portion of the community, which does not 
 undertake to have six children, would be still larger. 
 Already, according to Professor Karl Pearson, more 
 than one half of the births in England come from the 
 lowest one sixth of the population. 
 
 But, whatever may happen in the West, the real 
 population problem of this century lies in the Orient. 
 It is a hopeful sign that a Japanese commission in this 
 coimtry recently investigated methods of birth control, 
 with a view to teaching them widely in Japan. On the 
 other hand, the low condition of the bulk of the popula- 
 tion in Japan, China and India, as well as the prevalence 
 
104 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 of certain religious beliefs, makes it very imlikely that 
 birth control will make much progress in those coun- 
 tries. If it could be brought about, much of the famine, 
 abortion, infanticide and prostitution would disappear, 
 as well as a part of the dangers of war, one of the main 
 inducements to which is the pressure of population. 
 
 Kipling, in one of his recent stories, looks forward to 
 the time when the total population of the world will be 
 about one half of what it is at present, and, with the 
 help of new inventions and machinery, will be far more 
 healthy and prosperous. 
 
 Birth control, then, like immigration restriction, 
 should be applied: (i) to the defective and delinquent 
 stocks of all races; and (2) to the less desirable races. 
 Why should human reason be applied to the breeding of 
 animals and plants, to almost everjrthing in fact, except 
 the breeding of man? The first thing to do is to make 
 sound knowledge available; the second to secure its 
 application. Proper discussion of sexual matters should 
 no longer be considered obscene; parenthood should be 
 voluntary and rational, and not a matter of chance. 
 
REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION' 
 
 The late Samuel Butler had a favorite diversion — 
 that of turning a familiar proverb or maxim upside 
 down, to see what truth cotild be found in its opposite. 
 Generally, he found a good deal of truth; and the 
 method is one that need not be limited to followers of 
 Hegel. For we all get into the habit of taking old say- 
 ings at their face value without much examination; 
 indeed, education, to say nothing of propaganda and 
 advertising, depends for its success upon the repetition 
 and reiteration, in very nearly the same form, of some- 
 thing which it is desired to impress upon the infant or 
 the uncritical mind. Napoleon went so far as to say 
 that repetition was the only serious figure in logic. 
 
 Further, we all have habitual preferences for certain 
 ways of thought. Like a fly crawling over the tableau 
 of history, each of us seems to prefer some especial color 
 to walk on. This may be due to instinctive protective 
 mimicry. The chorus in Faust tells us to avoid what 
 does not agree with us, what stirs our insides tmpleas- 
 antly. So one fly likes to crawl on the high lights and 
 adopts the great man theory of history; another likes 
 the dull, massed colors, and attributes everj^hing to the 
 vast, vague undercurrents of popular instinct; one 
 chooses the rosy and saffron tints of the romantic 
 theory; another the single muddy tone which Marx 
 called the economic interpretation. Few of us can get 
 
 • Unpublished. 
 
 105 
 
io6 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 far enough away from the surface of the picture to see 
 the dramatic meaning of the whole; and, when we do, 
 our eyes are apt to focus badly. 
 
 It is, then, a good thing once in a while to take some 
 time-honored saying, and to turn it upside down or 
 inside out, and to note the result. We have good author- 
 ity, besides that of Butler, for doing so; because, if a 
 maxim is time-honored, it means that the majority has 
 endorsed it, and Herbert Spencer has reminded us that 
 majorities are always wrong, though never wholly 
 wrong. 
 
 In the early days of this nation, it was accepted 
 without question that taxation without representation 
 is tyranny. Indeed that maxim may be said to have 
 caused the separation of the colonies from Britain; I 
 want to reverse this saying, and to consider if it be not 
 equally true that representation without taxation is 
 tyranny. Charles Reade once reduced all arguments to 
 three : tu quoque, tu mentiris, and vos damnemini — you're 
 another, you lie, to hell with you. A combination of 
 these three arguments, much in fashion at the present 
 time, is to say "you're a reactionary." This is used 
 whether the poor mortal to be squelched wants to return 
 to the city-state of Pericles, or merely to have things 
 left as they were yesterday. Whoever is not moving 
 rapidly in some direction, even though it be as Sumner 
 once said of Garrison, toward the edge of a precipice, is 
 a reactionary. 
 
 Let us not, however, be afraid of this word. Men, 
 like children, tire of any game after a period. Nietzsche 
 may not be right in thinking that anything that has 
 been wiU happen again an infinite number of times; 
 and yet nothing is more certain than that aristocratic 
 forms -will return after some hundreds of years, and that 
 the wisdom of to-day will seem folly to those who come 
 
REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION 107 
 
 after us, even though meanwhile the phrase "kingdom 
 of heaven" shall be expunged from the prayer book as 
 too monarchical. 
 
 Now the essence of the phrase "taxation without 
 representation is tyranny" is democracy — the right of 
 aU to have a share in the government. It means this 
 because its original application to a colony has been 
 transferred to the individual man ; and a little premiss 
 has been surreptitiously smuggled in to the effect that 
 every one is taxed. The converse proposition, that 
 "representation without taxation is tyranny" stands 
 essentially for aristocracy, for the idea that only those 
 measuring up to a certain standard should have a lead- 
 ing part in the government. It is truly remarkable 
 what a magic formula the word "democracy" has 
 become in modern times. It is almost the "one God, 
 one law, one element, and one divine far off divine 
 event." If anything is wrong an5rwhere, all that is 
 needed is democracy, and after that more democracy. 
 Here and there a Lecky or a Henry Adams may decline 
 to put flowers on its altar; but he has R (for reaction- 
 ary) pinned upon him as surely as A was used in the 
 times of the Scarlet Letter. Professor H. M. Varrall has 
 called my attention to a curious parallel in the Middle 
 Ages. Then the system was monasticism; and when- 
 ever anything seemed to be the matter with it, the 
 remedy proposed was more monasticism. 
 
 It seems that Americans, more than other Nordic 
 peoples (if indeed we are still a Nordic people) like to be 
 fooled by the sound of words. They were long hyp- 
 notized by that falsest of shibboleths "the melting- 
 pot" ; they are now entranced by any orator who shouts 
 ' ' humanity " or " democracy. ' ' For, though democracy 
 be, in the words of Plato, the best form of bad govern- 
 ment, we have never had it in the United States, and do 
 
io8 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 not have it now. As I have shown elsewhere' the 
 democratic phrases in our Constitution and Declaration 
 of Independence came from France ; and in France they 
 were the result of trying to apply at a stroke to the 
 whole population certain principles of equality which 
 had worked well among the selected membership of 
 those Masonic lodges which had a good deal to do with 
 the French Revolution. But it was characteristic of 
 the relatively intelligent and almost wholly Nordic 
 population of our colonies that, although it played with 
 these phrases, and made much of them as compared 
 with the feudalism of Britain, yet in practice it was as 
 aristocratic as any country could be. For the people 
 were intelligent enough to pick out the most able among 
 them, and to entrust to them the management of affairs ; 
 so that for the first sixty years of our existence as a 
 separate nation, the government, although democratic 
 in form, was aristocratic in fact. Who can imagine, for 
 a moment, that men like Washington, Hamilton, and 
 especially John Marshall, could have welded the colo- 
 nies into one people, if at every step they had been 
 obliged to consult the electorate through such machin- 
 ery as the referendum and recall? Even the original 
 concept of ' ' representation ' ' was essentially aristocratic. 
 The people were to elect, directly or indirectly, the 
 man they considered fittest for senator or congressman, 
 and he was to act as he thought best for the country. 
 The members of the electoral college were to exercise 
 their best judgment in picking a president. 
 
 To-day, how different the theory! Presidents, sena- 
 tors and members of congress are tied hand and foot 
 before election by all sorts of pledges. After election, 
 in doubtful cases, congressmen now take postal card 
 canvasses of their districts. Presidential electors have a 
 
 ' Journal of Heredity, x, 166 (April, 1919). 
 
REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION 109 
 
 very limited choice of action, where they have any at 
 all. Even the judiciary, hitherto more or less independ- 
 ent, is to be made "responsible to the people," and its 
 decisions subject to the whim of the mob. Government 
 by counting noses would be bad enough, bearing in 
 mind that majorities are always wrong, except perhaps 
 where a simple moral issue is presented. But we do not 
 have even this; for "the people" are in turn led about 
 by the few, only by demagogues instead of aristocrats. 
 By aristocrats I mean men of pre-eminent intelligence, 
 ability and devotion to the public good. True democ- 
 racy is possible, as Lecky and Mallock have shown, 
 only in a relatively homogeneous and intelligent com- 
 munity; in other words, where every one has a brain as 
 well as a nose. But the lower type of man is governed 
 by emotion rather than by reason, by the feeling of the 
 moment unmodified by the experience of the past. It 
 is to feeling that the demagogue appeals. He knows 
 how to work on passing waves of popular emotion to 
 get himself into office and to stay there. One secret of 
 the spread of socialism is this appeal to the present, and 
 a total disregard of both the past and the future. 
 
 The less intelligent the community, the less aristo- 
 crats have a share of power greater than their numerical 
 proportion. That is why we are rapidly getting to the 
 point where strong and able men can no longer be 
 elected to public office, except in an occasional emer- 
 gency. Emile Faguet in his Culte d' Incompetence has 
 shown this condition in France. It is the same here. 
 
 How has this come about? One of the most funda- 
 mental distinctions between men is that between those 
 who are interested in the whole of anything, and those 
 who are interested in a part of it; or, in other words, 
 between those who place the emphasis upon quantity 
 and those who are appealed to by quality. In recent 
 
no IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 years, there has been a great increase in men of the 
 former type, what I call for lack of a better term the 
 "expansile" type, who are the victims of any idea more 
 simple and quantitatively more inclusive than some 
 other. This type is too lazy to bother with distinctions, 
 boundaries and classifications; it finds it easier to de- 
 mand simplicity and equality in everything. Equal 
 wages, equal suffrage, equal education, equal oppor- 
 tunity are its mantrams. The very language is modified 
 in accordance with this psychological point of view. 
 We hear no longer of "men," but of "man" and 
 "humanity." We forget that, as Allen Upward has 
 pointed out,' "humanity" is a false word, because it 
 means that there are or ought to be no distinctions 
 between men; and that the "religion of humanity" is 
 not the worship of the best man or of the best in man, 
 but of the average man. In politics, we have reached 
 the condition deplored by Montesquieu:" "where each 
 one wishes to be equal to those whom he has chosen to 
 command him. Under these circumstances, the people 
 impatient of the power itself in which it has confided, 
 wishes to do everything itself, deliberate for the Senate, 
 execute for the magistrates, and rob all the judges of 
 their power." 
 
 The masses, as Amiel has said, are necessarily below 
 the average; but democracy rests upon the legal fiction 
 that the majority has not only power but intelligence, 
 that it possesses wisdom as well as legal rights. ^ This 
 fiction is contrary to the dictum of Nietzsche that the 
 highest judgments can come only from those having the 
 fullest energy of hfe. To-day the most potent judgments 
 are those of the masses. Machiavelli's Prince has 
 
 ' The New Word, 98, 100. 
 
 ' Esprit des Lois, Bk. viii, c. 2. 
 
 3 Journal, ii, 1 19. 
 
REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION iii 
 
 become the common people; and the opinions of the 
 latter are formed liot by trained reason, but by hearsay 
 and contagion, by emotional factors, by image-produc- 
 ing ideas given them by the popular leaders. 
 
 Price Collier' puts the matter concretely thus: 
 "England's greatness is due in no small degree to the 
 fact that she has stubbornly held to the belief, despite 
 republics and revolutions, that all men are not equal, 
 nor all entitled to an equal degree of liberty. . . . The 
 old wholesome theory that the inferior should be urged 
 to play up, and be rewarded if he did, made us Ameri- 
 cans and English what we are; the modern theory, born 
 of the miasma of the French Revolution, urging the 
 superior to play down, will emasculate us inevitably." 
 To the same effect Goncourt:^ "Le suffrage universel! 
 Apr^s de si longs sifecles, une si lente 6ducation de I'hu- 
 manit§ sauvage, revenir k la barbaric du nombre, k la 
 victoire de Timbecillit^ des multitudes aveugles." 
 
 Immigration has played its part in the changed point 
 of view in this country. The Mediterranean races, 
 unlike the Nordic, look to the State for progress instead 
 of to individual enterprise. The Semitic consciousness, 
 as expressed in men like St. Paul, Spinoza, Marx and 
 Bergson, is the champion of abstract universals as 
 contrasted with Nordic concreteness. A nation of 
 many races has no longer one soul, one spirit. Its 
 integrity can be destroyed not only through heredity by 
 cross-breeding, but in a slower way by a change in the 
 environment through the mere presence of alien ele- 
 ments. Gobineau long ago pointed out that the doctrine 
 that all men are equal is announced only by mixed 
 races ; and even the sense in which words like "equality " 
 are used changes insensibly with the people who use 
 
 ' The West in the East, 139, 184. 
 ' Journal, iii, 301. 
 
112 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 them. Equality is now political atomism divorced 
 from any idealism, from any formal or artistic structure. 
 Democracy tends to the levelling of all differences ex- 
 cept that of number; it ignores the advantage of divi- 
 sions of function in the body politic; and it "increas- 
 ingly demands that the slavish mind shall be treated 
 politely. " ' We should laugh at a legislator who should 
 undertake to tell a miner or a lumberman how to do his 
 work; but no one laughs at the idea that the miner or 
 the lumberman is competent to vote on even the most 
 abstruse political problems. And the result of this is 
 that fatal tendency, noted by John Morley, for the 
 public to attempt to give simple answers to complex 
 problems. 
 
 Instead of that unfortunate phrase of Theodore 
 Parker's, copied by Lincoln, "government of the people, 
 by the people and for the people," we ought to say 
 "government for the people; but not alone by the 
 people, but chiefly by those leaders best qualified."^ 
 Otherwise, we shall lose all the benefits of special ability 
 and special training. This is, indeed, recognized by 
 some even among the radicals. For example, Labriola, 
 the Italian revolutionist and preacher of syndicalism 
 says: "True democracy is the concentrating of power 
 in an elite who can best judge of social cause and effect." 
 He likes to keep the word "democracy" for oratorical 
 effect ; but what he is in truth preaching is the value of 
 aristocracy. And what he says must be true; because 
 the masses are ignorant of social cause and effect in the 
 past, and care more about the present than the future. 
 As Emerson put it :' "In democracy the persons wield- 
 ing power are always changing. Hence the permanent 
 
 ' Morrison I. Swift, Can Mankind Survive, 38. 
 
 ' W. H. Mallock, The Limits of Pure Democracy, 57. 
 
 3 Journal, 1850, 140. 
 
REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION 113 
 
 things in front of their minds are not the state, or its 
 good, or any policies, but first their own interest, and 
 second their party, for these are the only permanency 
 they know." This was so well recognized at the be- 
 ginning of the French Revolution, that its leaders had 
 no thought of granting universal suffrage. All men 
 were to be protected in their persons, their property 
 and their liberty; but all were not to be "active citi- 
 zens.' ' ' They believed, with Burke, that the tyranny of 
 a democracy is the most dangerous of all tyrannies, 
 because it allows no appeal from itself. 
 
 And we are now tending toward a tyranny of the few, 
 acting by oratory, by the press, by the very form in 
 which news is given out, upon the ignorant many. No 
 extensions of suffrage, of referenda, of appeal to mere 
 numbers, can improve this condition. 
 
 What, then, is the remedy ? I say it frankly, to react. 
 If we have gone too far one way, let us go some distance 
 the other way. The alternative is all kinds of wild, 
 popular experiments — ^all of them by the way tried 
 long ago — ^followed by the despotism of some individual 
 strong enough to control all others. The true remedy 
 is to give more power to the brains and less to the noses ; 
 in other words, to limit political power to those having a 
 certain stake in the community. In the phrase of my 
 text, "No representation without taxation." 
 
 We need not make economic success the sole criterion 
 of suffrage, although it is probably the surest one. We 
 could limit the suffrage to the following classes of 
 persons : (a) those paying a certain amount of federal 
 or local tax; (b) those having a certain education; (c) 
 those having a business of their own of a certain size; 
 (d) those willing to pay a considerable fee for the privi- 
 lege. It is not even necessary to disfranchise anybody. 
 
 ' Si^yfes to the Committee on the Constitution, July 20, 1789. 
 8 
 
114 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 If we wish to stick to the principle of every person 
 having one vote, we could give an additional vote for 
 each of the classes mentioned above in which any voter 
 found himself. It is true that any proposition to limit 
 the suffrage does not look very promising when we 
 consider the expansile tendency of the age; and yet it 
 has been done at least three times already in this coun- 
 try. In colonial Massachusetts, the ballot was re- 
 stricted to those who were both church members and 
 property owners; in New Jersey, woman suffrage was 
 abolished early in the last century; and, in Rhode 
 Island, the property qualification was recently raised 
 from seventy-five to three hundred dollars. 
 
 It will be objected at once that most, if not all, of the 
 bosses and demagogues could qualify as voters tmder 
 the above scheme. That is perfectly true. There is no 
 Utopian method of separating out Cicero's "good 
 men" in the community, and turning the government 
 over to them. But the power of the boss is gone as soon 
 as he no longer has the ignorant voter as his support. 
 
 In an emergency, by common consent, aristocrats 
 are put in office and given supreme power. Caesar long 
 ago remarked that the Gallic tribes were democracies 
 in peace but oligarchies in war. The same is always 
 true; and the World War was perhaps the best example 
 of the necessity of putting able men in power when a 
 thing has to be done well and quickly. No doubt many 
 mistakes were made; no doubt many things might have 
 been done better. But, in every country taking part in 
 the great struggle, there was the phenomenon of the 
 competent few taking the place, for the time being, of 
 the incompetent multitude. The problem is to so 
 arrange the political system that what is done in a great 
 emergency shall be done more or less all the time. The 
 first step is to realize that superficial equality is essen- 
 
REPRESENTATION WITHOUT TAXATION 115 
 
 tially inequality; that the parable of the talents still 
 holds true ; and that to him that hath much in the way 
 of intelligence, ability and public spirit should much 
 be given in the way of power, and of him should much 
 be demanded in the way of service. 
 
THE PERSONAL SIDE 
 
THE PERSONAL SIDE 
 
 " When spirit calls to spirit, there will be 
 Dominion, wider than eternity; 
 Then forget me or remember, as you will, 
 I'll not forget to bless you ever; still 
 You will forget-me-not." 
 
 From the time Prescott Famsworth Hall was born, 
 his mother, Mrs. Samuel Hall, Jr., who was then forty- 
 five years of age, was an invalid. As a restilt, he grew 
 up under restrained and unusual circumstances. Mrs. 
 Hall's only other child, William Famsworth Kilboume, 
 had died at the age of two and one half years. This 
 made her all the more insistent concerning the health 
 and care of the new baby. Consequently he grew up a 
 frail little hothouse plant, for he was never allowed to 
 romp, to climb and to be reckless, as other boys were. 
 
 Mr. Hall's entire life was a courageous battle against 
 ill-health. Once during the World War he was express- 
 ing regret that he could not take part in the great 
 struggle, and I said to him: "You have been given the 
 hardest battle in life to fight. It were easier to meet a 
 foe openly, than one which we cannot see or imder- 
 stand." 
 
 One of his nurses once said to me: "I think he has 
 more courage than any one I have ever seen." 
 
 All his life he had insomnia. In normal times it was 
 his custom to go to bed about twelve or one o'clock; and 
 if he couldn't sleep, which was often, he would return 
 to the library, to his books or his writing. If he could 
 
 119 
 
120 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 sleep solidly from four o'clock till eight in the morning 
 it was suflScient sleep for him. But he was so highly- 
 sensitive that it was hard for him to sleep after the early 
 morning noises began. 
 
 Mr. Hall was devoted to his home; and he was a great 
 lover of nature. No one ever loved flowers, shrubs and 
 trees more intimately than he. And he knew all the 
 little flies and bugs that inhabited them. Of these he 
 had a large collection, — one of the interests of his youth. 
 He taught me to feel friendly towards little insects 
 which had hitherto been repulsive to me. He knew all 
 their names and some of their missions in the great 
 scheme of life. It was his custom, as soon as the buds 
 commenced to appear in the spring, until the frosts of 
 winter obscured all foliage, to walk around the grounds 
 after breakfast before going to his office. So many 
 times I've watched him as he slowly walked about, 
 sometimes stopping — with arms folded — communing, 
 apparently, with his silent friends. 
 
 Late one afternoon when the world seemed so at 
 peace, and a most brilliant afterglow shed radiance all 
 about us, we were walking in the garden when we came 
 upon a robin tugging away in an effort to get a helpless 
 worm from the earth. Mr. Hall looked on sadly for a 
 moment and said: "If we could only know why that 
 should be, one of the biggest problems of the Universe 
 would be solved." He often said with Tyndall, "if we 
 could only be sure that the Universe is friendly." He 
 never could bear to see anything suffer. A cat with a 
 mouse distressed him unbearably. A suffering animal, 
 or anything that hadn't the faculty of reasoning or 
 understanding engaged his attention and his sympathies 
 always. Where there was a question of human beings 
 or animals suffering, his sympathies were always with 
 the animals, because they were more helpless. 
 
THE PERSONAL SIDE 121 
 
 Notwithstanding Mr. Hall's profound mind and his 
 habits of philosophical reasoning, he had a simple, a 
 loving and a lovable nature. This side of his character 
 is the one I am intentionally setting forth. 
 
 The thing that he had least patience with was the 
 
 more holy than thou ' ' attitude. He hated moral prigs 
 with a cordial hatred. He could forgive any other form 
 of crime, but not that. And no one ever hated all 
 forms of gossip and uncharitable criticism more than 
 he did. 
 
 His sympathies were always with the down-trodden. 
 This, I think, sometimes lead to misunderstanding 
 him. 
 
 He felt that every intelligent man possessed a God- 
 given right to live life according to his own interpreta- 
 tions. "By thine own soul's law learn to live." 
 
 He could not endure "tailor-made religions." But a 
 spiritual life appealed greatly to him — the spiritual life 
 that practises, but does not preach. 
 
 Mr. HaU thought the pursuit of happiness an entirely 
 erroneous life theory. He agreed with Schopenhauer 
 that "not pleasure but freedom from pain is what the 
 wise man will aim at." Freedom from pain that one 
 might do good work — best serve. And he felt it was the 
 duty of every intelligent person to have some public 
 spirited interest, some interest in the common good, the 
 betterment of the future generations. 
 
 I once asked him what he considered our most impor- 
 tant duty to the Universe, and he said: "Self-ex- 
 pression." 
 
 Always he believed in hammering away at one's 
 ideals, no matter whether they were attained or not. 
 One were better for the struggle. The following from 
 The Statue and the Bust was a favorite of his, and suited 
 him peculiarly well: 
 
122 IMMIGRATION AND OTHER INTERESTS 
 
 " Stake your counter as boldly every whit, 
 Venture as warily, use the same skill. 
 Do your best, whether winning or losing it. 
 
 If you choose to, play! — is my principle. 
 Let a man contend to the uttermost 
 For his hfe's set prize, be it what it will." 
 
 Mr. Hall was always vigorous in his conversations 
 and his writings, and no matter whether his views were 
 shared or not, one always felt his honesty and sincerity 
 underljdng all words and arguments. He would not 
 concede a thing he could not honestly believe, no matter 
 what the consequences. Indeed, his honesty was his 
 tragedy for he stuck to his beliefs, often defying society 
 — and willingly paid the price. 
 
 He was a man with a prophetic vision, and a great, 
 grand patience with which he accepted defeat. Never 
 a politician, but always a statesman. Interested in 
 every one's subject, taking stock of every one's views. 
 
 Mr. Hall was a critic and an inspiration. He was a 
 man whose mind had no holiday, for he was always 
 restlessly active. And Goethe says, "Restless activity 
 proves the man." 
 
 He was very fond of the German language and Utera- 
 ture, also German music. The German thinking mind 
 appealed greatly to him. 
 
 In the last entry in his journal, after speaking of his 
 long, tedious illness, he says: "It comes down to the 
 question whether all things have value, or some things 
 or nothing. And there is no answer." 
 
 Mr. Hall had a great deal of sentiment, was honest to 
 a fault and was the most loyal person I have ever known. 
 He requested that locks of his mother's and father's 
 hair, which he had kept, be buried with him; also cer- 
 tain things which had belonged to a very splendid young 
 woman he had loved and lost in his college days. 
 
THE PERSONAL SIDE 
 
 123 
 
 After a rather tempestuous life, it is sweet to remem- 
 ber the cahn, glorified radiance which surrounded him 
 at last. He seemed perfectly happy — unafraid — and so 
 at peace with all the world. 
 
 Thus, like a tired child, he fell asleep and slipped 
 away into the silence — the silence into which all lives 
 must hush at last. 
 
 Brookline, Massachusetts. 
 Summer of 192 1.