Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 62.djvu/237

Rh the numerous magazine and newspaper articles on immigration. Time and again we read protests against the 'horde of illiterates' or the 'scum of Europe' or the 'pauper invasion' which is 'swarming into our country.' The articles are usually the feverish output of some enthusiastic patriot who has not come in close contact with the immigrant for any extended length of time, and whose remarks are misleading, though eloquent and readable.

That the writers are as inaccurate as they are intemperate may be seen from a consideration of one of the most frequent errors into which they fall, confusion of race with nativity. For example, observe how they use the term 'Russian.' We receive a great many immigrants, good and bad, from Russia, but very few Russians. So called Russian immigration is composed (exclusive of real Russians, who form so small a part that they can scarcely be considered a factor) of five distinct races: Hebrews, Poles, Germans, Lithuanians and Finns. The same is true in almost as great a degree of 'Huns.' The immigrants from Austria-Hungary are commonly called Huns; but, while the race line can not be so unerringly drawn as in the case of Russia, the term does not apply racially to the majority of the immigrants. The bulk of the immigration from Austria-Hungary is made up of Hebrews, Slovaks, Poles, Croatians, Magyars (the real Huns) and Germans. This confusion of race and nativity is due to the fact that the statisticians of the past took no cognizance of race, but recorded simply the nativity of the immigrant. Writers in using these statistics jumped at the conclusion that all immigrants born in Russia were Russians, and all born in Hungary were Huns. For the past few years, however, immigrants passing through the Barge Office, or Ellis Island, have been classified according to race as well as nativity. The statistics thus compiled have a scientific value.

If we examine the cause of an American citizen's distrust of the immigrant we find that it varies according to the citizen's point of view. The mechanic fears cheap competition, resulting in low wages; the stirpiculturist, noting the poor physique and low mental caliber of some of the immigrants, fears race degeneration; the reformer, or political purist, increase of crime or pauperism and the influence of a mass of ignorant voters controlled by unscrupulous political bosses; and the law-abiding citizen fears from the immigrant, not only the germ of bodily disease, but the germ of anarchy and also favorable media for its growth.

The great majority of male immigrants are not mechanics, but unskilled laborers. If they possess the qualifications that the early immigrants established as the prime requisites of a desirable immigrant—rugged physique and willingness to work—and if there is a demand