DISTRUST OF THE IMMIGRANT. 235 



Table 3. 



Ratio of Minor Defects in each Race to Number Landed. These were 

 Defects or Conditions not grave enough for Actual Rejection, yet likely to Affect 

 the Immigrant's Chances in making a Living or Usefulness as an Immigrant, 

 such as Poor Physique, Anwmia, Loss of an Eye or Finger, etc. Month of June, 

 1900 : 



Finn 



Slav ( Croat, Pole, Slovak ) 



Lithuanian 



Magyar 



Italian 



Syrian 



Hebrew 



in every 81 

 65 

 64 

 40 

 26 

 " 24 

 16 



stock whose children, brought up in American schools and in American 

 environment can be assimilated without detriment to the native race. 

 It is not the assimilation of the immigrant but of his children we have 

 to consider. 



The American's distrust of the immigrant at present is rational 

 and natural. It is the logical sequence of the sweat shop, the increase 

 of crime and pauperism in New York and other great cities, and of 

 the assassin's act at Buffalo. The percentage of undesirable immi- 

 grants is no doubt higher to-day than it was twenty, thirty or forty 

 years ago. It may even be admitted that it has been growing higher 

 year by year during the past two decades. But we are no longer 

 unprotected against undesirable immigrants. Bestrictions on admit- 

 tance have been growing more stringent year by year and a great 

 system has been perfected on Ellis Island for sifting the grain from 

 the chaff, that is doing splendid work, not as a dam to keep out good 

 and bad alike, but as a sieve fine enough in the mesh to keep out the 

 diseased, the pauper and the criminal while admitting the immigrant 

 with two strong arms, a sound body and a stout heart. 



Amendment of the present immigration laws has been suggested 

 in some important particulars. It has been urged by a great many 

 people that an educational requirement should be added to the law, 

 barring all immigrants who are illiterate. A glance at the following 

 table will show that this restriction would debar many thousands of 

 our most desirable immigrants would, in fact, be felt most by the races 

 furnishing us with nearly all of the unskilled labor necessary for our 

 industrial progress. It would not, on the other hand, act as a barrier 

 to some of the least desirable immigrants we receive. The passing of 

 this educational amendment would have one good result: It would 

 lessen the total number of immigrants landed and thus permit of 

 an even more rigid examination of the immigrants upon arrival. 



Other remedies suggested for the improvement of the immigration 

 laws are raising the head tax and increasing the time of the Govern- 



