488 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Egyptians on the walls of the tombs of the kings of Thebes. In other 

 words, 4,000 years of changing religions, ever-shifting political condi- 

 tions, and the inroads of commerce and war with their continual introduc- 

 tion of alien blood have not served to materially alter that physical type, 

 which, during the countless ages of prehistoric time, had been gradually 

 evolved as best adapted to the climatic conditions of the valley of the 

 Nile. It may then be concluded that the influence of immigration upon 

 our physical type will, in the long run, be nil. That type of man best 

 adapted physically to the climate and soil will, in the point of numbers, 

 eventually predominate in spite of all restrictive legislation or man- 

 made laws of any hind. 



When we come to consider the question of the influence of racial 

 amalgamation upon our habits of thought, upon our morals, and upon 

 our institutions — upon our spiritual selves, we are confronted with a 

 much graver problem, and one over which we have at least some little 

 power of control. This is really the serious problem which we have to 

 solve, for, after all, it is not so much difference of blood relations that 

 produces enmity among the component peoples of a nation, as it is the 

 difference of political and social ideals, and history is replete with 

 instances where nations have lost their own peculiar form of civiliza- 

 tion and political institutions on account of overwhelming alien influ- 

 ence. That the influence of the alien in the United States is enormous, 

 and that it is becoming yearly more and more important, is an almost 

 self-evident proposition. 



In order to arrive at a fairly intelligent opinion as to whether or not 

 this influx of foreign thought and social habit will ever change suffi- 

 ciently to conform to our own standards, we should study the history 

 of the nations from which it comes, and whose ideals it has already 

 helped to form. Is there anything in the past history of the countries 

 from which our immigrants are now being chiefly recruited to justify 

 the belief that they will eventually sympathize with our political insti- 

 tutions and with those Anglo-Saxon habits of thought which we must 

 insist upon as necessary to good citizenship in a great republic ? A brief 

 study of the leading alien type will demonstrate the principle upon 

 which the research necessary to answer this question should be con- 

 ducted. 



Let us first consider the case of the Italian. Here we may be 

 tempted to at once pass an unfavorable opinion on the ground that he is, 

 by virtue of previous training and habits of thought, at entire vari- 

 ance with republican ideals. Such a judgment will be hasty and hardly 

 warranted by the premises. When we remember what the Italian has 

 accomplished for himself at home since 1820, when the first real agita- 

 tion for a free and united Italy may have been said to have commenced, 

 it should encourage us in the belief that he is capable of sustained and 

 intelligent efforts for the common good. 



