GOING THROUGH ELLIS ISLAND 7 



finished, and she has gone on with them happily to the new home in 

 America. 



America is the land of the alien, and even now his mark is plain on 

 all our institutions. But while the principal increase in population 

 has been by immigration, the character of that immigration has changed 

 markedly in the past thirty years. Previous to 1883, western and 

 northern Europe sent a stalwart stock, 95' per cent, of all who came. 

 They sought new homes and were settlers. Scandinavians, Danes, 

 Dutch, Germans, French, Swiss and the English islanders, they were 

 the best of Europe's blood. They were industrious, patriotic and far- 

 sighted. They were productive and constructive workers. Where noth- 

 ing had been, they planted, and mined, and built, and toiled with their 

 hands, while yet finding time to educate their children and train them 

 to love the new mother-country and appreciate the blessings she fur- 

 nished. 



But for three decades the immigrant tide has flowed more and more 

 from eastern and southern Europe. The others still come, but they 

 are far outnumbered by the Jews, Slavs, the Balkan and Austrian 



A Polish Mother holding her Baby up to see the Doctor. 



races, and those from the Mediterranean countries. In contrast with 

 the earlier immigration, these peoples are less inclined to transplant 

 their homes and affections. They come to make what they can in a 

 few years of arduous unremitting labor, and then return to their 

 homes to spend it in comparative comfort and ease. It has been well 



