TEE MEDICAL SIDE OF IMMIGRATION 383 



THE MEDICAL SIDE OF IMMIGRATION 



By Dr. ALFRED C. REED 



ASSISTANT SURGEON, U. S. PUBLIC HEALTH AND MARINE HOSPITAL SERVICE 



NEW YORK CITY 



PEEHAPS no question is of more paramount and continuing interest 

 to the American people than immigration in all its phases and 

 relations to public welfare. The history of the United States is the 

 history of alien immigration. The earliest pioneers were themselves 

 alien immigrants. Our institutions, political, religious and social, have 

 been founded and supported by aliens or their near descendants. Our 

 country is indeed a meltiug-pot, into which have been poured diverse 

 varieties of peoples, from all nations and races. Yet in the face of this, 

 these variant elements have been fused into a more or less homogeneous 

 nation. A national life and character we have. This national or Amer- 

 ican character is not exemplified in those places where the large streams 

 of immigration are pouring in, but farther away where the waters have 

 mixed. Such a condition, unique in the history of nations, is responsible 

 for certain problems which are also unique in history, and consequently 

 do not admit of solution according to precedents. 



The first rule of national life is self-preservation, and since immi- 

 gration has had and still has so important a role in American national 

 life, it must be carefully scrutinized to determine which immigrants are 

 desirable, and vice versa, from the standpoint of the betterment and con- 

 tinuance of the American nation. The choice between free immigration, 

 restricted immigration, and absolute exclusion is increasingly difficult 

 to make, and does not enter our field of inquiry, except to recall a prin- 

 ciple which is as valid from the medical standpoint as from the eco- 

 nomic or social. Only those peoples should be admitted whom experi- 

 ence has shown will amalgamate quickly and become genuine citizens. 

 The period of residence necessary for citizenship should be raised from 

 three to five years, during which time the immigrant should be literally 

 on probation, and subject to deportation if found wanting, or if unable 

 to meet the qualifications of citizenship at the end of that time. The 

 government should decide where the immigrant may settle and the 

 immigration current should be directed to the western and farming 

 districts, and not allowed to stagnate in eastern cities. 



The great mass of popular literature on the subject of immigration is 

 singularly deficient in discussion and analysis of its medical features. 

 It is true, the United States government bestows on public health and 

 preventive medicine no where near the attention it finds necessary for 

 the prevention of disease in stock and for agricultural improvement, but 



