DISTRIBUTION OF IMMIGRANTS. 173 



spirit behind many of these new colonies.) " Eussian Jew colony in 

 Alabama. The colony will consist of 40 Eussian Jew families, and 

 they propose to establish a manufacturing settlement, principally for 

 the making of clothes." And so on, ad libitum. It is obvious that 

 the establishment of such alien colonies is not conducive to thorough 

 and rapid assimilation, and that, if this is the tendency of ' agricultural 

 distribution,' the benefits to be derived from such distribution are cer- 

 tain to be much lessened. 



The present view regarding our alien immigration is not that of 

 criticism of, nor of prejudice against, any one nationality or group of 

 foreigners. Hence the frequent outbreaks of impassioned defense of 

 this or that nationality are both unnecessary and misleading. The sober 

 thought regarding the dangers of immigration is that of apprehension 

 that an ever-increasing mass of our alien population which keeps its 

 identity is a great evil in our democracy. These alien colonies have 

 for years been found in our city slums; the present movement is evi- 

 dently going to plant them all over the country, in the farming dis- 

 tricts. The thought of danger in alien colonies is, after all, not as new 

 as many writers would have us believe. Washington, in a letter to 

 John Adams, dated November 27, 1794, wrote as follows: "My 

 opinion with respect to emigration [immigration] is that except of 

 useful mechanics and some particular descriptions of men and profes- 

 sions, there is no need of encouragement, while the policy or advantage 

 of its taking place in a body (I mean the settling of them in a body) 

 may be much questioned; for by so doing they retain their language, 

 habits, and principles, good or bad, which they bring with them." 

 And Franklin expressed it as his belief that a homogeneous population 

 is necessary to a successful democracy. 



6. Effects upon the Sections in which the Distribution takes Place 

 not always good. — To scatter among our rural communities large 

 numbers of aliens whose standards of living are such that they are 

 willing to work for the lowest possible wage, is to expose our native 

 farming population to a competition which is distinctly undesirable. 

 In the corn belt of the west, as Professor T. 1ST. Carver has recently 

 shown, the newer immigrants, because of their lower standards of 

 living, have been able to put more money into land, buildings and 

 equipment than the native American farmer; and hence have an 

 advantage in the struggle for existence. Scattering our alien popula- 

 tion of the more ignorant races simply spreads more widely the evils 

 which result from exposing our own people to competition with the 

 lower classes of foreigners. Again, in the case of the agricultural dis- 

 tribution of Italian and other alien laborers through the south, while it 

 is perfectly true that these aliens will supplant the negroes in many — ■ 

 probably in most — occupations, the effect will undoubtedly be to cause a 



