224 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



THE IMMIGKANT, PAST AND PKESENT. 



By Dr. ALLAN MCLAUGHLIN, 



U. S. PUBLIC HEALTH AND MARINE HOSPITAL SERVICE. 



A FTEB. the Peace of Paris in 1783, and the birth of a new nation 

 ~*-^- on the American continent, home-seekers arriving at ports of 

 the United States were called immigrants. Previous to the revolu- 

 tionary war they were known as colonists. The distinction is one of 

 political allegiance. The colonist was an immigrant who desired to 

 make a home in the new country, but to retain his allegiance to his 

 native land. On the other hand, the immigrant, in a majority of in- 

 stances, expected and desired to change his political allegiance. Even 

 at the present time the government of Italy regards as Italian colonists 

 all Italians in America who have not been naturalized. If we except 

 the question of political allegiance there was little difference between 

 the colonist and the early immigrant. There were no large centers of 

 population such as exist to-day to invite the parasitic class, nor were 

 there large factories, mines or mills, to demand a supply of unskilled 

 laborers. The country, except a narrow strip along the Atlantic sea- 

 board, stretched in an almost unbroken wilderness far to the west. 

 The type of immigrant willing and able to brave the dangers and hard- 

 ships of the new country, and hew out a home in the heart of the 

 forest, was necessarily brave of heart, and strong of hand, the very best 

 type of an immigrant — the pioneer. The immigrant of those days 

 was not allured by the promise of high wages, nor by the desire to better 

 his financial condition, but was actuated chiefly by the desire to create 

 a home, and free himself from the trammels and persecutions of the 

 old world. He was at once a pioneer, a woodsman and a farmer. He 

 left behind him many evils, coercion, compulsory military service, re- 

 ligious or racial persecution, grinding taxation, wars in which he had 

 no interest, and prohibitive systems of land tenure. He found in this 

 country, land for all, absolute freedom from racial or religious perse- 

 cution, personal liberty, and respect for the rights of the individual, 

 regardless of social position. The many advantages offered to the 

 home-seeker who was brave, willing and strong, in the new United 

 States, attracted many thousand immigrants, and it is estimated that 

 one hundred and fifty thousand settled in the country between 1783 

 and 1810. These early immigrants were mostly from the British Isles, 

 with a few Germans, French and Scandinavians. 



