THE IMMIGRANT. 227 



immigrant, and we are much more likely to receive as our English 

 immigrant the degenerate product of the East London slums. The 

 same has been true of Germany for many years, the prosperity of the 

 country, the growth of national pride and reconciliation to the form 

 of government have cut down the German emigration from the great 

 exodus of the eighties to the comparatively insignificant figures of 

 to-day; and the German immigrants to-day do not compare favorably 

 with their countrymen who came here twenty-five years ago. It will 

 be seen, therefore, that it is unwise to consider an immigrant good 

 because he is of one race, or worthless because he is of another. They 

 must be measured individually irrespective of race or creed, for it is 

 better to receive the robust pastoral or agricultural immigrants from 

 countries where the intellectual status, perhaps, is not high and the 

 school system faulty, than to receive from countries, possessing a high 

 intellectual status and a superior educational system, the urban degen- 

 erate, criminal, diseased and defective. 



To-day we receive the agricultural home-seeker as in the early days 

 of this country. We demand and receive the industrial immigrant, the 

 unskilled laborer who was unknown as a type fifty years ago. And we 

 also receive against our own will the human parasite who remains and 

 can only exist in the great centers of population. 



The work which will be done in the next twenty years to reclaim 

 the arid land by irrigation will be genuine empire building and pro- 

 vide thousands of homes for agricultural settlers. No doubt proper 

 care will be exercised by the government to prevent this reclaimed 

 land from falling into the hands of speculators, and the bulk of it will 

 be available for the immigrant of the future. 



