OF A CERTAIN PENNSYLVANIA FAMILY. 97 



XVII. IMMIGRATION. 



Manifestly no sweeping generalization in regard to immigration 

 restriction can be made from the study of so small a group, but its 

 investigation furnishes at least concrete instances in support or refuta- 

 tion of statements often heard in discussions of the immigration 

 problem. It further affords an illustration of the difficulty of framing 

 a restrictive law solely on the basis of race, physical fitness, literacy, 

 and mentality of the individual apart from his family. 



It is maintained that the races of the present incoming hordes are 

 not susceptible of amalgamation and assimilation as were those of a 

 half century ago. Touching this question of race, we may call atten- 

 tion to the following points: In the first place, the defectives of this 

 history all belonged to the races against whom there has never been a 

 wish to discriminate in restrictive legislation — the English, Irish, and 

 German races — those peoples who have assimilated so successfully 

 to the American type and at the same time contributed so many 

 valuable characters to our national life. 



The ardent advocates of unrestricted immigration exclaim: "Never 

 mind about the parents; they will soon be dead. Their children will 

 become good Americans." In the present instance the conditions for 

 realizing this highly desirable end, that is the making of "good 

 Americans" were eminently favorable, — there was a very generous 

 provision for acquiring land, and the planting of the family in a pro- 

 gressive pioneer community, where democratic ideals prevailed and 

 facilities for education were fair. All these should have made amal- 

 gamation, assimilation, and economic independence a relatively easy 

 matter. Notwithstanding these favorable and fairly uniform condi- 

 tions, we find this family breaking up into widely diverse conditions. 



Let us consider briefly how far they have achieved the state so 

 desirable for our immigrant population. There has been much inter- 

 marriage of all lines with native and immigrant stocks which has 

 resulted in complete amalgamation. The significant fact, however, 

 is that here the process has consisted in the gravitation of members 

 carrying defects, to defective members of native and incoming degen- 

 erate strains, with the appearance in later generations of manifold 

 defects, while the superior members have been accepted as partners by 

 the better native strains. The vital point here would seem to be, not 

 whether there has been amalgamation in a general sense, but what 

 sort of amalgamation has resulted. Heredity studies are showing 

 wide diversity in our native stocks, and it is a significant fact that, 

 with incoming strains, those of low potentiality inevitably amalgamate 

 with the lowest elements of our native population, while those of high 

 potentiality amalgamate with the better elements. 



