70 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



inces. Their fair complexion, long face and clear-cut features make 

 them readily distinguishable from the Slavs, whose squat figures and 

 wide faces are accentuated by the contrast. Their language is very old 

 and primitive and is said to resemble Sanskrit so closely that Lithu- 

 anian peasants can understand Sanskrit phrases. Their written liter- 

 ature is very scanty, but their unwritten popular folk-lore is rich in 

 idyllic and lyric songs and poetry of a pastoral variety and melancholy 

 tone. They are very proud of their ancestry and resent being con- 

 sidered Slavs. They claim with pride that most of Poland's great 

 men, Kosciusko, Chodkiewicz, Sienkewicz and others were Lithuanians. 

 Their occupation is agriculture. The land owners have always been 

 Polish or German and business is carried on by Jews and Germans. 



Few words are necessary to convince one of the desirability of the 

 Eussian-German. He has the industry, thrift and sterling honesty 

 that have made his brother Germans from the Fatherland welcome 

 and successful in this country. He is a picturesque figure clad in 

 sheepskin garments, which add to his appearance of splendid physique. 

 He represents the best type of the agricultural immigrant who comes 

 here to make a home in the far west with the necessary money in his 

 pocket to buy land and give him his start. 



The Finns are also an agricultural or pastoral people, and if they 

 possess less money than the Russian-Germans their sturdy physique 

 and willingness to work make their success certain in this country. 

 They work on farms in the northern central states and have been valu- 

 able as laborers in the development of the mines of northern Michigan 

 and Wisconsin. The ability of the Finns to withstand the rigors of 

 a northern climate, and their well-known thrift and industry, have 

 suggested the possibility of their being valuable in the agricultural 

 and mining development of Alaska. A colony of Finns in Canada 

 has been very successful in wheat raising on the shores of Great Slave 

 Lake, a latitude once considered scarcelv habitable for white men. 



The Lithuanians are also agricultural or pastoral in occupation, 

 but in this country are largely employed as laborers in the mines of 

 Pennsylvania and other mining states. Their rugged physique fits 

 them for this rough work, and so long as the industrial demand for 

 unskilled labor keeps up so long will the Lithuanian be valuable as 

 the best type of this class of immigrants. 



A careful study of the statistics of immigration and of economic 

 and social conditions in this country/ will convince any one that there 

 is little to fear from such races as the Eussian-German, Finn and 

 Lithuanian properly inspected under our present laws ; and that future 

 legislation aiming to cut down the number of undesirable immigrants 

 must be directed toward debarring the competitive and parasitic classes 

 which now crowd our great cities. 



