IMMIGRATION AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH. 237 



Side tenement in Kew York City. The Mediterranean races, Syrians, 

 Greeks and southern Italians, who are nnused to a cold climate, and 

 who often have insufficient clothing, also establish in their crowded 

 'quarters' splendid foci for the dissemination of disease. The Hebrews, 

 Syrians, Greeks and southern Italians, invariably crowd the most 

 insanitary quarters of the great centers of population. And the 

 various filthy and infected, though perhaps picturesque, foreign 

 'quarters' constitute to-day the greatest existing menace to the public 

 health. 



There are many view points from which our immigrant problem 

 may be judged. There are extremists who advocate the impossible 

 — the complete exclusion of all immigrants, or the complete exclusion 

 of certain races. There are other extremists who pose as humanitarians 

 and philanthropists and who advocate an act of lunacy — removing all 

 restrictions and admitting all the unfortunate — the lame, the halt, 

 the blind and the morally and physically diseased — without let or 

 hindrance. Neither of these extreme positions is tenable. The 

 debarring of all immigrants, or the unjust discrimination against 

 any particular race, is illogical, bigoted and un-American. On the 

 other hand, the indiscriminate admission of a horde of diseased, de- 

 fective and destitute immigrants would be a crime against the body 

 politic which could not be justified by false pretense of humanity or a 

 mistaken spirit of philanthropy. 



The sane, logical position must fall between these two extremes. 

 It is necessary for us to restrict and debar, if possible, all undesirable 

 immigrants. A jealous regard for the public weal may demand meas- 

 ures and standards which seem to the humanitarian and philanthropist 

 selfish and inhuman ; but charity begins at home, and it is the" right 

 of Americans to exclude the undesirable and to employ whatever 

 measures and set whatever standards may seem necessary to exclude 

 any class which menaces the social or physical welfare of the country. 



If we debar any undesirable class of immigrants under the law, we 

 should endeavor to make the law as nearly perfect as possible and debar 

 all undesirable classes. We debar the immigrant with trachoma, 

 syphilis, leprosy or favus; also the insane, the epileptic and the idiotic, 

 but we admit the immigrant with poor physique, unless it is so marked 

 as to make him undeniably a public charge. 



There should be but one standard of physique for the immigrant, 

 no matter whether his destination be the Pennsylvania mines or the 

 New York sweat-shops. The skilled laborer should be expected to 

 possess the same rugged physique as is now expected of the unskilled 

 laborer. The standard should be fixed by law by comparison with 

 other well-recognized standards of physique, and should be sufficiently 

 high to exclude all who could not beyond doubt make a living at 



