238 FOPULAB SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



hard manual lal)or. The wording of the law should be definite enough 

 to make the medical certificate of jjoor physique equivalent to deporta- 

 tion. 



This requirement of a definite physical standard in immigrants 

 could be exacted without undue hardship of all unmarried male immi- 

 grants within certain age limits, for instance eighteen to forty-five. In 

 regard to families, comprising women, children and old men, in addi- 

 tion to males between the ages of eighteen and forty-five, each family 

 should be required to have at least one member constituting its chief 

 support who could comply with the physical requirements of the law. 

 The law need not apply to parents coming here to join their children, 

 provided the children had established a home here and presented evi- 

 dence of ability to care properly for their parents. 



If the thousands of recruits for the sweat-shop army which arrive 

 each year could be thus checked for ten years, the present existing tene- 

 ment house problem would solve itself. The terrible congestion of the 

 tenements would be relieved ; the scale of wages for the sweat-shop 

 worker would be elevated, and the general sanitary conditions of life 

 in such districts as the Lower East Side, New York City, could be 

 improved sufficiently to reduce the menace to the public health from 

 this cause to a minimum. 



