THE IMMIGRATION PROBLEM 
TODAY 
RosBert DE C. WARD 
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 
E ARE facing the most serious 
crisis which has ever arisen in the 
history of immigration to the 
United States. The facts in the present 
situation should be widely known. 
Without an intelligent understanding 
of the problem, no sound and con- 
structive immigration legislation can 
be framed. The essential facts are as 
follows. They are not exaggerated, and 
are all based on authoritative sources 
of information. 
First: The Rising Tide of Immigration 
As was to be expected, immigration 
has shown a tremendous increase dur- 
ing the past few months. Since July 1, 
1920, the alien arrivals at the port of 
New York alone have averaged about 
3000 a day. During the present calen- 
dar year the total has come close to 
1,000,000, approximating pre-war 
figures. And, as Commissioner 
F. A. Wallis, New York, has put it, 
“All records are going to be shattered 
from January on.” ‘‘Whole races of 
Europe are preparing to remove to the 
United States. Never since the early 
days of barbarian Europe has there 
been such a wholesale migration of 
population as that which is now in 
contemplation, with the United States 
as the destination.’ Considerably 
more than 1,000,000 aliens will come 
in 1921 unless we erect a barrier to cut 
down their numbers. On Nov. 15 last, 
more than 16,600 aliens were either at 
Ellis Island, or on ships in New York 
harbor awaiting inspection. On Dec. 
19, 12,000 came in on eight steamships. 
These are not unique cases. Incoming 
steamers are crowded to their utmost 
capacity. A group of steamship agents 
not long ago told Commissioner Wallis 
that immigration to the United States 
had barely started; that 15,000,000 
men, women and children, representing 
every nationality in Europe, are “‘fight- 
ing for passage to the United States.”’ 
These estimates take no account of the 
German immigration which, in the 
opinion of every competent authority, 
will start to come here as soon as the 
existing technical state of war is ter- 
minated. This German immigration 
is estimated at from 2,000,000 to 
10,000,000, with the balance of proba- 
bility in favor of the larger figures. 
Surgeon-General H. S. Cumming, of 
the U. S. Public Health Service, has 
expressed it as his view that at least 
7,000,000 people are trying to get here 
from European and Asiatic countries 
where serious epidemic diseases are 
rampant. In the opinion of Commis- 
sioner Wallis, as stated before the 
Senate Immigration Committee on 
Jan. 5, 1921, Eastern Europe ‘‘is in the 
grip of four epidemics—typhus, ty- 
phoid, dysentery and tuberculosis.” 
The war has undermined the health of 
the natives of those countries, and such 
immigrants are ‘‘dangerous to the public 
health of the United States.”’ 
Such a situation has never before 
confronted us. This is not ‘‘normal” 
immigration. It is a frenzy, a panic, a 
stampede, a mob, without calculation, 
without sound judgment; a seething 
mass of humanity with but one idea— 
America. 
Second: The Undesirable Character of 
the Impending Immigration 
The most recent, unprejudiced and 
authoritative reports on the general 
conditions of the aliens who are plan- 
ning to come to this country are those 
received by the Consular Service of the 
Department of State, from officers of 
this Government who have personally 
visited the various countries abroad. 
Qo) 
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