324 
This evidence is embodied, in a con- 
densed form, in Report No. 1109, 66th 
Congress, 3rd Session (Dec. 6, 1920), 
submitted from the Committee on 
Immigration and Naturalization, to 
accompany House Bill No. 14461. 
It is clear that a majority of these 
prospective immigrants are ‘‘physi- 
cally deficient’’; ‘‘mentally deficient’’; 
“economically undesirable’; ‘‘socially 
undesirable’; of low standards of 
living, “‘not of the most desirable 
class.” 
In the light of these reports by 
United States Consular Officers, the 
House Immigration Committee is cer- 
tainly stating the case very mildly 
when it says in its own report: ‘“The 
Committee is confirmed in the belief 
that the major portion of recent ar- 
rivals come without funds. It was 
apparent to the Committee that a 
large percentage of those arriving 
were incapable of earninga livelihood. 
-...A study of the new immigra- 
tion from Central Europe convinced 
many members of the Immigration 
Committee that the arriving immi- 
grants are not those who might go to 
farms; that they are not agricultur- 
ists, but mainly additional population 
for our principal coastal cities and 
congested industrial districts.” 
On this same point, the following 
statement from a foreign correspondent 
of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, in a 
cablegram dated Warsaw, Dec. 11, 
1920, may be quoted: 
“The most extraordinary, hopeless, 
destitute and pathetic emigration 
which the world has known now is 
making its way to America, the prom- 
ised land, through Poland from as 
far east as Kief, and from the Russian 
territory north and east of the Black 
Sea. Even from Georgia, masses of 
poor, disease-laden people are making 
their way to America. 
“Within three weeks, 150,000 have 
reached the Warsaw territory. This 
is only a beginning. Unfortunately, 
Bolshevist agitators and Communists 
are with the majority of the hordes and 
are confident that in the general con- 
fusion they will be able to get into 
The Journal of Heredity 
America, where they propose to spread 
propaganda. 
“American citizens in Warsaw are 
distressed and alarmed over the char- 
acter of the immigration. . . . 
“The Warsaw government has pro- 
tested to the American consulate that 
the gathering of people in Warsaw is 
creating a dangerous health condition, 
asking that steps be taken to correct 
the conditions. The American officials 
have no power to check the Russian 
flood to Poland.” 
A recent writer has said: “Ignorant 
of our language, of our laws and in- 
stitutions, of our industrial and agri- 
cultural methods, what would this 
seething mass of wretchedness do if 
dumped on our shores? What but 
add to its woes and our own? How 
could we make room for it? How 
educate it? How fit it for any part 
in our scheme?” 
Third: The Impossibility of Adequate 
Inspection 
At best, during slack immigration, 
our inspection of incoming aliens is 
none too effective. Now, with the 
flood of immigration, medical and 
general inspection is hopelessly inade- 
quate. Our laws for the exclusion of 
insane, idiotic, imbecile, feeble-minded 
and diseased immigrants are excellent, 
on paper. But when aliens file past 
the inspectors with more or less of the 
speed at which a line of people at a 
railroad station files by a ticket-window 
it is clear that most cases of mental and 
many of physical deficiency get by. 
The need of more “‘hands’’ to do our 
labor is constantly being urged. 
“Hands across the sea’’ are the cheap- 
est, so we importthem. Letusnotfor- 
get that we are importing not ‘‘hands’”’ 
alone but bodies and hereditary ten- 
dencies also. It is of vital consequence 
that the quality of these human beings 
who come to us from other lands 
should be of the best, so that they shall 
not injure but shall improve our stock. 
Every day that passes witnesses the 
landing on our shores of many aliens 
whose coming here is absolutely cer- 
tain to result in a deterioration of the 
