326 
Ellis Island, to urge upon the Commis- 
sioner of Immigration there the impor- 
tance of sending the new arrivals to the 
farming districts, in order that the 
cities from which these delegations 
came may not be further burdened with 
great numbers of new immigrants. 
The Federal authorities are said to be 
doing what they can to “distribute” 
as many aliens as possible. But, as 
President Roosevelt well said in one 
of his messages to Congress, “‘distri- 
bution is a palliative, not acure.’’ Even 
if many thousands of aliens were ac- 
tually ‘“‘distributed’”’ where there is a 
lack of farm laborers, the majority of 
them would not be effective. What our 
great farming districts need is highly 
intelligent labor. They want men who 
are skilled in American farming meth- 
ods. They want men who can manage 
modern agricultural machinery. They 
do not want ignorant, unskilled, non- 
English-speaking foreigners, who know 
little beyond the use of a primitive 
kind of hoe. The writer has talked 
with many men who own large farms 
in the Middle West, and he has found 
them of one mind on this matter. 
It is highly significant that at the 
40th Annual Session of the Farmers’ 
National Congress, held at Columbus, 
Ohio, with delegates from over 30 
States in attendance, the following 
resolution was unanimously adopted 
(Nov. 19, 1920): ‘‘Resolved, That we 
are unalterably opposed to the pro- 
posed diversion and distribution of 
aliens over the farming districts until 
immigration is rigidly restricted, nu- 
merically or otherwise.”’ 
Sixth:.A Large Immigration Vastly In- 
creases and Complicates Our Task 
of Americanization 
The sudden outburst of patriotic 
desire to Americanize our unassimi- 
lated alien population was a direct re- 
sult of the war. The nation came all 
at once to realize how vitally necessary 
it is to weld our heterogeneous popula- 
tion into a more homogeneous whole. 
The problem of illiteracy among our 
native-born, serious enough itself, has 
been very greatly complicated by 
The Journal of Heredity 
allowing millions of aliens who cannot 
speak, or understand, or read English 
to land on our shores. The first stage 
in making Americans out of our for- 
eign-born population must be to give 
them a speaking and reading knowledge 
of English. There is a limit to our 
national power of assimilation. To 
allow immigration to continue in the 
years to come at its prewar rate, or at 
what will doubtless be an even higher 
rate, is like trying to keep a boat 
bailed out without stopping the leak. 
A further restriction of immigration 
is a necessary and logical part of the 
Americanization program. 
One of the most significant state- 
ments regarding the bearing of recent 
immigration upon the general problems 
of assimilation and of Americanization 
was that made by the November Grand 
Jury of King’s County, N. Y. This 
body, on Dec. 3, 1920, handed to 
County Judge May a presentment urg- 
ing legislation by Congress to “‘pro- 
hibit the immigration into this country 
of all who cannot read and write Eng- 
lish and who do not possess an intelli- 
gent understanding of the fundamental 
ideas of human liberty.” 
“The stream of our national life,” the 
presentment continued, “‘cannot rise 
higher than its source. To permit any 
further pollution of this stream is to 
intensify both our foreign as well as our 
domestic problems. It will foster dis- 
union, instead of promoting union. 
Instead of continuing as a nation of 
high ideals, we shall degenerate into 
a mere medley of races, a hodgepodge 
of nationalities.” 
These are strong words, but every- 
one who has studied our national and 
municipal problems knows that they 
are true. 
Seventh: The Ethics of Immigration 
Restriction 
When refugees from war-stricken 
Europe are mentioned, there naturally 
arises in our minds the thought, ‘“‘Is it 
right for us to prevent any of these 
people from coming here? Is it not 
un-American; contrary to our ‘tradi- 
tional’ policy of providing ‘a refuge 
