Ward: The Immigration Problem Today 
for the oppressed?’ ’’ Sentiment can 
never solve great national problems. 
The indiscriminate kindness which we 
may seem to be able to show to the 
coming millions of European and 
Asiatic immigrants can in no conceiv- 
able way counter-balance the harm 
that these people may do to our race, 
especially if large numbers of them are 
mentally and physically unfit. 
Indiscriminate hospitality to immi- 
grants is a supremely short-sighted, 
selfish, ungenerous, un-American _pol- 
icy. It may give some of us, for 
the moment, a comfortable feeling that 
we are providing a ‘“‘refuge for the 
oppressed.”’ But that is as narrow a 
state of mind as that which indiscrimi- 
nately gives alms to any person on the 
street who asks for money. Such 
“charity’’ may, truly, produce a warm 
feeling of personal generosity in the 
giver himself. But alms-giving of this 
sort does more harm than good. It is 
likely to pauperize him who receives, 
and it inevitably increases the burden 
of pauperism which future generations 
will have to bear. We have no right to 
saddle any additional burdens upon the 
already overburdened coming genera- 
tions of Americans. It is in the highest 
degree un-American for us to permit 
any such influx of alien immigrants as 
will make the process of assimilation 
and amalgamation of our foreign popu- 
lation any more difficult than it already 
is. The situation is discouraging 
enough already. 
Our policy of admitting freely practi- 
cally all who have wished to come, and 
of encouraging them in every possible 
way to come, has not only tremen- 
dously complicated all our own national 
problems but has not helped the intro- 
duction of political, social, economic 
and educational reforms abroad. In- 
deed, it has rather delayed the progress 
of these very movements in which we, 
as Americans, are so vitally interested. 
Had the millions of immigrants who 
have come to us within the last quarter- 
century remained at home, they would 
have insisted on the introduction of 
reforms in their own countries which 
have been delayed, decade after decade, 
327 
because the discontent of Europe found 
a safety-valve by flying to America. 
We are constantly told by our idealists 
that the ‘“‘cream’’ and the “pick’’ of 
Europe has been coming here because 
it is discontented at home; because 
it wants political and religious and 
economic liberty; because it wants edu- 
cation, and better living conditions, 
and democratic institutions. Have we 
in any way really helped the progress 
of these reforms by keeping the safety- 
valve open? By allowing the dis- 
contented millions of Europe and of 
Asia to come here now, are we likely to 
hasten, or to delay, the coming of polit- 
ical and social reforms in Armenia, 
in Russia, in Turkey? Our duty as 
Americans, interested in the world-wide 
progress of education, of religious 
liberty, of democratic institutions, is 
to do everything in our power to pre- 
serve our own institutions intact, and 
at the same time to help the discon- 
tented millions of Europe and of Asia 
to stay in their own countries; to 
shoulder their own responsibilities; to 
work out there, for themselves, what 
our own forefathers worked out here, 
for us and for our children. 
Eighth: The Necessity for Further 
Restrictive Legislation 
Our existing general immigration law 
was never designed to meet the present 
emergency. It is a selective, rather 
than a restrictive, measure. When it 
was enacted it was thought sufficient. 
But now the whole situation has 
changed. From all sorts and condi- 
tions of people, the country over, 
comes a strong and increasingly vehe- 
ment demand for further legislation 
which shall effectively cut down the 
alien invasion which threatens us. 
Opposition to further legislation is 
limited to certain racial groups which 
are chiefly interested, not in the future 
of America but in the future of their 
racein America; to exploiters of ‘‘cheap 
labor,’’ and to those who have been well 
termed ‘‘the incurable sentimentalists.”’ 
The House of Representatives, in 
December, passed a bill which has 
been widely, and most inaccurately, 
