26 



The Journal of Heredity 



interest in this subject, and its obvious 

 importance as a factor in national well- 

 being, that no data are available by 

 which the degree or extent of the 'melt- 

 ing' or racial fusion can be measured 

 on a national scale." 



In spite of the lack of accurate infor- 

 mation or probably because of it there 

 is a general belief that the immigrants 

 are not being absorbed and are remain- 

 ing, in restricted colonies, essentially 

 foreigners. Pearl's analysis of the 

 Census data for the Birth Registration 

 Area leads him to the opposite con- 

 clusion. "That newly arrived foreign- 

 ers rather speedily fuse effectively with 

 the stocks already here, to a degree 

 much greater than is presupposed, at 

 least in most popular discussions of the 

 subject of immigration and related 

 matters." 



"For the entire Birth Registration 

 Area the percentage of amalgamation 

 or fusion of foreign-born stocks with 

 native-born as compared with racially 

 like effective matings of all sorts is just 

 under 11.5 per cent. That is, for about 

 every ten effective marriages in which 

 the partners were of like nativity there 

 was one in which one partner was of 

 American and the other of foreign 

 nativity. On the whole this appears a 

 reasonably large proportion, when one 

 considers inherent prejudices which 

 must be overcome before such marriages 

 can occur. Of course one realizes fully 

 that some unknown, but certainly 

 significant proportion of this American 

 X foreign-born cross matings really 

 are not racially cross at all but like, one 

 partner merely having been born in the 

 United States. But fully granting this, 

 there are two further points to be noted, 

 namely: first, that American birth and 

 upbringing to marrying age tend to 

 create a considerable measure of anti- 

 pathy or prejudice towards the more 

 recent immigrants of the same race. 

 In making this statement the writer 

 relies upon his own personal observa- 

 tions of foreign stocks in this country. 

 In many cases the American-born 

 child of foreign parents desires passion- 

 ately to be a 'pure American,' to slough 

 off and forget the attributes which 



characterize, as he or she thinks the 

 'wop' using this in a generic term of 

 disparagement for the foreigner." 



"In the second place it must be re- 

 membered that in 816,546 effective 

 marriages of native-born there are 

 many racially unlike matings. In three 

 states, Massachusetts, New York and 

 Connecticut, there were actually in 

 1919 as many or more matings in which 

 both parents were foreign-born as there 

 were where both parents were native- 

 born, and in New Hampshire, Pennsyl- 

 vania and Maine, the effective foreign 

 X foreign matings were more than half 

 as numerous as the effective native X 

 native matings. There can be no 

 doubt that in these six states the less 

 Americanized elements are multiplying 

 too fast in proportion to the more 

 Americanized elements." 



Many students will take issue with 

 the author's statement that the Ameri- 

 can-born persons of foreign parents 

 have an antipathy toward marrying 

 recent immigrants of the same race. 

 This hardly can be considered as a 

 prevailing sentiment in those sections 

 where large foreign colonies predomi- 

 nate. Dr. Pearl's observation seem- 

 ingly would apply only to those regions 

 where the relative number of foreign 

 whites was small. The degree of error 

 arising from this source may be negli- 

 gible but the lack of available data 

 precludes its determination. While it 

 is true that in the United States X 

 United States group there are many 

 racial crosses, it is equally true that in 

 this same group there are many more 

 crosses between members of the same 

 foreign race which, from the narrow 

 genetic standpoint of race amalgama- 

 tion, are just as pure racially as if their 

 parents had been born abroad. 



But this source of error is discounted 

 by the author who reasons that 

 the only definition of an American is 

 that of nativity. "An American is a 

 person born in the United States [with 

 apologies to the Canadians]. The only 

 racially pure American is the Amerind. 

 I can not see logically but that a person 

 born in the United States in 1920 has 

 just as much right to call himself an 



