268 



The Journal of Heredity 



than in these army returns. It is clear, 

 as special students of immigration have 

 long asserted, that the South Italians,^ 

 Poles, and Russians who have been im- 

 ported in such large quantities during 

 the past few decades, to furnish 

 American industry with cheap manual 

 labor, represent an extremely inferior 

 racial contribution, measured by exist- 

 ing American standards. 



It is not intended to suggest that the 

 immigrants, here described, are fairly 

 representative of their parent popula- 

 tions. It is probable that they are not: 

 but such an admission does not mitigate 

 the seriousness of the situation, eugen- 

 ically. Whether the United States 

 has become the dumping ground for the 

 representative individuals of an inferior 

 nation, or for the dregs of a superior 

 nation, the effect on this side of the 

 Atlantic is equally unfortunate. 



As the figures on which some of these 

 averages are based are small, amount- 

 ing in the cases of Holland and Belgium 

 to little more than a hundred each, 

 it would be a mistake to lay too much 

 stress on the exact ranking given. But 

 if only the broad general outlines are 

 considered, it cannot be believed that 

 multiplying the data a hundredfold 

 would alter the situation. It is not 

 conceivable that the predominantly 

 Nordic countries, which now stand at 

 the head of the list, would be dis- 

 placed by the Slavs and Latins who 

 stand so far down at the foot. 



It would be interesting to know how 

 far the contingent ascribed to Russia 

 represents Russian Jews. Presumably 

 a large part of it must be made up of 

 the Russian Jewish immigration of the 

 last 30 years. It has often been as- 

 sumed that the Jews as a race are 

 superior to the average in intelligence. 

 If such an assumption were verifiable 

 in these figures, it would leave the 

 non-Jewish Russians in this contin- 

 gent in a highly unfavorable light. 



Of the foreign-born draftees here 

 studied, approximately 70% had come 

 to the United States within 10 years 

 of registration. When the foreign- 

 born were divided into classes, de- 

 pending on the length of time they had 

 been in this country, it was found that 

 apparently "the group that has been 

 longer resident in this country does 

 somewhat better in intelligence exami- 

 nations." 



This might be interpreted in a num- 

 ber of ways — evidence on all of them 

 being lacking. It might be that the 

 more intelligent immigrants succeed 

 and therefore remain here while the 

 failures go back home. But since 

 some of the successful immigrants, 

 those who make money, also return 

 home, this hypothesis is uncertain. 



Again, it might be that longer resi- 

 dence means greater familiarity with the 

 English language, and hence greater 

 success in the tests. This is largely 

 negatived by the fact that a large 

 proportion of the foreign-born — 

 namely, all those who seemed to require 

 it — were given special tests which were 

 little dependent on the ability to 

 understand English. 



Or it may be that the more intelli- 

 gent young immigrants were those who, 

 in 1914 or shortly thereafter, volun- 

 tarily went back to their old homes 

 to answer the call to arms. This may 

 account in some small degree for the 

 observed differences. 



But when all considerations are 

 balanced, it seems to me likely a priori, 

 that the difference here shown is to a 

 marked extent one of difference in 

 the inherent quality of the immi- 

 grants. There are many independent 

 grounds for reaching the conclusion 

 which these figures suggest, that the 

 quality of immigrants to the United 

 States has become poorer, year after 

 year. The first tide of Russian exiles, 

 who came to the "land of the free" 



■''The low standard of recent Italian immigrants, here shown, is not a novel finding: it is 

 confirmed by other investigators. See for example the figures published by A. H. Arlitt (in 

 McDougall, W., Is America Safe for Democracy?, pp. 63-4, N. Y., 1921) and by L. M. Terman, in 

 The Intelligence of School Children, p. 56, N. Y., 1919. In Miss Arlitt's study, all American school 

 children grouped together ga\e an 1. (J. of 106, while the Italians gave 84 and 5segroes (mulattoes?) 

 83. Dr. Terman's figures are almost identical. 



