Cofer: Eugenics and Immigration 



173 



diseased conditions which do not pre- 

 sent in the opinion of the medical 

 examiner requirements for certification 

 under Classes A and B. In other words, 

 Class C is intended to make a complete 

 cheek as to the physical status of an 

 immigrant. For instance, if an immi- 

 grant is found to be perfectly sound 

 with the exception of the absence of 

 two fingers on his left hand, the condi- 

 tion would be considered a reportable 

 one, but not a deportable one. 



WORK IS ONEROUS. 



Now a word as to what it means to 

 examine physically the aliens entering 

 the United States from foreign coun- 

 tries: During the fiscal year just 

 passed 94 officers of the Public Health 

 Service have been assigned exclusively 

 to the work of examining arriving aliens, 

 and in addition to this a number of 

 officers, although detailed to other duty, 

 have given more or less of their time to 

 the work under consideration. 



The results of this examination, which 

 constitutes the practice of eugenics in 

 connection with immigration, are as 

 follows: In the fiscal year just passed, 

 of the 1,485,957 aliens arriving, a total 

 of 41,250 were certified for all causes, 

 of which 3,051 were for trachoma alone; 

 184 for tuberculosis; 1,040 for syphilis; 

 157 for gonorrhea and 1,360 for mental 

 deficiency of various kinds. During the 

 last six years, of the 7,544,452 immi- 

 grants arriving, a total of 179,557 have 

 been certified, of which 15,971 were 

 certified for trachoma (a dangerous, 

 contagious eye disease) ; 1,408 for tuber- 

 culosis; 1,537 for syphilis; 924 for 

 gonorrhea, and 3,788 for mental de- 

 ficiency of various kinds. 



It is evident that eugenics along the 

 lines above mentioned does not attempt 

 directly to produce the more fit, but it 

 does actually prevent the entry of 

 an enormous percentage of the unfit, 

 as will be seen by the following statis- 

 tics. The reports of immigrants arriving 

 during the fiscal year ending June 30, 

 1914, show that of the total number, 

 1,485,957, there were 313,475 women 

 between the ages of 14 and 44, and that 

 there were 668,217 males between these 

 ages. Statistics also show that the 



percentage of childless women among 

 immigrants is never higher than 20% 

 in some nationalities, and is as low as 

 2.5% in other nationalities; also that 

 the child-bearing immigrant women 

 bear from 2.4 to 5.5 children, the 

 average being about 4 children for each 

 child-bearing woman. It is furthermore 

 a general rule that women in the rural 

 communities bear more children than 

 the women in the cities. If from the 

 total number of women arriving in the 

 last fiscal year 20% is deducted as non- 

 child-bearing (which, while by no means 

 fair and accurate for the purpose under 

 consideration, will all the more show 

 the value of our eugenic work) 250,780 

 women will be left who, according to 

 statistics, will bear an average of four 

 children each, making a total of about 

 1,000,000 children destined to be born 

 from the immigrant women arriving 

 last year. 



It will be seen that by the rejection 

 alone of the 1,360 mental defectives last 

 year an enormous amount of good has 

 been done in preventing births amongst 

 this class of persons. The same may 

 be said in regard to the prevention of 

 propagation amongst the immigrants 

 rejected for the other diseases men- 

 tioned, most of which have a distinct 

 tendency towards producing inferiority 

 in offspring. It is manifestly impossible 

 to determine the good results of this 

 examination, and therefore its eugenic 

 value to the country, but there are 

 some facts which will show that the 

 medical examination of immigrants and 

 the rejection of the physical and mental 

 defectives is producing invaluable re- 

 sults. For example, no satisfactory 

 evidence has yet been produced to 

 show that immigration has resulted in 

 an increase in crime disproportionate 

 to the increase in adult population. 

 Such comparable statistics of crime and 

 population as it has been possible to 

 obtain indicate that immigrants are 

 less prone to commit crime than are 

 native Americans, a fact which is a 

 distinct tribute to the good work being 

 done by the immigration officers along 

 the line of preventing to a great extent 

 the landing of immigrants from the 

 criminal classes. 



