The Tide of Immigration 
with a low standard of living. With 
prosperity and the example of Ameri- 
cans, he gradually adopts a higher 
standard of living; and just at that 
time his industry is swamped with a 
new flood of immigrants with lower 
standards, which drags down those who 
would otherwise rise. Such is one view 
of the case; others reply that, on the 
contrary, the influx of unskilled labor 
creates industries which mean more 
wealth and better jobs for the earlier 
arrivals, and for the old American stock. 
ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES 
Obviously, the ultimate effects of 
immigration depend largely on the 
question which of these views is more 
nearly correct. It is a question of 
whether the Americans and older immi- 
grants must directly compete for jobs 
with the new arrivals, or whether the 
new arrivals, although competing with 
each other, really furnish jobs for the 
longer-established and more skilled resi- 
dents of the country. Truth is doubt- 
less to be found on both sides, but 
Dr. Warne leans to the first view, and 
cites the Immigration Commission, 
among other authorities, in his support. 
Prof. H. P. Fairchild of Yale is quoted as 
follows: 
“It is claimed that the natives are 
not displaced, but are simply forced into 
higher occupations. Those who were 
formerly common laborers are now in 
positions of authority. While this argu- 
ment holds true of individuals, its 
fallacy when applied to groups is obvi- 
ous. There are not nearly enough 
places.of authority to receive those who 
are forced out from below. The intro- 
duction of 500 Slav laborers into a 
community may make a demand for a 
dozen or a score of Americans in higher 
positions, but hardly for 500. Further- 
more, in so far as this process does 
actually take place, it must result in a 
lowering of the native birth rate, for 
it is a well-known fact that in all 
modern societies, the higher the social 
class, the smaller is the average family.” 
Prof. Jeremiah W. Jenks, formerly a 
member of the Immigration Commis- 
543 
sion, wrote to President Taft that ‘“The 
number of unskilled workers coming in 
at the present time is sufficient to check 
decidedly the normal tendency toward 
an improved standard of living in many 
lines of industry. Figures col- 
lected by the Immigration Commission, 
from a sufficient number of industries in 
different sections of the country to give 
general conclusions, prove beyond doubt 
that in a good many cases these incoming 
immigrants actually drive out into other 
localities and into other unskilled trades 
large numbers of American workingmen 
and workingmen of the earlier immigra- 
tion who do not get better positions but 
rather, worse ones.” 
With this standpoint, Dr. Warne 
concludes, “‘ We must consciously realize 
that it 1s not conducive to the success 
of American democracy that the native 
worker should be content with a stand- 
ard of living as low as that of the 
[present] immigrant. This American 
is more than an industrial toiler; he is a 
citizen; also, he is a husband and a 
father. His wants are naturally greater 
in number and these he can satisfy only 
through wages. He is subject to in- 
escapable pressure from all those social, 
religious, political, educational, and 
economic forces which are back of that 
constant tendency so noticeable in the 
United States for the standard of living 
of the people to increase. The wages 
of the native worker should be released 
sufficiently from the competition of the 
immigrant to permit that elasticity 
which keeps wages within promising dis- 
tance of the standard of living. This can 
be influenced in part through better gov- 
ernmental regulation of the volume of 
immigration.” 
INCREASING THE BIRTH RATE 
The conclusion is worth emphasizing 
because, if well founded, it has an im- 
portant bearing on eugenics... It is 
pretty well recognized now that the low 
birth rate among the most useful and 
enlightened classes is principally eco- 
nomic in origin, and that it is useless to 
try to get people to have children if 
they cannot afford it. Any successful 
