IMMIGRATION AFTER THE WAR 



United States Faces Great Eugenic Problem — Passage of New Law to Regulate 

 Immigration Marks Great Advance — Essential Features of the Act^ 



Robert De C. Ward 

 Professor of Climatology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 



THERE is widespread anxiety con- 

 cerning the "dumping" of cheap 

 European goods on our markets 

 after the war is over. Of in- 

 finitely greater importance is the 

 "dumping" of cheap European labor 

 upon our shores after the war is over. 

 Goods from abroad concern pocket- 

 books only. Human beings from 

 abroad enter into our national life. 

 They contribute to the blood of the 

 future American people. They deter- 

 mine what our race is to be. It is 

 the cargoes of men, and women, and 

 children, not the cargoes of goods, 

 that are the real problem. 



We have reached a critical point in 

 our immigration policy. The war has 

 brought us suddenly face to face with 

 a great experiment in restriction. The 

 inflowing alien tide has, however, by 

 no means ceased altogether. During 

 the period since the war began roughly 

 about 1000 immigrants a day have 

 landed on our shores.^ One thousand 

 a day means over 300,000 a year. A 

 few decades ago, that was a large 

 annual . immigration. It only seems 

 small in comparison with the much 

 larger numbers — over a million a year — 

 who have recently been coming. Under 

 ordinary conditions, nearly three-quar- 

 ters of our immigrants are southern 

 and eastern Europeans, but during 

 the past two years the proportion from 

 the British Isles, Holland, Denmark, 

 the Scandinavian countries, from all 

 of which there has been a fairly regular 

 steamship service, has risen, while the 

 proportion from many of the countries 



of southern and eastern Europe, and 

 from Germany, has fallen. Italy has 

 kept on sending about her usual high 

 percentage. Greece, owing to the 

 threat of war, has jumped to a sur- 

 prisingly large figure. Spain and Por- 

 tugal have sent us many who are 

 fleeing from possible military service. 

 From the war-ravaged Balkans hun- 

 dreds of people have already come. 

 The flotsam and jetsam from the dis- 

 turbed conditions in Europe and Asia 

 Minor — the backwash of the war — - 

 has begun to find its way to our shores. 

 From Syria, from Turkey, from Ar- 

 menia, from Egypt, from Greece, from 

 Siberia, have come refugees — the first 

 trickles of the vast stream that will 

 flow here when the war is over. 



SENTIMENT NO SOLUTION 



When refugees from war-stricken 

 Europe are mentioned, there naturally 

 arises in our minds the thought: 

 "Is it right for us to prevent any of 

 these people from coming here? Is it 

 not un-American?" This question each 

 must answer for himself. My own 

 convictions are perfectly clear on the 

 matter. I do not believe that senti- 

 ment can solve great national problems. 

 I do not believe that the indiscriminate 

 kindness we may seem to be able to 

 show to some thousands, or hundreds 

 of thousands, or millions, of European 

 and Asiatic immigrants can in any 

 conceivable way counterbalance the 

 harm that these people may do our 

 race if large numbers of them are 

 mentally and physically unfit. 



^ This paper was read before the thirteenth annual meeting of the American Genetic Asso- 

 ciation, in New York City, Dec. 27, 1916. It has been considerably modified since the passage 

 of the Burnett A^ct. 



- This is true only up to February 1 of the present year. vSince the beginning of the new 

 German submarine campaign, immigration has fallen off much more. 



147 



