Ward: Immigration After the War 



149 



likcl>- to paujierizc him who receives, 

 and it inevitabh' increases the burden 

 of paui^eri.-m and of inefficiency which 

 future generations will have to bear. 

 It is in the highest degree ungenerous 

 for us, who are the custodians of the 

 future heritage of our race, to permit 

 to land on our shores mental and 

 physical defectives, who, themselves 

 and through their descendants, will 

 lower the mental and physical standards 

 of our own people, and will tremen- 

 dously increase all our future problems 

 of public and private philanthropy. 

 We have no right to saddle any addi- 

 tional burdens upon the already over- 

 burdened coming generations of Ameri- 

 cans. It is in the highest degree 

 un-American for us to permit any such 

 influx of alien immigrants as will make 

 the process of assimilation and of 

 amalgamation of our foreign popula- 

 tion any more difficult than it already 

 is. We all know that the situation is 

 discouraging enough already. I am 

 satisfied that our policy of admitting 

 freely practically all who have wished 

 to come, and of encouraging them in 

 every way to come, has not helped the 

 introduction of political, and social, 

 and economic, and educational reforms 

 abroad, but has rather delayed the 

 progress of these very movements, in 

 which we, as Americans, are so vitally 

 interested. Had the millions of Euro- 

 pean immigrants w4io have come to 

 this country wathin the last quarter- 

 century remained at home, they would 

 have insisted on the introduction of 

 reforms in their own countries which 

 have been delayed, decade after decade, 

 because the discontent of Evirope found 

 a safety-valve by flying to America. 

 We are constantly told by our idealists 

 that the "cream" and the "pick" of 

 Europe has been coming here because 

 it is discontented at home; because it 

 wants political and religious and eco- 

 nomic liberty; because it wants educa- 

 tion, and better living conditions, and 

 democratic institutions. Have we, in 

 any wa}', helped the progress of all 

 these reforms by keeping the safety- 

 valve open? By allowing and by en- 

 couraging to come here, after the war, 

 the discontented millions of Europe 



and Asia, are we likely to hasten, or to 

 delay, the coming of political and relig- 

 ious and social reforms in Armenia, 

 in Syria, in Hungary, in Poland, in 

 Russia, in Turkey? As I see it, and 

 my conviction is perfectly clear on 

 this point, our duty as Americans, 

 interested in the world-wide progress 

 of education, of religious liberty, of 

 democratic institutions, is to help the 

 discontented millions of Europe and 

 of Asia to stay in .their own countries, 

 and to work out there, for themselves, 

 what our own forefathers worked out 

 here for us. That would be the great- 

 est contribution we could make to the 

 progress and preservation of American 

 ideals. 



THE EUGENIC PROBLEM 



We are, however, not here concerned 

 with the economic or with the political 

 aspects of immigration. Our problem 

 has to do with the mental and phvsical 

 condition of those who are coming here, 

 and especially of those who will come 

 when the war is over. Our immediate, 

 paramount interest is eugenic. 



The marked reduction in the numbers 

 of our alien arrivals since the war 

 began has had both direct and indirect 

 consequences of eugenic importance. 

 How^ever large may have been the pro- 

 portion of mentally and physically 

 undesirable aliens who have been ad- 

 mitted to the United States since the 

 war began, it is certain that the total 

 number of defectives who have been 

 landed has been smaller than during 

 a "rush year." This has lessened the 

 supply of new cases of mental and 

 physical disability for us to take care 

 of. It has, temporarily at least, dimin- 

 ished some of the pressure upon our 

 institutions. It has enabled us to do 

 better work for those who are already 

 here. With the pressure which comes 

 from the usual enormous inflow of 

 aliens somewhat relieved, all our prob- 

 lems of public and private philan- 

 thropy have been immensely simplified. 

 Our financial burdens have been light- 

 ened. We have, for the time being, 

 had a little breathing-space. What a 

 feeling of relief all of us would experi- 

 ence if we could be sure that no more 



