The Intelligence of Immigrants 



555 



under favorable circumstances. Favor- 

 able circumstances may be construed to 

 mean an opportunity to work at any 

 possible kind of labor which will bring 

 sufficient remuneration to supply food, 

 clothing and honie. It is easy to be 

 seen that the kind of labor and the 

 remuneration necessary for support will 

 depend very largely upon the character 

 of the living that is needed, that is to 

 say, the amount and quality of food, the 

 quality of clothing, and the kind of 

 domicile. One familiar with the require- 

 ments of the average immigrant will not 

 hesitate to admit that the conditions 

 under which he is willing to live are so 

 relatively simple that if he is willing to 

 work at all it is not difficult for him to 

 make a living. 



"The second clause of the definition 

 says that he is incapable ('because of 

 mental defect,' etc.) of competing on 

 equal terms with his normal fellows in 

 the struggle for existence. Again a 

 consideration of the immigrant's situa- 

 tion shows us that he, on the average, 

 does not have what is meant in the 

 definition by competition with his nor- 

 mal fellows. As a result of his early 

 training, and the conditions under which 

 he has lived in his own country he is 

 willing to do work that no one else will 

 do. There is therefore no competition, 

 properly speaking. 



"The last clause says that he is 

 incapable of managing his own affairs 

 with ordinary prudence. It is not at all 

 impossible that it is literally true that 

 the 40% do not manage their own 

 affairs with ordinary jDrudence. In 

 many cases the affairs are managed for 

 them, as surely and thoroughly as for 

 any group of dependents among us. 



"We may look at the problem from 

 another standpoint. The writer has 

 already suggested that the problem of 

 the care of morons might be solved if the 

 public could be educated to recognize 

 these people as morons, and to treat 

 them with that care and consideration 

 which their mental makeup requires. 

 Morons as a class, if taken early and 



2 For the difference between the "old immigration" and the "new immigration'' which 

 commenced just after the Spanish-American War, consult Salmon, Thomas W. "Immigration 

 and the Mixture of Races in Relation to the Mental Health of the Nation," Chapter vi of White & 

 Jelliffe. Modern Treatment of Nervous and Mental Diseases. Philadelphia, 1913. 



trained carefully and so kept from 

 becoming vicious and criminal, could be 

 successfully employed if the employer 

 understood them, and realizing that 

 they are children, excused their faults 

 and mistakes, was watchful of, and 

 patient with them. 



TREATMENT OF IMMIGRANTS 



"Now strangely enought it seems that 

 this is exactly what we often do for 

 the immigrant, not because he is a 

 moron but because he does not know 

 the customs of the country. He is 

 excused because he does not under- 

 stand the language. His every act 

 and movement is more or less closely 

 supervised because he is a foreigner. 

 In a large percentage of the cases he 

 goes at once, when he lands, to his own 

 group. They protect and care for him, 

 partly through racial pride, partly 

 through common humanity, extending 

 to him the care and oversight and 

 patience which we have just mentioned. 

 Contrast this with the intelligent, inde- 

 pendent immigrant ! 



"There are no statistics available to 

 prove or disprove the truth of these 

 theories, but certainly it cannot be 

 denied that this is literally true of a 

 great many immigrants. It will doubt- 

 less be said by some reader that this is a 

 libel upon the immigrant; that on the 

 contrary he is a keen, sharp, energetic 

 worker ; that much of our population has 

 been immigrant. It seems hardly neces- 

 sary to suggest in reply that we are only 

 speaking of 40% of the immigrants and 

 that, too, of the immigrants who come 

 in the steerage, whereas many immi- 

 grants come second class or even first, 

 and that those who make a success and 

 become prosperous citizens are the 

 ones we most often meet, whereas the 

 great mass are entirely beyond the ken of 

 the average citizen. He knows nothing 

 of them or how they live.^ It may be 

 but proper to add also that very few 

 people realize what the moron is. To 

 many people it is a simple formula; 

 moron means feeble-minded, feeble:- 



