i6 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [vol. x 



peoples in Groups i. and ii., the fall in their birth-rate would have re- 

 sulted in their replacement by people similar in ideas and outlook, 

 similar in blood and tradition and religion, and often the same in lan- 

 guage as themselves. As it is, they have, by this artificial means, been 

 replaced to a greater extent than was necessary, by the people least 

 quickly assimilated, differing most widely from them in all their qualities. 

 This has increased the difficulties of every problem that they have to 

 face; and it will not be forgotten by their children's children. 



For us, the history of the United States may serve as a stimulus 

 and as a warning. We may never rival their achievements; in the light 

 of their experience we may sometimes avoid their great mistakes. In 

 this case we have more at stake than they. In no single year has the 

 number of immigrants of all nations, entering America, reached so high 

 as 2% of the population of that country at the time. Our proportion at 

 present is nearer 6% than 5%; whatever the United States have ex- 

 perienced in immigration, we shall experience more intensely still. Where 

 they have postponed the formation of a national type and character, 

 we shall postpone it still further in our own case. Where they have 

 made great civic and social problems, we shall make them at a greater 

 rate. Where their native population is perishing, as It is in Massachu- 

 setts and in other places, we, with our own tariff, condemn the people of 

 our eastern cities to the same sterility. 



