120 



ALLAN MCLAUGHLIN 



With the change in the racial character of immigration, 

 most marked in the past decade, a pronounced deterioration in 

 the general physique of the immigrants, and a much higher 

 per cent of loathsome and dangerous disease is noticeable. 

 Thousands of immigrants of poor physique are recorded as 

 such by the medical inspectors at Ellis island, and a card to 

 this effect sent to the registry clerk or immigrant inspector 

 with the immigrant; but this mere note of physical defect 

 carries little significance under the present law, and the vast 

 majority of them are admitted by the immigration authorities, 

 because it does not appear that the physical defect noted will 

 make the immigrant a public charge. When the physical de- 

 fect or poor physique is so marked that it seems to the medical 

 inspector likely to make the immigrant a public charge, the 

 immigrant is detained, and a certificate is made stating his 

 disability, which certificate goes to the board of special inquiry 

 with the detained immigrant. About two thirds of the im- 

 migrants so certified as likely to become a public charge are 

 admitted because of the latitude allowed by the phrase, ''likely 

 to become a public charge." Under the present law, therefore, 

 the immigrant certified as suffering from a loathsome or dan- 

 gerous contagious disease, or as being idiotic or insane, is 

 deported. The immigrant recorded as having a poor physique 

 or other physical defect is usually admitted. 



Destination is scarcely less important than physique, and 

 it is the rule that aliens of a race having a low physical stand- 

 ard will invariably herd together in the overcrowded insanitary 

 tenement districts of our great cities, while the sturdy race of 

 unskilled laborers are scattered over a wide territory, and tend 

 to establish little homes of their own in the country or in the 

 suburbs of manufacturing towns or cities. 



The foregoing table indicates the relative physical strength 



