THE FOOD CRISIS AND AMERICANISM 47 



holding out as an inducement to come, low passenger 

 rates, free transportation of household goods, etc., etc. 

 They came in thousands, and out of these immigrants 

 have been built some of the most prosperous, loyal 

 cities and farming communities of the West. 



But for vicious changes in our immigration laws, 

 the best States in the Corn Belt would not have been 

 losing their rural population during the last two dec- 

 ades, nor the annual yield per acre of cereals on our 

 comparatively new lands would not have been con- 

 stantly growing less, while the fields, soil-worn for 

 a thousand years, in France, Germany and other 

 European countries, were increasing their yields, and 

 our laboring masses would have been better fed and at 

 lower prices. 



