58 



PERILS. — IMMIG RATION. 



foreign parentage, and this foreign-born element, wliil( 

 it constituted less than one-seventh of our populatioi^, 

 furnished more than one-third of our paupers, and five- 

 eighths of our suicides. 



Moreover, immigration not only furnishes the greatei' 

 portion of our criminals, it is also seriously affecting the 

 morals of the native population. It is disease and not 

 health which is contagious. Most foreigners bring with 

 them continental ideas of the Sabbath, and the result is 

 sadly manifest in all our cities, where it is being trans- 

 formed from a holy day into a holiday. But by far the 

 most effective instrumentality for debauching popular 

 morals is the hquor traffic, and this is chiefly carried on 

 by foreigners. In ISSO, of the "Traders and dealers in 

 liquors and wines," i (I suppose this means wholesale 

 dealers) sixty-three per cent, were foreign-born, and of 

 the brewers and maltsters seventy -five per cent, while a 

 large proportion of the remainder were of foreign parent- 

 age. Of saloon-keepers about sixty per cent, were 

 foreign-born, while many of the remaining forty per 

 cent, of these corrupters of youth, these western Arabs, 

 whose hand is against every man, were of foreign ex- 

 traction. 



2. We can only glance at the political aspects of im- 

 migration. As Ave have already seen, it is immigration 

 which has fed fat the liquor power ; and there is a liquor 

 vote. Immigration furnishes most of the victims of 

 Mormonism ; and there is a Mormon vote. Immigration 

 is the strength of the Catholic church ; and there is a 

 Catholic vote. Immigration is the mother and nurse of 

 American socialism ; and there is to be a socialist vote. 

 Immigration tends strongly to the cities, and gives to 

 them their political complexion. And there is no more 

 serious menace to our civilization than our rabble-ruled 

 cities. These several perils, all of which are enhanced by 

 immigration, will be considered in succeeding chapters. 



Many American citizens are not Americanized. It is 



1 The Tenth Census. 



