MIGRATIONS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE 223 



the United States. It seems probable that field workers by 

 properly sorting their families geographically could each 

 report on the average on ten persons a week or, say, 500 a 

 year. This average is the more reasonable since brothers 

 sometimes make declaration simultaneously so that the his- 

 tory of two persons can be got in one visit. x\t this rate 400 

 field workers would be required. At the low price of living 

 abroad the cost of each field worker's salary and traveling 

 expenses would not exceed $1,200, or S480,000 for all. With 

 10 district inspectors at $2,000, including traveling expenses, 

 and a central office at $10,000, the total cost would be 

 $510,000 a year, and this amount should furnish our govern- 

 ment with a report on practically every applicant for natural- 

 ization, which would serve as a proper basis for judging of 

 his desirability. Compared with the annual expenditure of 

 over $100,000,000 in this country to take care of our de- 

 fectives this amount seems small and would be well invested, 

 for, within a decade, the annual saving to our institutions 

 would pay for the work. Moreover, an increase of 50 cents 

 in the head-tax of immigrants would supply funds enough 

 for the entire undertaking. 



With a control such as is outlined above we may, it seems 

 to me, face the addition annually of 200,000 Europeans to our 

 citizenship with equanimity. Despite the tendency of en- 

 couraged immigration to bring in a less independent and self- 

 reliant class, a significant selection is still exercised. This is 

 clearly expressed in the Report on Emigration Conditions 

 in Europe, published by the Immigration Commission, p. 11. 



The present-day emigration from Europe to tlie United States is for the 

 most part drawn from country districts and smaller cities or villages and 

 is composed largely of the peasantry and unskilled laboring classes. This 

 is particularly true of the races or peoples from countries furnishing the 

 newer immigration, with the conspicuous exception of Russian Hebrews, 

 who are city dwellers by compulsion. Emigration being mainly a result of 

 economic conditions, it is natural that the emigrating spirit should be 



