INFLUENCE OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT 351 



While migration sometimes occurs for the sake of religious liberty, 

 or in order to escape from a despotic political regime, the chief 

 driving force is usually want of the necessities of life. It would 

 require a volume to discuss adequately the role which migrations 

 have played in the evolution of man, and no attempt will be made 

 to point out more than a few aspects of the problem. When one 

 people invades the territory of another, either type may supplant 

 the other, or they may combine to form a hybrid stock. In 

 modern times especially, the effects of migration are complicated 

 with the problem of the influence of racial amalgamation. This 

 is particularly the case in a countr}^ like the United States 

 where the problems of immigration are more pressing than in 

 almost any other place on the globe. It is to this countr}^ that 

 our few remarks on immigration will be mainly confined. 



The United States has long been the great "melting pot" of 

 the nations. Formerly our immigration was mainly from the 

 north of Europe, consisting of English, Scotch, Irish, Germans, 

 Scandinavians, mostly members of the great "Nordic race." 

 This source of supply has now failed to furnish more than a small 

 proportion of our immigrants. For some decades our influx from 

 abroad has consisted mainly of Russians and Southern Euro- 

 peans, — Greeks, Italians, Portuguese, Southern Slavs, Turks, 

 Bosnians, Rumanians and Armenians. On the West coast we 

 have received a considerable number of Chinese, Japanese, 

 Hindus, Filipinos and other peoples in lesser numbers. Some of 

 the latter elements will assimilate slowly, if at all, with our native 

 population, but those arriving on our eastern shores, although 

 they tend to form segregated groups in our cities and elsewhere, 

 will probably become amalgamated in the course of a few genera- 

 tions in the great melting pot. 



Naturally the biological effect of this influx of foreigners 

 depends largely on their hereditary qualities. While there is 

 no doubt that many of our immigrants are of excellent stock, it 

 has been seriously doubted if the great mass of Greeks, southern 

 Italians, Portuguese, Syrians and Turks measure up to the 

 general intellectual level of the peoples of Nordic stock which 



