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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1364 



it can not be said that these differing reac- 

 tions of the different breeds of men are due 

 to physical differences or to psychic differences 

 or to social and cultural differences, or to 

 something yet unnamed. All that is known 

 is that different breeds of people commonly 

 possess distinguishing reactions in many of 

 the affairs of life. 



The American immigration problem is cen- 

 tered in the various breeds of people who are 

 clamoring to come to our shores or who are 

 already in our midst. What facts and tenden- 

 cies of strength and weakness for the future 

 of the American nation are in those various 

 ethnic groups? On the answer to this ques- 

 tion hinges the whole immigration problem. 

 It is a question for the most careful study, the 

 accumulation of accurate data, and for effort 

 at scientific conclusions on the part of anthro- 

 pologists in order that an intelligent public 

 opinion based on known facts, instead of 

 sentiment or prejudice or commercial profits 

 for the few, may dictate our policies and prac- 

 tise in regard to the peoples coming to us or 

 already here. Some peoples can, do, and will 

 continue to build into the American plan of 

 development. Others do not, and should not 

 be expected so to develop without due educa- 

 tion and often tedious application. Others 

 probably never would. We must have a public 

 opinion on this question based on scientific 

 facts as to the relative assimilability of the 

 various peoples already here, and also on the 

 actual attitude of the leaders of the several 

 groups toward the necessary American goal of 

 rapid and complete assimilation. If further 

 immigration is to be allowed or encouraged, 

 the national policy should welcome those 

 groups most favorable to assimilation, and 

 should restrict those unfavorable to assimila- 

 tion. 



So also in the problem of the distribution of 

 immigrants in America wise use should be 

 made of anthropological data. Practically 

 each one of the peoples coming to us from Eu- 

 rope has lived for many generations in one 

 type of environment, in many cases has pur- 

 sued one kind of employment, so it has de- 

 veloped rather fixed reactions which have 



saved it. The anthropologist should be able to 

 put at the service of the nation such knowl- 

 edge of European environments and peoples 

 and of American environmental areas that 

 the different immigrant peoples could be sent 

 to, or educationally advised to go to, those 

 areas and employments most likely to prove 

 helpful rather than injurious to the immigrat- 

 ing generation. 



Let me cite a few illustrations of immigrant 

 distribution personally known to me. A group 

 of well-to-do Holland-Dutch farmers was 

 brought as entire families with some thou- 

 sands of dollars each from the wet alluvial 

 lands of Holland, and planted in the sand of 

 a northern Minnesota county on farms previ- 

 ously selected for the colony. Those families 

 did not know how to farm on land which 

 leaches dry in a few hours after a light rain, 

 and which in the hot growing period of July 

 and August could profit by heavy rains every 

 other day. In ten years' time the members of 

 that colony of industrious and hopeful immi- 

 grants who came to us prosperous farmers are 

 scattered, their accumulations wasted, and, 

 disillusioned, they work for a wage where 

 they can. 



I Between 1850 and 1860 a small group of 

 Finns came from the copper mines of Sweden 

 to northern Michigan to work in the Calumet 

 and Hecla mines. Since that time, particu- 

 larly since 1900, northern Michigan and espe- 

 cially northern Minnesota have attracted many 

 Finns from Finland. I know well their homes 

 in Minnesota. There they find as nearly as 

 well may be an environment identical with 

 that of Finland. It is a heavily glaciated 

 area with ridges of drift strewn with immense 

 bowlders. Glacial lakes, marshes and small 

 streams are everywhere. The forest is " Ca- 

 nadian" and identical with that of Finland. 

 Other peoples, even the Scandinavians, have 

 passed by those rough lands with their ridges 

 and marshes, which the Finns actually seek 

 out. There they continue to settle, clear the 

 forests and make smaU farms. They are pro- 

 ductive immigrants, happy and successful in 

 their own sort of familiar climate, forests, soil 

 and country life. I know some of them who 



