SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 440. 



half a million Germans came to the United 

 States between 1890 and 1900, there were 

 fewer Germans in the country at the latter 

 date. But this does not account for the 

 entire discrepancy in growth. In 1900 

 there were only ten per cent, of the immi- 

 grants arriving in the previous decade 

 enumerated by the census. Some had died, 

 some had returned to their native lands. 

 This brings out the fact that the volume 

 of immigration is an inaccurate criterion 

 of the addition to the population, and is 

 growing more so. 



The ease of movement to the country is 

 supplemented by the ease of getting. away, 

 and many of those who come to' our shores 

 are not true settlers among us, but passing 

 visitors. This introduces a factor of the 

 greatest moment.' It has always been as- 

 sumed by those who look upon immigra- 

 tion in an optimistic spirit that, however 

 awkward he might be in his accomplish- 

 ment, nothing was more characteristic of 

 the new arrival than his desire to become 

 an American, and many were content to 

 take the will for the deed. But we are now 

 confronted with immigrants who have no 

 such desire; whose only wish is to make 

 the most of their economic opportunities 

 and enjoy the fruits of their toil else- 

 where. It is highly desirable that statisti- 

 cal information be collected as to outgoing 

 steerage passengers, that we may not be 

 left to conjecture as to the extent of this 

 movement. 



We are frequently told that the immi- 

 grant would be welcome if he would go 

 west and develop the country, but that he 

 persists in staying in the eastern states and 

 in crowding into the cities. However much 

 public attention has been called to this 

 matter, it is not exactly a new phase of 

 the immigration problem, nor is it an in- 

 dication of the perversity of the immigrant. 

 The immigrant has not contributed much 



to the development of the country. He 

 has followed in the wake of the nation, and 

 at each census since 1850, when the for- 

 eign-born were first separately enumerated, 

 they have been relatively more numerous 

 in the eastern states. It can not be won- 

 dered that the foreign-born flock to the 

 cities since the native-born do the same 

 thing. Each follows the opportunities for 

 labor. Since city growth is the character- 

 istic of modem time, towns naturally at- 

 tract population, particularly those ele- 

 ments not rooted by the possession of land 

 to the soil. Groups of foreign-born in 

 cities, moreover, yield sooner than like 

 groups in rural districts to the contact 

 with the English-speaking element, and 

 here is some compensation. 



But however unusual the phenomena 

 noted, they should not, therefore, give less 

 concern. The protection of the standard 

 of life, or of American ideals, is the first 

 duty of the statesman. The exclusion of 

 all those who do not give reasonable prom- 

 ise of an ability and will to conform to our 

 institutions is a duty which can not be put 

 aside. 



Bosnia: A Proilem in Civil Administra- 

 tion: William E. Curtis, Washington, 

 D. C. 



William E. Curtis read from advance 

 sheets of 'The Turk and His Lost Pro- 

 vinces' now in press, an interesting de- 

 scription of the regeneration by the Aus- 

 trians of Bosnia, a former province of 

 Turkey which was placed under their pro- 

 tection by the powers of Europe after the 

 Turko-Russian war in 1878. At that time 

 Bosnia was one of the most unhappy and 

 hopeless places on earth; but since its re- 

 lease from Turkish domination it has be- 

 come one of the most peaceful and pros- 

 perous provinces in Europe. Nowhere else 

 in all the continent has there been so rapid 



