216 HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EUGENICS 



For the most part they have settled in our large cities, and 

 their frequency is roughly proportional to the size of the 

 city, yet with a preponderance in the East. Though it is 

 superficial to attempt to name the traits of even so rela- 

 tively homogeneous a company as the Hebrews, yet a sort 

 of average or prevailing condition may be recognized. As 

 the Abstract of the Report of the Immigration Commis- 

 sion on Recent Immigration in Agriculture says, p. 41, 

 ''The Hebrew on the land is peaceable and law abiding, 

 but he does not tamely submit to what he beheves to be 

 oppression and he has a highly developed sense of personal 

 rights, civil and economic." Probably with few changes 

 this statement would stand for the Hebrews of the cities 

 where the mass of recent Hebrew immigrants occupy a 

 position intermediate between the slovenly Servians and 

 Greeks and the tidy Swedes, Germans and Bohemians. 

 In earning capacity both male and female Hebrew immi- 

 grants rank high and the literacy is above the mean of all 

 immigrants. Statistics indicate that the crimes of Hebrews 

 are chiefly ''gainful offenses,'' especially thieving and re- 

 ceiving stolen goods, while they rarely commit offenses of 

 personal violence. On the other hand, they show the 

 greatest proportion of offenses against chastity and in con- 

 nection with prostitution, the lowest of crimes. There is 

 no question that, taken as a whole, the hordes of Jews that 

 are now coming to us from Russia and the extreme south- 

 east of Europe, with their intense individualism and ideals 

 of gain at the cost of any interest, represent the opposite 

 extreme from the early English and the more recent Scandi- 

 navian immigration with their ideals of community life 

 in the open country, advancement by the sweat of the brow, 

 and the uprearing of families in the fear of God and the 

 love of country. 

 f. The Italian immigration first passed the 10,000 mark 



