224 HEREDITY IN RELATION TO EUGENICS 



strongest among those most seriously affected, but notwithstanding this 

 the present movement is not recruited in the main from the lowest eco- 

 nomic and social strata of the population. In European countries, as in 

 the United States, the poorest and least desirable element in the popula- 

 tion, from an economic as well as a social standpoint, is found in the 

 larger cities, and as a rule such cities furnish comparatively few emigrants. 

 Neither do the average or typical emigrants of to-day represent the low- 

 est in the economic and social scale even among the classes from which 

 they come, a circumstance attributable to both natural and artificial 

 causes. In the first place, emigrating to a strange and distant country, al- 

 though less of an undertaking than formerly, is still a serious and relatively 

 difficult matter, requiring a degree of courage and resourcefulness not 

 possessed by weaklings of any class. This natural law in the main regu- 

 lated the earlier European emigration to the United States, and under its 

 influence the present emigration represents the stronger and better ele- 

 ment of the particular class from which it is drawn. 



A most potent adjunct to the natural law of selection, however, is the 

 United States immigration act, the effect of which in preventing the 

 emigration, or even attempted emigration, of at least physical and mental 

 defectives is probably not generally realized. The provisions of the United 

 States immigration law are well known among the emigrating classes of 

 Europe, and the large number rejected at Emropean ports, or refused ad- 

 mission after reaching the United States, has a decided influence in re- 

 tarding emigration, and naturally that influence is most potent among 

 those who doubt their abiUty to meet the law's requirements. 



If increasing attention is paid to the selective elimination 

 at our ports of entry of the actually undesirable (those with 

 a germ plasm that has imbecile, epileptic, insane, criminal- 

 istic, alcoholic, and sexually immoral tendencies) ; if agents 

 in Europe learn the family history of all applicants for natu- 

 ralization; if the luring of the credulous and suggestible by 

 steamship agents abroad and especially in the south-east of 

 Europe be reduced to its lowest limits, then we may expect to 

 see our population not harmed but improved by this mixture 

 with a more mercurial people. 



