210 
American Agriculturist, September 29,1923 
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The Stranger Within Our Gates 
A Slightly Different Viewpoint on the Immigration Question 
J. VAN WAGENEN, JR. 
I CONFESS with some regret that I 
do not feel that I can really agree 
with what is probably the dominant 
public opinion relative to the question 
of the limitation of immigration. Of 
course I readily admit that we are 
under no obliga¬ 
tion to hold our¬ 
selves open as a 
mere dumping 
ground for the 
insane or crim¬ 
inals or incap¬ 
able offscourings 
of other lands, 
but I do feel that 
our so-called 
three per cent 
law is not only a 
singularly wood¬ 
en and unscien¬ 
tific measure, but 
that it bars out 
a great number 
of folks who 
ought to have an 
opportunity to 
seek for better things and who in the 
end would be a great asset and not a 
liability to our national life. I suspect 
that down in my heart my position is 
determined by the same sort of senti¬ 
ment that I heard expressed 
only the other day. I was at ___„ 
a Farmers’ Picnic and there 
met a Congressman with 
whom I had a pleasant half 
hour, leading him to talk of 
the Eighteenth Amendment 
(the most discussed and in¬ 
teresting topic of to-day), 
the Farm Bloc in Congress 
and the immigration question. 
Now if there be in Amer¬ 
ica any such thing as aris¬ 
tocracy in the very best sense 
of the word, then this man 
represents it because his is 
a proud old family name 
which literally for genera¬ 
tions has been prominent in 
financial, civic and political 
life. His declaration was 
this: “Eight generations ago 
my ancestors emigrated to 
America for the purpose of 
bettering their condition and 
I find it very hard to shut 
the door in the face of any 
other man.” I feel that it is 
logically pretty hard to es¬ 
cape his position. When you 
get right down to the facts, 
it was the disappearing Red 
Man—Poor Lo—who first 
strenuously opposed the open 
door and he lost out in his 
contention. 
The general topic is es¬ 
pecially suggested to me at 
this time because I have just 
finished a few days of ap¬ 
praisal and inspection work 
for the Federal Land Bank, 
which has brought me into 
rather intimate contact with 
quite a number of our for¬ 
eign-born citizens. As a 
matter of fact the foreigner 
is far more apt to seek the 
help of the Land Bank than 
is the native, because he is familiar 
with similar institutions on the other 
side, while the idea is relatively new 
here. So there are a great many un- 
pronouncable Polish and eastern Euro¬ 
pean names on the roll of the Land 
Bank. 
When you have walked with a man 
or woman over their fields and have 
discussed with them at considerable 
length their problems and plans, you 
are really getting acquainted with them 
in a sort of intimate fashion and I have 
done this for a dozen Poles and Italians 
within a few days. What I have learned 
has made it increasingly hard to me to 
subscribe to the doctrine of “America 
for Americans.” I find it rather easy 
to judge them with a certain charity. 
We must remember that they have come 
to us from lands where there have never 
been opportunities in the American 
sense and where every one except a 
very limited hereditary social upper 
caste has been ground under a bitter 
poverty such as we in this happier land 
are strangers to. They bring with 
them many survivals of their environ- 
By J. VAN WAGENEN, JR. 
ment and traces of the hard lot from 
which they are escaping. Some of their 
homes are squalid enough but they are 
on the way up. I have seen Polish 
kitchens that looked clean and meals 
that I feel sure I would enjoy. 
It is true that in many ways their 
customs and manners are repugnant to 
us. Doubtless in his way and according 
to his light, the Pole loves his wife, but 
our ideas of chivalry are not his, for 
frequently he works his women folk 
bare-footed in the fields in a way that 
we do not like to think about. So too, 
he works himself incredibly long hours 
careless of weather or hours or the Sab¬ 
bath Day. I grant that he brings man¬ 
ners and customs and ideals less re¬ 
fined than the man who has a back¬ 
ground of three centuries of America 
behind him. 
Now I have more confidence in the 
miracle working power of our famous 
“melting pot” than many profess to 
have. I know that the daughters of 
these mothers—the little girls who 
to-day are in public school will not work 
bare-footed in the fields. I know the 
boys will learn of a ten-hour day. I 
know that the grandchildren of these 
The Over-worked Melting Pot 
TWTR. VAN WAGENEN has approached the immigration 
problem in his article on this page in such a kind 
and logical way that it is difficult to disagree with him. 
So we are not going to try. Anyway, we agree with 
what he says for the most part. For instance, we agree 
with his thought that the present immigration law is 
a “wooden law” and works many hardships upon the 
“strangers” who try to enter our gates. Without doubt, 
in time the immigration law will be amended and 
changed so as better to meet the many problems of 
limiting the great overflow from other countries. As 
a nation we have had little practice in restricting immi¬ 
gration and it is to he expected that we would make 
many mistakes when we first start. 
We, of course, also agree with what Mr. Van Wagenen 
says about us all being immigrants once and about the 
fine people who have recently come to our shores and 
to our farms, who are making such a splendid effort to 
become good Americans. America has always been a 
land of opportunity for the oppressed and down-trodden 
of other lands, and just because we want it always to 
so continue, we think care should he taken not to let 
in so many “strangers” at one time that they cannot 
be made quickly into American citizens. 
Our country stands, as it always has, for certain 
fundamental principles such as democratic ideals, the 
speaking of the English language, the education of chil¬ 
dren, and the high standard of life and living in our 
family. When the proportion of immigrants become so 
large that we cannot quickly get them to absorb these 
principles, then there is real danger that the “United 
States of Americans” and all that they stand for will 
cease and will become instead the “Un-united States 
of Europeans.” 
Therefore, we are not opposed to admitting the 
“strangers,” but we are opposed to taking them so fast 
that we cannot pass them through the melting pot of 
our customs, institutions and principles and turn them 
out American citizens. With this we are sure Mr. Van 
Wagenen will agree.—The Editors. 
folks will act very much like yours and 
mine and will mate with them in wed¬ 
lock. There are Polish families now in 
the Connecticut Valley far enough ad¬ 
vanced so that I personally know of 
their intermarriage with fine old fami¬ 
lies of the native stock and moreover 
nobody appears to be greatly scandal¬ 
ized thereby. 
Then too, I hold to the doctrine that 
perhaps these so-called inferior races 
may have some genuine contribution to 
make to our national life. Many readers 
of the American Agriculturist who have 
attended Farmers Week at Cornell will 
remember Mrs. Rose Morgan, that 
sweet singer of simple songs who has 
done so much to bring an appreciation 
of worthier music to our farm people. 
I have heard Mrs. Morgan say that the 
Italian was bringing to America a great 
gift in the way of musical instinct and 
the love of melody and song. So I am 
asking if it is not possible that these 
eastern European races are making a 
contribution of physical vitality that is 
also worth while. 
Some social studies among the New 
England States seem to indicate that 
the Puritan—the element that Oliver 
Wendell Holmes very happily called 
“the Brahman Caste” of New England 
tends to disappear because it no longer 
maintains itself numerically. The 
Puritan was a wonderful race, but a 
glorious past avails him very little if 
as a class he “dies at the top,” a fate 
that seems to threaten the most highly 
civilized peoples. Our highly-trained, 
intellectual, ultra refined classes exhibit 
this tendency and our very national 
perpetuity may depend upon a constant 
infusion of blood from below—from the 
less highly organized but more vigorous 
folk that we complacently designate as 
the inferior races. 
The other day I was piloted over the 
fields and through the woods by a 
Polish woman, the mother of a great 
brood of lusty children who by virtue 
of birth on our soil are free-born Ameri¬ 
can citizens. She walked with the 
strong, swinging stride that bespoke 
perfect physical health and vigor and 
she said there was no farm task that 
she could not do. I presume she does 
not belong to the New Century Club 
or the Monday Afternoon Bridge Circle, 
nor has she yet re^d “Main Street,” but 
she was loud in praise of her husband 
who works eight hours a day 
or night in the paper mill, 
and then comes home and 
works eight hours more on 
the land. Unquestionably 
they are on the way up and 
will make good if only no' 
disaster or accident or disease 
overtakes them. The man , 
reads English, slowly and 
painfully perhaps and to my 
surprise and pleasure he 
subscribes to the Agricul¬ 
turist and charts his agri¬ 
cultural course by its direc¬ 
tions. 
When I remember these 
folks and their happy opti¬ 
mism and cheerful smiles and 
warm handshake at parting, 
I am glad that they passed 
through Ellis Island before 
the days of the three per cent 
law. 
Now what I have just 
written must not be construed 
as a challenge to joint de¬ 
bate.. I am sorry that in this 
particular I cannot agree 
with what seems to be domi¬ 
nant public sentiment and I 
believe the conviction of the 
editors. I suppose the reason 
is that I have such unbounded 
confidence in the “melting 
pot” or call it the digestive 
capacity of America if you 
wish. I find it easy to be¬ 
lieve that these people who 
come to us, nearly always 
out of dire poverty and very 
frequently from dense ignor¬ 
ance, if given opportunity 
and encouragement and so¬ 
cial justice and shelter be¬ 
neath our beneficent Democ¬ 
racy are going to be about 
' like the rest of us in three or, 
four generations. 
Still, I recognize this—that the alien' 
in the raw is not always a desirable 
addition to the rural neighborhood.* 
His culture and his social and ethical , 
standards are not ours. Moreover he 
is not infrequently an invincible busi¬ 
ness competitor—not because he is a 
better or even as good a farmer as the 
native, but because of his willingness 
to accept a low standard of living and 
to work himself and mate and brood 
to unbelievable hours. When he in¬ 
vades the rural community in large 
numbers he makes hard going for the 
old Protestant church and it is hard 
for him to. be received or to be willing 
to enter the old social life. I recognize 
all this and I can see why it is often 
not easy to welcome the newcomer. 
There are parts of Sullivan and Ulster 
Counties where the Jew has almost dis¬ 
placed the old native stock, just as 
there are localities in the Connecticut 
Valley where the Puritan has given 
place to the Pole. 
Nevertheless, for good or for ill, 
whether we like it or not “it is a con- 
(Continued cm page 214) 
