Applied Eugenics Part 28

Last of all began an immigration of Levantines, of Syrians, Armenians, and other inhabitants of Asiatic Turkey. Beyond this region lie the great nations of Asia, "oversaturated" with population. So far there has been little more than the threat of their overflow, but the threat is certain to become a reality within a few years unless prevented by legal restriction.

The eugenic results of immigration are partly indirect and partly direct. Direct results follow if the newcomers are a.s.similated,--a word which we shall use rather narrowly to mean that free intermarriage takes place between them and all parts of the older population. We shall discuss the direct results first, the nature of which depends largely on whether the newcomers are racially h.o.m.ogeneous with the population already in the country.

If they are like, the old and new will blend without difficulty. The effects of the immigration then depend on whether the immigrants are better or worse in average quality than the older residents. If as good or better, they are valuable additions; if inferior they are biologically a detriment.

But if the new arrivals are different, if they represent a different subspecies of _h.o.m.o sapiens_, the question is more serious, for it involves the problem of crossing races which are biologically more or less distinct. Genetics can throw some light on this problem.

Waiving for the moment all question as to the relative quality of two distinct races, what results are to be expected from crossing? It (1) gives an increase of vigor which diminishes in later generations and (2) produces recombination of characters.

The first result may be disregarded, for the various races of man are probably already much mixed, and too closely related, to give rise to much hybrid vigor in crosses.

The second result will be favorable or unfavorable, depending on the characters which go into the cross; and it is not possible to predict the result in human matings, because the various racial characters are so ill known. It is, therefore, not worth while here to discuss at length genetic theory. In general it may be said that some valuable characters are likely to disappear, as the result of such crosses, and less desirable ones to take their place. The great bulk of the population resulting from such racial crosses is likely to be more or less mongrel in nature. Finally, some individuals will appear who combine the good characters of the two races, without the bad ones.

The net result will therefore probably be some distinct gain, but a greater loss. There is danger that complex and valuable traits of a race will be broken down in the process of hybridization, and that it will take a long time to bring them together again. The old view that racial crosses lead fatally to race degeneration is no longer tenable, but the view recently advanced, that crosses are advantageous, seems equally hasty. W. E. Castle has cited the Pitcairn Islanders and the Boer-Hottentot mulattoes of South Africa as evidence that wide crosses are productive of no evil results. These cases may be admitted to show that such a hybrid race may be physically healthy, but in respect of mental traits they hardly do more than suggest the conclusion we advanced in our chapter on the Color Line,--that such miscegenation is an advantage to the inferior race and a disadvantage to the superior one.

On the whole, we believe wide racial crosses should be looked upon with suspicion by eugenists.

The colonizers of North America mostly belonged to the Nordic race.[143]

The earlier immigrants to the United States,--roughly, those who came here before the Civil War,--belonged mostly to the same stock, and therefore mixed with the early settlers without difficulty. The advantages of this immigration were offset by no impairment of racial h.o.m.ogeneity.

But the more recent immigration belongs mostly to other races, princ.i.p.ally the Mediterranean and Alpine. Even if these immigrants were superior on the average to the older population, it is clear that their a.s.similation would not be an unmixed blessing, for the evil of crossbreeding would partly offset the advantage of the addition of valuable new traits. If, on the other hand, the average of the new immigration is inferior in quality, or in so far as it is inferior in quality, it is evident that it must represent biologically an almost unmixed evil; it not only brings in new undesirable traits, but injures the desirable ones already here.

E. A. Ross has attempted to predict some of the changes that will take place in the population of the United States, as a result of the immigration of the last half-century.[144] "It is reasonable," he thinks, "to expect an early falling off in the frequency of good looks in the American people." A diminution of stature, a depreciation of morality, an increase in gross fecundity, and a considerable lowering of the level of average natural ability are among other results that he considers probable. Not only are the races represented in the later immigration in many cases inferior in average ability to the earlier immigrant races, but America does not get the best, or even a representative selection,[145] from the races which are now contributing to her population. "Europe retains most of her brains, but sends mult.i.tudes of the common and sub-common. There is little sign of an intellectual element among the Magyars, Russians, South Slavs, Italians, Greeks or Portuguese" who are now arriving. "This does not hold, however, for currents created by race discrimination or oppression. The Armenian, Syrian, Finnish and Russo-Hebrew streams seem _representative_, and the first wave of Hebrews out of Russia in the eighties was superior."

While the earlier immigration brought a liberal amount of intelligence and ability, the later immigration (roughly, that of the last half century) seems to have brought distinctly less. It is at present princ.i.p.ally an immigration of unskilled labor, of vigorous, ignorant peasants. Some of this is "promoted" by agents of transportation companies and others who stand to gain by stirring up the population of a country village in Russia or Hungary, excite the illiterate peasants by stories of great wealth and freedom to be gained in the New World, provide the immigrant with a ticket to New York and start him for Ellis Island. Naturally, such immigration is predominantly male. On the whole, females make up one-third of the recent inflow, but among some races--Greeks, Italians and Roumanians, for example--only one-fifth.

In amount of inherent ability these immigrants are not only less highly endowed than is desirable, but they furnish, despite weeding out, altogether too large a proportion of the "three D's"--defectives, delinquents and dependents. In the single year 1914 more than 33,000 would-be immigrants were turned back, about half of them because likely to become public charges. The immigration law of 1907, amended in 1910, 1913 and 1917, excludes the following cla.s.ses of aliens from admission into the United States:

Idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, epileptics, insane persons, persons who have been insane within 5 years previously; persons who have had two or more attacks of insanity at any time previously or who are affected by const.i.tutional psychopathic inferiority or chronic alcoholism; paupers, vagrants, persons likely to become public charges; professional beggars, persons afflicted with tuberculosis or with a loathsome or contagious disease; persons who have been convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude; polygamists, anarchists, contract laborers, prost.i.tutes, persons not comprehended within any one of the foregoing excluded cla.s.ses who are found to be and are certified by the examining surgeon as being mentally or physically defective, such mental or physical defect being of such a nature as to affect the ability of the alien to earn a living.

[Ill.u.s.tration: EXAMINING IMMIGRANTS AT ELLIS ISLAND, NEW YORK

FIG. 39.--Surgeons of the United States Public Health Service test every immigrant, physically and mentally, in order to send back any who give promise of being undesirable additions to the population. The above photograph shows how the examination of those whose condition has aroused suspicion, is conducted. The boy under the measuring bar, in the foreground, and the three immediately to the left of the desk, are examples of congenital asthenia and poor physique; two of the four were found to be dull mentally. Photograph from U. S. Public Health Service.]

Despite the efficiency of the U. S. Public Health Service, it is quite impossible for its small staff to examine thoroughly every immigrant, when three or four thousand arrive in a single day, as has frequently happened at Ellis Island. Under such circ.u.mstances, the medical officer must pa.s.s the immigrants with far too cursory an inspection. It is not surprising that many whose mental defects are not of an obvious nature manage to slip through; particularly if, as is charged,[146] many of the undesirables are informed that the immigrant rush is greatest in March and April, and therefore make it a point to arrive at that time, knowing the medical inspection will be so overtaxed that they will have a better chance to get by. The state hospitals of the Atlantic states are rapidly filling up with foreign-born insane.[147] Probably few of these were patently insane when they pa.s.sed through the port of entry. Insanity, it must be remembered, is predominantly a disease of old age, whereas the average alien on arrival is not old. The mental weakness appears only after he has been here some years, perhaps inevitably or perhaps because he finds his environment in, say, lower Manhattan Island is much more taxing to the brain than the simple surroundings of his farm overlooking the bay of Naples.

The amount of crime attributable to certain sections of the more recent immigration is relatively large. "It was frequently stated to the members of the Immigration Commission in southern Italy that crime had greatly diminished in many communities because most of the criminals had gone to America." The amount of crime among immigrants in the United States is partly due to their age and s.e.x distribution, partly due to their concentration in cities, partly to the bad environment from which they have sometimes come; partly to inherent racial characteristics, such as make crimes of violence frequent among the Southern Italians, crimes of gain proportionately more frequent among the Jews, and violence when drunk more a characteristic of the Slavs. No restriction of immigration can wholly eliminate the criminal tendencies, but, says Dr. Warne,[148] after balancing the two sides, "It still remains true that because of immigration we have a greater amount of pauperism and crime than would be the case if there were no immigration. It is also an indisputable fact that with a better regulation of immigration the United States would have less of these social horrors."

To dwell too much on the undesirable character of part of the present immigration would be to lose perspective. Most of it consists of vigorous, industrious, ignorant peasants, induced to come here in search of a better living than they can get at home. But it is important to remember that if they come here and stay, they are pretty certain to be a.s.similated sooner or later. In cases superior to the average of the older population, their arrival should be welcomed if not too racially diverse; but if, as we believe the record of their achievements shows, a large part of the immigration is on the average inferior to the older population of the United States, such are eugenically a detriment to the future progress of the race. The direct biological result to be expected from the a.s.similation of such newcomers is the swamping of the best characteristics of the old American stock, and a diminution of the average of intelligence of the whole country.

The interbreeding is too slow at present to be conspicuous, and hence its effects are little noticed. The foreigners tend to keep by themselves, to form "Little Italies," "Little Russias," transplanted Ghettoes and "foreign quarters," where they retain their native languages and customs and marry compatriots. This condition of segregation can not last forever; the process of amalgamation will be more rapid with each generation, particularly because of the preponderance of males in the newer immigration who must marry outside their own race, if they are to marry at all.

The direct results of immigration that lead to intermarriage with the older population are fairly easy to outline. The indirect results, which we shall now consider, are more complex. We have dealt so far only with the effects of an immigration that is a.s.similated; but some immigration (that from the Orient, for example) is not a.s.similated; other immigration remains una.s.similated for a long time. What are the eugenic consequences of an una.s.similated immigration?

The presence of large numbers of immigrants who do not intermarry with the older stock will, says T. N. Carver,[149] inevitably mean one of three things:

1. Geographical separation of races.

2. Social separation of races (as the "color line" in the South and to a large extent in the North, between Negroes and whites who yet live side by side).

3. Continuous racial antagonism, frequently breaking out into race war.

This third possibility has been at least threatened, by the conflict between the white and yellow races in California, and the conflict between whites and Hindus in British Columbia.

None of these alternatives is attractive. The third is undesirable in every way and the first two are difficult to maintain. The first is perhaps impossible; the second is partly practicable, as is shown by the case of the Negro. One of its drawbacks is not sufficiently recognized.

In a soundly-organized society, it is necessary that the road should be open from top to bottom and bottom to top, in order that genuine merit may get its deserts. A valuable strain which appears at the bottom of the social scale must be able to make its way to the top, receiving financial and other rewards commensurate with its value to the state, and being able to produce a number of children proportionate to its reward and its value. This is an ideal which is seldom approximated in government, but it is the advantage of a democratic form of government that it presents the open road to success, more than does an oligarchic government. That this freedom of access to all rewards that the state can give should be open to every one (and conversely that no one should be kept at the top and over-rewarded if he is unworthy) is essential to eugenics; but it is quite incompatible with the existence within the state of a number of isolated groups, some of which must inevitably and properly be considered inferior. It is certain that, at the present time in this country, no Negro can take a place in the upper ranks of society, which are and will long remain white. The fact that this situation is inevitable makes it no less unfortunate for both Negro and white races; consolation can only be found in the thought that it is less of a danger than the opposite condition would be. But this condition of cla.s.s discrimination is likely to exist, to a much less extent it is true, in every city where there are foreign-born and native-born populations living side by side, and where the epithets of "Sheeny," "Dago," "Wop," "Kike," "Greaser," "Guinea," etc., testify to the feeling of the older population that it is superior.

While eugenic strength in a state is promoted by variety, too great a heterogeneity offers serious social difficulties. It is essential if America is to be strong eugenically that it slow down the flood of immigrants who are not easily a.s.similable. At present a state of affairs is being created where cla.s.s distinctions are likely to be barriers to the promotion of individual worth--and equally, of course, to the demotion of individual worthlessness.

Even if an immigration is not a.s.similated, then, it yet has an indirect effect on eugenics. But there are other indirect effects of immigration, which are quite independent of a.s.similation: they inhere in the mere bulk and economic character of the immigration. The arrivals of the past few decades have been nearly all unskilled laborers. Professor Carver believes that continuous immigration which enters the ranks of labor in larger proportion and the business and professional cla.s.ses in a smaller proportion than the native-born will produce the following results:

1. Distribution. It will keep compet.i.tion more intense among laborers and less intense among business and professional men: it will therefore raise the income of the employing cla.s.ses and lower the wages of unskilled labor.

2. Production. It will give a relatively low marginal productivity to a typical immigrant and make him a relatively unimportant factor in the production of wealth.

3. Organization of industry. Immigrants can only be employed economically at low wages and in large gangs, because of (2).

4. Agriculture. If large numbers of immigrants should go into agriculture, it will mean one of two things, probably the second:

(a) Continuous subdivision of farms resulting in inefficient and wasteful application of labor and smaller crops per man, although probably larger crops per acre.

(b) Development of a cla.s.s of landed proprietors on the one hand and a landless agricultural proletariat on the other.

It is true that the great ma.s.s of unskilled labor which has come to the United States in the last few decades has made possible the development of many industries that have furnished an increased number of good jobs to men of intelligence, but many who have made a close study of the immigration problem think that despite this, unskilled labor has been coming in altogether too large quant.i.ties. Professor Ross publishes the following ill.u.s.tration:

"What a college man saw in a copper-mine in the Southwest gives in a nutsh.e.l.l the logic of low wages.

"The American miners, getting $2.75 a day, are abruptly displaced without a strike by a train-load of 500 raw Italians brought in by the company and put to work at from $1.50 to $2 a day. For the Americans there is nothing to do but to 'go down the road.' At first the Italians live on bread and beer, never wash, wear the same filthy clothes night and day, and are despised. After two or three years they want to live better, wear decent clothes, and be respected. They ask for more wages, the bosses bring in another train-load from the steerage, and the partly Americanized Italians follow the American miners 'down the road.' No wonder the estimate of government experts as to the number of our floating casual laborers ranges up to five millions!"

"It is claimed that the natives are not displaced" by the constant inflow of alien unskilled labor, says H. P. Fairchild,[150] but that they "are simply forced into higher occupations. Those who were formerly common laborers are now in positions of authority. While this argument holds true of individuals, its fallacy when applied to groups is obvious. There are not nearly enough places of authority to receive those who are forced out from below. The introduction of 500 Slav laborers into a community may make a demand for a dozen or a score of Americans in higher positions, but hardly for 500."

"The number of unskilled workers coming in at the present time is sufficient to check decidedly the normal tendency toward an improved standard of living in many lines of industry," in the opinion of J. W.

Jenks, who was a member of the Immigration Commission appointed by President Roosevelt in 1907. He alludes to the belief that instead of crowding the older workers _out_, the aliens merely crowd them up, and says that he himself formerly held that view; "but the figures collected by the Immigration commission, from a sufficient number of industries in different sections of the country to give general conclusions, prove beyond a doubt that in a good many cases these incoming immigrants actually drive out into other localities and into other unskilled trades large numbers of American workingmen and workingmen of the earlier immigration who do not get better positions but, rather, worse ones....

Professor Lauck, our chief superintendent of investigators in the field, and, so far as I am aware, every single investigator in the field, before the work ended, reached the conclusion from personal observation that the tendency of the large percentage of immigration of unskilled workers is clearly to lower the standard of living in a number of industries, and the statistics of the commission support this impression. I therefore changed my earlier views."

If the immigration of large quant.i.ties of unskilled labor with low standards of living tends in most cases to depress wages and lower the standard of living of the corresponding cla.s.s of the old American population, the consequences would appear to be:

1. The employers of labor would profit, since they would get abundant labor at low wages. If this increase in the wealth of employers led to an increase in their birth-rate, it would be an advantage. But it apparently does not. The birth-rate of the employing cla.s.s is probably little restricted by financial difficulties; therefore on them immigration probably has no immediate eugenic effect.

2. The American skilled laborers would profit, since there is more demand for skilled labor in industries created by unskilled immigrant labor. Would the increasing prosperity and a higher standard of living here, tend to lower the relative birth-rate of the cla.s.s or not?

The answer probably depends on the extent of the knowledge of birth control which has been discussed elsewhere.

3. The wages and standard of living of American unskilled laborers will fall, since they are obliged directly to compete with the newcomers. It seems most likely that a fall in wages and standards is correlated with a fall in birth-rate. This case must be distinguished from cases where the wages and standards _never were high_, and where poverty is correlated with a high birth-rate. If this distinction is correct, the present immigration will tend to lower the birth-rate of American unskilled laborers.

The arguments here used may appear paradoxical, and have little statistical support, but they seem to us sound and not in contradiction with any known facts. If they are valid, the effect of such immigration as the United States has been receiving is to reduce the birth-rate of the unskilled labor with little or no effect on the employers and managers of labor.

Since both the character and the volume of immigration are at fault, remedial measures may be applied to either one or both of these features. It is very desirable that we have a much more stringent selection of immigrants than is made at the present time. But most of the measures which have been actually proposed and urged in recent years have been directed at a diminution of the volume, and at a change in character only by somewhat indirect and indiscriminate means.