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There is another danger I wish to mention.

If one considers

the American people from say 1775 to 1860, it is clear that a welldefined national character was in process of formation. What variations there were, were all of the same type and these variations would have slowly grown less and less marked. It needs little study to see of what great value to any body of men, women and children a national or racial type is. It furnishes a standard of conduct by which any one can set his course. The world is a difficult place in which to live, and to establish moral standards has been one of the chief occupations of mankind. Without such standards man feels as a mariner without a compass. Religious rules, laws and customs are only the national character in the form of standards of conduct. Now national character can only be formed in a population which is stable. The repeated introduction into a body of men of other men of different type or types cannot but tend to prevent its formation. Thus the nineteen millions of immigrants that have landed have tended to break up the type which was forming and to make the formation of any other type difficult. Every million more will only intensify this result, and the absence of a national character is a loss to every man, woman and child. It will show itself in our religions, rules of conduct, in our laws, in our customs.

These and other dangers which various observers have noted have led to some agitation for the passing of laws that would restrict immigration. Now to restrict immigration by a few thousand would not be of any particular value, and none of the laws which have been so far suggested would have a greater effect than this. There is no likelihood that any law could be passed that would materially reduce immigration-say cut it down one-half or even one-third-and before such a law could be passed a great many very intelligent and influential people would have to be convinced that the cutting down of our immigration would not be a detriment to this country. Personally I believe that these people in all good faith lose sight of the sure and lasting benefit through fear of a possible detriment.

We must therefore consider how to minimize the dangers of a yearly immigration of not less than three hundred and fifty thousand poor and ignorant people for an indefinite period. It is obvious that

the dangers which the immigration of the past has contained have been minimized by the great size of the country and the scattering of the immigrants over it. They are found in every State, from Maine to California, from Canada to the Gulf. This has enabled them to be brought in contact with the native born, and both have been modified by the process. The result has not been in any proper sense of the word "assimilation," but whenever immigrants have been diffused they have rapidly been educated so as to get along with the native American.

But this natural diffusion is ceasing, and we not only find that immigrants tend naturally to the cities but when there form colonies, so that we have "little Germanies," "little Hungaries," and "little Italies," and "Syrian colonies" and "Jewish colonies."

These colonies tend to perpetuate among the immigrants that ignorance of our laws, customs and political and moral notions that is one of their great dangers. Nor so long as they are denizens of these colonies do they in any sense of the word become Americans. They remain Italians, Germans, Russians and Hungarians. Obviously so long as immigration continues these colonies will tend to grow, and by their growth magnify the dangers already mentioned. Since we cannot depend on the immigrants to scatter, means must be taken to diffuse them throughout the country and to localize them away from the great cities.

It might be supposed that this would be a very difficult thing to accomplish; it would be so if the immigrant himself objected, but for the most part the immigrant does not object provided certain requirements are met with. These requirements are as follows:

First The place where the immigrant is to be located must be one where the climate is about such as he has been accustomed to, for otherwise he would immediately be dissatisfied and would drift to the cities.

Second. He must be assured of a reasonable livelihood in excess of what he would earn in his own country. He has come to this country because he thinks it is easy to make money, and, relatively to what he makes abroad, it is easy; consequently his hopes and expectations must be sustained.

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Third. He must have his railroad fare paid to his destination, for he usually does not have the money to do so himself.

Fourth. The immigrant must not be wholly solitary; if he

is set down in no matter how good a place to earn his livelihood, in no matter how pleasing a climate, he will be uncomfortable and tend to move away unless he can have a few of his own countrymen within comparatively easy reach.

These four requisites are easy to arrange for. Good management, a comparatively small fund of money, and an intelligent understanding of the immigrant are all that are needed.

There is a fifth and last requisite, to wit:

He must be protected both as regards a shelter over his head and food enough to eat while getting settled and until his livelihood begins coming in. This is not a serious matter where his livelihood begins shortly after arrival, but where he is expected to make it out of the earth, which will be the common case, he, and his family, if he has one, must be looked out for until the crop is sown and harvested, a period of not less than six months.

There are many land owners who will furnish immigrants with houses and will make very satisfactory terms with them for the use or ownership of land, but the keeping the immigrant and his family until the first harvest comes in is the difficulty in most cases. To overcome this obstacle a large fund is needed. Unless such a fund is raised little or nothing can be done. An excellent example of such a fund confined in its use to a particular race is seen in the Hirsch endowment and the colonization plans which have been carried out so satisfactorily in connection with this fund. The Salvation Army has also various schemes of colonization, but their desire to get the government to back them with seems to me a mistake. The Society for the Protectio Immigrants is trying to raise the necessary funds to establish large and small colonies of Italians.

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These are the only efforts that I know of which are being made to diminish the damages attendant upon our large immigration by scattering the immigrants and getting them to settle away from the cities.

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Selection of Immigration

By Prescott F. Hall, Secretary of the Immigration Restriction League, Boston, Mass.

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