"Many of our most desirable citizens come from foreign lands."
"Yes, but there is a decided difference in the character of the immigrants of today and formerly. Edward Alsworth Ross, Professor of Sociology in the University of Wisconsin, who is perhaps one of the greatest sociologists in the world, states in his 'Principles of Sociology':
"'A stream of immigrants may be representative, sub-representative or super-representative of the people from which it comes. Religious or political oppression is likely to start up a current of super-representative migrants because it is chiefly the superior who refuse to conform to the will of the powerful. The English Puritans, Quakers, Catholics, the Scotch Covenanters, the French Huguenots, the German sectaries who settled Pennsylvania and the refugee German liberals of 1848 were among the super-representative elements which came to America. Discrimination against a people or a race generally causes a representative outflow, e.g., the Scotch Irish and the Scotch Highlanders of Colonial days as well as the streams of Armenians, Syrians and Russian Hebrews which have come to us latterly.
"'Subduers of the wilderness generally surpass in energy and venturesomeness their kinsmen who stay where they were born. It is the trout rather than the carp that find their way out of the pool into the swift water. The American pioneering breed had rare courage and initiative, and the European immigrants who came to settle in the Great West may well have topped the average of their people in these traits. Those who follow the lure of high wages in a foreign labor market will sub-represent their people in ability. The educated, the propertied, the established, the well-connected, having prospects at home, have no motive to submit themselves to the hardships of the steerage. The children of the successful abide in their father-land; only the children of the unsuccessful migrate, and it is very unlikely that such a stream will constitute a good sample of the beauty, brains and initiative of the stock.
"'Even the difficulties of a distant migration have a selective value. The first-comers from a people probably have more initiative than those who come later, after the channels of immigration are worn deep and straight and smooth. The poorest stuff is that which migrates in response to a ticket-selling campaign by steamship agents who go about and excite the ignorant and gullible with fairy tales. Woe to the land which serves as a dumping ground for a commercialized immigration.'
"Governor," said the judge leaning forward in his chair, "the United States is now that dumping ground."
"A very interesting discussion," commented the governor, who had apparently forgotten that the judge was on the witness stand.
"You remember, governor, that President Roosevelt warned the people of this country of the dangers of race suicide."
"Yes, I remember that," the governor replied.
"President Roosevelt did not tell the people of the sociological and economic causes of the great decrease in the birth rate among native stock. In this same work from which I have just been quoting Professor Ross says: