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 circumstances, the medical officer must pass 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 passed 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 sex 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 assimilated 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 assimilation 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 assimilated; but some immigration (that from the Orient, for example) is not assimilated; other immigration remains unassimilated for a long time. What are the eugenic consequences of an unassimilated 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.