in the past entered into United States citizenship although no more assimilable than their parents.

HINDUS

Another group of Asiatics includes the Hindu who shares popular hatred with the Japanese, and for many of the same reasons. The State Board of Control of California considers the Hindu "the most undesirable immigrant in the state." The Hindus are comparatively recent arrivals, fifteen arriving in 1899 and there are only about twenty-five hundred of them in the country now. All but students and travelers have been barred since 1917.

MEXICANS

The American or New World group contains only one immigrant race which calls for special mention here. This is the Mexican. There are now upwards of half a million Mexicans in this country. Most of them are thriftless with no skill in any line, and their standard of living is very low. In 1900, there were only about 100,000 here, but since that time, they have been slipping over the border steadily with the resulting number above named. They are almost entirely in the southwest, although some have found their way to Chicago and Minneapolis. Most Mexicans who come here belong to the peon class, being a mixture of white with Indian or Negro blood or both. At home, they are quite distinct from the cultivated people of European, mainly Spanish ancestry. The Mexican immigrants are engaged almost altogether in rough, poorly paid out door jobs. An exception that may be noted was found in the period of camp construction during the recent war, when their services were in demand in carpentry at seven dollars plus per day. It is said that they did not know a hammer from a saw when they started, but since incompetent hands were better than no hands at all, they were engaged, and thereby got an exaggerated idea of their worth, and, at the same time justly enough aroused the enmity of organized labor. It is a well-known fact that, for many years,

Mexicans have been passing back and forth freely from Mexico to the United States regardless of international arrangements. The Rio Grande is a shallow stream a good part of the year; even boys can wade across. Under such circumstances, why bother with ports of entry? This seems to have been the attitude on both sides of the line when farm labor was in demand in the south-western states. This must be borne in mind when reading government statistics which include only those entering officially.

The following table shows the number of Mexicans recorded as coming into the United States:

It will be seen that throngs of Orientals and Mexicans have already passed through our gates, and their future in our midst will be watched with interest.

CHAPTER II

IMMIGRATION INTO THE UNITED STATES

(Continued)

AMERICAN ATTITUDE TOWARD EUROPEANS

PASSING on to the group of European immigrants, we find an entirely different situation from that presented by the Orientals and the Mexicans. Here we have no color line to complicate matters. All the Europeans who have come are apparently to a greater or less degree assimilable. The American nation is an amalgam of these; the true picture of an American would be a composite photograph of all the Europeans who have settled here since 1492. Among these we seem to have no insurmountable racial and religious barriers. A Mongolian and a Mohammedan may represent a high degree. of culture and civilization, but for the present, at least, the American does not wish these to be mixed with his own. His attitude may be provincial in the extreme, and future centuries may show him the error of his ways, but now he seems satisfied to be white in color and Christian as distinguished from Pagan, in faith. It is not my place here to argue concerning the reasonableness or unreasonableness of this position; it is simply to state the fact. Observations dependent upon this fact would furnish an interesting field of study. People whose lives do not come in touch with our foreign element know little about it, and have only the vaguest ideas concerning its numerical importance, or the variety of alien groups from European countries alone. Moreover the foreign languages spoken, including dialects, number more than one

1Mention has not been made of the thirteen million Negroes who are American citizens, despite their color, by the accident of slavery and its abolition, because there is no problem presented by present immigration of African Negroes.

hundred and present as many barriers between those who use them and the native Americans.

As has been said before, there are now in the country over seventeen million foreign born, and the overwhelming majority of these belong in the European groups. The total immigration recorded for the year ending in June 1921 is over eight hundred and five thousand. Deducting from this about one hundred and twenty-five thousand from non-European countries, we still have over six hundred and eighty thousand European entrants for the year. British North America, the West Indies, Mexico and the Orient sent their representatives, it is true, but the number is insignificant compared with those coming from Europe.

The following table shows the number entering from the leading European sources during the years 1907, 1914 and

It is a motley throng that has poured in from Europe in the last hundred years; and it represents varying grades of civilization and national ideals. Many have escaped from

oppression as well as from destitution, and are finding in the New World what was denied them in the Old. Others who have brought hatreds bred from injustice, see in government and our present industrial system only still further menaces to social well-being. But, on the whole, our European immigrants are adaptable and assimilable.

Certain of these alien groups have met strong prejudice, the most marked of which is the feeling against the Jews in those places where they form a large proportion of the population. But notwithstanding this, the Jews have made an important contribution to the cultural life of America. It is interesting to observe that religious beliefs, prejudices and loyalties constitute a frequent ground for antagonism among those whose inner lives are but slightly affected by the doctrines which they so tenaciously uphold.

DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE "OLD" AND

THE "NEW" IMMIGRATION

Writers on immigration have usually made for convenience a two-fold division into the "Old" and the "New" Immigration, the latter beginning in the early 1880's, because about that time, owing to certain political and economic conditions at home and abroad, the character of our immigration changed. The Old embraces those who came from northwestern Europe, -the New those from the southern and eastern parts of the continent. The British, the Scandanavian and the German people migrated to the United States in great numbers before 1880; to a smaller extent since. The Germans came to escape military service and to improve their economic status. The Scandanavians and British came for the better opportunities offered in the New World. These people were from countries having a very low rate of illiteracy, while these coming later represent a very high rate of illiteracy.

The following table2 illustrates the statement that has just been made for thirteen groups for a ten-year period, from 2 Fairchild: Immigration, page 198.