The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1919-07-06
IMMIGRANT AND NATIVE
fNEw YORK TIMES,

When immigrants were coming up
the bay by the million, we held forth
the torch of our liberty and invited
them to share in the "bound1ess"
wealth Of the land Doubtless there
was measure of sincerity in the ges-
ture. But when they depart--as we
are officially assured that they are
now about TO depart--to the number
OF 100000. each with his store of
savings. we fall from the fraternal
attitude and begin to reckon our
economic losses in workers and in
capital. AS to the fun sincerity OF
this other mood there can be no ques-
ton. Meantime an element in the
situation which is perhaps the most
important OF all receives little or no
consideration
What would have happened II, dur
ing the century and a half Of our
national life. we had received no
immigration There is a school of
biological AXIOM that the rate Of
increase In population is determined
solely by the supply OF fertile land
food. OF the twenty millions who
have come to our shores Woodruff
says in his Expansion Of Races" that
they have prevented the birth of
twenty millions Of native born Ameri-
cans" There Is some warrant for
the statement, In Colonial American
, families the birth rate had been small
before leaving Great Britain, but In
creased amazingly on American soil.
all during the seventeenth and eigh-
/ teenth centuries. In 1851, when our
1 population was about one million.
I benjamin Franklin said that the i'm
MIGRANTS who had produced this
number were generally believed to
/ have mum bcred less than eighty thou
i sand--a gain of over twelvefold In
+ little more than century. In some
! parts OF the Colonies the people, with
! out the aid OF immigration, doubled
| in twenty five years, and there were
localities in which they doubled In
| less than twenty years Up to 1920
! the entire population of New England
! came from immigrants who number
! ed not over twenty thousand. These
mainly arrived between 1890 and
/ 1910. the immigration from 1910 to
| 1920 being virtually nil. Many WRIT
! ers, including Sydney c. Fisher. Ed
/, ward Jarvis, and General Francis
| Walker. have said that the subsequent
! checking in native growth came as
a result of the great wave Of immi-
grafton which began in 1920. II II
| had not been for this. they say, our
! from the elder stock, would now be
a great as, or even greater than, II
7 is
/ This weuld have meant. Of course
that our railways would have been
built and our factories manned by
erican lahorers. A doubt is per-
Missile, In spite OF the biological
| axiom" whether they would have
been forthcoming in sufficient num-
hers to accom- plish the results we have
today. a rise in the standards OF
| living. to say nothing OF increasing
| luxury. such as became inevitable
with the development OF the continent,
would probably have acted as a
| check on the birth rate But the
| slowing down OF our development
! might not have been an unmixed
! calamity. What we lost in the sum
/ total OF wealth we should probably
have gained in a more equitable dis
| tribution OF what we had-fewer
swollen fortunes and less poverty.
| One result of recruiting our popu-
| lation from foreign peoples has been
/ peculiarly unfortunate For an Eng
! lish speaking American to accept GER
tan forms OF hand labor is to fall
quite out of his natural sphere. Any
i form Of brain work, however humble
| or i'll paid, appears to be preferable.
We have thus vast numbers T.. middle
| class American living on salaries
actually less than the wages OF foreign
hand laborers. And among these
middle-class people the birth rate Is
alarmingly small. Above all, the un-
regulated influx of foreigners. ig-
norant of our ways, has brought a
loss in the vigor and integrity Of our
native institutions. Bolsheuism ana
socialism also very largely are the
product of the people who have been
welcomed by captains of industry in
tent on immediate material results.
Our lofty sentiments and our ma
te ialism are alike wounded by the
proposal to limit immigration by
means of selective tests. But II the
result is to convince our niddle-class
respectahlcs of the dignity and worth
OF hand labor and at the same time
to guard the integrity OF our free in
situations, there will be a compensa-
ton.