CHAPTER XI
PRESENT-DAY IMMIGRATION
If present-day immigration were the result of
personal initiative and voluntary action on the
part of the immigrant, the United States would
not now be receiving so large a volume. Upon
this there is virtually a unanimity of agreement
among the authorities on the subject.
It is believed by Professor Commons, for in
stance, that if it had been left to the initiative
of the immigrants themselves “ the flow of im
migration to America could scarcely ever have
reached one-half its actual dimensions.” He is
of the opinion that the desire to make a profit
upon the immigrants, to get cheap labour, and
to sell land have probably brought more to the
United States than the hard conditions of
Europe, Asia, and Africa have sent. He says
that the induced immigration has been as potent
as voluntary immigration and that it is to this
“ mercenary motive that we owe our manifold
variety of races, and especially our influx of back
ward races.”* The efforts of large employers
of labour and shipowners to attract and bring
them have been a most potent factor in flood
ing the domestic labour market with an over-
supply of low-wage workers.
* Commons: “ Races and Immigrants in America.”
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