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IV
SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF RECENT IMMIGRATION
Difficulty of Special Studies
Many persons who have spoken and written of late
years in favor of restriction of immigration, have laid
great stress upon the evils to society arising from im
migration. They have claimed that disease, pauperism,
crime and vice have been greatly increased through the
incoming of the immigrants. Perhaps no other phase
of the question has aroused so keen feeling, and yet
perhaps on no other phase of the question has there
been so little accurate information.
It is doubtful whether the increased number of
convictions for crime are found because more crimes
are committed, or because our courts and the police
are more active. It is probable that we hear more of
vice and immorality in these late days, not because
they are on the increase, but because people’s con
sciences have become more sensitive, and in conse
quence greater efforts are made to suppress them.
It is certain that the injurious effect of most con
tagious diseases has been very greatly lessened, and
yet it is probable that we hear more regarding con
tagious diseases now than ever before because we have
become more watchful.
The data regarding contagious diseases, pauperism,
and crime, in connection with the immigrants, are
extremely meager and unsatisfactory; but the Immi
gration Commission made the best use possible of