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.” 
200