WESTERN HEMISPHERE IMMIGRATION 427

ived in the present area of the United States was generally sparse or was concenirated
 in special districts. The Europeans who came to this country were settlers
who introduced their own civilization, who very rarely interbred with the Indian,
and who came in such a continuous and substantial volume that it required but
a short time for the population of European stock to equal and presently to outnumber
 the Indian stock, so that to-day the pure Indian stock and the white stock
having Indian intermixture is relatively and numerically insignificant.
At every point the Mexican development is in contrast. When the white man
arrived the native stocks were highly populous and inhabited the best lands of
the country. Since the Spanish invaders sought gold and not homes, very few
of their women ever went to Mexico. Indeed, many of the men returned to Spain
after a time. Immigrants from the other countries of Europe have been conspicuous
 by their absence. Indeed, but few European immigrants have gone to
Mexico in the century since the Mexican population achieved independence from
Spain. To-day, therefore, the population of pure Indian blood or of mixed Indian
blood outnumbers very greatly the pure European stock.
The few Spanish women in Mexico became the mothers of the pure creole stock,
which has never been very large. Beyond doubt the most frequent unions of the
Spanish men were with Indian women. The result was presently the beginning
of a new race of mixed Indian and white blood, called by the Spanish name of
mestizo. Since Spaniards from all parts of Spain mingled with Indian women of
many tribes having distinctive ethnological traits, some difference of type resulted.
By further intermarriage of Spaniards with Indian during the past century, or
of mestizo with Indian, the mixed-breed population has still further increased,
and (hrougheut the centuries there has been much intermarriage of mestizo with
mestizo.
Still other than Spanish or Indian elements have been present in Mexico.
During a period of about two centuries prior to 1817 there was some importation
of negroes to be used as slaves. They were largely males, a part of whom subsequently
 united with Indian women. So far as the negro stock persists to-day it is
in the so-called zambos, the offspring of crosses between Indian and black, and it
tends to be unrecognizably absorbed into the race stock of the country. Likewise,
 a considerable tide of oriental immigration has added to the color scheme.
It is evident, however, from what has been written that the stock of the Mexican
people is principally of mixed Indian blood. Since the process of fusion is still
zoing on, the stock is likely to become even more characteristically one of mixed
olood than it has been. It is entirely fitting, therefore, to call this stock Mexican,
However, if a color designation is used it is plainly a mistake to continue the com-22)
 practice of speaking of the stock as white, for its basis is more copper than
white.
Probably the tendency to call the stock white is explained in part by the fact
that the mestizo people, and even largely the pure Indians, not only speak Spanish
but have Spanish names. Furthermore, it may be explained by the fact that in
Mexico, as in Central and South America generally, the man of mixed breed
commonly identifies himself with the supposedly superior of the two strains
present in him. He claims, therefore, to be white rather than mixed or Indian.
But he is not white. According to the tests we apply in the United States to the
mulatto, the mestizo from Mexico is not white. Not expressly on grounds of
race, for race prejudice as it is known in this country and in other countries seems
scarcely to exist in Mexico, but on economic grounds, such as position, wealth,
or occupation, the mixed race, mestizo, is held in higher esteem than the Indian;
the creole sand the European white are held in higher esteem than the mixed.
There is thus an economic but not a race aristocracy, even though it be true that
sconomic and racial lines largely coincide. To us, such a situation is intolerable.
The existence or the adoption of such indifference toward racial inter-mixture in
this country would lead us perilouly near the brink of mongrelism, a danger we
aave been struggling to avoid in recent years. Yet the continued flow of Mexican
immigrants into this country can have no other biological result.
In industry in Mexico the Indians occupy the lowest places. They are farm
hands, unskilled laborers, mule drivers, factory hands, workers in the mines,
sometimes servants— ‘human beasts of burden”. They seem to be men of few
wants, apathetic, without ambition, not concerned with the future. Rarely do
they own land. They are improvident and prefer to work intermittently, getting
into debt with their employers, who thereby are enabled to hold them to their
estates. They are much given to drinking pulque, an intoxicating liquor,
The mestizos resemble the pure Indian in many respects. Most are of the peon
or labor class, but, like the white class above them, they often scorn manual labor.
They, too, are given to drinking pulaue. They are clannish, their lives being