SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF RECENT IMMIGRATION 69 
provements to be made in our immigration laws and 
in their administration, nevertheless at the present 
time there is no serious danger to be apprehended im 
mediately from the social defects of the immigrants, 
as has already been shown in this chapter. The num 
ber of persons afflicted with contagious diseases or in 
sanity, or the number of paupers or criminals arriving, 
taking them as individuals, is very large, but taken 
as a percentage of the entire number coming is so 
small that too much heed need not be paid to it. Of 
course, this does not mean that we ought not to make 
every effort possible to lessen still further these evils. 
Every effort possible should be made, and special 
emphasis should be placed upon caring for the im 
migrants after their arrival, in order to bring them 
as soon as possible into harmony with our best in 
stitutions. But these evils should not blind our eyes to 
those of more far-reaching import. 
The chief danger of immigration lies, not in this 
direction, but in the field of industry. When immi 
grants who are unskilled laborers arrive in so large 
numbers that the tendency is for them to lower the 
average rate of wages and the standard of living 
among the wage-earners, the danger is one much more 
far-reaching, and one to which our statesmen should 
give earnest attention. This includes indirectly often 
social effects as well. A number of later chapters will 
serve to show how imminent this industrial danger is, 
m what form it appears, and the way in which it 
should be met. 
"Ibis, rather than the immediate social evils, is the 
most difficult phase of the immigration problem, and 
at the moment it is the most important phase. It is 
this that calls for prompt legislation.