SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF RECENT IMMIGRATION 49/
When a country in its nation building, however, uses
in the process thirty to forty races as material, it is of
the greatest importance to the country in question to
know what material is satisfactory and what is
not. It is reasonable to assume that out of so many
races now coming into the United States, some will
fail, some will fit in moderately well with the native
stock, while still others will be peculiarly adapted to
become a valuable part of the American racial
composition.
Viscount Bryce, in his study of American history,
in speaking of the effects of immigration puts the
question in this way: “Here we are met by a question
which has never arisen before, either on so great a
scale, or under conditions which enabled it to be so care
fully observed—a question needing examination by
physiologists and anthropologists as well as by histor
ians. There have been many cases of race intermixture,
but in extremely few of these have we statistical rec
ords sufficient to furnish data for scientific conclusions.
The problem may be stated as follows: When two or
Wore races mix their blood what is the comparative
importance of blood, i.e., of heredity, on the one hand,
and of environment on the other, in determining the
quality of the race which arises from the mixture?
* * * To what extent then will these racial tendencies
pass into and modify the American mass?
Reliable statistics along these lines are also impor
tant from the viewpoint of directing health campaigns
among different races.
Paupers
Altho in the earlier days before strict regulation
of immigration had been provided by law many poor