\ 
 
FACTS in a NUTSHELL 
 
 About Immigration 
 Yellow and Whit 
 
 BY 
 
 ARETAS W. THOMAS 
 
 FIFTEEN CENTS 
 
 e Columbia Psblishiig Co. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C, 
 
 W» & <u^r^' 
 
 n 
 
Facts in a Nutshell About 
 Immigration, Yellow and White 
 
 ... BY ... 
 
 ARETAS W. THOMAS 
 
 Author of 
 
 'Democracy and Direct legislation," 
 
 "The Philippines and the Purpose/' 
 
 etc., etc., etc 
 
 FIFTEEN CENTS 
 
 THE COLUMBIA PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
,-cs 
 
 Copyright, 1912 
 By Aretas W. Tho 
 
THE VITAL ISSUE 
 
 The most important issue of this 
 presidential campaign is the ques- 
 tion of immigration. It is the most 
 important question because it tends 
 to settle what kind of people shall 
 make up the population of this 
 country at the present time and in 
 times to come. The kind of people 
 there are in the country inevitably 
 determines the kind of civilization, 
 the standards of life, industrial and 
 social, the kind of government and 
 liberty, the measure of progress 
 and happiness which shall prevail 
 here now and hereafter. It is the 
 basic issue of all questions now 
 pending before the American peo- 
 ple. Every voter should, first of all, 
 pay attention to the record, and 
 views upon immigration of each 
 candidate for whom he is to vote in 
 (the coming election, including the 
 office of the President and all sub- 
 ordinate officeholders. 
 
 266904 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2007 with funding from 
 
 Microsoft Corporation 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/factsinnutshellaOOthomrich 
 
THE 
 
 YELLOW 
 
 IMMIGRATION 
 
Facts in a Nutshell About 
 Immigration, Yellow and White 
 
 ONE. 
 
 "I can and do declare as the ac- 
 credited Ambassador of my Emperor at 
 Washington, that the relations between 
 the two governments are as friendly 
 -as at any moment in history," said 
 Ambassiador Aoki, of Japan, in 1907. 
 "The factors in the peaceful resolution 
 of the racial differences will be com- 
 merce and marriage. " * * ■* "The 
 instruments by which that is brought 
 about are chiefly the two I have named 
 — the process of trade and the institution 
 of marriage." 
 
 This declaration by a high official rep- 
 resenting a government of fifty million 
 Yellow Type men (Japanese), is worthy 
 of consideration. 
 
 Asiatic immigration presents two 
 phases, the economic and the ethnic. 
 Here, in brief, is the economic phase. 
 There are twice as many Yellow men 
 (Chinese, Japanese, 'Hindoos, etc.) as 
 
8 The: Yexlow Immigration 
 
 there ar e White men in the world and 
 ten times as many as there are White 
 men in the United States. A large share 
 of the Yellow men are crowded into 
 densely over-populated areas in Eastern 
 and Southeastern Asia, living in abject 
 poverty under social and political condi- 
 tions unknown in the Western Hemis- 
 phere. In no other portions of Asia are 
 there sufficient unoccupied and desirable 
 lands to support these surplus and needy 
 millions of Yellow men. On this side 
 of the earth, and to a considerable ex- 
 tent in the United States, are vast areas 
 of vacant and sparsely settled lands, 
 fertile and with climatic conditions of 
 the best. 
 
 Until very recent times natural bar- 
 riers — oceans, mountains, deserts, incon- 
 veniences of travel and transportation — 
 combined with racial hostilities and dis- 
 tinctions, have tended, in the mrn, to 
 keep aloof the Yellow and the White 
 man. But modern methods of travel 
 and communication have surmounted 
 such barriers and have bridged dis- 
 tances so tjhat practically thev are neigh- 
 bors. 
 
 As for the ethnic phase : Naturalists 
 assert that every member of each of he 
 five great types of men, migrations 
 
The; YEUvOw Immigration 9 
 
 aside, is born in a distinct zoological 
 realm. As declared by Professor A. H. 
 Keame, author of "Man Past and Pres- 
 ent," the human varieties "are the out- 
 come of their several environments. 
 They are what climate, soil, diet, purr 
 suits and inherited characteristics have 
 made of them. So that all sudd'en transi- 
 tions are usually followed by disastrous 
 results." Through evolution in habi- 
 tats under action and reaction of the 
 laws of heredity and environment each 
 great type has developed its own char- 
 acteristics and civilization. This is Na- 
 ture's first law regarding the genesis of 
 man. 
 
 The amalgamation of any two great 
 types of men produces offspring inferior 
 to the normal development of the higher 
 race and incapacitated to sustain the 
 best characteristics and powers of the 
 lower type. This is demonstrated b) 
 Herbert Sp-encer and other physicists, 
 and is apparent to the ordinary ob- 
 server. This is Nature's second law oi 
 the genesis of man. 
 
 It is folly to imagine that this coun- 
 try by a "melting pot" process can gen- 
 erate out of diverse types a new arid su- 
 perior type of man. Such an amalga- 
 
io The: Yexlow Immigration 
 
 mation would mean mongrelism, the de- 
 struction of the Republic, and' the doom 
 of progressive civilization. 
 
 One-tenth of the population of this 
 country (mainland) are negroes. And 
 by race fusion one-third of these negroes 
 are of mixed white and black parentage, 
 or descent. Where any two great types 
 of men live in the same area this blood 
 •mingling goes on — regardless of social 
 or political conditions, or marriage laws 
 even. Millions of Yellow-type people 
 will seek to gain entrance here in no 
 distant future, and unless debarred ad- 
 mittance, the inevitable results of their 
 presence would follow. 
 
TWO. 
 
 For more than a quarter of a cen- 
 tury following the beginning, in i860, 
 of Chinese immigration, and the conse- 
 quent presence in our Pacific Slope 
 areas, from year to year, of one hundred 
 thousand or more of Chinese coolies, 
 unceasing appeals were made to Con- 
 gress for an Exclusion Act, arid frequent 
 anti-Chinese riots took place. The en- 
 tire nation discussed the "Chinese 
 question/' 
 
 Finally, in 1888, a treaty was made 
 with China providing for the future ex- 
 clusion of all Chinese except "govern- 
 ment officials, teachers, students, mer- 
 chants, or travelers for pleasure or cu- 
 riosity," which policy has been contin- 
 uously maintained. 
 
 The number of Chinese now in this 
 country (mainland) is officially stated 
 to be less than one hundre'd thousand. 
 But this statement is often disputed and 
 the claim is made that the present Chi- 
 nese population is much greater than 
 that, even more than before the treaty 
 was made. The presence in many cities 
 of the East, as well as in the Pacific 
 Slope, of great numbers of Chinese 
 
12 Thk Yellow Immigration 
 
 many years too young to have been born 
 in this country, emphasizes the state- 
 ments often made by Federal officials 
 that in innumerable ways our Chinese 
 Exclusion laws are being constantly 
 evaded. 
 
 From the presence of a comparatively 
 small number of Chinese great evils 
 arose in our industrial system, and it is 
 evident if our exclusion policy against 
 them is relaxed or abandoned millions 
 of China's surplus population will eagerly 
 seek permanent homes here and become 
 a menace to the White race and to West- 
 ern civilization. 
 
 Prior to ten years ago few Japanese 
 came to this country. Roughly esti- 
 mated their number in 1909 was offi- 
 cially given as about one hundred thou- 
 sand in the Continental United States, 
 but this estimate is claimed to be not 
 nearly large enough. Whether their 
 number is now decreasing or increasing 
 is vehemently disputed. Unlike the 
 Chinese the Japanese often bring their 
 families and are generally desirous of 
 becoming permanent residents and citi- 
 zens. 
 
 Strenuous objections against the Ja- 
 panese are maintained on the Pacific 
 
This Yellow Immigration 13 
 
 Slope, even more pronounced, in some 
 ways than those put forth against the 
 Chinese. The Japanese are not merely 
 wage competitors with the White lab- 
 orers, but they are competitors with the 
 White farmers in the possession, by 
 lease or otherwise, of considerable areas 
 of the choicest fruit lands of that region, 
 and to a great extent control that indus- 
 try, and are dangerous competitors in 
 many forms of commercial enterprises 
 also. Their unassimilable ways of life, 
 building up in many places in country, 
 towns and cities centres of Oriental civ- 
 ilzation, are hostile and fatal to Ameri- 
 can institutions ; and are most strongly 
 denounced by the people and press of 
 the Far West states. 
 
 The alien, non-landing holding, and 
 the Segregation acts sought to be passed 
 by several of the Pacific states; the San 
 Francisco school difficulty about Ja- 
 panese pupils in schools there, becoming 
 matters of international importance, and 
 demanding the intervention of the past 
 and the present Federal Administration 
 at Washington, are recent and well- 
 known symptoms of the trouble that will 
 not clown between the White men of the 
 Pacific Slope and the Japanese resi- 
 dents there. And thus, the "J a P an " 
 
14 The Yellow Immigration 
 
 ese Question, " one phase merely of the 
 problem of Asiatic immigration, looms 
 up prodigous, circling on our Western 
 confines and out over the bosom of the 
 Pacific like a world' eruptive cyclone of 
 war. 
 
THREE. 
 
 In Japan the birth rate largely ex- 
 ceeds the death rate. Every year about 
 seven hundred thousand round faced, 
 slant-eyed babies there bloom forth into 
 light and life in excess of the number 
 of weary, pallid' humans who fade away 
 into the 'darkness and so-called nothing- 
 ness O'f death. The total area of Japan 
 is about equal to two-thirds of the area 
 of California, but only one-sixth of this 
 area, equal to the combined size of New 
 Hampshire and Vermont, is tillable land 
 — on which must be raised food for 
 fifty millions of people. Where is this 
 rapidly increasing surplus population of 
 Japan to find dwelling place and susten- 
 ance ? 
 
 The combined area of Japan, Korea, 
 and the Chinese Empire and India 
 makes up about one-tenth of the land' 
 area of the globe, and therein dwell 
 one-half the population of the earth. 
 Large areas of China and Iridia have a 
 density population per square mile of 
 fully five 'hundred people ; and Japan has 
 at least an average population per square 
 mile of three hundred and thirty. 
 
 The average population per square 
 
1 6 The: Yeuw>w Immigration 
 
 mile of the United States, exclusive of 
 Alaska, is one hundred and twenty-two; 
 and the three States of Washington, 
 Oregon and California, containing a 
 total population of three millions, have 
 an average per square mile population 
 of nine persons only. Between the peo- 
 ple of this Pacific Slope of ours and the 
 needy seven hundred and 1 fifty millions 
 of people above named rolls th easily 
 traversed waters of the Pacific. 
 
 How long will Japan with her crowd- 
 ed millions of surplus people, war-like, 
 ambitious, vivified by the pulse of mod- 
 ern progress and invention, and by 
 successful warfare, be content to be 
 held confined within such narrow and 
 congested limits? 
 
 There is no room for this surplus 
 population of Japan in Asia. China 
 with a population eight times greater 
 than Japan, also awakened to the need- 
 and power of modern civilization, can 
 not firid in all the Asiatic mainland 
 room for the necessities and develop- 
 ment of her own people. The nomin- 
 ally Chinese province of Manchuria 
 has an average population of seventy 
 per square mile; and 1 it is to a great ex- 
 tent commercially and otherwise con- 
 
The: YfXU)w Immigration 17 
 
 trolled by Russia and Japan, and all the 
 Western Powers, including our own 
 country, are seeking to exploit or pos- 
 sess these areas. 
 
 Siberia to the Northward, the natural 
 outlet for China's development, is held 
 by the White Empire of Russia. India 
 crowded to the starvation point offers 
 no field for Japanese or Chinese devel- 
 opment, and the regions beyond the 
 Himalayas to the West and Northwest 
 are for the most part occupied or im- 
 possible of conquest and utilization by 
 either or these natons. 
 
 The white nations have partitioned 
 anion? themselves all Africa, except the 
 Moorish States on the Mediterranean, 
 and they guard all access to any desir- 
 able areas in the interior of the Dark 
 Continent. If the Yellow man seeks an 
 outlet in Africa he will have to fight 
 the Whites and exterminate the Blacks. 
 
 There remains in the Eastern Hemi- 
 sphere only the island areas of the In- 
 dian and Pacific Oceans — the Malayan 
 group, New Guinea, Borneo, the Philip- 
 pines, Australia, New Zealand, and the 
 small and far off isles of the Mid and 
 West Pacific, including Hawaii. In all 
 of these no adequate relief could be 
 
1 8 The Yellow Immigration 
 
 found for the dire need of Asiatics even 
 if it were possible to wrest them from 
 White control. Nothing is left, there- 
 fore, for the Yellow man but the vast 
 and unoccupied or sparsely settled areas 
 across the Pacific in North and South 
 America. Here is the outlet the Yellow 
 races must inevitably strive to acquire, 
 either by industrial or warlike invasion 
 — and the industrial invasion has been 
 for some time in progress. 
 
FOUR. 
 
 Gladstone said, "the Chinaman is 
 penalized for his virtues/' — referring to 
 industrial characteristics merely. As a 
 wage worker his tireless industry, 
 ceaseless patience, and almost universal! 
 
 •Captation to diverse climes and em- 
 loyments, coupled with his frugal 
 abits and low standard of living, en- 
 bles him to underbid the White work- 
 lan. The Chinese merchant also, pos- 
 sessing similar "virtues/' can undersell 
 the White merchant in many places. 
 
 The situation in Hawaii illustrates 
 the effect of unchecked Asiatic immi- 
 gration. Hawaii, the "Outpost Isle of 
 the Sea," was acquired in order to pro- 
 tect our Pacific Coast from possible ag- 
 gression from any Asiatic or other 
 power. In 1900 the population was one 
 hundred and fifty- four thousand, one- 
 fourth of which was native or half- 
 breed Hawaian, another fourth mixed 
 European, and the remaining half 
 Asiatic, mostly Japanese and Chinese. 
 There were forty-four thousand' Japa- 
 nese males over the age of eighteen 
 years included in this enumeration. 
 The Report of the Department of 
 
20 The: Yellow Immigration 
 
 Commerce and Labor for 189S6 cited 
 the views of the Honolulu Merchants' 
 Association, wherein it was said, "this 
 country has been inundated with an in- 
 flux of Asiatic population that threatens 
 to ^undermine its political security as 
 far as the ascendency and control of 
 the White race is concerned." 
 
 And to this declaration the repo: 
 mentioned above added. 'The two n 
 tionalities differ in race, and their hi 
 tory and traditions have nothing in com- 
 mon. They differ widely in their ex- 
 perience of political institutions. They 
 differ radically in their spiritual ideals 
 and 1 their religious beliefs. They differ 
 wholly in their moral and s ocia l con- 
 ventions, their philosophy of life, and in 
 their habits of thought." * * * "The 
 second generation of Asiatics, therefore, 
 however much in such a community 
 they may conform to American business 
 customs, remain alien in thought and 
 sympathy." 
 
 The Japanese especially have driven 
 out the Whites from various lines of 
 commerce and industry, even where 
 caoital amd technical skill is essential. 
 "The flowing out of the Caucasian pop- 
 ulation almost as rapidly as it is re- 
 
Ha 
 
 rive 
 
 Thk Yixlow Immigration 21 
 
 cruite'd is one of the most serious prob- 
 lems," declares the Report of the Immi- 
 gration Commission submitted to Con- 
 gress in December last. 
 
 The Stars and Stripes float over 
 Hawaii, but practically Hawaii is an 
 prientai possession, industrially domi- 
 ted by Asiatics. 
 
 On the other side of the globe, almost 
 ectly beneath the volcanic base of 
 awaii, lies the Island of Mauritius, 
 ive hundred and fifty miles from the 
 East coast of Africa, the "Half-way 
 House ,, between the Yellow and Dark 
 Continent. For three hundred years 
 settled and controlled in turn by Dutch, 
 French, and English peoples, it is to- 
 day, iiinder the flag of Great Britain, by 
 reason of Asiatic immigration and coin- 
 Detition, an Oriental colony. . Great 
 Britain with her mighty navy can there 
 preserve political authority. But it is 
 now in the power of Japan, if she de- 
 sires, to take possession of Hawaii — 
 and, in such case, in fhe tropic sunlight, 
 there on so-called American soil, thou- 
 sands of Japanese swords would flash out 
 welcome and allegiance to the Mikado. 
 
FIVE. 
 
 Wherever Chinese and Japanese are 
 allowed to enter and compete in trade 
 and industry with native or with Whites 
 in 'any of the European possessions and 
 dependencies in the Eastern Hemisphere, 
 such as the Federated Malay States. 
 the Straits Settlements, the islands pi 
 New Guinea, Borneo, etc., the invar lab' J* 
 result is that they lower the wage star.i 
 ard of White Laborers and undermine the 
 White merchants and tradesmen, and, if 
 uninterrupted, gain possession of the 
 entire field. 
 
 Baron Alexander Von Huber, former 
 Ambassador to France, after a trip 
 around the world in 1885 declared' in a 
 public address in Vienna that the Chi- 
 nese were supplanting the European 
 wherever the races were brought togeth- 
 er, and detailed numerous and unques- 
 tionable instances of such facts. 
 
 In a recent work entitled "The Mast- 
 ery of the Pacific," by Colquhon, the 
 author referring comprehensively to the 
 condition in the Federated Malay States, 
 the Stra ; ts Settlements, the city and 
 port of Singapore, etc., shows "the 
 
 p 
 
g 
 
 Thk Yellow Immigration 23 
 
 significant development there in the 
 gradually encroaching wealth, power and 
 number of Chinese there." 
 
 The disastrous effects of industrial 
 and commercial competition between the 
 Yellow and the W'hite races are every- 
 where seen when they come in contact in 
 he Old World. By sheer peristence 
 fie Yellow tide undermines the White 
 [ivilization. 
 
 Since the American domination over 
 the Ph:4ippines many army and civil of- 
 ficials there in command have officially 
 re-ported against the presence of Chi- 
 nese in that Archipelago. General Mc- 
 Arthur, as military governor of t.iose 
 islands declared, "such a people, largely 
 endowed as they are with inexhaustible 
 fortitude and determination, if admitted 
 to the archipelago in any considerable 
 numbers during the formative period 
 which is now in process of evolution 
 would scon -have direct or indirect con- 
 trol of pretty nearly every -productive 
 interest, to the absolute exclusion alike 
 of Filipinos arfd Amercians." 
 
 Great evils arose from Chinese im- 
 migration and competition in the islands 
 all through the Spanish occupancy of 
 the same. At the present time the Chi- 
 
24 The Yellow Immigration 
 
 nese exclusion laws have been extended 
 to the Philippines ; but Secretary Strauss 
 recommended a change in that policy as 
 far as those islands were concerned, and 
 there is a persistent demand from 
 monopolistic interests for the leintroduc- 
 tion of Chinese labor there. 
 
 The Australian Colonies have constant- 
 ly sought to exclude Asiatics. In th^ 
 earlier days their exclusion statute: 
 were directed against Chinese, and eacl 
 Chinaman on landing there had to pay 
 i poll tax. in many instances as high as 
 me hundred pounds sterling; and strict 
 tonnage taxes and supervision of ves- 
 - -Is bringing them were enforced. Later 
 Dii when the Japanese and other Asiatics 
 egan to seek entrance the statutes ran 
 :, i some of the Colonies against the ad- 
 mission of all "Asiatics," and the word' 
 ' \siatic" was defined to mean "any 
 " vtive of any part of Asia, or the islands 
 Ijacent to Asia or in Asiatic seas, and 
 " e descendants of such natives;" but 
 • d not include persons of European or 
 wish extraction, nor Hindoos. 
 More recently all these Colonies en- 
 ted an educational or "illiteracy" test 
 iuiring every male adult immigrant to 
 L : able to read attd write in some Euro- 
 
 \> 
 
I 
 
 The: Ykw>w Immigration 25 
 
 p?an language, the effect of which ex- 
 cludes nearly all Japanese and other 
 Asiatics. This requirement wias adbpt- 
 ed by the Commonwealth of Australia 
 when the Colonies became federated, and 
 is now the law of the Australian Con- 
 tinent. Such an "illiteracy" test if 
 adopted here woul'd check, for a time at 
 least, Asiatic immigration and shut out 
 much undesirable immigration from 
 Europe. 
 
SIX. 
 
 The Asiatic exclusion laws of the 
 Australian Colonies, and now of the 
 Commonwealth of Australia itself, had ! 
 back of them the 'universal determi- 
 nation of the people to preserve there 
 ; the A-nglo-iSlaxon civilization. The j^ 
 Asiatic exclusion of New Zealand omj 
 1885 declared its purpose to be "to* 
 safeguard the race purity of the people 
 of New Zealand by preventing the in- 
 flux of persons of an alien race. 
 
 "It is our d'uty", declared Sir Henry 
 Parks, Lieutenant Governor of New 
 South Wales, in tan address in 1888 be- 
 fore the Immigration Conference of 
 representatives of all the Australian 
 Colonies, "to preserve the type of the 
 British Nation, and we ought not for any 
 consideration whatever to admit »any ele- 
 ment that would detract from, or any 
 appreciable degree lower that admir- 
 able type of nationality." 
 
 "We should not encourage or admit 
 amongst us any class of persons 
 whatever whom we are not prepared' 
 to advance to all our franchises, to 
 all our privileges as citizens, and all 
 
The: Yexu>w Immigration 27 
 
 our social rights, including the right 
 of marriage. I maintain that no class 
 of persons should be admitted here, so 
 far as we can reasonably exclude chem 
 who can not come amongst us, take 
 up all our rights, perform on a ground 
 of equality »all our duties, and share in 
 our august and lofty work of found L 
 ing a free nation. " 
 
 "We can not patiently stand to be 
 treated 1 with the frozen indifference of 
 persons who consider some 'petty quar- 
 rel in a petty state of more importance 
 than the gigantic interests of these 
 magnificent colonies." 
 
 "Neither for Her Majesty's ships, 
 nor for Her Majesty's representatives 
 on the spot, nor for the Secretary of 
 State for the Colonies, do we intend to 
 turn aside from our purpose, which is 
 to terminate the landing of Chinese on 
 these shores forever, except under the 
 restrictions imposed by the Bill, which 
 will amount, and which are intended to 
 amount to practical prohibition." 
 
 And this was not said in a spirit of 
 detraction as regards the Chinese, for he 
 adds, "The Chinese are a superior peo- 
 ple. The influx of a few million of Chi- 
 nese would entirely change the char- 
 
28 The Yexlow Immigration 
 
 acter of the Australian Commonwealth. 
 I wish to preserve the type of my own 
 nation in these far countries." 
 
 The British Crown has power to ap- 
 prove or disapprove of measures en- 
 acte'd by the colonial legislatures af- 
 fecting the relations or intercourse of 
 such colonies with foreign nations. At 
 first Royal assent to the exclusion laws 
 of the Australian Colonies was with- 
 held. But there arose from the mass of 
 the people all through the Colonies, 
 from the legislative and civic bodies 
 everywhere, and even from the gov- 
 ernors of the Colonies placed there by 
 the Crown, such out-spoken and 1 deter- 
 mined opposition and defiance to the 
 Imperial policy that Royal Assent was 
 finally given to such measures — for to 
 refuse such assent would have, in all 
 probability, resulted in the withdrawal 
 of the Colonies from the British Em- 
 pire itself. 
 
 It is evident that the Yellow Man can 
 not, except by force of arms, gain ac- 
 cess to the vast and vacant areas of 
 Australia. 
 
 The mysterious alliance, on paper, at 
 least, between Great Britain and Japan 
 has back of it, no doubt, the anxiety of 
 
The YexivOw Immigration 29 
 
 the Mother Country to conserve and 1 
 guartl' her White Colonies from en- 
 croachments on part of puissant Japan. 
 
SEVEN. 
 
 When the Dutch Burghers migrated 
 to South Africa, and, from time to time 
 with their families and household goods 
 loaded on wagons, driving: their flocks 
 and herd along, "treked" back into the 
 Veldt so as to be by, themselves, no Yel- 
 low man appeared within their horizon. 
 
 But later on, by reason of the coming 
 into the Transvaal of Chinese, East 
 Indians (Hindoos) strenuous Asiatic 
 restriction laws were passed. The 
 "Volksraad Resolution" of 1885 denied 
 to Asiatics the right to own lands, re- 
 quired all those doing a trading busi- 
 ness to register; and to pay twenty-five 
 pounds sterling for a registration cer- 
 tificate ; and' provided various segrega- 
 tion and "bazaar" laws against them. 
 These rigorous provisions were some- 
 what relaxed during a portion of the 
 Kruger Adminstration, but under the 
 British rule similar enactments, includ- 
 ing Hindoos of High and' Low caste 
 alike were made; and thumb-print 
 identification marks required to be made 
 on such certificates issued to them. 
 This policy brought great dissatisfac- 
 
The: Yellow Immigration 31 
 
 tion not only among the East Indians 
 in South Africa but in India itself. 
 
 But as Sir Arthur Lawley, Lieuten- 
 ant Governor of the Transvaal, in an 
 official communication to His Majesty's 
 Government, in 1904, declared — "It is 
 true that the British Government have 
 laid down 'that there shall not be in the 
 eye of the law any distinction or dis- 
 qualification whatever founded on mere 
 distinction of colour, origin, language, 
 or creed'; but the history of South 
 Africa has been such as to set up an im- 
 passable barrier between the European 
 and the coloured races." 
 
 "The problem does not begin and end 
 with a shop keeper's quarrel, but is more 
 far reaching than the question whether 
 this country shall be governed by Eng- 
 lishmen or Boers." * * * * "It is 
 really prompted by the instinct of pres- 
 ervation in the minds of the European 
 trading community." 
 
 A*t one time in the Transvaal Chinese 
 coolies were brought in under a strict 
 indenture system and kept at close con- 
 finement at work in the Rand gold 
 mines, but they have now all been sent 
 back to China and the most rigorous 
 Asiatic exclusion laws, including the 
 
32 The Yellow Immigration 
 
 educational or "illiteracy" test, now 
 prevail in all of the British South Afri- 
 can Colonies. 
 
 Until within recent years the colony 
 of Natal permitted East Indians to come 
 there under the indenture system, and at 
 the expiration of the indenture time al- 
 lowed them to remain. In consequence 
 of this policy Natal was long called "the 
 Back Door" of Africa, becaiuse these 
 East Indians (Hindoos) were wont to 
 stray over into the other Colonies of 
 South Africa. These East Indians be- 
 came numerous and prosperous; but 
 their lower standard of living proved 
 disastrous to the Whites. Their sta- 
 tus was such that they could do prac- 
 tically anything that an Englishman 
 could do, skilled labor, clerical work, 
 and the operation of factories, etc. In 
 this way Natal became to a great ex- 
 tent "Orientalized." As described by 
 Sir Arthur Lawley in an official dis- 
 patch in 1904, "so prevalent is the In- 
 d'ian element in that country (Natal) 
 that the moment one crosses the Trans- 
 vaal border he loses the impression that 
 he is traveling in an European country 
 at all." 
 
EIGHT. 
 
 In 1885 the Dominion of Canada 
 passed a law requiring every Chinese 
 immigrant to pay a head tax of fifty 
 dollars, and in 1896 this tax was in- 
 creased to five hundred dollars. But 
 treaty relations between the British Gov- 
 ernment and 1 Japan do not permit Can- 
 ada to place restrictions upon Japanese 
 immigration. 
 
 Conditions due to such immigration 
 in the Pacific sections of the Canadian 
 Dominion, especially, have arisen simi- 
 lar to those in the Pacific Slope of the 
 United States. Restrictive lesislation 
 on part of some of the Canadian Prov- 
 inces applicable to Japanese and other 
 Asiatics in their several areas has been 
 passed; protests and petitions in great 
 numbers against such immigration have 
 been presented to the Ottawa Govern- 
 ment, and riots and hostile acts against 
 members of those races have taken 
 place on several occasions. 
 
 For ten years or more the legislative 
 assembly of British Columbia passed 
 various labor regulations providing 
 that no Chinese or Japanese should be 
 
34 The: Yellow Immigration 
 
 employed on any public works, or that 
 ever} 7 ; workman employed on such works 
 should be able to read in soim 
 European language. 
 
 Sanction to each of these Acts has 
 been successively refused' by the Ex- 
 ecutive authority of the Dominion Gov- 
 ernment, and the Imperial Government 
 of Great Britain, itself, has officially 
 remonstrated with the authorities of 
 British Columbia against the enactment 
 of such measures. Nevertheless, year 
 after year, that province has defiantly 
 enacted such Acts — so irresistible has 
 been the sentiment of the people there 
 against the immigration and presence of 
 Asiatics. 
 
 The Report of the Royal Commis- 
 sion on Chinese and Japanese Immi- 
 gration, filed in 1902, says, "All that has 
 been said in this regard with reference 
 to the Chinese applies with eqfual, if not 
 greater force, to the Japanese." * * * 
 "The consensus of opinion of the peo- 
 ple of British Columbia is that they lo 
 not and' can not assimilate with White 
 people, and that while in some respects 
 they are less undesirable than the Chi- 
 nese, in that they adopt more readily our 
 habits of life and spend more of their 
 
The: Yeux»w Immigration 35 
 
 earnings in this country, yet in all that 
 goes to make for the permanent settle- 
 ment of the couotryi they are quite as 
 serious a menance as the Chinese and 
 keener competitors against working- 
 men, and as they have more energy, 
 push and independence, more dangerous 
 in this regard than the Chinese." 
 
 In 1902 Great Britain secured from 
 the Mikado a "Restrictive Agreement" 
 regudating the migration of Japanese 
 laborers to Canada. Later on, when 
 the influx of Japanese immigration was 
 renewed 1 , to petitions, protests and anti- 
 Japanese legislation on part of the 
 Western Provinces of Canada, there 
 followed at Vancouver and other places 
 riots and life destroying assaults upon 
 both Japanese and Hindoos. At the 
 same time at Bellingham, and at other 
 places on the American side of the line 
 the White men there maltreated' and 
 murdered their Yellow brothers because 
 of the undesired presence, debasing 
 competition, and Oriental ways that do 
 not fit in with a White Man's civiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 This fact stands out, regardless of all 
 industrial and 1 social differences, wher- 
 ever around the world the Wihite and 
 
36 The Yellow Immigration 
 
 Yellow man attempt to live in the same 
 habitat, they disagree — and they can't 
 help it. 
 
NINE, 
 
 Samuel Tilden once said, "The Mon- 
 roe Doctrine might be a good thing if 
 any one could find out what it was." 
 
 The Monroe Doctrine has been ia grad- 
 ual growth, a political evolution. It has 
 potencies sufficient to protect, if need 
 be, the soil and institutions of the New 
 World from encroachments by any 
 European power, and to prevent the 
 establishment in the New World of any 
 Oriental civilization. 
 
 Some of the South American repub- 
 lics, and even our neighbor Mexico, are 
 granting lands to Asiatics for coloniza- 
 tion, and are opening to them industrial 
 opportunities and resources. In a 
 purely industrial way important areas 
 may thus become "Orientalized" if un- 
 restricted migration of Asiatics should 
 be long continued 
 
 In a militant way also what is to hin- 
 der Japan, for instance, if she sees fit, 
 from securing political control or pos- 
 session of some South American areas. 
 It would be easy for her to pick a quar- 
 rel with some one of these republics; 
 to bombard its ports, to sieze its coast 
 cities, or even to invade the mainland 
 
38 The Yexlow Immigration 
 
 and entrench its forces there. Japan 
 might readily enough ally herself, more- 
 over, with some one of the contending 
 factions that are sometimes waring 
 upon each other in some of these tc- 
 puiblics in South or Central America, or 
 even in Mexico, and dominate peoples 
 and civilizations there. The filling up 
 of such areas with millions of Japanese 
 and erecting an Asiatic civilization 
 might follow therefrom. 
 
 Count Okama, an important progres- 
 sive leader in Japan, in 1907, said that 
 Japanese -migration should be directed 
 towards the coasts of Chili, Peru and 
 Mexico, rather than to Brazil, because 
 the countries named were much easier 
 "to include within the sphere of the in- 
 fluence of Japan in the future ;" and he 
 added the specific declaration that the 
 "military and naval forces of Japan are 
 not for ornament, but for use, and that 
 the west coast of South America is with- 
 in our sphere of influence. " Similar as- 
 sertions have been made by other Jap- 
 anese statesmen, and the attitude of the 
 Japanese Government in many w.ays 
 manifests that policy. 
 
 Baron Kiyoura, ex-minister of ag- 
 riculture and commerce of Japan, in a 
 
Ths Yeux>w Immigration 39 
 
 magazine article some three years ago, 
 declared himself to be in favor of 
 changing the insular habit and sentiment 
 o,f the Japanese people so that Japan 
 might become a world power, andl to 
 that end he favored the selection of 
 South America as a site for colonial enr 
 terprise, and said it "would offer a fruit- 
 ful field for our exploitation, for in that 
 country there is no keen competition, 
 nor any particular anti-Asiatic fever 
 such .as one finds on the Pacific Coast 
 of North America. Hostility toward 
 immigration in general, and against the 
 yellow race in particular, does not seem 
 to exist in those roomy states of South 
 America." And he urged the establish- 
 ment of a line of Japanese steamships 
 to run to South American ports as a 
 means to such end ; all of which has been 
 done. 
 
 Which is the wiser policy, to tempo- 
 rize with the trend of events that lead 
 to the irresistible conclusion that Ori- 
 ental races and civilizations, peacefully 
 if they can, forcibly if they must, will 
 seek lodgment in and control of areas 
 in the Western Hemisphere, or to say 
 at once, "This side of the globe shall 
 remain white!" 
 
TBN. 
 
 It is often sai'ds that our trade relations 
 with the East are dependent upon our 
 free maintenance of Asiatic immigra- 
 tion to this country. In the early colo- 
 nial days it was urged that trade with 
 Africa and the West Indies demanded 
 the bringing into this country of African 
 slaves. All the world knows the results 
 of that dc-ctrine and that practice. 
 
 Trade between this country and Great 
 Britain, or France, or Germany, be- 
 tween nations of like civilization, does 
 and alwiays will surpass any possible 
 trade to be gained with Oriental coun- 
 tries. The relatively small commerce 
 that we carry on with China and Ja- 
 pan is mostly raw materials, such as 
 lumber, kerosene oil, iron ores, etc. ; 
 things which we need ourselves, or of 
 which in the near future we shall need 
 at home, and which even now we are 
 trying to conserve for the generations 
 to come. The day is nearly gone when 
 we have an excess of food products to 
 spare, and cotton is about the only great 
 agricultural staple of which we can have 
 any considerable surplus for export. 
 
 Most of the other things we send 
 
Th£ YKUvOw Immigration 41 
 
 there consist of machinery, equipments, 
 etc., which both China and! Japan are 
 beginning to use in a productive way. 
 When the eastern people have gener- 
 ally adopted the ways of the western 
 civilization, in dress, diet, and articles 
 of pleasure (if they ever do), they will 
 by that time have learned to produce 
 nearly all those things' themselves in 
 their own countries. China has unde- 
 veloped 1 natural resources of coal, iron 
 and other metals, some of them equal, 
 if not greater than similar deposits 
 within the United States; and she has 
 the cheapest labor in the world which, 
 under western superintendency, is quick 
 to adopt and carry out modern method's. 
 Japan now makes a great share of the 
 things used in modern civilization, from 
 the largest warships to watches. Japan 
 and certain places in China are likely 
 to become the workshop of the world in 
 no distant future. 
 
 The "open door" is a door shut to 
 American labor; and the commerce 
 such as is maintained between this coun- 
 try and the Orient is, for the most part, 
 conveyed in steamships owned by Ja- 
 pan and manned by Asiatic sailors. Ja- 
 pan has d'riven the American steamship 
 
42 The Yellow Immigration 
 
 lines from the Pacific, and she has gained 
 the ascendency of the carrying trade be- 
 tween the different ports of Asia over 
 the English and German lines. This 
 she has accomplished by unity of pur- 
 pose by her cheaper labor. 
 
 A few years ago an American "Na- 
 poleon" of trans-continental commerce 
 so.ught to control that of the Pacific. 
 He undertook to educate Asiatics so 
 that they would eat flour ratner tnan 
 rice, and thereby become consumers of 
 American wheat, and he built the larg- 
 est steamships in the world to traverse 
 the Pacific and carry American products 
 to the Orient. But the Orientals still 
 continue to live on rice, and now we 
 have but little surplus wheat to export, 
 and nearly all the trade across the Pa- 
 cific goes in Japanese steamships. Com- 
 merce is a great civilizer. Trade within 
 the lines of peace and good will is to be 
 dtesired. But attempts to change Ori- 
 ental ways, or to compete at home or in 
 foreign habitats in production and com- 
 merce with low-wage standard Asiatic 
 laibor under skilled governmental con- 
 trol, like that of Japan, is another prop- 
 osition. 
 
ELEVEN. 
 
 Against Asiatic immigration to the 
 West place European and Occidental 
 exploitation of the East, and you have 
 the status of world affairs in view. 
 
 "Good: brother, yellow and benighted, 
 let us teach you arts ot peace, of indus- 
 try, and of warfare !" and thus breath- 
 ing benedictions the white man moves 
 forth into realms of the East, marking 
 out therein "spheres of influence ;" seeks 
 to control seaports, to build railways, 
 to dominate trade, and distributes Bi- 
 bles and gunpowder with assiduous per- 
 sistency. 
 
 There be "Yellow Perils" and "White 
 Perils" alike in vision. Concerning the 
 latter it was said as early as the year 
 1904, in an address made before the 
 Harvard University by Baron Kentaro 
 Kaneko, L. L. D., a high official of the 
 Japanese Government, "Japan has far 
 more reason to fear a "White Peril" in 
 the East than the world, or any part of 
 it has to anticipate danger from Japan. 
 Observe the advance of the European 
 nations into Asia. What are the ex- 
 tension of French Tonquin and the oc- 
 cupation of Kiow-Chan by Germany 
 
44 The Yexlow Immigration 
 
 if net "White Perils" for the Chinese 
 empire? There is another "White 
 Peril" for China on her borders in 
 Russian occupation of Manchuria, but 
 it is far more of a "White Peril" for 
 Japan. We recognize it is a real and 
 dangerous menace to our national ex- 
 istence, not for a moment imaginary in 
 character like the "Yellow Peril" now 
 so much talked about in Europe and 
 America. 
 
 But besides these actual and militant 
 invasions and seizures of areas in Asia 
 by Europeajn powers, there has been 
 carried on for some time by White Cap- 
 italism an industrial and troublous in- 
 vasion of some of the Eastern Coun- 
 tries in the guise of loans of money, the 
 building of railroads, and other far- 
 reaching projects. 
 
 On this subject is worthy of notice 
 somewhat that appeared in a Prize Es- 
 say submitted in 1909 to St. John's Col- 
 lege, by S. U. Wong, a Chinese student, 
 in part, as follows : 
 
 "A look at the competition established 
 already in China shows too plainly that 
 although railways have been constructed 
 and developed by use of foreign capital, 
 the power to direct where and how to 
 
Thk Yellow Immigration 45 
 
 •develop is never lost sight of by these 
 foreigners. Primarily they indeed claim 
 to work with a view to benefit China ; 
 but secondly and incidentally they at- 
 tempt to snatch what power they can to 
 obtain control over the Chinese people, 
 with the instinctive result that the in- 
 itiative en the part of the Chinese is, to 
 a great extent eradicated." * * * "It 
 has the tendency to discourage the Chi- 
 nese from regaining the power of over- 
 seeing and directing the affairs of the 
 corporation, besides stripping them of 
 their initiative powers." * * * "\y e 
 notice that those who lend their capi- 
 tal for railway construction would gain 
 control over the means of communica- 
 tion, and hence over domestic com- 
 merce. If we should accomplish these 
 ends by our own means, we could our- 
 selves gain that amount of profit." 
 
 This Chinaman speaks straight-out 
 English and! Yankee common sense — 
 fcr what doth it profit an Oriental to 
 gain Western civilization and lose his 
 own country, or the control of it? 
 
TWELVE. 
 
 During his second term President 
 Roosevelt officially recommended two 
 changes in our policy regarding Asiatic 
 immigration which, seemingly, if 
 ■adopted, would result in great evils. 
 
 He recommended to Congress (first), 
 that the Chinese treaty which now is 
 designed to shut out all Chinese except 
 Chinese officials, teachers, students, 
 merchants and travellers, should be 
 changed or construed so as to exclude 
 Chinese coolies or laborers only and to 
 admit all other Chinese freely. 
 
 In another message to Congress he 
 recommend'ed (second), that "an Act be 
 passed specifically providing for trie 
 naturalization of Japanese who come 
 here intending to become American 
 citizens." 
 
 To admit all classes of Chinese ex- 
 cept coolies and laborers would bring 
 about conditions similar to those exist- 
 ing under our treaty with Japan. All 
 classes of Japanese under that treaty 
 can come into this country and 1 enter 
 into all kinds of business and employ- 
 ments — and they are doing that very 
 
The Yellow Immigration 47 
 
 thing. The complaint is not merely that 
 ihe Japanese compete unduly with 
 American laborers, but that they enter 
 into competition with our farmers, 
 traders and business men in many ways, 
 and build up 'Oriental communities 
 within our States. 
 
 Now what the Japanese do the Chi- 
 nese can d!o. The Chinese are the older 
 and in some respects the superior peo- 
 ple to the Japanese. But both of them 
 show great aptitude aaud supplant in 
 many places the White man by reason 
 of their frugality, patience and low 
 standard of living. 
 
 The fact is both Chinese and Japan- 
 ese other than the mere coolie or lab- 
 orer class, assuming that the latter 
 could be shut entirely out of the coun- 
 try, if allowed to come here freely 
 would enter into innumerable lines of 
 employment and business, commercial 
 and productive, corporate and other- 
 wise; into trades and callings and pro- 
 fessions — to say nothing of the thou- 
 sands of employees thus available to 
 corporate monopolies here in clerical 
 and industrial lines, all in competition 
 with American citizens and the Ameri- 
 can standlard of living. 
 
48 The Yellow Immigration 
 
 The second recommend above men- 
 tioned, to grant citizenship to Japanese 
 residents here, brings up the question 
 for what type of man was this republic 
 founded'? 
 
 At the time of the Declration of In- 
 dependence and of the adoption of the 
 Constitution it was never imagined 
 here nor in Europe that the Yellow man 
 — a pagan, an infidel enemy, hostile .o 
 Christian civilization — 'would ever mi- 
 grate here. Scarcely one of that race 
 ever set foot on our shores prior to 
 sixty years ago. The Constitution pro- 
 vided for White citizenship only. 
 
 The results of our civil war brought 
 about the granting to the Black Man of 
 the possibility of the suffrage franchise 
 — necessarily <a barren right in large 
 areas here, and one deemed by many to 
 have been unwisely granted.. The 
 Bhck vote largely enters into a vicious 
 form of politics today. 
 
 There are now Asiatics enough in the 
 States of Washington, Oregon and 
 Idaho to hold the balance of political 
 power if possessed! of the ballot. Asi- 
 atics would everywhere vote solidly to- 
 gether. The right of suffrage confers 
 the consequent right to own land. A 
 
The Yellow Immigration 49 
 
 comparatively few Japanese in this 
 country have shown wonderful faculty 
 to create local and international com- 
 plication, the echoes of which have been 
 heard 'around the globe. Japanese am- 
 bassadors have even sought to influence 
 legislation by our State and Federal 
 authorities. Japanese suffrage here 
 would be a step toward political hari- 
 kari by the American people. 
 
THIRTEEN. 
 
 Regarding Japanese immigration the 
 late Administration inaugurated a 
 "hands off and square deal" policy. 
 President Roosevelt in 1907 made 
 a " gentlemen's agreement " with the 
 Mikado whereby the latter assumed 
 to keep Japanese laborers from our 
 shores by witholding from them pass- 
 ports to leave Japan for American ports. 
 Such an agreement certainly was never 
 contemplated by the Federal Constitu- 
 tion; and in effect it leaves in the hands 
 of a -foreign potentate a control of immi- 
 gration to this country. 
 
 Whether this "agreement" restricts 
 the coming here of Japanese laborers or 
 not, is a debatable question. At any 
 rate it is a mere makeshift, a temporary 
 device which utterly fails to touch the 
 great issues involved in the question of 
 Asiatic Immigration. It is an attempt 
 to solve a world wide problem affecting 
 the interests of all the people, and of all 
 commercial and social, and political af« 
 fairs of the Republic, likewise, by treat- 
 ing the question as if it were a "mere la- 
 bor trouble out on the Pacific Coast." 
 
Tin: Yellow Immigration 51 
 
 The present administration continued 
 with Japan this so-called "gentlemen's 
 agreement" which is practically the only 
 restraint now put upon Japanese immi- 
 gration to this country; and President 
 Taf: in his evident desire to keep on good 
 terms with Japan also adopted a policy 
 in the making of the recent Japanese 
 treats which practically eliminaes f r om 
 considerat"on in the treaty any idea of 
 Taoanese exclusion as far as this country 
 is concerned. This treaty, at the re- 
 quest of the Mikado, was negotiated a 
 year before the then existing treaty 
 would expire and was put through the 
 Urrted States Senate within the limits 
 of a three days' consideration and dis- 
 cussion of the same. 
 
 It is well known that the Senators 
 frons the Pacific coast and farwest 
 States were impelled to accede to the 
 terms of this treaty from the desire of 
 their constituents to secure at San Fran- 
 cisco the site for the Panama exposition 
 then eagerly sought for in Con&^ss 
 both by San Francisco and New Or- 
 leans. T'he {groat desire of tine adminis- 
 tration and of those who were promot- 
 ing the locating and carrying on of the 
 exposition at San Francisco, was to 
 
52 Thk Ykixow Immigration 
 
 eliminate all racial difficulties with Ja- 
 panese immigrations there dwelling — at 
 least until the exposition should be end- 
 ed. So "peace prevails' , on the Pacific 
 coast at present, but no one imagines 
 that trouble between the two races will 
 not arise later on ; and it is evident some 
 settled and stern policy regarding such 
 immigration will have to be openly de- 
 clared and maintained by our govern- 
 ment. 
 
 Instead of eliminating from our treat- 
 ies and negotiations with Japan, and 
 with China, and other Oriental nations, 
 all allusion to terms indicating a purpose 
 of excluding the yellow races from this 
 country, it would be better to state 
 such purpose in unmistakable language. 
 This policy was well outlined by Senator 
 Newlands in a speech made in the Senate 
 some two years ago, and on other occa- 
 sions reiterated by him, as follows. 
 
 "We should declare by law that im- 
 migration to this country shall be re- 
 restricted to the white race alone, except 
 for the purposes of travel, education, and 
 international trade, and that the immi- 
 gration of the white races of this coun- 
 rv shall be restricted to those whose 
 physical constitution, character and 
 
The Ykluhv Immigration S3 
 
 training will fit them ultimately for 
 American citizenship." 
 
 That eventually such an attitude nec- 
 essarily will be taken seems most evi- 
 dent. Our population as far as possible 
 must be homogeneous, and be of the 
 pure and unmixed white type of man — 
 we cannot safely tolerate the presence 
 in the west or elsewhere of ,any Orien- 
 tal race or civilization. 
 
 This whole question of immigration 
 to our shores, is inextricably mixed with 
 and allied to the question of the West- 
 ern invasion of the East by the white 
 race. The tendency is, as heretotore 
 referred to, for the monopolistic forces 
 of white civilization to crowd into the 
 areas populated by the yellow races, 
 and to exploit them and their resources 
 — to dominate them by certain financial 
 and industrial control, and to reside and 
 traverse those areas at will. We cannot 
 maintain the exclusion of the yellow 
 races from the western areas, unless we 
 refrain from invading in this way the 
 Oriental areas and civilization. 
 
 This immigration question is a world 
 wide issue and the forces back of the 
 same sweep around the world eastward 
 as well as westward. Worldwide conten- 
 
54 The Yellow Immigration 
 
 t oiis and warfare illimitable u likely to 
 spring out of trie controversies now 
 looming up in this way. Just at this 
 time in the Twentieth Century whilst 
 armies and navies greater than ever be- 
 fore known are being maintained by all 
 the Great Powers, are heard in Hague 
 conferences and around the globe whis- 
 pers of peace universal and lasting — and 
 public opinion in all lands demands that 
 desideratum. 
 
 More than all else would peace be pre- 
 served if the nations would agree that 
 henceforth no militant territorial en- 
 croachments, no capitalistic industrial 
 exploitations should be undertaken by the 
 West in the East, and that the migration 
 of the surplus populations of the Orient 
 should be wisely directed, first of all, to 
 the various undeveloped or sparsely 
 settled areas of the old world ; that un- 
 selfish aid and guidance should be ex- 
 tended from the more advanced civiliza- 
 tions to the feebler peoples according to 
 the wishes and capacities of the later — 
 then, indeed, peace might prevail in all 
 the earth. 
 
 To discuss and establish a policy like 
 this whereby each type of Man might 
 develop in its own habitat according to 
 
Tiik Yellow Immigration 55 
 
 the law of Evolution would be a confer- 
 ence worthy of a Twentieth Century 
 Hague, and of the highest aspirations of 
 the human race — and thereby would be 
 taken a far step toward the solving of 
 the problem of Asiatic immigration. 
 
THE 
 
 WHITE 
 
 IMMIGRATION 
 
FOURTEEN. 
 
 The Caucasian, or White type of man, 
 differing essentially from the other four 
 ethnical divisions of mankind, includes 
 numerous groups or sub-divisions fre- 
 quently called "races," having diverse 
 languages, civilizations, customs and 
 histories. 
 
 The immigration of the White man 
 to the Western Hemisphere, especially 
 within the areas now forming the 
 United States, was almost wholly com- 
 posed of Europeans who were descend- 
 ants of a common original racial stock, 
 and who had passed through a similar 
 social and political development. 
 
 Up to the adoption of the Federal 
 constitution the white immigrants to 
 this country, with the exception of a 
 comparatively small number of French 
 and Spanish settlers, came from western 
 and northwestern Europe, from such 
 countries as, Great Britain, Germany, 
 Norway, Sweden and other areas there 
 situated. These settlers though differing 
 in language and in some minor parti- 
 culars were radically so similar in their 
 instincts and civilization that they readi- 
 ly assimilated and formed what is verv 
 
60 The White Immigration 
 
 generally known as the American type 
 of man and the American civilization. 
 
 A large portion of the earlier immi- 
 grants to this coumtry went directly on- 
 to vacant lands. Very many of them 
 were skilled mechanics and workmen; 
 they could not have been used to cut 
 down the American standard of living 
 even if that had been attempted in those 
 days. They came to stay, to acquire 
 homes, not to exploit the labor market 
 and then return home as so many of our 
 present day immigrants do. 
 
 This sort of immigration practically 
 unchanged continued on until about 
 thirty years ago, and up to that time 
 95 per cent of our white immigrants 
 came from the Western and Northwest- 
 ern countries of Europe. 
 
 But in 1880 and thereafter the char- 
 acter of white immigrantion to this coun- 
 try changed so greatly that by the year 
 1907, 81 per cent of such immigrants 
 came from Southern and Southeastern 
 Europe and Western Asia, including 
 Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, 
 Italy, Montenegro, Poland, Portugfcil, 
 Roumatnia, Russia, Servia, Syria, and 
 Turkey. 
 
 The United States' Immigration Com- 
 
Tiik White Immigration 6i 
 
 '.mission in their report upon immigra- 
 tion to this country, for convenience 
 divide such immigrat'on into two class- 
 es, v'z ; "The old immigration move- 
 ment," referring to immigration prior 
 to 1880; and the "New immigration 
 movement" referring to immigration 
 since 1880 down to 1910. And this 
 Commission commenting upon the same 
 states as follows : 
 
 "The old and the new immigration 
 differ in many essentials. The former 
 was, from the beginning, largely a move- 
 ment of settlers who came from the 
 most enlightened sections of Europe for 
 the purpose of making for themselves 
 homes in the New World. They enter- 
 ed practically every line of activity in 
 nearly every part of the country. Com- 
 ing during a period of agricultural de- 
 velopment, many of them entered agri- 
 cultural pursuits, sometimes as indepen- 
 dent farmers, but more often as farm 
 laborers, who, nevertheless, as a iuit 
 soon became landowners. They formed 
 an important part of the great nwv^ 
 ment toward the West during the last 
 century, and as poineers w r ere most po- 
 tent factors in the development of the 
 territory between the Allegheny Moun- 
 
62 The: White: Immigration 
 
 tains and the Baicfic Coast. They ming- 
 led freely with the native Americans 
 an 1, were quickly assimilated although 
 a large proportion of them, particularly 
 in later years, belonged to non-English 
 speaking races. This natural bar to as- 
 similation, however, was soon overcome 
 by them, while the racial identity of 
 their children was almost entirely lost 
 and forgotten. 
 
 "On the other hand, the new immigra- 
 tion has been largely a movement of un- 
 skilled laboring men who have come, in 
 large part temporarily, from the less en- 
 lightened and advanced countries of 
 Rrrope in response to the call for indus- 
 trial workers in the eastern and middle, 
 western States. They have almost en- 
 tirely avoided agricultural pursuits, and 
 in cit : es and industrial communities 
 have congregated together in sections 
 apart from native Americans and the 
 older immigrants to such an extent that 
 assimilation h'as been slow as compared 
 to that of the earlier non-English-speak- 
 ing races. 
 
 "The new immigration as a class is 
 far less intelligent than the old, more 
 than one-third of all those over 14 years 
 of age being illiterate when admitted. 
 
The White Immigration 63 
 
 Racially they are for the most part es- 
 sentially unlike the British, German, and 
 other peoples who came during the 
 period prior to 1880, and generally 
 speaking they are actuated in coming by 
 different ideals, for the old immigration 
 came to be a part of the country, while 
 the new, in a large measure, comes with 
 the intention of profiting, in a pecuni- 
 ary way, by the superior advantages of 
 the New World and then returning to 
 the old country * * * * 
 
 "The old imnrgration movement in 
 recent years has rapidly declined, both 
 numerically and relatively, and under 
 present conditions there are no indica- 
 tions that it will materially increase. 
 The new immigration movement is very 
 large, and there are few, if any indica- 
 tions of its natural abatement." 
 
 In this way the Commission have 
 briefly outlined the salient features and 
 dangers which are presented by the 
 past and by the present continuance of 
 white immigration to this country. 
 
FIFTEEN. 
 
 Formerly the coming of average white 
 type immigrants to this country tended 
 to bring about the occupancy and de- 
 velopment of our unsettled lands, to fill 
 an increasing demand for wage workers 
 in our expanding industries, and to add 
 to the -number of those who could pro- 
 fitably employ themselves in the marts 
 of trade and in their several profession- 
 al occupations. 
 
 Today there is a scarcity of desirable 
 vacant lands to meet needs of our pre- 
 sent population, there is an excess of 
 nnsklled labor seeking employment in 
 our manufacturing and other great in- 
 dustries, and there is no demand, or 
 scarcely any opportunity whatever for 
 immigrants to enter into our commercial 
 and professional walks of life. 
 
 The movement to this country of 
 wlrte home-seeking farmers, agricul- 
 turists, or settlers, has nearly ceased. 
 Only about fifteen per cent of the immi- 
 grants of the present day are classified 
 as " farmers, or farm workers," amd but 
 a small proportion of such classification 
 pre fitted to become in this country, 
 farmers or farm laborers. Most 
 
The White Immigration 65 
 
 of such classification are mere unskilled 
 laborers, settling for the most part in 
 the Eastern and Middle States, and in 
 our great cities. The Annual Report 
 of the Commissioner General of Immi- 
 gration for 1910 shows that out of 
 1,198,037 aliens entering the United 
 States in 1910, onlv 15,476 were "farm- 
 ers/' and only 226,380 could be classi- 
 fied as "farm laborers/' 
 
 By immigration of this kind a vital 
 change is taking place in the character 
 of American civilization. The Ibuildh 
 ing up of Amercan homes wide-spread 
 over sparsely settled areas no longer 
 occurs, and we now behold the develop- 
 ment of great centers of alien races 
 civilizations here and there industrially, 
 and the congestion of undesirable popu- 
 lations in the great cities of the At- 
 lantic seaboard and in the Middle 
 States. 
 
 In thirty-three of our largest cities the 
 foreign population is larger than the 
 native born; this foreign percentage is 
 as high as eighty-five per cent in Fall 
 River and in a number of other Atlantic 
 seaboard cities, and even as far West- 
 ward as Milwaukee. The foreign col- 
 onies existing in such cities are isolated 
 
66 The White Immigration 
 
 from the rest of ihe community by 
 language, customs, instincts as much as 
 if they were located in their respective 
 native lands. Eighty per cent of the 
 population of Manhattan Island is for- 
 eign born or of foreign parentage. 
 
 The conditions under which a large 
 proportion of the population of Mew 
 York City and many other of our large 
 cities and industrial centers live and 
 carry on their several occupations are 
 not only unAmerican but are absolutely 
 shocking and are destructive of the in- 
 dustrial, social and. political develop- 
 ment of American ideals. It is unnec- 
 essary to dwell upon these horrible 
 nests of crime and pauperism so often 
 there evident ; the crowded tenements 
 and disease-breeding alleys; the fac- 
 tories and sweat-shops which degrade 
 and destroy the lives of industrial 
 workers ; the hundreds of thousands of 
 young children and frail women labor- 
 ing in disease-breeding and life-de- 
 stroying conditions — they are things 
 familiar to all men and acknowledged 
 to exist. 
 
 Such conditions would never have 
 existed in this country, they could not 
 today here exist for an hour, if it were 
 
The White: Immigration 67 
 
 not for the influx by immigration of 
 herds of undesirable, foreign-born 
 people who have been admitted to our 
 shores. They have arisen, very largely, 
 since the change in the character of im- 
 migration to this country has come about 
 — within the past generation, for the 
 most part. 
 
 This fact also stands out : This urn- 
 desirable immigration is on the increase ; 
 behind it is the pressure of unnumbered 
 hordes of the same classes of immi- 
 grants who are seeking to cross the At- 
 lantic an'd who surely will crowd in there 
 under the immigration laws as they now 
 stand. The numbers who will thus 
 come, if needed changes are not made 
 in our immigration policy, are practical- 
 ly unlimited. The continuance of this 
 sort of immigration a<nd of our present 
 immigration laws and policy means that 
 th><; American standard of living .will be 
 lowered in nearly all our great indus- 
 trial! operations where wage-workers 
 are employed; that directly and indirect- 
 ly trusts and monopolies will become 
 still more powerful in their control of 
 the necessities of life for all the Ameri- 
 can people — and that our social and 
 political ideals will be swept away. 
 
SIXTEEN. 
 
 Confessedly the industrial phase of 
 this immigration question underlies all 
 other considerations of the same, lit 
 settles inevitably the wage standard, the 
 sort of people who shall make up the 
 great mass of wage workers, the con- 
 ditions under which they work and live, 
 and affects the social and politicial status 
 of the entire nation. 
 
 In times past as a rule, the condition 
 of the "American wage-worker" has been 
 vastly better than that of the wage- 
 workers anywhere else employed in the 
 world. 
 
 In a recent article published in the 
 North American Review, written by the 
 Secretary of the United States Immi- 
 gration Commission/ the (following is 
 said concerning "The American Wage- 
 Worker" : 
 
 "The term 'American wage earner' 
 is 'rapidly becoming ia misnomer. Almost 
 three-fifths of the employes of the princi- 
 pal branches of mining and manufac- 
 turing in the United States at the pres- 
 ent time are of foreign birth, and about 
 one-fourth are of races from southern 
 and eastern Europe. About one-fifth 
 
The White Immigration 69 
 
 of the total number of -wage earners 
 were born in this country, but their 
 fathers were born abroad. Less than 20 
 per cent of the entire operating forces of 
 our mines and manufacturing estab- 
 lishments are native Americans. In 
 many of our industries the proportion 
 of employees of foreign birth ranges as 
 high as75 per cent, with a corresponding 
 falling off in the number of native 
 Americans. Among bituminous coal 
 and iron-ore mine workers, by way of 
 illustration , less than one-tenth are 
 native Americans. 'The fact of greatest 
 import in connection with the situation 
 is that about one4ialf of the industrial 
 workers of foreign birth are southern 
 and eastern Europeans and Asiatics, 
 principally representative of the north 
 and south Italians, Poles, Croatians, 
 Creeks, Lithuanians, Russians, Portu- 
 guese, Slovenians, and Russian and 
 other Hebrews. This transformation 
 in the racial composition of the wage 
 earners of the country has been brought 
 about by the immigration to the United 
 vStates during the last 30 years. 
 
 The most general effect of this ex- 
 tensive employment of recent immi- 
 grants in American industries is found 
 
yo The White Immigration 
 
 in the character of the industrial com- 
 munities of the country at the present 
 time. There is no manufacturing city 
 or town or any mining comunity of any 
 importance in the Middle West, New 
 England, and the middle States which 
 has not a foreign section made up of in- 
 dustrial -workers from southern and 
 eastern Europe. In the older industrials 
 cities ann centers of the country immi- 
 veloped and attached themselves to trie 
 a orginal population. 
 
 On the other hand, a large number of 
 immigrant communities have come into 
 existence within recent years because of 
 the development o-f some natural re- 
 source, such as coal, iron ore, ui cupper, 
 or by reason of the extension of the 
 principal manufacturing industries of 
 the country. In both classes of industrial 
 communities there has been a dist'nc* 
 segregation of the immigrant and native 
 American population, and there is little 
 contact or association beyond that ren- 
 dered necessary by business or working 
 relations. The immigrant workmen and 
 their households usually live in colonies 
 according to race, attend and support 
 their own churches, maintain their own 
 business institutions and places of recrc- 
 
The Whits Immigration 71 
 
 tation, and have their own fraternal and 
 business organizations. 
 
 As a consequence of this general iso- 
 lation the tendencies toward Americani- 
 zation exhibited by the southern and 
 eastern Europeans are small, and the 
 maintenance of old customs and stand- 
 ards lends to congestion and insanitary 
 housing and living conditions. Agen- 
 cies for the Americanization and assim- 
 ilation of the immigrant wage earners 
 and their families are rare, and the na- 
 tive Americans, as a rule, are indifTer* 
 ent in their attitude toward the immi- 
 grant population and its problems. " 
 
 As illustrative of such facts, take the 
 city of Lia-wrence, Massachusetts, the 
 scene of recent riots and labor troubles, 
 as described by Senator Simmons, in a 
 late speech in t'he Senate : 
 
 "The racial composition of Lawrence 
 and the racial displacements which have 
 occurred in the worsted and woolen 
 mills there are typical of other woolen 
 goods manufacturing centers in New 
 England. ;This has recently been dis- 
 closed by the United States Immigration 
 Commission and t'he TiarifT Board. 
 
 "Only about one-eighth of the woolen 
 'and worsted mill operatives at the pre- 
 
J2 The White Immigration 
 
 sent time are native Americans. Slight- 
 ly more than three-fifths are foreign 
 born, chiefly recent immigrants from 
 southern and eastern Europe. The re- 
 mainder 'are the native-born children of 
 parents who were born abroad. During 
 the past 20 years the American and the 
 British and northern European immi- 
 grants have been rapidly leaving the 
 mills, owing to the pressure of the com- 
 petition of the recent immigrant. The 
 south Italian, Polish, and north Italian 
 are the three principal races of southern 
 and eastern Europe engaged in the in- 
 dustry, while the English, Irish, and 
 German of the races of past immigra- 
 tion are represented in the larger 
 numbers. 
 
 "Of the foreign-born employees about 
 one-fifth of the males and two-fifths of 
 the females have had had experience in 
 the same kind of work before coming to 
 this country, while two-fifths of the male 
 employees and one-third of the female 
 have been farmers or farm laborers in 
 their native countries. The average 
 weekly wage of the male operatives 18 
 years of age or over is only $10.49, an< ^ 
 of the female employees $8.18. The 
 average annual earnings of male heads 
 
The White: Immigration 73 
 
 of families employed in the industry are 
 only $400, ( and of all males 18 years of 
 age or over $346. * *♦■*** 
 
 "The effect of these low earnings is 
 shown in the bad living conditions and 
 the high degree of congestion which pre- 
 vails in the households of the operatives. 
 
 "Very little political or civic interest 
 is manifested by the southern and east/ 1 
 earn Europeans. Only 3 out of every 10 
 males eligible to citizenship have taken 
 out naturalization papers. * * * 
 
 "It is a foreign city on American soil. 
 There are 85,000 inhabitants in the mill 
 town of Lawrence, tand less than 12,000 
 of them 'are Americans. It is a great 
 industrial town. It is a center for the 
 manufacture of woolens and worsteds. 
 There are employed in this industry in 
 that town something like 30,000 people; 
 92 per cent of them are foreign-born 
 and that part coming from southeastern 
 Europe does not live in the American 
 quarters of that city. They live segre- 
 gated, in colonies. They have practical- 
 ly no contact or association with Oiur 
 people. They cling to the habits of their 
 old countries. They do not speak our 
 language. Fifty per cent of them can 
 neither read nor write in any language." 
 
74 The White Immigration 
 
 And concerning the illiteracy prevail- 
 ing in Lawrence, Senator Dillingham, 
 added the following : 
 
 "Among the Scotch seven-tenths of 
 i per cent are illiterate, and there are 
 2,300 of them in Lawrence. Of French 
 Canadians there are 12,000. I don't 
 remember the percentage. Of German 
 there are in Lawrence 6,500, and only 
 5.1 per cent ordinarily are illiterate. Of 
 the Polish t'here 2,100, and thirty-five 
 and four-tenths per cent are ill terate. 
 Of the Portuguese there are only 700 
 in the city, and of those — that is, the 
 Portuguese as a rule ; I am not speaking 
 of the Portuguese in the city of Law- 
 rence — 68.2 per cent — I am speaking 
 of our experience in receiving Europ- 
 ean immigrants during the last 20 years. 
 Tn those years 68 per cent of the Portu- 
 guese have been illiteraate. Of Hebrews 
 there are 2,500 in Lawrence, and the 
 general percentage of illiteracy is 25.7 
 Of Italians there are in Lawrence 8,000 
 and of those we may expect to find, as 
 the Senator has said, 54.2 per cent illi- 
 terate; Of the Syrians there are 2,700 
 in Lawrence, and their percentage of il- 
 literacy is 54.1. Of the Armenians there 
 are a smaller number, 600, in L:w"rence, 
 
The White Immigration 75 
 
 and 24.1 per cent of them are supposed 
 to be illiterate. Of Lithuanians there 'are 
 3,000 in Lawrence, with 48.8 per cent il- 
 literate" 
 
 In may of the basic occupations of the 
 country it is indisputably true that the 
 poorest of the poor of non-English speak- 
 ing immigrants have driven out Ameri- 
 can-born workers and in such industries 
 destroyed the American standard of liv- 
 ing. Mr. John A. Pitch in his book "The 
 Steel Workers," says that at the Carnegie 
 Steel Company's plants, 23,337 men 
 were employed, of these 7,7479 were 
 ^foreigners unable to speak English, 14,- 
 019 were unnaturalized, and only 5,705 
 were native-born white Americans. 
 
 The Boston Common in April 191 1 
 referring to a strike of the grinders of 
 the American Ax and Tool Company at 
 East Douglas, Massachusetts, said that 
 the force working there is laregly made 
 up of Pole and Finns ; and concerning 
 •the lamentably low rate of wages stated 
 "There are perhaps fifty villages in Mas- 
 sachusetts in which similar factory con- 
 ditions exist. 
 
 The five cities of New York, Chicago, 
 Baltimore, Philadelphia and Rochester 
 manufacture nearly 70 per cent of the 
 
y6 The White: Immigration 
 
 total product of men's ready-made cloth- 
 ing made in the United States. Over 
 50 per cent of the workers in those cities 
 engaged in such industry are women of 
 whom only 7.4 per cent are native-born 
 Americans — and the average weekly 
 earnings of those "house workers," with 
 helpers, were $3.72. Among the house 
 workers at this occupation, in all cities, 
 75 per cent cannot speak English. 
 
 iThe above are simply a few instances 
 illustrating the widespread condit ; on of 
 a large share of the wage workers of this 
 
 country in some of the most important 
 industries of the same. Now how has 
 this displacement of native-born workers 
 by low-priced foreign-born labofers 
 been brought about to so great an ex- 
 tent? It has been made possible by two 
 causes ; first, the desire of the managers 
 of certain great industrial corporations to 
 secure low-priced wage workers ; and, 
 the greed of great steamship companies 
 
 (mostly owned by foreign capital and 
 conducted under foreign flags) to make 
 vast profits from the bringing in to and 
 carrying from this country great numbers 
 of steerage passenger immigrants. The 
 amount of capital invested in these 
 steamship companies is enormous, >a.nd 
 
The White Immigration yj 
 
 the profits made in this way are propor- 
 t onately great. 
 
 The two causes enumerated have 
 brought about the traversing of the At- 
 lantic to and fro annually of vast num- 
 bers of immigrant work-men known ps 
 "birds of passage" who enter here and 
 obtain employment at wages below ihe 
 American standard and by parisimonious 
 living in gangs save the greater portion of 
 their wages, /and when the demand for 
 their labor ceases go back again to meir 
 native countries — carrying with them the 
 greater bulk of their earnings. It has 
 been shown that in recent years these 
 immigrants returning to their homes 
 ihave taken out of the country sums of 
 money annually aggregating from three 
 hundred to four hundred million dollars. 
 
 Concerning recent white immigration 
 to this country the Immigration Com- 
 mission state in their report 'as follows : 
 
 "The old immigartion movement was 
 essentially one of permanent settlers. 
 Fine new immigration (since 1882) is 
 very largely one of individuals, a consi- 
 derable proportion of whom apparently 
 have no intention of permanently chang- 
 ing their residence, their only purpose 
 in coming to America being to tempor- 
 
78 The White Immigration 
 
 arily take advantage of the greater wages 
 paid for industrial labor in this country. 
 This, of course, is not true of all the new 
 immigrants, but the pratice is sufficient- 
 ly common to warrant referring to it 
 as a characteristic of them as a class. * 
 
 * * * :|c * $ * ijc $ 
 
 "As a class the new immigrants are 
 largely unskilled laborers coming from 
 countres where their highest wage is 
 small compared with the lowest wage in 
 the United Staes. Nearly seventy-five 
 per cent of them are males." t * * 
 
 They bring little money into the coun- 
 try and send or take a considerable part 
 of their earnings out. More than 35 per 
 cent are illiterate, as compared with less 
 than 3 per cent of the old unmigrant 
 class." 
 
 Upon the indus'ral phase of present 
 dav immigration the Commission as a 
 result of their examination make, in part, 
 the following recommendation. They 
 say : 
 
 "(8) The investigations of the Com- 
 mission show an oversuoplv of unskilled 
 labor in basic industries to an extent 
 which indicates an over-supply of un- 
 skilled labor in the industries of the 
 connttry as a whole — a condition which 
 
. \ "uitk Immigration 79 
 
 demands legislation restricting the fur- 
 ther admission of such unskilled labor. 
 
 It is desirable in making the restric- 
 tion that— 
 
 (a) A sufficient number be debarred 
 to produce a marked effect upon the pre- 
 sent supply of unskilled labor. 
 
 (b) As far as possible, the aliens ex- 
 cluded should be those who come to mis 
 country with no intention to become 
 American citizens, or even to maintain 
 a permanent residence here, but merely 
 to save enough by the adoption, if nece- 
 sary, or of low standads of living, to re- 
 turn permanently to their home country 
 Such persons are usually men unaccom- 
 panied by wives or children. 
 
 (c) As far as possible the aliens ex- 
 cluded should also be those who, by rea- 
 son of their personal qualities or habits, 
 would least readily be assimilated or 
 would make the least desirable citizens. 
 
SEVENTEEN. 
 
 The disastrous effect of such immi- 
 gration upon the industrial conditions of 
 wage workers here has long been rec- 
 ognized everywhere in this country. 
 Organized labor for more than a quar- 
 ter of a century has persistently sought 
 the passage by Congress of restrictive 
 immigration laws. Some steps in that 
 direction have been taken, but as yet 
 they are entirely inadequate to afford 
 the protection desired. 
 
 In more recent years a widely ex- 
 tended public opinion has become ap- 
 parent concerning the evils of this im- 
 migration, especially as existing in our 
 great cities and industrial centers where 
 great populations of aleins are con- 
 gested and dwell in conditions which are 
 absolutely destructive to American 
 standards of civilization and llife. 
 Great cities are really the nerve centers 
 of the countries of which they form a 
 part. They dominate to a great extent 
 the social, industrial, and political 
 status of a nation. And so it has come 
 about that the evils referred to in our 
 densely populated areas are seriously af- 
 fecting not onlv the industrial but the 
 
The White Immigration 8i 
 
 soicial and political ideals which this re- 
 public was instituted to establish and 
 maintain. 
 
 In view of these facts efforts have 
 been made by the federal government, 
 by many of the State governments, and 
 by various philanthropic and patriotic 
 organizations to distribute into the more 
 sparsely settled areas of the country, 
 among agricultural and in smaller in- 
 dustrial centers of the country some por- 
 tion of the alien population crowded 
 into our great cities. It is to be ob- 
 served that even if these efforts had been 
 or could be crowned with success they 
 would bring about mere palliative and 
 temporary remedies. If thousands or 
 hundreds of thousands or even millions 
 of aliens were thus removed to other 
 sections of the country, it would serve 
 merely to create new openings and op- 
 portunities for the coming of s' ill 
 greater numbers of undesirable immi- 
 grants from foreign snores, — for, prac- 
 tically, under existing immigration laws, 
 there remain in the crowded' areas of 
 Southeastern Europe and Southwestern 
 Asia abundant millions more of such 
 immigrants who would seek our shores. 
 It is .evident then, that the remedy does 
 
82 Ths White Immigration 
 
 not lie in plans for distribution of such 
 undesirable and exessive immigration — 
 hewever humane and philanthropic may 
 be the motives underlying these under- 
 takings. 
 
 Without going into detail the various 
 attempts made by "National Liberal 
 Immigration Leagues/' racial and local 
 Immigration Bureaus and various State 
 organizations, providing for the bringing 
 in of aliens and placing them upon the 
 sparsely settled sections of the several 
 states, especially in the south and south- 
 west, are illustrative of the futility of 
 such efforts. 
 
 Such 'a conservative and influential 
 journal as the "Baltimore Manufactur- 
 ers' Record," in review of the distribu- 
 tion movement, has said, in part: 
 
 "Willingness on the part of a few 
 Southern men here and there has given 
 ephermeral standing to a variety of un- 
 dertakings, called 'Southern congresses, 
 parliaments and conventions, under cov- 
 er of which has been sought promotion 
 of the purpose to relieve New York of 
 its 'congestion' at the expense of other 
 parts of the country ,and thereby to allay 
 immediate opposition to the carrying out 
 of alien European plans to exploit the 
 
Ths White Immigration 83 
 
 people of the United States. In view of 
 the menacing situation tfae safety of the 
 country lies in opposing vigorously at 
 every turn .any proposition originating in 
 or from New York turning upon 'phil- 
 anthropic desire to help the rest of the 
 country by supplying it with labor from 
 the metropolis. 'Philanthropy' has come- 
 in to suich bad odor in recent years 
 through the drive made irom New York 
 against the South upon economic, social 
 or educational lines that now it is quite 
 the thing to announce that new undertak- 
 ings are essentially businesslike and that 
 the 'philanthropy' involved is purely in- 
 cidental. The rest of the country should 
 do all within its powers to encourage the 
 divers organizations of the kind in New 
 York to solve their various problems by 
 agitating for greater restrictions upon 
 immigration, and, to that end, for the 
 abolition of the worse than useless Div- 
 ision of Information in the National Bu- 
 reau of Immigration." 
 
 Many other of the leading newspapers 
 and periodicals of the South and West 
 have time and again published similar 
 declarations. 
 
 |The leading Farmers' Union organiz- 
 ations 'and educational and industrial 
 
84 The White Immigration 
 
 bodies, severally, and in various State 
 conventions held at divers times and 
 places, have declared themselves as un- 
 utterably opposed to the pokiy of "dis- 
 tribution, and in language similar to the 
 following : 
 
 "Resolved, That the Farmers' Educa- 
 tional and Cooperative Union of America 
 in national convention assembled at 
 Memphis, Tenn., this 8th day of Janu- 
 ary, 1908, and representing 2,000.000 of 
 farmers, urge upon Cogress the immedi- 
 ate abolition of the Federal bureau of 
 distribution and the speedy enactment of 
 laws substantially excluding the present 
 enormous alien influx by means of an in- 
 creased head tax, a money requirement, 
 the illiteracy test, and other measures; 
 and that we call upon our public and 
 especially our State officials to prevent 
 the agricultural section from beconr'ng 
 a dumping ground for foreign immi- 
 grants." 
 
 Great numbers of memorials and peti- 
 tions signed by thousands of the people 
 of the Sbiithern< and Western States 
 have been laid before Congress protest- 
 ing agaainst this polciy of distributon, 
 and demanding in the strongest trems the 
 passage and enforcement of restrictive 
 
The White Immigration 85 
 
 immigration laws which shall exclude 
 the vast hordes of undesirable immi- 
 grats now coming into this country from 
 southeastern Europe and southwestern 
 
 Asia, 
 
 Some of the States, for instance South 
 Carolina, after having established a Bu- 
 reau of Immigration and after such Bu- 
 of Immigration had brought into the 
 areas of that State, two shiploads "of 
 carefully selected foreigners" seek : ng to 
 place the same on farmlands and sparse- 
 ly settled areas, abandoned that policy 
 as impracticable and dangerous. 
 
 It is apparent that the great mass otf the 
 people of the South and West are not 
 desirous of adding to their population by 
 any such methods, and that the oft 
 published statement about the necessity 
 for the bringing into such several states 
 of "farm hands" to gather the harvests 
 of the same are largely exaggerated, 
 and, at best, such demand is but tempor- 
 ary and can be met by the supply of 
 American laborers who if opportunity 
 were afforded them would engage, even 
 transiently, in such work. The fact is 
 that this widespread attempt for the dis- 
 tribution of aliens into the fanning sec- 
 tions of this country has behind it the di- 
 
86 Th£ White: Immigration 
 
 rect inspiration and effort of the great 
 steamship corporations, and some of our 
 railway corporations, who make profit by 
 the transportation of aliens into and 
 across this country. 
 
 iThe "distribution plan" is the most 
 specious method of all the crafty ways 
 whidh the great steamship lines follow 
 in order to maintain the enormous pro- 
 fits which they derive from the trans- 
 portation of alien immigrants to this 
 country. It is part of the same plan and 
 policy which for years they have in a 
 wholesale way followed by sending 
 agents into the various countries from 
 which these immigrants come and stim- 
 ulating an artificial immigration, by in- 
 ducing these people to go to this coun- 
 try as passengers in their great specially 
 constructed steerage method of convey- 
 ance. Tihese factts are too well and pos- 
 itively established to be successfully dis- 
 puted — and these steamship companies 
 and some of our great labor-employing 
 industrial monopolies are almost wholly 
 resposible for the presence here of the 
 great masses of undesirable immigrants, 
 who year after year crowd into this 
 country to the detriment of our native 
 wage-workers and to the depreciation of 
 
The White: Immigration - 87 
 
 tihe American standard of living- and 
 American civilization. From these two 
 sources arises the greater part of the 
 opposition to 'the passage of effective 
 restrictive immigration laws by Congress. 
 
EIGHTEEN. 
 
 Ou Republic is based upon the theory 
 that the oeople of this .country by their 
 intelligence and votes shall govern them- 
 selves >and control all the functions of 
 government. To a great extent that 
 proposition has been maintained in our 
 history. Necessarily the kind of gov- 
 ernment and civilization we have di- 
 rectly depends upon the kind of people 
 making up the great mass of our popula- 
 tion. It follows, moreover, that the more 
 homogeneous our population is the more 
 like they are in racial development and 
 attributes, the more united they are in 
 their instincts, customs and inspirations, 
 the more complete ap:l harmonious will 
 be their efforts toward self-government 
 and &e maintainance of liberty and hap- 
 piness. 
 
 Aside from the industrial and social 
 evils already rooted in our country to 
 a considerable degree, our political in- 
 stitutions and ideals are perceptibly im- 
 paired by the immigration here of alien 
 peoples not fitted by racial capacity or 
 by their own political development to 
 understand or appreciate the fundamen- 
 tal principles of our government. 
 
The White Immigration 89 
 
 'Formerly the immigration from 
 Northern and Northwestern Europe, 
 heretofore alluded to, quite readily as- 
 similated with our native population, and 
 very generally adopted and maintained 
 Americans ideals of democracy and 
 American governmental methods. These 
 immigrants differed in language, many 
 of them, from the English speaking 
 peoples who came here in pre-revolution- 
 ary 'days, it is true, but like the latter 
 they were racially off-shoots from the 
 Great Aryan root stock, or tribes that 
 ages ago dwelt in Northwestern Asia, 
 and who possessed to a considerable 
 degree file germ of democracy. In 
 those tribes self government was 
 inherent in the blood, it was in- 
 stinctive, and in their development into 
 distinct communities and nations, even 
 through the evolution of diverse tongues, 
 they still preserved t'h?t ideal which is, 
 in fact, the basis of what we call the 
 Anglo-Saxon civilization. 
 
 In this respect they differed from all 
 the tribes and peoples of Eastern or 
 Oriental Asia where tihe very thought 
 of self government seems never to have 
 existed. In the Orient, government 
 from without, despotism, autocracy has 
 
90 The White Immigration 
 
 been and still is the controlling power 
 of the nations and peoples. The same 
 theory has prevailed with the Slavic 
 peoples, and t'he races in Southwestern 
 Asia, bordering on Europe, from which 
 areas now come the throngs of unde- 
 sirable immigrants crowding in upon us. 
 
 The conceptions of government of 
 such immigrants widely differ from the 
 American standard. Their presence in a 
 number of our large cities and Indus- 
 trial centers has 'already made it impos- 
 sible there to maintain the form of dem- 
 ocratic institutions, and we now behold 
 "government by commission/' and by 
 various like autocratic devices estab- 
 lished in several of our large cities. 
 Democracy, government by suffrage 
 has proven to be a failure under con- 
 ditions there brought about largely by 
 the inaptitude and inability of such im- 
 migrants to comprehend or maintain 
 the American ideal standard. De- 
 mocracy, self government will inevit- 
 ably pass away in our great civic cen- 
 ters under the continuance of present 
 day immigration. 
 
 If now our political ideals cannot be 
 maintained in our great cities, how long 
 will it be before self government will 
 
The White Immigration 9.1 
 
 vanish generally from the land? It is a 
 question of time merely, and will ' foe 
 hastened by the 'Continued inpouring of 
 such immigration. 
 
 It is useless to say that many of these 
 immigrants from Southeastern Europe 
 and Southwestern Asia become voters 
 and (assimilate with our political 'n 
 stitutions, and that under our public 
 school system the second generation of 
 the same have better conceptions of our 
 political institutions. Where such immi- 
 grants become naturalized and exercise 
 the right of franchise great evil arises 
 from the massing in blocks of suoh voiers 
 by their separatte nationalities, whereby 
 vicious political conditions are created, 
 especially in our large cities. If this 
 were a question of present conditions 
 merely, such evils might decrease as the 
 years go by. But the continued coming 
 in of greater and greater multitudes of 
 these immigrants is likely to go on as 
 the immigration laws now stand. 
 
 As for ithe expectation that the sec- 
 ond generation will become thoroughly 
 Americanized by education in our 
 schools and otherwise, somewhat of 
 hope lies. But there is often too much 
 stress laid upon trie results of what is 
 
92 The White Immigration 
 
 called "education." By education can 
 be meant, properly, what the individual 
 acquires of knowledge and capacity 
 during his lifetime, especially in youth, 
 it often avails much of betterment and 
 progress, but it is superficial, in a. sense, 
 and comparitively of minor importance 
 to what such individual has within him 
 by heredity. Beneath the education lie 
 the instincts, habits, customs, the deep 
 rooted ways of thought and action de- 
 rived from an illimitable inheritance 
 pressing down with infinite compulsion, 
 not easily swayed or effaced by book- 
 learning or day by day experience or 
 association. Environment has much to 
 do with the individual career, but hered- 
 ity is the root of life after all. Capacity 
 for self government, for a comprehen- 
 sion of democraitk institutions cannot 
 readily be acquired by those whose race 
 and civilization have never had or have 
 never maintained the same — it is a thing 
 of inheritance rather than of culture, 
 and in that respect the immigrants re- 
 ferred to are at a decided disadvantage 
 Unless such immigration is checked by 
 laws in future the hope of political as- 
 similation by .methods of education will 
 be futile indeed. 
 
NINETEEN. 
 
 T!he thoughtlessness and indifference 
 manifested by a large share of the Amer- 
 ican people concerning immigration to 
 this country is accentuated by certain 
 theories put forth on that subject by 
 some writers and publicists, and which 
 are accepted as scientific facts more or 
 less generally. Such ideas are included 
 in what has been termed the "Melting 
 Pot" theory of race mixture. They are 
 to the effect that America is the great 
 "Melting Pot" wherin the several type* 
 of mankind, as well as the minor racial 
 groups of men, fare to be crossed and 
 amalgamted into a new species or race 
 distinctively and progressively American, 
 superior in character and ability u> 'all 
 existing populations of the earth. 
 
 A more unscientific and ridiculous 
 declaration has never been enunciated 
 before concerning the history or evolu- 
 tion of mankind. It is contrary to all 
 known laws of nature, and to the fun- 
 damental tnuths of human development 
 everywhere observable. 
 
 In other words, immigration is ex- 
 pected to displace the orderly and eter- 
 nal processes of life ; and oust of the mix- 
 
94 The White Immigration 
 
 ture of the heterogeneous, the unlike 
 types and races of man, a homogeneous 
 and improved type is to be evolved. 
 The law of evolution is from the homo- 
 geneous to the heterogeneous — never 
 from the heterogeneous to the homo- 
 geneous. 
 
 Behind all the operations of nature 
 lies the great ideals of Infinite Intelli- 
 gence working out widsom through the 
 laws of heredity and environment, li 
 then there be no fixed types, no ideals 
 behind all these manifestations of hu- 
 man life as evolved in diverse environ- 
 ments and conditions, and shaped out 
 by the laws of heredity, then it may well 
 be claimed that 'all human existence is 
 the product of Chance, that Infinite 
 Wisdom has nought to do with the evol- 
 ution and history of man. 
 
 'Space will not permit any lengthened 
 discussion of this subject — it is not 
 necessary in fact. Its mere statement is 
 against common sense and conflicts with 
 facts multitudinous and universal. 
 
 A distinguished writer in a recent 
 magazine tarticle quotes with approval 
 the "Melting Pot" theory as advocated 
 by Israel Zangwill, wherein he (Zang- 
 will) graphically describes how at our 
 
The Whits Immigration 95 
 
 gates are poured into that "Melting 
 Pot." Celt and Latin, Slav and Teu- 
 ton, Greek and Syrian, Black and White" 
 * * * a ii to un j te tQ bui . ld ^ « Re _ 
 
 public of man and tShe kingdom of 'God." 
 It is difficult to understand the posi- 
 tion thus taken concerning Immigration 
 to this country by both of these writers. 
 Israel Zangwill is <a most distinguished 
 member of a race whose wonderful 
 virility, genius and beneficient civiliza- 
 tion has survived the shock of ages of 
 oppression and persecution, shedding a 
 light meanwhile upon all the world from 
 the earliest historical times, and which 
 stands to-day in the very vanguard of 
 progress and enlightenment — and all this 
 is chiefly due to the reason that as a 
 people they have preserved their race 
 purity and: have not amalgamated with 
 other races of mankind. Practically the 
 Hebrews by this process of racial con- 
 servation tand blood preservation present 
 an overwhelming argument in .favor of 
 maintaining the law of nature whidh 
 works by development of types rather 
 than by mingling of types or by raci'al 
 .amalgamation. All that the Jew has 
 been, is, or hopes to be, proceeds very 
 largely from his obedience to the de- 
 
96 The White Immigration 
 
 clared law to stiand racially "separate 
 and apart" from alien peoples through 
 all his generations. 
 
 It is impossible to prove that the 
 amalgamation even of races springing 
 from a common stock, as a rule, has 
 ever been as beneficial as would have 
 been the uninterrupted continuation of 
 such several stocks in its own orderly 
 evolution and development. The his- 
 tory of ancient civilization shows that 
 nations have progressed and flourished 
 best when the bllood of the people, ot 
 the race had been preserved pure; and 
 that the downfall of such civilizations 
 was largely due to the infusion of alien 
 bloods — and that mongrelism brought 
 about such destruction. The passing 
 away of the Roman and other civiliza- 
 tions can be traced to this cause. Not 
 from hostile incursion by barbarians 
 from without, but from alien amalga- 
 mations within did Rome fall ! 
 
 The most advanced and powerful na- 
 tions of today are severally those that 
 keep the most completely the racial 
 stock unmixed 'and unimpaired by alien 
 amalgamations. Thereby they preserve 
 the special excellencies of their own 
 civilization and progress. Whatever we 
 
The: White Immigration 97 
 
 have (attained in governmental and so- 
 cial status that is high and lofty and 
 worthy of continuance has come to us 
 by reason of the fact that our population, 
 until in recent times, has largely been 
 homogeneous in racial stock, in historic 
 development, and in governmental and 
 social ideas. If our development is to 
 contimue, if the republic is to endure, we 
 must preserve this homogeneousnesb — 
 for the mixture of unlike races by amal- 
 gamation, or by the living together in 
 the same habitat of unlike peoples, will 
 surely produce unlikeness not only 
 physically and mentally, but in the ideals 
 that must lie at the basis of our institu- 
 tion. In other words the "Melting Pot" 
 process means mongrelism — and mon- 
 golism means the destruction of the 
 republic and of the development thus far 
 obtained. 
 
TWENTY. 
 
 The United States Immigration Com- 
 mission created by Act of Congress in 
 February, 1907, made <a most exhaustive 
 examination in this country and abroad 
 of matters pertaining to immigration, 
 and: the results of its investigations 
 have been published in forty-two vol- 
 umes of Reports of some five hundred 
 pages each. The Commission says re- 
 striction is demand by economic, moral 
 and social considerations : and they pre- 
 sent the following as bearing most con- 
 cisely and directly upon the nature of 
 the remedies which they suggest may 
 be adopted to lessen the evils of unde- 
 sirable immigration. They say : 
 
 "The investigations of the Commissior; 
 show ian oversupply of unskilled labor 
 in basic industries to 'an extent which in- 
 dicates an oversupply of unskilled labor 
 in the industries of the country as a 
 whole, and therefore demands legislation 
 which will at the present time restrict the 
 further "admission of such unskilled 
 labor." 
 
 "It is desirable in making the restric- 
 tion that — 
 
 "(a) A sufficient number be debarred 
 
Th£ White: Immigration 99 
 
 to produce a marked effect upon the pre- 
 sent supply of unskilled labor. 
 
 "(b) As far as possible, the -aliens 
 excluded should be those who come to 
 this country with no intention to become 
 American citizens or even to maintain 
 a permanent residence here, but merely 
 to save enough, by the adoption, if neces- 
 sary, cf low standards of living, to re- 
 turn permanently to their home country. 
 Such persons are usually men unaccom- 
 panied by wives or children. 
 
 "(c) As far as possible, the aliens 
 excluded should also be those who, By 
 reason of their personal qualities or hab- 
 its, would least readily be assimilated or 
 would make the least desirable citizens. 
 
 "The following methods of restricting 
 immigration have been suggested : 
 
 "(a) The exclusion of those unable to 
 read or write in some language. 
 
 "(b) The limitation of the number of 
 eadh race arriving- each year to *a certain 
 percentage of the average of that race ar- 
 riving during a given period of years. 
 
 "(c)- The exclusion of unskilled la- 
 borers unaccompanied by wives or fam- 
 ilies. 
 
 "(d) The limitation of the number of 
 
ioo The White Immigration 
 
 immigrants arriving annually at any 
 port. 
 
 "(e) The material increase in the 
 amount of money required to be in the 
 possession of the immigrant at the port 
 of arrival. 
 
 "(f) The material increase of the 
 head tax. 
 
 "(g) ITihe levy of the head tax so fas 
 to make a marked discrimination in fav- 
 or of men with families. 
 
 "All these methods would be effective 
 in one way or another in securing re- 
 strictions in greater or less degree. A 
 majority of the Commission favor the 
 reading and writing test as the most 
 feasible single method of restricting un- 
 desirable immigration. " 
 
 Concerning the illiteracy prevailing 
 among present day immigrants the fol- 
 lowing facts may be mentioned: 
 
 "The percentage of illiteracy among 
 the old immigrants, that is, those who 
 antedated '1883, was only 2.7 per cent. 
 far below that of our native population. 
 The rate of illiteracy among the new 
 immigrants, that which has been coming 
 there since 1883, is on an average about 
 36 per cent, 'and the bulk of this immigra- 
 tion, the most (Undesirable portion of it. 
 
Tn e W hit k ! m m i ( ; r at ion i o 1 
 
 is of a much higher degree of illiteracy 
 than the general average. Of the 1,500,- 
 1 Oo south the Italians that came to 
 America from 1899 to 1909, over 800,- 
 000, or 54 per cent, could neither read 
 nor write ; 54 per cent of the Syrians 
 who came during that period could 
 neither read nor write ; 35 per cent of 
 the Poles who came during that period 
 could neither read nor write ; 68 per cent 
 of the Portuguese; 38 per cent of the 
 Ruthenians ; 51 per cent of the Russians ; 
 ?8 per cent of the Turks ; 27 per cent of 
 the Greeks, and 41 per cent of the Bul- 
 garians and Servians and Montenegrins 
 could neither read nor write. In short, 
 something over three-fourths of this 
 entire new immigration is made up of 
 a people the large part of whom are 
 densely ignorant and illiterate." 
 
 The illiteracy of immigrants from 
 southern and •eastern Europe is over 
 twelve times as great as that of aliens 
 from northwestern Elurope ; and the il- 
 literacy of Armenians, Japanese, and 
 Syrians is also high. 
 
 In T909 over three-fifths of the total 
 immigration was of these illiterate races. 
 
 Of the Poles. 861,303 have come in 
 since the War with Spain, and of them 
 
io2 The White Immigration 
 
 354 per cent could not read and write. 
 Of the Slovaks, 342, 583, and of them 
 24 per cent could not read and write. 
 Of the Croatians and Slovenians, 320,- 
 977 have come in, and of them 36.1 per 
 cent could not read and write. 
 
 The Portuguese sent 38,122, and ot 
 them 68.2 per cent were illiterate. They 
 should not properly, of course, be count- 
 ed as ha vino- come from southeastern 
 Europe. Twelve thousand six hundred 
 'and seventy Turks came in, and of them 
 59.5 per cent were illiterate; 47,834 
 Syrians, and of them 53.3 per cent were 
 illiterate. The Bulgarians, Servians, and 
 Montenegrins sent in 95, 596, and 41.7 
 per cent were illiterate. Of the south 
 Italians there came in 1,690,376, and of 
 them 53.9 per cent were illiterate. 
 
 For nearly twenty years the proposi- 
 tion to make use of an educational or 
 illiteracy test for the purpose of exclud- 
 ing" objectionable foreigners has been 
 agitated by great numbers of American 
 people and been discussed most widely 
 by all kinds of educational economical 
 and civic bodies in 'all section of the coun- 
 try. It has been considered by Con- 
 gress ; and by decisive majorities meas- 
 ures to that end have passed in the sev- 
 
Tuiv Whits Immigration 103 
 
 cral branches of Congress nearly a dozen 
 times. Such a measure has been recom- 
 mended by President McKinley and Pre- 
 sident Roosevelt in messages to Cong- 
 gress; and such a policy has been en- 
 dorsed by planks in the platforms of the 
 great parties during presidential elec- 
 tions. It is not intended here to review 
 the history of such efforts, or to present 
 the question from any partisan stand- 
 point. 
 
 The illiteracy test for immigrants, 
 varying according to tihe provisions in 
 the several bills presented in Congress 
 from time to time provides tlhat all aliens 
 over sixteen years of age, physically 
 capable of reading, who cannot read and 
 write in some language, shall not be ad- 
 mitted to this country. The various 
 measures provide, however, that after 
 an alien has been duly admitted under the 
 illiteracy test he may send for certain 
 relatives to come to this country who 
 themselves may not be able to pass that 
 test. 
 
 This test as declared by the Industrial 
 Commission seems to be the most practi- 
 cable of all measures suggested 'as tend- 
 ing shr.it out undesirable white immi- 
 
(04 The White Immigration 
 
 It would appear that if the illiteracy 
 test used by the English Colonies of 
 Australia and South Africa should be 
 adopted here, it would prove a more ef- 
 fective and far-reaching illiteracy test 
 than any now 7 pending in Congress. 
 This test provides that the immigrant 
 shall be able to read and write in some 
 European language, including Yiddish. 
 Thereby would be shut out, for the 
 present at least, all Yellow immigration, 
 as well as a very large part of unde- 
 sirable White immigration. 
 
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