January, 1923
11
THE WESTERN AMERICAN
The Immigration Question
By L. D. Mahone, A.M., Ph.D.
THE IMMIGRATION QUESTION has become one
of the dominant questions of the hour. It is being
debated in the fraternal order, the patriotic societies,
the noon-day clubs, in the church, and congress. A
¡few years ago no one seemed to be interested. Today
every American who believes in making America
what the fathers intended to make of her have some­
thing to say. It is a vital question. Because it af­
fects every phase of our life.
Our duty at the present is two-fold, to-wit: First,
[that of preventing any more immigration coming
into the
country un­
til those
within our
borders can
be assimilat­
ed ; second,
the educat­
ing and the
making out
of those
within the
country
good citi­
zens. The
first task is
one that
must be at­
tended to by
the national
congress;
the second
by all of the
people. This
I ¡Author “The Destiny of the Republic,” “Amer- i S a WOT k
icanization With Facts and Plan
that cannot
of Procedure.”
be Jone jn a
pay. Through the public schools, the fraternal so­
cieties, the church and classes especially created for
the alien element this work must be done. An active
¿campaign to enlighten all of the people with respect
to the facts so that congress can act with the con-
■¡deration that is necessary. In this work every one
can find some place where his or her might can be
Contributed.
I There are 13,300,000 people of foreign birth on
American soil. Many of them have become natural­
ized and to all outward appearances are making good
[n their adopted country; many of them have learned
the English language and to the best of their ability
■hey are measuring up to the ideals of America. The
World War revealed to us the true situation, one in
which the ordinary citizen had not even given the
■natter any consideration. When the boys were taken
to the various cantonements and the required mili­
tary training exacted of them it was discovered that
they needed an interpreter for about every third
or fourth man.
I There are many realms why the immigrants
should be kept out of America at the present. The
aliens are here at the suffrance of our country. If
they are not proper citizens, or if they will not live
up to the ideals and traditions of America or if they
violate the laws of the land, we are only doing our
duty when we send them back to the place from
which they came.
The racial problems brought out by the war must
be corrected.
Large employers have used and are seeking the
opportunity of getting many thousand more of aliens
into the country under the pretense of lack of labor
in their industry when as a matter of fact they are
looking for cheap labor. These same men not more
than a year ago went before congress and demanded
a high protective tariff and among their reasons was
that they wanted to pay the American wage. They
were successful in getting the highest protective
measures ever passed by congress.
The class of immigrants who have been coming to
our shores since 1875, are not those impressed with
the high ideals of America but come from races that
have for many thousands of years shown an* utter
incapacity to appreciate the traditions and purposes
in the building up of a great nation. The theory that
Americans can be made out of any kin4 of racial
material is wrong. The arrival of immigrants of
low social status has an unfavorable effect on the
birth rate of the higher types. Disease is brought
over and transmitted to Americans.
A large part of the immigrants now coming from
Europe come from the mongrel populations and this
spells failure to any people who tries to mix with
them. The fact that but one American out of ten
is a foreman today should interest those who labor.
The theory that the “Melting Pot” would take care
of the aliens has been a dismal failure. The pot is
“stewing” but there is no melting. An effort to stop
a Kansas cyclone with your old hat will be just as
effective as trying to make something out of thou­
sands of these people who are within our borders.
They do not have the capacity nor the inclination.
A recent survey of Oregon of which I was a member,
shows that we have 70,000 insane, near-insane, feeble
minded, etc., in Oregon. The foreign element domi­
nates in these unsightly figures.
We have “Big Business” and the steamship com­
panies to fight in preventing the immigrants from
coming to America. The coming in large numbers
means millions of dollars to these interests. “Big
Business” has a wonderful capacity in displaying the
flag and proclaiming in the press and from the plat­
form their high aspirations for America but they
keep their Shylock hands beneath the folds of the
flag to catch the almighty dollar.
The present congestion of our cities will not per­
mit further additions being made to these millions
who are now a menace to good government and to
(C<*^>ued on page 10)