The Old World in the New


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Towards the New World
Towards the New World

Towards the New World

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THE OLD WORLD
IN THE NEW

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PAST AND PRESENT
IMMIGRATION TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

BY

EDWARD ALSWORTH ROSS, Ph.D., LL.D.

Professor of Sociology in the University of Wisconsin

Author of “Social Control,” “Social Psychology,”
“The Changing Chinese,” “Changing America,” Etc.

ILLUSTRATED WITH
MANY PHOTOGRAPHS

The Century Company logo
The Century Company logo

NEW YORK

THE CENTURY CO.

1914

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Copyright, 1913, 1914, by

The Century Co.

Published, October, 1914

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PREFACE

“Immigration,” said to me a distinguished social worker and idealist, “is a wind that blows democratic ideas throughout the world. In a Siberian hut from which four sons had gone forth to America to seek their fortune, I saw tacked up a portrait of Lincoln cut from a New York newspaper. Even there they knew what Lincoln stood for and loved him. The return flow of letters and people from this country is sending an electric thrill through dwarfed, despairing sections of humanity. The money and leaders that come back to these down-trodden peoples inspire in them a great impulse toward liberty and democracy and progress. Time-hallowed Old-World oppressions and exploitations that might have lasted for generations will perish in our time, thanks to the diffusion by immigrants of American ideas of freedom and opportunity.”

Rapt in these visions of benefit to belated humanity, my friend refused to consider any possible harm of immigration to this country. He did not doubt it so much as ignore it. How should the well-being of a nation be balanced against a blessing to humanity?

“Think what American chances mean to these poor people!” urged a large-hearted woman in settlement work. “Thousands make shipwreck, other thousands are disappointed, but tens of thousands do realize something of the better, ​larger life they had dreamed of. Who would exclude any of them if he but knew what a land of promise America is to the poor of other lands?” Her sympathy with the visible alien at the gate was so keen that she had no feeling for the invisible children of our poor, who will find the chances gone, nor for those at the gate of the To-be, who might have been born, but will not be.

I am not of those who consider humanity and forget the nation, who pity the living but not the unborn. To me, those who are to come after us stretch forth beseeching hands as well as the masses on the other side of the globe. Nor do I regard America as something to be spent quickly and cheerfully for the benefit of pent-up millions in the backward lands. What if we become crowded without their ceasing to be so? I regard it as a nation whose future may be of unspeakable value to the rest of mankind, provided that the easier conditions of life here be made permanent by high standards of living, institutions and ideals, which finally may be appropriated by all men. We could have helped the Chinese a little by letting their surplus millions swarm in upon us a generation ago; but we have helped them infinitely more by protecting our standards and having something worth their copying when the time came.

Edward Alsworth Ross.

The University of Wisconsin,

Madison, Wisconsin,
September, 1914.

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
page
THE ORIGINAL MAKE-UP OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
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 3
Traits of the Puritan stock—Elements in the peopling of Virginia—The indentured servants and convicts—Purification by free land—The Huguenots—The Germans—The Scotch-Irish—Ruling motives in the peopling of the New World—Selective agencies—The toll of the sea—The sifting by the wilderness—The impress of the frontier—How an American Breed arose—Its traits.
CHAPTER II
THE CELTIC IRISH
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The great lull—The Hibernian tide—Why it has run low—Effects on Ireland—Irish-Americans in the struggle for existence—Their improvidence and unthrift—Why they lacked the economic virtues—Drink their worst foe—Their small criminality—Loyalty to wife and child—Their occupational preferences—Their rapid rise—Their rank in intellectual contribution—Celtic traits—Place of the Irish in American society.
CHAPTER III
THE GERMANS
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 46
Volume and causes of the German freshet—Why it has ceased—Distribution of the Germans in America—Deutschtum vs. assimilation—The "Forty-eighters"—Influence of the Germans on our farming, on our drinking, on our attitude toward recreation—Political tendencies of German voters—The Germans as pathbreakers for intellectual liberty—Their success in the struggle for existence—Moderation in alcoholism and in crime—Preferred occupations—Teutonic traits—Effect of the German infusion on the temper of the American people.
CHAPTER IV
THE SCANDINAVIANS
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The size of the Scandinavian wave—Distribution of this element in the United States—Social characteristics—Crime and alcoholism—Occupational choices—Readiness of assimilation—Reaction to America—National contrasts among Scandinavians—Intellectual rating—Race traits—Moral and political significance of the Scandinavians. ​

CHAPTER V

THE ITALIANS

Causes of the Italian outflow—Distribution of Italians—Social characteristics—Broad contrast between North Italians and South Italians—Occupations—Agricultural settlements—Freedom from alcoholism—Gaming—Addiction to violence—Camorra and Mafia in America—Difficulties in dealing with Italian immigrants—Their mental rating—Traits of character—The Italians as a social element.

CHAPTER VI

THE SLAVS

Place of the Slavs in history—Lateness of their awakening—Size of the Slav groups in America—Occupational tendencies of the Slavic immigrants—Distribution—Alcoholism—Criminality—Subjection of women—Extraordinary fecundity—Displacement of other elements—Resistance to Americanization—Clannishness—Social characteristics of Slav settlements—Industrial segregation—Mental rating—Prospects of Slavic immigration.

CHAPTER VII

THE EAST EUROPEAN HEBREWS

One-fifth of the Hebrew race in America—“The Promised Land”—Hebrew interest in free immigration—Waves of Russo-Hebrew immigration—Occupational preferences—Morals—Crime—Race traits—Intellectuality—Persistence of will—Growth of Anti-Semitism in America—Causes—Prospects—Why America is a powerful solvent of Judaism—Signs of Assimilation.

CHAPTER VIII

THE LESSER IMMIGRANT GROUPS

African, Saracen and Mongolian blood in our immigrants—The Finns—Motives and characteristics—Political aptitude—Patriotism—The Magyars—Social condition and traits—The Portuguese-Origin and volume of the Portuguese influx—Distribution—Industrial and social characteristics—Resistance to assimilation—The Greeks—Immigration from Greece purely economic—Distribution and occupational preferences—Serfdom of Greek boot-blacks—The Levantines—Racial and social characteristics.

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CHAPTER IX

ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF IMMIGRATION

Stimulators of migration—The commercial interests behind the movement—The new immigrant as an industrial tool—How tariff protection coupled with the open door augment the manufacturer's profits—Effect of the new immigration upon the cost of living, upon agricultural methods—Shall the penniless immigrant be helped to get upon the land—The utilization of foreign labor to break strikes—The foreign laborer as a hindrance to unionism—Effect upon wages and conditions—Is the foreigner indispensable—Immigrant women doing men's work—Fate of the displaced American—Immigration and crises—The inevitable rise of social pressure—Who bears the brunt?

CHAPTER X

SOCIAL EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION

Immigration and social atavism—Community reversions to the Middle Ages—Immigrant illiteracy and ignorance—New readers of the yellow press—The spread of white peonage—Caste cleavage—Attitude of the foreign-born toward the claims of women—Split-family immigration and the social evil—How immigration makes acute the housing problem—Why overgrown cities—Immigrants who discount our charities—The wayward child of the immigrant—Insanity among the foreign-born—Obstructions to the operation of the public school—Signs of social decline—Peasantism vs. social progress.

CHAPTER XI

IMMIGRANTS IN POLITICS

The Hibernian domination of Northern cities—Political psychology of the Celts—Practical consequences—Immigration as foe to party traditionalism—Citizenship of the new immigrants compared with the old—Accumulation of voteless men—How this lessens the political strength of labor—Psychology of the ignorant naturalized immigrants—How the cunning boss acquires "influence"—Feudal relation between the boss and his humble constituents—Naturalization frauds—he Tammany way—The political machine—The liquor interest and the foreign-born voter—The foreign press in politics—The cost of losing political like-mindedness—Political mysticism vs. common sense.

CHAPTER XII

AMERICAN BLOOD AND IMMIGRANT BLOOD

Submergence of the pioneering breed—Growing heterogeneity—Primitive types among the foreign-born—How ​immigration will affect good looks in this country- Effect of crossing on personal beauty-Stature and phys- ique of the newer immigrants-Do they revitalize the American people-Race morals of the South European stocks Are the immigrants good samples of their own people-Appraisal of the different ethnic strains in the American people-Rating of present immigrant streams -How immigration has affected the fecundity of Amer- icans-Evading a degrading competition by race suicide -The triumph of the low-standard elements over the high-standard elements.

APPENDIX

INDEX

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