A Land of Immigrants.

In 1885 the Protestant writer and orator Josiah Strong noted in his popular tract Our Country that "America, as the land of promise to all the world, is the destination of the most remarkable migration of which we have any record. During the last four years we have suffered a peaceful invasion by an army more than twice as vast as the estimated number of Goths and Vandals that swept over Southern Europe and overwhelmed Rome. . . . A study of the causes of this great world movement," he continued, "indicates that as yet we have seen only beginnings." Whatever one might think of Strong's equation of immigrants with an invading army, he was perceptive in recognizing that a migration of unprecedented scope was under way, a migration that would continue until the eve of World War I. Immigration not only transformed American society...