It seems probable that if European immigration were to be stopped that a very large migration of negroes from the South to the North and the West would occur to take places hitherto filled by unskilled immigrant workers.  In the year 1915, following the check to immigration as a result of the European war, a very marked movement of this kind set in.  If this occurred on a much larger scale it might result in greatly reducing the negro population in some portions of the South, and as the “natural rate of increase” of the negroes in the North is a negative quantity, it might cause the total negro population of the country to begin absolutely decreasing.

Sec. 4. #Favorable economic aspects of earlier immigration.# Regarding the immigration problem we are not confined to futile expressions of regret as in the last case.  For by the “immigration problem” is meant primarily and mainly the coming of immigrants, and we can by legislation limit or stop their coming, if we will.  The question at issue is whether their coming really is an evil or, on the whole, a blessing to the country.

The historic American attitude toward immigration has been highly favorable to it.  The early settlers on these coasts were led by various motives, some political, some religious, but far the largest part economic, the motive of bettering their worldly condition.  Land was plentiful and all men of any capacity could easily become landowners.  An inflow of laborers was favorable to the interests of all the influential elements of the population, especially to landowners and active business men.  Increase of numbers, favoring division of labor and the economies of production in manufacturing, and reducing the dangers from Indians and from foreign enemies, seemed an unmixed blessing.  Many of the newcomers soon became landowners and employers, and in turn favored a continuance of the movement.  Thus was hastened the peopling of the wilderness.  The interest of these classes harmonized to a certain point with the public interest; but likewise it was in some respects in conflict with the abiding welfare of the whole nation.  It led to the fateful introduction of slavery from Africa, and it encouraged much defective immigration from Europe, the heritage of which survives in many defective and vicious strains of humanity, some of them notorious, such as the Jukes, the Kallikak family, and the Tribe of Ishmael.

Sec. 5. #Employers’ gains from immigration.#.  The immigration from Europe has furnished an ever-changing group of workers, moderating the rate of wages which employers otherwise would have had to pay.  The continual influx of cheap labor aided in imparting values to all industrial opportunities.  A large part of these gains have been in trade, in manufacturers, and in real estate as the cities have taken and retained an ever-growing share of the immigrants.  Successive waves of immigration, composed of different races, have ever been ready to fill the ranks of the unskilled workers at wages somewhat lower than the current American rate.