Alexander Graham Bell

Alexander Graham Bell is best known as the inventor of the telephone. Born in Scotland, he became a U.S. citizen in 1882. In the following viewpoint, Bell discusses the threat posed by immigrants who reproduce at a higher rate than white Americans. He contends that if Americans do not have greater numbers of children, they will be displaced by highly fertile immigrants who will ultimately overwhelm and absorb the American white race. Therefore, in order to protect native Americans from “race suicide,” restrictions must be imposed to reduce the number of immigrants entering the United States.

One of the most interesting of the questions of today relates to the powerful influence exerted upon populations by what we might almost call negative selection. A selection that produces the very opposite of...