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If the examination papers were opened with the application for the visé of the American consul, and followed the immigrant through Ellis Island, the European study would greatly aid and simplify certain tests at Ellis Island, but would not dispense or displace these final examinations. Such papers in the files of the American Government would greatly simplify the processes of deportation and

naturalization.

IMMIGRATION STANDARDS

America is a melting pot whether we like it or not. If we succeed for many centuries as a great nation, historians should be able to look back and always find us exercising great vigor and vigilance in sorting out the immigrant material which applied for admission to the United States. We should be found admitting only sound metals, and those in such proportions as would alloy well with the earlier American elements already in the crucible, and should take great care to reject and eliminate all dross. The American bell should vibrate without discord.

So far as the personal qualities of individual immigrants are concerned, the causes for rejection enumerated in section 3 of the immigration act of February 5, 1917, are very satisfactory. The development of rules and administration under this authority should work well, but our census of institutions has shown that the sieve is not working as intended, and we have shown by field study of the matter just where the additional filterings or siftings could be installed in the process of administering immigration. In addition to the requirements of section 3 of the law of 1917, which are enforced principally by the examination at Ellis Island, additional examinations should be made in the American consulates in the districts of origin of the applying emigrant. But more than that, standards additional to those of section 3 should be added. These requirements should cover the matter of case and family histories for the reasons which we have already set forth. These specific requirements of these additional standards are covered in the outline of the sample or demonstration case and family histories which were attempted in the field for the purpose of working out both the theory and practice of the matter. (See Series I, Appendix A, p. 1343.)

The principal objection to the present law is that it is negative in that it strives simply to eliminate the defectives. While it is perfectly proper to reject a would-be immigrant on account of his defects, between two other applicants preference should be granted to the most desirable. We could thus balance debit and credit in the final decision. National traits, such as truthfulness, inventiveness, initiative, dependability, altruism, honesty, religious feeling, artistic sense, and many other talents and moral qualities, the bases of which are inborn in the individual and which vary greatly in family strains, can be determined by field studies of individuals and families. Besides these moral or social qualities the physical qualities of stature, strength, soundness, comeliness, longevity, and freedom from disease are important. These, too, in their hereditary aspect can be located and measured not so well by clinical examination in a strange laboratory as by such examinations when supplemented strongly by field investigations. A sound individual of sound heredity is what we

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Based upon the Psychological Exam!
Memoir . Nat. Acad. Sci., 1921.

tions. In chart 7 the longer lines opposite the name of the particular group represent relatively superior intelligence. In chart 8, the reverse situation is shown in which the longer lines represent a relatively high incidence of inferior intelligence. It might be possible for a group to rate high in both superior and inferior intelligence, if it were extremely variable and had principally only superior and degenerate individuals, and practically no great middle class. But by comparing charts 7 and 8, we find that such situation does not exist. Thus the whole distribution in the low, medium, and superior intelligence groups is shown in chart 9.

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