CENSUS YEARS

POPULATION IN THOUSANDS

- SCALE: () EQUALS 5000 IN VERTICAL DISTRIBUTION

255.912

1

TOTAL POPULATION 1920

DECADES

429-24f-9ER. 5A. (Face p. 1305.)

Mr. Box. Is a motion in order, Mr. Chairman?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Mr. Box. I make that motion.

(The question being put, the motion of Mr. Box was unanimously adopted.)

THE PARALLEL BETWEEN MILITARY INVASION AND INVASION BY IMMIGRATION

Doctor LAUGHLIN. When one people move from their home territory into the territory of another country, the ultimate result depends not so much upon whether the movement is a sudden military invasion, as contrasted with a more insidious invasion by immigration, as upon variation of the incoming individuals in the factors of race, sex, numbers, age, distribution, mate selection, differential fecundity, and ultimate family stock qualities of body, mind, and morals. The immediate difference between military conquest and immigration is tremendous, but in the perspective of history, by which we judge the lives of nations and races, the difference is not nearly so great. In the long run, military conquest by a superior people would be highly preferable to a conquest by immigration by peoples. with inferior family stock endowments.

The CHAIRMAN. What happens when the oriental and western races meet?

Doctor LAUGHLIN. In the matter of maintenance of national stock n a given territory, immigration and differential fecundity are the greatest controlling factors. Hawaii' is a variable laboratory which has shown how this works out. The native Hawaiian stock, which in 1850 constituted practically the whole population of the islands, in 1910 constituted less than 10 per cent; indeed, according to the census of 1920, only 23,723 out of a total of 255,912. The Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, British, and Americans, part Hawaiian, and Filipinos, in the order named, constituted the principal stocks, so it is clear that the two factors of immigration and differential fecundity determine the rate of extinction of a national race when it is supplanted by other groups. Immigration is an insidious invasion just as clearly as, and works more certainly in national conquest than, the invading army which may or may not come and go without supplanting national population. If the immigration is of a closely related racial type, and possesses inborn talents higher than those of the native stocks, then the national type is preserved and the character improved. But if, on the other hand, the racial type is not assimilable, and the inborn traits of character are less ideal than those of the foundation stocks, then immigration works toward ultimate disaster.

VESTED INTERESTS AND IMMIGRATION

The emigrant, as a rule, moves in order to better his conditions and opportunities. Private interests in the path of the immigrant

In the exhibit of the Second International Congress of Eugenics in New York in 1921, Dr. Louis R. Sullivan displayed a chart entitled "A century of change in Hawaii's population," which showed how the principles which I have just described worked out as the result of the interaction of immigration and fecundity differential among the several stocks and strains within a country. (This exhibit is reproduced in this report as Chart 10, opposite p. 1305.)

are always ready to profit by his movements. So long as the economic rather than the biological basis of immigration controls a national policy, the balancing of the needs of the vested interests may fairly decide the details of law and administration. In the present case, by the vested interests we mean the financial interest of an individual or corporation or class, which would reap considerable financial profit within a few years as the result of a given national policy or permission. The vested interests at present trying to influence immigration policy in working for the open door are, first, the steamship companies and other organizations which make immediate profit from the handling of immigrants in proportion to their numbers; second, the employers of labor, which employers greatly increase their profits if they can employ abundant labor cheaply; third, the racial blocs which are growing rapidly in the country, and which during the war we designated under the names of "hyphen and "propaganda;" fourth, the emigrant-exporting nation, which must find a market for its surplus labor.

It has been assumed that there is not an American race, but the alien groups in the country have a race consciousness of their own, and feel that if it is a free-for-all contest in making the American race, their own particular proportion of race, culture, and ideals may quite properly seek to be a large factor. On the other hand, the principal vested interest in favor of closed immigration is labor, which sees in the incoming immigrants numerous competitors who will reduce wages and standards of living.

In every issue vested interests are apt to show themselves before the larger interests of the whole people can find a speaker. In the matter of immigration there are doubtless immediate vested interests working both for open and for restrictive immigration. While all of these interests, pro and con, have immediate economic and racial considerations, the larger consideration is the ultimate effect of the immigration policy on the racial composition and the physical, mental, and temperamental qualities of the American people. Purely American shipping interests, purely American employers, purely American labor must be heavily weighted in their desires in immigration policy, but because immigration is a function of a sovereign nation, and not subject to external control, the hyphen" of the unassimilated resident in America, and the propaganda of foreign governments, would, most properly, if they obeyed the best political ethics, not attempt to influence our immigration policy, but if they do attempt to influence it, then the American people should refuse to permit their propaganda or activities. Immigration is a domestic matter, but in its control the Nation must act as a unit (p. 1286).

For the Nation to permit any vested interest, domestic or foreign, to dominate its immigration policy for a long time would bring certain disaster. The economic policy, as I have often said in this report, is giving way in the United States to the biological, which weighs primarily the future basic or family stock welfare of the whole Nation. If, because of these reports, those who favor a restriction of numbers and a rigid selection of immigrants have found more ammunition than those who favor open immigration, that is a sequence for which the investigator is not responsible.

A COMMISSION FOR THE FURTHER STUDY OF THE BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF IMMIGRATION

The CHAIRMAN. Let me ask you your opinion as to what line an inquiry might take if Congress should add to any immigration law which it may pass a clause providing for a commission of inquiry in regard to immigration. It has been proposed before this committee, and elsewhere, that there be added to any law that may be passed authority for a commission, made up of Senators and Representatives and civilians, to be appointed by the President, or through some other method, to carry on a study, and to find out the true situation. I would like to ask you if you think an inquiry of that kind, in view of your studies of several years, would take on a development of the studies just mentioned.

Doctor LAUGHLIN. I believe, sir, that any American commission which undertook the study of immigration to-day would be compelled to consider the racial and family stock problems first, the economic second, and the asylum third.

As I stated previously, the only extended immigration study made by the authority of the Congress of the United States was based primarily upon the economic theory; biology and race played a very secondary part. This study, of great value to the Nation, was made from 1907-1911 by the Dillingham Commission, which spent $1,000,000 on its tasks, but did not enter extensively the field. of biology, although in their Dictionary of Races they laid the foundation for future biological work. Now the field is ripe for a thorough biological study of the whole problem.

The new investigation should be made from the standpoint of the future American population. If made from, that standpoint, I think it would be very desirable. If provisions were made for a commission for the study of immigration, such commission ought, of course, to be given a free hand. But there are some general instructions in keeping with the policy of the Nation which ought to direct the studies of such a commission, and should lay down general rules for its procedure, leaving, of course, the detail of organization and research to the commission, and not interfering in any manner with its findings, logically drawn from the facts. The Dillingham Commission of 1907, spent its time and money in investigating the subject of immigration largely from the matter of supply and demand of labor, a very vital factor indeed, but secondary to that of the ultimate hereditary quality of the average American family. While a new commission should cover every phase of the problem, including America as an asylum, the vested interests of capital and labor, the political influence of alien foreign groups, the rate and thoroughness of racial mixture, and social, cultural and language assimilation, the principal instruction to the commission should be to keep constantly in mind the future benefit to the American people, as a unit, based upon the improvement of the hereditary qualities of family stocks in accordance with American ideals. If such a commission were set to work, it could supply a great deal of material which would aid the American Congress in perfecting the details of its biological immigration policy recently adopted, and also it would supply the Government with data which would be useful in administering the immigration and naturalization laws. And as a collection of published facts, the reports would aid the people to work intelligently in their efforts

to develop the best qualities of the racial stocks which have entered and which will, in the future, enter into the composition of the Amer

ican race.

FUTURE RESEARCHES

The CHAIRMAN. Doctor Laughlin was authorized by this committee to undertake certain studies based upon first-hand investigations, which would throw some additional light upon our problems. The matter of deportation, as we mentioned earlier in this hearing, is under way. I would like to ask Doctor Laughlin, in his judgment, what other definite studies would be of value?

Doctor LAUGHLIN. The economic and charitable aspects of the problem have been made the subject of careful study, so that the most urgent researches now should be made in the biological field. I submit a number of specific problems, but the list is not intended to be at all exhaustive. It simply indicates the nature of some of the specific researches which are needed. Each one of these studies could be brought to a head and properly correlated with other investigations, so that the particular finding would be of use in determining the specific rules for carrying out a definite immigration policy.

If we can succeed in keeping these researches out of partisan politics, there is no reason why these problems can not be attacked impartially, and, from the standpoint of the Nation as a unit, made the subject of scientific investigation.

The CHAIRMAN. It would be almost necessary to make one section of the inquiry with reference to the so-called "bird of passage" immigrant. That is to say, if this country can not supply its common labor and other countries think they can supply it, with whole families, it might lead to a study that would involve the question of transient and seasonal labor Such labor enters a country with the understanding that it will return to the country from which it came. Doctor LAUGHLIN. There is certainly a major difference between the different kinds of migrants who move from nation to nation. The laws and treaties of nations should recognize this more definitely (p. 1285).

The CHAIRMAN. What would the United States do in case an Italian who came here as a "bird of passage," later elected to bring his family?

Doctor LAUGHLIN. He would cease to be a "bird of passage;" the law would have to treat him differently following his new declaration. It should not be impossible for a "bird of passage," if he were otherwise qualified and met the standards of the United States, to become another type of international migrant.

There are many other problems; for example, some students of the problem claim that immigration merely takes the place of additions by natural reproduction, which latter would have taken place more abundantly in the absence of immigrants. This is known as Walker's law. 1

Dr. Charles B. Davenport, the director of the station for experimental evolution of the Carnegie Institution at Cold Spring Harbor,

"Immigration and Degradation," by Francis A. Walker; "The Forum," Vol. XI, No. 6, pp. 634-644, Aug. 1891.