THE OLD WORLD
IN THE NEW
THE OLD WORLD
IN THE NEW
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF PAST AND PRESENT
IMMIGRATION TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
BY
EDWARD ALSWORTH ROSS, Ph.D., LL.D.
Professor of Sociology in the University of Wisconsin
Author of "Social Control," "Social Psychology,"
"The Changing Chinese," "Changing
America," Etc.
ILLUSTRATED WITH
MANY PHOTOGRAPHS
NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1914
Copyright, 1913, 1914, by
The Century Co.
Published, October, 1914
PREFACE
"Immigration," said to me a distinguishedsocial worker and idealist, "is a wind that blowsdemocratic ideas throughout the world. In aSiberian hut from which four sons had gone forthto America to seek their fortune, I saw tacked upa portrait of Lincoln cut from a New York newspaper.Even there they knew what Lincoln stoodfor and loved him. The return flow of letters andpeople from this country is sending an electricthrill through dwarfed, despairing sections ofhumanity. The money and leaders that comeback to these down-trodden peoples inspire inthem a great impulse toward liberty and democracyand progress. Time-hallowed Old-Worldoppressions and exploitations that might havelasted for generations will perish in our time,thanks to the diffusion by immigrants of Americanideas of freedom and opportunity."
Rapt in these visions of benefit to belated humanity,my friend refused to consider any possibleharm of immigration to this country. Hedid not doubt it so much as ignore it. How shouldthe well-being of a nation be balanced against ablessing to humanity?
"Think what American chances mean to thesepoor people!" urged a large-hearted woman insettlement work. "Thousands make shipwreck,other thousands are disappointed, but tens ofthousands do realize something of the better,larger life they had dreamed of. Who would excludeany of them if he but knew what a land ofpromise America is to the poor of other lands?"Her sympathy with the visible alien at the gatewas so keen that she had no feeling for the invisiblechildren of our poor, who will find thechances gone, nor for those at the gate of theTo-be, who might have been born, but will not be.
I am not of those who consider humanityand forget the nation, who pity the living but notthe unborn. To me, those who are to come afterus stretch forth beseeching hands as well as themasses on the other side of the globe. Nor do Iregard America as something to be spent quicklyand cheerfully for the benefit of pent-up millionsin the backward lands. What if we becomecrowded without their ceasing to be so? I regardit as a nation whose future may be of unspeakablevalue to the rest of mankind, provided that theeasier conditions of life here be made permanentby high standards of living, institutions andideals, which finally may be appropriated by allmen. We could have helped the Chinese a littleby letting their