More people than the entire population of
Switzerland (3,315,000) have landed in America within four years. If
only the majority of these aliens had possessed the love of liberty and
the characteristic virtues of the Protestant Swiss, our problem would be
very different. These comparisons strongly impress the responsibility
and burden imposed upon America by practically free and wide-open gates.
[Sidenote: The Problem of Assimilation]
Here are the totals which we have now reached. Of the 23,000,000 aliens
who have come into America since the Revolution, the last census (1900)
gave the number then living at 10,256,664. A census taken to-day would
doubtless show about 14,000,000. Add the children of foreign parentage
and it would bring the total up to between 35,000,000 and 40,000,000.
Mr. Sargent estimates this total at forty-six per cent. of our entire
population. The immigration problem presents nothing less than the
assimilation of this vast mass of humanity. No wonder thoughtful
Americans stand aghast before it. At the same time, the only thing to
fear is failure to understand the situation and meet it. As Professor
Boyesen says: "The amazing thing in Americans is their utter
indifference or supine optimism.
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