Our study shows that there is plenty in the
character and extent of present day immigration to make the Christian
and patriot thoughtful, prayerful, and purposeful. On the surface there
is enough that is appalling and threatening to excuse if not justify the
use of the word "peril." The writer confesses that when he lived, years
ago, in western Pennsylvania, and came close to the inferior grades of
immigrants, and witnessed the changes wrought by the displacement of the
earlier day mining class, he bordered for a time on the pessimistic
plane. Nor was his condition much improved during residence in New
England, where the changing of the old order and the passing of the
Puritan are of vast significance to our country. But closer study of the
broad subject has led to a positively optimistic view concerning
immigration, and some of the grounds of this optimism may properly close
this chapter and volume.
[Sidenote: Two Great Factors--Democracy and Religion]
The basal ground is the universal tendency toward democracy and the
universal necessity for religion. These are sufficiently axiomatic. The
appeal to the history of the nineteenth century is sufficient to
establish the first, and the appeal to the heart of humanity will
establish the second.
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