America, which is described as a sort of world "garbage bin."
Extremists have drawn in gloomy colors the effects of this inrush of the
worst and most illiterate and unassimilable elements of the Old World. A
distinct prejudice has undoubtedly been created against these later
comers.

[Sidenote: Reasons for Adverse Opinion]

[Illustration: CHANGES IN SOURCES OF IMMIGRATION WHICH HAVE CAUSED HEAVY
INCREASE OF ILLITERACY

This chart shows what a mass of illiteracy is coming in from Italy,
Austria-Hungary, and Russia. Only those above the age of fourteen are
counted as illiterates. The change in the source of immigration from
northern and western Europe to southern and eastern Europe is
responsible for this radical change in the number of those who cannot
read or write. Of the southern Italians who came in 1905, 56 per cent.
were illiterate; and of the Ruthenians, 63 per cent. Most of these
illiterates will never learn to read, as they are beyond the school
age.]

There is unquestionably some ground for the feeling that the new
immigration is in many respects less desirable than the older type.
These peoples come out of conditions of oppression and depression,
illiteracy and poverty. Far more important than this, they have had no
contact with Anglo-Saxon ideas or government. They are consequently
almost wholly ignorant of American ideals and standards. There is a vast
difference between the common ideas of these immigrants and those from
the more enlightened and progressive northern nations. So there is in
the type of character and the customs and manners.

[Sidenote: The Older Type of Immigration]

We are sufficiently familiar with the older type, and do not need here
to dwell upon it. We know how large a part has been played in the
development of our national material enterprises by the Germans, the
English and Irish, the Scotch and Welsh, the Swedes and Norwegians.
Millions of them are among the loyal Americans of to-day. The Irish
originally came to perform the unskilled labor of America. Their women
made the domestics, and many of them still rule the American kitchen.
But the Irish men have moved up, into bosses and contractors, into the
stores and trades and professions, and especially into politics, until
they practically run the cities and have a lion's share of the
governmental positions. The Germans have always been among the best of
our immigrant population in intelligence, thrift, and other qualities
th