icanized, or, in other words, had given up their old ways for
our ways of thinking and living. On the contrary, they have transported
all sorts of political notions from monarchial countries to our soil.
"The continental ideas of the Sabbath, the nihilist's ideas of
government, the communist's ideas of property, the pagan's ideas of
religion--all these mingle in our air with the ideas that shaped the men
at Plymouth Rock and Valley Forge," that adorned hill, dale and prairie
with Christian church and Christian school, and made possible the
building of free America.

[Sidenote: The Grade of the Aliens]

As we have seen, the immigrants have mostly represented the peasant or
lower classes of the countries whence they came. This is noted, not in
the way of prejudice, but because it is always true that mortality is
greater, and crime, illiteracy, and pauperism are more prevalent among
the lower classes. Of course it is also true that if the higher classes
had come from foreign lands they would have made an addition to the
social life quite different from that which did come. The average
character of the immigration, however favorable, required raising in
order to meet the American level. In the new environment it was to be
expected that large numbers of individuals among the immigrants would
rise to prominence and influence, and this has been the case. The
country owes large debt to the immigrants of earlier days. Their
children and descendants are loyal Americans. It is true, on the other
hand, that many have come from unfortunate conditions in the Old World
only to fall into quite as unfortunate ones in the New; and they and
their descendants have swollen the pauper and criminal class. The
statistics prove that a large proportion of our criminals and convicts
are of foreign birth. It is still more significant to note that, in the
opinion of expert observers, the first generation of foreign-born
parentage, in the cities at least, make a worse record than the
migrating parents.

[Sidenote: Bad Effects of New Environments]

If this be so, the new environment is producing deterioration and
degeneracy instead of improvement. An Italian of education, working
among his people, told the writer that the Italian boys and girls born
here, or coming at a very early age, were much more lawless and
disorderly and difficult to deal with than their fathers and mothers.
They had imbibed all the worst features of our life, its independe