lete prohibition, of immigration.

The foregoing study indicates that the time has come, if it is not far
past, when the traditional policy of fostering immigration is opposed
to the welfare of the masses of the people. This belief can be based
solely on grounds of numbers, the relation of population to resources,
quite apart from a preference for particular races or the familiar
arguments regarding social and political evils and lack of
assimilation, however valid they may be. The limitation of immigration
would immediately improve working-class conditions where they are
worst in America,[16] and would check and probably reverse the
tendency to diminishing returns already manifest in many directions.
This opinion does not necessitate an absolute prohibition of
immigration; it is consistent with the continuance of immigration of a
strictly selected character, and in numbers so small that all European
immigrants now here could be rapidly and completely assimilated,
economically and racially. With a slow national increase of population
and with the continued progress of science and the arts, it should be
possible for real wages to continue indefinitely rising in America.
The selection of immigrants to be admitted should be a part of a
national policy of eugenics,[17] which aims to improve the racial
quality of the nation by checking the multiplication of the strains
defective in respect to mentality, nervous organization, and physical
health, and by encouraging the more capable elements of the population
to contribute in due proportion to the maintenance of a healthy,
moral, and efficient population. In such a view, a eugenic opportunity
is presented in the selection and admission of immigrants that are
distinctly above (not merely equal to) the average of our general
population.

Sec. 15. #Population and militarism#. In view of the recrudescence of the
spirit of armed national aggression evident of late, and especially
in the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, the military aspect of the
population question deserves serious consideration. The growth of
savage and barbarian tribes in numbers, so that their customary
standards of living were threatened, frequently has led to the
invasion and conquest of their richer neighbors.[18] To-day nations
on a higher plane of living are probably repeating history. The nation
with an expanding population is tempted to seek an outlet for its
numbers and for its products by entering u