2
knew!
O Liberty, White Goddess! is it well
To leave the gates unguarded? On thy breast
Fold Sorrow's children, soothe the hurts of fate,
Lift the downtrodden, but with the hand of steel
Stay those who to thy sacred portals come
To waste the gifts of freedom. Have a care
Lest from thy brow the clustered stars be torn
And trampled in the dust. For so of old
The thronging Goth and Vandal trampled Rome.
And where the temples of the Cæsars stood
The lean wolf unmolested made her lair.
--Thomas Bailey Aldrich.
* * * * *
TO ONE WHO CHERISHES AMERICAN IDEALS, WHO HAS INCULCATED LOVE OF COUNTRY IN HER CHILDREN, AND SOUGHT TO INSPIRE IT IN ALL--MY WIFE
* * * * *
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction, by Josiah Strong
I. The Alien Advance
II. Alien Admission and Restriction
III. Problems of Legislation and Distribution
IV. The New Immigration
V. The Eastern Invasion
VI. The Foreign Peril of the City
VII. Immigration and the National Character
VIII. The Home Mission Opportunity
APPENDIXES
A. Tables of Immigrants Admitted and Debarred
B. The Immigration Laws
C. Work of Leading Denominations for the Foreign Population
D. Bibliography
ILLUSTRATIONS
Coming Americans Frontispiece
The Inflowing Tide 18
Ellis Island Immigration Station 34
Receiving Room at Ellis Island 59
Detained for Special Examination 74
An Appeal from the Special Inquiry Board to Commissioner Watchorn 94
The Landing at the Battery in New York 102
A German Family 128
Italian and Swiss Girls 144
A Group of Twelve Different Nationalities 166
Three Types of Immigrants 180
A Group of Immigrants Just Arrived at Ellis Island 198
An Italian Family Crowded in a New York Tenement 210
Four Nationalities 236
Portuguese and