The Old World in the New The Significance of Past and Present Immigration to the American People
CHAPTER X
SOCIAL EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION 228
Immigration and social atavism--Community reversions to the Middle Ages--Immigrant illiteracy and ignorance--New readers of the yellow press--The spread of white peonage--Caste cleavage--Attitude of the foreign-born toward the claims of women--Split-family immigration and the social evil--How immigration makes acute the housing problem--Why overgrown cities--Immigrants who discount our charities--The wayward child of the immigrant--Insanity among the foreign-born--Obstructions to the operation of the public school--Signs of social decline--Peasantism vs. social progress.