JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
What Ho! The pamphlet, Figures on Immigration, presents the reader with info necessary for the continuation of “desirable” immigration. Published by the National Liberal Immigration League (150 Nassau St., NYC), the League exclaims immigration in terms danger and blessing. “A stream that is dangerous when unchecked will prove a blessing in the land when well directed”, they say, and then gets right ot the heart of the matter, identifying what is dangerous and what isn't by defining the “desirable” from “undesirable” aliens
To be very simple and clear about it, the League states the following:
Desirables: “Northern and Western Europe”, including “Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, Norway, Nova Scotia, Scotland, South America, Switzerland, Wales”
Undesirables: “Eastern and Souther Europe”, including “Greece, Hungary, Italy, Romania, and Russia, plus Asia and Africa, including China, Egypt, Japan, and Syria”, for example
The purpose of the report was to establish the “desirable” from “undesirable” patients of various NYC hospitals. But the main point in this note is to establish the contemporary ease of marking "acceptabilities" of entire classes of people. This practice was much more visible and plain in 1902; it is still an exercise today, of course, though the signs of it are generally much more subtle.
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