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share in eliminating those who were too weak or too unadaptive to find a place in the organization, but this only aided the process. The physical environment was unyielding, and claimed its right of all comers. The new continent was to be settled, but it imposed its own conditions, which could not be evaded, and the more pliant element, man, was forced to conform and to fit into the conditions of living.

It may be remarked, in passing, that this assimilating force, which has so powerfully influenced our past history, tends to become less prominent with the settling up of the country. The frontier life is largely a thing of the past. The best land has been taken up. The conditions of living over a great portion of the country are similar to those of Europe. A larger and larger proportion of the population live in towns and cities where these primitive influences are not felt. In this respect each succeeding generation of immigrants escapes more and more the immersion into the chilly but bracing waters of a social life where each man counted for what he was worth. It was in many respects a cruel test, yet the opportunities were great, and the reward for the survivors correspondingly great. The assimilating power of the outward life was something tremendous, for it developed a character as the basis for social progress in comparison with which differences of nationality. and past tradition were trifling. Now the immigrants find here men of their own race, organizations of labor, people speaking their own tongue, newspapers in their own language; in many directions they find support and comfort and aid. They sink into positions already opened for them, and they find an environment suited to their previous habits; but it may be doubted if the outcome is as good for them or for the country as the struggle under the old conditions. In this respect the physical environment, as an assimilating power, is a diminishing force.

When we come to inquire into the details of the influence of physical environment upon the different nationalities which have settled in the United States, we are met with difficulties of exact analysis. Under physical environment we include the

influence of climate, of geographical position, of fauna and flora, of mineral resources, of commercial position, of the character of the soil, etc. But these factors are so numerous and various in the United States that it is impossible to trace their direct effect. Only in one respect are our statistics suggestive, namely, that if we take the distribution of the foreign-born in respect to these things, we shall find that it corresponds closely to that of the majority of the native-born whites. Slavery was the historic reason that immigration directed itself to the Northern states rather than to the South. The climate, also, has corresponded more closely to that of the countries from which the majority of the immigrants came. Hence, we find the foreign-born distributed through the Northern states and thus subjected to the same influence of climate and geographical surroundings as the native-born whites. This comparison may be carried out in many directions. If we take altitude above the sea, we find that the largest proportion of the whites live at an altitude of between 500 and 1000 feet, and the proportion for the foreign-born is almost the same. If we take temperature, we find that a majority of the whites live in a mean annual temperature of between fifty and fifty-five degrees, and the foreign-born are found there also. So in the same way in the distribution according to topographical features, by drainage basins, by rainfall, according to humidity, we find the same correspondences. The importance of these facts is perhaps not very great. They only show that whatever may be the assimilating power of physical environment, the foreign-born are subjected to the same influences as the native whites.

The most difficult task is to find some measurement of the exact effect of physical environment upon man. Here we have to consider first of all the direct effect of climate, etc., upon the physical constitution of the individual man. There is no doubt that such an influence does exist. In regard to America some very extreme views have been announced. Some authors. contend that the peculiarities of the American climate are such that it is producing a race very different from any in

Europe.1 And some go so far as to assert that climate will in time approximate all the inhabitants of North America, both white and black, to the type of the American Indian. They see already in the loss of color, the lengthened extremities, the sunken temples and the narrowed pelvis of the Yankees the beginning of this process. This is probably an extreme view; for the effect of physical environment is much less upon civilized man than upon the savage. But there is little doubt that climate develops in America diseases and nervous disorders, a restless energy and other physical and mental traits. in which the foreign-born also participate. Medical statistics may some day give us fuller information upon this subject. In the same line would be statistics of births and deaths among the foreign-born and their descendants, in order to see if continued residence here made the rates approximate to those of the native-born. The assimilating force should, so far as we can see, make itself felt upon all nationalities; for they are all subject to the same influence and there is no reason why they should resist it.

Physical environment determines the economic activity of man. I have just spoken of the effect of the process of settlement upon all comers. The foreign-born participate in these varied economic activities. They are represented in mining and mechanical industries much more heavily than in agriculture. They are also numerous in domestic service and in the business of transportation. But it is in manufacturing that the characteristics of American industrial life the use of machinery, the call upon the inventive powers, the discipline of perfect organization under the employer, the opportunity also for self-assertion in trades' unions are especially present. Domestic service brings the foreign female under the influence of American family life. We doubtless have here an assimilating influence of economic environment, determined largely by physical conditions, which tends to reduce the foreign workman to the habits of life and work of the American laboring man.

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1 Quatrefages, The Human Species, p. 254.

course.

Physical environment influences the social activity of man. Climate determines occupations and the particular methods for carrying them on. It favors an outdoor or an indoor life, it determines the amusements, the opportunities for social interIn all these respects the foreign-born would yield to the environment. Their concentration in large cities also, which is so marked a feature, the quick communication by railroads, the American tendency to change of domicile, — all these would prevent any isolation and overcome any lingering tendency to retain the habits of the old world.

It is easy to point out in this way that American life gives an opportunity for the physical environment to exert its assimilating influence upon all the immigrants of whatever nationality. It is not easy to see how they can escape it. That they do not escape it, we have negative evidence. This is as follows: In many districts and even in some states a great majority of the population is of foreign birth or parentage. If it were not for the assimilating influence of physical environment, would not these communities present some of the marked features of the world whence they came? Or at least would they not differ in some marked degree from other communities which are composed almost entirely of the native-born? But where do we find the peasant of Europe perpetuating his type beyond the first generation? Where do we find artisans carrying on their work by the primitive methods which still survive in so many parts of Europe? The negative proof is irresistible. RICHMOND MAYO-SMITH.

NEW WEALTH: A STUDY OF THE SOURCE OF

INCOME.

HE word income, as applied to the annual receipts of a

THE

rich man, means that amount of wealth which he draws from any source whatever without encroaching on his capital. The income of an individual, then, is conceived of as coming from new wealth in this sense, that it leaves his parent or old wealth untouched. Extending this from the case of the individual to that of the community, we should be prepared to find that the various incomes called rent, interest, profits, wages, are paid out of new wealth, and that they leave the former wealth of the community as it was. On the face of it this seems a truism. As a matter of fact I find the greatest vagueness as to what is meant by old wealth and, therefore, as to what is meant by the new wealth of which income is composed. It seems to me that the difficulty of the distinction has been overlooked, and that the relation between the two has not been clearly formulated.

To give only one instance of this vagueness. In discussing the theory of wages, economists of late years have dismissed the old wage-fund theory, because it represented wages as paid out of wealth accumulated in the past, while, however wages may be advanced from previously existing wealth, they are obviously replaced from the value of the product, that is, from wealth just coming into existence. To say, however, that wages are paid out of product, encounters the equally obvious criticism, that many industries have no product — those industries, namely, which consist in personal services. These produce no value and price independent and outside of the servant. It is one thing to say that the collier is paid from the coal he raises; it is really quite another thing to say that the cabdriver is paid out of his fares: although the two

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