The practical statesman will at once object to this programme on the ground of the terrific expense of maintaining thousands of men in Europe to constitute these boards of examiners. By careful computation I have ascertained that it would cost approximately two dollars per head to examine and admit each immigrant, whereas at this time it costs each immigrant nearly five dollars to be examined, inasmuch as the extra expense to which the steamship company goes is added to the price of his ticket. Over and above this the money he relinquishes to grafters, subagents, advisers, etc., totals a sum that is beyond reckoning. Summing up, this plan would achieve in simple fashion the following things: Undesirable emigrants would be prevented from leaving their homes. Ruin and suffering would not fall on those now sent back. Desirable immigration would be wonderfully stimulated. Practices of officials of foreign governments in dumping into this country criminals, foundlings, agitators, etc., would be ended. Emigrants would be protected and great economy in travel would be effected. Smuggling and underground methods would be disconcerted and contract-labor frauds prevented. Naturalization frauds would cease to avail, and legal naturalization would be greatly increased. Custom-house officers would be greatly assisted, revenues increased, and goods-smuggling minimized. The proper distribution of the flood of immigration would be at all times under the control of the American government. Immigration would cease to be affected, to its detriment, by the business competition of transportation companies interested solely in conveying as many aliens to America and back and forth again as often as possible, without any regard whatsoever to the class of people carried, so long as they have the money to pay the fares and swell the enormous profits that emigrant-carriers realize at present. When these things are achieved, there is no one to deny that the immigration problem will have been solved, unless it be those who are ignorant and prejudiced in the matter, or who profit by the continued depression of the grade coupled with the increase in volume of immigration which mark the present condition in a way to cause every true American, who has the best interests of his country at heart, to look to the future with uncertainty and dread. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transcriber’s note: 1. Changed “iron she” to “irons he” on p. 108. 2. Silently corrected typographical errors. 3. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.