The literary restriction has been a great step forward but should be
backed by the addition of such mental tests as will make it fairly
certain to keep out the dull-minded as well as feeble-minded. Long
division would suffice as such a test until better tests relatively
unaffected by schooling can be put into operation, since it is at this
point in the grades that so many dull-minded drop out of the schools.
Oriental immigration is becoming an urgent problem, and it is essential
that its biological, as well as its economic and sociological features
be understood, if it is to be solved in a satisfactory and reasonably
permanent way. In the foregoing discussion, Oriental immigration has
hardly been taken into account; it must now receive particular
consideration.
What are the grounds, then, for forbidding the yellow races, or the
races of British India, to enter the United States? The considerations
urged in the past have been (1) Political: it is said that they are
unable to acquire the spirit of American institutions. This is an
objection which concerns eugenics only indirectly. (2) Medical: it is
said that they introduce diseases, such as the oriental liver, lung and
intestinal flukes, which are serious, against which Americans have never
been selected, and for which no cure is known.
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