shrinks from competition with the
immigrant. He does not do so, and the reasons are probably found in the
fact that the South has been remote from the struggle of modern
competition, and that ignorance and proud contentment fail to spur the
masses to that ambitious striving which rises by means of what Malthus
called the prudential restraints on population. It is quite probable
that in the South, with the spread of the factory system and universal
education, the growth in numbers through excess of births over deaths
will be retarded.

On the whole it seems that immigration and the competition of inferior
races tends to dry up the older and superior races wherever the latter
have learned to aspire to an improved standard of living, and that among
well-to-do classes not competing with immigrants, but made wealthier by
their low wages, a similar effect is caused by the desire for luxury and
easy living.[132]

=Americanization.=--A line on the chart opposite page 63 shows the
proportions between the number of immigrants and the existing
population. From this it appears that the enormous immigration of 1906
is relatively not as large as the smaller immigration of the years 1849
to 1854, or the year 1882. Three hundred thousand immigrants in 1850 was
as large an addition to a population of 23,000,000 as 1,000,000 in 1906
to a population of 85,000,000. Judged by mere numbers, the present
immigration is not greater than that witnessed by two former periods.
Judged by saturation it may be greater, for the former immigrants were
absorbed by colonial Americans, but the present immigrants enter a
solution half colonial and half immigrant. The problem of
Americanization increases more than the number to be Americanized. What
is the nature of this problem, and what are the forces available for its
solution?

The term amalgamation may be used for that mixture of blood which unites
races in a common stock, while assimilation is that union of their minds
and wills which enables them to think and act together. Amalgamation is
a process of centuries, but assimilation is a process of individual
training. Amalgamation is a blending of races, assimilation a blending
of civilizations. Amalgamation is beyond the organized efforts of
government, but assimilation can be promoted by social institutions and
laws. Amalgamation therefore cannot attract our practical interest,
except as its presence or absence sets limits to our efforts toward
as