pe forever marches a vast and endless army. Nondescript and
ever-changing in personnel, without leaders or organization, this great
force, moving at the rate of nearly 1,500,000 each year, is invading the
civilized world.--_J. D. Whelpley._

Political optimism is one of the vices of the American people. There is
a popular faith that "God takes care of children, fools, and the United
States." Until within a few years probably not one in a hundred of our
population has ever questioned the security of our future. Such optimism
is as senseless as pessimism is faithless. The one is as foolish as the
other is wicked.--_Josiah Strong._

I

THE ALIEN ADVANCE

_I. A Year's Immigration Analyzed_

[Sidenote: A Million a Year]

What does a million of immigrants a year mean? Possibly something of
more significance to us if we put it this way, that at present one in
every eighty persons in the entire United States has arrived from
foreign shores within twelve months. Of this inpouring human tide one of
the latest writers on immigration says, in a striking passage:

[Sidenote: The Peaceful Invasion]

"Like a mighty stream, it finds its source in a hundred rivulets. The
huts of the mountains and the hovels of the plains are the springs which
feed; the fecundity of the races of the old world the inexhaustible
source. It is a march the like of which the world has never seen, and
the moving columns are animated by but one idea--that of escaping from
evils which have made existence intolerable, and of reaching the free
air of countries where conditions are better shaped to the welfare of
the masses of the people.

[Sidenote: Variety of Peoples]

"It is a vast procession of varied humanity. In tongue it is polyglot;
in dress all climes from pole to equator are indicated, and all
religions and beliefs enlist their followers. There is no age limit, for
young and old travel side by side. There is no sex limitation, for the
women are as keen as, if not more so than, the men; and babes in arms
are here in no mean numbers. The army carries its equipment on its back,
but in no prescribed form. The allowance is meager, it is true, but the
household gods of a family sprung from the same soil as a hundred
previous generations may possibly be contained in shapeless bags or
bundles. Forever moving, always in the same direction, this marching
army comes out of the shadow, converges to natural points of
distribution, masses along the