ct of May 19, 1913, confers upon all
aliens eligible to citizenship the same rights as citizens in the
owning and leasing of real property; but in the case of other aliens
(_i.e._ Asiatics) it limits leases of land for agricultural purposes
to terms not exceeding three years and permits ownership "to the
extent and for the purposes prescribed by any treaty."]

CHAPTER X

RACIAL INFILTRATION

With the free land gone and the cities crowded to overflowing, the
door of immigration, though guarded, nevertheless remains open and the
pressure of the old-world peoples continues. Where can they go? They
are filling in the vacant spots of the older States, the abandoned
farms, stagnant half-empty villages, undrained swamps, uninviting
rocky hillsides. This infiltration of foreigners possessing themselves
of rejected and abandoned land, which has only recently begun, shows
that the peasant's instinct for the soil will reassert itself when the
means are available and the way opens. It is surprising, indeed, how
many are the ways that are opening for this movement. Transportation
companies are responsible for a number of colonies planted bodily in
cut-over timber regions of the South. The journals and the real estate
agents of the different races are always alert to spy out
opportunities. Dealing in second-hand farms has become a considerable
industry. The advertising columns of Chicago papers announce hundreds
of farms for sale in northern Michigan and Wisconsin. In all the older
States there are for sale thousands of acres of tillable land which
have been left by the restless shiftings of the American population.
In New England the abandoned farm has long been an institution.
Throughout the East there are depleted and dying villages, their
solidly built cottages hidden in the matting of trees and shrubs which
neglect has woven about them. One can see paralysis creeping over them
as the vines creep over their deserted thresholds and they surrender
one by one the little industries that gave them life. These are the
opportunities of the immigrant peasant. Wherever the new migration
swarms, there the receding tide leaves a few energetic individuals who
have made for themselves a permanent home. In the wake of construction
gangs and along the lines of railways and canals one discovers these
immigrant families taking root in the soil. In the smaller cities, an
immigrant day laborer will often invest his savings in a tumble-do