Does heredity count for nothing? or does blood tell? Are habits of
acting and, therefore, social and institutional life, dependent, more or
less, on the biological heredity of peoples, or are they entirely
independent of such biological influence? There is much diversity of
opinion upon this question, but perhaps the most trustworthy opinion
inclines to the view that racial heredity, even between subraces of the
white race, is a factor of great moment and must be taken into account.
It is scarcely probable that a people of so different racial heredity
from ourselves as the Southern Italians, for example, will develop our
institutions and social life exactly as those of the same blood as
ourselves. It is impossible to think that the Latin temperament would
express itself socially in the same ways as the Teutonic temperament.
Certainly the coming to us of the vast numbers of peoples from Southern
and Eastern Europe is destined to change our physical type, and it seems
also probable that if permitted to go on it will change our mental and
social type also. Whether this is desirable or not must be left for each
individual to decide for himself.

Another phase of this biological argument is the necessity of selection,
if we are to avoid introducing into our national blood the degenerate
strains of the oppressed peoples of Southern and Eastern Europe. If
selection counts in the life of a people, as practically all biologists
agree, then the American people certainly have a great opportunity to
exercise selection on a large scale to determine who shall be the
parents of the future Americans. While it is undesirable, perhaps, to
discriminate among immigrants on the ground of race, it would certainly
be desirable to select from all peoples those elements that we could
most advantageously incorporate into our own life. The biological
argument alone, therefore, seems to necessitate the admission of the
importance of rigid selection in the matter of whom we shall admit into