From  July  to  November,  1918,  the  number  of  immigrant  aliens
was  45,909,  and  of  non-immigrant  aliens  30,456.  How  all  these
immigrants  have  managed  to  get  here  during  wartime  is  a  mys-
tery-. Obstacles  innumerable  have  been  in  their  way,  yet  they
have  kept  coming.  That  they  have  done  so,  in  spite  of  the  dif-
ficulties, shows  what  is  likely  to  happen  on  a  vastly  greater  scale
in  tho  next  few  years,  w'hen  transportation  by  rail  and  steamship
is  once  more  fully  restored.
It  has  always  been  held  by  those  who  are  concerned  regarding
the  admission  into  the  United  States  of  mentall}^  and  physically
defective  aliens  that,  with  a  smaller  number  of  alien  arrivals,
the  work  of  inspection  can  be  more  effecti\ely  done,  \\ith  the
inevitable  and  greatly  to  be  desired  result  that  fewer  undesirables
will  escape  detection.  Our  experience  during  the  v^ar  has  borne
out  this  view.  The  increase  in  the  percentage  of  rejections  dur-
ing the  past  four  years  is  to  be  ascribed,  according  to  the  Com-
missioner-General of  Immigration,  to  two  causes :  first,  a  deteri-
oration in  the  quality  of  immigration  itself ;  and  second,  to  more
rigid  inspection  made  possible  by  decreased  numbers.
