ID# 1127:
"Analysis of America's Modern Melting Pot," Harry H. Laughlin testimony before the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization
Date:
1922
Pages: (1|2|3|4|5|6|7|8|9|10|11|12|13|14|15|16|17)
Source:
The Harry H. Laughlin Papers, Truman State University, papers, C-2-6,6

&quote;Analysis of America's Modern Melting Pot,&quote; Harry H. Laughlin testimony before the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization

734 Analysis of America's Modern Melting Pot. Doctor Laughlin. The census results for 1920 were available, and experimentally we analyzed some of the data on the 1920 basis, which analyses are shown in the accompanying tables, No. 12 and 13 (p. 826). However, it seemed logically sounder to make the comparisons on the basis of aliens in the United States of 1910 and the inmates of institutions a decade later, because the immigrants who pass through Ellis Island, and who are destined to become inmates of institutions, do not pass immediately from the immigrant station to the institution, but mix first in the free population of the country and are later segregated. All of this takes time. It is clear therefore that the aliens in the United States in 1920, were the groups from which the present alien inmates of custodial institutions were recruited. Statistical Validity of the Survey. The Chairman. There is another point which should be cleared up. It is statistically sound to compare percentages which may be based upon vastly different absolute numbers - for instance, many thousands of institutional inmates from Russia and only a few from, say, Spain? Doctor Laughlin. The judgment of the soundness of the results, based upon such different quantities of this data, may be determined statistically by the probably error method. Due to the kind collaboration of Dr. J. Arthur Harris, of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, I have secured the statistically correct probably error formula for quota fulfillment, as here used, and have applied the formula in each case. In the statistical tables, Nos. 1 to 13 (pp. 774 to 831) we will find after each quota fulfillment figure, a value preceded by the plus and minus sign. According to the principles of statistical analysis, and especially in judging relative validity due to variation in size of random samples, this means that, in any given case, had the number of individuals, upon which the particular finding is based, been indefinitely increased, the chances are equal, 50 to 50, that the quota fulfillment value which would have been found, as the result of the greater number of persons in the sample, would not vary above or below the given finding, more than the sum which follows the plus and minus signs. By using the probably error values which accompany each of the several quota fulfillments, one may judge, in each case, the stability or instability of the findings, in so far as such findings are based upon the greatness or smallness of number of persons who constitute the particular sample. The Chairman. In the present study what was the scope of the field survey? Doctor Laughlin. At the time of the survey, 1921, there were 657 State and Federal custodial institutions in the continental United States coming within the scope of the definition of a custodial institution which I have used. For this study I secured the collaboration of 445 of these institutions. Mr. Vaile. You say that there were in the United States 657 institutions of the class from which your samples were drawn, and that your returns covered 445 of these. What effect does this have upon the accuracy of the returns? Doctor Laughlin. In making this survey an elaborate schedule calling for an analysis of the institutional population on the basis of nativity group and race on the one hand, and diagnosis of particular defect on the other, was prepared and sent to each of the 703 institutions. The filling out of this schedule requires a great deal of labor. Indeed, many of the institutions had to make fresh, first-hand studies of their institutional inmates in order to supply the data. In order to judge further of the extent and statistical value of the present survey, let me say that as the result of a complete statistical, but not diagnostic, survey which I made for the Bureau of the Census, all of the State and Federal custodial institutions for the socially inadequate, as of January 1, 1916, I found a total of 394,991 inmates. In the present survey we not only secured the census of the inmates, but we secured a very intricate and carefully made diagnostic classification of these inmates by race, nativity group, and particular diagnosis, and this present survey covered a total of 210,835 inmates. I could easily have secured the census number of inmates of the remaining institutions, but to have secured 100 per cent of their diagnostic and racial records would have been a task beyond the resources of the institutional authorities without the expenditure of may thousands of dollars and the employment of many professional and clerical assistants. The fact that we could and did secure 445 detailed diagnostic and racial returns showed, on the part of the institutional authorities, a fine sense of collaboration and an appreciation of the value of the study, which demonstrated themselves practically in a great amount of volunteer professional and clerical work. From our point of view, these 445 institutions are fairly representative of the whole group. They are not isolated geographically, nor by type of institution, but constitute the main body of institutional inmates maintained by the State and Federal Governments. If, then,

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