True to its principles, this Chicago Greek newspaper, the Star, again comes forward as the teacher and the protector of the Greeks in America. Since it is our duty to keep a vigilant eye on the welfare and the activities of the Greek element in this country, and since the life of the Greeks in America is and always will be involved with the substance of American life, we deem it to be in accordance with our ever-wakeful purpose to cast a glance into America's future and to discern what the effect will be of the past and the present trends of the people's thought.

Our penetrating eye sees on the brilliant horizon of this great Republic the black cloud of crime, which as it expands will darken the glory of our country's history. This is not a prophesy; it is the sober visualization of what will be, in accordance with the law of cause and effect; that is, it is the result of careful analytical observation.

In writing this article we do not assume the role of critic or of counselor to the Government of the United States but simply that of an analyst who deals with this law of cause and effect and graphically displays its operation.

No country, in spite of present greatness and glorious history, can continue to be great while the masses of the people do not think great thoughts. The thought of the people is the soul of a nation. High thoughts produce great nations. A great and glorious ruler cannot maintain greatness and glory in his domain if his people are not trained to think of greatness and glory.

The trend of thought in America is now directed, as it has been directed for some years past, toward what history calls a "social disease," the same disease that was present in the days of Rome's decline. This social disease consists of the following elements: an unnatural desire for wealth, 3the desire for publicity, the desire for social emancipation, waste of time, lack of fixed purpose in the use of periods of leisure and diversion, facile indignation, alcoholism, and disrespect of people for law and authority. All these taken together result in degeneration, and this, enhanced by hereditary criminal tendencies, will provoke an outburst of crime that will make the most atrocious offenses of European criminals look like mild misdemeanors. America in years to come will experience a period of criminality of indescribable and unparalleled ferocity. And here is a hint to the law-makers and to the Government, and we hope that we shall not be misunderstood.

Undoubtedly the great founders of this land of promise and of freedom meant well in enacting laws permitting all to come here, including criminals. That is in itself wonderful and Godlike. But the time is not yet ripe for these divine principles. The criminal who comes here 4cannot and will not think as the natives do. He will take advantage of the generosity of the people, of the kindness and the tolerance of the Government, and of everything good to gratify his criminal instincts. The offspring of people of this class will terrorize America in years to come. Their criminal inheritance, assisted and nourished by the intelligence of their environment and enhanced by the facilities of the country, will find vent in an outburst of crime of unprecedented violence, by which the country will be rocked as by an earthquake.

Immigration laws should be altered so that the criminal will not find a rich and fertile field of operation and propagation of his kind in this country. It is a natural law, and common sense makes us see it, that we must remove the weeds from the soil if we want a good healthy crop of wheat.

This social disease is not a respecter of color or of race, and because of its insatiable appetite for money it will contaminate even the best society; and if its horny tentacles are not cut off in time, the youth of our best families will be ensnared by it. Its ramifications will reach and undermine the whole structure of politics and of religion as well.

The wise law-makers of this country, I am sure, bearing in mind the social tragedies of Babylon and of Rome, will put a stop to this free admission of criminal and undesirable Europeans.