Part 9 (2/2)
IMMIGRATION, 1882.
Per cent.
Great Britain and Ireland ................. 179,423 22.8 Germany ................................... 250,630 31.7 Scandinavia ............................... 105,326 13.3 Netherlands, France, Switzerland, etc. .... 27,795 3.5
Total Western Europe ...................... 71.3
Italy ..................................... 32,159 4.1 Austria-Hungary ........................... 29,150 3.7 Russia, etc. .............................. 22,010 2.7
Total Southern and Eastern Europe ......... 10.5
All other countries ....................... 18.2 [Footnote: 1. Of the immigration from ”other countries” 98,295 was from British North America, or 12.4 per cent of the total. This,added to the 71.3 per cent from Western Europe, makes a total of 83.7 of the immigrants in 1882 of West European stock.]
100.0
IMMIGRATION, 1907.
Per cent.
Great Britain and Ireland ................. 113,567 8.8 Scandinavia ............................... 49,965 3.9 Germany ................................... 37,807 2.9 Netherlands, France, Switzerland, etc. .... 26,512 2.1
Total Western Europe ...................... 17.7
Austria-Hungary ........................... 338,452 26.3 Italy ..................................... 285,731 22.2 Russia .................................... 258,943 20.1 Greece, Servia, Roumania, etc. ............ 88,482 6.9
Total Southern and Eastern Europe ......... 75.5
All other countries ....................... 6.8
100.0
It will be noted that while in 1882, 71.3 per cent of our immigrants came from the countries of Western Europe, only 10.5 per cent came from the countries of Southern and Eastern Europe. In 1907 the situation was very nearly reversed. In 1907 Great Britain and Ireland, and Scandinavia, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Switzerland--the countries which had furnished 71.3 per cent of our immigrants in 1882--furnished only 17.7 per cent, while Austria-Hungary, Italy, Russia, Greece, Servia, Roumania, and Turkey in Europe--the countries which had furnished but 10.5 per cent in 1882--furnished 75.5 per cent. This matter of changed sources from which we receive our immigrants evidently is one of first importance in any consideration of the present immigration problem of the United States.
_The Distribution of Immigrants._ If immigrants would distribute themselves evenly over the United States, the immigration problem would be quite different from what it is. Instead of this, there is a ma.s.sing of immigrants in some states and communities, and very little evidence to show that these immigrants ever distribute themselves normally over the whole country. In 1906, for example, the Commissioner of Immigration reported that 68.3 per cent of the 1,100,000 immigrants who came that year went to the North Atlantic states; 22.1 per cent to the North Central states; 4.4 per cent to the Western states; and 4.2 per cent to the Southern states. If these figures are at all trustworthy, they indicate a congestion of our recent immigrants in the North Atlantic states and in certain states of the Central West. So far as the census is concerned, it tends to confirm these statistics of the Commissioner of Immigration. Our last census returns, being for 1900, can show little, of course, of the distribution of the great number of recent immigrants that have come from Southern and Eastern Europe. Still the 1900 census contains some interesting facts regarding the distribution of foreign born, or immigrants, that have been received previous to 1900. According to the census of 1900 the number of foreign born in the United States was 10,460,000, or 13.7 per cent of the total population.
But these foreign born were confined almost entirely to the Northern states, that is, the North Atlantic states and North Central states. In 1900 the Southern states (South Atlantic and South Central) contained but 4.6 per cent of the total foreign born of the country. The reason why so few of our immigrants have thus far settled in the South is perhaps chiefly because of the compet.i.tion which the cheap negro labor of the South would offer to them, and also because the South is still largely agricultural, offering few opportunities for the industrial employments, into which a majority of our immigrants go. In the North Atlantic states in 1900 nearly one fourth of the population was foreign born, and 20.7 per cent in the Western states. The following statistics will show the percentage of foreign born in typical states: North Dakota, 35.4 per cent; Rhode Island, 31.4 per cent; Ma.s.sachusetts, 30 per cent; Minnesota, 28.9 per cent; New York, 26 per cent; Wisconsin, 24.9 per cent; California, 24.7 per cent; Montana, 27.6 per cent; Indiana, 8.5 per cent; Maryland, 7.9 per cent; Missouri, 7 per cent; North Carolina, 0.2 per cent; and Mississippi, 0.5 per cent. The influence of the foreign born in a community, however, is better shown, perhaps, if we consider the number of those of foreign parentage, that is, the foreign born and their children, than if we consider the number of foreign born alone. In a large number of states more than one half of the population is of foreign parentage. Thus North Dakota had in 1900, 77.5 per cent of its population of foreign parentage; Minnesota, 74.9 per cent; Wisconsin, 71.2 per cent; Rhode Island, 64.2 per cent; Ma.s.sachusetts, 62.3 per cent; South Dakota, 61.1 per cent; Utah, 61.2 per cent; New York, 59.4 per cent. Connecticut, New Jersey, Illinois, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, and California all also had more than one half of their population of foreign parentage in 1900. For the United States as a whole the number of foreign parentage in 1900 amounted to 34.3 per cent, or 26,000,000 out of a total population of 76,000,000.
Many of our large cities also have a high percentage of foreign born and of foreign parentage in their population. The percentage of foreign born in some of our largest cities in 1900 was as follows:
Per cent.
New York........................................... 37 Chicago............................................ 34.6 Philadelphia....................................... 22.8 Saint Louis........................................ 19.4 Boston............................................. 35.1 Baltimore.......................................... 13.5 San Francisco...................................... 34.1 Cleveland.......................................... 32.6
These same cities had the following percentage of foreign parentage in their population:
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