162 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



and the deplorable rise in the ratio (per 100,000 of population) of 

 deaths from homicide. 1 



The figure below (No. 2) shows graphically the source and extent 

 of the annual immigration into the United States since 1880, the 

 annual number of arrivals from Italy being given separately because of 

 its special importance in the present inquiry: 



The records of our penal institutions prove that it is not the alien 

 as such who adds unduly to the number of homicides in this country; 

 they show rather that the alarming increase in crimes of violence is 

 due to certain particular elements of our immigrant population. 



Fig 2. Graphic Curves showing Changing Character of Immigration 



into the United States. 



Among the nationalities represented in our prisons, the sad pre- 

 eminence for murder belongs to the alien Mexican, 121 of whom are 

 now confined for deliberately killing a fellow man, though their total 

 number in this country hardly exceeds one hundred thousand. Among 

 an equal number of alien Irishmen less than three have been con- 

 victed on the charge of murder, and of German and English immigrants 

 not more than four in each one hundred thousand are held for this 

 grave offense. Among Scandinavian aliens the ratio is still smaller. 

 Next to the Mexicans, the Chinese are the most murderously inclined 

 of any foreigners present, 65 in each one hundred thousand of their 



1 The curves of immigration show the per cent, each group of race elements 

 bears to the total influx of aliens; the curve for homicides shows the actual 

 number of persons who met death by homicide in each 100,000 of the total 

 population of the United States. The latter figures are based upon the 

 mortality statistics of the United States Census Reports. 



