THE TREND OF AMERICAN VITALITY 3^7 



1 refer to important clianges in the composition and characteristics 

 of the population. The last thirty years have seen a great influx of 

 foreign peoples to this country. The reports of the Department of 

 Labor show that in the period since 1880, 22,300,000 immigrants 

 reached our shores. In the year ending June 30, 1914, the net increase 

 in population due to immigration was 915,000. These immigrants 

 have settled principally in the registration states. In a recent paper. 

 Professor Chapin, of Smith College, has pointed out that the nine 

 states, California, Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, 

 New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania have been receiving 

 over three fourths of the total immigration during the last 25 years.^ 

 This tendency to concentration of immigration in a few of our eastern 

 states has been so marked that it has been assumed that from 65 to 70 

 per cent, of the urban growth of the United States is due to immigra- 

 tion. Eecent immigration has given a distinctive tone to our urban 

 life. 



This immigration to our registration area must, therefore, largely 

 determine the adult mortality which these communities experience. If 

 the immigrants are relatively short lived and suffer especially from the 

 diseases of middle life, then we must expect an increased incidence in 

 the mortality rates from these causes in the area where they congregate, 

 and correspondingly a reduction in the expectation of life in the total 

 population. 



While immigrants to America come from all parts of the world, the 

 larger number have come, in recent years, from the countries of southern 

 and eastern Europe. Thus, in the year closing June 30, 1914, 23.3 

 per cent, of all immigrants came from Italy; 21.0 per cent, from Eussia 

 and Finland; 11.1 per cent, from Austria; 11.8 per cent, from Hun- 

 gary. Together, these four countries supplied America with 67.1 per 

 cent, of its total immigration in this year. The mortality rates prevail- 

 ing normally in these countries are uniformly higher than those found 

 in the registration area. Thus, according to the latest available figures 

 the crude death rate in Eussia was 28.9 per 1,000 in 1909 ; 18.2 per 

 1,000 in Italy in 1912; 20.5 per 1,000 in Austria, and 23.3 per 1,000 

 in Hungary in 1912. We have no right to assume that the mere entry 

 of these foreign peoples has at once a favorable effect upon their mor- 

 tality. Their adverse conditions of life, especially in our large cities, 

 the economic stress to which they are put, and the dangers in the un- 

 skilled trades in which they engage, all would point to a continuance, 

 at least, of the higher death rates from which they suffer in their native 

 countries. 



Such a conclusion is certainly warranted by the mortality statistics 



2 * ' Immigration as a Source of Urban Increase, " by F. Stuart Chapin, 

 Ph.D., Qtly. Publications of the American Statistical Ass'n, Vol. XIV., Sept., 

 1914. 



