HAS IMMIGRATION INCREASED POPULATION? 247 



which contained the Revolution. The falling continues, with one 

 or two slight revivals, as we follow the column, until in the decade 

 1880 to 1890 it has reached the very low figure of 24"53 per cent 

 more than four per cent lower than during the Revolution. 



It is to be observed that the first serious fall begins after the 

 year 1830, the point which all observers have fixed upon as the 

 time when the effects of immigration began to be palpably felt. 



If we look at the number of foreigners for the year 1830, we 

 find them to have been 315,830 almost as many as there had been 

 in the three previous decades. In the next decade they more than 

 double, and in the next they almost treble, with the rate of native 

 increase steadily declining. 



It is also rather significant that the first break and decline of 

 the native rate occurs after the year 1820, when immigration had 

 begun to attract so much attention that the Government decided 

 to take statistics of it. 



These coincidences of the decline of the native increase with 

 the increase of immigration are so exact that they can hardly 

 have been accidental. There is, to say the least, a strong suspicion 

 of cause and effect. And if it should be asked what is the exact 

 nature of that relation of cause and effect, the question may be 

 concisely answered in the words of General Francis Walker, 

 superintendent of the tenth census and now President of the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology : 



" The access of foreigners, at the time and under the circum- 

 stances, constituted a shock to the principle of population among 

 the native element. That principle is always acutely sensitive 

 alike to sentimental and to economic conditions. And it is to be 

 noted, in passing, that not only did the decline in the native ele- 

 ment, as a whole, take place in singular correspondence with the 

 excess of foreign arrivals, but it occurred chiefly in just those 

 regions to which the newcomers most freely resorted." 



That the arrival of the foreigners was a shock to the natives is 

 very clearly shown in the formation of the Native American or 

 Know-Nothing party, and the riots and violence which followed 

 for a period of twenty years. The foreigners came to work for 

 lower wages than the native and drove the native from his place. 

 For a hundred years the native had been accustomed to a standard 

 of living which was remarkably high. This was particularly true 

 of the New England and Middle States, where all classes had every 

 incentive in their surroundings to produce large families. They 

 felt that they owned their country, and were proud of it. They 

 were the creators of their own destinies and the architects of their 

 own fortunes. They built up homes and families. They were 

 sure there would always be enough for all, and that their children 

 would have to enjoy as good, if not better, conditions. 



