FOREIGN-BORN AMERICANS 



401 



How do the foreigners stand towards these movements? There is a 

 widespread though vague impression that socialism is a phenomenon 

 of foreign growth. We can be more specific. 



The city at large gave the socialist candidate for mayor in 1913 five 

 per cent, of the total vote. Let us take those districts in which he 

 received over ten per cent. There are just ten such districts. Let us 

 also put down the approximate percentage of the voters in these dis- 

 tricts belonging to the principal nationalities. The following table 

 gives these figures with the percentage of the vote given to the socialist 

 candidate for mayor in 1913 and for governor in 1910: 



It will be seen from the table, first, that the percentage of native 

 born of native parents is less in every district than that of some foreign 

 nationality; second, that in every district but two the percentage of 

 Eussians far exceeds that of any other nationality; third, that in those 

 two exceptional districts it is the Germans that predominate. The 

 Austrians should be added to the Eussians, because, as said before, both 

 Eussians and Austrians in these districts are practically all Jews. Our 

 conclusion therefore, is that the bulk of the socialist vote is derived 

 from the foreign Jewish element, and to a much less degree from the 

 Germans. This position is supported from the other end. The dis- 

 tricts in which the socialists received the fewest votes, from 1 to 2 

 per cent., are those in which the natives, the Irish and the Italians are 

 strongest — the first, third, fifth, seventh, ninth, thirteenth, fifteenth, 

 twenty-fifth and twenty-seventh of Manhattan; and such districts as 

 the second and third of Brooklyn. 



The other branch of the question on radicalism resolves itself into 

 this, "What voters are susceptible to influence from the Hearst news- 

 papers?" One of the principal candidates in 1913 was bitterly opposed 

 by these papers and a candidate of their own was nominated by the 

 Independence League. Do the replies run to any extent along lines of 

 national cleavage? 



A study of the figures seems to justify the following observations: 

 The districts in which the voters of native parentage are comparatively 



