I9I2] 



Immigration. 



7 



Secondly, the influence of the steamship companies and padroni 

 must not be left out of account. For years together, during the period 

 under review, the number of agents making a profit on the people they 

 transmitted to the great contractors, must have numbered between ten 

 and twenty thousand, most of whom worked among the southern and 

 eastern peoples. 



Thirdly, the fact that from io% to 50%* of these immigrants have 

 their passages paid by friends and relatives in the United States must 

 be considered. It is probable that the proportion of assisted passages 

 among immigrants in Group iii. is higher than that in Groups i. and ii. 

 Moreover, this is a cumulative tendency. The larger the number of 

 Latins, Jews and Slavs on this side of the Atlantic, the larger the number 

 of Latins, Jews and Slavs whom they will bring; the larger the number 

 of Latins, Jews and Slavs who come to these shores, the larger the number 

 of those who are paying the steamship companies to bring out their 

 friends and relatives; and so the process continues. 



These three forces together account in large measure for the recent 

 change in the character of immigration to this continent. Even if there 

 had been no change in the social and industrial structure of the United 

 States, something of the sort would have occurred. In point of fact, as 

 has been indicated, city life began to assume more and more importance 

 in American life, at the beginning of the period, and becomes still more 

 important every year. The influence of this, on the feelings of Europeans 

 with regard to the New World, may be shown in the following table. 

 Incomplete as it is, it is instructive, 



U. S. A. Census Reports of 1890 and 1900. j 

 Percentage of foreign-born population living in American cities of 

 25,000 and more inhabitants. 

 Of those born in 



Norway, in 1890, 20.8%, and in 1900, 22.4% lived in such cities. 



*Report of the Industrial Commission, Vol. XV., pp. 95 et seq., on assisted 

 immigration. 



tStatistics of 1910 are not available, excepting detailed statements with regard to 

 particular cities. 



