6 Transactions of the Canadian Institute. [vol. x 



Percentage Ratios of the Three Groups. 



1871-80 1881-1890 1891-1900 1901-1910 



Group i 45-7 32. i 20.8 11. i 



Group ii 45 . 4 47 . 4 26 . 4 1 1 . 7 



Group iii 8.9 20.5 52.8 77.2 



100. o 100. o 100. o 100. o 



From these tables it will be seen that in the last two decades the 

 movement of Anglo-Saxons and Teutons has increased absolutely, but 

 declined in relative importance: while that of the peoples of Southern 

 and Eastern Europe has increased more than thirty-fold, so that at 

 present these immigrants outnumber those of Northern and Western 

 Europe in the proportion of between three and four to one. Such a 

 change cannot entirely be explained with reference to the internal 

 development of the United States: we must look to general causes. 

 Nevertheless, when all the weight to which they are entitled has been 

 given these general causes, there will remain something to be said as to 

 the contemporary change in American society. 



First of these general causes is the rise in the cost of living. The 

 same discontent, provoked by the slow adjustment of wages, has caused 

 in England the late labour disputes and the recent flood of emigration. 

 The fact that this has not been reflected in the American figures may be 

 attributed to the rise of Canada, with its free homesteads, which attract 

 an increasing proportion of the British-born. Wages in Germany have 

 changed more swiftly to meet the cost of living, and so the absolute 

 increase in British immigration into the United States is accompanied 

 by a slight falling off in the movement of Teutons and Scandinavians. 

 The slight increase in the combined figures during the last decade is, 

 however, far surpassed by the tremendous increase among those included 

 in Group iii. This increase is susceptible of three partial explanations. 



In the first place, incomes in Southern and Eastern Europe have 

 always been lower than in England and the German Empire. Until a 

 certain level is reached, the people cannot migrate; and in one sense, 

 the history of Europe in the last century may be read in the four waves 

 of emigration, British, Teutonic, Latin and Slavonic, which succeeded 

 one another at intervals of about a generation. Moreover, while at one 

 time the local authorities in England and Ireland were doing their utmost 

 to help the poor to become a charge on the Associated Charities of New 

 York, the Italian, Austrian and Russian governments were making it 

 very difficult for their own people to cross the Atlantic. Now that this 

 state of affairs no longer obtains, the removal of these obstructions to 

 emigration makes the outburst particularly striking. 



