598 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
rope” I have sought to demonstrate its results among the Basques 
and the Jews. Marriage elsewhere appears to be rather a matter 
of social concern. There is no physical antipathy between different 
peoples. Oftentimes the attraction of a contrasted physical type is 
freely acknowledged. The barrier to intermarriage between ethnic 
groups is more often based upon differences in economic status. The 
Italian “ Dago” is looked down upon by the Irish; as in turn the 
Irishman used to be characterized by the American as a “ Mick,” or 
a“ Paddy.” Any such social distinctions constitute serious handicaps 
in the matrimonial race; but on the other hand, as they are in con- 
sequence largely artificial, they tend to disappear with the demon- 
stration of economic and social efficiency. 
Heretofore our attention has been directed to a discussion of the 
influences making for or against a physical merger of these divers 
peoples. It may now be proper to inquire how much of this inter- 
mixture there really is. Does it afford evidence of tendencies at 
work, which may in time achieve momentus results? The first cur- 
sory view of the field would lead one to deny that the phenomenon 
was yet of importance. The potency of the forces tending to restrict 
intermarriage seems too great. But on the other hand, from such 
concrete statistical data as are obtainable, it appears as if a fair begin- 
ning had already been made, considering the recency of the phe- 
nomenon. The general data from the federal census are valueless 
in this connection. Although they indicate much intermarriage of 
the foreign born with the native born of foreign parentage, the over- 
whelming preponderance of this is, of course, confined to the same 
ethnic group. The immigrant Russian Jew, or young Italian, is 
merely mating with another of the same people, born in America of 
parents who were direct immigrants. The bride in such a case is as 
truly Jewish or Italian by blood as the groom, although her social 
status and economic condition may be appreciably higher. But evi- 
dence of true intermixture across ethnic lines is not entirely lacking. 
No less than 56,000 persons are enumerated in the federal census as 
being of mixed Irish and German parentage, for example; and of 
these, 13,400 were from New York State alone. German-English inter- 
marriages are about as frequent, numbering 47,600. Irish and French- 
Canadian marriages numbered 12,300, according to the same author- 
ity. Three times out of five it is the French-Canadian man who 
aspires to an Irish bride. In the northwest the Irish and Swedes 
are said to be evincing a growing fondness for one another. For 
the newer nationalities the numbers are, of course, smaller. . 
Some idea of the prevalence of mixed marriages is afforded by 
the specialized census data of 1900. Take one nationality, the 
Italians, for example. There were 484,207 in all in the United 
States. Of these nearly one-half, or 218,810, had both parents 
