348 : The Atlantic 



in the kinds of people that were seeking passage on the new ships. 

 In the period 1881 to 1890 the number of emigrants from Europe 

 had been even larger by more than a million, but up to the year 1890 

 the number of arrivals from northern and western Europe had al- 

 ways been many times as great as the number coming from other 

 countries. In other words, up to 1890 the migration to the United 

 States had, for the most part, come from countries that were on or 

 close to the Atlantic seaboard; they were migrants from Scotland, 

 Ireland, England, the Rhine Valley, Switzerland, the Netherlands 

 and Scandinavia, with relatively small increments from other parts 

 of Europe. 



Thus, up to 1890 the bulk of the new arrivals annually came from 

 countries that in history, tradition and racial affinity were close to 

 the people that already formed the bulk of the American popula- 

 tion. In 1890 there was a sharp change in the character of the mi- 

 grants. In the last decade of the century, for the first time in United 

 States history, the emigrants from southern and eastern Europe ex- 

 ceeded those from northern and western Europe. 



This was only an indication and forerunner of what was to come. 

 In the total number of those admitted into the United States immi- 

 gration hit a peak in the period 1901 to 1910 when a total of nearly 

 nine million people were admitted. While this was a record in abso- 

 lute numbers it was not so in a relative sense, that is relative to the 

 already existing population; the highest relative rate of immigration 

 having occurred in the 1850's. Again, the significance lay in the com- 

 position of the immigration stream. In the first decade of the twen- 

 tieth century less than two million came from northern and western 

 Europe whereas the number from eastern and southern Europe ex- 

 ceeded six and a quarter millions. At the same time migration from 

 Asia to the United States also hit a peak. 



This proved to be more of an invasion and a break with national 

 tradition than even the natural hospitality of the United States and 

 the free and easy ways of the Americans could tolerate. In the decade 

 from 191 1 to 1920 total immigration dropped by almost one-half its 

 former volume, that is, to a little more than four and one-quarter 

 million new entrants. This drop was partly due to the fact that 

 travel was interrupted by some years of war but it was also due to 

 an increasing tendency to restrict immigration as a matter of na- 

 tional policy. This movement was fully established in the Immigra- 

 tion Act of 1924 which introduced the quota system as a method of 

 immigration control. In the decade from 1921 to 1930 immigration 



