PERILS. — IMMIGRATION. 53 



of government rose fifty per cent, from 1875 to 1885. If 

 existing tendencies continue a quarter of a century 

 longer, they are likely to precipitate a terrible financial 

 catastrophe and perhaps a great social crisis. Moreover, 

 the pressure of a dense population is increasing; 23,225- 

 000 souls having been added to the population of Europe 

 during the ten years preceding 1880. Euroi^e could 

 send us an unceasing stream of 2,000,000 emigrants a 

 year for a century, and yet steadily increase her popula- 

 tion. 



We find, therefore, the prospect of political commo- 

 tions, the fear of war, the thumb-screw of taxation 

 given a frequent turn, and a dense population becoming 

 more crowded, all uniting their influence to swell Euro- 

 pean emigration for years to come. 



3. Facilities of travel are increasing. From 1870 to 

 1880, 39,857 miles of railway were built in Europe, only 

 two thousand less than in the United States during the 

 same period; and from 1880 to 1888 there were 26,478 

 miles built. Thus, interior i3opulations are enabled 

 more easily to reach the seaboard. Instead of a long 

 and tedious passage by sailship, the steamer lands the 

 immigrant in a week or ten days. We find that steam- 

 ships, in a single year, make 711 trips from nine Euro- 

 pean ports to New York, and 144 from other ports of 

 Europe. And some of these ships carry upwards of a 

 thousand steerage passengers. Improvements in steam 

 navigation are making the ocean passage easier, quicker 

 and cheaper. In 1825 the cheapest passage from Europe 

 to America was about $100. Now the rates from conti- 

 nental ports to New York are from $23 to $2Q. Steerage 

 passage from Hamburg to New York has been as low as 

 seven dollars. ^ There are great multitudes in Europe 

 who look westward with longing eyes, but who do not 

 come, only because they cannot gather the passage 

 money and keep soul and body together. The reduction 



Testimony before Ford Committee, p. 5. 



