PERILS. — IMMIGRATION. 55 



tion as G,679,9J:3; but we must not forget their children 

 of the first generation, wlio, as we shall see, present a 

 more serious problem than their parents, the immi- 

 grants. This class numbered in 1880, 8,276,053, making 

 a total population of nearly 15,000,000 which was foreign 

 by birth or parentage. 



We are not yet informed by the Eleventh Census 

 what is the present foreign-born population. But know- 

 ing what it was in 1880 and knowing what immigration 

 has been since then, we can estimate it approximately. 

 If the death rate among the foreign-born population was 

 the same from 1880 to 1890 as from 1870 to 1880 and if 

 the same percentage returned to Europe, that population 

 now numbers 9,590,000; and if the proportion of foreign- 

 born to those of foreign-parentage is the same now as in 

 1880, our population which is foreign by birth or parent- 

 age numbers 21,385,000, or 33.91 per cent, of the whole. ^ 



So immense a foreign element must have a profound 

 influence on our national life and character. Immigra- 

 tion brings unquestioned benefits, but these do not con- 

 cern our argument. It complicates almost every home 

 missionary problem and furnishes the soil which feeds 

 the life of several of the most noxious growths of our 

 civilization. I have, therefore, dwelt at some length 

 upon its future that we may the more accurately meas- 

 ure the dangers which threaten us. 



Consider briefly the moral and political influence of 

 immigration. 1. Influence on morals. Let me hasten 

 to recognize the high worth of many of our citizens 

 of foreign birth, not a few of whom are eminent in the 



1 In the first edition, it was estimated that in view of all the influences 

 calculated to stimulate immigration the annual average from 1880 to 1900 

 would very likely reach 800.000 which was in round numbers the immigra- 

 tion in 1882. The annual average for the past ten years has been 5^.800. 

 Immigration for the next ten years, if unrestrained by a financial panic or 

 hostile legislation, might be large enough to raise the average for the 

 twenty years to 800,000, but the very general feeling of opposition to unre- 

 stricted immigration, which has manifested itself in recent years, would 

 doubtless lead Congress to take action which would restrict it before it 

 could assume such proportions. 



