Foreigners the industrial Substratum. 39 



Minnesota and the Dakotas, while the British are found scattered 

 widely over the northern states. 



These people are guided largely by temperature in the selec- 

 tion of their homes. Those from northern Europe and Canada 

 settle in the far north. The Germans, coming from a more tem- 

 perate climate, have settled mainly south of them, as have also 

 the Irish. 



What is the distriljution of this foreign element as between 

 urban and rural life? As a rule, the Irish j^refer urban life; the 

 great proportion of them settling in the cities. The same is also 

 true in an almost equal degree with the British. The Germans 

 are somewhat less disposed toward urban life, but still a large 

 part of them, far beyond their due proportion, are found in our 

 large cities. The same is the case with the French -Canadians, 

 while the Norwegians and Swedes are much more disposed 

 toward rural life, and the great body of them are found away 

 from the centers of poj)ulation. As a rule, however, the foreign 

 population flocks to the cities in far greater proportion than the 

 native element does. In 1890 the twenty-eight largest cities of 

 the country contained a poj)ulatioii of 9,700,000, or about 15 per 

 cent of the population of the country. Now the foreign-born 

 element of these cities comj) rises a little over 3,090,000, or almost 

 exactly one-third oT the total foreign born of the country. Put- 

 xting it in another way, nearly one-third of the population of these 

 cities is foreign born, while in the country at large only about 

 one-sixth of it is foreign born. These cities contain, therefore, 

 double their quota of the foreign-born element (plate 17). 



As to occupations, it may be stated broadl}^ that the foreign- 

 born element is engaged in avocations lower in character than 

 the native element, principally in those involving skilled and 

 unskilled labor, while the proportion of them in the learned pro- 

 fessions is much less, relative to their numbers, than .among the 

 native element. While in 1880 the foreign born constituted 

 about one-seventh of the joopulation, it was found that of law- 

 yers, clergymen, physicians and teachers there were about 11 

 native born to one foreign born. On the other hand, among 

 servants there was one foreign born to little more than three 

 native born. Among unskilled laborers the foreign born were in 

 the proportion of one to two native born, while in skilled labor, 

 such as blacksmiths, shoemakers and carpenters, the proportion 

 was also as one to two, and foreign-born miners exceeded in total 

 number the native born. 



