The People of the United States 



385 



17.6 per cent. During the decade just 

 ended the former group supplied only 

 40.4 per cent, while the latter furnished 

 fully one-half, or 50. i per cent. This 

 new element of Poles, Italians, andHun- 

 g'arians have settled in the mining dis- 

 tricts of Pennsylvania and in the manu- 

 facturing towns of New York, New Jer- 

 sey, and New England. The}^ now form 

 the bulk of laborers in these states, hav- 

 ing superseded the Irish in the heavy 

 work of digging trenches for railwaj^s or 

 sewers and in the making and repairing 

 of roads. No better example could be 

 cited than the present work of digging 

 a way for the underground system of 

 New York City. The raajorit}^ of the 

 laborers are Italians and Poles, whereas 

 fifteen or twenty years ago such work 

 would have been mainly done by Irish- 

 men. 



The Census Bureau has not yet pub- 

 lished the relative components of our 

 foreign population, but it is interesting 

 to note the nationalities that make up 

 our total immigration, amounting to 

 19.115,221 in 80 years. Germany has con- 

 tributed over one-fourth, 5,009,280; Ire- 

 land slightly more than one-fifth, 3,869, 

 268 ; Great Britain one-fifth, 3,026,207; 

 Norway and Sweden nearly one-fif- 

 teenth, 1,246,312 ; Canada and New- 

 foundland, 1,049,939 ; Italy, 1,040,457; 

 Austria-Hungary, 1,027,195, and all 

 other countries about one-tenth, 1,919, 

 661. 



Probably one-fourth of our immi- 

 grants have during the past ten 3'ears 

 returned to their old homes. Three 

 and one-half millions are recorded as 

 having entered the countr}^, but there is 

 an increase in our foreign born popula- 

 tion of onl}^ about one million, conclu- 

 sive proof that many remain in America 

 for only a short period. 



THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE- FOREIGN 

 BORN 



The diagram on page 384 shows the 

 relative percentage of foreign and native 



born in each state of the Union. North 

 Dakota leads, with the largest percent- 

 age of foreign born, Rhode Island fol- 

 lows next, Massachusetts is third, and 

 Minnesota fourth. These four states, 

 together with Montana, Connecticut, 

 and New York, are the onl)^ states that 

 have approximately one-fourth or more 

 of their population of foreign birth. 

 California, Montana, and Nevada stand 

 higli up in the list because of the nu- 

 merous Chinese and Japanese in these 

 states. Six states — North Carolina, 

 South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia, 

 Alabama^ and Tennessee — are not in- 

 cluded in the diagram, for each of these 

 six states has less than i per cent of 

 its population foreign born. 



The states comprising the North At- 

 lantic division have the largest percent- 

 age of foreign born, there being in this 

 division 226 foreigners to 774 native- 

 born. As has been previously noted, 

 these are also the only states in which 

 the foreign born have increased more 

 rapidly than the native born during the 

 last decade. 



A natural result of the great immigra- 

 tion period of 1 881-1890, when over half 

 a million immigrants entered the United 

 • States annuall}^ would be a large in- 

 crease during the succeeding decade in 

 the number of persons born in the coun- 

 try of foreign parents. Such, in fact, 

 proves to be the case. In the last ten 

 years the native whites of foreign par- 

 ents have increased at the rate of 36. 2 per 

 cent, which is nearly double the rate of 

 increase of native whites of native par- 

 entage, 18.9 per cent. For the most 

 part, these sons and daughters born on 

 American soil of foreign parents grow 

 up as thoroughly American in thought 

 and act as the descendants of the earliest 

 settlers. 



If we include in the foreign element 

 the children of foreign white parents, the 

 foreign element now constitutes about 

 one-third of the total population — 34 per 

 cent. The native whites of native par- 



