2 3 2 



The National Geographic Magazine 



Foreign born parents are more par- 

 ticular to send their children to school, 

 and as a consequence the children of 

 foreign born show a better percentage 

 of literacy than the children of native 

 born. 



Though immigrants are coming in 

 greater numbers, relatively to our total 

 population they are fewer than they 

 were some decades ago. The percent- 

 age of our foreign-born population is at 

 present less than at any time during the 

 last fifty years, with the exception of 

 1880. It is now 13.6, which shows that 

 we can give them at least the same de- 

 gree of assimilation. 



The importance of this element as a 

 factor in the development of the coun- 

 try and the creation of wealth is dis- 

 cussed at considerable length. The 

 "objectionable" class are almost en- 

 tirely located in those states which 

 have the greatest per capita of created 

 wealth, and study shows that they are 

 a most important factor in the produc- 

 tion of this wealth. Twelve states — 

 New York, New Jersey, Pennsylva- 

 nia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Ohio, 

 Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin, 

 Minnesota, and California — possess 81 

 per cent of the " objectionable " immi- 

 grants that have come to this coun- 

 try. These same states have received 

 also 78 per cent of all the immigrants, 

 and have nevertheless only one-half of 

 the population of the United States. 

 The foreign-born population of these 

 twelve states averages 21 per cent, while 

 the foreign population of the rest of the 

 United States averages only 6 per cent. 

 Notwithstanding the floods of immi- 

 grants of recent years, the per capita 

 created wealth in these twelve states is 

 $179.31, while in the others it averages 

 only $119.98. Three-fifths of the na- 

 tion's wealth are in these states. 



The Bureau of Statistics is publish- 

 ing a series of special reports from our 

 consuls in Europe on the emigration 

 from the various countries. 



OUR PRESENT POPULATION 



THE Census Bureau estimate of 

 79,900,389 for the population 

 of the United States on June 1, i9< 3, 

 seems conservative and is probably at 

 least one million short of the actual 

 number. The increase during the three 

 years by this estimate is 3,905,814. In- 

 asmuch as during the three years the 

 rush of immigrants was enormous, 

 reaching over 1,90c, 000, this estimate 

 implies that our natural increase hy 

 excess of births over deaths has been 

 only 2,000,000. This amounts to about 

 .009 per cent natural increase per year. 

 Our natural rate of increase for the 

 decade 1890-1900 averaged nearly twice 

 as much- — .0157. If our natural in- 

 crease has continued at this same rate — 

 and there is little reason to believe it 

 has appreciably diminished during the 

 three years — we have had an excess of 

 births over deaths of 3,572,000, which 

 would make our total population on 

 June 1, 1903, 81,472,000. 



The Census Bureau will hereafter 

 make annual estimates of our popula- 

 tion based upon what is known as the 

 arithmetical method. 



' ' This rests upon the assumption that 

 the annual increase for each year since 

 the last census will be one- tenth of the 

 decennial increase between the last two 

 censuses. The country as a whole and 

 most of the states and cities are growing 

 with a steadily decreasing percentage 

 of increase. As this condition has ob- 

 tained in the United States for the last 

 twenty years, it is likely to hold good 

 in the immediate future. Under such 

 conditions the arithmetical method has 

 been proved more accurate than any 

 alternative method." 



PAN-AMERICAN RAILWAY 



MORE than one-half of the all-rail 

 route between New York and 

 Buenos Ay res has been constructed, 

 according to the report of Charles M. 



