OUR FOREIGN-BORN CITIZENS 



111 



Different communities took different 

 views as to education in those early 

 times. In Connecticut every town that 

 did not keep school for at least three 

 months in the year was liable to be fined. 

 In Virginia, Governor Berkeley thanked 

 God that there were no free schools, nor 

 printing presses, and expressed the hope 

 that they would not arrive during his 

 century, since he believed that learning 

 brought disobedience, heresy, and sects 

 into the world, and printing developed 

 them. At one time in Virginia, out of 

 12,455 male adults who signed deeds and 

 depositions, 40 per cent made their 

 marks. 



Immigration to the United States was 

 not large in the early history of the coun- 

 try. Europe did not look upon the young 

 republic with any favor, and the people 

 of that continent did not regard America 

 as offering attraction for the ambitious 

 home-seeker. Between 1776 and 1820, 

 a period of 44 years, less than 250,000 

 immigrants are believed to have arrived 

 in the United States — an average of 

 fewer than 6,000 a year. 



The students of immigration differenti- 

 ate between the immigrants from north- 

 western Europe and those from southern 

 and eastern Europe by calling them "old" 

 and "new" respectively. The "old" im- 

 migrant arrived with his family and came 

 with a desire to make America their 

 home. Only sixteen out of every hun- 

 dred of the "old" immigrants returned to 

 Europe, and more than two-fifths of 

 those who came were females. On the 

 other hand, thirty-eight out of every hun- 

 dred of the "new" immigrants return to 

 their native lands, while only one-fourth 

 of those who come are females. It will 

 be seen from this that proportionately 

 more than twice as many of the "new" 

 immigrants return to Europe as of the 

 "old," while the number of women 

 among the "new" is vastly smaller. 



labor's debt to immigration 



Northwestern Europe has given us 

 17,000,000 immigrants, where southern 

 and eastern Europe have sent us 15,000,- 

 000. 



The labor supply which immigrants 

 have brought to the nation constitutes an 



incalculable debt. Seven out of every 

 ten of those who work in our iron and 

 steel industries are drawn from this 

 class ; seven out of ten of our bituminous 

 coal miners belong to it. Three out of 

 four of those who work in packing towns 

 were born abroad, or are children of 

 those who were born abroad ; four out of 

 five of those who make our silk goods, 

 seven out of eight of those employed in 

 our woolen mills, nine out of ten of those' 

 who refine our petroleum, and nineteen 

 out of twenty of those who manufacture 

 our sugar are immigrants or children of 

 immigrants. 



The story of Calumet, in the northern 

 part of Michigan, shows how much of a 

 monopoly the immigrant has in the min- 

 ing industry in America. It is a city of 

 45,000, who live and work in the copper 

 mines under Lake Superior. Twenty dif- 

 ferent races share in its population, and 

 not even Babel heard more tongues. 

 Sixteen nationalities are represented on 

 its school-teaching force. In New York 

 the foreigners colonize, as on the East 

 Side ; in Calumet it is the native popula- 

 tion that colonizes, the American colony 

 there being known as Houghton. 



Americans sometimes are inclined to 

 complain about the lowering of wage 

 standards through the advent of the 

 "new" immigrant. Where once the na- 

 tive citizen and the home-builder from 

 northwestern Europe had to engage in 

 ditch digging and in dirty and dangerous 

 occupations, the coming of the "new" 

 stream of humanity has released them 

 from such task and has permitted them 

 to take higher positions in the industrial 

 world. The Irish, German, Welsh, and 

 Scandinavian within our gates, along 

 with the native American working-man, 

 are now able to give their time almost 

 wholly to work in the field of skilled 

 labor, and as overseer for the "new" im- 

 migrant in the industrial centers. The 

 latter has been the ladder on which his 

 predecessor has climbed. 



MOVING INTO BETTER QUARTERS 



Go to New York or any other principal 

 city, and you will find that the quarters 

 that were once occupied by the Germans, 

 the Irish, the English, and the Scandina- 



