The Character of Our Immigration 



5 



represent the tips and downs of business 

 and commercial prosperity. The busi- 

 ness panics of 1837, '57, '73, and '93 

 are accurately recorded, taking about 

 two years to make their influence felt. 

 In short, although the chart on page 6 

 shows simply the number of immigrants 

 who have come to the United States since 

 we began to take immigration statistics, 

 it is a most accurate financial history 

 during that time. 



The year i88i-'82 marks the climax 

 of the older immigration and the begin- 

 ning of the new. That from Ireland, 

 which received its impetus from the hor- 

 rible condition of their native land thirty- 

 five years before, was still continuing 

 with undiminished force. That from 

 Germany reached in 1882 its maximum 

 of 193,000. It, too, received its first 

 impulse in 1847, i n the depressed indus- 

 trial conditions in which revolutions and 

 political disturbances had left the coun- 

 try, but there is no special reason for a 

 maximum during that year, unless it be 

 a knowledge of the peculiar opportu- 

 nities then offered by this country and 

 the infectious example of others who 

 were starting in this direction. 



The Germans coming to the United 

 States have been of different types. First, 

 in the early part of the century, Penn- 

 sylvania Germans were hyper-orthodox 

 Lutherans ; in 1848, Free-Thinkers, fol- 

 lowed by Roman Catholics and Social 

 Democrats. 



The Scandinavian, which completes 

 the list of the distinctive elements of this 

 older immigration, seems to have emi- 

 grated, not because of any serious polit- 

 ical or industrial conditions like the 

 others just mentioned, but because of the 

 special inducements which this country 

 offered him to pursue here the same vo- 

 cations to which he was accustomed at 

 home with the hope of greater rewards. 



The horizon of the Germans, Irish, 

 and Scandinavians was filled with the 

 one radiant idea of making for them- 

 selves a home in this country, and of 



becoming in the highest sense American 

 citizens. 



Such an immigration as that of 1882 

 represents the natural increase of a pop- 

 ulation of about 50,000,000 people. In 

 other words, we had then a foreign 

 population almost equal to our own, 

 contributing to our growth by its natu- 

 ral increase. 



To the ordinary person living outside 

 the great cities, the designation ' ' im- 

 migrant " brings to mind the Irish, 

 Germans, or Scandinavians — the people 

 just mentioned — who, even up to 1885, 

 constituted such an overwhelming ma- 

 jority of the total arrivals at our ports. 

 They may still be seen everywhere — in 

 the manufacturing trades or as shop- 

 keepers, household servants, merchants, 

 and professional men. They have bet- 

 tered their condition in life and added 

 to the general prosperity of the country 

 as well. 



Seeing them on all sides, the unin- 

 formed observer fails to realize that 

 their compatriots are no longer coming, 

 but in their stead are new forces — Med- 

 iterranean, Oriental, and Slavic races — 

 whose predominance in numbers at pres- 

 ent is absolute. 



The Carpathian and Baltic Moun- 

 tains are nearer the mining districts of 

 Pennsylvania today than Boston was 50 

 years ago. 



IMMIGRANTS FROM ITALY, AUSTRIA- 

 HUNGARY, AND RUSSIA 



In 1882 a circle drawn over the map 

 of Europe, taking in all points from 

 which we were receiving immigrants, 

 would have its center in the city of 

 Paris. In 1902 a circle of the same 

 size, including the source of the present 

 immigration to the United States, would 

 have its center located in Constanti- 

 nople. 



In classifying immigration, the Immi- 

 gration Bureau relies in the main upon 

 differences in language. Let us now at- 

 tempt to briefly note their more marked 



