ANNUAL REPORT—IMMIGRATION. 
99 
IMMIGRATION. 
As was predicted at the close of the war, which established 
the confidence of the world in the perpetuity of our free in¬ 
stitutions, the influx of foreign populations has been greater 
than at any former period of our national history. 
The opening of the sguthern states to free labor, and the 
completion of the Pacific railroad have turned the tide of im. 
migration partly into unaccustomed channels, and thus deprived 
the northwestern states of a portion of the increase they would 
otherwise have had, as a result of that greater influx. Still 
the actual number of immigrants who have settled in these 
states during the year 1869 is believed to have been greater 
than at any former period. 
Owing to the extraordinary efforts made by some of the 
other of these states, including especially, Minnesota, Iowa, 
Missouri and Kansas—efforts begun years ago, vvhile Wiscon¬ 
sin was trusting to Providence and doing nothing—this state 
has received less than its fair proportion, of the total number. 
The new board of immigration has done what it could, with 
its limited resources, to restore the equilibrium, and is enabled 
to present in its report for 1869 data that warrant the estimate 
of some thirty or thirty-five thousand as the number of immi¬ 
grants who have come to the state within that period. 
Of this number, 15,576 are reported to have entered the state 
by way of Milwaukee; the remainder coming by way of the 
other lake ports and via Chicago. 
Distributed by nationalities, 7,037 of the 14,576, were Gler- 
mans, 7,052 were Scandinavians, 171 were English, 50 were 
Irish, 16 were Scotch, 45 were Welsh, 87 were French, and 
170 were Hollanders. 
The amount of $3,000 per annum is certainly inadequate 
to the important work that ought to be done by the board. For 
if statisticians and political economists are right in claiming 
that their capacity for productive labor, added to the amount of 
cash actually brought with them, warrants an estimation of the 
average valuation of immigrants at over $1,100 each, then a 
