criminal or otherwise ineligible, altho these seamen, of course, form a very small percentage of the entire number of immigrants coming. Nevertheless, doubtless a very large proportion of the alien seamen who enter would not be admitted if regularly examined, as are other immigrants. Unfortunately, coming as members of the crews or as stowaways, they are allowed shore leave and desert, thus escaping inspection. It is to be hoped and expected that a modification of the law will in the near future stop this practise.

SEX AND FAMILY LIFE

With, of

Perhaps the most fundamental of the institutions of modern times is that of the family. course, notable individual exceptions, the men and women who promote best the highest civilization are gathered into families, and have the benefit of a home life. The members of the old immigration, as a rule, came much more generally in families, with the evident purpose of making America their permanent home, than do the members of the new immigration. If we classify our European emigration (including Syrian), to the United States by class and sex, in the fiscal years 1899-1909, inclusive, we note that of the old immigration 41.5 per cent. were females, while of the new immigration only 27 per cent. are females. This indicates most clearly that the members of the new immigration are much less likely to remain and become thoroughly assimilated to American institutions than those coming from countries of the old immigration.

EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION (INCLUDING SYRIAN), TO THE

UNITED STATES

By class and sex, in fiscal years 1899-1909, inclusive.

[Compiled by the United States Immigration Commission from reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration]

THE AGE OF IMMIGRANTS

Α

Considered solely from the economic viewpoint, immigration brings a noteworthy contribution to the productivity of the country, while lessening materially the expenses of developing producers. Speaking generally, children until they are fourteen years of age, or above, are merely a burden upon the community, because of material expenses with no net return. similar statement applies to many people who have reached old age. The line can not be so distinctly drawn here, many people being still productive at advanced years. There is no very marked difference between the old and the new immigration in this particular, the great mass of immigrants of both classes being found in the groups between the years of fourteen and forty-four-years that clearly are in the best productive period. In these cases the saving of a thousand or more dollars in the keeping and the training of children from babyhood up to the productive period is clearly an enormous one.

The following brief table of European immigration for the ten years, 1899-1909, by age classes, shows that this saving must run up to many millions of dollars, the percentage of immigrants coming at the most productive years being in both cases something more than 80 per cent.

EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION (INCLUDING SYRIAN) TO THE UNITED STATES

in fiscal years 1899 to 1909, by class and age groups.

The striking feature with regard to the age of immigrants, and indeed one of the most striking and significant features of European immigration to the United States in any regard, is the fact that so many of the immigrants are of the producing and so few are of the dependent age. And yet it may fairly be questioned whether the advantage of training in the American environment is not enough fully to offset its enormous aggregate expense.

OCCUPATIONS OF IMMIGRANTS

Immigrants are far more readily assimilated and are also likely to be better satisfied if they can engage in ocupations that are congenial to themselves as well as profitable. Unfortunately, the old and the new

immigration differ decidedly in respect to the occupations followed by the immigrants in this country, as compared with their occupation in the country of their birth.

The best practical classification of the different occupations under general heads is shown in the table below:

OCCUPATION OF EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS (INCLUDING SYRIANS) TO THE UNITED STATES

Hebrews excepted, by occupation and class, 1899-1909 [Compiled by the United States Immigration Commission from reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration]

It is just, probably, to consider farm laborers and common laborers as unskilled. Doubtless also those marked as having no occupation should, generally speaking, be classed in the same group. Leaving out the Hebrews, as practically none of them are farm laborers, we find that about 60 per cent. of the new immigration consists of farm laborers and common laborers. These classes furnish less than 25 per cent. of the old immigration. Even with the Hebrews in

cluded we find the percentage of unskilled, or common, and farm laborers much larger among the new immigrants. Among those classed as skilled laborers the percentage is more than twice as great in the old immigration as in the new, not including the Hebrews; also, among servants practically the same thing is true, the percentage being much higher among the races who are counted primarily among the earlier immigrants. The percentage of farmers as distinguished from farm laborers is larger among races found in the old immigration, tho owing to the greatly increased total immigration the absolute number is somewhat larger among the new; but, in both cases the number is very small, so small as not to be an appreciable factor in determining our civilization.

A careful study of the figures, however, shows from this fact alone that the new immigration is much more difficult to assimilate than the old, because of these characteristics of occupation. A percentage of the total immigration, therefore, that might readily have been assimilated, provided the immigrants were of the older type, might prove much more difficult of assimilation with immigrants of the new type.

Illiteracy

Thanks to the excellent public schools of the United States, and to the compulsory educational laws of many of our States. the question of illiteracy is not one of great importance in the second generation. It is, however, a factor of prime importance in connection with the assimilation politically and socially of the immigrants themselves, many of whom come here