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from Great Britain and northern Europe are more extensive home-owners than are the members of races of recent immigration. The percentage of home ownership among representative races of the old immigration is as follows:

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The principal races of recent immigration from southern and eastern Europe make the following showing as to the acquisition of homes:

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The geographical location of the Bohemians and Moravians in Europe would class them among the more recent immigrants, but the period of time during which they have been coming to the United States would place them among the older immigrant races. They show the largest proportion of home-owning families, of all races, the heads of which were nativeborn of foreign father or foreign-born. On the other hand, the Finnish families, which show a percentage of home ownership amounting to 56.3, should be geographically classed with the older immigrants from

Great Britain and northern Europe, but by period of residence in this country the larger proportion should be termed recent immigrants. Of the families of recent immigration, the North Italians, Slovenians, Croatians, Portuguese, Poles, Lithuanians, Slovaks, South Italians and Magyars have, in the order named, shown proportions ranging from 27.8 to 13.7 per cent. owning their homes. An almost negligible proportion of Russians, Greeks, Rumanians, Servians and Syrians, varying from 1.2 to 4.7 per cent. in the order mentioned, have acquired homes.

School Attendance and Progress

Possibly the chief force that has been active heretofore in the assimilation of immigrants, making them like Americans born, and especially the chief assimilative force among the children whether born here or abroad, is our public schools. In consequence, it seemed to the Immigration Commission* that much emphasis should be laid upon the school attendance of the children of immigrants. The report of that body included information for a total of 2,036,376 school children, of whom 221,159 were in parochial schools, the others in the public schools. The records covered also 49,067 public-school teachers and 32,882 students in colleges and universities. The study of the public schools was made in 37 different cities, including practically all of the large cities in the country, the first 20 cities in point of population, with the exception of three. The study of parochial schools was made in 24 cities. Seventy-seven of the higher educational institutions sent reports on their students.


* Reports of Immigration Commission, Vols. 29-33.

In the public schools 766,727, or 42.2 per cent., were children of native-born fathers, while 1,048,490, 57.8 per cent., were children of foreign-born fathers. Of these pupils some were themselves born abroad, some in the United States. Of the total number of children of native-born fathers, 39.5 per cent. were children of white fathers, 2.7 per cent. of native-born negro fathers. Among the children of foreign-born fathers, 318,822 were Hebrews, 17.6 per cent. of the total number. Second in order numerically were the Germans with 11.6 per cent. of the grand total. The Italians were represented by 114,887 pupils, or 6.4 per cent. of the whole. No other race had as many as 100,000 pupils; only two others, the Irish and English, were represented by as many as 50,000. A number of cities show a very high percentage of pupils with foreignborn fathers. The highest per cent. was found in Duluth, Minnesota, and Chelsea, Massachusetts, with 74.1 per cent. of their pupils with foreign-born fathers. In New York City 71.5 per cent. have foreign-born fathers; in Chicago 67.3 per cent.; in Boston 63.5 per

cent.

New Orleans shows the lowest proportion of pupils of foreign-born fathers, having only 18.1 per cent.; Kansas City ranking next with 21.3 per cent. Where so large a percentage of all the children attending the public schools have foreign-born fathers, it can readily be seen how extremely important is the assimilative force of the public schools in determining what the nature of our citizenship, and, in consequence, of our Government and of our social institutions of the future, is to be.

This assimilative force is so great that in a second generation practically all these pupils become to a very

noteworthy extent almost typical Americans. It nevertheless is a matter of great interest to see how the different races compare in different cities. In the appendix is given a table* showing the foreign races that rank first and second in the number of school children in each of the cities studied. The children of German fathers rank first in twelve and second in thirteen of these 37 cities. In Milwaukee they form as high as 32 per cent. of the school population; in Detroit, 18.6 per cent. In Chelsea, on the other hand, the Hebrews form 42.5 per cent. of the school population; in New York City, 33.3 per cent.; in Newark, 20.7 per cent. The total composite nature of our population is evidenced by some other examples showing the different nationalities. For example, in Duluth the Swedes have the highest percentage, 21.9 per cent.; in Bay City, Michigan, Canadian, other than French-Canadian, 15.5 per cent. In Boston, the Irish, 16.5 per cent.; in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Bohemian-Moravians, 18 per cent.; in New Bedford, Massachusetts, the Portuguese, 23.4 per cent.; while in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, the Lithuanians rank first with 30.3 per cent. ; in Scranton, the Irish, 10.3 per cent.; in Providence, the South Italians with 11.5 per cent.; and again in New Orleans, the South Italians rank first, tho only with 4.6 per cent.; the Germans ranking second with 3.4 per cent.

A considerable variation is found in the different cities, when the different grades in the schools are noted. Naturally, the children of the more newly arrived races rank highest in the lower grades, altho the characteristics of some of the races, and their attitude toward keeping their children in school, are apparently shown also. For example, the Canadians, other

*Appendix C.

than French, have 10.3 per cent. of their children in the high schools; the German Hebrews have 7.8 per cent.; the Scotch, 9.7 per cent., and the Welsh, 7.8 per cent. On the other hand, the Slovaks have only 0.7 per cent.; the South Italians, 0.8 per cent.; the Poles, 1.6 per cent.; the Portuguese, 0.5 per cent. The average of all the different races in the high schools is 4.7 per cent., altho the native-born white show 9.1 per cent. and the negroes 4.2 per cent. In the primary grades the Portuguese have 79.6 per cent. of their children; the Scotch only 46.9 per cent.; the South Italians, 72.7 per cent.; the Lithuanians, 75.3 per cent.; with correspondingly small percentages in the high schools. In the number of children attending the kindergarten, the Slovaks rank first with 8.6 per cent., the South Italians second with 7.8 per cent., whereas the Portuguese have the lowest proportion, only I per cent. No inferences may be made, however, as to the proportion of different races in different grades because of the varying periods of residence in the United States of the families of the school. It is, of course, to be expected that the races of recent immigration will show the largest proportion of their children in the elementary and intermediate grade, while a large proportion of the children of older immigrants will be found in the higher grades.

Of much greater importance in many respects, is the condition of affairs as regards retardation; that is, the percentage of the pupils of any race that are older than the normal age for that grade, and the reason why their children are retarded in the public schools, if such is the case. It is assumed that the normal age of children in the first grade is seven years, and that, in consequence, those who are eight years or over are

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