CITY VERSUS COUNTRY DWELLERS

The immigrants of the earlier day came to this country primarily with the purpose of becoming permanent dwellers, and a very large proportion of them, agriculturists abroad, went to our rural districts, took up land and became farmers here. Circumstances have so changed that the newer immigrants follow to a very great extent a different course. With the exception of the Hebrews, primarily from Russia, who are by compulsion in that country largely city dwellers, the present-day immigrants likewise come from country districts where they have formed the rural peasantry and unskilled laboring class. Coming to this country, however, they find that our supply of free agricultural land is practically taken up, that there is a strong demand for their labor, especially in our mining and manufacturing centers, at wages much higher than any that they have known in their own country, altho they may be low when compared with the American standard. In consequence, these rural peasants have flocked into our industrial centers and have entered upon occupations for which they had no previous training, and for which in many cases, they are ill adapted.

PHYSICAL CONDITION

In the early days there was no careful inspection of the immigrants. Many came to this country feeble or diseased, with the result that comparatively soon they became a burden upon our charities, and beyond a doubt, in many instances, affected unfavorably, through the contagious diseases that they brought, the health of the community. Our later immigration laws,

forbidding the entrance of those afflicted with any loathsome or contagious disease, or of those in such a condition of health that they are likely to become a public charge, together with the holding of the steamship companies responsible, to the extent of compelling them to return, free, passengers rejected by our immigration officials here, and, in the case of the insane or diseased, fining them in addition $100 for each case, have brought about a very great change in this regard. The careful inspection, sometimes by representatives of the United States Government, otherwise by inspectors of the steamship companies, has brought about the result that with very rare exceptions every immigrant admitted to this country is now in good health, and is not bringing with him the germs of any disease that may prove detrimental.

ALIEN SEAMEN

In the case of stowaways, and of certain deserters from ships who have come as members of the crew, the alien seamen form an exception. Owing to the principle of international comity and the immemorial custom of treating seamen as members of a privileged class, there has been a loophole in connection with the alien seamen which has admitted into the country many immigrants who are very undesirable, altho these 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. 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

. Perhaps the most fundamental of the institutions of modern times is that of the family. With, of 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, generally speaking, 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 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 from reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration]

THE AGE OF IMMIGRANTS

A

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. The great mass of immigrants, however, are found in the groups between the years of fourteen and forty-four-years that clearly are in the best productive period. There is no very marked difference between the old and the new immigration in this particular, but in the above 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

EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION (INCLUDING SYRIAN) TO THE UNITED STATES

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

this saving must run up to many millions of dollars, the percentage of immigrants during the most productive years being in both cases something more than 80 per cent.

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.

OCCUPATIONS OF IMMIGRANTS

Immigrants are far more readily assimilated and are also likely to be better satisfied if they can engage in occupations that are congenial to themselves as well as profitable. Unfortunately, there seems to be a decided change in respect to the occupations followed by the immigrants into this country, as compared with their occupation in the country of their birth, between those of the old and of the new immigration.

The best practical classification of the different occupations under general heads, and the number of immigrants of the nationalities coming in the largest numbers earlier and later, during the years 1899-1909, is shown in the table on opposite page.

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.