decades, we find that during the twenty-year period 18901909, 2,425,000 immigrants came from Great Britain and Ireland to the United States as against 2,254,000 in 1860– 1879.1

TABLE 64.

NUMBER OF EMIGRANTS FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM, BY DESTINATION (THOUSANDS), 1840-1909.

The number of English and Irish immigrants since 1890 who found the conditions in the United States attractive was 8500 in excess of the annual average for the period 1860-1879 preceding the "new immigration."

To be sure, the figures of gross immigration alone are not conclusive, as they conceal many unsuccessful ventures ending in a return movement to the home country. In Table 65 are therefore presented the figures of net emigration from the British Isles by countries of destination since 1895, when immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe to the United States for the first time outran the "old immigration."'

The Civil War reduced emigration from the United Kingdom to the United States only in 1861 and 1862. During the next three years the number of emigrants bound for the United States rose to a higher level than that of 1855-1860 or 1874-1879. See Appendix, Table XV.

See Appendix, Table XV.

TABLE 65.

NET EMIGRATION OF BRITISH SUBJECTS FROM THE UNITED KINGDOM BY COUNTRIES OF DESTINATION (THOUSANDS), 1895-1909.

As appears from Diagram XVI, where the same figures are shown graphically, the curves representing net emigration to the United States and to British possessions exhibit a tendency to rise and fall together. From 1898 to 1907 the net immigration to the United States was steadily rising with slight deviations in the years ended March 31, 1901, and 1905, i. e., in the two presidential years. Since the latter year, the immigration countries of the British Empire have drawn and held more immigrants than the United

'Computed from Statistical Abstract of the United Kingdom, No. 57, pp. 363-364, Tables 117, 118, 119.

2

* Includes 22,719 passengers from 1895 to 1907 whose nationality is not specified.

States, but the net immigration to the United States also increased. The drop in 1908 affected the net immigration to Canada as much as that to the United States. In 1909 the net immigration to the United States exhibited a greater increase, both absolute and relative, than the net immigra

XVI. Net emigration from the United Kingdom by destination, 1895-1909.

tion to all British possessions. Obviously, conditions in the United States, notwithstanding immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe, compared favorably with those in other immigration countries.

Another factor determining the volume of emigration, that must not be lost sight of, is the improvement of living conditions in Great Britain. In the first place, there has

been a decrease in the cost of living. Measuring the cost of living by wholesale prices and taking the Board of Trade index number for 1900 as 100, official estimates put the cost of living in 1878-1887 at 119.5 and in 1898-1907 at 97.8. At the same time the rates of wages have increased. An estimate of the course of average real wages in the second half of the nineteenth century is reproduced in the following table:

TABLE 66.

AVERAGE REAL WAGES IN GREAT BRITAIN, 1850-1900.*

During the decade 1850-1859, when immigration from the British Isles to the United States reached its maximum, relative to population, and the decade 1880-1889, when it reached its numerical maximum, the real wages averaged from 50 to 55 per cent and from 70 to 84 per cent, respectively, of the wages of 1900. The improvement is sufficient to account for the reduction in the rate of emigration from the United Kingdom.

H. Ireland

Emigration from Ireland to all countries reached its maximum during the decade ended March 31, 1861, and has since declined. The tide rose again during the '80's, in the turbulent years of the Irish Land League agitation, and once more during the past decade, but not as high as the water-mark reached in 1852-1861. The figures are given in Table 67 below.

2 Ibid., quoting: A. L. Bowley, National Progress in Wealth and Trade, p. 33.

TABLE 67.

ANNUAL AVERAGE EMIGRATION FROM IRELAND, MAY 1, 1851,

There are no accurate statistics showing the distribution of Irish emigrants by destination previous to 1876. The subsequent years 1876-1908 for which such statistics are available may be divided with respect to the racial composition of the immigration to the United States into two periods of nearly equal length; previous to 1891 the races of Northern and Western Europe furnished the bulk of the immigrants, whereas during the more recent period the races of Southern and Eastern Europe became the predominant element among them. The figures are presented in Table 67 on page 216.

Two facts are worthy of note in the following comparative table: first, that the decline of emigration from Ireland has affected the movement to other countries, as well as to the United States, and second, that the proportion of Irish emigrants destined to the United States during the period of the great influx of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe was higher than in 1876-1890, when immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe was negligible.

That the "new immigration" to the United States was not the cause of the decline of Irish emigration is clear from the fact that the decline had set in as early as 1861-1870, at least twenty years before the immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe became sufficiently numerous to attract

The enumeration of emigrants from Irish ports did not commence until May 1, 1851.

Census of Ireland, 1901, Part II., p. 168, Table 41. Statistical Abstract of the United Kingdom, No. 56, p. 365.