The so-called professional class embraces a rather wide variety of occupations, and it is interesting to learn what the professional pursuits are in which foreigners and their children attain their greatest prominence. The distribution of the professional class by occupations is shown in the following table: TABLE 10.-Male breadwinners employed in professional service, classified by general nativity and occupation: Number and per cent distribution. One-fifth, 19.7 per cent, of the white immigrants reported in professional service are clergymen, most of whom probably are preaching to congregations of their fellow countrymen and conducting services in their native language; 11.6 per cent are musicians and teachers of music; and 11.4 per cent are physicians. In the second generation (native white of foreign parents) the percentage of clergymen in the professional class declines to 8.9, the percentage of musicians and teachers of music to 6.3, while the percentage of physicians remains practically unchanged. There are proportionately more electricians and lawyers in the second generation than in the first. The table following gives the proportion of professional men in the first and second generations, by nationality. TABLE 11.-Male breadwinners, classified by nationality and general nativity: Total number, and number and per cent employed in professional service. •Includes also the few foreigh-born white whose parents were natives of the United States. TABLE 11.-Male breadwinners, classified by nationality and general nativity: Total number, and number and per cent employed in professional service—Continued. a Includes also the few foreign-born white whose parents were natives of the United States. The percentage of professional men in the second generation of English Canadians, English and Welsh, Hungarians, and Scotch is greater than it is for the native white of native parentage. The highest percentage shown for any class is that for the second generation of Scotch. The nationalities in which the percentage shows the greatest advance in the second generation as compared with the first are the Austrian, the Hungarian, and the Italian. The following tabulation indicates the leading professional pursuits in the first and second generations of each foreign nationality: AGRICULTURE. Of the total number of males engaged in agriculture 11.6 per cent are of foreign birth, and 11.3 per cent are the sons of foreign-born (white) parents, so that the two classes taken together, representing respectively the first and second generations of foreign origin, constitute 22.9 per cent of all males engaged in agriculture. Of the white males engaged in agriculture 25.4 per cent, or one-fourth, are of either foreign birth or foreign parentage. The census figures indicate that 21.7 per cent, or more than onefifth, of the foreign-born have entered agricultural pursuits, and that the percentage in the second generation, as represented by the native white whose parents were foreign-born, increased to 25.9, or more than one-fourth. The increased extent to which foreigners of the second generation are employed in agricultural pursuits represents mostly an increase in the proportion of farm laborers. In fact, the percentage of farmers declines slightly in the second generation. Among the foreign-born white, representing the first generation, the percentage of farmers is 14.6; among the native white of foreign parents, representing the second generation, the percentage of farmers declines to 13.3. The percentage of farm laborers, on the other hand, advances from 5.2 in the first generation to 11.6 in the second. To a large degree, no doubt, the percentages are influenced by the differences in the age composition of the two generations, or the fact that while the first generation, consisting of immigrants, comprises few children and young persons, the second comprises many such. TABLE 12.-Male breadwinners, classified by nationality and general nativity: Total number, and number and per cent employed in agricultural pursuits. • Includes also the few foreign-born white whose parents were natives of the United States. |