Government and of our social institutions of the future, is to be.

This assimilative force is so great that in a second generation a very large proportion of these pupils become to a very noteworthy extent quite Americanized. It, nevertheless, is a matter of great interest to see how the different races compare in the different cities. On p. 305 is inserted a table showing the foreign races that rank first and second in the number of school children in each of the cities studied by the Immigration Commission.

The children of German fathers, it will be noted, 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, 33.6 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.

FOREIGN RACES RANKING FIRST AND SECOND IN NUMBER OF PUBLIC SCHOOL PUPILS IN EACH CITY

(In this table the Hebrews of the various nationalities are considered

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.

The following table shows, by general nativity and race of father of pupil, the per cent. of pupils in the different kinds of public schools. It has been taken from the reports of the United States Immigration Commission on schools:

PER CENT OF PUPILS IN THE DIFFERENT GRADES OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS, BY GENERAL NATIVERY AND RACE OF FATHER OF PUPIL

(Races represented by small numbers are not shown separately. Each race shown includes pupils in those cities only in which 200 or more pupils of that race are reported. The totals, however, are for all pupils studied This table also includes only papes in the kindergarten, elementary grades, and high school, and does not include pupils in special schools.)

General nativity and Number

Per cent. of pupils in

race of father of pupil of cities Kinder- Prim'y Grim't High

Total

Native-born:

White

Negro

Total

garten grades

grades school

The Canadians, other than French, for example, as can be seen from the foregoing table, 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 foreign-born races in the high schools is 4.7 per cent., while 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 excepting the Scotch, 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, from 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 grades, 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 those 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 retarded. For the fifth grade the normal age is eleven, for the eighth grade fourteen. The study shows some very striking figures in this regard. Taking into consideration all the children enumerated in the public schools in all the cities included in the Commission's report, it was found that 34.1 per cent. of the white children with native-born fathers were retarded. Of the native-born negro children 63.5 per cent. were retarded. The average retardation among all the foreign-born races was 36 per cent., only a little higher than that of the average white American-born children of native fathers. Some of the races, however, rank very much higher. The highest degree of retardation was found among the South Italians, 48.6 per cent.; next to them rank the Poles with 48.1 per cent.; the French-Canadians also rank high with 43.1 per cent.; the North Italians with 45.9 per cent., and a number of others rank above 40 per cent. On the other hand, the children of several of the foreign-born races show a less proportion retarded than those of native-born white children with native white fathers. Best of all rank the Finns, with only 27.7 per cent. of retardation; the Canadians, other than French, with 27.9 per cent.; the Swedes, with only 28.7 per cent.; the German Hebrews, 29.9 per cent.; the Dutch, with 31.1 per cent.; the Welsh, 32 per cent.; the English, 33.7 per cent.; the Norwegians, 33.9 per cent.

In a much more detailed study of retardation in a number of cities, a study covering 46,836 pupils, and only pupils of eight years of age and over, some additional interesting facts were given. For example, among those children whose foreign-born fathers were