Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 10.djvu/834

 8l8 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

to a ship officered and manned by Nova Scotians. A Nova Scotian always feels at home when he reaches Boston. As a matter of fact, we do find Canadian workers, both men and women, in every state in the Union, and forming a considerable proportion of the population engaged in gainful occupations. We hear so much about the influx of French Canadians into the New England states that we are tempted to put aside the whole matter with the comfortable feeling that they form the bulk of the emi- grants, and calmly ignore the stubborn fact that Canada is being drained of good English blood as well. Reference to the table just given will serve to clarify our ideas on this point.

Canadians have rushed into the manufacturing and mechanical industries to a considerable extent. Statistics do not begin to show the actual numbers; for many come and go, and find tem- porary employment. The United States commissioner general of immigration says : " Urgent protests from our trades unions, labor societies, and individual workingmen against the employ- ment of these transitory aliens have been sent to the Bureau and to Congress, and much irritation has been engendered between the United States and Canada." 5 Thus it would appear that the Canadian transient workers are not a very welcome class in the United States a fact which should not cause wonder. A people whose chief interests are not in the land where they are earning a living is certainly not a very valuable element in the population of any country. The Americans quite justly resent the advent of such a class.

In connection with this discussion, it is well to observe the population of Canada for the decades since confederation:

1871 3,635,024

1881 4,324^10

1891 4,833,239

1901 5,371,051

Thus since 1867 the rate of increase of population has not kept pace with the increase of migration to the United States in the same period. The Canadian-born, as given in the census reports, do not by any means reveal the actual number of Cana-


 * Annual Rtport, 1897, p. 7. Later reports voice the same sentiment.