Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 23.djvu/859

] The question of the degree to which foreign elements have contributed to the remarkable growth of population in the United States has formed the subject of much discussion. In 1870 an important step towards the obtaining of adequate statistical data for the solution of the problem was made by ascertaining, in addition to the number of persons born abroad, the number having a foreign-born father or mother, or both. From this count it appeared that, while there were (1) 5,567,229 persons resident in the United States who were born in other countries, there were (2) 10,521,233 who had a foreign father, (3) 10,105,627 who had a foreign mother, (4) 9,734,845 who had both parents foreign, and (5) 10,892,015 who had one or both parents foreign. Another and important step was taken in 1880, when the census office obtained the means of determining the number of persons one or both of whose parents had been born in each specified foreign country. From this enumeration it appeared that, while there were then in the United States (1) 6,679,943 persons who had themselves been born abroad, there were (2) 14,349,310 who had a foreign father, (3) 13,585,080 who had a foreign mother, (4) 13,011,646 who had both parents foreign, and (5) 14,922,744 who had one or both parents foreign. In addition to the above were found 33,252 persons, themselves born abroad, but of parents native to the United States. This would make the total number of persons born abroad, and of persons of foreign parentage, 14,955,996. This aggregate was distributed as follows among the chief nationalities (Table X.):—

Comparing these results with the total number of persons from each specified foreign country resident in the United States, we find that, for every 1000 persons living in the United States who were born in Ireland, there were in 1880 2442 who had an Irish father, 2387 who had an Irish mother; for every 1000 persons born in Germany there were 2483 who had a German father, 2306 who had a German mother; for every 1000 persons born in Great Britain there were 2223 who had a British father, 1941 who had a British mother; for every 1000 persons born in Sweden or Norway there were 1690 who had a Swedish or Norwegian father, 1671 who had a Swedish or Norwegian mother; for every 1000 persons born in British America there were 1310 who had a British American father, 1292 who had a British American mother.

These ratios do not accurately represent the comparative fecundity of the foreign population, unless reference be had to the periods of time during which the several elements have respectively formed an important part of the population of the United States. The fact that for every 1000 persons born in Ireland there were in 1880 2442 persons (including of course the 1000 mentioned), who had an Irish father, while for every 1000 British Americans there were only 1310 who had a British American father, would seem to indicate that the Irish are vastly more prolific than the British Americans. The disproportion is, however, mainly due to the fact that the Irish residents have lived in the country for a very much longer period of time than the British Americans. Thus, of every 10,000 foreigners in the United States in 1850, 4285 were Irish, while only 658 were British Americans. In 1880, out of every 10,000 foreigners, only 2776 were Irish, 1074 were British Americans. Again, it will have been noted that, in every case mentioned, there are more of persons having a foreign father than of persona having a foreign mother. This is true regarding each nationality, not only for the country, but for each State, and is due to the fact that immigration is predominantly of males.

The first census (1790) showed the number of coloured persons to be 757,208, the coloured element thus constituting a larger proportion of the population than ever after, i.e., 19.3 per cent. By 1800 the coloured element had increased absolutely to 1,002,037, being a gain per cent. of 32.32, but had declined relatively to 18.9 per

cent. of the entire population. By 1810 it had reached 1,377,808, again of 37.05 per cent, upon its own numbers in 1790; it had also advanced towards its former share of the population, being 19 per cent. of the whole. By 1820 the number had risen to 1,771,656, a gain of 28.58 per cent. in ten years; the share of this element in the total population had sunk to 18.4 per cent. By 1830 the number had increased to 2,328,642, a gain of 31.44 per cent.; the ratio to the total population had sunk to 18.2. By 1840 the total numbers had risen to 2,873,648, a gain of 23.4 per cent. (16.8 per cent. of the whole population). In 1850 the number was 3,638,808 (13.3 of whole population), a gain of 26.62 per cent, in ten years. On the threshold of the civil war in 1860 the number had risen to 4,441,830 (14.1 per cent, of whole population), being a gain of 22.06 per cent, in ten years. The enumeration of the coloured population in 1870 was subsequently proved to have been partial and inaccurate in many parts of several Southern States. The number returned was only 4,880,009 (12.7 per cent. of total population), a gain of only 9.86 per cent, in ten years. In 1880 the number was 6,580,793 (13.1 of the whole), an increase of 34.85 per cent. over 1870.

The following table (XI.) summarizes the facts of gain per cent. within the coloured population by ten-, twenty-, and thirty-year periods, from 1790 to 1880:—

The coloured people, all but an inconsiderable fraction, live between the 29th and 40th degrees of latitude. In this respect, the foreign and the coloured elements are largely complementary. Only between the 38th and 40th parallels are both elements found in considerable numbers. In longitude the coloured are much more widely spread than are the foreigners. Again, the temperature and rainfall groups which contain one of these elements largely seldom embrace any considerable portion of the other. Thus, it appears that, while more than 87 per cent. of the foreign-born live in regions having a mean annual temperature of 40° to 55° F., more than 93 per cent. of the coloured reside in regions having a mean annual temperature of 50° to 70°. In the region having a rainfall of about 60 inches annually, the coloured form no less than 43 per cent. of the total, and in the next grade 36.5 per cent., while in the region having a rainfall of 50 to 55 inches more than half the inhabitants are coloured. Where the rainfall is less than 45 inches the coloured population falls below the average, in some cases very far below. Not less than 85 per cent. of the coloured are found within regions between 40 and 60 inches. The foreign population, on the other hand, is chiefly grouped in regions between 30 and 50 inches, those regions containing nearly 85 per cent. of the foreign-born. Further, only 14.10 per cent, of the foreign population live in the regions raised 100 to 500 feet above the sea, while within those regions are found not less than 44.95 per cent. of the coloured population.

The question of the future of the coloured race in the United States mainly depends on the answer to a prior question, whether the fact of the concentration in so great a degree of this element upon the lands at once very hot and very moist, which has actually taken place, is due to the superior attractions of cotton-planting in the past and even in the present, or represents also the special physiological aptitudes of the race. The enormous apparent increase in this element during 1870 to 1880 led some persons to project a line of ascent which would, in a few generations, cause the continent to be peopled almost entirely by members of the African race. Such predictions are as idle as were those of the speedy extinction of the coloured population after the disparaging but erroneous results of the census of 1870 were published. Inasmuch as twenty-year periods have, from the beginning, shown a steady successive decline in the rate of increase among the coloured population (see Table XI.), it would seem that some positive reason should be shown for anticipating any higher rate for the future than that of 54.57 for 1840-60. Such a rate of increase among the coloured people would steadily reduce the share of that element in the population of the country, bringing its numbers up to about ten millions in 1900 out of a not improbable population of eighty millions. Whether there is really room, economically, speaking, for so large a coloured population, considering the limited area of the lands, already fairly well occupied, within which alone that race has any marked advantage over the whites by reason of their physiological adaptation to the climate, and considering the