Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/178

150 adequate reward for their labor; but this state does not continue for any length of time. Seamstresses who cannot find work in their line turn to other occupations, such as housemaids, nurses, etc. The character of the European workingwoman in this respect is just the reverse of that of the American. While the latter considers labor in a factory to be of a more elevated character, and would never descend to common housework, the former is content to exert herself in any decent sphere of labor.

But for argument's sake, let me admit that every year there are a few thousand poor, ignorant, and incapable men or women who become a burden to the community. What proportion does their number bear to the total immigration of a whole year? The New York Commissioners of Emigration have annually to support an average of about 2,000 sick and destitute in their institutions, and, besides, a few hundred criminals, who are confined at their cost in the city prisons; but all this does not amount to one per cent, of the entire immigration. It must be borne in mind that the poorer emigrants remain in New York City, and that, consequently, it cannot be presumed that any large number of the others become a burden to the several States.

However, I will even go so far as to admit that the number of those who not only produce nothing, but are supported by the contributions of States or counties, reaches 5 per cent. Taking the number of immigrants in 1869 as a basis, this percentage would give between 12,000 and 13,000 non-producers. But even such a percentage would be more than counterbalanced by the large number of emigrants better educated than the ordinary laborers who form the basis of my computation.

An emigrant population contains a very small percentage of helpless and incapable individuals. Apart from the law which prohibits the landing of cripples, blind, deaf, and aged persons, it is self-evident that only the strong, the most courageous and enterprising natives of a country emigrate to a foreign land. The unequal representation of the several ages and sexes among emigrants is due to this fact. Out of the whole immigration to the United States from 1819 to 1860, more than 22 per cent. were from one to fifteen years old; a little over 50 per cent, were from fifteen to thirty years of age; more than 73 per cent. were