Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 69.djvu/170

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The figures above show that of the 199 persons who met death by homicide in San Francisco during the five years 1889-93 and the two years 1902-03, 111, or 55.6 per cent., were of foreign birth, while the total foreign born of the city form but 31.1 per cent, of the population. The undue proportion of murders among the Chinese is easily appreciated when it is stated that the Mongolians comprised 28.6 per cent, of the number who met death by homicide, while they form less than 6 per cent, of the population. The mortality statistics of San Francisco show that during the twenty-five years 1872-97, there were 169 Chinese murdered, an annual average of 18.76. From these figures it may readily be seen that the very high ratios of arrests for homicide in San Francisco are largely attributable to her alien Chinese population. Consulting the District Attorney's Report for 1897 (a report which happens to be available), I find that 41 per cent, of the charges filed for murder and manslaughter during that year were against Chinese.

The table following shows that the annual proportion of arrests for homicide and attempts at murder has varied but little during the years given (omitted years imply missing or unavailable reports).

That the ratio of arrests for homicide has not grown larger in San Francisco concurrently with the general increase of immigration from southern Europe, coincides with the fact that the proportion of Chinese in that city, is growing smaller, and that the great influx of European aliens has not yet affected the Pacific coast to any considerable extent. Of the 1,025,000 immigrants who landed on our shores during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1905, at least 76 per cent, went into New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Ohio and Illinois. Only 431,571 were destined for the west, and but 46,343 for the south.

This tendency of the alien to congest in the great manufacturing cities of a few eastern states is gradually reversing the order of conditions heretofore existing. Twenty years ago the population of Pacific coast cities was much more largely foreign born than at the present time, while in the east the percentage of foreign born in urban communities is increasing. Ten and twenty years ago, as may be seen