Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/565

* IMMIGRATION". 491 IMMIGRATION. at least 30,000. In seventeen cities the Germans lead, their proportions varj-ing from 28.8 per cent, of all foreign born iu New York, to 65.9 per cent, in Cincinnati ; in nine cities the Irish lead, with proportions between 17.3 in Paterson, N. J., and 30.9 in Cambridge, Mass. ; in two cities. Fall River and Lowell, the French Canadians are mo.st nu- merous, with proportions of 40.3 and 3.5.8 per cent, respectively; while Swedes, with 32.8 per cent., lead the foreign born in Jlinneapolis. The cities having, on the one hand, the largest number of foreign born, and, on the other, the largest percentage of foreign born, were: In the ten cities there are four only, Philadel- phia, Boston, Saint Louis, and liulFalo, in which the number of foreign bom potential Toters docs not exceed the number of the native born. This does not imply that the foreign born have any- where a political majority, as there is among them a considerable proportion of unnaturalized persons, the average for the nation showing about one-fourth of the foreign bom to be aliens. The significance of this concentration is in its relation to the problem of assimilation. The evi- dences of assimilation cannot well be treated sta- tistically, and we have only a few indications of it. Foreign Born in Cities. 1900 CITlEa Population Foreign born Per cent. CITIES Population Foreign born Per cent. 3.437.202 1.698.575 1,293.697 560.892 381,786 342,782 575,238 352,387 285,704 1,270,080 587,112 295,340 197,129 124,631 116,885 111,356 104.252 96,503 37.0 34.6 22.8 35.1 32.6 34.1 19.4 1 29.6 i 33.8 285,315 104,863 27,777 62,559 28,204 94,969 56.987 45.712 62,442 88.991 50.042 12.900 28.577 12.518 40.974 24.257 18.921 25,529 31 2 Fall River 47 7 Philadelphia Passaic 46 7 45 4 Cleveland Woonsocket 44 4 Lowell 43 1 St. Louis Manchester 42 6 Buffalo 41 4 New Bedford The natives of regions showing at least 25,000 persons in the three principal cities are shown in the following statement: Statement of Groups Exceeding 25.000 of Foreign Races in Princip.l Cities natives of New York Chicago Philadelphia 36,.362 29.472 29.308 170,738 73.912 59,723 48.836 Canada (English). . 68,836 322,343 31,516 275,102 145,433 32,893 155,201 28,320 36.752 Germany 71,319 Ireland 98,427 Italy Poland 28,951 Total foreign bom 1,270,080 587.112 295,340 In the census report the Poles are distributed to Austria, Germany, and Russia. Those from Russia are most numerous in New York; those from Germany in Chicago. Buffalo, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwau- kee, New Y'ork, Saint Louis, and San Francisco have German populations exceeding 25,000, while Boston has like groups of Irish and English Ca- nadian, and Detroit such a group of her Canadian neighbors. But these figures do not display the whole sig- nificance of the city concentration, for it will be remembered that immigrants are largely men and adults. The proportion of foreigner among males of voting age is perhaps a more forcible indication of their influence in the community. A few figures for the cities where the foreigners are numerous may be noted : Males of Voting Age. 1900 cities Total Native born Foreign born New York 1,007.670 511.048 386.953 176.068 111. .522 128.98.5 171.798 97.938 78.855 75.020 460.445 237.688 257.575 93.488 54.378 62.251 116.218 52.917 38.496 34.535 547.225 273 360 Philadelphia Boston 129.378 82 5S0 Cleveland San Francisco .... Saint Louis 57. H4 66.734 ,55.580 45 021 Detroit 40 359 Milwaukee 40.485 Vol. X.— 32. One of these lies in naturalization. In 1900, 50.1 per cent, of the foreign born adult males had been naturalized, and 8.2 per cent, had taken out their first papers. The extent of naturalization depends upon the length of time which the for- eigners have been in the country. Thus, of the 1,001,595 aliens enumerated in 1900, 599,917 had been in the United States less than ten years, while the much larger contingent of foreign born of longer residence showed only 441,678 aliens. Another statistical evidence of assimilation is found in the acquisition of the English language. There were enumerated in 1900 1,217,280 for- eign bom persons over ten years of age, or 12.0 per cent, of the total, who could not speak Eng- lish. But man}' of the foreign born from Great Britain and Ireland and Canada speak English as their mother tongue, as much as 24.5 per cent, of all. Allowing for these, the percentage of foreign bom who had no English antecedents and who had not acquired English was 18.3. The census reports do not go sufficiently into details to give us any indication how far the inability to speak English was due to unwillingness to ac- quire it and how far to lack of opportunity, due to recent arrival in the United States. It has already been noted that 2,609,173 of the foreign born had arrived in the preceding decade, and that in the decade the non-English speaking ele- ments, even allowing for immigration from Can- ada, appro.ximated three-fourths of the arrivals. That the foreign element is not averse to learning English would seem to be indicated by the fact that among the native whites of foreign parentage the proportion who do not speak English is only 0.6 per cent. If we turn now to consider the social effects of immigration we find our testimony chiefly in the statistics of illiteracy, crime, pauperism, and insanity. The effect of immigration can be seen in comparing the figures showing the proportion of illiterates in the population ten years of age and over in the United States, and in those sec- tions where the foreign bom are most strongly represented.