B

PROBLEMS OF THE REPUBLIC

GRAVE problems are before the American people, just as grave problems have always been before them. Some of them have already been considered. A few others may well be discussed.

CHAPTER XXXIII

FOREIGN RACES IN AMERICA *

It is a mistake to think that this country is or ever will be other than purely American, either as to control or the majority of its population, its institutions, or its ideas. Immigration from England and other countries prior to 1750 started the colonies, but the entire immigration up to that date was small compared with the total colonial population. The increase was by growth of American families. After the first inrush from England to New England after 1630 (about 20,000) the immigration fell off, due to the rise of Cromwell and of religious toleration in England, and the better-known hardships in New England. Franklin in 1751 estimated that there were about a million English in the colonies and that less than eighty thousand were immigrants. Those were the days of very large families, especially in New England. A census volume estimated that in 1776 about 82% of the population was English; 7% Scotch; 5.6% German; 2.5% Dutch; 1.9% Irish, etc., and the rest scattering. This census has been criticized, but as Professor Fairchild says,' the figures are reasonably reliable.

*See Chs. 12-18 and p. 182, supra.

Nor do foreigners since 1776 cut so large a figure as is generally supposed. The United States census estimate of "pure native ancestry" (those whose ancestors lived in this country in 1790) is that in 1920 of the 94,820,915 white people in this country, 47,330,000 "would have been enumerated in that year had there been no immigration nor emigration since 1790 and if, nevertheless, the rate of natural increase had been what, historically, it appears to have been."1 Moreover, the census shows "that the distinctly native stock, by which is meant the descendants of those persons who were enumerated at the First Census [1790], has not ceased to increase as a whole, but that this increase is being contributed unequally by different parts of the country.

In the South and in certain of the Northern Central and Western states, without question the representatives of the early stock are contributing with reasonable liberality to the increase of population. This analysis indicates that the native white stock is increasing in the entire Nation at the rate of about 11 or 12% per decade," " which is the average rate in England and Scotland, and the rate usual with nations that have reached maturity. It is true that from 1910 to 1920 the native whites of foreign parents increased 21.5%, and in 1920 there were 11,872,090 foreign-born whites in the United States, but their nationalities contained some desirable elements; 3,794,555 were from northwestern Europe; 4,365,181 from central Europe, while only 1,809,573 were from eastern Europe, and 1,902,781 from southern Europe. Stevenson says that up to 1883 about 95% of the immigration was from western Europe, whereas in 1907 fully 81% was from eastern and southern Europe. Burr estimates that in 1920 about 86% of Americans were of the same general racial composition as in 1776. This of course refers to the Nordic stock. It is true also that in 1910 about a quarter of the men in the United States over 21 years of age were foreign born, and in 1920 they were still over a fifth; in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania 35%; New England 38%; Massa

chusetts 42%; Boston 46%; New York City 53%. It is also stated that in 1915 about 22% of the children born in Connecticut had an Italian father; 20% in New York and Rhode Island; 12% in Massachusetts; and 9% in Pennsylvania. It is further true that between 1900 and 1910 some 8,000,000 foreigners entered this country and in 1910 the foreign born were 14.5% of all whites. But the flood has now been stopped by law and many of the undesirables are here only to make a little money and then go back; in fact the males here often greatly outnumber the females. During the 90 years from 1820 to 1910 about 64% of the immigrants were males, and of the Italians during the 10 years ended in 1909 over 78% were males.1 In 1924 more unskilled labor returned to Europe than came in by immigration. Moreover, the second generation of foreigners has less children. Henceforth America will restrict immigration and the stock of "pure native ancestry" will continue to dominate. In the note hereto is given a reproduction of two pages from the United States Census for 1920, Vol. II, pp. 971, 972,2 showing the comparative number of foreigners in various states. It will be noticed that New York State is far and away the chief home of these foreigners and of course that means New York City. Fortunately, the interior of New York State controls that State, thus restricting the influence of the foreigners. Furthermore, the foreign-born population in the West, small though it be in proportion to that in the Eastern states, shows a much larger proportion of Scandinavians, Germans, and British. In 1900 of every 27,000 foreign born in the North Central states. only 12,000 were from eastern and southeastern Europe, while of a similar number in the North Atlantic states some 21,500 were from those parts of Europe. The comparative influence of the foreign population in the whole United States is minimized by reason of this concentration in a few great eastern cities. Moreover, when hard times come again, as come they will, hundreds of thousands of these Italians, Slovaks, Bohemians, Polacks, and

Russians will go back a silver lining to the industrial cloud. It may cause a dearth of labor, but let industry slow down and preserve this country for Americans. The natural increase of population is all that we can properly care for.

Our protective tariff abnormally increasing manufactures, leading to importations of cheap labor, has worked disastrously in dragging down our citizenship. Professor Fairchild says, "Certain sweeping statements are made to the effect that mixed races are superior to either of the originals, especially if the latter are not too far apart, and some efforts are made to bolster up this assertion by reference to various of the great civilizations of history. But these are mostly ex cathedra pronouncements, without a semblance of support by any factual evidence. It is, indeed, as already stated, a matter about which we know very little. The various cases of race mixture about which information is available are not so complicated by social and environmental factors, often of a very unfavorable kind—as, for instance, in the case of the racial nondescripts in the seaports of the world — that it is practically impossible to isolate the results of purely racial factors." Senator Lodge said in the United States Senate in 1896, "If a lower race mixes with a higher in sufficient numbers, history teaches us that the lower race will prevail. The lower race will absorb the higher, not the higher the lower, when the two strains approach equality in numbers. In other words, there is a limit to the capacity of any race for assimilating and elevating an inferior race; and when you begin to pour in in unlimited numbers people of alien or lower races of less social efficiency and less moral force, you are running the most frightful risk that a people can run. The lowering of a great race means not only its own decline, but that of civilization." 2 Draper well says, "Rome perished because the original Roman race was lost in an intermixture of foreign blood. Greece perished because of the Macedonian conquest of Persia. No Greek remained in his sterile home who fancied that the wealth

and luxuries of Asia were within his reach. In the swarming myriads of Oriental people the sparsely-scattered Greek immigrants disappeared." 1 The warning is justified, and who can tell how soon? Meantime, however, America is still America. As Professor Van Dyke of Princeton says, "It is common to assume that the Spirit of 1776 is an affair of the past; that the native American stock is swallowed up and lost in our mixed population; and that the new United States, beginning, let us say, at the close of the Civil War, is now controlled and guided by forces which have come to it from without. This is not true even physically, much less is it true intellectually and morally." 2

Free immigration of English, Scotch, Dutch, and the Scandinavian races, while excluding undesirables from Southern, Southeastern, and Russian Europe as well as Asia is the policy which will prevail. In fact, by the Act of 1924, "The annual quota of any nationality for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1927, and for each fiscal year thereafter, shall be a number which bears the same ratio to 150,000 as the number of inhabitants in continental United States in 1920 having that national origin. . . bears to the number of inhabitants in continental United States in 1920." This means that hereafter Plymouth Rock and Jamestown will count and give their quota to England. It favors immigration from the British Isles, but unfortunately not the Dutch and Scandinavians. Canada is still left free and fortunately so, because Canada sends us each year many men of character, intelligence, and force. Under the Act of Congress of 1924 the following is the annual limit of immigration prior to July 1, 1927, allowed from the countries named: