Numerically the Chinese and Japanese are not an important element of the population, but because of their concentration in the States of the Pacific slope, chiefly California, they have pre sented a problem to those particular States, and consequently to the National Government, far out of proportion to their num bers. The Chinese problem came first when between 1860 and 1880 they were imported at the rate of nearly io,000 per year, chiefly for labour purposes. Because of their serious competition with American labour, and because they were socially unas similable, opposition to them reached a riot stage in many places, and in 1882 Congress, in contravention of existing treaties with China, passed an exclusion act, which with small changes has remained in force since.
In 1930 the number of Chinese was 74,954, of whom 3o,868 were native and 44,086 foreign-born. In the calendar year 1937 there were 68 Chinese immigrants and 1,340 Chinese emigrants.
Japanese immigration was not an important problem until after the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed. The cessation of Chinese immigration created a demand for cheap labour, and it was gen erally felt that the Japanese were more desirable as workers than the lower classes of Chinese which formerly arrived. But they were also more ambitious and aggressive economically and the Californians grew increasingly critical. Between 1900 and 1920 they came in greatly augmented numbers, averaging more than Io,000 annually. In 1920 there were 111,010 Japanese in the United States compared with 72,157 in 1910. As a result of the Immigration Act of 1924 Japanese admissions declined from 8,481 in 1924 to 682 in 1925 and 598 in 1926. In 1930 there were 138,834 Japanese in the United States, of whom 68,357 were native and 70,477 foreign-born. Japanese immigrants in 1937 numbered 63, and emigrants 798.
Foreign White Stock.-Under the classification "foreign white stock" the Bureau of the Census includes both foreign-born white persons and persons who have one or both parents foreign born. In 1930 this classification included slightly less than one third of the population, the number having increased from 36, (or of the total) in 1920, to 39,885,788 (or of the total) in 193o. The foreign white stock in 1930 comprised 13,983,405 foreign-born white, and 25,902,383 natives of foreign or mixed parentage, the latter, in turn, comprising 17,407,525 with both parents foreign born, 5,547,327 with father foreign born and mother native, and with mother foreign born and father native. (The 1930 figures in all cases include persons shown as Mexican in the 1930 Census Reports.) Since less than 1% of the Negroes are foreign born, and since the other racial groups constitute a very small fraction of the total population, the data for the foreign white stock may be considered to represent practically the whole foreign element in the population of the United States. The total foreign-born popu
lation in 1930, for example, was 14,204,149, of which number 13,983,405, or 98.4%, were white (including Mexicans). The dis tribution of the foreign-born white or of the foreign white stock by country of origin is, therefore, a significant indication of the sources from which recent additions to the population of the United States have come.
In the matter of geographic distribution, it may be noted that both the foreign born and the children of the foreign born are found mainly in the Northern and Western States, there being relatively few in any of the States south of Maryland except Florida and Texas. The highest percentages of foreign born, on the other hand, were found, in 1930, in New York, with 25.9%; Massachusetts with 25.1%; Rhode Island, with 25.0%; Connecti cut, with 23.9% ; and New Jersey, with 21.0%.
In the early stages of large-scale immigration to the United States a large proportion of the immigrants settled on the new farm land which was being opened up in the West, but since about 1890, when the supply of free land (or land nearly free) was practically exhausted, there has beer, an increasing tendency for newcomers to settle in the industrial cities. Thus we find that while only 11.4% of the total population in 1930 was foreign born white, this class represented '64% of the urban population, as against only 7.2% of the rural-non-farm population, and 4.0% of the rural-farm.
The distribution of the foreign white stock by country of origin is indicated by Table II, which shows, for the countries which have made the largest recent contributions to the population of the United States, the numbers of foreign born and of foreign or mixed parentage, respectively, reported in the census of 1930.
These data, except for Mexico, are shown in graphic form in fig. 1, in which the countries are arranged in order of the per centage of foreign born in the total stock from the specified country. The width of the bars in this diagram, it may be noted, is in proportion to the total number of persons represented. In general, the countries toward the bottom of the diagram, show ing relatively small percentages foreign born in the total stock, are the countries from which came the earlier immigration to the United States, while those near the top of the diagram, with large proportions of foreign born and relatively few of the second gen eration, are those from which immigrants have come in large numbers only in recent years.