IMMIGRATION. For ages there has been a tendency on the part of the world population to move westward. After the population of a certain country rises above a certain density, there is always a certain portion of the people who are ready to set out to seek new homes. This percentage is always the most energetiC and adventurous, possessed of that vital ity which translates discontent into ac tion.
Of such is constituted the population of North America, and especially of the United States. In the very early colo nial days the immigrants were usually refugees from religious persecution, who came to the new country for freedom to hold their own beliefs. Among these were not only the English-speaking peo ples, but French, Swedish, German and other northern nationalities. The Ger mans were especially numerous during the fifties of last century, for after the revolutionary disturbances in Germany in 1848 thousands of Germans were obliged to flee.
This was the character, racially speak ing, of the imnaigration to this country until about 1900. Their motive for com ing. was largely economic: to acquire more land. Most of these immigrants were of the peasant class, and the vast tracts of unsettled land in this country attracted them.
But during the last ten years of last century practically all the desirable land in the country had been appropriated. The hardy stock of the northern coun tries of Europe was no longer attracted. Immigration from those countries fell off.
By this time our industries were devel oping, and these, with their compara tively high wages, began to attract a new class of immigrants. Manufac
turers sent agents abroad to encourage or even to contract for the coming over of large numbers of workers who were willing to work at the lowest of wages. These were to be found in southern Europe, especially in Italy, for here the people had a very low standard of living. Eventually this stimulation of immigra tion by manufacturers seeking cheap labor was stopped by legislation, but the stream had been started, and continued. In 1914 the chief elements coming over were Italians (270,414), Poles (122,657), and Hebrews (138,051). In that year there were 15,000,000 foreign born per sons in the United States. In the big industrial centers, like Pittburgh, Buf falo, Detroit, Cincinnati, the percentage of foreign born in the population aver aged as high as 75 per cent.
The effect of the war on this stream of immigration is shown by comparing the following figures, representing the numbers of immigrants during the war year, with the average of 1,200,000 a year before the war: 1915 326,700 1918 110,618 1916 298,826 1919 141,132 1917 295,403 Nor has this been all clear gain, as illustrated by the fact that in 1919, while 141,131 arrived, 123,522 foreign born persons departed for their native countries. In 1921 measures were intro duced into both houses of Congress to restrict or regulate immigration. It was alleged that great numbers of persons in Central Europe were eager to emigrate to the United States when conditions per mitted.