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.
The natives of regions showing at least 25.000 persons in the three principal cities are shown in the following statement : 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 York, 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 foreigners 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 : One of these lies in naturalization. In 1900, 56.1 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 born persons over ten years of age, or 12.0 per cent. of the total, who could not speak Eng lish. But many 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 born 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, approximated three-fourths of the arrivals. That the foreign clement 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 born are most strongly represented.
In the United :states it large the illiteracy among the toreign white is far greater than ;toning the native while, and this discrepancy is still greater in the Northern and Western Mates. It is. however. interesting to note that in the 4..cond generation, the native white of foreign parents, the diserepancy disappears. On the face of the figures there is even a superiority over the natives of natke parent,: but this is probably due to the better school facilities in the (-Ries and towns, where so large a proportion of the foreign element dwell.
Cat ME. It is often claimed that the immigrants till the jails and penitentiaries of the country; and the impression is widespread that, were it not for immigration. there would lie little use for such institutions. This impression is entirely er roneous. While it is likely that the foreign horn contribute somewhat more than their proportion al quota to the army of la•-breakers, the dispro portion is by no menus such a- to change mate rially the amount of crime which would occur were there no in the population. The extent of their influence upon the volume of crime may be briefly studied.