There is an ominous side to immigration, but there are alleviating
facts. One of these was thus referred to by Bishop Warren of the
Methodist Episcopal Church:
A while ago I was in a small country village in New England. For
the first time in my life I looked upon a Methodist Episcopal
church, once filled with happy worshipers, but now closed and
abandoned. The population of the entire township was declining,
and tho a few of the last remaining Methodists had added their
help to the older and stronger Congregational church, even this
was looking into the future with fear and trembling. Many of
the native stock had died or moved away, and “foreigners were
creeping in.” I got a boy to guide me to where one of these
foreigners--a Finlander--lived. It was a neatly painted home,
with a fine garden and an acre of land, all paid for, and
occupied by the Finn and his son. All the foreigners in the
village were Finns and there were of them just six men and four
women. Of the latter, two were wives of two of the men and two
were young women serving in American families. And what sort
of people were they? One of the six men, I was told, was a lay
preacher and, as Sunday services were a long way off and quite
irregular, this little homeless community of ten dreaded and
shunned immigrants were maintaining a weekly prayer-meeting!
(Text.)
(1531)
* * * * *
The total immigration to the United States for 1909 was 751,786.
The net gain in foreign population was 718,433. The comparative
immigration from the leading countries of the world for three
years is shown in the following table:
-----------------------+---------+---------+--------
RACE OR PEOPLE | 1909 | 1908 | 1907
-----------------------+---------+---------+--------
Italians, North-South | 190,398 | 135,247 | 294,061
Polish | 77,565 | 68,105 | 138,033
German | 58,534 | 73,038 | 92,936
Hebrew | 57,551 | 103,387 | 149,182
English | 39,021 | 49,056 | 51,126
Scandinavian | 34,996 | 32,789 | 53,425
Irish | 31,185 | 36,427 | 38,706
Magyar | 28,704 | 24,378 | 60,071
Slovak | 22,586 | 16,170 | 42,041
Greek | 20,262 | 28,808 | 46,283
Croatian and Slovanian | 20,181 | 20,472 | 47,826
French | 19,423 | 12,881 | 9,392
Scotch | 16,446 | 17,014 | 20,516
Ruthenian | 15,808 | 12,361 | 24,081
Mexican | 15,591 | 5,682 | 91
Lithuanian | 15,254 | 13,720 | 25,884
Finnish | 11,687 | 6,746 | 14,860
Russian | 10,038 | 17,111 | 16,807
Japanese | 3,275 | 16,418 | 30,824
-----------------------+---------+---------+--------
The reader sees at once that more immigrants came from Italy
than from any other country. In fact, the immigrants from
Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, France and Scandinavia
numbered altogether 198,630, while those from Italy alone were
190,398. Of these Italian immigrants 25,150 (in 1908, 24,700 and
in 1907, 51,564) came from northern Italy and 165,248 (in 1908,
110,547 and in 1907, 242,497) from southern Italy.
Of the total 751,786 immigrants, 220,865 or 29.4 per cent.,
declared that the State of New York was their intended place
of residence (of Hebrews 60.2 per cent., of Italians 39.9 per
cent., of Poles 23.8 per cent.).
(1532)