The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1872-03-01
What we ONE to Foreign Immigration.

1870, as native, what proportion @
the present population is descend
ed from that nucleus, and what i
ldue to foreign immigration durinl
the intervening eighty years? Nh
Frederick Kapp attempted 3 solu
ton of this curious question, but hi
calculations were not well ground
ed. He assumed that the census re-
turns of 1860 of the number O
births and deaths afforded a trust
worthy measure of the natural in
crease of the population. Apply
ing that ratio to the populs
ton of the country in 1890, ht
brought out the astounding resul
that two-thirds of the white inhab
itants of the United States art
either foreigners or the descendants
of foreigners who mad settled in the
country since 1870. Mr.. DeBow
IN his forthcoming volume on tht
''Status of the Country" shows tht
error Of Mr.. Kapp's process. TAX.
ing Mr.. Kspp's ratio of natural in.
crease and applying it to the popu.
latiOn in 1870, he fnds that in the
first ten years we must have gained
by immigration at the rate Of co.
GOO a year, whereas it is known that
We did not receive one-tenth part OF
that number. The native white pop
uIation must, therefore, have increas-
ed much faster than the 38-1OO per
cent. per annum taken by Mr.. Kapp
as the basis Of his calculations. As
matter of fact, during the first
years of our existence as q nation,
it is certain that population doubled
itself from the excess Of births over
deaths about once every twent-five
years. Mr.. Kapp's percentage
would not double it In less than fifty.
Mr. De Bow, by a process invol7-
ing great labor but founded on cor
rect principles, fixes the number OF
foreigners and their descendants at
IL, ,112,66 of white Americans, des-
cended from residents in the coun-
try in 1870, at 1929, 1888. MIR.
De Bow, at the time he made his
calculation, could not have seen the
advance sheets of the population ta-
bles of the Ninth Census, in which
we find some figures which go far to
confirm the substantial correctness
of the results obtained by him.
Table No. 4 gives 10,S92,O15 as the
number of inhabitants having one OF
both parents of foreign birth, while
the number of foreign birth is but
5,556, ,546. Mr.. De Bows number is
doubtless about a million too small;
but that error is insignificant in
comparison with Mr.. Kapp's. Un-
fortunately the question is not one
which admits of solution by the
simpler processes of mathematics.
Nor have we the statistics of immi-
grafton for the earlier years of our
existence as q nation. It is certain
however, that the arrivals then from
foreign countries bore no proper
ton to their present magnitude.
Twenty years ago, by the census of
1850, the whcle foreign-born popu-
lation numbered 2, 2,244, ,6O2.
We may take twenty years as the
age at which marriages begin to be
productive. On this assumption
there can be no individuals of more
than fifty years of age, descended
from foreigners. living in this coun-
try in 1900, VINO are not included In
the census class of persons having
one or both parents of foreign birth.
Rry 4ba earn a v.aoaanfv,os A1,a-o a., -
none aged more than forty years
descended from foreigners living
here in 1910. AS we go dowa the
scale the age of those of foreign des-
cent, not included In the census
class, diminishes. and when we
reach 1850 it disappears altogether.
Suppose that in 1910 there were, by
q liberal estimate, 100000 residents
of foreign birth who had landed
since 1870. Their living dsscen-
dants of the second and third gem
erations would not fall in the census
class of those having one or both
parents foreign, but they themselves
and their children would be 30 in
cluded. Assuming ths 100000 TO
have increased to 10000 in 1870,
not more than 100000 of them
could possibly belong to the second
and third generations. From 1910
to 1880 the immigration certainly
did not exceed 100000. Assume
the 250, 900 to have increased IN for
ty years to 100000. Of these all
aged over 20 years-at least IS per
cent. of the whole-are included in
the census class of those having one
or both parents of foreign birth,
leaving Is per cent, or 250,000, to
be added to the 100000 obtained
above. Suppose ], 100000 foreign'
ers to represent the immigration
from 1880 to 1910, and TO have In
creased to 100000 In 1870. We
have TO add to our count only the
children under 10, say 10 per cent.
or 100000. The sum of these cor.
rections, so far, is 1,250,0O0. These
are but rough calculations, but they
show that the 10, ,892,O15 of persons
having one or both parents of for.
eign birth must include about nine
tenths of all the inhabitants of the
United States who are not descend
ed from those living on our soil al
the time the Constitution was adop-
ted.-M 7. Tribune.
A writer in a Berlin paper pub
fishes the following figures with re-
Il cpard Hr, the condition of EnrOra ~