The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-02-09
Financial Value of Immigration.

NO SUBJECT connected with our na-
tional growth has been more popular
with orators, statisticians, and news.
papers, than immigration and its
great value to the country. Every
one that you meet would be prepared
to maintain that it has been one o the
chief elements in the country's de-
velOpment; yet it is doubtful if one
person in hundred has any approx
mately accurate conception of what il
really has been worth to us. The
Hon. Frederick Knapp, than whom
there is no better authority on the
subject, observes In a recent report :
Without immigration the yearly in
crease Of population by excess of births
over deaths, is about 1.30, while the
actual increase from 1910 to 1860 was
35.8S, and from 1850 to 1850 1853 per
cent. and we must understand that
large proportion of the births are
those of the children Of former immi-
grants. Had immigration been stop
ped in 1925, there would have been
very little numeral change in the pop
ulation in 1856. immigration, there
fore, has pushed the country forward
forty years in national progress; and
the increase in all departments of ma
tional progress has been in exact ratio
to the increase of population We
may add that without immigration,
the vast area beyond the Alleghanies,
now occupied by prosperous common
wealths, and teemiDg with wealth,
woul 1 be as sparsely inhabited as Ne
braska and the territories are to-day,
and it is extremely improbable that
our western boundary would have
been pushed beyond the Mississippi.
1t is immigrants that are filling up
the Great West at the present mo-
ment, and rendering it possible to con-
struct the continental railroads
which are destined in time to give US
the commercial supremacy of the
world. Sid. .ct-, o..
AS to the strictly financial valu e
of immigration, all will concede that
an immigrant is worth precisely as
much to the country as it would cost
to produce native-born laborer of the
same average ability. 1t is computed
that an average American farmer or
skilled laborer costs about 81 500 be-
fore he becomes self-supporting ut
for various reasons not necessary to
recite here, Mr.. Knapp estimates the
value of each immigrant at 81, ,225.
Now there came into the country
during the last year (1S70) according
to official returns, $50, 27S immigrants
who, at the averagerate named above,
added the enormous sum of S316, 312,-
$50 to the aggregate wealth of the ma
ton. This was for one year only, it
is to be recoiiected, and for a year
which fell much below the average.
The total number of immigrants who
have come into the country since the
formation Of the government have
been a little over 10,OcO, 200. Mr..
Young, of the Bureau of Statistics at
Washington, differs little from Mr..
Knapp-fxing the average value OF
an immigrant at $500; but even at the
latter figures the total of value reach
es the stupenduous sum of S6,243,
O92, 900. 80
Still another fact remains to be con-
sidered before you can arrive at a con-
ception of what our immigration is
really worth to US. The above figures,
startling as they are, only indicate the
value of the immigrants brain and
muscle in the way of future produc-
tivene.s. But careful records have
been kept, and these show that each
immigrant bridns with him about $50
in cash, with yearly immigration of
100000, amounts to SIS, ,00O, 900 an
nually. The Germans alone bring
into the country $11 100000 on an
average every year.
With such source of wealth-in-
fnitely more valuable than all the
gold and silver mines and petroleum
wells in the land-it is..no wonder that
the United States progress with the
enormous strides that have character
lied their past history, Blu. when we
look upon man like Carl Schurz,
and recollect that the ancestors OF
most of our leading men came over
but short time ago, who will deny
that the financial is f.ut fractional
part of the real value of immigration?
-Western World.