The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1872-07-16
Europeanizing tho United state.

EurOpeanizing tho United states.
(From the Providence Journal) y
The census returns are not, ordinarily,
considered either very interesting or very
luminous reading. And yet there are
some things made absolutely certain by
their perusal, which otherwise VIC get at
in only general, indefinite, inconcIusive
way. AS matter OF actual observation
We know that here in New. England the
population Is wholly different in nativity,
in spirit and in morale from what it was
only quarter Of a century ago. But
from this limited field we should not be
entitled to judge Of the whole country.
Ours has become manufacturing section,
but thewhole west and south are as vet
substantially agricultural. The popula.
ton OF our cities and larger towns in
which immigrants are for SO great part
inclined 10 remain, is not the population
in point Of quality, any more than it is in
numbers, Of the era Of sailing vessels, and
the days Of stage coaches. Seeing this,
we ask what Of the whole country How
are we, and what are We, in comparison
with the people Of the time of the lorna.
ton Of our government and their imme.
date descendantsY We know that In
New England farms are not worth as much
as they were forty years ago, and that
cotton and wooden mills fill our valleys,
create villages, build up cities and draw
the population from the farms into the
towns. Has IN equal change been
wrought throughout the land ? In one
sense, most assuredly The great west,
which forty years ago, was, as we now
speak Of tho west, an unknown wilder
ness or desert is now filled with an i'm.
mense population, and enormous as is our
territory, there looms into prospect the
day when what is known as cheap land
will be fact Of the past.
Our government is not vet an hundred
years old, and one.half our population is
foreign born, or born Of foreign parentage.
The Puritan and the Cavalier are no
longer to be recognized in their descend
ants. The population OF the United States
is, in round numbers, IS, 100000, including
Of negroes and Indians, say, 5000 900,
leaving 9S,5O00O0 Of the white population.
OF these there are:
Foreign porn ,:..,,...,............. 100000
6otn pAtsntes lorelgh. 100000
&. e - 100000
Or one.half Of foreign blood, as disdn.
guishcd from the original blood Of the
colonial days,
This foreign blood Is made up as follows:
OF Irish extraction. .........,,., ts per cent,
0i German extraction. ......... IS per cent.
" African extraction, :. .... .l2 per cent.
o. recent British extraction. ~. per cent.
OF French, SpHniards aud others. per cent.
Original British stock. ......... &c pSr cent
u .,...l topper cent.
There is another element In tho prob.
lem. In New England and the older
Middle States the native population is
not so prolific as the new immirrants,
The ratio of increase therefore, OF ioreirn
blood, outside OF immigration. ia con.
stantly increasing. That all this change
can have taken place without affecting
the quality of the American character Is
not to be supposed. In fact we know that
where, as in TOWNSHIP foreign element ia
largest, there Is the most marked con.
trast with tho early life OF our farmers and
rural villagers, One consideration domi.
mates the question. With our undevel.
opedresources, our illlmitable demand for
labor, our capacity 10 feed untold millions,
our position between the Eastand Europe,
we need, we call, and we shall receive
millions Of men and women just as fast