The St. Johns herald., 1892-07-14
What the American Race VIII Be.

Oudl dCISI LII lIl6 1lllIulS SIdllOIl LO IUIS
 country. For awhile We were threat
 ened with an Italian deluge. When
 the collapse in the Argentine Repub-
 lie andUruguay turned the floodtide
 of Southern Europe in this direction
 the American ports were overrun
 with the brown races of Sicily and
 the Italian peninsula, and some of
 the prophets began to predict that
 the American people would be Lat
 inized. But the Italian immigra-
 tion is already decreasing. The re-
 port of the Bureau of Statistics
 shows that the number of Italians
 arriving in this country during the
 nine months ending with March
 was 30,194, while during the cores
 bonding period of the year preced- ing it was 38,025, and still greater for the year before that. The feature of the movement from Europe is theenormous growth of the Russian immigration. This is due to two causes, the increasing discontent throughout the empire and the Jewish persecution, the latter in particular being effective. As source of human supply Russia now ranks nextto Germany. During the last nine months we received from that country 62,219 immi- grants, which was more than dou- ble the number for the equivalent period preceding. A few years ago the immigration from Russia was so small that it was not worth men, tioning.
 But there is one country from which the human stream is not sub- ject to spasmodie increases or de- creases. On the contrary, 1t flows steadily on with a gradually swell ing volume, and the characteristics of that land, next to those of parent England, will always have the greatest influence upon the United States. The German nation has long furnished us more immigrants than any other, and even the great Russian spurt has not been able to pass it. The German movement, which began a half century ago, has been throughout that time un- checked, and is now larger than ever before. During nine months the total of arrivals from the Ger man Empire was 76,128, and of the Germans from Austria 20,497, this being an increase of about r per cent in one year.
 The immigration from England, Scotland and Wales does not change much from year to year, but re- mains close to 60,0O0 annually. While in certain years Russia, Italy and other countries may go ahead, yet the Island of Great Britain re- mains, next to Germany, our chief source of human supply. Contrary to the general belief, the immi- grants from Great Britain are much more numerous than those from Ireland. There have been periods when there was ar enormous influx from Ireland, but for many years it has averaged not more than than 30,000 annually. Obviously the blood-and a vigor- ous red blood it isis destined to 1 figure conspicuously in the compo- sition of the American of the future 1 The arrivals from Sweden, Norway and Denmark are next in import ance to those from Great Britain and Germany, and exceed by one fourth those from Ireland. The Bohemian and Hungarian immi- grafton IS still large, but is increas- ing very little, while that from Po- land has augmented considerably. l On the whole, after examining the figures for many years, there is no reason to change the opinion of earlier investigators that the Amer ican race will be essentially com position of the Teutonic peoples of Northern and Central Europe. It will be Anglo-German, with Celtic