New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-12-15
mr. FOREIGN CONTINGENT

Abnuf a third ~ The cnilr" population "'
the United States is ~ foreign phr"niag'
Thus badly stated. The fact may strike
.,m. urrs,ns ~ dangerous Bu the pro
r.rtinn hls increased very little within
,h. Lst twenty years. II WAS $50 per cent
g., $50 and although the actual immigration
duriur these twenty years has numbered son
7ys the proportion has only advanced To ''b"-
r,r c.ut Moreover This includes not only ihr
lm,uirr1uts themselves whether young ar old
hut all their children born In this country. ana
thcs. alone number over II .5Oo.W~. So that the
nor.nu. of foreign birth number only 14i per
cent II the cntir. population. or about ono
s.v.uih # T. rather noteworthy that The
whole. number Of forcignb born persons living
in mi, country IS only million greater than
IN. number which arrived within the twenty
wears prcrr,iing the census Of 1880. or the
foreign born Inhabitants. too. considerable"
ucrccutnc, must l." IS children born abroad. WI"
came hi,hcr with the enormous immigration Of
the last decade.
Nevertheless. the farcst test " the proportion
of foreign blood is The percentage OF persons
~ f,rcicn parrntagr to the total population
which has increased ~, In the two decades
Of largest Immigration. Bu, the figures brcom"
somewhat less impressive when it * considered
how this addition from abroad is divided. The
persons of foreign parentage who are of Eng
lIsh speech. and have either come hiiher from
portions Of Great Britain or are the children of
persons from Great Britain. constitute nearly
a seventh Of the whole population l33 per
cent. inrluding the English Canadian coniin-
gent The Irish and their children are I.S5 per
cent of the entire population: from England
| proper came 800 per cent from Scotland .oj
Der cent. and from Wales 30 per cent. while
10 per cent came from Canada. Thus 4l.6
out of every loo persons of foreign birth or
parcntagc are from Great Britain, AMI In kin
shin Of blood and in speech are Of the same
great family by which the land was first occu-
pied and then made independent. But there is
also a fraction Of mixed foreign parentage. not
credited 10 either foreign country, which con
stitutcs IA per cent Of the whole population.
! and q fair share Of this must also he British on
one side or the other Thus something more
than If per cent Of the population must he
credited 10 parcnagc immigration from
Great Britain. against less than 10 per. cent
from all other parts of the world
Next In importance, the German blood closely
approaches onc-ninth Of the population, the per
ceniagc being 1924 about third OF the whoie
foreign contingent. The fact will not be over
looked that in broad sense the English an"
! German races are nearly allied. rs IN ms co'ii-
trv they have been ever since the R'volh'ioh'
The Tcutonic and the Anglo Saxon. Including
the Irish thus form 2l5I per cent of the entire
population almost II quarter leaving - per
cent for all other white Immigrants ana thrr
children Just here the relative insgnlnc'ince
Of certain strains of immigration which nave
been largely discussed Of late comes into view.
In few great centres are found crowds OF
Italians. Hungarians. Russians. Bohemians or
| Chinese but men apt to forget that all OF
these together make up only an insignificant