The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-06-11
FIFTY YEARS OF RACIAL UpL1Fr.


Quite the interesting of the numerous vol
umes that contain the results the eleventh census
and equally valuable with any, is the Statistical Atlas
which completes the set Mr. Wright has put to use
his favofite method Of presenting the results CT
confusing tables of figures by diagrams enabling ons
TO visualize the general situation condition instead
of forming his own mental picture out of the dry
columns of figures. Especially valuable are the dia-
sFtns showing the proportion percentage of each
racial constituent of etr population in each of the
1hirtytw industries in which the bulk Of persons
are engaged. Had the census of 1850 been taken ST.
that these data could be presented the same man.
ner one would have presented to him at glance
what has been the most remarkable feature Of the
half century, the development of of differing
races under the influence of freedom of opportunity
Afforded by this country. Nowhere else on the globe
could the same spectacle be seen because nowhere
else have the different peoples of the Old world SO
generally contributed to the mixture of population
The memories of men of industrial conditions hale
century ago will have to supplement the lack Of
statistical data in making a comparison between
racial occupations then and now. Immigration fifty
years ago almost entirely limited to Germans
lFsh Scotch and ScandinaEians. Then the Irish
We're DONG the ubberhfting, grading railways dig
gng canals carrying the hod while Bridget ruled the
Kitchens. Germans and Norsemen went to the land
and grubbed farms out of the forests The natives
were operatives in cotton mills machinsts and car
penters In the second generation the Irish were ON
the FARMS III the Shops in trade while Bridget aban-
doned to fnga Gretchen the kitchen for and took
to the school the store. The Czech or slav took
Pats place. until they, too felt the expanding In
huence of freedom Of opportunity and went the
farms and into the shops. =
By 1880 the French Canadian had expelled the
native white from the cotton mills of New England
z per cent of their number being thus occupied the
natives going up into the professions and OCCUPATIONS
requiring brain rather than Drawn. The italian and
the Hun had displaced the Czech and Slav in the
class of unspeced aborers the former contributing
third and the latter 30 per of their entire num-
Der to that division. Fifteen per cent of the Rus
slams ors tailoresses and 80 per cent of the
negroes are farm or inspected laborers This rise
OF our foreign born out of the ranks of unskilled
labor into the vacations calling for brain well as
muscle Is clearly shown on the diagram where the
proportions OF native natveborn of foreign parents
and foreign-born displayed in eolors Here the
proportion of the children of foreign parentage to the
native white in most of the vacations classified IS
nearly equal.
Thus we presented with panorama in which
successive mgrations of people from foreign shores
come into this land Of freedom from Old world re-
strants and repressions where their abilities finG
free play for development and by and through this
development gradually rise out Of mental vocations
Into those requiring intelligence skill to be sue
ceeded by migrants of other races who begin at the
same low level and undergo the same upft And
this Is the more striking because with hardly an ex
ception, only those to us for whom conditions
were hard in their foreign homes compelling them
there to remain for life in the vocatons to which they
first turned their hand here Our pioneer life here
offered no attractions for those who were we'll con-
dltoned and but few of Them until in recent wears
transferred themselves and their fortunes to mingle
WITH ours II the United States had performed for
humanity no other service than this opportunity to
demonstrate what men become when repression
IS removed, they would have amply justified their ex
istence.