The Savannah morning news., 1902-05-25
IMMIGRATION RECORDS.
,.RGEsT DAY MAY 3, 1902, LARG-
EST MONTH APRIL, 1902.

,,euians Have Almost Ceased
ming, but Creeks and Assyrians
80 Finding Their Way Here in
creater Numbers Than Ever Be-
.ore-Three and a Third Times as
Many FinInndcrs as Formerly Are
,1so Coming to the Shores of the
Republic.
New York, May 2S.-Unless there
sbould be an unexpected and highly
.o,nrobable slump all immigration re-
Ids are bound to be broken this year.
roth the daily and monthly records
have been broken already. as a matter
Of fact. so that only the years record
stands.
The monthly record was broken in
Anril. when 1861 foreigners (steerage
passengers, not citizens) passed
+brough the nations gate on the bit of
land termed Ellis Island in the harbor
Of New York. The daily record was
broken on Saturday, May 8, when 6,21S
men women and children from almost
every country in Europe, as well as
q few from Asia and Africa, stepped
Foot on American soil for the first time
The burning of the records few years
ago with the flimsy wooden buildings in
which the United States first received
immigrants on Ellis Island, precludes
accurate comparison with earlier flg-
,lres but it is distinctly remembered
nv the inspectors that never before was
there such a hustling there and never
-ol IN, ana daU G
the first Saturday in May, 1902. The
heaviest month previous to April of
his year since the government has had
charge of the New York immigration
station, was exactly ten years earlier
in April. 1892, when the number coming
in was $4,000 On the first nine days
of this month 24,O96 were landed, or at
the rate of more than $4,000 for the
month.
Some notion of the great increase
+his wear thus far, over recent years,
may be gained from the following fig
ures In 1897 the total for the year was
49,. 400: in 1898, 200,9O2; in 1898, 27S,S46;
in 1900, 967 440; in 1901, 40S,226.
After 1892, when times in America
were reported hard in Europe, immi-
grafton fell off signally, to increase
from 1897 to the present, slowly at first,
but steadily, and more recently by
leaps and bounds. The poor and dis
outraged in Europe, those for whom
there is no place and no comfort at
home have heard of Uncle Sans pros
perity and are now fastening to these
shores as fast as they can raise the
money to come and steam can bring
them hither.
The present high tide of immigration
is sure to keep up, too, as long as the
oountry's prosperity is the wonder OF
the whole earth. There is common
belief that immigration figures reach
the maximum in ten-year periods, but
this is not so-the tide is governed al
mostly wholly by the rise and fall of
our material prosperity. The pros
perity of Europe may be supposed to
have something to do with it, and,
perhaps in a measure 1t has, but less
than you would imagine, for though
Germany is anything but prosperous,
now, industrially, the immigration or
Germans to the United States at this
time is small, whereas it used to be
enormous.
In fact there has been great change
in the character OF the foreigners who
come here in search of fortune. In
place of the hearty Irishman who de-
Velops better under the Stars and
Stripes than anywhere else on earth,
the sturdy German. who has made
himself an important factor in Amer
lean life and the fair-haired Scandina-
Wan, hard working, frugal, and
genuine acquisition we have now an
excess of Poles and Slovaks from Aus
tria and Russia, and Italians.
The first two of these may be placed
in one class as against the Italians
last year there were $4,000 of the for
mer and $4,000 of the latter. The total
immigration this year to date has been
al
grand total of last year. 1t is hardly
necessary to say that there is no COM
parison between the German and Irish
immigrant of other years and the Pol
ish Slovak and Italian immigrants of
the present. In physical appearance
and vigor the men and women from
Northern Europe outmatch the others
almost two to one. AS material from
which American citizens are made the
disparity is still greater. Nearly all the
German and IriSh came here to stay;
nearly all the Poles, Slovaks and Ital-
ians come here to remain only till they
can get enough money together to go
back and live on the proceeds of their
savings or the produce of the little
farms these savings will buy
Of late years, indeed, immigrants
of these classes-the Italians more par
ticularly-go back home winters and
spend the earnings of the summers,
thus draining the country annually of
dollars by the millions, instead of adj
ding to the national wealth as did the
earlier newcomers from Germany and
the Emerald Isle.
1t is not too much to say that thous-
ands of what those who amass them
term fortunes are got together in this
country every year by European labor
ers to be spent in the old world.
The average Pole, Slovak or italian
VIII save from 5000 to $3.50 in a year,
and in five years will have got to-
gether say, two thousand good Ameri-
can dollars. Everything considered
purchasing power, etc.-this money is
worth two and one half times as much
az nome to the Pole or Slovak, and five
umes as much to the Italian as it
would be here, so that there is small
wonder that both Poles, Slovaks and
Italians, besides those of many other
nationalities, prefer to spend their saw
ings on their native soil, where they
can make the most of them.
That Ireland is more prosperous than
IN former years is given as the reason
Ior the decreased Irish Immigration
any way the good old days when a
shlp-load of deep-chest ted. rosy Iassies
from the green island was no novelty
at the immigration station, have pass
e. and, apparently, forever. Irish wo-
men are going home to stay, by the
thousands nowadays, as the public
pIIhts announce every once in a. while;
POSSIBLY more are leaving America
man are coming, but there is no way
Vl determining this. No records are
m rraf