The Washington herald., 1907-06-23
By DEXTER MARSHALL.

than any one else on earth. But that tim,
has passed. The American of to-day is
great vacationer. The American. Of to
morrow may be the greatest vacatouel
alive His vacation tendencies are grow
ing rapidly
As 20 this there cannot be two opinions
Manager Young. who has charge. in New
York. of the oldest tourist agency in exist
ence says the growth Of the American
vacation has been much faster than the
increase Of population Summer vacation
travel, as he observes II, is at least 100 per
cent greater than il was ten years ago
The population of the country in 1921 was
estimated at 100000; the estimated popu-
lation in 1867 is 9iooo000a gain Of 22,Ooo,-
Coo, or a shade less than 3 per cent II
the managers estimate is correct the
vacation habit has grown more than three
times as rapidly as the population. He
thinks that the tendency toward longer
and more expensive vacations has by no
means begun TO wane, that this year will
be the banner holiday year 20 date.
Accurate Statistics UnobtainabIe.
40 one in a position to know disagrees
with Manager Young. but accurate figures
are not to De had The railroad officials
who might DE supposed % have such fig
ures in their possession, can only say that
general travel has increased enormously
in the decade, but they have no way OF
knowing just how much OF that increase
is in pursuit of holiday pleasures and how
much in pursuit Of business
Rather more definite figures can he got
together with reference 90 foreign vaca-
lions taken by Americans yearly. since
the records Of transatlantic travel are
kept systematically and readily acces-
sible for all the years since 1893. except
1Na6 and 1881
Tn 1925. ll2.N3 cabin passengers went
abroad, in 1906. Z1f.659. an increase Of a lit
tla more than 30 per cent In 1895 cabin
foreign travel dropped TO 9L55i. compared
with those figures las, year showed an
increase Of IL per cent. Il is safe 90 say
that the figures of this year would show
an increase of more than 100 per cent over
those of 1897. were the latter available Al
though IL IS vet too early to gather totals
for 1907. IL is predicted that they viii
record the greatest exodus of Americans
IN the history of transatlantic travel
An Enormous Increase.
BY the middle of May the increase was
II per cent over the May figures of last
year. cabin passengers only being CON
sidered. That would mean an increase Of
llJ per cent in ten years. The increase
over last year in all foreign travel from
American ports-steerage included-had
been a per cent i'm May. If continued
through the year this would mean an in
crease Of 14o per cent every decade.
il would hardly be fair % accept this as
the rate of increase IN foreign pleasure
travel however, since q considerable
number of those who go abroad third
class from American ports every year are
returning ro the old country TO remain
permanently. Still. the 100 per cent in /
crease in ten wears of vacation travel !
abroad jus, about holds good with refer
ence TO the stcerage. az well rs the cabin
There is hardly boat crossing the ocean
this year that does not carry a c0npara-
lively large number Of real third-clasz
tourist passengers and women who
have no idea of abandoning their homes
in the new land Of hustle and get there.
but who have done so well here that they
can afford the luxury of a summer vaca-
tion trip TO the old hcme land and are
taking il.
Five Hundred I'm One Party.
a certain transatlantic liner sailed only /
n few days ago with 500 Scandinavian 1
steerage passengers. all in one party 7
They expect to remain residents and citi- |
zans of the United States as long as they
live. and every one OF them had q return /
ticket. They are as properly considered /
American tourists as if they were native .
instead Of naturaIized, and Travelled first
class instead cf third.
The total of the cabin passenger lists on /
outgoing ships last year was 2I4G69 II /
there is an increase Of 10 per cent this
year the total for 1907 will be more than
17.ee Steerage passage was taken for 4
Europe from American ports last year hv
-s2otS persons. making 4qG 737 by all three
classes. Should the increase reach 70 per
cent fer the year the total will he more
than 10000 European travellers by steer
age alone These and the cabin passen-
gers viii make nearly 5000 more than
half a Million but this cannot possibly
mean that SO many Americans by birth
and adoption take a yearly foreign hol-
day.
4 Total of 100000.
Besides the eastward-bound steerage
passengers who are going back TO stay,
some tens OF thousands Of the cabin pas
sengers are returning foreign visitors.
while an uncomputed number are Ame-i-
cans who go over yearly on business
Cut out all these latter. Of whom p sur
prisingly large number are commercial
travellers, all the immigrants who go 10
remain. and all the returning foreign
visitors, and the total number Of holiday
American tourists. properly so called. Of
every grade in Europe, yearly. is proba-
bly, about $4,000
It is rather a striking fact that the east
ard-bound foreign holiday travel Of
Americans is more than enough everv
year 20 populate a city like Hongkong or
Teheran. Bucharest or Montavideo. Ha-
vaHa or NUrambUrg. IL is rather striking
also that while the growth Of American
foreign travel has increased more than 100 ,
per cent I'm the decade. the increase IN the
yearly number Of visitors here from
abroad on business and pleasure since
1S9S has been more than 200 per cent The
official figures show that in 1898 only p. .O63
'non-emmigrant aliens" arrived in this ,
country. In 1906 the total Of such arrivals
was G5,GlS
Vacations Cost Many Millions.
All sorts Of figures have been made. on
all sorts Of bases, as to the amounts spent
abroad yearly by American foreign tour /
lists. and some of the igure-making ge- ]
muses. almost have come 70 blows over I
the different results obtained As a matter '
OF fact no one can make such an esti- :
mate with any degree Of reliability. but ii q
amounts 90 many millions, Of course. At 9
$500 each-frst-Class tourists are supposed Y
10 average S7e'. and second-class $500 S
apieCe-5oo0o tourists would spend SlJ0-
ipoN An authority quite as likely 10
guess right as wrong makes a much
larger estimate. figuring il out that tour
lists from this country spend about $3.50, /
Ef eco more abroad yearly .han is brought [ &