The Bridgeport evening farmer. [volume] (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1866-1917, 1909-03-18

mark being reached in 1882, there be-
ing $4,000 arrivals during that year.
The Italiant did not come until COM
paratively recent date. In 1876 the
Italian immigration amounted only to
10000. In 1888 this had grown to 20o.-
900. and in 1907 it had risen to the
enormous total of SOC. 600 for a single
year. Accompanying the Italians came
the Slavonians. Hungarians and Jews
IN astonishing numbers. Some idea or
the enormous increase in immigration
may be had when 1 state that since
1900 one fourth of the entire immigra-
ton. or six million people. have landed
on our shores.
Excluding the negroes. our foreign
born population including the hrst
generation of children constitutes at
present forty-six per cent. of the en-
tire population of the country. If we
include the second generation. VIII CHI
is often as racially undefiled as the
first. the percentage would be very
greatly increased. Considered by states
or cities the proportion of fore gn-b Urn
residents including on'y the first gem
Grafton is quite astonishing.
In Boston this proportion is seventy
per cent; in New York city eighty per
cent, while Milwaukee is the highest
with eighty-six per cent. Were the
proportion to be computed in our cos-
mopolitan city of Bridgeport, am
sure it would reach seventy or seven
ty-five rer cent. I looked in on a
Republican meeting about a year ago
in the Tenth district on the East Side
and found that about eighty per cent
of the persons in attendance could
hardly talk the English language
Ninety per cent. of the tai orS in
New York are Jews and these almost
wholly Russian and Polish. IN Massa-
chusetts. out of 90 900 employees in the
cotton business only four per cent. are
native born Americans and near'y al
Of these four per cent. are Irish des-
cent two generations back All of our
6Qv labor Irish iS Italian.
and our mines once worked by the
Irish and the Scotch are nowS tend d
by immigrants of other nationaIities.
There are nearly as many native born
Irish of the city of Boston as in Dub
lin itself. the apital of Ireland. With
their children they make Boston I'M
questionably the leading Irish city in
the world. New York with it's hat
million italians. has a larger Italian
population than Rome. the Eternal
City, itself. New York too. will a.
most q million Jews is the foremo>s q
Jewish city in the world.
We need not fear a too rapid ANAL
gamation Of races since there is a
race instinct which will properly
regulate the process In the amalgama-
ton Of races and the creation of the
resultant American type tho Iri-h and
this time the Irish women are destined
TO be an Important factor. Here let
me quote the exact language of the
celebrated Prof. Ripley. who has given
I'm New England where Germans
are scarce and where Irish abound it
is usually the German man who mar
ries into an Irish family. The same
thing seems to be true even in New
York where the German colony is very
large. When intermarriage between
the two peoples occurs. six times out
of seven it is the Irish woman who
bears the children. In this connection
the important role in ethnic intermix-
ture played by the Irish woman de-
serves mention One reason is surely
their relative abundance. But a second
reason, also. is the superior adarta-
bility and spirit of comradeship Of the
Irish woman. The Irish everywhere
ere good MIXERS Thus endowed, with
her democratic spirit and lack Of no.
ton of the caste. The Irish or Irish
American woman bids far to be a
potent physical mediator between the
other peoples of the EARTH" This GER
tainly is a high tribute from an UNI
prejudiced and scientific source. and
runs counter to the gratu.tous advice
of DIR. Eliot.
The ascendancy or numerical strength
of men of Irish birth or descent BODIES
no i'll to the stars and stripes and the
irish yield to none in devotion to the
principles on which our glorious ma
ton is founded.
So tonight our city falls in line in
the proper observance of this historic
day Our progressive city of Bridge
port destined in the near future to be
but also of western New England;
with no small Cart of it's growth at
tributat1e to the energy and enter
prise of it's large Irish population,
which enters so largely into it's relig-
ious. business and social life