The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-06-07
Loss of Native
Stock Worries
New England
r Tally Is uneasy because Of emigra-
ton from the peninsula. New
4 England. with greater cause for


uneaslness on that score believes
that her peril lies rather in immlGra-
ton.
There are perhaps 100000 Italians
living permanently in the two Americas
approximately per cent. Of the home
population. New England, with less
than one-fifth the population of 1taiy,
has nearly 100000 Of her native sons
and daughters living elsewhere in the
United States and with New England
emigration has not been matter of
forty years. as with Italy, but of con-
siderably more than one hundred and
forty.
On a trlfe under $4,000 square miles
New England has a population of "a
little over 6.500,000. ON about 10000
square miles Italy has a population of
about 35,000,000. With an average Of
nearly 3ii inhabitants to the square
mile Italy Is troubled because so many
Of her people are emigrating New
England, with an average of something
under log inhabitants to the square
mile. Is disturbed because so many
Italians and other Europeans are COM
ing to her shores.
New England believes that her dan
are good many impressive facts To
prove that New England has suffered
more from emigration of the old native
stock than from the immigration of non
assimlable aliens, and her loss OF ma
tive stock since the middle OF the egh-
teenth century has been far greater in
proportion to population than Italys.
When immigration began to be con-
siderable in New England emigration
also began to attract attention in Italy,
though Italians were not then coming in
considerable numbers to this country.
For q century before. however, New
England had been suffering from the
drain Of emigration.
Between 1916 and 1910 Italy grew In
population from nearly 1S.5OO,OOO to
about 100000 900. In the same time
New England grew from about 100000
to rather more than 100000. For all
OF that time. as for half q century be-
fore the earlier date. New England
was subject 10 drain from emigration.
New England was peopling the middle
West, the great cities of the Atlantic
slope especially New York, and the far
Northwest.
For the first fifty years OF this drain
from emigration the loss was made up
By the natural increase of population;
than compensated by interstate and for
eign immigration. Up to 1850 New
England was peopled mainly by persons
Of pure British descent. most Of them
with an American ancestry dating back
from 100 to 225 years. a generation
later every New England State had
from 10 to 80 per cent. of foreigners.
To-day nearly IS per cent. of New Eng
lands population is foreign born.
Nobody knows what New England has
lost by interstate emigration since 1880
and no estimate Of the loss can he
trusted. II is only known that New
Englanders began peopling the West as
early as the middle of the eighteenth
century. Just as the New Englanders
of the older colonies began peopling
Maine and the other northern parts of
New England even earlier, Some Of the
early New England emigrants stopped
in central and western New York, but
the stream soon began pouring into Ohio
and Illinois and later into Michigan,
Wisconsin, iowa and Minnesota. In
diana, where there was strong South
ern element. proved less attractive to
New Englanders than some other parts
OF the middle West
During the time shortly before the
civil war New Englanders poured into
Kansas and Nebraska. later into other
trans Mississippi regions. and even yet
they are finding their way to Oregon
and Washington. New Englanders
have not been strongly attracted to the
Rocky Mountain States and the South,
but there are about $500 natives Of
New England in Texas and every South
ern State has its Yankees.
After every panic-that of 1887. that
Of 1857 and that of 1s73-there was a
IL.
lands OF the middle West of the
mississippi region and of the
Pacific coast Later, when large In
dian reservations were opened to
settlers or land grant railways offered
lands cheap. New England and the
middle West responded to the call
for men and women. More re-
Gently New England has been send
ing many Of her college bred young
men and even some of her college bred
young women to the far Northwest and
to parts of the Rocky Mountain States.
while New York city has for years
steadily drawn upon all the New Eng,
land States for young men equipped
with education or expert skill or knowl .
edge. New England's loss by the mill
tary exodus OF the civil war was another
serious drain upon the old native stock
Although rural New England has lost
by emigration some of its most energetic
citizens the whole region east of the
Hudson River is still restless and on
the move. Between 1900 and 1910 Maine
lost s per cent. of her native population
by interstate migration. New Hampshire
nearly rs per cent. Vermont over L,
per cent. Massachusetts nearly 10 per
cent, Rhode Island over 20 per cent. and
Connecticut over 22 per cent. Much of
this was mere interchange among the
several New England States. and there
was some gain to each from native
immigrants coming in from other parts
Of the Union. but the net loss was con-
siderable. so that In 1910 there were
nearly $4,000 New Englanders living
in other parts of the Union.
The outgoing stream also has been
made up largely Of the young and
vigorous while many of those who come
In are middle aged folk or older, who
yield to the homing instinct and return
to the land of their birth or OF their an
cestors. Such immigrants are not the