The New York herald. [volume] (New York, N.Y.) 1920-1924, 1920-10-24
Skilled Labor Arriv-
ing and Larger
Amounts of Money
Are Being Brought,
Showing Alien Influx
Is Better Than in
Other Years
BY JOHN WALKER HARRINGTON.

FORE to the future of these United
MI States than has ever been conveyed
l. before in immigration may be seen
these days in the new human tide which
eddies past Ellis Island.
With the stoppage of the alien flood which
came with the great World War, the peoples
of the lands beyond the sea have undergone
many changes which have affected the char
acter and the nature of the material now be-
ing added to the body polite. The greater
number of children, the addition of more
women immigrants the improved status OF
all, the larger purses which the arrivals
bring are all indications of the essentially
different components of what in the opinion
of experts seems destined to be the largest
influx of immigration this country has ever
known.
In these days when more stress than ever
is put on Americanization the increased vol
ume of immigration gives pause to the
economist and the publicist. The high
points in immigration, in all periods of our
national history, came after some political
upheaval and were 1t not for such disturbed
conditions in other lands, there would be
far less increase than is marked along the
curves of the chart of progress.
From I776 to 1920, when no exact records
of the arrival of aliens was kept, 1t is esti-
mated that from various sources the number
century fully thirty millions of the foreign
born have come to us. The troubles in Ger
many in 1S4S brought many thousands who
were In quest of liberty of heart and con-
science: the Irish famine brought another
tide, shortly after the Fenian troubles in
Ireland following our Civil War. The dis
turbances in Italy when that land was
struggling for unity brought still others;
the Russian persecution of the Jews added
another increment which in 1907, when
12S5,349 immigrants were admitted in a
fiscal year, gave the highest peak OF the
wave of new peoples which has ever been
reached
immigration was at high mark In 1910,
when the new arrivals numbered ,041,570;
il receded to a little more than 100000 an
nually in the two succeeding years and
rose above the million line again in 1913,
and in the fiscal year ending with July 30,
1914 IL almost touched the record Of 1907.
for even then many were fleeing from the
approaching storm. With the blockading
of ports and the withdrawal of passenger
ships from the seas there was quick drop
to 326,700 in the fiscal year closing in the
middle of 1915. With the entrance of the
United States into the world conflict, in
April of 1917, the official year closed with
a tally Of 295,403. The score fell to 110,61S
in 1918, rose to 141 1872 the next year and
not until the middle of 1919 did II begin
the up grade. The number of immigrants
which came to this country. in the absence
Of an official checking Of the figures, may
be placed conservatively at $4,000. Since
January /, 1920, there have been welcomed
to these shores up TO the last day of June,
100000 aliens II il estimated that the cal
endar year of 1920 will have seen the com
ing of more than a million immigrants be-
fore the last leaf has been discarded.
Strange S'-hts at Ellis Island.
When this country was at war with Ger
many Ellis Island was to all purposes de-
serted, and two or three hundred immi-
grants there day was regarded as a throng.
A few days ago "A trio OF vessels within
twenty-four hours brought 2.14O. and there
were at the time detained for examlnati
2 900 more. The old postwar conditions.
are being restored and the echoes
of the new tide are already heard. The fis-
cal year OF 1921 is likely to double this one
for it is said that from two to three million
Italians alone are ready to come here and
that 300, 900 Poles have applied for pass
ports. Undoubtedly. many Germans will get
away from their disturbed country If they
can and there are reports of an overwhem-
ing influx from that direction. The ques-
ton Of assimilating the peoples from other
lands is therefore an imminent one which
will try the powers Of the nation.
That the problem may be little less diff
flcult TO solve. despite It's magnitude, is in
icated by the fact that so many of the
Younger generation are now on the mani
tests OF the incoming vessels. The death
" so many fathers In tho war has caused
hundreds OF thousands OF families on the