The Alaska daily empire. [volume] (Juneau, Alaska) 1912-1926, 1922-11-08


sequences for the future, the National Bank
pmerce in New York believes.
The foundations of this republic were
laid by northwestern Europeans" the bank
says in its magazine, Commerce Monthly, for
November. They have constituted the pre-
pcnderance of immigration taken
whole and, up to the last part of the nine
tocnth century, the major portion of the
yearly influx. In 1870 of the total popula-
laton, IA per cent. were foreign born.
The majority Of these northwestern
Europeans, who composed 1915 per cent. Of
the total population. Southern and eastern
Europeans were unimportant in numbers.
This relationship has not persisted with the
passing decades. In 1910 the per cent. of
total population which was foreign born
about the same in 1870, but north
woctern Europeans constituted only half of
the foreign bern II for a few more decades
the sources of immigration should remain
the same as in the prewar years, this rapid
change in the proportion would continue.
In some of the older communities it
has been found that after two or three gen
erations in America stock does little more
than reproduce itself. Among the foreign
born, birth rates are much higher If this
divergence should persist, the texture of
population would be changed in few gem
erations. America now maintains the high
CT standard of living of any great country.
Accompanying and as part of high stand
ard Of living is low birth rate and low
death rate The countries from which a
large part of present immigration comes
nave high birth rates and high death rates.
1t is in those countries III which income
levels are the lowest that the greatest pres
sure fer emigration exists.
Important though it looms in the his
tory of the past, immigration is even more
important vital problem of the future.
In the post-armistice period millions of Euro
peans were making their plans to emigrate
II America. The war-interrupted tide of i'm
migration began to flow again with prewar
yigor threatening indeed unprecedented
volume But the country was demanding
that immigrants be restricted to number,
SO the 3 per cent Limitation law passed
erecting temporary barrier However the
national immig grafton policy is still in the
making. Its present expression in legislation
is the work OF many decades. During this
time important changes have taken place in
-:he character of immigration itself; tremend-
nus Increases have occurred in population.
In the past sixty years density has in
. creased three-fold, from 106 to 355 per
square mile. Free lands are now a thing OF
the past, and more and more must cvliza-
tion be on an intensive basis.
Because of the vast natural resources at
hand for exploitation, increasing well-beng
long accompanied the rapid growth in popu-
lation. Currently accepted figures for per
capita income and wealth in terms of pur-
chasing power show a startling growth since
the middle OF the last century. The increase
was more rapid in the first decades of the
half century There is noticeable show
down OF late. OF course. sufficient time has
not elapsed to justify a conclusion that
definite ccIner has been turned that the
rates of increase will become progressively
smaller with the passing of the next few
decades. hat at some not distant date. II
the population continues to increase az in