Date. Per Cent. Negro in Total 18.9 19.0 1790 1800 1810 1820 1830 18.1 1840 16.8 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 15.7 14.1 13.1 11.9 In the Southern States the proportion of Negroes was practically unchanged between 1790 and 1880, the lowest proportion being 35.0 in 1800 and the highest 38.0 in 1840, a range of only 3 per cent. in 90 years. But since 1880 the fall in the proportion of Negroes in the South has been clearly marked, 6.3 per cent. in 30 years, an average of 2.1 per cent. in a decade. The evidence indicates that since emancipation and reconstruction the rate of increase of the Negro race in the South has not been keeping pace with that of southern whites. In 1790, the population living south This is due no doubt in large of Mason and Dixon's line was prac- measure to the fact that the Southtically as numerous as the population ern States receive reinforcements to to the north of that line (1,961,000 in their white population in the shape the South and 1,968,000 in the of immigrants from other parts of North). A century later the population of the South (19,800,000) was only one-half that of the North (39,800,000). A class of the population, mainly resident in the South, as the Negroes are, is likely to share in that region's rate of growth. For this reason the proportion of Negroes in the Southern States is perhaps more significant than the proportion of Negroes in the whole country. That proportion at each census has been as follows: At the present time the foreign-creased from 15.3 to 16.3 per cent. born population of the United and that of each other class has diStates and their children in the first minished slightly. The amount and generation constitute about two- rate of increase of each element fifths (39.5 per cent.) of the white were as follows: population of the country, and per- [ The rate of increase of the for sons born in the United States of native parents constitute about three-fifths. Since 1900 the proportion of the foreign-born has in eign-born population was about one and one-half times that of the native white population of either native or foreign-born parentage. IMMIGRATION THE IMMIGRATION COM MISSION two branches of Congress in the effort to bring public opinion both in and out of Congress into greater harmony. The commission ended its duties in Dec., 1910 and its "Conclusions and Recommendations" have been printed in brief. Recommendations.-The Commis sion urged that the following principles of legislation be emphasized: 1. The quantity and quality of immigration should not be such as to make its assimilation too difficult. Constitution and Duties.-An Immigration Commission, composed of three Senators, three Representatives and three other persons appointed by the President, was created in Feb., 1907, as an outgrowth of differences of opinion at that session between the Senate and the House. The Senate favored the imposition of further restrictions upon immigration in the form of a literacy test, that is, the proven ability to read some language, for all would-be immigrants over 16 years of age, and the increase of the head-tax on im- 3. Such welfare depends primarmigrants from $2 to $5. These pro- ily on the citizen's opportunity for visions were favored by the House development, material, mental and Committee on Immigration and Nat- moral. uralization but struck out by the House itself. This body went upon record as opposing a radical change of the country's immigration policy in the direction of greater restriction. The duties of the commission thus appointed were to make full inquiry into the subject of immigration and to report to Congress its conclusions and recommendations. Apparently its main work was to gather and present evidence bearing upon these differences of judgment between the 2. Further legislation should be based primarily upon a regard for the prosperity and economic welfare of the people. 4. A slow expansion facilitating the assimilation of immigrants is better than a rapid expansion attended by much immigration of laborers with low standards of living and with consequent peril to the American standards of wages and labor conditions. The Commission made the following recommendations among others: a. That for the protection of immigrants, government officials, both men and women, be placed on vessels carrying steerage passengers. b. That the boards of special inquiry, which pass upon the appeals of would-be immigrants from adverse administrative decisions, should be composed of persons qualified to exercise judicial functions, that the hearings should be public and that an Assistant Secretaryship of Commerce and Labor should be created to review appeals from the boards. Steerage Conditions. Data for this report were gathered by agents of the commission travelling in the steerage on trans-Atlantic lines and on coastwise vessels carrying immigrants. The report pertains to conditions before Jan. 1, 1909, when the new law regulating steerage accommodations became effective. The well known conditions of the old type were often found and vividly described. The new type, with conditions approximating those of the d. That the exclusion of Chinese second cabin, though simpler, were laborers should be continued. C. That the State should strictly regulate immigrant banks and employment agencies. e. That no legislation regarding Japanese and Korean labor should be adopted so long as the present method of restriction is found effective. f. That an understanding should be reached with the British Government for the exclusion of East Indian laborers. Unskilled Labor.-Probably the most important conclusion of the commission is that the country at present has an oversupply of unskilled labor. Consequently it recommended such further restriction as to produce a marked effect upon the supply of unskilled labor, especially of persons who have no intention of residing permanently in the United States. (See also XVI, Labor Legislation.) The methods of restriction suggested were (a) a literacy test; (b) limitation of the annual number of immigrants of each race to a certain percentage of the previous annual average; (c) excluding unskilled laborers without wives or families; (d) limitation of the number to be admitted annually at any port; (e) material increase of the money each immigrant must show; (f) material increase of the head tax; (g) heavier head tax on men without families. Of these a majority of the committee favored the literacy test as the most feasible single method of restriction. The numerous volumes containing the final results of its labors have not yet been made available but are likely to be in print by the time this book is before its readers. The main conclusions of the preliminary reports now in print may be briefly summarized. found to some extent on immigrant vessels coming from northern Europe. Sometimes both types existed on the same boat. In the old type, cleanliness, discipline and, in many cases, even chastity are endangered. That proper conditions are appreciated by passengers in vessels of this class is seen wherever accommodations of the new type are found. The farce of inspection required of boats and passengers is clearly portrayed; the systematic exploitation of immigrants on board the ships and at ports of entry by agents of telegraph companies and commissary clerks is described. In view of the recent passage of a new law regarding steerage conditions which seemed likely to be satisfactory, the commission merely made the recommendation already mentioned, providing for placing government officials, both men and women, on immigrant vessels, the expense to be borne by the steamship companies. Importing Women for Immoral Purposes. This report covers investigations in 12 large cities and data gathered by personal association of the commission's agents with the classes involved as well as from other sources. Some of the topics are: extent, profits and effects of the traffic; recruiting; methods of importation; system of exploitation; interstate and local conditions. The report contains a number of im portant recommendations as to changes in the law or its administration. Owing to differences of views regarding prostitution, coöperation by foreign countries is to be expected mainly in the prevention of seduction of minors and the fraudu- in the "old country"; almost ablent or forcible exportation of adult solute lack of bookkeeping, the priwomen. The United States govern- vate affairs of the banker and those ment will have to depend mainly on of the bank often being indistinits own officers for the suppression guishable; frequent failure to give of this traffic. adequate receipt for funds; investImmigrant Banks.-The report ment of deposits in private business covers over 100 representative im- or worthless securities; redeposit in migrant banks, i. e., concerns mak- banks, the interest being approing a practice of receiving from priated by the immigrant banker; aliens deposits or money for trans- lack of capital and reserve, so that mission abroad. The data were sup- the depositor has no redress in case plemented by interviews with re- of loss, while the average amount sponsible immigrant business men of the deposit is too small to warrant and bankers, and with city and a suit to recover. In the case of court officers. The report does not cover New York City, because state and federal authorities had already investigated conditions there. A peculiarity of these banks is that they represent only races of southern and eastern Europe. Depositors are usually recent arrivals, ignorant of business methods, suspicious of American institutions and trustful of compatriots, especially of the steamship agent, who seems the only link between them and the fatherland. "Immigrant bankers" are sometimes shrewd and intelligent business men, but more often irresponsible and ignorant of banking methods, while frequently their only qualification seems common nationality with patrons. They gain a hold over their customers by performing services which the regular bank cannot-they maintain banking hours in the evenings and on Sundays, a matter of controlling importance to the day laborer; they serve as interpreters, intermediaries, legal advisers, correspondents, forwarders of mail, notaries public, labor agents, grocers, saloon keepers; frequently furnish board and lodging, cash checks, etc., and act as steamship agents. This manifold relation between banker and customer is a double source of evil; it allows many forms of exploitation and furnishes the principal investment for the "bank's" funds. money left for transmission abroad, the system is so lax that the purchaser of a money order has no satisfactory evidence of deposit and no means of fixing responsibility in case of loss. It is common also for passbooks representing deposits in foreign banks to be left with immigrant bankers without receipts. The chance for fraud is obvious. Even where there is no disposition to defraud, the likelihood of loss to the depositor is enormous. Only two states have any definite control of these institutions, most of which are unincorporated and operated by individuals. The need for control over them is everywhere felt, even among the responsible proprietors themselves. The depositors are of the class least able to afford loss, and by reason of the numbers affected, failure of such a bank is most disastrous. The greatest difficulty in legislation is to frame laws regulating them without injuring legitimate banks and at the same time meeting the constitutional test of non-discrimination. Control will always be most difficult because of the countless private individuals who receive money for safe keeping. Such laws as exist are discussed by the report and the suggestion made that officers charged with administration over banks should be required frequently and thoroughly to examine such institutions, backed by proper machinery to enforce the law. Some of the abuses found are false Changes in the Bodily Form of advertising implying governmental Descendants of Immigrants. What or large financial backing; use of has already been said regarding the term notary public or its equivalent, commission's report indicates the which is misleading because the importance it attached to the probname represents much less here than lem of assimilation. In economic (1) Immigrants coming to this country and living in the crowded parts of New York City have children the shape of whose head departs widely from that of their par and social matters apparently no The Immigration Situation in Cantest of assimilation was used by the ada.-Immigration has assumed commission. But in the study of great importance for Canada bephysical assimilation a new and cause of the development of its promising line of study was opened western territory, especially British in measuring the head form of Si- Columbia. In proportion to populacilians and east European Hebrews tion Canada received more immiin New York City. Until the full grants between 1900 and 1909 than details are made public the following did the United States. Canada afsummary of the provisional results fords an interesting example of a must suffice: country with a definite immigration policy consistently followed to accomplish certain results. This report describes fully the propaganda and expenditures in this field. Canada's policy consists in encouraging the immigration of farmers farm laborers only; all others are definitely advised not to emigrate. The result is that, for example between 1907 and 1909, over 38 per cent. of the immigrants to Canada were of the agricultural class. In contrast, only 16 per cent. of those coming to the United States were of that class, but it should be noted that this figure does not include accompanying women and children, as does the Canadian figure. Over 78 per cent. of these farmers and farm laborers immigrating to Canada were from the United States. ents. (2) Where the parental type is long-headed, or dolichocephalic, the children are less dolichocephalic; where the parental type is roundheaded, or brachycephalic, the childdren are less brachycephalic. (3) The departure from the ancestral type appears even in cases where the children born abroad have been brought to this country in early 'childhood; it is more marked among children born in this country, and the longer the interval between the arrival of the mother and the birth of the child, the more the shape of the child's head differs from that of its parents. (4) The changes are great enough to make the difference between the shape of the head among a roundheaded stock, like persons of east European Hebrew blood born in the United States, and a long-headed stock, like persons of Sicilian blood born in the United States, less than the difference between either group of children and their parents. and The chief contrast between Canadian and United States immigration laws is that a laborer arriving there without assurance of definite employment is likely to be debarred; while one coming here with such assurance, if it be discovered by the immigration officers, will be debarred as a contract laborer. Another difference in the laws is that those of Canada do not exclude polygamists and anarchists. An appendix to the report gives the full text of the laws of the two countries. These results are the more surprising because the shape of the head has been thought an extremely The report discusses immigration persistent characteristic, controlled from the United States to Canada almost entirely by hereditary influ- and from Canada to the United ences and very little by environ- States. To encourage the former, an ment. Although far from conclusive, active propaganda is conducted, as a they seem to warrant at least a sus- result of which the United States is pense of judgment upon that point. furnishing about one-third of the toIf they could be accepted at their tal immigrants. In the homestead face value, they would show that the entries for 1909 every state and terprocess of physical assimilation of ritory, except Delaware and Missisimmigrants begins sooner, progresses sippi, were represented, but more more rapidly and affects the whole than one-half were from North Dasystem more radically than has hith-kota and Minnesota. Immigration erto been believed. thitherward within recent years has |