The one thing that can be said in favor of this state of affairs is that such a group of immigrants furnishes a larger number of workers than one more evenly distributed between the sexes. This is an argument which will appeal to many; but to many others, who have the best welfare of the country at heart, it will appear wholly inadequate to offset the serious disadvantages which result from the situation. The Immigration Commission expresses its opinion that, in the effort to reduce the oversupply of unskilled labor in this country by restricting immigration, special discrimination should be made against men unaccompanied by wives or children.[158] In regard to the age of immigrants the most striking fact is that the great bulk of them are in the middle age groups. In the year 1912 the distribution of the total immigration among the different age groups was as follows: under fourteen years, 13.6 per cent; fourteen to forty-four years, 80.9 per cent; forty-five years and over, 5.5 per cent. In the total population of the United States the respective percentages in these groups are about 30, 51, and 19. There is only a slight difference in this respect between the new and the old immigration. Of the total European immigration for the years 1899 to 1909, the old immigration had 12.8 per cent in the first age group, 80.4 per cent in the second, and 6.8 per cent in the third; the new immigration had 12.2 per cent in the first, 83.5 per cent in the second, and 4.3 per cent in the third.[159] There is, however, a very marked difference between the races. This will be brought out by the following table, which shows the age distribution of certain selected races, for the year 1910: DISTRIBUTION OF IMMIGRANTS OF SPECIFIED RACES AMONG THE AGE GROUPS, BY PER CENTS, 1910 ══════════════════════╤═══════════════════════════════════════════════ RACE OR PEOPLE │ AGE, PER CENT ──────────────────────┼───────────────┬───────────────┬─────────────── „ │Under 14 Years │14 to 44 Years │ 45 Years and │ │ │ Over ──────────────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────── Croatian and Slovenian│ 4.7│ 91.0│ 3.3 German │ 17.0│ 75.9│ 7.1 Greek │ 2.6│ 96.0│ 1.4 Hebrew │ 25.9│ 67.9│ 6.2 Irish │ 7.4│ 88.3│ 4.3 Italian, south │ 10.4│ 83.5│ 6.1 Polish │ 7.6│ 89.7│ 2.7 ══════════════════════╧═══════════════╧═══════════════╧═══════════════ Here, again, the Hebrews appear as an exception to the general rule as regards the new immigration and, in this case, as regards the total immigration.