The existence of these special influences is again evident in the last decade. In 1904, the total immigration fell off 5.2 per cent, but the Jewish immigration rose 39.4 per cent. In 1906, in spite of the great total immigration of that year, and its increase of 7.2 per cent over the preceding year, the increase of the Jewish was 18.2 per cent--more than double that of the total. Again, the maximum periods of the two movements do not coincide. The total immigration reached its highest point for the thirty years in 1907. The maximum of the Jewish movement was in 1906. The panic of 1907 also appears to have influenced the Jewish immigration more slowly than the total. The greatest fall in the latter took place in 1908, immediately after the panic. The greatest fall of the Jewish immigration took place in 1909. This is another indication of the slowness of the response of the Jewish immigration to business conditions in this country, as compared with the rapid response of the general body of immigrants. As the racial classification was introduced only in 1899, it is impossible to determine for the entire thirty years the exact place the Jews occupy in the movement of peoples from the Old World to the New. During the twelve years from 1899 to 1910, there entered the United States a total of 1,074,442 Jewish immigrants, an annual average of nearly ninety thousand. This was the second largest body of immigrants, constituting more than a tenth of the total immigration for this period. In this regard the Jews were surpassed only by the South Italians.[93] This is an immense volume of immigration, both relatively and absolutely, and indicates to what an extent the immigration tendency has seized the Jews. In this tendency, however, the Jews from the different countries of Europe differ very strongly. As practically only three countries of Eastern Europe--Russia, Roumania and Austria-Hungary--are represented in the recent Jewish immigration, a rate of immigration established for the Jews should be based upon the population of these countries rather than upon the total Jewish population in Europe. Thus established, the Jews have the highest rate of immigration of any immigrant peoples. In 1906, during the maximum period of Jewish immigration, the rate of immigration of the East-European Jews was twenty out of every thousand. In 1907, the rate of the Jewish immigration was nineteen out of every thousand. The Jews are approached in this respect only by the Slovaks, who, in 1907, had a rate of immigration of eighteen per thousand. In this respect, the Jewish immigration is seen to occupy an exceptional position in the recent movement of peoples from Europe to this country. FOOTNOTES: [90] _Cf._ table XXX, p. 174. [91] _Cf._ table XXXI, p. 174. [92] _Cf._ table XXXII, p. 175. [93] This average and the same relative position is maintained if we take the fifteen years from 1899 to 1913, in which period there entered 1,347,590 Jewish immigrants.