The Old World in the New: The Significance of Past and Present Immigration to the American PeopleRoss, Edward Alsworth
History
The Old World in the New: The Significance of Past and Present Immigration to the American People
Ross, Edward Alsworth
Immigrants -- United States; Noncitizens -- United States; United States -- Emigration and immigration
Between 1895 and 1896 came the great shift in the sources of
immigration. In the former year, 55 per cent. of the aliens
came from northwestern Europe; in the next year, southern and
southeastern Europe gained the upper hand, and have kept it ever
since. With the change in nationalities came a great change in the
civic attitude of the immigrants. The Immigration Commission found
that from 80 to 92 per cent. of the immigrants from northwestern
Europe, resident five years or more in this country, have acquired
citizenship or have taken out first papers. Very different are the
following figures, which show the interest in citizenship of the
newer immigrants:
PER CENT.
NATURALIZED
Russian Hebrews 57
Austrians 53
North Italians 46
Bulgarians 37
Poles 33
Lithuanians 32.5
South Italians 30
Russians 28
Magyars 27
Slovaks 23
Rumanians 22
Syrians 21
Greeks 20
Portuguese 5.5
In 1890 and in 1900, 58 per cent. of the qualified foreign-born men
were voters; by 1910 the proportion had fallen to 45.6 per cent. The
presence of multitudes of floating laborers who have no intention of
making this country their home, a marked indifference to citizenship
on the part of some nationalities, and the stiffer requirements
for naturalization imposed under the act of 1906, have caused the
number of non-naturalized qualified foreigners in this country to
swell from approximately 2,000,000 in 1900 to 3,500,000 in 1910. As
things are going, we may expect a great increase in the number of
the unenfranchised. No doubt the country is better off for their not
voting. Nevertheless, let it not be overlooked that this growth in
the proportion of voteless wage-earners subtracts from the natural
political strength of labor. The appeal of labor in an industry like
the cotton manufacture of the North, in which, besides the multitude
of women and children, 70 per cent. of the foreign-born men remain
aliens after five years of residence, is likely to receive scant
consideration by the ordinary legislature. Nor will such labor fare
better at the hands of local authorities. The anti-strike animus of
the police in Lawrence, Little Falls, and Paterson was voiced by
the official who gave to the press the statement: "We have kept the
foreign element in subjection before, and will continue to do so as
long as I am chief of Little Falls' police." Thus, without intending
it, some of our commonwealths are accumulating voteless workers,
like those conservative European states which restrict manhood
suffrage in the industrial classes.
THE NATURALIZED IMMIGRANTS AND THEIR LEADERS
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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