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
The striking thing about the abnormality of the Germans is its
normality in amount. Among the foreign-born, the Germans have just
about their due share of insanity, neither less nor more. Likewise,
the marked feature of German crime in this country is simply its
featurelessness. Among the twelve thousand-odd aliens in our
prisons, the German prisoners run a little above the average in
their bent for gainful offenses and a little below the average in
their crimes of violence. In their leaning to other offenses they
come close to the mean. Among the twenty nationalities that figure
in the police arrests of Chicago, the German stands, with respect
to almost every form of misconduct, near the middle of the list.
The French and the Hebrews stand out in bad eminence as offenders
against chastity, the Italians lead in murder and blackmail, the
Americans in burglary, the Greeks in kidnapping, the Lithuanians
in assault, the Irish in disorderly conduct. But the German lacks
distinction in evil, never coming near either the top or the bottom
of the scale in predilection for any form of crime. On the whole,
his criminal bent is very close to that of the native American.
WIDE VARIETY OF OCCUPATION
The Germans brought us much more in the way of industrial skill and
professional training than the Irish; besides, they were much more
successful in planting themselves upon the soil. They tended far
more to farming and manufacturing, far less to domestic and personal
service and transportation. The second generation shows no marked
drift away from the farm. In 1900, three-fifths of all brewers in
the country were Germans, a third of the bakers and cabinet-makers,
a fifth of the saloon-keepers and butchers, a sixth of the hatters,
tailors, and coopers, and a seventh of the musicians and teachers of
music. Yet only one male bread-winner out of nineteen was a German.
The sons of Germans are a sixteenth of our male labor force; but
they furnish a quarter of the trunk-and-satchel makers, a fifth
of the bottlers, stovemakers, and engravers, and a sixth of the
upholsterers, bookbinders, paper-box makers, butchers, brewers, and
brass-workers. In our cities the German baker, tailor, butcher,
cabinet-maker, or engraver is quite as characteristic and familiar
a figure as the Irish drayman, fireman, brakeman, section boss,
street-car conductor, plumber, or policeman.
The immigrant German women begin rather higher in the scale of
occupation than the Irish, but their daughters do not rise in
life with such amazing buoyancy as do the daughters of the Irish.
Between the first-generation and the second-generation Germans the
proportion of servants and waitresses falls from a third of all
female bread-winners to a quarter. For the Irish the drop is from
fifty-four per cent. to sixteen per cent. The second-generation
Germans do not show such an advance on their parents as do the
second-generation Irish, who bob up like corks released at the
bottom of a stream.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account