Alliance have repeatedly admonished their members. From the point of view of the American who is interested solely in the amalgamation of races in a more perfect union and in the highest development of our national life, it is difficult to understand what exigency requires the awakening and strengthening of the sense of unity among citizens of German origin. If the Alliance professes patriotic purposes, why should it aim to develop a solidarity within racial lines? Why should the sense of unity be encouraged among Germans, and if among Germans, why not among those citizens who happen to be of English, Canadian, Russian, or Italian descent

Equally difficult is it to uhderstand the need of such an organization for resisting "nativistic encroachments." Long before the Alliance came into existence, German citizens, from Michael Hillegas, the first Treasurer of the Continental Congress, to Carl Schurz, Secretary of the Interior in Hayes' administration, have been welcomed to the highest offices in the gift of the people. From the time the Know-Nothing movement collapsed a movement which was called into being in large measure by the separatist ideals of the immigrants of 1832 and 1848 Americans have kept their politics aloof from racial or religious distinctions, and those who have trespassed this unwritten law have received prompt and merited rebuke.

In estimating the activity of the Germans during the last eighteen months allowance must be made for the high tension of feeling produced by the war. Nor must it be imagined for one moment that the majority of Germans in this country subscribe to the opinions put forth by the noisy propagandists. This group, though compact and well organized, forms but a small fraction of the thirty millions of citizens of German birth or descent in this country. They represent the later immigrations,— for the most part those which followed the formation of the empire. The official roster of the Alliance may fairly be taken as representative of its membership, or at least of the controlling faction in that membership. Of the twelve officers not one can point to an Americanism more than two generations old. The majority are foreign-born.

It is for the descendants of those Germans who fought under Herkimer at Oriskany; of those who followed Muhlenberg; of those who over the trenches of Yorktown heard the opposing commands given in their native tongue, and finally saw the garrison march out to the time of German music; of those who fought under Schurz and Sigel in the Civil War, to rebuke these prophets of disunion and to turn the aspirations of their countrymen in the direction of true American nationalism.

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B. EMIGRATION FROM SOUTHEASTERN

EUROPE

JEWISH IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES1

SAMUEL JOSEPH, PH.D., COMMERCIAL HIGH SCHOOL, BROOKLYN

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HE Jewish immigration has been shown to consist essentially of permanent settlers. Its family movement is incomparable in degree, and contains a larger relative proportion as well as absolute number of women and children, than any other immigrant people. This in turn is reflected in the greater relative proportion as well as absolute number of those classified as having "no occupation."The element of dependency thus predicated is another indication of the family composition of the Jewish immigration. Its return movement is the smallest of any, as compared both with its large immigration and the number of total emigrants. The Jewish immigrants are distinguished as well by a larger relative proportion and absolute number of skilled laborers, than any other immigrant people. In these four primary characteristics the Jewish immigrants stand apart from all the others.

It is with the neighboring Slavic races emigrating from the countries of Eastern Europe and with whom the Jewish immigrants are closely associated that the contrasts, in all these respects, are strongest. The Slavic immigrants are chiefly male adults. Their movement is largely composed of transients, as evidenced by a relatively large outward movement and emphasized by the fact that the vast majority of them are unskilled laborers. An exception, in large measure, must be made of the Bohemian and Moravian immigrants, who present characteristics strongly similar to those of the Jewish immigrants.

The division into "old" and "new" immigration brings out even more clearly the exceptional position of the Jews in 1 Summary and conclusions, of Jewish Immigration to the United States. Chapter VI. Columbia University Studies, 1914.

regard to these characteristics. Although the Jewish immigration has been contemporaneous with the "new" immigration from Eastern and Southeastern Europe, and is furthermore essentially East-European in origin, its characteristic place is altogether with the "old" immigration.1 Most striking, however is the fact that in all of these respects family composition and small return movement (both indicating permanent settlement) and in the proportion of skilled laborers - the Jewish immigration stands apart even from the "old" immigration.

Further confirmation may be obtained, in the study of the characteristics of the Jewish immigration, of the principle established in the preceding sections that the rejective forces of governmental oppression are responsible for the largest part of this immigration. The large family movement of the Jewish immigration is a symptom of abnormal conditions and amounts almost to a reversal of the normal immigration, in which single or married men without families predominate. Even the family movement of the "old" immigrants may largely be attributed to the longer residence of their peoples in the United States as well as to their greater familiarity with the conditions and customs of the United States. That so large a part of the Jewish immigrants is composed of dependent females and children creates a situation of economic disadvantage for the Jewish immigrants, all the stronger because of their relative unfamiliarity with the language or the conditions facing them in this country.

Again, the Jews respond slowly and incompletely to the pressure of unfavorable economic conditions in this country. This was emphasized by the almost complete lack of response to the panic of 1907, as well as expressed in the small, practically unchanging return movement of the Jews to their European homes.

The pressure upon the Jewish artisans, or skilled laborers, in Eastern Europe is reflected in the predominance of this class among the Jewish immigrants to this country. That so useful an element in Eastern Europe with its still relatively backward industrial development - a fact that was given express recognition

1 So strongly was this the case that the Immigration Commission in discussing these characteristics was compelled to separate the Jewish from the "new" immigration, in order to bring out the essential differences of the latter from the "old" immigration.

by the permission accorded the Jewish artisans in Alexander II's time to live in the interior of Russia should have been compelled to emigrate indicates that the voyage across the Atlantic was easier for them than the trip into the interior of Russia, access to which is still legally accorded to them.

That the oppressive conditions created particularly in Russia and Roumania and operating as a pressure equivalent to an expulsive force does not explain the entire Jewish immigration to this country is evident from the preceding pages. In a great measure, the immigration of Jews from Austria-Hungary is an economic movement. The existence, however, of a certain degree of pressure created by economic and political antisemitism has however been recognized. The Jewish movement from AustriaHungary shares largely with the movement from Russia and Roumania the social and economic characteristics of the Jewish immigration which we have described. A strong family movement and a relative permanence of settlement, especially as compared with the Poles, and a movement of skilled laborers must be predicated of the Jewish immigrants from AustriaHungary, though undoubtedly not to the same degree as in the case of the Jewish movements from Russia and Roumania..

It is also clear that the forces of economic attraction in the United States do not play an altogether passive part in the Jewish immigration. The very fact of an immigrant-nucleus formed in this country and serving as a center of attraction to relatives and friends abroad a force which increases in direct and multiple proportion to the growth of immigration — is an active and positive force in strengthening the immigration current. This was early understood by the Alliance Israélite Universelle which had acted upon this principle in the seventies and had prophetically sought to direct a healthy movement of Jewish immigrants to this country in the hope of thereby laying a foundation for future Jewish immigration to this country. This current, however, once started and growing only by the force of its increasing attraction, would reflect in its movement almost wholly the economic conditions in this country. That so large a part of the Jewish immigration, and so many of the phenomena peculiar to it, find their explanation, for the largest part of the thirty years, in the situation and the course of events