exodus of 714,828 aliens, of whom 395,073 were emigrants and 319,755 nonemigrants. The former class includes those who have made their fortune in this country and are going home to spend it, and those who have failed and are going home broken and discouraged a very large number in this panic year. The latter class includes aliens who have had a permanent residence in the United States, but who are going abroad to wait till the storm blows over, with the expectation of returning again true birds of passage outward bound. There were 133,251 of these. The balance were aliens in transit, and aliens who had been in this country on a visit, or only for a short time. In 1909 there were 751,786 immigrant aliens and 192,449 nonimmigrant aliens. Of the nonimmigrants 138,680 were true birds of passage according to the above distinction - a large number and almost exactly equal to the number of departing birds of passage in the previous year. The storm is over, and they have come back. The departures in that year numbered 225,802 emigrant and 174,590 nonemigrant aliens. These numbers are considerably smaller than in the previous year, but are still large, showing that the effects of the crisis were still felt in the early part of this fiscal year. The number of birds of passage among the nonemigrant aliens, 80,151, is much smaller than in the previous year. In 1910 there were 1,041,570 immigrant aliens and 156,467 nonimmigrant aliens. In the latter class, the number of birds of passage, 94,075, again approximated the corresponding class among the departures of the previous year. The departures in 1910 were 202,436 emigrant aliens and 177,982 nonemigrant aliens, of whom 89.754 were birds of passage. This probably comes near to representing the normal number of this class. A careful study of these figures confirms the conclusion reached above. While a crisis in this country does undoubtedly increase the number of departing aliens, both emigrant and nonemigrant, and eventually cuts down the number of arrivals, the total effect is much smaller than is usually supposed, and taken in connection with the fact that the stream of arrivals is never wholly checked, the influence of emigration in easing the labor market is absolutely trifling.

Comparing the different races in regard to their readiness to respond to changes in economic conditions, it appears that the

Italians stand easily at the head, and the Slavs come second. In 1908, in the traffic between the United States and Italy, there was a net loss in the population of this country of 79,966; in 1909, a net gain of 94,806. In the traffic between this country and Austria-Hungary there was a loss in 1908 of 5463; in 1909 a gain of 48,763. In the traffic with the Russian Empire and Finland there was a gain of 104,641 in 1908 and a gain of 94,806 in 1909. This shows how unique are the motives and conditions which control the migration from the two latter countries. The emigrants from there, particularly the Jews, come to this country to escape intolerable conditions on the other side, not merely for the sake of economic betterment. They prefer to endure anything in this country, rather than to return to their old home, even if they could.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS OF RECENT IMMIGRATION

JEREMIAH N. JENKS, LL.D., AND W. JETT LAUCK, OF THE UNITED STATES IMMIGRATION COMMISSION

MANY persons who have spoken and written of late years

in favor of restriction of immigration have laid great stress upon the evils to society arising from immigration. They have claimed that disease, pauperism, crime, and vice have been greatly increased through the incoming of the immigrants. Perhaps no other phase of the question has aroused so keen feeling, and yet perhaps on no other phase of the question has there been so little accurate information.

It is doubtful whether the increased number of convictions for crime are found because more crimes are committed, or because our courts and the police are more active. It is probable that we hear more of vice and immorality in these late days, not because they are on the increase, but because people's consciences have become more sensitive, and in consequence greater efforts are made to suppress them.

It is certain that the injurious effect of most contagious diseases has been very greatly lessened, and yet it is probable that we hear more regarding contagious diseases now than ever before because we have become more watchful.

The data regarding contagious diseases, pauperism, and crime, in connection with the immigrants, are extremely meager and unsatisfactory; but the Immigration Commission made the best use possible of such data as exist, and it was able to institute a number of inquiries which, though limited in extent, nevertheless have served to throw some light upon the relation of immigration to these various social problems. Although it seems probable that the injurious social effects of immigration have been greatly exaggerated in the minds of many persons, nevertheless it would be practically impossible to exaggerate the social importance that might attach to immigration under

certain conditions. History and observation afford numberless examples.

It is a generally accepted fact that, up to the time of the visitation of the Pacific Islands by diseased sailors from Europe in the early part of the last century, venereal diseases, as known in Europe and America, did not exist in those islands, and that their introduction by only a few sailors was largely responsible for the ravages of these terrible diseases, unchecked by any medical knowledge, that swept away in many instances a large proportion of the entire population.

The entrance of an evil-minded man into a village community, or one or two foul-minded boys into a school, is often enough to affect materially the entire tone of the school or community. It is important, therefore, that as careful consideration as possible be given to these questions that have been so emphasized, and that rigid measures be taken to check whatever evils may have arisen.

LEGISLATION1

In earlier days neither the Federal Government nor State governments had passed any laws to protect the United States against the immigration of undesirable persons of whatever kind. Even the energetic action of those promoting the so-called "Native American" or "Know-Nothing" movements, from 1835 to 1860, resulted in no protective legislation. Indeed, these movements were largely based on opposition to the immigration of Catholics rather than to that of persons undesirable for other reasons. In 1836 the Secretary of State was requested to collect information respecting the immigration of foreign paupers and criminals. In 1838 the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives was instructed to consider the expediency of providing by law against the introduction into the United States of vagabonds and paupers deported from foreign countries. Moreover, a bill, presented on the recommendation of the Committee, proposed a fine of $1000, or imprisonment for from one to three years, for any master who took on board his vessel, with the intention of transporting to the United States, any

1 Cf. for details, reports of Immigration Commission; Vol. XXXIX; also Chapter XVI.

alien passenger who was an idiot, lunatic, one afflicted with any incurable disease, or one convicted of an infamous crime. The bill, however, was not considered. The early "Native American" movement had been local, confined to New York City at first, afterward spreading to Philadelphia, but in 1852 the secret oath-bound organization that took the name of the American Party, the members of which were popularly called the KnowNothings, came into national politics, and for a few years exerted not a little power, carrying nine State elections in 1855. Later, in something of a reaction against this "Know-Nothing" movement, which finally proposed only the exclusion of foreign paupers and criminals, there was a definite effort made to encourage immigration.

In 1864, on the recommendation of President Lincoln, a bill encouraging immigration was passed. In 1866 a joint resolution condemned the action of Switzerland and other nations in pardoning persons convicted of murder and other infamous crimes on condition that they would emigrate to the United States, and in 1868 the encouraging act was repealed.

Some of the States had provided for the collection of money to support immigrants who had become public charges; but these laws were finally declared unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court, and in 1882 the first Federal Immigration Law was approved. This forbade convicts, except political offenders, lunatics, idiots, and persons likely to become public charges, to land. During the following years there was considerable agitation for further restriction or regulation, which culminated in 1888 in the selection of the "Ford Committee" by the House of Representatives. In the testimony before the committee it was shown that sometimes immigrants coming by steamer to Quebec, within forty-eight hours of their arrival, applied for shelter in the almshouses of the State of New York, and like cases of gross abuse existed by the thousands.

No further legislation, however, was enacted until 1891, when a bill was passed which added to the excluded classes persons suffering from a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease, and polygamists, but from that time on there has been an earnest effort to protect the United States against such undesirable immigrants.