Mr. RAKER. It would not apply to Boston? Mr. COOLEY. I do not know enough about Boston. Mr. RAKER. Did I say Passaic, N. J.? Mr. COOLEY. From what I read with reference to these places, of course, I understand they do not have the better class of immigrants. Mr. SABATH. That is what you read in the newspapers? Mr. COOLEY. Yes, sir. Mr. SABATH. You have not been in Chicago? Mr. COOLEY. Yes; a great deal. Mr. SABATH. Have you found anything wrong in Chicago? Mr. COOLEY. Well, I find this, that in all congested centers it is not only true of the immigrants, but it is true of American life, that we find there is a great deal of crime there and undesirable citizens. Mr. SABATH. And we find some good ones and bad ones among all of them. Mr. COOLEY. Yes, sir. Mr. SABATH. All over the country, even in California? Mr. COOLEY. Yes, sir. The CHAIRMAN. The Department of Commerce, Bureau of Census, sent to the committee in response to the request of the committee a letter with a statement in the nature of an answer to questions asked during the hearing of Doctor Hill and others, and some tables in connection therewith. They are very interesting. They will go in the record. The statement includes the United States, where it is undertaken at our request to determine the number of persons here, alien persons or naturalized citizens who have wives or husbands abroad. Mr. SABATH. Do they give a reason why they can not bring them over? The CHAIRMAN. No. Mr. SABATH. They do not say that because a man is not a citizen of America he can not bring his wife? The CHAIRMAN. No; and they do not say that the Government of Italy refuses to issue passports for the wives, etc. (The papers referred to are as follows:) Hon. ALBERT JOHNSON, DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE, BUREAU OF THE CENSUS, CHAIRMAN COMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION, House of Representatives. DEAR MR. JOHNSON: In compliance with your request, as indicated at the recent meeting of your committee, at which Doctor Hill and Mr. Hunt of this bureau were present, I send herewith the following exhibits: 1. Estimated quotas based on the censuses of 1890, 1900, and 1920, respectively. 2. Foreign-born white males and females 15 to 39 years of age, inclusive, by marital condition and age periods, for 1920. 3. Citizenship of foreign-born white males 21 years of age and over, for 1890, 1900, and 1910, and of foreign-born white males and females 21 years of age and over, for 1920. (See reprint herewith of Chapter VIII, Volume II, Fourteenth Census Reports, p. 804) 4. Foreign-born white married males and females without their wives or husbands, respectively, by country of birth, for 1920. (Three selected areas.) Regarding Exhibit 1, it should be explained that the aggregate quotas for each of the censuses of 1890, 1900, and 1920, figured on a 2 per cent basis and allowing a base quota of 200 for each country or region, are approximately correct, but the estimated quota for a given country or region may differ considerably from a quota derived from a detailed examination of all the accessible data, as was done in determining the quotas for the fiscal year 1923-24, in accordance with the terms of the present law. A similar course was not practicable in estimating the quotas given in Exhibit 1; and it must be understood that these estimated quotas are not in any sense authoritative or final. The Bureau of the Census has no authority under the law to determine what the quotas shall be. That duty, it will be recalled, devolves upon a committee representing the Secretaries of State, Commerce, and Labor, and in arriving at the quotas they have to estimate the effect of changes of boundaries and questions of recognition and take into consideration many facts and sources of information in addition to the available census data. The statistics given in Exhibit 2 are taken from Chapter IV, Volume II, Fourteenth Census Reports except that separate figures are given for the fiveyear period, 35 to 39, instead of those for the ten-year period, 35 to 44, as printed on page 389 of Chapter IV. (See reprint of Chapter IV herewith.) The statistics called for in Exhibit 3 are contained in Chapter VIII, Volume II, Fourteenth Census Reports, on page 804. (See reprint of Chapter VIII herewith.) The data given in Exhibit 4 relate to three selected areas, namely: 1. Part of Assembly District 4, Manhattan Borough, New York City. 2. Part of Ward 16, Cleveland City, Ohio. 3. All of Hancock County, West Virginia. In these three areas were found a total of 1,633 cases of absentee wives or husbands (715, 232, and 686, respectively) in a total foreign-born white population of 23,964 (of whom 21,010 were 21 years of age and over). The work required the examination of the enumerators' returns for a total population of 58,845. If the results of these tabulations made direct from the population schedules for these three areas, representing four days of work for one clerk, are at all indicative of the information desired by your committee, I can have similar tabulations made for other selected areas, if you so indicate, but it should be somewhat closely limited, if possible, on account of the clerical expense involved. Awaiting your pleasure in the matter, I am, W. M. STEUart, Director. EXHIBIT 1. ESTIMATED QUOTAS BASED ON CENSUSES OF 1890, 1900, AND 1920, Explanatory Note.-The quotas for the countries checked (√) for 1890 and 1900, representing those for which there have been no change in boundaries arising from the World War, constitute two (2) per cent of the number enumerated at each of these pre-war censuses, plus the base quota of 200 in each case. The quotas for the other countries or regions for these two censuses, representing those for which the boundaries have been either increased or decreased, or countries or regions newly established because of the World War, have been estimated on the assumption that they constitute the same proportionate quotas, respectively, as actually shown by the quotas for the fiscal year 1923-24, based on the census of 1910, plus the base quota of 200 in each case. The quotas for most of the countries or regions for 1920 constitute two (2) per cent of the number enumerated at that census, plus the base quota of 200 in each case. The quotas for 12 countries or regions-Armenia (Russian), Austria, Danzig, Denmark, Esthonia, Fiume, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Russia, Africa, and Egypt-have been estimated, as for 1890 and 1900, on the assumption that they constitute the same proportionate quotas for 1920 as actually shown by the quotas for the fiscal year 1923-24, based on the census of 1910, plus the base quota of 200 in each case. Foreign-born white males and females, 15 to 39 years of age, by marital condition and age periods, 1920. EXHIBIT 3. CITIZENSHIP OF THE FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION. The inquiry as to citizenship of the foreign born has been made at each census, beginning with 1890. In that year, however, no tabulation was made by color or race; and in 1890, 1900, and 1910 the returns related only to foreign-born men 21 years of age and over. The census of 1920 is thus the first at which complete data as to citizenship have been secured for foreign-born persons of both sexes and all ages. The statistics here presented relate to the population of continental United States, the States, and those cities having 25,000 inhabitants or more. Statistics for Alaska, Hawaii, and Porto Rico are given in Volume III of the Fourteenth Census Reports. The classification in regard to citizenship embraces four groups, namely, naturalized, having first papers, alien, and citizenship not reported. The first papers constitute the declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States, which declaration may be made by any eligible alien 18 years of age or more at any time after arrival in the United States. The process of naturalization can not be completed, however, until at least two years and not more than seven years have elapsed after the declaration of intention, and the applicant has resided at least five years continuously in the United States and at least one year continuously in the State of which he seeks to become a citizen. In some cases, however, the requirement of five years' continuous residence in the United States is waived on account of military or naval service. Under the provisions of the naturalization laws at the time the Fourteenth Census was taken, the citizenship status of a married woman was the same as that of her husband (but if the husband had taken out his first naturalization papers only, his wife was classified in the census returns as an alien); for an unmarried woman the process of naturalization was the same as for a man; a foreign-born widow or foreign-born divorced wife of a citizen of the United States retained the citizenship status of her former husband so long as she continued to reside in this country; a foreign-born widow or foreign-born divorced wife of an alien might become naturalized in the same manner as a man; and, in general, foreign-born minors have the same citizenship status as their parents. Since the foreign-born population of the United States consists mainly of white persons, the statistics in most of the tables relate to foreign-born whites only; but in Tables 1, 2, 5, and 11 figures are given for the total foreign-born population of all races, and in Table 1 a separate presentation is made for each of the several color or race classes. It will be noted that a few foreign-born Chinese and Japanese are reported as naturalized, although the members of these races are not legally eligible to citizenship unless born in the United States. A small number of Chinese may have been naturalized prior to 1882, in which year their legal ineligibility was made more explicit, and a few more Chinese and some Japanese may have been illegally admitted to citizenship prior to 1906, when the Federal Government undertook a closer supervision of the matter. It is possible, however, that the number reported as naturalized was somewhat exaggerated by false returns, especially in the case of the Chinese. (See Table 1.) In comparing the percentages naturalized, having first papers, and alien for 1920 with those for earlier census years, the varying proportion of foreign-born persons for whom returns as to citizenship were not made should be taken into consideration. This proportion in 1920 for men 21 years of age and over (5.2 per cent) was less than one-half as large as the corresponding proportion in 1910 (11.8 per cent) and only a little more than one-third as large as that for 1900 (14.9 per cent). The proportion naturalized for 1920 (47 per cent of the total) thus represented slightly less than one-half of the proportion for whom explicit returns as to citizenship were made (94.8 per cent of the total), and the proportion naturalized for 1910 (44.8 per cent of the total) represented slightly more than one-half of the proportion for whom explicit returns were made (88.2 per cent of the total), while for 1900 and 1890 the proportions naturalized were approximately two-thirds of the total for whom returns as to citizenship were made. In making use of these statistics account should also be taken of the proportion of the foreign-born population which had been in the United States less than five years, the length of time necessary for the acquirement of eligibility for citizenship (except in cases of certain aliens who had rendered military or naval service). In 1900 slightly less than one-tenth of the foreign-born population had been in the United States less than five years; in 1910, more than one-fifth; and in 1920, about one-sixteenth. It might be expected, therefore, that, other things being equal, the proportion naturalized in 1920 would be materially larger than in 1910 and slightly larger than in 1900; but, in fact, the proportion naturalized for men 21 years of age and over, as shown by the 1920 returns, did not differ greatly from that for 1910 and was considerably below that for 1900. This condition is presumably to be explained by the difference between the character of the earlier immigration and that which has arrived during the past two decades. Moreover, the procedure and requirements for naturalization are now more rigid than they were prior to 1900. If, however, the proportions naturalized and having first papers are combined, the proportion of the foreign-born men who had become citizens, or at least had declared their intention to do so, is shown to be larger for 1920 than for 1910, although not so large for 1920 as for 1900 or 1890. The first three diagrams on the next page show the percentages naturalized and not naturalized for white persons born in those countries or groups of countries, each of which had contributed 200,000 or more to the entire foreign-born white population of the United States, enumerated as of January 1, 1920, the countries being arranged in descending order according to numbers. The fourth diagram shows the percentages naturalized for white persons born in those countries, each of which had contributed at least 50,000 to the foreign-born white population of the United States in 1920, the order of arrangement being determined by the percentages. Urban and rural communities.-Because of the pronounced difference between urban and rural communities in regard to the proportions of native and foreignborn persons in their population, separate statistics for the two classes of communities are given in Tables 18 to 20. In drawing the distinction between urban and rural population, all incorporated places (and all towns in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire) having 2,500 inhabitants or more are treated as urban and the remainder of the country as rural. In Massachusetts and Rhode Island it is not the practice, as in practically all the other States, to incorporate as separate municipalities the relatively densely populated portions of “towns" (which are the primary divisions of the counties), and no town as a whole is incorporated as a municipality until it attains a population greatly in excess of 2,500; and in New Hampshire a similar condition exists, although the State contains two incorporated villages, each of which has fewer than 2,500 inhabitants. For this reason, those towns having 2,500 or more inhabitants in the three States named are treated as urban, although portions of their areas are rural in character. The urban areas in the three States in question, as classified by the census, thus contain relatively small numbers of inhabitants who in other sections of the country would be segregated as rural. Nevertheless, in most of the towns having 2,500 inhabitants or more in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire by far the greater part of the population resides within the more densely settled areas, so that the proportion classed as urban, considering each State as a whole, is not greatly exaggerated by the practice adopted. EXHIBIT 4. Manhattan borough, part of assembly district 4-Married foreign-born white, with wives or husbands not present, by country of birth. (Total foreign-born white, 9,549; males, 5,015; females, 4,534.) |