When Francis Walker was director of the United States Census, he went so far as to maintain that the population of the country would have been just as large if there had been no foreign immigration, since the older American elements would then have multiplied much more rapidly than they have. This is without doubt an extreme statement, yet it is true that the multiplication of foreign peoples has seriously checked the growth of the old American stock. It may be that in the distant future the mixture of all the European peoples will produce a race superior to any we have yet seen. It is well to bear in mind, however, that in forming a race of unknown value, there is being sacrificed a race of acknowledged superiority in originality and enterprise.
The relative decrease of the native stock is, however, far more noticeable than its absolute decrease. For example, from the last statistics available for Boston it appears that the Russian Jews increased by propagation 25 per cent, between 1890 and 1895, and the Italians increased 21 per cent, during the same period, while the native born decreased slightly. And this phenomenal natural increase of the Italians and the Jews takes on an added significance from the fact that during the same period of five years the Italians increased 67 per cent, and the Jews 51 per cent, by immigration.
Foreign immigrants, after being in this country for some time, seem to be affected in much the same way as the native born. However, the pressure of competition from recent immigration does not affect them 60 much as it does the greater part of the native born, for a greater social cleavage exists between the rural Americans and foreign immigrants than between the old and new immigrants. Yet the Irish and the Germans, at least in Boston, have a much smaller birth rate than the Italians and the Jews, and also than they themselves had in 1850.
Mr. Kuczynski, in his study of Massachusetts, continually contrasts the statistics for the native born with those for the foreign born, but there is more than a contrast, there is a causal connection. The rapid influx of foreigners and their unrestrained increase necessarily affects the native born. And the evil effects arise from the competition in industrial pursuits of people of different social standards. If the immigrants were of the same ideals and standards as the native Americans, the results would be different. The increased competition would bring about a lowering of the birth rate, but the restraint would be mutual to both natives and foreigners. In the present case, however, where the standards are different the prudential restraint is exercised only by the group which has a social standard to maintain. Is it not from a sense of self preservation that castes tend to be formed in a society consisting of distinct social classes, so that each caste shall have its separate sphere of employment and competition between castes
