Immigration: Face of America HTY-110

subject of immigration,’’ and the Commission has followed this instruction. In the begin- ning two plans of work were considered. One plan contemplated bringing together in a new form already existing data; conducting an inquiry into the effectiveness of the exist- ing immigration law and its administration, and by means of hearings securing informa- tion and expressions of opinion from persons interested in various phases of the subject under consideration. By the second plan it was proposed to utilize such existing data as might be considered of value, but also to make an original inquiry into fundamental phases of the subject which had previously been considered only in a superficial manner, or not at all. After due consideration the Commission reached the conclusion that the first-mentioned plan, no matter haw carefully it might be carried out, would yield very little new information that would be of value to Congress in a serious consideration of the Government’s immigration policy. Consequently it was discarded in favor of an original investigation which, it perfectly apparent, would necessarily be more far reaching and involve more work than any inquiry of a similar nature, except the census alone, that had ever been undertaken by the Government.

Plan and Scope of the Inquiry

Briefly stated, the plan of work adopted by the Commission included a study of the sources of recent immigration in Europe, the general character of incoming immigrants, the methods employed here and abroad to prevent the immigration of persons classed as undesirable in the United States immigration law, and finally a thorough investigation into the general status of the more recent immigrants as residents of the United States, and the effect of such immigration upon the institutions, industries, and people of this country. As above suggested, the chief basis of the Commission’s work was the changed character of the immigration movement to the United States during the past twenty-five years.

During the fiscal year 1907, in which the Commission was created, a total of 1,285,349 immigrants were admitted to the United States. Of this number 1,207,619 were from Europe, including Turkey in Asia, and of these 979,661, or 81 percent, came from the southern and eastern countries, comprising Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Montenegro, Poland, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Servia, Spain, Turkey in Europe, and Turkey in Asia.

Twenty-five years earlier, in the fiscal year 1882, 648,186 European immigrants came to the United States, and of these only 84,973, or 13.1 per cent, came from the countries above enumerated, while 663,213, or 86.9 per cent, were from Belgium, Great Britain and Ireland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Switzerland, which countries furnished about 95 per cent of the immigration movement from Europe to the United States between 1819 and 1883.

During the entire period for which statistics are available—July 1, 1819, to June 30, 1910—a total of 25,528,410 European immigrants, including 106,481 from Turkey in Asia, were admitted to the United States. Of these, 16,052,900, or 62.9 per cent, came from the northern and western countries enumerated, and 9,475,510, or 37.1 per cent, from southern and eastern Europe and Turkey in Asia. For convenience the former movement will be referred to in the Commission’s reports as the ‘‘old immigration’’ and the latter as the ‘‘new immigration.’’ The old and the new immigration differ in many essentials. The former was, from the beginning, largely a movement of settlers who came from the most progressive sec- tions of Europe for the purpose of making for themselves homes in the New World. They entered practically every line of activity in nearly every part of the country. Coming during a period of agricultural development, many of them entered agricultural pursuits, sometimes as independent farmers, but more often as farm laborers, who nevertheless, as a rule soon became landowners. They formed an important part of the great movement toward the West, during the last century, and as pioneers were most potent factors in the development of the territory between the Allegheny Mountains and the Pacific coast. They mingled freely with the native Americans and were quickly assimilated, although a large proportion of them,

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EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 5/17/2015 2:53 AM via SAINT LEO UNIV AN: 280845 ; Kalaitzidis, Akis, Felsen, David, Cieslik, Thomas.; Immigration : A Documentary and Reference Guide Account: stleocol