children of poor immigrants, especially in such cities as New York, Boston, and Chicago. Even in small towns the proportion of young children who are of foreign birth and their education is a problem dealt with successfully by the elementary schools, as the children are soon affected by the American air, and show a great aptness in learning and a determination to succeed. In the foreign quarters of larger cities there is often a mere sprinkling of children of American parentage. In the Hancock school in Boston in 1902 there were 1167 Hebrews, 1273 Italians, and only 80 American children. In schools of this character there is what is called an "overflow" room for children newly arrived in America. Some are too old for the primary grades, and none know the language, so the sorting out and educating these children of various ages and intelligence is no easy task. The work, however, is much simplified by the desire both on the part of the children and of their parents to become Americanized.

It is estimated that within a radius of fifteen miles from New York City Hall there are now more Jews than in the whole of Germany. Slowly, but surely, the Jew is permeating the whole commercial life of New York, and getting a control of many trades within his fingers.1 Gradually, too, the Gentile element, particularly

2 The Jews are about one-eightieth of the population, yet they claim 115 out of the 4000 millionaires of the country, about two and a half times as many as they are entitled to. Even leaving out the backwoods, and confining the inquiry to the town populations, it is found that the number of Jew millionaires is still disproportionately large. Most of them are of German extraction, and have been settled in the country thirty years or more. No Russian name is to be found on the list, and very few recent emigrants. The business of the successful ones extends from banking to pork-packing, from realty to dry goods, from distilleries to cotton. In New York such of them

the Irish and the Irish-Americans, are becoming aware of the pressure which Jewish industrial competition is putting upon them. The constant wholesale influx of poor Jews from Russia, Germany, and Austria has led to a marked lowering of wages, and when this came home to the poor Irish, the persecution of the Hebrew commenced. The antagonism The antagonism has recently evoked unseemly riots, and as the increased cost of living and the ingenious methods of the "sweater' continue, serious trouble is to be feared. Yet, amidst all the outcry against alien pauperism, it would be hard to match the Irish in that respect.

Of the inhabitants of New York City, 12.6 per cent. were born in Ireland. This percentage supplies 35.5 per cent. of all inmates of the hospitals and insane. asylums, 60'4 per cent. of the almshouse paupers, 36·7 per cent. of the workhouse inmates, and 15'4 per cent. of the penitentiary convicts. As one recent American statistician remarks, "If all the inhabitants of this city were Irish-born, they would require eight such almshouses as the one now maintained. Ireland," he adds, with fine satire, "does not make a great show on the map, but her existence is absolutely necessary in order to maintain in New York an almshouse of the present magnitude."

The inconsistency of Americans was never shown more clearly than in its treatment of a really hardworking and well-behaved race--the Chinese. Twentytwo years ago the Chinese exclusion laws were put into operation; they were passed to appease labourers with as are not lawyers or theatrical managers are mainly engaged in the clothing trade.

whom the Chinese did not and could not compete. They were then, as now, chiefly employed as agriculturalists, and in the performance of work which no American would voluntarily do—that is, menial drudgery. The class which declared itself injured by Chinese labour were not Americans, but European aliens, accustomed to nearly, if not quite, as low and degraded social conditions as the Chinese; yet no sooner had they landed in America than they joined in the clamour for excluding these exceedingly useful and industrious immigrants from the country. It is highly probable that much of the immigration which has come to America from Asia is superior to that which has come from Europe. It is morally certain that China has not sent thither paupers, criminals, or lunatics.'

America, by her exclusion law, has certainly largely divorced herself from a nation from which she might derive much more commercial benefit than she does at present, or is likely to do in the near future.

1 At present there are single States of America with over 10,000 feebleminded persons. According to the last census there are over 100,000 idiots and lunatics publicly known in America, which is supposed to be 25,000 below the real number.

CHAPTER XIII

THE NEGRO PROBLEM

It is gravely maintained that there are times when reason and law do not and cannot govern in America, where the sentiment of the whole or a part of the people is stronger than the law.

A contemplation of such a dangerous contingency involves us in the meshes of the relationship between the only two races which do not assimilate in America1 -the black and the white: in other words, the negro problem.

Prior to the Civil War the negro was fostered and protected by the institution of slavery, and for a portion of the nineteenth century the ranks of the blacks were reinforced by fresh importations. Under these influences the negro population increased between 1790 and 1860 from 757,208 to 4,441,830-that is to say, sextupled itself in seventy years.

Since the war which freed the negroes, these four and a half millions have expanded to nearly nine

1 I should like it here to be understood that I use the term "assimilation " in its political and social sense. We cannot shut our eyes to facts; and I would further make it clear that the statistics of the black population comprehends the varying degrees of colour.

millions,' which means that it has doubled itself in four decades. The increase in the last ten years (1,370,749) is alone equal to the population of Connecticut and Rhode Island. In view of this, what becomes of the comfortable theory of the negroes' extinction by reason of "enfeebled vital capacity"? It is true that the negro constitutes a slowly dwindling minority of the total population, owing to the enormous influx of alien whites, to the number since 1860 of 14,000,000. But if the two races, white and "black," should continue to grow at the same rate as during the past decade, it would require at least 110 years to reduce the negro element to one-tenth of the total population. Ten per cent. is, then, the practically irreducible minimum ; and as long as the negroes form one-tenth of the nation, the race problem is a serious one for Americans in their present state of mind to face.

In the South one constantly hears the phrase, "The negro is all right in his place." Now, what is the negro's place? In the opinion of one eminent black cleric,' he has no place at all in America. Neither the North nor the South gives him a "place," and his sole chance of happiness and prosperity would seem to be in exodus to the land of his origin, Africa.

Let us see if the negro has a social sphere guaranteeing him freedom, comfort, and justice in any part of America.

There is no blinking the growing severity of the

1 According to the census of 1900, the "black" population throughout the entire country has increased in practically the same ratio as the white population, there being 8,840,789 as against 7,488,788 in the year 1890. The growth is thus a trifle over 18 per cent.

2 Bishop Turner.

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