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5418474_11_0385.xml
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<bibl><title>Abendpost</title>,
<date when="1925-10-17">Oct. 17, 1925</date>.
<title level="a">Immigration on the Wane</title><title level="a" type="sub">(Editorial)</title></bibl>
</title>
</titleStmt>
<publicationStmt>
<publisher>The Newberry Library</publisher>
<pubPlace>Chicago, Illinois</pubPlace>
<address>
<addrLine>60 West Walton</addrLine>
<addrLine>Chicago, IL 60610</addrLine>
<addrLine>USA</addrLine>
<addrLine>http://www.newberry.org</addrLine>
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<idno>5418474_11_0385</idno>
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<note>Transcribed from digital images contributed to the Internet
Archive by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.</note>
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<bibl><title>Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey</title>, <date>1936-1941</date>,
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<title>Chicago Foreign Language Press Survey [microform]</title>
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<item>GERMAN</item>
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<bibl><title>Abendpost</title>,
<date when="1925-10-17">Oct. 17, 1925</date>.
<title level="a">IMMIGRATION ON THE WANE</title><title level="a" type="sub">(Editorial)</title></bibl>
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<p>In our democratic land we have, as is well known, an aristocracy composed of members of families descended from the Pilgrim Fathers, i.e. from the passengers on the "Mayflower". Aboard the latter there arrived in 1620, from across the ocean, forty-one families comprising about one hundred persons. Of these, several perished during the very first winter from the rigors of the weather. A few years ago when the tercentenary of the "Mayflower" voyage was celebrated, a search was made for the living descendants of these first immigrants, and the surprising result came to light that these families are dying out. Should their decline continue at the same rate, their descendants still living in 1950 would be able to return to Europe in a ship the size of the old "Mayflower" (180 tons).</p>
<p>A person who has never occupied himself with the study of immigration and the movements of our population might very well be astounded at this remarkable <pb facs="5418474_11_0386.jpg" n="2"/>fact. For the student of such matters it is still of interest, but it hardly presents anything new. He knows that the population of our country has, from its very beginnings, increased more through immigration than in a natural way. Without doing injustice to the true merits of the pioneers of the East and West, the historian, even if he happens to be a dyed-in-the-wool, one hundred per cent "Nordic" American, cannot deny the fact that without continuous immigration the United States would not be the foremost and wealthiest country in the would today. It took the work, the sweat, the blood of the masses of immigrants to make America what it is. Yet, the American nobility and their blood relatives have proffered their thanks to the immigrant in mere homeopathic doses, reluctantly, and, often enough, in an offensive way.</p>
<p>How many history textbooks used in our schools give due recognition to the fact that not only Americans of English extraction but also those of other <pb facs="5418474_11_0387.jpg" n="3"/>origin aided George Washington in freeing the colonies from England? The Germans were among the first to fight for [American] independence. They fled from the tyranny of their domestic princes to the land of freedom with the deliberate intention never to submit to new oppression. They were settled along the Indian border and were then used in the war against the Indians and the French. They were thus skilled in the use of arms, and they fought for their new country. Germans were among the first who opposed slaveholding and were it not for the sizable participation of Germans, the Civil War might not have been decided so soon. It might have been protracted for many more years without success to either side, to the detriment of the people who suffered heavily from the losses in men, from the cost of the war, and from the scarcity of food.</p>
<p>Where would the United States be today without the active co-operation in the fields of science, art, technology, industry, and commerce of all those who have come here in the continuous flow of immigration? Just one glance into the puritanical darkness in which some New England provincial towns <pb facs="5418474_11_0388.jpg" n="4"/>are still enveloped is enough to answer the question. We are not indebted to the descendants of the Mayflower passengers for the fact that the United States today occupies a leading place in technology, industry, and commerce; we owe it rather to the streams of immigrants which have poured into the country since the "Mayflower" arrived.</p>
<p>What our nation is now doing in the fields of science and art, it likewise learned from these immigrants. Names from the American aristocracy occur only sporadically in these fields. What those brave pioneers had to work hard for fell right into the laps of their descendants. The latter waxed rich because their wealth kept increasing without any exertion on their part as the country and its population grew, and also because they were in the fortunate position of being able to exploit the work and brawn of the immigrants to their own advantage. Their forefathers had to gain their livelihood in a hard, wearisome struggle with the soil and with the Indian, but they [the descendants] let others do the work and enjoy life as well or as badly as they know how. Has anybody ever seen a hundred per cent "Nordic" <pb facs="5418474_11_0389.jpg" n="5"/>American pull a load, shine shoes, work as a switchman, dig coal, smelt iron, or blow glass? The heavy, dirty work is not for the aristocrat. For such work we have the plebeians who must also be permitted to live since, after all, they are needed for political purposes.</p>
<p>In the face of these incontestable facts one may with some anxiety anticipate the time when there will not be enough immigrants to do the despised heavy work. The moment is perhaps not very distant, a s one may readily see upon slight investigation. According to statistics the excess of immigrants over emigrants was still 630,107 in 1923/24. But in the last fiscal year, 1924/25, the net gain in prospective citizens dropped to 201,586--a result of the recent restrictions imposed upon immigration. Many countries failed to supply the quota of immigrants allowed them by law. For example, only eighty-three per cent of those permitted to come from Czechoslovakia have actually immigrated to this country; only eighty-nine per cent of Germany's quota, eighty-seven per cent of Great Britain's, and ninety-four per cent of Sweden's have been filled.</p>
<pb facs="5418474_11_0390.jpg" n="6"/>
<p>But it is of greater significance, as noted by the Nation, that while 6,203 Italians immigrated [to this country] during the last year, there were 27, 151 who returned to their homeland. This backward flow of emigration is also manifest among other nationalities. This movement, the causes of which we will not go into now, is on the increase. It is thus possible that the current or the following year may even witness a deficiency in place of an excess of immigrants [over emigrants].</p>
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