The history of nations teaches us that
neither war, nor famine, nor pestilence, exterminates them so completely
as do sexual vices."

CHAPTER IV

NINETEENTH CENTURY ADDITIONS

It is only since the year 1820 that the government of the United States
has kept a record of alien passengers arriving in this country. For
several years following 1820 the immigration was so slight as to be
almost negligible. It was not until 1820 that there were more than
20,000 arrivals. So accustomed have we become to large figures of
immigration that nothing less than 100,000 seems worth noting, and this
figure was not reached until 1842. Since then there have been only four
years of less than 100,000, and two of these were years of the Civil
War.

A striking fact which first attracts the attention of one who examines
the statistics since 1840 is the close sympathy between immigration and
the industrial prosperity and depression of this country. Indeed, so
close is the connection that many who comment on the matter have held
that immigration during the past century has been strictly an industrial
or economic phenomenon, depending on the opportunities in this country,
and that the religious and political causes which stimulated earlier
immigration no longer hold good.

A curved line on the accompanying chart has been drawn so as to show
the relative numbers of immigrants since 1800, and another line shows
the movement of imports of merchandise per capita of the population. The
latter, except for tariff changes, is a fair index of the cycles of
prosperity and depression. By following these two lines on the chart we
notice the coincidence is close, except for a few years prior to the
Civil War. Both movements reached high points in 1873, and fell to very
low points in 1879; then rose in 1882 and fell in 1885; then reached
another high point in 1892 and a low point in 1897; and finally, the
present period of prosperity and heavy imports brings the largest
immigration in the history of the country.

In following the history of immigration by races we shall see to what
extent the alleged coincidence between prosperity and immigration may be
counted as a social law. Probably in the middle of the century it was
not so much the opportunities for employment in this country as it was
conditions in Europe that drove people to our shores. When we come to
inquire as to the nationalities which constituted immigration at that
period, we shall