of this survey cumulative, let us include the totals of
immigration from the first.[4] The official records begin with 1820. It
is estimated that prior to that date the total number of alien arrivals
was 250,000. In 1820 there were 8,385 newcomers, less than sometimes
land at Ellis Island in a single day now, and they came chiefly from
three nations--Great Britain, Germany, and Sweden. The stream gradually
increased, but with many fluctuations, governed largely by the economic
conditions. The highest immigration prior to the potato famine in
Ireland in 1847 was in the year 1842, when the total for the first time
passed the 100,000 mark, being 104,565. In 1849 the number leaped to
297,024, with a large proportion of the whole from Ireland; in 1850 it
was 310,000; while 1854 was the high year of that period, with 427,833.
Then came the panic and financial depression in America, and after that
the civil war, which sent the immigration figures down. It was not until
1866, after the war was over, that the total again rose to 300,000. In
1872 it was 404,806; in 1873, 459,803; falling back then until 1880,
when a high period set in. The totals of 1881 (669,431) and of 1882
(788,992) were not again equaled until 1903, when for the first time the
800,000 mark was passed.

[Sidenote: The Totals by Decades]

Taking the figures by decades, we have this enlightening table:

1821 to 1830 143,439
1831 to 1840 599,125
1841 to 1850 1,713,251
1851 to 1860 2,598,214
1861 to 1870 2,314,824
1871 to 1880 2,812,191
1881 to 1890 5,246,613
1891 to 1900 3,687,564
1901 to 1905 3,833,076
----------
Total, 1821 to 1905 22,948,297

From this it appears that more aliens landed in the single decade from
1880 to 1890 than in the period of forty-five years from 1820 to 1865.
Indeed, the immigration of the past six years more than outnumbers that
of the forty years from 1820 to 1860.

[Sidenote: A Startling Total of 23,000,000]

Thus, from colonial days above twenty-three millions of aliens have been
received upon these hospitable shores. And more than thirteen millions
of them have come since 1880, or in the last quarter century. No wonder
it is said that the invasion of Attila and his Huns was but a side
incident compared to this modern migration of the millions.

[Sidenote: Impressive Comparisons]

Canada, our