mbership was attained in 1827, when 522
were enrolled. There were 391 in 1836; 321 in 1846; 170 in 1864; 146
in 1866; 70 in 1879; 34 in 1888; 37 in 1892; 10 in 1897; 8 in 1902,
only two of whom were men; and in 1903, three women and one man. The
population of Economy, however, was always much larger than the
communal membership.]

[Footnote 19: _The New Harmony Movement_, by G.B. Lockwood, p. 83.]

[Footnote 20: _Icaria, A Chapter in the History of Communism_, by
Albert Shaw, p. 58.]

CHAPTER V

THE IRISH INVASION

After the Revolution, immigrants began to filter into America from
Great Britain and continental Europe. No record was kept of their
arrival, and their numbers have been estimated at from 4000 to 10,000
a year, on the average. These people came nearly all from Great
Britain and were driven to migrate by financial and political
conditions.

In 1819 Congress passed a law requiring Collectors of Customs to keep
a record of passengers arriving in their districts, together with
their age, sex, occupation, and the country whence they came, and to
report this information to the Secretary of State. This was the
Federal Government's first effort to collect facts concerning
immigration. The law was defective, yet it might have yielded valuable
results had it been intelligently enforced.[21]

From all available collateral sources it appears that the official
figures greatly understated the actual number of arrivals. Great
Britain kept an official record of those who emigrated from her ports
to the United States and the numbers so listed are nearly as large as
the total immigration from all sources reported by the United States
officials during a time when a heavy influx is known to have been
coming from Germany and Switzerland.

Inaccurate as these figures are, they nevertheless are a barometer
indicating the rising pressure of immigration. The first official
figures show that in 1820 there arrived 8385 aliens of whom 7691 were
Europeans. Of these 3614, or nearly one-half, came from Ireland. Until
1850 this proportion was maintained. Here was evidence of the first
ground swell of immigration to the United States whose subsequent
waves in sixty years swept to America one-half of the entire
population of the Little Green Isle. Since 1820 over four and a
quarter million Irish immigrants have found their way hither. In 1900
there were nearly five million persons in the United States descended
from Irish