immigrants that have come from Southern and Eastern Europe. Still the
1900 census contains some interesting facts regarding the distribution
of foreign born, or immigrants, that have been received previous to
1900. According to the census of 1900 the number of foreign born in the
United States was 10,460,000, or 13.7 per cent of the total population.
But these foreign born were confined almost entirely to the Northern
states, that is, the North Atlantic states and North Central states. In
1900 the Southern states (South Atlantic and South Central) contained
but 4.6 per cent of the total foreign born of the country. The reason
why so few of our immigrants have thus far settled in the South is
perhaps chiefly because of the competition which the cheap negro labor
of the South would offer to them, and also because the South is still
largely agricultural, offering few opportunities for the industrial
employments, into which a majority of our immigrants go. In the North
Atlantic states in 1900 nearly one fourth of the population was foreign
born, and 20.7 per cent in the Western states. The following statistics
will show the percentage of foreign born in typical states: North
Dakota, 35.4 per cent; Rhode Island, 31.4 per cent; Massachusetts, 30
per cent; Minnesota, 28.9 per cent; New York, 26 per cent; Wisconsin,
24.9 per cent; California, 24.7 per cent; Montana, 27.6 per cent;
Indiana, 8.5 per cent; Maryland, 7.9 per cent; Missouri, 7 per cent;
North Carolina, 0.2 per cent; and Mississippi, 0.5 per cent. The
influence of the foreign born in a community, however, is better shown,
perhaps, if we consider the number of those of foreign parentage, that
is, the foreign born and their children, than if we consider the number
of foreign born alone. In a large number of states more than one half of
the population is of foreign parentage. Thus North Dakota had in 1900,
77.5 per cent of its population of foreign parentage; Minnesota, 74.9
per cent; Wisconsin, 71.2 per cent; Rhode Island, 64.2 per cent;
Massachusetts, 62.3 per cent; South Dakota, 61.1 per cent; Utah, 61.2