large number of unskilled foreign laborers has made it possible for the
American capitalists to develop these industries under such conditions
probably faster than they would otherwise have been developed. At the
same time, however, all of this has been a hardship to the native-born
American laborer, and the tendency has been to eliminate the native born
from these occupations to which the immigrants have flocked.

Some Other Social Effects of Immigration.--(1) The influence on the
proportion of the sexes of immigration into this country has without
doubt been considerable. In 1907, out of a total of 1,285,349
immigrants, 929,976 were males and 355,373 were females. For a long
period of years about two thirds of all the immigrants into the United
States have been males. This has considerably affected the proportion of
the sexes in the United States, making the males about 1,000,000 in
excess in our population. The influence of such a discrepancy in the
proportion of the sexes is difficult to state, but it is obvious, from
all that has previously been said about the importance of the numerical
equality of the sexes in society, that the influence must be a
considerable one, and that not for good.

(2) The following table shows how far the increase of population in the
United States in the decennial periods since 1800 has been due to
immigration and to reproduction. Until 1840 the increase by immigration
was so small as to be hardly noticeable, and therefore no account of it
is taken.


Total Increase By Immigration By Birth
Year Per cent. Per cent. Per cent.