The latest " bulletin " issued by the Census Office
at Washington shows that, in 1890, there were 9f million persons of foreign birth in the United States, or, in other words, that out of the 62i millions of population, over 14 per cent. —about one in every seven—were foreign-born. A comparison of the Censuses of 1880 and 3.890 shows that the total per- centage of foreign-born persons has not seriously in- creased, but that, in regard to certain races, the increase has been enormous. The influx of Hungarians—not Magyars, but Slays—Russians, Italians, and Poles has been very great, and Swedes, Danes, and Portuguese have also come in largely increasing numbers. In the past decade, the per- centage of increase of Hungarians has been 441 per cent; of English, nearly 37 per cent. ; of Scotch, 42 per cent.; and of Irish, but 0 91. per cent. Whereas, in 1850, 42 per cent. of the foreign-born population was Irish, in 1890 it was only 20 per cent. Persons born in England and Wales were some 13 per cent, of the foreign-born population in 1850; they are now about 10 per cent. As a whole, the figures are satis- factory. In the first place, they show that the Anglo-Saxon is holding his own in the States, and that the task of Angli- cising the over-spill of Europe is not too great. Next, they show that the Irish element is in process of becoming negleetable quantity." The first American politician who realises this will make a big hit.
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