27 MARCH 1915, Page 13

GERMANS, AUSTRIANS, AND HUNGARIANS IN

AMERICA.

[To no Lessee or on " SrfferATOO..]

SIR, Incorrect inferences are liable to be drawn from a very great error which appears in the quotation appended to the

letter of your correspondent Mr. Robert Bowes (Spectator, March 20th, p. 402). It is there stated that the United States Census of 1910 gives-

" Born in Germany ... 8,282,618

„ Austria-Hungary 2,001,669 "-

and it is also stated that the foreign-born population of the United States, according to the same Census, is 32,243,982. All these figures relate to ” stock," not " birth." Let use give the correct figures and the quotations. United States Census, 1910. Vol. L, chap. vii., " Country of birth of the foreign-born population " " Total foreign born ... ... 13515,886"

]bid., Vol. I., chap. viii., "Country of origin of foreign (white) stock " i- " All foreign countries

82,243,382" Germany ... 8,282,618 Austria 2,001,659

It most not he forgotten that the figures for Germany include Poles, Alsatians, and Danes, and that the figures for Austria and Hungary include Poles, Ruthenee, Slovenes, Serbs, Croats, Italians, and Czechs, but in what proportion to the whole the Census does not state.

According to Whitaker's International Almanac (1914) the total population of the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires in 1910 was 114,826,756, and the total population of the alien nationalities above-mentioned (in both Empires) in the same year was 23.588,585, or approximately one-fifth; and assuming that emigration of the whole population from its respective nationalities to America was in that ratio, it would seem to be not unreasonable to deduct (aa non-Teutonic or Magyar) one-fifth of that part of the population of the United States which the Census credits to the " gook " of Germany, Austria, and Hungary as the "countries of origin." From which it will appear that, as the total population of the United States in the year 1910 was approximately ninety-two millions (to be strictly aoourate, 91,972,266), it follows that the net Teutonic and Magyar " stock " is considerably less than one-tenth of the whole population of the United States. Bnt it is probable that a not inconsiderable part of the popu- lation which is of Germanic " stock" is not in sympathy with the Prussian military caste in the war. There is so much evidence in support of this as to suggest the possibility that the Teutonic Press (in places like Milwaukee) is subsidized from Berlin, without which it would seem difficult to account for an agitation which is so out of proportion to the numbers

which are behind it. —I am, Sir, &c., S. R. H.