Speech #680200952

That is the net gain. In 1911 the immigrant aliens coming for permanent residence numbered 1.218.000. alid tile emigraut aliens nlnbered 303.000. The net gain was 915.000 persons. Last year. 1924. the immigrant aliens amounted to 706.000. while the emigrant aliens were only 76.000. showing a net gain of 630.000. It was a EuropeamA problem. andh a problem of southeast Europe. M11ost all of that immigration came from southern an( eastern Europe. Let us see what these six months have done. From July 1 to December 31. 1924. the gross arrivals of immigrant aliens from Europe amounted to 67.303. the departures of emigrant aliens going abroad to stay amounted to 48.120. so the net gain from Europe was only 19.203. The departures of southeast and eastern Europeans far exceeded the arrivals. Our net loss to Italy was nearly 20.000. Our net loss to Poland was very considerable. We lost to all those countries that had sent us this great unassimilable body of immigration before. and the only reason there is a net gain of 19.000 from Europe is that from Germany. from France. from Sweden. from Great Britain. came much larger numbers than went away. I think we can fairly say. for the first time in 75 years. that the problem of European immigration to America has been settled. with a net gain at the rate of less than 40.000 annually. and all of that net gain coming from northern and western Europe. mostly people who speak our language before they get here. mostly people who have inherited from their forbears a capacity for selfgovernment. I think we can say that for once and all the problem of European immigration is settled. In what I have been saying. I have not meant to make any comparison of peoples. I do not mean to say that the American Is a finerman than the inhabitant of this or that European country. In many ways there is much we ought to learn from them. But I do say this: That they are unlike us. that they have not learned by 10 centuries of struggle how to govern themselves by our methods. and I say that that type of immigration does not mix in America. and that was the reason why we had an immigration problem. Those people came here with alien customs. alien language. alien habits of government. and they were increasingly nnassimilable. I hail with great joy the fact that that problem is at an end. The net gain. for example. so that I may give the figures exactly. the net gain from Germany during those six months was 19.466. from Great Britain and Ireland. 19.028. On the other hand. the net loss to southern and eastern Europe exceeded 20.000. Now we turn to the other continents. and we need not dwell long upon immigration from them. It is enough to say that Asiatic immigration no longer is a question. We lost to Asia more immigrants than came in. and the number is only a few hundred either way. The same is true of Africa. The total immigration from the continent of Africa was only 218 persons. The net gain was less than 100.