S C R I B N E R ' S M A G A Z I N E Important ... - Rparchives.org

THE INCOAIING TIDE.
By the Rev, J. S. Thompson, D.D.
Home Mission Secretary.
The history of the world is the story of
the immigrant.
The most distinct line that
marks everv great epoch in the world's history
is "the trail of the immigrant."
It began
Avith the "confusion of tongues," and
the migrations that necessarily grew out of
that.
Lentil that time population had huddled
about a single center. That event forced
them out upon a tour of investigation and
conquest, of Avhat, up to that time, had been
an unexplored and an unsubdued Avorld, God
had said, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth,"
Obedience to that command
involved the dispersion of thb race.
Men sought to prevent the dispersion, and so
to thAvart God's purpose.
The confusion of
tongues, though a judgment, was not an unmixed
evil. It Avas God's Avay of punishing
the sin of men, and at the same time accomplishing
his own purpose for the race.
From that day to the present the history of
the world has folloAved the path of the immigrant,
and every step of the Avorld's progress
has been marked by the toils, the tears,
the trials, the separations and the farewells
of the immigrant tides.
Men
often fail to grasp the significance
of the events in the midst of which they are
living.
It takes the more distant view to
catch the true perspective. We are living in
the midst of the greatest and the most significant
immigrant movement in the history
of the Avorld,
It is the greatest immigrant
movement of history because it involves the
transplanting of the greatest number
from
their native lands into ncAv soil. It is the
n^ost significant immigrant movement in history
because it gathers about it the greatest
possibilities for the future of the world,
either for Aveal or for Avoe. Which it shall
be depends upon the spirit and the fidelity
with which the church in America meets the
crisis that is upon her, and moulds the new
hfe that is being quickened into existence.
The present immigration movement involves
two things. The great influx of foreign people
into this country. The movement of population
within our borders, especially towards
the newer parts of our territory. Those
who have planned Home Mission Week have
had a vision of the significance and the possibilities
of this immigrant movement, and
they are seeking to help to meet the crisis
that is upon us. The phase of the subject
on which they aim to concentrate our attention
this year is the inflowing multitudes
to our shores, rather than the mio-ratorv
THiE CHRISTIAN NATION, Vol. 59.
movements within our population. There are
several things that 'give peculiar significance
to the inflow of the multitudes to our shores.
I. The number who are crowding to our
shores. Government statistics show that the
average for the last ten years has been more
than a million a year. i\Ioses led about two
millions of people from Egypt to Canaan.
Five times as many people have landed on
our shores in the last ten years. The number
of immigrants that have landed on our
shores since the close of the Civil War is
equal to seven-tenths of our total population
at the beginning of the War. Since Ave became
a nation we have received 30,000,000
of people by immigration, but of that number
We have received 24,000,000 since the
close of the war, and 10,500,000 in the last
ten years. This, it is true, does not mark a
total gain in population to that number, for
a considerable proportion of this number return
after a longer or shorter period, some
to remain in the land of their nativity, others
to return again helping to swell the immigrant
tide of another year. But it does mark
a gain of population of considerably more
than fifty per cent, of the total number of
immigrants. To assimilate such a vast multitude,
to instill into them the true principles
of American civilization and manhood, and
above all to make them genuinely Christian,
is a tremendous task, a task which we are
not adequately meeting, and we may well
say, "Who is sufficient for tbese things?"
And yet we must assimilate them or else our
standard of American civilization Avill bei
changed and degenerated,
2, The source from Avhich they come.
They come from every corner of the Avorld,
and on our soil will be found spoken almost
every language, and every dialect that
is spoken under the sun. But the last thirty
years has seen a great change in the source
from wbich the larger part of our immigrants
come, and consequently a vast change
in the character of the people Avho are coming
to us. The largest proportion of our
immigrants have always^ come from European
countries, and it still remains so. Prior
to 1882 eighty seven per cent, of our immigration
came from north and Avest Europe.
Since that date so complete has been the
change in our immigrant tide that noAV only
nineteen per cent, comes from those regions,
while sixty-eight per cent, comes from .south
and east Europe and Wes^tern Asia. The
number as Avell as the proportion coming
from Asia has steadily increased during
those years, until of the ten millions of immigrants
received during the last ten years,
more than three millions came from Asiatic
countries. AH this means that the character
of the people coming to our shores has largely
changed, and that they are of entirely different
religious, social and political ideas.
Formerly the large proportion of our immigrants
were of the sturdy Protestant races
now they are largely of the Roman, Greek
or Russian faith, with a considerablle proportion
of followers of religions not even claiming
the Christian name. The migration of
the Hebrew people from Egypt to Canaan
occupied about forty years, and resulted in
the introduction of something over two millions
of people into the new land. At the
present rate of Hebrew immigration into this
country during the next forty years there
will be introduced into this country a number
almost twice as great as entered the land
of Canaan. The Slavs send us the largest
number each year, 180,000. Next follow the
Italians Avith 160,000,
3. The distribution of these incoming millions.
If they were distributed proportionateljy
to population over the entire country
the problem of their assimilation would still
be a tremendous one, and might well call
forth the best efforts of the Church and other
organizations having for their purpose the
moral, spiritual and intellectual uplift of the
people. But the problem is rendered much
more acute by the fact that the distribution
of these forces is by no means proportionate
to population, but is concentrated and congested
in certain comparatively limited areas.
Quite a large proportion of these immigrants
never get very far from the port of entry, consequently
New York City receives a number
each year sufificient to form a good sized city
themselves. Industrial conditions also bear
significantly upon their distribution, the great
industrial centers of our country gathering to
themselves each year increasing numbers of
these immigrants. If a line be drawn from
St, Louis in a north-easterly direction, passing
between Baltimore and Washington, and
another in a northwesterly direction to the
northwest corner of Alinnesota, the angle included
betvi'een these lines will contain a little
less than one-fifth of the total area of the
country, almost one-half of its total population,
Avhil© it receives more than four-fifths
of the incoming tide of immigrants. There
are two reasons for this congestion of the
imiTiigrant forces Avithin this angle. First it
is on the shore of this part of our country
that most of them land. And second this includes
the great industrial section of the
country. But the concentration of these multitudes
in these regions, more than 800,000
every year, imposes a tremendous burden on
the churches and other institutions dealing
Avith the problems of the assimilation of these
masses, and the making of them into good
American citizens, New York, New Jersey
and Pennsylvania alone receive more than
400,000 of these immigrants. Two-fifths of
the population of Ncav York City is foreign
born, another tAvo-fifths are born of foreignborn
parents, Avhile only one-fifth are born
of American-born parents. That means that
two out of every five that you meet on the
sitreets of the city Avere born on foreign soil,
tAvo more are childrtn of those Avho were