CHAPTER VI 
THE WAR AND POST-WAR PERIOD 
The principal emphasis in this study has been placed, for some- 
what obvious reasons, upon the years preceding the Great War. 
The pre-war period is particularly significant for our purpose because 
at that time, on this side of the Atlantic at least, there were fewer 
legal or unusual barriers to the free flow of migration in accordance 
with the pull of economic motives. 
On the other hand, the decade just past is not to be entirely 
neglected. Despite the restraint and distortion due to unusual 
political conditions and restrictive legislation, to a considerable 
extent it is possible to clear away the results of such extraneous 
influences, and to throw still further light on the influence upon 
migration of cyclical variations and other economic phenomena. 
THE WAR PERIOD: 1914-1918 
For our purpose, the years from the outbreak of the war to the 
conclusion of the armistice are relatively inconsequential. Ordinary 
migratory movements were hindered by the hazards of ocean travel, 
the restraints placed upon their nationals by the belligerent coun- 
tries, and similar obstacles to the normal movement of migrants. 
The net result of these influences is shown in Table 29 giving 
the number of alien arrivals, alien departures, and the net alien 
movement in the war period and in a few years immediately pre- 
ceding and succeeding the war. 
It is evident that even before our entry into the war, the number 
of arrivals had shrunk to less than a third of the 1913, or peak year, 
total, and reached a still lower ebb in 1917 and 1918. Departures 
also decreased during the war, but, after the armistice, recovered 
more quickly than arrivals, and in 1919 the number of alien de- 
partures was within a few thousand of the number of arrivals. In 
fact, if we consider male aliens only, we find that the departures 
exceeded the arrivals by 24,045 in 1915 and by 61,090 in 1919. 
We must’'not conclude that there were no migratory movements 
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