INFLUENCE OF ECONOMIC CONDITIONS 167 
much of the decline in 1922 is due to depression conditions and how 
much to the restrictive legislation which went into effect in May, 
1921. 
The data in Table 47 furnish a first approximation of the relative 
degree to which the immigration of various races is checked by 
business depression. For example, the depression of 1908 evidently 
had a relatively slight effect on English and Irish immigration, but 
reduced the Polish and Italian immigration to less than half that of 
the preceding year. 
Whether these differences are merely peculiar to the particular 
depression years selected or are characteristic of general tendencies 
may be determined somewhat more completely by examination of 
Chart 38, which shows the movement of the immigration of selected 
CHART 38 
FLucTuATIONS IN IMMIGRATION, BY RACE: 1899-1914. 
EASTERN AND SOUTHEP' “I'. . 4 - "NORTHERN AND WESTERN HURCER, SCALES OF 
PERCENTAGE 
| CHANGE 
Only the relative slope, not the vertical 200 
position, of these curves is significant foo 
jre 
8 
f 2 
Increase | fo 
60 
Zz 
. Only the relative slope, 
& 1 
| ; & 
of 3% 4 Ld 
a 
tp me fey | 
1899-04 | 190509 [ 19/014 Besos Toros | RIE | 7905-09 | /9/0-/4 
Years Ending June 30 2 
sFor the numerical data from which these curves were plotted, see the Annual 
Report of the Commissioner General of Immigration, 1924, pp. 113-114. 
bFor a more complete discussion of the method of constructing the above chart, see 
footnote (b) to Chart 27, in Chapter VII.