CYCLICAL FLUCTUATIONS IN MIGRATION 141 
separate base line. The result is that the curves are more con- 
veniently placed for use in comparing the degree of year-to-year 
change but the vertical position of a curve ceases to be significant 
and the numerical amounts represented by a given point thereon 
cannot be read from the chart. This type of chart is appropriate 
for the one purpose for which it is here used—as a visual aid to the 
comparison of year-to-year changes—but care should be taken to 
avoid the errors of interpretation which may arise if the limitations 
of this form of chart are overlooked. 
Emigrants and Nonemigrants. 
»% There is no marked difference in the degree to which the cyclical 
movements of the number of emigrants and of nonemigrants are 
affected by employment conditions.: One bit of evidence leading 
to this conclusion is afforded by the data in Table 37, showing the 
ratio of nonemigrants to total departing aliens in each of the calendar 
years, 1908 to 1924. 
TABLE 37.—RATIO OF NONEMIGRANTS TO TOTAL ALIENS DEPARTED: 
1908-1924» i 
YEAR ENDING ALIENS DEPARTED PERCENTAGE 
JUNE 30TH - - —_—— — Rario 
ToraL NONEMIGRANT 
1908 714,828 319,755 44.7 
1909 400,392 174,590 43.6 
1910 380,418 177,982 46.8 
1911 518,215 222 549 42.9 
1912 615,292 282,030 45.8 
1913 611,924 303,734 49.6 
1914 633,805 330,467 52.1 
1915 384,174 180,100 46.9 
1916 240,807 111,042 46.1 
1917 146,379 80,102 54.7 
1918 193,268 98,683 51.1 
1919 216,231 92,709 42.9 
1920 428,062 139,747 32.6 
1921 426,031 178,313 41.9 
1922 345,384 146,672 42.5 
1923 200,586 119,136 59.4 
1924 216.745 139,956 64.6 
sCompiled from the annual reports of the Commissioner General of Immigration, U. S. ‘Bureau of 
Immigration. 
‘However, our study of the depression of 1908, in Chapter V, suggested that the 
effect of that depression was most marked upon net migration when the temporary 
element was included.