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.