MIGRATION AND BUSINESS CYCLES
races over the period from 1899 to 1914 (years ending June 30).
The left-hand section of Chart 38 portrays the fluctuations in
the annual totals of immigration for the leading races of eastern
and southern Europe; the right-hand section, for the races of northern
 and western Europe. The relative percentage decline of two
series in any selected year may be approximated by comparing the
vertical changes in the corresponding curves’ with the aid of the
scales of percentage change to the right of the chart.
Of these two groups, the restraining effect of the depression
conditions of 1904, 1908, and 1911, is more evident in the immigration
 of the races of eastern and southern Europe. There are exceptions,
 of course, to this generalization if attention is given to the
separate races. For example, the immigration of North Italians
and of Greeks declined but slightly in 1904 and 1911, and the
immigration of Russians and Hebrews not at all.
Every race shows a decline in 1908 but the French, which comes
largely from Canada rather than from Europe, and the Russian,
which declined sharply in 1909. In 1913 the immigration of every
one of the selected races increased, this increase being particularly
marked for the Russian, Polish, Lithuanian, Croatian, and both
the North and South Italian.
Emigration.
The study of emigration by races, although it does not add
greatly to the results obtained by the study of immigration by
races, or to the study by countries, which appear earlier in this
chapter, does provide some additional significant contrasts in a
few cases where an important racial group forms but a fraction
of the total emigration of a country or, on the other hand, is an
important element in that of two or more countries.
In the pre-war period, when economic forces had relatively free
play so far as their effect on migration is concerned, the most obvious
response to industrial conditions in the United States is shown by
the group in the central section of Chart 39—Russian, Polish, and
South Italian. Particularly is the decline in 1909 and 1910 relatively
pronounced for these races. On the other hand, the emigration of
the Hebrew, North Italian, and German races affords relatively
little susceptibility to the ups and downs in industrial conditions in
the United States.

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