For about 30 years after the annexation of California, all the Chinese who came to the Pacific ports were admitted. They were mostly men laborers and were brought over by the "six companies," a Chinese business organization that paid the passage and collected the money later out of the wages of the coolies. It was something like the "redemptioner" system in the colonies. They worked hard for themselves and for white employers, but lived by themselves, knew only the Chinese language, had their own ways of settling disputes without using the courts, and would take lower and then wages money than the white laborer.

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By 1880 it was plain that if allowed to come in freely they

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The small "key" cuts at the bottom of pages 180 and 181, will enable the student intelligently to read the maps.

would in the end swamp the white community. The people of California put strong pressure on Congress, which absolutely forbade the entry of Chinese laborers. Some of them still got in by stealth or fraud, or sneaked across the border from Canada or Mexico. The laws were made more and more severe until in 1896 every Chinese had to be registered and to show a certificate allowing him to remain. The Chinese were not allowed to become citizens; and made very few marriages with the white race; but children of Chinese born in the United States, according to the Fourteenth Amendment, were born citizens and when they grew up could vote on the same conditions as white people.

European Immigrants

After the year 1880 the tide of immigration changed. First from Europe, especially the Italians, who for a long time. furnished more immigrants every year than any other race. Then people from the Slav races Bohemians and Poles, Croatians and Russians; then large numbers of Polish and Russian Jews. Hundreds of thousands of women found work at domestic service; others worked in factories, especially clothing. The majority were housekeepers for their husbands or fathers.

This wave of immigration carried thousands of foreigners onto the farms, both East and West; but the greater part of them settled down in cities and towns where they could find work in factories. They furnished textile mill and shoe

hands in New England; clothing workers in New York City; builders and steel fitters; railroad hands; workers in furnaces and rolling mills in Pittsburgh and Youngstown. They were miners in the hard coal and soft coal regions and hands in any sort of industry where crude and low-paid labor was wanted.

Some corporations liked to employ people of various races who did not understand each others' languages, and therefore were not likely to combine in strikes.

Great numbers of these newcomers settled down in cities as little colonies, which soon grew to be like foreign cities imbedded in American soil. Such were the Jews on the East Side of New York; the Bohemians in Cleveland; the Hungarians in Uniontown; the Italians in the North End of Boston-all keeping up their home languages and customs and religious observances. Part of them wanted to be citizens and it was not difficult to pass through the process of naturalization. Yet several millions of them, old and young, remained citizens of the country from which they came, would not learn the language of their adopted country, and understood almost nothing of its Constitution and laws.

Making New Citizens From the beginning, immigrants have divided themselves into two classes in the United States. The first is made up of all the adults who arrive from foreign countries and the children who come with them. They are "aliens "-that is, still

This series of pictures illustrates a few of THE VARIOUS OCCUPATIONS in which immigrants to this country are engaged. Lacking knowledge of our language and customs, the average adult immigrant must of necessity first seek employment in the ranks of common labor. By rigid economy and with the help of his children who work in factories, he soon saves enough to gratify his ambition, which is to go into business for himself. The desire of the aliens to provide a better future for their children is shown more and more each day by the ever increasing number of children of aliens who are taking full advantage of all the educational opportunities to be had in this country.

citizens of the country from which they come. But aliens have the same right as nativeborn citizens to move about, to go from state to state, to engage in any kind of lawful business, to be protected by the police and the courts, in their lives and their property. They can sue other people, they can leave the country whenever they like. In 1900 the total number of aliens not yet naturalized was about two millions in the United States.

The other class is the naturalized citizens, that is, former aliens who have made use of the liberal welcome of the United States, by becoming full members of the community and complete Americans. The process is open to grown women as well as men, and is as follows: (1) Notice must be given in writing that the alien desires to become a citizen; this is the "declaration of intention," which may be filed at once on arriving in the country, or any number of years after. (2) Not less than two years after filing the declaration, the alien must appear before a court, prove that he has been a resident of the United States for five years, is a man of good character, and loyal to the American principles of government. (3) The court, if satisfied, gives him his naturalization papers, setting forth that he has become a citizen of the United States. (4) By this process his wife and children under twenty-one automatically became naturalized. By Act of Congress, 1922, a woman must now become naturalized on her Own account.

Going Back Across the Ocean

For a long time this system worked well. Few went back to Europe; but after the Civil War many men and women who had saved money in the United States or who were tired of it, returned to their home countries. Some of them had come away to be rid of the general military service which was being introduced on the continent of Europe. Such people might be arrested on their return to their original land, and compelled to perform their service in the army.

To avoid these difficulties, in 1868 the United States began to make treaties with foreign countries, by which it was agreed that a naturalized American citizen who remained two years in his original foreign country without any intention of returning would thereby lose his American citizenship. On the other hand, Germans, for example, who stayed in the United States two years, without intending to return, lost their German citizenship, whether naturalized or not: and so with some other races.

Immigrants in Public Life The United States not only welcomed people from abroad and gave them complete use of schools and universities and professions and business, but placed many of them in high positions. Under the Constitution no one can be President or Vice-President who was born outside the United States; but many members of the Cabinet, senators, members of the House of Representatives, governors