The German American Vote.—The following table shows the vote of the Germans, Austrians and Hungarians (according to the census of 1910) in ten states where their vote is above 40,000, the figures beingcompounded of those naturalized and those having applied for their first papers:
| Germans | Austrians | Hungarians | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 163,881 | 41,466 | 16,123 | 221,470 |
| Illinois | 124,430 | 30,461 | 5,374 | 160,265 |
| Wisconsin | 92,655 | 11,385 | 1,620 | 105,660 |
| Ohio | 68,576 | 12,342 | 8,757 | 89,675 |
| Michigan | 52,510 | 4,113 | 1,011 | 57,634 |
| Minnesota | 46,281 | 9,515 | 1,022 | 56,718 |
| New Jersey | 44,899 | 7,403 | 4,448 | 56,750 |
| Iowa | 39,348 | 4,802 | 249 | 44,399 |
| Missouri | 35,267 | 4,115 | 1,835 | 41,217 |
| California | 34,911 | 5,135 | 1,065 | 41,111 |
These figures are but remotely representative of what is called “the German vote” or the vote of the Austro-Hungarians, as no account is here taken of the first generation born in the United States, the sons of these naturalized Americans, nor of their grandsons.
With the first generation of German Americans, the total vote in 1916 of this element in New York, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Missouri, Michigan, Iowa, Minnesota, Indiana, New Jersey, California, Nebraska, Kansas and the two Dakotas amount to 1,860,500.
New England, which was the center of anti-German sentiment as it is the center of puritanism and Anglo-American hyphenation, contains the smallest number of Germans and the largest number of aliens of any section in the United States; in other words, the lowest percentage of naturalized citizens among the foreign-born white men of the age of 21 and over—40.7 per cent. The highest proportion of naturalized foreign-born above 21 years was in the West North Central division, that is Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Kansas, where the Teutonic element is largely settled. Table 25 of the U. S. Census Bulletin on Population (1910) “Voting Age, Military Age, and Naturalization,” shows that the German aliens 21 years and over, all told, number only 127,103, and the Germans stand at the foot of the list of twenty-nine (alien immigrants) or 9.9 per cent., the highest being 83 per cent. The French aliens in the United States numbered 27.8 per cent., the Scotch 21.8, and the English 19.6. In other words, only 9.9 in every hundred of Germans could not be forced to go to war, but nearly 28 out of every hundred Frenchmen, 21.5 out of every hundred Scotchmen, and more than 19 out of every hundred Englishmen were immune from military duty in the United States, also from the payment of taxes.
There are more German-born persons in the United States of the age of 21 and over than there are persons of any other foreign nationality. Of the total number of foreign-born (6,646,817), Germanyis represented by 1,278,667, of whom 69.5 per cent. had been naturalized in 1910. Russia comes next, with 737,120, of whom only 26.1 per cent. were naturalized. There were 437,152 Englishmen of voting age, 59.4 of whom were naturalized, while only 49.6 per cent. out of a total of 59,661 Frenchmen of voting age were entitled to vote.
The following table shows the States containing the largest number of Germans of voting age of all foreign-born citizens:
| Germans | Austrians | Hungarians | |
|---|---|---|---|
| East North Central | 461,038 | 166,037 | 90,577 |
| West North Central | 228,262 | 63,686 | —— |
| South Atlantic | 32,143 | 10,961 | 6,007 |
| East South Central | 15,154 | 1,719 | —— |
| Pacific | 73,302 | 23,500 | —— |
| Germans | Austrians | Hungarians | |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Jersey | 60,380 | 26,082 | 22,773 |
| Ohio | 87,013 | 38,400 | 47,852 |
| Indiana | 32,123 | 7,356 | 9,383 |
| Illinois | 159,112 | 81,883 | 20,391 |
| Wisconsin | 117,661 | 20,700 | 6,014 |
| Iowa | 52,393 | 8,580 | —— |
| Missouri | 47,038 | 8,819 | 5,834 |
| South Dakota | 11,964 | 3,099 | —— |
| Nebraska | 31,008 | 12,184 | —— |
| Kansas | 18,910 | 6,178 | —— |
| Maryland | 17,370 | 3,397 | 967 |
| Colorado | 9,558 | 8,221 | —— |
| Oregon | 10,786 | 3,622 | —— |
| California | 44,712 | 11,125 | —— |
In the following States the German-born citizens of voting age constitute the second largest number of foreign-born citizens: