Even this does not tell the story complete, for the effects of free immigration are intensified by the opposite policy of a protective tariff on imports. While labor is admitted practically free, the products of labor are taxed to prevent free ingress. The following table shows the extreme points in the rise and fall of immigration and imports:—
CULMINATING POINTS OF IMMIGRATION AND IMPORTS OF MERCHANDISE
| Year Ending June 30 | Immigration | Imports | ||
| Prosperity | Depression | Prosperity | Depression | |
| 1873 | 459,803 | $642,000,000 | ||
| 1879 and 1878[90] | 177,826 | $437,000,000 | ||
| 1882 | 788,992 | 725,000,000 | ||
| 1886 and 1885[90] | 334,203 | 578,000,000 | ||
| 1893 | 439,307 | 866,000,000 | ||
| 1897 and 18985[90] | 230,832 | 616,000,000 | ||
| 1906 | 1,100,735 | 1,226,000,000 | ||
By comparing the two sets of columns it will be seen that, owing to the protective tariff, the imports of merchandise vary but slightly in periods of prosperity and depression compared with the variation in number of immigrants. Thus in the recent period of prosperity, the imports increased twofold above the lowest point of the preceding depression, while the number of immigrants increased nearly fivefold.
The swell of immigration in the above-mentioned periods of prosperity increases the supply of labor, but the protective tariff prevents a similar increase in the supply of products. Thus immigration and the tariff together prevent wages from rising with the rise in prices of commodities and cost of living. This permits profits to increase more than wages, to be followed by overproduction and stoppage of business.
Furthermore, when once the flow of immigrants is stimulated it continues for some time after the pinnacle of prosperity has been reached. In 1903 the boom met a check at the beginning of the year, but the number of immigrants continued to increase during the summer and fall at the rate of 20,000 per month in excess of the number during the high period of prosperity in 1902. This makes it possible for great corporations to continue their investments by means of cheap labor beyond the probable demands of the country, with the result of overproduction, loss of profits, inability to pay fixed charges, and consequent panics. Thus it is that immigration, instead of increasing the production of wealth by a steady, healthful growth, joins with other causes to stimulate the feverish overproduction, with its inevitable collapse, that has characterized the industry of America more than that of any other country. It helps to create fortunes during a period of speculation, and intensifies the reaction during a period of stagnation.