26. The minimum wage for men.
27. Should old age and sickness insurance be made a feature of the social insurance program of your state?
28. Should pensions be paid out of public funds to mothers having dependent children?
29. Should labor legislation be enacted primarily by the Federal or by the state governments?
CHAPTER XX
IMMIGRATION AND ASSIMILATION
215. RACIAL ELEMENTS IN OUR POPULATION.—The Federal census of 1920 gave the population of continental United States as 105,710,620. Approximately nine tenths of this population is white, while about one tenth is negro. Those who are neither white nor negro, namely, American Indians and Asiatics, together constitute less than one half of one per cent of the population.
The great majority of our people are either European immigrants, or the descendants of European immigrants who came to this country within the last century and a half. With reference to European immigration we distinguish three groups: the foreign-born, the native-born children of the foreign-born, and natives. Natives include those whose ancestors have been in this country two or more generations. On the basis of this classification, about one seventh of our population is foreign-born while over one third is either foreign-born or the native-born children of foreign-born parents.
The ease with which immigrants have adapted themselves to American life prevents any accurate classification of nationalities in our population, but probably Great Britain and Ireland, Germany, Italy, Russia, (including Poland), and Austria-Hungary have, in the order named, contributed the largest numbers.
216. THE "OLD" IMMIGRATION.—European immigration to the United States may be divided into two groups, the "old" and the "new." The "old" immigration extended from the beginning of our national history to about the year 1880, and was derived chiefly from Great Britain and Ireland, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries. Between 1820 (the first year for which we have accurate records) and 1880, about nine tenths of our immigrants came from these countries.