TO AMERICAN DEMOCRACY                       65

CHAPTER VIII
CITIZENSHIP

OBSTACLES TO CITIZENSHIP—Ignorance of the
language is perhaps the greatest bar to citizenship. With
the Italian another factor enters, namely, the tendency^
to return to Italy. Fully 30% of these immigrants go ''^
back to the homeland aTfef~they have accumulated some
"sSvfnfST""""Taking the period of 1905-1910 as an ex¬
ample, we note the following proportions of returning
immigrants.*

1905—31%                                     1908—34%

1906—38%                                     1909—30%

1907—62%                                     1910—42%

Because of this tendency the state of affairs found in
1898 when out of 16,000 workmen engaged in the con¬
struction of the Erie Canal 15,000 were unnaturalized, is
not surprising.** This is not the whole story however.
Fully 15% who returned to Italy with their savings are
inevitably found among those who come to America the
following year, viz:

PREVIOUSLY    ADMITTED     ITALIAN    SPEAKING

IMMIGRANTS—1899-1910

Number       In United States previously

People                       Admitted               Number Percent admitted

Italian,  North             372,668                      56,738                      15.2

Italian, South           1,911,933                     262,508                      13.7

But both these factors are absent in the case of the
offspring. Many of these individuals do not speak Ital¬
ian as well as they do English, and a few speak no Ital¬
ian at all. The majority, not having known Italy, have
no desire to go there and reside permanently.

RELATION OF IMMIGRANT TO NATIVE VOTE—
The importance of immigrant races as possible voters is
greater than their importance in proportion to the popu¬
lation. This is so because males come in greater numbers
than do females. For instance 10,C)(X),000 foreign-born
population furnishes 5,000,000 males of voting age, but

* Stella, Dr. Antonio—"Assicurzione Obbligatoria Degli Emi¬
grant! contro la Tuberculosi," p. 15.
♦♦New York Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1898, p. 1155.-------—^