offers some interesting comparisons between the native-born and
the foreign-born in this matter of age distribution. It shows quite
plainly that a large proportion of the native-born population is below
the age of industrial production, fully 39 per cent, or two-fifths,
being under fifteen years of age, while only 5 per cent of the
foreign-born are of corresponding ages. On the other hand, the ages
fifteen to forty-four include 46 per cent of the native and 58 per cent
of the foreign-born. This is shown in the diagram based on five-year age
periods. The native born are seen to group themselves in a symmetrical
pyramid, with the children under five as the wide foundation, gradually
tapering to the ages of eighty and eighty-four, but for the foreign-born
they show a double pyramid, tapering in both directions from the ages of
thirty-five to thirty-nine, which include the largest five-year group.
Thus, immigration brings to us a population of working ages unhampered
by unproductive mouths to be fed, and, if we consider alone that which
produces the wealth of this country and not that which consumes it, the
immigrants add more to the country than does the same number of native
of equal ability. Their home countries have borne the expense of rearing
them up to the industrial period of their lives, and then America,
without that heavy expense, reaps whatever profits there are on the
investment.

[Illustration: PROPORTION OF SEXES. NATIVE AND FOREIGN-BORN WHITES,
1900, AND IMMIGRANTS 1906]

In another respect does immigration add to our industrial population
more than would be done by an equal increase in native population,
namely, by the large excess of men over women. In 1906, over two-thirds
of the immigrants were males and less than one-third were females. This
is shown on the accompanying diagram, as well as the fact based on the
census statistics that among the foreign-born the men predominate over
the women in the ratio of 540 to 460, while among the native-born
population the sexes are about equal, being in the proportion of 507
males to 493 females.

This small proportion of women and children shows, of course, that it is
the workers, not the families, who seek America. Yet the proportions
widely vary for different nationalities. Among the Jews 48 per cent are
females and 28 per cent children. This persecuted race moves in a body,
expecting to make America its home. At the other extreme the Greeks send
only 4