its newcomers
attracting the attention of the press, of the city charities who felt
their growing responsibilities, and of the unions who felt their
competition. Nearly all the immigrants were producers, a high percentage
being able-bodied young men and women. The greatest number came from
Great Britain, among whom the Irish settled in the Eastern cities. Next
were the Germans, who moved toward Chicago or St. Louis, while the
Scandinavians filled up the wheat-lands of the Northwest.

Under the demand of the labor vote, Congress provided, in 1882, for the
inspection of immigrants and the deportation of undesirable aliens, and
in 1885 it forbade the importation of skilled laborers under contract.
As yet the labor movement was largely aristocratic, safeguarding the
skilled workmen, but disregarding the common laborers.

The labor and immigration movement in its new aspect widened the field
for economic legislation, for few States had factory laws, employers'
liability laws, or laws protecting the weak,--the women and the
children. It also complicated the situation in politics. The Germans
and Scandinavians, settling in centers which had been strongly Unionist
in the Civil War, were believed to absorb the doctrines of the
Republicans from their compatriots already in America. The Irish were
generally Democrats, and the only Republican leader who had a large
following among them was Blaine. He had fraternized with the California
Irish leader, Dennis Kearney; as Secretary of State he had protected
naturalized Irishmen who went home to fight for Home Rule; some of his
immediate family were Catholics; and his insistence on an American canal
won him friends who were already disposed to hate Great Britain.

The votes of 1876 and 1880 showed that the two parties were nearly even
in strength, so that any slight popularity or accident might decide an
election. As politicians prepared for 1884 the attitude of naturalized
foreigners assumed a new importance which the friends of the various
candidates tried to measure. The campaign could not be fought on any of
the old issues, but which of the new--civil service, tariff, or
labor--was in doubt.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

The best history of civil service reform is C.R. Fish, _The Civil
Service and the Patronage_ (1905). This supplants all previous accounts,
and may itself be supplemented in detail by the Annual Reports of the
United States Civil Service Commission (1883-), by the _