arious sections, in both skilled and
unskilled labor, the cost of living, the wages paid, the price and
capabilities of the land, the character of the climates, the duration of
the seasons--in short, all that information furnished by some of the
great railway lines through whose efforts the territory tributary
thereto has been transformed from a wilderness within a few years to the
abiding place of a happy and prosperous population.

[Sidenote: A Growing Evil]

"Again the importance of undertaking to distribute aliens now
congregating in our large cities to those parts of the United States
where they can secure employment without displacing others by working
for a less wage, and where the conditions of existence do not tend to
the fostering of disease, depravity, and resistance to the social and
political security of the country, is urged. The Bureau is convinced
that no feature of the immigration question so insistently demands
public attention and effective action. The evil to be removed is one
that is steadily and rapidly on the increase, and its removal will
strike at the roots of fraudulent elections, poverty, disease, and crime
in our large cities, and on the other hand largely supply that
increasing demand for labor to develop the natural resources of our
country. Too much encouragement cannot be given to the reported efforts
of certain railway companies to divert a portion of the tide of
immigration to the Southern states. It is impossible, in the opinion of
the Bureau, to overestimate the importance of this subject as bearing
upon the effect of immigration on the future welfare of this
country."[42]

[Sidenote: Chart of Distribution]

What are the facts concerning the present location and distribution of
immigrants? The answer involves a most interesting study. Taking the
immigration of 1905, the chart[43] on the next page illustrates the
distribution by states.

[Illustration: PROPORTION OF IMMIGRATION AND NUMBER OF IMMIGRANTS
GOING TO EACH STATE DURING THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1905

BY PERMISSION OF THE BUREAU OF IMMIGRATION]

[Sidenote: Where the Masses Stay]

The enormous proportion going to New York, Pennsylvania, and the North
Atlantic section shows prominently. They got ninety per cent. of the
whole, while the South received but four per cent. of the total, and
only one per cent. of that went to the South Central States. The Great
West had only four per cent. as against five the year pre