1 84 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
TABLE II
Year Per Cent. iSQI 23.46
1892 37-00
1893 35-25
1894 28.34
1895 20.56
1896 27.28
1897 27.01
1898 40.74
l809 44- H
1900 48.73
1901 40. 12
1902 61 .20
1903 61 .91
1904 67.28
As is clearly seen from these figures, it is only during the last few years that the Italians represent a large percentage of general immigration into the United States. This fact is accounted for, in part if not entirely, by the diminution of prosperity in the South American republics, where, because of the greater simi- larity of climate, and race, customs, and language, the Italians have always preferred to emigrate. 1 For some time, however, the South American labor markets have been traversing periods of depression, which at present show no signs of disappearing ; and consequently they have had, and still have, an immediate and strong repercussion upon the human current which flows in that direction. Moreover, the Italian emigration, which was formerly subventioned and encouraged by the Brazilian government, has been restrained by the Italian authorities because of the insuffi- ciency of legislation in Brazil for the protection of the Italian laborers, who were unable to exact the payment of their wag-es from the masters of the haciendas, to the plowing and cultivation of which they devoted their labor. Recently, however, a remedial law has been approved by the Brazilian parliament, and
1 It is a well-known fact that in the Argentine Republic and contiguous states, and to a certain extent in Brazil, the Italians represent the predominating factor of the foreign population, and in these countries, especially the first-named, they have succeeded in imprinting their own national character upon many of the social manifestations of these communities.
