700. Population. After the Revolution the people of the United States numbered scarcely four million. Most of these were scattered along the eastern seaboard, for but few at this time had made their way across the Appalachian Mountains. At present (census of 1910) the United States proper has a population of nearly ninety-two million (91,972,266). When the population of its outlying possessions is added, the total numbers over one hundred million (101,179,400), of which some twenty-three million (23,301,509) are Catholics.

The center of pop-.

ulation of the United

States has since 1790

moved westward from about twenty miles east of Baltimore to about fifteen miles southeast of Bloomington, in southern Indiana (39° 4' north latitude and 86° 19' west longitude). Thus we see that the American frontier, that is, the border of the settled and cultivated

A MANILA SCENE

part of the country, which at the beginning of the century extended along the eastern slope of the Alleghanies, had with the flow of immigration gradually moved westward across the Mississippi, the Great Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and even to the Pacific coast. At present the American frontier has practically vanished.

701. Immigration. Our marked increase in population in more recent years would have been impossible but for the great immigration from Europe. For many years after the Revolution immigrants came in small numbers, and not before

1840 did they average one hundred thousand a year. During the following decade, however, owing to the poverty and oppression of the laboring people in Europe, the influx of population assumed very large proportions. After 1870 sc great was immigration to the United States that by 1900 the country had added nearly twenty million foreigners to its population. The immigrants settled mainly in New England, in the great cities (especially New York and Chicago), and in the Northwest. Very few settled in the South except in Texas; the negroes as competitive laborers kept them out of what was otherwise a most promising section.

At first these aliens came largely from the British Isles, Germany, and the Scandinavian peninsula. They were intelligent, enterprising, and active in the development of the great agricultural states of the West-in brief, they were a desirable addition to the population. In recent years, however, a less desirable element from southern Europe and eastern Asia (China) has found its way to our shores.

Congress finally amended our immigation laws (1891) by enacting measures which, besides denying Chinese laborers. admission to the United States, also refused entrance to convicts, insane persons, paupers, polygamists, anarchists, persons afflicted with contagious diseases, and laborers under contract to perform labor or service in the United States, except such as were engaged in their professions or in the establishment of new industries. It increased the tax imposed upon immigrants from fifty cents to four dollars per head. A superintendent of immigration was appointed, whose duty it was to examine into the character of all immigrants. Foreigners to whom admission was denied under these laws were sent back at the expense of the owners of the vessels which had brought them.

The "Geary Act," passed by Congress (1892), provided that any Chinaman not lawfully entitled to remain in the United States should be returned to his native land and that all Chinese laborers should be obliged to secure certificates of

residence. If they neglected to do this within a year they were to be sent back to China. Means of executing the Act failed, and it was partially repealed in the following year.

As the United States laws confine the privilege of naturalization to persons of the Caucasian and African races, the Chinese, even though they should have all other necessary qualifications, can not become citizens of the United States.

702. Cities and Towns. The growth and increase of our cities and towns, keeping pace with the increase of population and the westward expansion of the American frontier, is truly marvelous. In 1800 four per cent of the population of the United States lived in cities, and of these only five contained more than ten thousand inhabitants. The city dwellers at present (census of 1910) number not less than forty-one per cent, or more than two-fifths of the total population. New York, our metropolis, has a population of over four and one-half millions (4,776,883), and among the cities of the world is second only