USA > New York > A short history of New York State > Part 48
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PART FIVE
Economic Development of the Empire State
Chapter 34
Our Changing Population
We must face the inevitable. The new civilization is certain to be urban; and the problem of the twentieth century will be the city. Many English sovereigns attempted to arrest the growth of London by proclamation. Equally idle will be all attempts to turn back from the modern city the tide of popula- tion flowing up to it. One who thinks to circumvent or to suc- cessfully resist economic and social laws is fighting against the stars in their courses .- JOSIAH STRONG
WHEN one sees, hears, or uses the word "population," he is likely to think immediately of the number of people living in a particular area. In this chapter the term population is used in a broader sense. Here we are concerned not only with the number of the state's inhabitants at any particular time but with their heterogeneity, their sources, including immigration, their mobility and distribution, their vital statistics, their urbanization, their housing and its relation to crime and delinquency, and their corrective institutions, especially prisons and institutions for the mentally ill.
The state of New York had an estimated population of over 16,000,000 on July 1, 1955. Although the federal census returns indicated that many states, notably California, showed a higher rate of growth in population during the decade 1940-1950, New York has since 1820 been the most populous state in the Union. Between 1790 and 1830 the state's popula- tion increased at a faster rate than that of the entire nation, and between 1830 and 1890 at a lesser rate. The state again went ahead of the nation in the interval between 1890 and 1930, but during 1930 and 1940 its increase of 7.1 per cent was about the same as that of the United States. During the decade of the 1940's the state's rate of increase rose to 9.4 per cent, a rate again higher than that of the country as a whole. In this century New York's rate of increase in population has risen from 9.6 per cent in 1900 to over 11 per cent in 1950.
449
450
A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
There were fewer large families as the nineteenth century drew to a close. The birth rate continued to decline steadily from 29.6 per thousand population in 1900 to 13.8 in 1936, the lowest in the history of the state. Thereafter it rose sharply, reaching 22.6 per thousand in 1947, the highest rate in twenty-nine years. This phenomenal spurt in birth rate can be attributed to the many postponed marriages and delays in starting fami- lies during the Depression of the 1930's, followed by the wartime period
30
RATE PER 1000 POPULATION
Births per 1000
Natural
Increase
20
per
1000
Deaths per 1000
10
0
1900
1910
1920
1930
1940
1950
Chart 1. The rate of population growth in New York State, 1900-1950. This chart excludes deaths of armed forces overseas during World War II. (Adapted from New York State Commerce Review, March 1950.)
which provided the economic basis for earlier marriages and more chil- dren. Since 1947 New York State's birth rate has fallen off somewhat, but the rate of more than 20 per thousand is still high in comparison with the low rates of the 1930's. Incidentally, the birth rate for New York State has followed the same general trend as that for the United States but has continued to fall short of the national rate. The higher average age as well as the greater urbanization of the state's population is largely responsible for this disparity.
No state in the Union has a more cosmopolitan population than New York. People from every part of the world are to be found residing within its boundaries. Immigration from foreign countries was, until the federal restriction of the 1920's, one of the most important forces in New York's population growth. Even before 1865 thousands upon thou- sands of persons from northwest and central Europe migrated westward to improve their economic lot-Englishmen, Welshmen, Scotch-Irish from Ulster, Germans from the Palatinate and the Rhineland, Catholics from Ireland. In the 1870's and 1880's more English, Germans, and Scandinavians sought economic opportunity here, dazzled by the prom-
451
OUR CHANGING POPULATION
ises of railroad and steamship companies. Then in 1890's, 1900's, and 1910's came tidal wave after tidal wave from southern and eastern Europe-Croats, Ruthenians, Italians, Poles, Russians, Jews, Greeks, Turks. After World War I there was an influx of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, Filipinos, Mexicans, French Canadians. Between 1861 and 1900, fourteen million entered; between 1901 and 1914, another thirteen million came. It is not without significance that in the one-hundred-year period between 1820 and 1920 approximately 70 per cent of the immigrants to this country entered the port of New York. As a consequence, many of them, attracted by the varied employment opportunities and the amenities of the metro- politan area, as well as by the opportunity of contact with others of their national groups, who were already established in the city or elsewhere in the state, remained. In the larger cities of the state, notably New York, the immigrants of a particular nationality frequently settled in a particu- lar area or region. Thus within the boundaries of the city there were neighborhoods or communities where almost the entire population would be composed of persons of one national extraction. New York, for ex- ample, had its "Chinatown," "Little Italy," Deutschland or German West Side, and a dozen other nationalistic neighborhoods where not only the language but the customs of the homeland were retained. In a real sense they were culturally nationalistic colonies within the limits of the city. Their presence helped to give vitality and diversity to the state's labor force. Some industries were built almost entirely on the specialized skills of workers and proprietors belonging to certain national groups. New York City's strong position in the garment trades, for example, stems in large measure from the contribution of settlers from the other side of the Atlantic.
Restrictions on immigration during recent decades are reflected in the figures for foreign-born residents in this state and in the country as a whole. There were fewer natives of other countries in New York in 1950 than in any of the previous census years back to 1910; the propor- tion of foreign-born persons in the state's total population fell from 30.2 per cent in 1910 to 17.4 per cent in 1950. During the same period the comparable percentage for the United States dropped from 14.7 to 6.9.
Despite the barriers to immigration, the state had 2,577,000 inhabit- ants of foreign birth in 1950, or twice as many foreign born as Cali- fornia, the second-ranking state in this respect. Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts followed with between seven and eight hundred thousand each. Since 1920 New York has also had a higher percentage of foreign-born residents than any other state; in earlier years this pro- portion was higher in Massachusetts and, on occasion, in Rhode Island. States other than New York in which at least one in every ten residents
452
A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
was foreign born include New Jersey, California, and the New England. states except Maine and Vermont. In some of the southern states the ratio of foreign born was less than one in one hundred.
ITALY
U.S.S.R.
GERMANY
POLAND
IRELAND
Foreign born
UNITED KINGDOM
U.S. born of foreign or
AUSTRIA
mixed parentage
O
500
1000
1500
THOUSAND PERSONS
Chart 2. Country of origin of largest foreign-born and second-generation groups in New York State, 1950. This chart shows white residents only. (Adapted from New York State Commerce Review, October 1954.)
Of the 2,500,000 white foreign-born residents of the state at the mid- twentieth century, seven out of every ten were migrants from Italy, U.S.S.R., Germany, Poland, Ireland, United Kingdom (England, Wales, and Northern Ireland), and Austria. The same seven countries also ac- counted for over 80 per cent of the state's 4,300,000 American foreign- born residents of foreign or mixed parentage. New York ranked first among the states in 1950 in the number of the inhabitants from each of the following countries: England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, France, Germany, Poland, Austria, Hungary, U.S.S.R., Lithuania, Rumania, Greece, Italy, and Spain. It ranked second in number of natives of Norway, Denmark, Netherlands, Switzerland, and Czechoslovakia.
Within the state there was a pronounced concentration of the foreign element in New York City. In 1890 about 42 per cent of the city's popu- lation were immigrants, and in 1950 about 56 per cent of the city's resi- dents were foreign born or of foreign or mixed parentage. Whereas some 50 per cent of the total population of the state lived in New York City in 1950, it was the place of residence of more than 70 per cent of
453
OUR CHANGING POPULATION
the state's foreign-born white inhabitants. In the case of natives of cer- tain countries the city's share of the state total was even greater: Ru- mania and U.S.S.R., 90 per cent; Austria, Greece, Spain, Ireland, Norway, and Mexico, 80-83 per cent.
The only other cities in the state for which similar data are available are Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Yonkers. Combined, these four urban centers contained more than half a million residents of foreign birth or of foreign and mixed parentage. Yonkers had 53 per cent of its total population in this group. The upstate cities had lower components of foreign born and second generation: 45 per cent for Rochester, 44 per cent for Buffalo and 38 per cent for Syracuse. Only 32 per cent of the persons of foreign birth or of foreign and mixed parentage lived outside of these five cities. As the accompanying table shows, Italy was the prin- cipal country of origin for the foreign born and for the second genera- tion, or American born of foreign or mixed parentage in each of the five cities except Buffalo, where Poland held first place and Italy second. Other countries which ranked high as contributors were Germany in each of the five cities; Ireland and Poland, each in four cities; United Kingdom and Canada, in three of the cities; U.S.S.R. in New York City only.
Table 6. Leading foreign-born and second-generation groups, five largest cities, New York State, 1950.
New York (4,444,000)
Buffalo (253,000)
Per cent
Per cent
Per cent
Italy
23.2
United Kingdom
4.5
Poland
26.1
U.S.S.R.
18.2
Hungary
2.6
Italy
20.3
Ireland
10.1
Canada
1.8
Germany
16.8
Germany
9.6
Rumania
1.6
Canada
10.0
Poland
9.1
Czechoslovakia
1.5
United Kingdom
6.3
Austria
6.6
Other
11.4
Other
20.7
Rochester (149,000)
Syracuse (83,000)
Yonkers (80,000)
Per cent
Per cent
Per cent
Italy
35.0
Italy
27.1
Italy
23.3
Germany
15.2
Germany
13.1
Ireland
13.7
Canada
10.4
Poland
12.0
United Kingdom
9.9
United Kingdom
8.2
Canada
10.5
Poland
9.3
Ireland
6.6
Ireland
10.4
Germany
8.7
Other
24.6
Other
27.0
Other
35.1
Note: White residents only. Figures in parentheses show the combined total of both the foreign-born white and the native white of foreign or mixed parentage. Per- centages may not add to 100.0 because of rounding.
Source: United States Bureau of the Census.
454
A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
Mobility of population has been one of the hallmarks of American life from pioneer days to the present. Of the many ways in which New York has justified its title of "Empire State," unquestionably one has been its ability to attract natives of all other states to settle within its boundaries as well as to send its sons and daughters to all parts of the United States. The effect of America's great interstate mobility upon the population of New York or any other state is not easy to measure and, as yet, has not been ascertained with exactitude. We do know that prior to 1890 the net flow of internal migration was away from the eastern states. Thereafter the current was reversed because settlement advantages de- clined in the West, industrial expansion still continued to be largely concentrated in the Northeast, and the trend toward urbanization favored states like New York. New York City itself with its colleges, museums, libraries, churches, theaters, and art centers, on the one hand, and its varied array of light and heavy industries and vast mercantile establishments, on the other, made it a veritable magnet. Careful esti- mates indicate that from 16 to 18 per cent of the total population gain in New York from 1900 to 1950 was due to immigration from other states. New York has been fortunate, however, in avoiding the extreme of very heavy in- and out-migration which tends to make for instability of eco- nomic and political life. At the same time, it has not been endangered by the opposite situation, where a relatively static and ingrown popula- tion may become too complacent and lose the spirit of initiative and responsiveness to new ideas and methods.
Further analysis of interstate population mobility upon New York is most interesting and informative. Sixty-six per cent of the residents in New York State in 1950 were born here. About 17 per cent were born in foreign countries, 13 per cent in other sections of the United States, and the rest in territories or possessions of the United States or to Ameri- can parents abroad.
Two out of every three New York State residents who had migrated from south of the Mason and Dixon Line were nonwhite. This north- ward movement gained impetus after 1900 partly because of the growing mechanization of southern agriculture and partly because of the more varied job opportunities in the Northeast, especially in New York City. The southern Negro was becoming increasingly dissatisfied with his status as a "second-class citizen." As late as 1930 only three southern states-North Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida-had repealed the poll tax. County boards of education tended to allot to white institutions a disproportionate share of public school funds and insisted upon segrega- tion. To an ever-increasing number, New York seemed one of the most promising areas where positive action against discrimination was likely.
Almost without exception the Negroes migrating to New York settled in the larger urban centers, particularly in New York City. The first
455
OUR CHANGING POPULATION
Negro community of any considerable size in New York City was cen- tered in lower Manhattan and in the area around the Pennsylvania Railroad Station. In the San Juan Hill region large numbers were wedged in among the whites of Irish extraction. The more respectable and ex- clusive families preferred Brooklyn, where they were able to buy or lease scattered homes rather than live in tenements. Among those who lived in Brooklyn were Negro butlers of old Knickerbocker families, bank messengers, caterers, and head waiters of downtown clubs and hotels.
During World War I great waves of southern Negroes flowed into the metropolitan area. The old Negro centers were unable to accommo- date the newcomers, who overflowed into Harlem, which quickly became the Negro capital of the world. By 1920 the solid Black Belt extended from 125th to 145th Streets between Fifth and Eighth Avenues. Three decades later it had expanded southward to 110th Street and Central Park North and northward to 164th Street. The Harlem River virtually constituted its eastern boundary, and Morningside Avenue from 110th to 123rd Street and Amsterdam Avenue from 123rd to 164th Street its western boundary. Great peninsulas of Negro residents extended north and westward over Washington Heights to Riverside Drive. In this area reside approximately two-thirds of New York City's 730,000 Negroes. In the New York metropolitan area exclusive of New Jersey there were in 1950, according to the Bureau of the Census of that year, 371,580 male Negroes and 448,687 females, or a total of 820,267 Negroes.
Negroes constitute a portion of the population in every urban com- munity in the state, be it large or small. Although the status of the Negro in New York is far superior to what it is in some other parts of the nation, there is yet much to be done before he will have attained the actual and psychological goal of first-class citizenship. In housing, education, politi- cal participation, and in the continuing disappearance of discriminatory treatment there is evidence that progress is being made.
Neighboring states were the most popular locations for native New Yorkers who had left the state, although no state was without its share, ranging from 462,600 in New Jersey to 1,300 in South Dakota. Inasmuch as parts of New Jersey and Connecticut belong in the Greater New York metropolitan area, it is not surprising that three out of every ten native New Yorkers living elsewhere in the United States were in these two nearby states. Many of them were still actively participating in the in- dustrial and commercial life of New York State as commuting workers, shoppers, and vacationists. Daily commuters to Manhattan from New Jersey and Connecticut are estimated to number approximately 200,000.
Other states with more than 100,000 New York-born residents in 1950 were Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Florida, and California. A fairly even balance existed between the movement of New Yorkers to the rest of
456
A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
the middle Atlantic region and to New England. The same is true of the west south central area. Regions from which New York State had a siz- able net inflow of residents were the east south central and south Atlantic, where the northward migration of those ( especially Negroes ) seeking wider economic opportunities more than offset the flow of retired persons and others to Florida. Technological changes and economic returns in the grain-growing sections of the west north central region also resulted in a net influx to New York from those states. Regions gaining more population from New York State than they supplied to it are the rapidly developing Pacific, the east north central with its expanded industries, and the sparsely peopled Rocky Mountain states.
Although the federal Bureau of the Census fails to give complete data on the migration to the state of persons from United States territories and possessions, no account of the state's population should ignore the influx of Puerto Ricans, especially during the period since 1940. New York City has been the center of the migratory movement. At the end of the year 1953, the first- and second-generation Puerto Rican popula- tion of New York City was estimated to be 469,000, an 89-per-cent in- crease over the 1950 figure of 246,306. By 1955, the number had dropped to 380,000; many Puerto Ricans had returned to Puerto Rico, while others had left New York for neighboring states. No less than 72,000 came in the single year 1953. About four immigrants in ten were men between the ages of fifteen and forty-five. Between three and four of every ten were children under fourteen, of both sexes. Between two and three of every ten were women between the ages of fifteen and forty- four, together with persons of both sexes over forty-five. Few immigrants are forty-five years of age or over.
Puerto Ricans are filling tens of thousands of jobs opened up by resi- dents who have moved up the social-economic scale and many of whom have taken up residence outside the city. Thus the Puerto Rican migrants have enabled many of the city's businesses and industries-hotels, res- taurants, garment trades, department stores, machine operations, main- tenance-to carry on.
Like most newcomers, the Puerto Ricans tend to cluster together. Comparatively few have gone beyond the metropolitan area. Even within this area they tend to concentrate. In the early 1900's the small number who came were cigar makers living on the Lower East Side or water- front workers who live in the Red Hook and Williamsburg areas of Brooklyn. During the prosperous 1920's small numbers went to the out- skirts of Harlem. With the big migrations after World War II, Harlem and southeastern Bronx were concentration areas. Today, however, Puerto Ricans have spread into virtually every section of the city as the accompanying table indicates:
OUR CHANGING POPULATION 457 Table 7. Number of Puerto Ricans in the boroughs of New York City.
1930
1940
1950
1953
Manhattan
41,700
54,000
138,507
211,000
Bronx
1,500
10,100
61,924
94,000
Brooklyn
9,600
11,200
40,299
62,000
Queens
900
1,300
4,836
8,000
Richmond
200
200
740
1,000
Their presence has created serious but not insurmountable housing and educational problems.
New York's relatively high standards of health are reflected in death rates lower than those of the United States for every age group up to forty-five. This is the more remarkable when we take into account the upward trend of the proportion of older persons in the state's popula- tion. Over the last half century, the death rate has declined from 18.1 deaths per thousand in 1900 to 10.5 per thousand in 1950. These gains in longevity can be attributed primarily to advances made in the preven- tion and control of communicable disease, particularly among children, and to the sharp reduction of infant mortality and maternal deaths. Other factors contributing to the decline in the mortality rate include the rising standard of living, better knowledge of diet, and generally improved working conditions-elimination of sweatshop and child labor, and reduc- tion of the workweek. The above-average death rates for older people are apparently attributable to concentration of the state's foreign born in the upper age brackets. The increase in traffic accidents in recent years also should be mentioned as an added factor in the state's death rate.
The death rate in the state has followed closely that of the country as a whole. The average length of life of the American people has in- creased from about forty-nine years in 1900 to approximately sixty-seven years in 1950. The period 1865-1910 compared with that of 1920-1950 reveals two highly significant facts: first, birth rates per family for the earlier period were much higher than for the later years; and, secondly, that for the more recent decades the population is older than for the first period. The age distribution of the state's population as compared with that of the entire United States 1920-1950 is indicated by the ac- companying chart.
We should observe that the proportion of the state's residents aged sixty-five and over almost doubled from 1920 to 1950. It was 8.7 per cent in 1950 and 4.8 per cent thirty years earlier. The relative increase in importance of this older group is emphasized by the fact that in 1920 there were four children under ten for every oldster, whereas in 1950 there were fewer than two. As the number sixty-five or over increases and the retirement age is reduced, the problem becomes more significant.
458
A SHORT HISTORY OF NEW YORK STATE
The New York State Joint Legislative Committee on Problems of Aging, after an intensive study of the economic status and employment oppor- tunities of older persons, has already addressed itself to this knotty question. The committee was impressed by the opinion held by many authorities that there is no chronological age which should determine retirement and that older workers should retire only when they "can afford to, have to, or want to."
For most of the period since the close of the Civil War, women have outnumbered men in New York State. During the last half century and especially during the last fifteen years, the disparity has become more pronounced. In 1950, only for the group under ten years was there an excess of males. In all probability the presence of New York City within the boundaries of the state explains this disparity. The metropolitan cen-
RURAL 14.5%
RURAL 38.7%
URBAN 85.5%
URBAN 61.3%
New York State
Rest of the United States
Chart 3. Distribution of urban and rural population in 1950. (Adapted from New York State Commerce Review, June 1951.)
ter has for a century or more and particularly since World War I an- nually attracted thousands of young people from other parts of the country in search of careers in business or in the professions. Nowhere in the world, perhaps, do women find such varied employment oppor- tunities. In 1950, of the 2,300,000 residents who had migrated from other states, 1,300,000 were women. New York State, with 12 per cent of the nation's total manufacturing employment, accounted for 15 per cent of the female employees in manufacturing.
The marriage rate in the state has long tended to follow the business cycle. Thus the depression of the 1930's tended to reduce the number of marriages. In recent years, and partly because of World War II, the mar- riage rate has been much higher. In 1950, for example, the state could report that 65 per cent of its adult population consisted of married per- sons, as against 58 per cent in 1940. In this connection it is worth noting that today the state has 675,000 fewer single adults than it had in 1940.
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