in the chapter on industrial development, illustrations are furnished, proving that in all branches requiring technical training, German influence has been predominant; under the head of politics, German independent voting receives illustration; in the department of agriculture, the principle is maintained, that the German farmer not only applied his native skill and industry, but whenever necessary adapted himself to new conditions, using and inventing agricultural machinery, or becoming a rice-grower in the South, a big farmer in the West. The obstructions in the path of a final solution of the questions proposed in the second part are even more serious than in the historical outline. The economic history of the United States has not been written, though steps are now being taken toward an ultimate accomplishment of that gigantic task. The volumes on manufactures in the Census Reports occasionally furnish a few meagre details, but the history of none of our great American industries has been made available. Each chapter, therefore, has furnished an entirely new field for investigation, and difficulties of a different kind. The plan of questioning experts, or representatives of a particular industry, has frequently been resorted to by the writer, as, e. g., in the departments of viticulture, lithography, and the manufacture of agricultural machinery. The writer has thus frequently gained information not accessible in books. Because of these peculiar difficulties, the second part of the work is necessarily more tentative than the first, possessing the faults of pioneer work, yet for that very reason the more fascinating to the writer, and, it is believed, the more suggestive to the reader. Because of the necessity of restricting within moderate bounds the mass of materials belonging to this subject, a consideration of the Dutch element has been excluded from these pages, except in the statistical estimate of the number of persons of German blood in the United States, contained in the first chapter of the second Volume. The Dutch are Germans of purer blood than the people inhabiting some of the eastern provinces of the German Empire, and their history in the United States is frequently inseparable from that of the other German stocks. Nevertheless they frequently formed separate colonies, as in New York State, and their history is important enough to warrant a separate treatment. Because of their racial distinctness, persons of Jewish blood, born in Germany, have not been regularly considered in this work. An exception has been made where they contributed toward bringing over from Germany various elements of cultural, educational, or technical value. When unmistakably derived from the German Fatherland, their work in the arts and sciences, in education, and technical industry, should be considered a part of the present investigation as clearly as the writings of the poet Heine are to be included in the history of German literature. The number of Jewish immigrants coming from Germany has commonly been overestimated. During the only period in which an accurate record has been kept, i. e., since 1898, it was found that the German Jews numbered only one and one half per cent of the total immigration from the German Empire (1898-1904). In the German Empire the Jews number only one per cent of the total population. During periods of social persecution in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries their percentage of immigration was probably higher, but undoubtedly the average was never above two per cent of the German immigration to the United States. The attempt has been made to exclude matter which could not be established with certainty. When, for instance, the German ancestry of an important individual was in doubt, his name was omitted in this record. Overstatement has perhaps been more carefully avoided than undervaluation. In the choice of examples, particularly in the second Volume, the writer was forced to use those concerning which he had accurate information, and also to discriminate in favor of those that served best as illustrations. A large number of names were thus omitted, which might well have found a place, many no doubt more worthy than those employed. The materials collected should therefore be looked upon as illustrative, not exhaustive. The writer gratefully acknowledges courtesies extended to him by Dr. jur. Walther Wever, Consul-General of the German Empire at Chicago (1900-1908), and by Professor Starr Willard Cutting of the University of Chicago, particularly in the matter of launching the book after the prize award had been made. Though the delay may have tried their patience, the writer's wish, to be allowed to subject the manuscript to a thorough revision before publication, was honored by them and the publishers. The writer desires to express his thanks to Professor Oscar Kuhns, author of "The German and Swiss Settlements of Colonial Pennsylvania," for the loan of valuable books; to George M. Dutcher, Professor of History in Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, who read in manuscript most of the chapters of the first Volume, and made a large number of important corrections and suggestions; to Professor B. J. Vos, of the University of Indiana, and to Professor Lane Cooper, of Cornell University, who carefully read the first draft of many of the early chapters. A special debt is due to Walter F. Willcox, Professor of Political Economy and Statistics, Cornell University, for his continued interest in the work during its progress, and for his criticism and direction in the chapter attempting an estimate of the number of persons of German blood in the population of the United States (Volume II, Chapter 1). Acknowledgment is hereby made of aid received from the Carnegie Institution of Washington, in the collection of data for several chapters in this book. The coöperation of many other helpers is gratefully remembered; in most cases it is acknowledged on the particular page where their valued assistance was made use of; some others who have aided in the laborious mechanical tasks of book-making, have preferred to remain unnamed. Communications are solicited from readers who have corrections to suggest or information to impart. CORNELL UNIVERSITY, ITHACA, N. Y., April 20, 1909. A. B. F. |