Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 164, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 July 1920 — WAITING TO RETURN TO LAND OF THEIR BIRTH [ARTICLE]

WAITING TO RETURN TO LAND OF THEIR BIRTH

New York, July B.—More than 2,500,0Q0 foreign born citizens of the country are waiting to go back to the land of their birth, P. A. Baker, superintendent of the department of immigration, said today. Lack of steamship passenger facilities, unsettled conditions in Eu-. rope and currency deflations are some of the reasons for their being unable to return to their homes, he said. Of those who have gone to Europe with the intention .of settling there, he said, a large majority return to this country within a few months. They have discovered the high cost of living has made the trip to Europe expensive. Since 1918, departures have exceeded arrivals and immigration has been unstable and not comparable with that of prewar days, he said. The reasons, he said, include more stringent passport laws, both here and abrpad and the present European unrest. What nationalities will comprise the next tide of immigration can not be predicted, he said. Whichever country first stabilizes itself and its resources sufficiently to permit of its citizens returning to America will probably form the nucleus of the next wave, Baker said.