"France For Frenchmen."

New York Times 100 years ago today, February 23, 1913:
Would Keep Out Not Only Goods, but Also Immigrants.
    PARIS, Feb. 6.— "France for Frenchmen" is the theme of certain Paris papers, unmindful of the fact that if the French people are to survive they must do so by intermarriage with foreigners settled here.
    Not content with the exclusion of foreign goods, a section of the press now desires to prohibit the free entry of foreign capital and emigrants. The absurdity of the former demand is self-evident, and if the Chauvinists were to have their way, France would probably be the chief loser, since foreigners with money to invest would not have enormous difficulty in finding profitable investments elsewhere. But there is a certain amount of logic behind the demand for the restriction of immigration.
    During the past sixty years the foreign population of France has increased very greatly — it has risen from 379,000 in 1851 to 1,132,000 — and the increase has been far more rapid than that of the native population. Hence, it is feared that if immigration continues at its present rate, and if the birth rate goes on falling as it has done in recent years, the French element will ultimately be swamped.
    In fact. M. Leroy-Beaulieu, the well-known economist, asserted in the course of a lecture last week that there would no longer be a distinctive French nationality at the end of the next four or five generations. No doubt the commission on the birth rate will consider this question.