Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub

CHAPTER II.

RACIAL DISPLACEMENTS.

History of immigration-Period of residence in the United States of foreign-born employees and members of their households-Racial classification of employees at the present time [Text Tables 14 to 23 and General Tables 4 and 5].

HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION.

It may be said in general that representatives of almost all races of recent and past immigration have been employed in the blast furnaces and iron and steel mills of the country corresponding to the period of their immigration to the United States. Prior to 1880 the iron and steel workers were exclusively of native stock or of races from Great Britain and northern Europe. During the early eighties a small number of eastern and southern Europeans entered the industry in Pennsylvania and the East. They gradually increased in numbers until 1890, after which year the employment of this class of immigrants became rapid and extensive. During the decade 1890 to 1900 the employment of the older immigrants from Great Britain and northern Europe also rapidly declined, as compared with former periods. No statistics are available as to the employment of the several races in the furnaces and mills, but the returns of the federal census as to the country of birth of iron and steel workers during the period 1880 to 1900 afford a general insight into the situation.

In 1900 a change was made in the census classification, and employees were reported by general nativity and by country of birth of parents instead of by country of birth, as in the two previous cenData for 1900 are presented in the following table:

suses.

TABLE 14.-Number of male workers in the iron and steel industry in the United States, by nativity, 1900.

[blocks in formation]

In ten years, from 1890 to 1900, the total number of employees of the industry increased from 142,585 to 290,724, a gain of over 100 per cent. The parents of a very large proportion of all employees were born in Germany, and the parents of a slightly smaller proportion were born in Ireland. There were also many individuals whose parents were born in England and Wales, in Poland, and in Sweden. Persons whose parents were born in Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Bohemia were present in considerable numbers. The figures of the table show that while there was no increase over 1890 in the proportion of foreign-born workers, the proportion of workers of southern and eastern European parentage, in this case equivalent to persons of southern and eastern European race, was very much larger in 1900 than in preceding census years. During the past ten years the labor for the blast furnaces and steel mills has been principally recruited from the races of southern and eastern Europe.a

The change in the composition of the working force in the ten years from 1880 to 1890 is indicated by the following table:

TABLE 15.-Number of male workers in the iron and steel industry in the United States, by nativity, 1890.

[blocks in formation]

The classification of the above table indicates country of birth for the foreign-born and, in addition, general nativity of parents for the native-born. At the time the data were secured there were 142,585 employees of the industry, a gain of between 25,000 and 30,000 over the figures for 1880. Of the native whites 44,813 were of native parentage and 34,240 were of foreign parentage. The proportion of foreign-born was larger than in 1880. Individuals of Irish nativity still had the largest representation, followed by natives of Germany and of England and Wales. There was also a considerable proportion of individuals of Swedish and Norwegian, Canadian, Scotch, and Hungarian birth, and the number of individuals born in countries. not specified was almost twice as large as in 1880. It is evident, from the figures of the table, that the working force was undergoing a gradual change in the direction of increase in the number of foreign-born employees and that, at the same time, the proportion of northern and western Europeans, in its relation to the total number of foreign-born, was growing less.

a For a detailed history of the racial movements to and racial displacements in the various sections, see Pt. II, Ch. II; Pt. III, Ch. II; and Pt. IV, Ch. II.

The following table shows, by country of birth, the iron and steel employees in the country as a whole in the year 1880:

TABLE 16.-Number of iron and steel workers in the United States, by nativity, 1880. [Compiled from United States Census of 1880.]

[blocks in formation]

In the above table employees of the iron and steel industry are classified according to nativity. It appears that of the 114,539 individuals for whom data were reported 72,931, or almost twothirds, were of native birth. Among the foreign-born, natives of Ireland had the largest representation, while natives of Great Britain and Germany were present in considerable numbers. There were a few natives of British America and of Sweden and Norway, and 2,132 individuals born in countries not specified. The figures show that of the foreign-born employees in 1880 almost all were from the countries of northern and western Europe, the sources of what is now known as the old immigration.

PERIOD OF RESIDENCE IN THE UNITED STATES OF FOREIGN-BORN EMPLOYEES AND MEMBERS OF THEIR HOUSEHOLDS.

The series of tables next submitted exhibits the general movement of the several races to the iron and steel industry. They show period of residence in the United States only of employees of foreign birth, but inasmuch as the recent immigrant usually enters the blast furnaces or steel mills immediately upon arrival in this country, the tables may be also taken as indicative of the general racial movements to the industry. In addition to the period of residence of employees, the tables furnish data as to the number of years the members of their households have lived in the United States. The first table of the series presented shows according to race the per cent of foreign-born iron and steel workers who have been in the United States each specified number of years.

TABLE 17.-Per cent of foreign-born male employees in the United States under 1 year, 1 year, 2 years, etc., by race.

(STUDY OF EMPLOYEES.)

[By years in the United States is meant years since first arrival in the United States. No deduction is made for time spent abroad. This table includes only races with 40 or more males reporting. The total, however, is for all foreign-born.]

[blocks in formation]

Of the foreign-born male employees for whom information was secured, 2.4 per cent have been in the United States under one year, 4.9 per cent from one to two years, 14.1 per cent from two to three years, 11.5 per cent from three to four years, and 8.2 per cent from four to five years. None of the Danes or Hebrews other than Russian have been in the United States under one year or from one to two years, and none of the Norwegians have been here from two to three years. Only a fraction of 1 per cent of the Bohemians and Moravians, English, French, Irish, and Welsh and larger proportions of the Greeks, Ruthenians, Roumanians, Magyars, and South Italians than of the individuals of any other race have been in the United States under one year; only a fraction of 1 per cent of the Bohemians and Moravians, Irish, and Welsh and very much larger proportions of the Bulgarians and Macedonians than of the individuals of any other race have been here from one to two years. The Macedonians, Roumanians, and Greeks, in the order mentioned, have the largest proportions of individuals who have been in the United States from two to three years; the Herzegovinians, Croatians, Roumanians, Hebrews other than Russian, and Russians have the largest and the Canadians other than French, Danes, Irish, and Welsh the smallest

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »