RACIAL CLASSIFICATION OF EMPLOYEES AT THE PRESENT TIME.

The following table shows the number and per cent of male employees of each race for whom information was secured:

TABLE 415.—Male employees for whom information was secured, by general nativity and race.

In this locality 43.5 per cent of the male employees for whom information was secured are foreign-born, 7.4 per cent are native-born of foreign father, 44.9 per cent are native-born of native father, white, and 4.2 per cent native-born of native father, negro. Among the native-born of foreign father employees whose fathers were born in Germany have by far the largest representation. The principal races of the foreign-born are the Croatian, Servian, German, and Magyar, in the order mentioned.

THE INDUSTRIAL DEPRESSION OF 1907 AND 1908.

A remarkable episode in the history of recent immigration to Community C, is the series of events connected with the industrial depression beginning in the autumn of 1907, which produced very serious consequences among the foreign population. The steel company, like so many other industrial establishments, closed some departments entirely and put others upon part time. The aggregate effect of these changes upon the opportunity for employment may be gathered from figures showing the average daily working force for each month

from January, 1906, to November, 1908, inclusive. Such figures are presented in the statement which follows:

It will be seen that the earlier months of 1907 exceeded those even of 1906, and that by the summer of the former year a daily average, Sundays included, of nearly 8,000 men was kept busy. In November, 1907, the first sharp decline occurred, the average dropping to 5,319, and the following month to 4,101.

This contraction of the demand for labor bore with especial severity upon the unskilled laborers and in particular upon the immigrants, who had no trade or recourse upon which to rely at such a time. The policy of the company seems to have been wherever possible to provide for the native employees and especially those with families. Some skilled American employees chose to remain idle in the hope that the mills would resume work in the near future, while others, less sanguine, were glad to turn to unskilled occupation at 12 to 15 cents an hour. It is worthy of note that while the yard-force superintendent was instructed to favor Americans in hiring new men, during the hard times, he had extremely few applications from natives out of work, and only 3 out of 113 men in that department at a given time were Americans.

When it became evident at the commencement of winter (1907) that work was likely to continue to be scarce and irregular, even for those fortunate enough to be employed at all, hundreds of more recent comers among the immigrants prepared for a return to their native lands. The approximate number of aliens of the leading races who left the community is as follows:

According to the statements made by officers of seventeen foreign societies the aggregate membership of these societies fell from 1,200 to 900 during the depression. This indicates that the greater part of those returning were not affiliated with benefit organizations, the larger part of whose membership seems to consist of the more intelligent and more firmly rooted immigrants who have begun to set up homes and relate themselves in a permanent way to the conditions of life in this country.

48296°-VOL 8-11-39

Returning to the estimates just made, and comparing with the order in which the various races have settled in the community, it will be noticed that it is the recently arrived races, with the smallest number of women and children and the smallest attachment to their new home, who contribute most heavily to the ranks of those returning to Europe. Thus, the Servians who left to the number of at least 900, included before the exodus only about 70 women, of whom perhaps 50 remained in the community. Almost the entire colony consisted of unmarried men or men whose families had been left in the old country. Men of this sort who were thrown out of employment and who had sufficient funds on hand to take them back were quick to make their departure.

Conditions among the Macedonians were very similar; they had arrived in the country even more recently than the Servians and Magyars. They were the last race to find employment before the beginning of the depression and the first to be laid off when employment failed. Thus little opportunity was afforded for the laying by of an adequate surplus, and, furthermore, so much of their savings had been sent out of the country that the long period of idleness bore upon them with peculiar severity. When relief measures were finally adopted suffering and disease had begun to affect them very seriously. Similarly, among the Croatians and other races, individuals who had been here the greatest length of time showed no inclination to return, while the more recent comers, with disposable capital in the form of bank accounts and with few and slight bonds of attachment to the community, lost little time in withdrawing their accounts and leaving the country. Approximately 1,000 such accounts were closed at the bank where the foreign population is in the habit of keeping its savings, and $150,000 was paid out to foreigners about to return to their former homes. Of course, there were many families and individuals so situated that there was no alternative but to remain even with the prospect of indefinite idleness before them. The result was an extremely low average income among all races. Assuming a very low rate of earnings-12 cents an hour-full time work for a year of 300 working days would yield an income ranging from $360 for men working sixty hours per week to $518 for those working eightyfour. In the place of these figures it was found that during the past year reported earnings averaged as follows:

These figures, although approximate only, record the relative earnings of the various races for whom schedules have been written with a fair degree of exactness. It is probable that the amount of idleness has been somewhat exaggerated, in some cases, without any intention to misrepresent, and that the actual income for this reason has exceeded the figures given. At all events it is evident that the greater part of the foreign population of Community C was obliged to live upon meager sums during the twelve months preceding Decem

ber, 1908. In many cases families eked out their income by taking boarders, but even this sometimes proved disastrous, for boarders in many cases, due to idleness, proved a burden rather than a help, while in other cases they left after successfully eluding payment for board received.

For a time the merchants carried the foreign population by extending credit to the boarding-house keepers, but the volume of this credit became so large ultimately that the merchants were unable to continue this policy longer. They had in a great many instances to refuse further credit, and consequently many people were left without any means of support. They were unable to secure work, and the possibility of starvation soon showed itself. Even after a system of relief was devised many persons subsisted on bread and water alone. In a number of cases persons who had been living in this way were taken sick and, not having much power of resistance, quickly suc

cumbed to disease.

The suffering among both native and foreign working people became so serious by the latter part of January, 1908, that a relief committee was organized to devise measures of assistance. At first attention was confined to native families, but the need among the immigrants living in the West Side, or fifth ward, district became so imperative that on March 3, 1908, 512 tickets for daily rations of soup and bread were issued.

A report of this committee covering the earlier period of its work shows the following measures taken: From January 25 to March 9, 1908, 188 orders on twelve stores and 54 orders on the directors of the poor of the county were issued; 126 families were thus aided with food and fuel at a cost of about $312. This aid was extended largely to English-speaking people. This order system was followed in March by the establishment of a soup house. During the first. week 17 barrels of soup, 6 of coffee, and 3,150 pounds of bread were distributed among the almost starving immigrants of the fifth ward. The work thus commenced continued with one brief interruption until the 6th of June. The accounts of the committee show that from March 3 to 19, 3,763 loaves of bread were given out and during a later period-April 21 to June 6-6,952 loaves.

The following table shows the extent to which the various races received relief:

The bread furnished by the relief committee was baked at the Macedonian bakery. The committee furnished flour and the Macedonian proprietor baked and distributed the bread. The situation was finally much relieved, at least so far as the Macedonians were concerned, by the deporting of 190 aliens, most of them BulgarianMacedonians. This action on the part of the Immigration Service was taken on the ground that their coming was an instance of solicited and induced immigration under promise of work. It is noteworthy that only the most recently arrived races who had failed to acquire sufficient surplus-either to leave or to remain self-supporting were driven to seek aid from the free soup houses. It must not be supposed, however, that the others did not suffer privation if not actual want during the twelve months through which the depression had spread itself. On every hand there were decreased incomes, due to fewer boarders, more irregular work, when work was to be obtained at all, and a lower standard of living. A few boarding groups were met with among the Macedonians and Servians, the boarders being still obliged in August and September, 1908, to restrict themselves to an outlay of only $4.50 and $5 a month for food.

Families that formerly occupied an entire house accommodating from 10 to 30 lodgers were compelled to sublet a portion of the house or to move to a smaller dwelling. The effect upon rents was of course marked. In the largest foreign section of the town, the east side, rents declined in many cases 40 per cent. Houses formerly bringing $19 yielded only $7 or $8. On the west side, where practically all of the relief work was carried on, some property owners were forced simply to cease the collection of rents, and in such cases with little prospect or indeed intention of collecting arrears. Immigrant merchants who sold on credit were seriously embarrassed by the departure of aliens and by the poverty of those who remained. The Macedonian who baked the bread furnished by the relief committee is said to have had $1,500 in uncollected bills and to a considerable extent uncollectable accounts outstanding for bread furnished to aliens unable to pay for it at the time that the relief committee took hold of the situation. A merchant in the Magyar section of town at one time had $2,000 due him for provisions sold on credit and extremely poor prospects of collecting even half of the amount.

The American family whose income is cut from $600 to $300 is unwilling to lower its standard of living, even if it were possible, to a $300 level, and instead it runs into debt to the extent of perhaps $200 or draws upon savings to that amount if they are of a sort to be readily made use of.

race.

One of the remarkable facts brought to light is that the Macedonians who remained in the country seem to have succeeded better in laying by some small savings during the depression than almost any other This was in spite of the fact that as a race they are not regarded as desirable employees by some departments of the steel company, and consequently have not had as good opportunities for securing work as most of the other races. Their ability to save seems to be due to their low standard of living, their extreme frugality, and their temperance. The Germans and Slovenians are likewise less fre

a In January, 1909, there were 58 vacant houses out of a total of 185 in an almost exclusively foreign section of the west side.