general decline of the movement did not affect the urban and the rural districts in the same degree.

appears from the following figures:

TABLE 61.

The difference

We find that the decline of the total emigration is due to the decline of emigration from the rural districts. A comparison of the last two tables further shows that the decrease of the average rural emigration from 1881-1890 to 1901-1907 is approximately equal to the decrease of the average emigration to non-European countries during the same period. If it is remembered that 30.2 per cent of the Swedes who had settled in the United States in the past century were engaged in agriculture and that during the last twenty years the direction of Scandinavian immigration to the United States turned from the West to the East, the reason of the decline of emigration from the rural districts of Sweden will be apparent: the United States no longer holds out to the Swedish peasant the hope of becoming a farmer. The Swedish peasant who is dissatisfied with his surroundings must look for industrial employment. And he finds that there are ample opportunities in Sweden which attract immigrants from foreign countries.

A comparison of the emigration from Sweden to other European countries with the immigration to Sweden from those countries brings out the fact that during the past decade the balance for the first time turned in favor of Sweden:

'Sundbärg, loc. cit., p. 13, Table 17 (computed).

TABLE 62.

ANNUAL AVERAGE EMIGRATION FROM SWEDEN TO OTHER EUROPEAN COUNTRIES AND IMMIGRATION TO SWEDEN FROM OTHER EUROPEAN

COUNTRIES (THOUSANDS), 1881-1908.1

It appears from Table 62 that while emigration from Sweden to other European countries has been decreasing from decade to decade, immigration to Sweden from those countries has been on the increase. The net result of these movements during the last period was a slight surplus of immigration over emigration. Evidently economic opportunities in Sweden must have sufficiently improved to attract more foreigners while fewer Swedish people left the country.

The industrial progress of Sweden is contemporaneous with the recent development of hydraulic and hydro-electric engineering, which has harnessed the water power furnished in abundance by her mountains. More than one half of her motive power used in 1907 was derived from water power, either directly or in the form of electric current generated by water power. The increase in the use of water power since 1896 amounted to 134 per cent. As an index of Sweden's industrial advance since the time when her emigration was at its highest level, may be used the production of iron ore, which increased from an annual average of 900,000 tons in 1881-1890 to an average of more than 3,500,000 in 1901-1905, i. e., nearly fourfold.3

1 Sundbärg, loc. cit., pp. 95-96, Tables 45-46.

Out of a total of 607,000 horse-power used for driving machinery or generating electric power, 330,000 was water power.-Sveriges Officiella Statistik. Fabriker och Handtverk, 1907, pp. xxix. and 118.

3 Eli F. Heckscher, Till Belysning af Järnvägarnas Betydelse för Sveriges Ekonomiska Utveckling, p. 91.

The number of wage-earners in Swedish factories increased from 202,000 in 1896 to 303,000 in 1907, i. e., at the rate of 50 per cent in eleven years. 1 The growth of Swedish industries far outran the increase of her population. The factories offered employment to an average of 9000 new hands annually, which was approximately equal to the decrease in the annual average emigration from 1881-1890 to 1901-1908.

To what extent the wage-earners of Sweden have improved the opportunities of the industrial situation, is shown by the rapid progress of organization of labor and the spread of collective bargaining. The total membership of labor organizations increased from 50,000 in 1900 to 260,000 in 1908. The proportion of organized workers to the total number of industrial wage-earners was estimated at 45 per cent. A highly instructive account of the progress of collective bargaining is given in a Swedish government report, from which the following is condensed.3

About one half of the total number of wage-earners were employed in establishments which had adopted the system of collective bargaining. In the coal mines, sugar factories, and potteries collective bargaining was practically the general rule. In trade and transportation nearly all the employees of private telephone companies, about 90 per cent of all employees of electric street railways, and 66 per cent of the employees on private steam railways were working under collective trade agreements. In the building trades about three fourths of the total number and in the factories and hand trades about one half were employed under the same system. The principal industries where collective bargaining has been adopted and the percentage of the total number of wage-earners affected in each of them are given in the following table:

I

1 Sveriges Officiella Statistik. Fabriker och Handtverk, 1907, p. xxviii. There are no comparable figures prior to 1896.

2 Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, vol. iv, p. 1211.

3 Kollektivaftal Angåenda Arbets-och-Löneförhållenden i Sverige (Stock. holm, 1910), pp. 246-249.

TABLE 63.

PER CENT OF WAGE-EARNERS EMPLOYED UNDER THE SYSTEM OF COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN THE PRINCIPAL INDUSTRIES OF SWEDEN.

In all of these industries [says the official report] it is chiefly the large-scale establishments that have adopted collective bargaining, whereas those establishments, where it is absent, generally belong to the small-scale industry. Whenever a trust or a combine is organized in an industry, collective labor agreements generally comprise a greater number of factories within, than without the combination.

A noteworthy feature of these trade agreements is the provision for compensation in cases of work accidents which are not within the law of 1901. Provisions of this character are found in 1313 agreements affecting 67 per cent of the total number of wage-earners coming under the operation of this system.

That

It will not be disputed that the Slav and Italian immigrants to the United States are not responsible for the utilization of the water power supply of the Scandinavian mountain range, with the resulting industrial upheaval which created a lively demand for labor in Sweden. nevertheless the immigration of unskilled laborers from Sweden to the United States continues and grows, is the best evidence that many of them consider the opportunities in the United States superior to those which are open to them at home.

G. The United Kingdom

Emigrants from the British Isles enjoy a great advantage

over those of all other nations in that the main fields of modern immigration are controlled by English-speaking peoples. An Englishman or an Irishman is equally at home in the United States, in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. The recent development of those countries has naturally attracted a part of the emigration from Great Britain and Ireland. Furthermore, the policy of restriction adopted in Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa has conferred a special privilege upon immigrants of British nationality.

On the other hand, the governments of Canada and Australia are making systematic efforts to induce immigration from the mother country. Contract laborers may be freely imported into Canada, as well as into Australia. Salaried agents of the Dominion government are stationed in the large cities of Great Britain to promote emigration to Canada. A bonus of £1 is paid to the booking agent on each ticket to Canada sold to a British subject who is engaged in the occupation of farmer, farm laborer, gardener, stableman, carter, railway surface man, navvy, or miner, and who signifies his intention to follow farming or railway construction work in Canada. Not content with the work of regular immigration agents, Canada has been sending agricultural delegates to Great Britain. The Salvation Army is also utilized as an agency to promote emigration to Canada, and grants of money are made to the Army for that purpose. Canada annually receives a considerable number of English immigrants, who have been sent by private or state aid from the mother country.3 Canada also encourages the immigration of poor and homeless British children to her borders. This immigration is chiefly recruited from the orphan or industrial homes of the British Isles.4

• Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 2, pp. 607–631. a Ibid., pp.

607-608.

3 In 1907, 12,336 persons were sent to Canada by London charitable societies alone.

4 It is officially estimated that during the last 50 years nearly 60,000