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by the department stores and tailor shops, which are catering to the trade of government clerks.

The United States Bureau of Labor has published comparative statistics showing for each nationality the average annual expenditure for clothing. It can be seen at a glance that the expenditure for clothing among the native, as well as among the foreign-born, increases with the increase of their earnings. Whether, or not, the wage-earner's standard of living determines his wages, i. e., whether, or not, he is paid higher wages because he wears better clothes, it is self-evident that his ability to buy clothes is limited by his earnings. A comparison of race standards in the matter of clothing must therefore be made for workmen of the same earning capacity. Table 80 on page 267 follows the arrangement of Table 79.

It can be seen from Table 80 that in each of the income groups the variations of expenditure by race are confined within very narrow limits, the margin between the highest and lowest expenditure not exceeding $10.00 a year. It is evident that such a margin is too small to produce an appreciable effect upon the rate of wages.2

of the value of 50 cents per garment is generally used, and for cold weather flannels ranging in value from $1.00 to $1.50 per garment. From $10.00 to $12.00 is paid for a suit of dress clothes." (Ibid., p. 81.) The following detailed expenditures for clothing were transcribed from a store account: "Socks (two pairs), $.25; belt, $.25; collar and tie, $.35; pair of pants, $2.25; socks, $.10; overshirt, $1.00; suspenders, $.25; five pair socks, $.60; flannels, underwear, $3.10; rubbers, $.80; shoes, $3.25; suit of clothes, $11.70; hat, $1.50; suit of clothes, $12.00; shoes, $3.00; shirt, $.60; two pair socks, $.50; pair of pants, $3.25; suit of clothes, $15.00; two pair socks, $.20; hat, $1.50; watch, $1.25; pair of gloves, $.50; pair of shoes, $1.70; pair of shoes, $1.75.” (Ibid., p. 84.) 1 Eighteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, Table V,D. It must be borne in mind, that the numbers of families in each group being small, the variations may be due to differences in the size of the families, in geographical location, etc. Even the earnings may vary within each income group as much as $99.00 per year. Some allowance must be made for the inaccuracy of the figures, inasmuch as they are all mere estimates.

TABLE 80.

FOR CLOTHING IN NORMAL FAMILIES OF UNSKILLED

LABORERS, CLASSIFIED BY INCOME AND NATIVITY. 1

EXPENDITURE

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The expenses of a normal family for housing, food, and clothing amount in the aggregate to about three fourths of the total expenditure for all objects. The preceding analysis has shown that the variations of these principal items of a workingman's budget are not affected by race. Table 81 on page 268 points in the same direction. It can be seen from the comparative figures that the average wageearner's family of every nationality lives practically up to its income. A very small margin is left for savings. But while the native workman may save or spend at pleasure, the newly-arrived immigrant must save money.

"Before the immigrant can realize any return from his labor in the form of American wages, he must incur the following expense or indebtedness, for even if one or all costs are prepaid for him by relative, friend, or other person, he eventually pays them all by deductions from his wages or otherwise:

1 Eighteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, pp. 560–563. 2 Ibid., p. 581, Table 5K.

TABLE 81.

SURPLUS OF INCOME OVER EXPENDITURE OF NORMAL FAMILIES;
CLASSIFIED BY COUNTRY OF BIRTH.'

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Cost of preparation at his home in Europe for the journey.

2. Cost of transportation from his home to the European seaport.

3. Cost of emigrant head tax to his Government.

4. Cost of immigrant head tax to the United States Government.

5. Cost of steamship transportation, European port to the United States.

6. Cost of labor agency for securing employment at port of entry, if used.

7. Cost of transportation, United States port of entry to place of employment.

8. Cost of living from port of entry to place of destination. "'2

The cost of items 3-5 and 7 is further on estimated at $40.00 for a single Italian, Slav, or Hungarian immigrant. If the immigrant has left wife and children in his native country, he must save money to pay their passage. In order to meet these demands the immigrant must curtail his expenses for the necessities of life. This is accomplished 1 Eighteenth Annual Report of the Commissioner of Labor, p. 581, Tables V, J and K.

I

2 Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, No. 72, pp. 411-412.

in various ways. Living in crowded tenements is one of them. Co-operative boarding, which has been given the odious name of "the boarding boss system," enables the Slav laborer to reduce his board bill much below the price the individualistic Anglo-Saxon has to pay in a boarding house, though, as has been shown, the fare under the cooperative system is at least as wholesome and abundant as in an average boarding house.

The fact, however, that the immigrant who has no family in the United States is at first content to deny himself many comforts does not warrant the apprehension that he will be satisfied with a wage just sufficient to provide the bare necessities of life. The Italian railroad laborer who subsists on vegetables does not work for the mere price of his vegetables, but saves about 80 per cent of his wages. "Ninety-five per cent of the Italian laborers save from $25.00 to $30.00 of their wages per month. For eight months' work this would amount to over $200 per man.' It is a matter of general knowledge that large sums of money are annually sent home by the immigrants. A member of the Immigration Commission who visited a Greek mountain village from which two hundred immigrants had gone to the United States was told that each of the men sent back about $200 annually. It was learned from the records of a post-office in a township of Russian Poland that thirty-seven workmen who had immigrated from that township to the United States sent home in 1903 the sum of 47,862 roubles, i. e., an average of $665 per emigrant. That these are not isolated cases is indicated by the number of international money orders sent from the United States to Europe, which averaged, in 1907-1909, about three millions a year.4 Moreover, hundreds of 1 Bulletin of the Bureau of Labor, No. 72, pp. 469–470, 477, 481. * Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 4 (in press).

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3 Reports of the Warsaw Statistical Committee, Bulletin XXII. K. B. Vobly: General Analysis of the Statistics of Migration of Workers for Temporary Employment and of the Statistics of Emigration, p. 29.

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* Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 37, p. 280.

thousands of immigrants annually return home, and their passage must be paid out of their savings. The total amount sent abroad by immigrants in the year 1907 is estimated by the Immigration Commission at $275,000,000. This estimate "does not take into account the large sums carried abroad by returning immigrants."1

A better idea of the average amount an immigrant manages to save from his wages can be gained from the economic effects produced by the flow of American money into the rural districts of Southern and Eastern Europe. In Greece

...

much of the money sent home by emigrants is for the payment of old debts and cancellation of mortgages, a considerable part . . . for deposits, loans, the purchases of real estate or the improvement of property already owned. . . Many houses were . . . built by money sent back by emigrants. . . . Usury is receding, fleeing from the glitter of abundant gold which has inundated towns and villages. . . . Nor is it surprising that the rate of interest should have fallen from 20, 15, and 10 per cent to 6 and 5 per cent."

In Southern Italy, those who return from America purchase a house with a small estate. In Austria-Hungary, the enormous influx of money goes partly to pay old debts and to bring over families, but most of it to support relatives at home, to invest in land, to build homes, to make improvements, and to buy agricultural machinery. "The desire of the returning emigrant to invest in land has led to a considerable increase in its value, particularly in Croatia, Galicia, and the Slovak district of Hungary. . . . In Galicia the buying of large estates by associations of emigrants has become a common practice. Very often from 50,000 to 90,000 acres a year are thus bought up and subdivided among the peasant purchasers. The money is either contributed from the savings of the associated peasants or borrowed from friends who are still in America." Reports from all emigration countries concur in the statement that the standard of living of the peasants who have

• Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 37, p. 277. Ibid., vol. 4 (in press.)

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