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of the "unintelligent" Slavs, American industry might have gone on forever without improved machinery, and instead of perfecting the organization of the mining processes the mine operators would have encouraged the "arts and crafts" movement in bituminous coal mining.

This theory ignores the elementary proposition of political economy, that the main object of labor-saving machinery is to dispense precisely with "intelligent," i. e., high-priced labor, and that, on the contrary, an abundant supply of cheap labor would retard the introduction of improved machinery.'

The conditions in the coal mines of West Virginia may serve as an example: "The low level of wages in West Virginia may be inferred from the low rate of introduction of machinery," says Prof. John R. Commons. This fact, according to him, is of special significance because burgh District." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, March, 1909, pp. 318-319.

"If labor is cheap . . . somewhat more labor will be employed and somewhat less machinery installed. . . . If wages are high . . . more machinery will be introduced and somewhat less labor employed." C. J. Bullock, Assistant Professor of Political Economy in Harvard University, The Elements of Economics, pp.79-80.-"Higher wages for labor will induce entrepreneurs to economize in the use of labor. . . . In the printing industry, for example, a rise in wages would make it profitable for employing printers to use more labor-saving machinery." Outlines of Economics, by Richard T. Ely, Professor of Political Economy in the University of Wisconsin, revised and enlarged by the author and Thomas S. Adams; Max O. Lorenz, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Political Science in the University of Wisconsin; Allyn A. Young, Ph.D., Professor of Economics in Leland Stanford Junior University (New York, 1909), p. 369.-"Every rise of wages will have a tendency to determine the saved capital in a greater proportion than before to the employment of machinery. Machinery and labor are in constant competition, and the former can frequently not be employed until labor rises." David Ricardo: Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (London, 1891), p. 386.-"Where abundance of cheap labor. . . can be obtained, . . . the development of machinery has been generally slower." John A. Hobson: The Evolution of Modern Capitalism, p. 69; also p. 81. Cf. also Karl Marx: Capital, Book I., Chapter XV: Machinery and Modern Industry, Sec. 2.

"the miners of West Virginia are mainly native Americans, who have only recently turned from home industry to mining."

It is patent that the movement of labor from agriculture to mining and manufactures would, even in the absence of all immigration, have overcome the resistance of the English-speaking miners to the introduction of machinery. The number of mines is not fixed. New mines are continually being opened. The operator of a new machineequipped mine need not face the resistance of old pickminers; he can engage an entirely new force of operatives, free from any traditions. His competition will ultimately force the owners of old mines to introduce machinery or go out of business. The resistance of English-speaking miners might have some time been strong enough to prevent the introduction of machinery, but at no time could it have forced a mine operator to run his mine at a loss. The shutting down of the unprofitable mines would have put an end to the resistance of the pick-miners. Absence of immigration might have retarded the growth of American industry, but it could not have checked the introduction of machinery.

Machinery has so radically changed the technique of all industries that a comparison between past and present wages is beset with extreme difficulties. Many old occupations are gone, and even though the name may have remained the same, the substance has changed: a steelworker to-day is not the same as a steel-worker thirty years ago. A comparison of average wages or earnings for two different periods may therefore be quite misleading. It is possible for the average to show a decrease, though in reality the wages may have increased. This will be clear from the following example in which all figures are purely

I

* Reports of the Industrial Commission, vol. xv., p. 410.

2 For a discussion of this subject see R. Mayo-Smith: Statistics and Economics, pp. 91-102. (Publications of the American Economic Association, vol. iii., Nos. 4, 5.)

arbitrary. Suppose, the working force of a mill in 1882 consisted of 1000 men, of whom 750 were skilled mechanics whose wages averaged $3.50 a day, and 250 were unskilled laborers hired at $1.25 a day. The average wage for all mill workers was, accordingly, $3.00 per day. Suppose, further, that in the thirty years that have elapsed since, the business of the mill has grown and two new departments have been added, with 1000 men in each. But owing to the installation of new machinery the same 750 skilled mechanics have been distributed over the three plants, and the additional force of 2000 men consists solely of unskilled laborers. Suppose, the wages of the skilled mechanics have been raised from $3.50 to an average of $5.00 per day, and the wages of unskilled laborers from $1.25 to an average of $2.00 per day. The average for the three plants, however, would be $2.75 per day, i. e., twenty-five cents less than thirty years ago, notwithstanding the substantial gain in the wages of all employees. The same defect is inherent in the latest refinements of the average, the "median," the "quartile," the "decile," etc.

Moreover, our wage statistics present a huge mass of fragmentary and heterogeneous data, which in their present undigested form "are well-nigh inaccessible." The use

Nearing: Wages in the United States, p. 7. The defects of our wage statistics are well stated by Professor Nearing in the following paragraphs:

"At every turn the need arose for an accurate, concise statement of the wages being paid in the various parts of the United States, yet to date no study has been made which supplies the need. Ryan's Estimate is old, and at best incomplete; Mrs. Moore's statement, like the statement in the 1903 Report of the Commissioner of Labor, is of standards of living primarily, and only incidentally of wages. In neither case is the ground covered sufficiently to warrant valuable wage deductions. The Wage Study accompanying the Census of 1900 is old, and rather inadequate, as the compilers themselves point out. . . . The available data on the subject of wages exist chiefly in the reports of State bureaus of labor, and are unfortunately of such a nature as to render comparison with data of a decade since (in the few cases where such data exist) most unsatisfactory. . . . New York wage statistics

of wage statistics, such as they are, for an analysis of the effects of immigration on wages is restricted by lack of comparable statistics of occupations by nativity.'

On the other hand, a rise or a fall in money wages is no indication of an increase or decrease of the resources of the wage-earners, unless coupled with comparative statistics of the cost of living. The various index numbers of prices, however, admit of a wide margin of error. An illustration is furnished by the curve plotted by Mr. Streightoff from the figures of the United States Bureau of Labor on "real wages." It appears that during the period from 1890 to 1907, the purchasing power of full-time weekly wages was at its maximum in 1896, when, according to the statistics of the Massachusetts Bureau, the ratio of unemployment was as high as during the crisis year 1908;3 the country had relate to members of labor unions only; the average wage statistics of Pennsylvania are incomplete-even those cited are wretchedly compiled and presented; Illinois has published no recent statement of wages except in department stores; Missouri, Michigan, and Indiana publish little or no wage data. The statistics for Ohio are excellent, but very diffuse and unconcentrated. . . . Therefore, of the ten leading industrial States, three present worthy wage data; the statistics of two are far from satisfactory; while five of the ten States furnish no current wage material of value to this study. Deplorable as is the lack of statistics in these great industrial States, the conditions in the country at large are infinitely worse. Of the forty-seven States of the Union, not more than five publish up-to-date wage statistics. Of the remaining States, a score publish statistics of average wages only, which, in some cases, are so unrepresentative as to be valueless. (Pp. 9-15.)

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"The last Bulletin of the Federal Bureau of Labor relating to wages was published in 1908. . . . The material as a whole permits of practically no deduction, save that wages are considerably higher in the West than in any other section of the country, and that the wages in some trades are very much higher than in others." (Pp. 138-139.)

I For example, though the average wages of coal miners can be computed from census statistics for every State, it is impossible to ascertain for many States the percentage of Slavs among coal miners, because coal miners are combined in census statistics with metalliferous miners and quarrymen.

2 Streightoff, loc. cit., Chart XI.

3 See Ch. VI., Table 23 and Diagram IX.

not recovered from the effects of the crisis of 1893-1894, and the industrial situation was again disturbed by the uncertainty of a Presidential campaign fought on one of the most vital economic issues, the money question. No trust can be placed in statistics which lead to conclusions so glaringly at variance with facts still fresh in people's memory.

Overlooking, however, the inadequacy of our wage statistics, let us examine the material, such as it is, bearing upon the relation between immigration and wages.

We have seen that in the 40's the wages of Irish street laborers in Brooklyn were insufficient to provide for rent, and they were compelled to live in shanties. Bad as the housing accommodations of the Italian street laborers may be to-day, they nevertheless earn enough to pay rent, which is indisputable proof of an increase in "real wages.

A generation later, a statistical inquiry into the earnings of 75,000 wage-earners in the State of Massachusetts led the Bureau of Labor Statistics to the conclusion that "the average earnings of a majority of the skilled laborers in this State do not reach the average cost of the necessities of life," with the result that "the children of the poor are taken away early from school, and brought into the labor market; the son to the factory, store, or shop, and the daughter to the life and wages of a factory or cash girl, or of a serving woman." Evidently the skilled mechanics forty years ago did not fare better than the wage-earners of our own day.

In the same report there is a comparison of earnings and expenses in Massachusetts for 1800, 1830, and 1860. It is estimated that in 1800 the master mason alone of all craftsmen earned more than his expenses, whereas master carpenters and master painters could not pay their expenses; journeymen carpenters, masons, and painters were in the same category. In 1830 a journeyman mason earned barely

1 New York Weekly Tribune, May 2, 1846. Quoted in Documentary History of American Industrial Society, vol. viii., pp. 225-226.

2 Third Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor (1871-1872), pp. 531-532.

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