percentages of foreign-born go together with higher average earnings, e. g., Rhode Island has more than twice as many foreign-born in proportion as Texas, and the rate of wages in Rhode Island is higher than in Texas. And, on the con

TABLE 90.

AVERAGE ANNUAL EARNINGS OF FEMALE EMPLOYEES IN MANUFACTURES, COLLATED WITH THE PERCENTAGES OF FOREIGN-BORN, IN

trary, lower percentages of foreign-born go together with higher average wages, e. g., Kansas and Rhode Island. Neither does immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe appear to affect the average earnings. New York with the highest percentage of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe has a higher average than Oregon with the lowest percentage of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. The average earnings of women likewise bear no definite relation to the per cent of foreignborn breadwinners. In Massachusetts, which has the maximum per cent (40.6) of foreign-born breadwinners in

manufacturing and mechanical pursuits, the average earnings are $319, whereas in New Mexico, which has the minimum per cent of foreign-born breadwinners (3.9), the average earnings are $255. The lowest average earnings, $211 annually, are found in Delaware, with 6.7 per cent of foreign-born women employed in manufactures, while in Massachusetts, with six times as many foreign-born, the average annual earnings were 52 per cent above the Delaware average. The preponderance of evidence, to use a legal term, supports the conclusion that, as a rule, the annual earnings are higher in States with a higher percentage of foreign-born factory workers. But making allowance for the few exceptions to this rule, the least that can be said is that there is no proof of a tendency of immigration, old or new, to depress the rate of wages.

The preceding conclusions based upon an examination of census statistics of average earnings are corroborated by the results of Prof. Nearing's study of wage statistics published by State labor bureaus. He finds "that average wages are rather constant for a given industry from State to State, and from city to city within a State." As the percentage of immigrants among the wage-earners employed in each industry greatly varies from State to State and from city to city, it is evident that immigration does not affect the rate of wages.

"The opportunities for the new hands depend upon the expansion of industry and the resources of the country," says Professor Commons. "Provided this expansion occurs, there is no overcrowding of the labor market. The new resources and new investments demand new labor; and, if the expansion is strong enough, the new labor as well as the existing labor may secure advances in wages.""

It is broadly asserted by Professors Jenks and Lauck that the large supply of Southern and Eastern European labor "has seriously retarded the advance of wages in those occu

2

Nearing, loc. cit., pp. 145-146.

Report of the Industrial Commission, vol. xv., p. 305.

pations where such labor could be used to advantage.” The case of section hands on the railroads is cited as a specific example: their wages are said to have "varied little during the last fifteen years, although the wages in other lines of industry have advanced materially." This conclusion is at variance with the statistics of the Interstate Commerce Commission, which furnish an accurate record of the yearly fluctuations of average daily wages for the main classes of railway employees. In order to bring out the effect of the supply of Southern and Eastern European labor upon the wages of section hands on the railways, the variations in their wages must be compared with the variations in the wages of other railway employees. It should not

be lost sight of that the rates of wages are governed by demand, as well as by supply, not by supply alone. That wages in other lines of industry have advanced more rapidly, may have been due to a greater demand for labor in those lines. It is only when the comparison is confined to railway employees that the changes in the rates of wages can be observed under uniform conditions. The data for such a comparison are presented in graphic form in Diagram XVIII. Of the eight classes shown on the diagram all but the lowest two consist of English-speaking employees, while the two lowest grades are filled very largely by immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. The engineers, conductors, and firemen have strong organizations, while the laborers and trackmen are unorganized. The raises secured by the latter have come solely through the operation of the law of supply and demand. The wage curves for all classes but general office clerks show a rising tendency; the variations from year to year are almost parallel. The office clerks are the only class whose wages have remained practically sta

Jenks and Lauck, loc. cit., pp. 206-207. In a preceding paragraph this specific example is qualified by the statement that "in certain cases they [immigrants hired for railroad section work] have been paid even more than the laborers previously employed, the latter being insufficient in number to meet the increasing demand." (p. 206).

* Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1910, Table 169, p. 266.

tionary; considering the increased cost of living, their real wages have in fact declined. The clerical force is, with few exceptions, either of native or of Northern and Western European birth. Thus while the wages of Southern and Eastern European section hands have been raised to meet

DIAGRAM XVIII.

10

$2

90

XVIII. Average daily wages of railroad employees, 1891-1909.

the increased cost of living, the salary of the American office clerk has not been advanced.

The Immigration Commission seeks to hold immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe responsible even for the low pay of clerical help:

"There is the general feeling that in so far as the recent

immigrants are entering occupations in which Americans are engaged, they are rendering those occupations undesirable. The American laborer does not care in many cases to work with the 'Hunkie,' and he resents the latter's presence and in many cases transfers his own labor to an occupation such as a clerkship at lower wages.

Thus because the American street laborer deems it beneath his station in life to work side by side with a "Hunkie," he is said to be willing to accept at a sacrifice a more respectable position at a desk in a railway or mining office. The Commission has produced no statistics to show the percentage of clerical employees with a previous experience as section hands and mine laborers. On the other hand, preference for clerical work among the children of American mechanics antedates the advent of the "Hunkie." A discussion of the subject is found in a report of the Illinois Bureau of Labor as far back as 1886. First among the reasons "why the Americanbred youth seek clerkships" is noted "the distaste of the American youth for the trades."2 Obviously, the Slav and Italian laborers ought not to be burdened with responsibility for the oversupply of native American labor in clerical pursuits.

No evidence of the alleged tendency of Southern and Eastern European labor to retard the advance of wages can be found in the two basic industries which are generally regarded as representative of the conditions produced by recent immigration-the coal and the iron and steel industry. In the latter, the Immigration Commission finds, "the extensive employment of recent immigrants has been attended by an increase in rates of wages due to the general scarcity of labor in the face of the remarkable industrial expansion of recent years."3 This statement should be

▪ Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 9, p. 583.

2 Fourth Annual Report of the Bureau of Statistics of Labor of the State of Illinois, p. 227.

3 Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 9, p. 440.