States, and the bulk of that immigration has been from the countries of Southern and Eastern Europe. The reports on factory inspection in the State of New York, therefore, offer the results of observation, under conditions best calculated to bring out the effects of immigration. Moreover, the figures for the city of New York can be compared with those for the rest of the State. In the city of New York the foreign-born population furnished in 1900, 50.7 per cent of all persons engaged in manufactures and mechanical pursuits, while in the State outside of New York the ratio was only 22.9 per cent. The natives of Southern and Eastern Europe constituted in the same year 16.1 per cent of the total population of New York City, and 2.1 per cent of the total population of the State outside of New York City. By 1910 their proportion in New York City increased to 23.9 per cent and in the remainder of the State to 6.6 per cent.' The per cent distribution of factory operatives by the number of hours of work in and outside of New York City is given in Table 92 on the next page. The figures show: (1) That the decade of the heaviest immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe was marked by a gradual reduction of the hours of labor in the State of New York; (2) That the percentage of factory operatives working ten hours or less on week days with a half-holiday on Saturday was much greater in New York City with its large colonies of alien workers than in the remainder of the State with a working population predominantly native; (3) That after a decade of "undesirable immigration" more than two thirds of all factory workers in New York City work ten hours or less on week days with a half holiday on Saturday, whereas in the remainder of the State the majority still work longer hours. The preconceived notions about the "general character ' XIII. Census Bulletin. Population: United States. Advance statement on population issued by the Director of the Census to the newspapers, May 13, 1912. istics" of the recent immigrant do not stand the scrutiny of incontrovertible statistical figures. TABLE 92. PER CENT DISTRIBUTION OF FACTORY OPERATIVES BY WEEKLY HOURS OF LABOR IN NEW YORK CITY AND IN NEW YORK STATE OUTSIDE OF NEW YORK CITY, 1901-1909.1 Annual Report of the New York Bureau of Labor, vol. ii., 1910, Table I 31, p. xlvi. CHIL CHAPTER XIV CHILD LABOR HILD labor has a depressing effect upon the rate of wages. Thousands of children of immigrants are employed in the mills of New England and the Middle Atlantic States. The inference which readily suggests itself to the popular mind is that child labor is the product of immigration. It is a historical fact, however, that child labor originated in the United States with the introduction of the factory system during the first quarter of the nineteenth century. Early writers on economic subjects favored the employment of children in factories, because it would save adult male labor for agriculture, fishing, shipping, and the skilled trades. Child labor was advocated on religious and philanthropic grounds. The various immigrant races which succeeded one another in the nineteenth century found child labor as an integral part of the factory system in the United States. During the ten-year period from 1899 to 1909, with its unprecedented immigration, the average number of children employed in factories remained stationary, viz., in 1899161,000, in 1909-162,000, while the relative number decreased from 3.4 per cent to 2.5 per cent of all wage-earners.2 ' Carlton, loc cit., pp. 380-385. 2 XIII. Census Bulletin. Manufactures, p. 19. It is probable that the number of children at work has decreased as well. The number of wage-earners for 1899, owing to the method of computation followed at the XII. Census, was considerably underestimated: The average number was computed "by using 12, the number of calendar months, as a divisor into the total of the average numbers reported for each month." The effect of this method is shown in the case of twelve The most significant fact to be noted concerning the relation between child labor and immigration is the large proportion of children employed in factories in States where there is practically no immigrant population. Children of native-born American parents are drawn into the mills as a substitute for immigrant labor. This conclusion is derived from Table 93, showing the dependence of factories upon child labor in six leading manufacturing States, according to the recent census. TABLE 93. PER CENT OF CHILDREN UNDER 16 EMPLOYED IN FACTORIES, IN THE In the four leading manufacturing States of the North with a large immigrant population, child labor holds a subordinate place in the industrial organization, while in North and South Carolina one in every eight or nine factory operatives is under the age of 16. The lowest per cent of child workers is in New York, which is overrun by immigrants, old and new. selected industries, where the average number computed "as an abstract unit (like the foot-pound)" was 475,473, whereas the total "computed on the basis of time in operation would have exceeded 650,000," the variation being as high as 36 per cent.-XII. Census. Manufactures, Part I., pp. cvi., cx., and cxi. 1 XIII. Census Bulletin. Manufactures, p. 19. Preliminary population statistics issued to the press by the Director of the Census. The latest available statistics of the distribution of children employed in manufactures by nativity relate to the year 1900. The figures are given in Table 94. TABLE 94. DISTRIBUTION, BY PARENT NATIVITY AND COLOR, OF THE NUMBER OF CHILDREN OF BOTH SEXES, 10 TO 15 YEARS OF AGE, ENGAGED IN MANUFACTURES AND MECHANICAL PURSUITS, BY GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS, 1900.1 Native parents 114,881 46,534 19,155 Colored.... 9,309 493 679 Total...... 3,199 4,172 3,038 288 4,784 3,065 283,869 151,601 64,630 5,083 44,248 18,307 In the country at large, the percentage ratio of children. of each nativity employed in manufactures corresponded to the percentage of all breadwinners of the same nativity, engaged in manufacturing and mechanical pursuits. In other words, on the whole the foreign-born sent to the factories no more than their quota of children. There is a marked difference, however, in the ratio of children of native parents for each section of the country: in the South the I Occupations, XII. Census, Table LVIII., p. clix. The per cent distribution, by parent nativity and color, of persons of all ages engaged in manufactures in the United States was as follows: white of native parentage, 39.8 per cent; white of foreign parentage, 56.0 per cent; colored, 4.2 per cent.—Ibid., Table XXXVI., p. cxiii. |