of foreign birth, whereas the native Americans contributed less than their quota to the membership of labor organizations. This fact had been generally known before from common observation. In the report of the New Jersey Bureau of Statistics of Labor for 1884, immigration was held directly responsible for the organization of labor unions. The writer of an article on "Immigration and the Labor Problem," after stating that native Americans are displaced by laborers "coming from countries in which wages are lower than our standard" and where the standard of living is therefore lower, goes on to say that

to the American laborer of twenty-five or thirty years since, such an occurrence would have been an inconvenience but not altogether a disaster. Failing to obtain the work he wanted at one place or in one trade, he would turn to another and yet another, until he had found something by which he could live. But the foreign-born operative has but little of this cat-like facility of falling upon his feet. He knows but a single trade; often, in the subdivision of mechanical employments, which is almost uniformily prevalent and becoming still more so, only a small fraction of that. Thrown out of his place, he must find another almost precisely similar, or acquire a new training by a slow and painful process, during which he earns little or nothing, and he has in far the greater number of cases nothing laid up. That men should grow desperate and wicked under such circumstances is not surprising. That they should combine in leagues of various kinds; limit the hours of labor, or the amount of work to be done in a given time; refuse to work with apprentices, or men outside of their own associations; strike, and agree not only to remain idle themselves, but to prevent others from working; . . . is the most natural thing in the world."

Thus, as late as 1884, the organization of labor unions was decried in a State report as un-American, the work of foreigners grown "desperate and wicked." Ten years later the Minnesota Bureau of Labor undertook an investigation to disprove that view. It is instructive to contrast the state of public opinion in the early 90's as reflected in the report

'The results of those inquiries are given in the Appendix, Table XXIII. 2 Seventh Annual Report of the New Jersey Bureau of Statistics of Labor and Industries (1884), pp. 289–290.

I

of the Minnesota Labor Bureau, with the sentiment of our own day, when a Congressional commission regards unionism as a manifestation of Americanism:

It has been repeatedly charged by a certain class of writers that American trade unions are conspiracies to prevent American boys from acquiring skilled crafts. This charge has been most clearly stated by the Century Magazine, May, 1893. It says: "Under the present conditions of trade instruction and employment in this country the American boy has no rights which organized labor is bound to respect. He is denied instruction as an apprentice, and if he be taught his trade in a trade school he is refused admission to nearly all trade unions and is boycotted if he attempts to work as a non-union man. The questions of his character and skill enter into the matter only to discriminate against him. All the trade unions of the country are controlled by foreigners, who comprise the great body of their members; while they refuse admission to the trained American boy, they admit all foreign applicants with little or no regard to their training or skill. In fact the doors of organized labor in America, which are closed and barred against American boys, swing open wide and free to all foreign-comers. Labor in free America is free to all save sons of Americans." The same magazine, in its issue of July, 1893, says: "They (the trade unions) are afraid of America's independent ideas in their unions, knowing, as they do, that American workmen are not so servile and not so easily led as the more ignorant foreign workmen. ” 2

It

The report of the Minnesota Bureau of Labor then proceeds to disprove, by figures relative to Minnesota labor unions, the statements made in the Century articles. shows that in the three large cities of the State 62 per cent of males of voting age at the census of 1890 were foreignborn, whereas of the total number of trade unionists who replied to the inquiries of the Bureau, 58.54 per cent were

Fourth Biennial Report of the Minnesota Bureau of Labor (1893-94), p. 175.

2

The author of a doctor's dissertation, submitted to the University of Chicago at the same time, strongly advocated restriction of immigration, to ward off a "peril" which threatened American labor in "the fact that our trade unions are almost exclusively controlled by foreigners . . . incapable by long oppression in the industrial slavery of Europe to understand or appreciate the true dignity or interests of American labor."--Rena M. Atchison: Un-American Immigration, p. 105.

born in the United States and 41.46 per cent were foreignborn. But a table in the report shows II of the unions with more than 62 per cent of foreign-born members. Those trades were the granite cutters with 70.09, bricklayers with 72.10, tailors with 100, bakers with 100, carpenters with 75.75, stonecutters with 72.75, blacksmiths with 100 per cent of foreign-born members.

The change of public sentiment from 1894, when the "ignorant foreign workmen" were accused of organizing labor unions, to 1910, when the ignorant foreigners were accused of keeping away from labor unions, is symptomatic of the progress of organized labor during the intervening period. In 1894, when the "ignorant foreigners" comprised mainly the races of "the old immigration," trade unionism was still weak; after eighteen years of "undesirable immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe," organized labor has gained in numbers and won public recognition.

An idea of the comparative strength of labor organizations in the days of the old and the new immigration can be gained from the distribution of the number of existing unions by the period of their organizations, as shown in Table 98.

Very few of the existing unions were organized prior to 1880. The work of organization has since been proceeding at an increasing rate of speed. During the first decade of the new immigration, 1880-1890, more unions were organized and survived than throughout the whole previous history of the United States. In the next decade, 1890-1900, when immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe first outran "the old immigration," the number of new unions organized in five of the six States (all but Illinois) exceeded the total number of unions which had survived from previous times. But the greatest success rewarded the efforts of union organizers during the first decade of the present century. In Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Minnesota more new unions were organized since 1900 than during the whole ninteenth century. It must be borne in mind that

Period

Massachusetts and Connecticut have received large accessions to their population from Southern and Eastern Europe. Thus the greatest activity in the field of organization coincided with the unparalleled new immigration of the past decade.

TABLE 98.

NUMBER AND DATE OF ORGANIZATION OF ACTIVE LABOR UNIONS IN SIX

The aggregate membership of labor organizations in the United States and Canada was estimated by the Industrial Commission at 1,300,000 for July 1, 1901.7 The aggregate

'Compiled from Report on Statistics of Labor, Massachusetts, 1908, pp. 185-186. Ohio Bureau of Labor Statistics, 24th Annual Report, 1900, p. 297. Minnesota Labor Report, 1905-6, p. 365; ibid., 1907-8, p. 83. Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Illinois, 1886, p. 198; ibid., 1901, p. 298. Report of the Connecticut Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1909-1910, p. 217. 32d Annual Report of the Missouri Bureau of Labor. 2 Periods: Up to 1880; 1881-1890; 1891-1900; 1901-1908. 3 1900-1908. 4 1900-1909. 5 1900-1908. 6 In 1900-1901-183. "The total membership of enumerated unions was estimated at 1,208,000, to which was added an arbitrary allowance of 191,100 for the Knights of Labor “and unenumerated organizations." The former were at the time in a moribund condition, and the Industrial Commission believed that its estimate was subject to a probable error of 100,000.Reports of the Industrial Commission, vol. xvii., p. xix.

membership of all unions in 1910 was estimated by the New York Bureau of Labor at 2,625,000 for the United States and Canada. Thus in nine years from 1901 to 1910, with their unprecedented immigration, the membership of labor organizations doubled, whereas the average number of wage-earners employed in manufactures increased from 1899 to 1909 only about 40 per cent, the number of railway employees from 1900 to 1910, 67 per cent, 3 etc.

The reports of the New York Bureau of Labor Statistics since 1897 furnish a record of the annual increase or decrease of union membership, which permits of a comparative study of the relation between trade-unionism and immigration. New York State is the receptacle of more than its proportionate share of "the new immigration." New York City is a temporary stopping-place for many a stranded immigrant lacking the funds for continuing his journey to final destination. The evil effects of immigration, if such they be, must appear in aggravated form in the State of New York. The relation between union membership and immigration is shown graphically in Diagram XX.4 The curves representing trade-union membership and the immigration of breadwinners5 run almost parallel, showing that union 1 New York Labor Bulletin, Sept., 1911, p. 418.

2 XIII. Census Bulletin. Manufactures: United States, p. 74. The real increase of the average number of wage-earners is smaller, because the number for 1910 is the average of 12 monthly pay-rolls, whereas in 1900 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 change of method is shown in the case of twelve 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., cxi.

Interstate Commerce Commission. Twenty-third Annual Report of the Statistics of Railways, pp. 33-34.

4 The figures from which the latter is plotted will be found in the Appendix, Table XXIII.

s All immigrants save those that have "no occupation (including women and children)," in official terminology.