of the male immigrants, however, are single, or, if married, are unaccompanied by their families,' this recommendation, if enacted into law, would in effect be little short of complete prohibition of immigration, not of unskilled laborers alone, but of skilled mechanics, and professional men as well.

Approximately one half of all immigrants above sixteen but under forty-five years of age admitted in 1910 were single. Of the other half that were married, over one half,2

"Because of economic conditions, the difficulty of securing a foothold in a new country when handicapped by the presence of a family, and the additional expense involved in the transportation of more than one, many of the married immigrants leave their wives abroad when coming to the United States. Money is, in most cases, sent abroad for the support of the wife in the old country. When sufficiently well established, the husband, if he intends to make the United States his permanent place of residence, sends for the wife, or, going abroad upon a visit, brings her back with him."—Ibid., vol. 6, p. 158.

Jewish immigration is recognized as an exception. The percentage of families among the Jewish immigrants is higher than among immigrants of any other race. This fact, however, is the best proof of the abnormal character of Jewish immigration. The bulk of the Russian-Jewish immigrants have no idea of returning to the country of their birth, where their opportunities to earn a living are restricted by various civil disabilities in the choice of residence and occupation. Thousands of Russian immigrants were banished from their homes by edicts transferring certain cities from the "pale of settlement" to other provinces from which Jews are excluded, and by numerous other executive orders of a similar character, to say nothing of those who fled from massacres. Under such conditions the immigrant naturally takes his family along with him.

"Of the 640,346 male immigrants between 14 and 44 years of age admitted in 1910, 353,936 were single (Annual Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for 1910, p. 24). This number, of course, included many boys 14 years of age and over who came with their parents. The statistics of immigration do not give their number separately, but it may be estimated from the census statistics of the age distribution of the foreign-born on the assumption that all boys under 17 years came with their parents and all boys 17 years of age and over came alone. The proportion of boys under 14 years among the foreign-born in 1900 was 2.144 per cent and the proportion of boys from 14 to 16 years 1.257 per cent. (Population, XII. Census, vol. ii., Table XVIII., p. xliii.) The number of immigrant boys under

at a conservative estimate, must have left their wives abroad. The recommendation of the minority would accordingly debar considerably more than three fourths of the male immigrants.

The illiteracy test recommended by the majority of the Immigration Commission does not go so far. The proportion of illiterates among the male immigrants fourteen years of age and over admitted in 1910 was twenty-six per cent. Assuming that they were all unskilled laborers, we may estimate their proportion at not over thirty-eight per cent of the total number of unskilled laborers admitted.3 At this rate the average annual immigration of unskilled laborers for the decade 1901-1910 would still have remained eighty per cent above the average for 1891-1900.4 Yet the arguments for restriction of immigration were the same in the 90's as to-day. Prof. Fairchild, referring to the period from December, 1907, to August, 1908, when emigration exceeded immigration by 124,124, finds that "this figure is almost infinitesimal compared to the total mass of the American working people, or to the amount of unemployment at a normal time." The net result of the emigration movement of those nine months was tantamount to a prohibition of immigration, yet Prof Fairchild finds that it

14 admitted in 1910 was 61,969. The number between 14 and 16 years (both inclusive) may accordingly be estimated as 37,000. This leaves approximately 317,000 single men from 17 to 44 years of age out of an estimated total of 603,000.

"The proportion of Southern and Eastern European coal miners who had been less than five years in the United States and reported their wives abroad, varied from forty-nine per cent to eighty-one per cent” (Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 6, Table 106, p. 162). Many of the others, however, doubtless had come unaccompanied by their wives and sent for them subsequently, after having earned in the United States the cost of their passage.

2

Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration, 1910, Table VII B.

3 For details of this calculation see Note at the end of this Chapter. 4 For the average annual immigration of common laborers and per

sons engaged in agricultural pursuits see Appendix, Table I.

This admission,

had "a very trifling palliative effect." coming as it does from a learned advocate of restriction, is full of meaning. It permits of but one logical conclusion, viz., that even complete prohibition of immigration would have but an "infinitesimal" effect upon unemployment and other problems of vital interest to "the total mass of the American working people." Mere restrictive legislation could a fortiori produce no remedial effect. The futility of one act would only goad the believers in restriction to renewed efforts for more restriction. It is to be hoped that the sound reason of the American people will prevail, and that, after intelligent discussion, they will reject the panacea of restriction as they have the greenback and free-silver cure-alls.

NOTE.

Number of unskilled laborers among male immigrants and percentage of illiteracy among them.2 The statistics of immigration contain no classification of immigrants both by occupation and sex, but the number of unskilled male laborers can be estimated with a fair degree of accuracy. The number of immigrants admitted in 1910 who were not listed as "professional" and "skilled" comprised the following occupations:

The number of farm laborers and laborers, probably, included some The number of the latter may be estimated from an examina

women.

tion of the occupations of women.

'Henry Pratt Fairchild: "Immigration and Crises," The American Economic Review, December, 1911, p. 758.

2

Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration, 1910, Tables VI., VII., and VII B.

The total number of immigrants without occupation, including women and children, in 1910 was 260,002. This number consisted of the

The unidentified 30,730 immigrants without occupation included boys and girls above 14 years of age and men who came to join their children. The number of such men certainly did not exceed that of widows 45 years of age and over. The total number of boys and girls 14 years and over without occupation was accordingly somewhere between 23,000 and 30,000, and the number of girls approximately between 11,500 and 15,000.

The following occupations could be identified as exclusively or chiefly the work of women:

The difference of 37,540 included 11,500 to 15,000 young girls without occupation (see above). This leaves at least 22,500 women engaged in other occupations than the above enumerated. How many of them were engaged in professional or skilled occupations, is not known. It may be assumed that the proportion was not greater than for both sexes, i. e., 148,904 in 781,570 or 19 per cent. At this rate the number of women engaged in unskilled occupations may be estimated at 18,000. Subtracting this number from the total of 540,392 for both sexes, we obtain 492,000 as the estimated number of male unskilled laborers. The number of illiterate males 14 years of age and over in 1910 was 191,022 out of a total of 674,069 males of the same ages, i. e., 28 per cent. Allowing the same percentage for the 37,000 boys who came with their parents, and for the 7700 old men who came to join their children (the

estimate is probably exaggerated), we subtract 12,500 from the total number of illiterate males and estimate the number of illiterate males above the age of 16 at 178,500. If all these illiterates were unskilled laborers, their ratio to the total number of unskilled laborers was equal to 38.3 per cent.