instances $5.50, for a week of fifty-five hours, and the mill receives about 62 cents per pound. It is also stated that to secure the same results it is necessary for the mill to pay $1.50 at present for fuel, as against the former price of 50 cents, which it cost the mill for hauling from the mine. To offset these changed conditions, however, the mills have adopted improved machinery, which compensates in large measure for the loss of the former advantage of cheap labor and fuel. EMPLOYEES FOR WHOM INFORMATION WAS SECURED. The extent of the data secured in the anthracite coal region is exhibited by the following table, which shows, by sex, the number and percentage of employees of each race for whom information was secured: TABLE 82.-Employees for whom information was secured, by sex and general nativity and race. CHAPTER II. RACIAL DISPLACEMENTS. History of immigration-Period of residence in the United States of foreign-born employees-Racial classification of employees at the present time-[Text Tables 83 and 84 and General Table 55]. HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION. Silk mills in the anthracite coal region of Pennsylvania are of two distinct types-one depending upon the other-although in one case there is a combination of the two. One is termed a "throwing" mill where the silk is first handled after being received in this country, and where there is very little skill required; the other is a weaving' mill, where the silk is warped and woven into a finished product ready for the consumer. This last is where the skilled workers will be found. The throwing mill has been designated by an official of one of this type as a training school for the other mills. This same official states that while his mill employs not over 500, in the course of a year his books have shown very nearly 4,000 names. He also states that his company, as well as the other throwing mill companies, employ young girls as soon as is permissible under the laws of the State. It will be readily understood that in a throwing mill, where the girls are young and where very little skill is required, the company has, although the wages are low, a broader field from which to secure its employees than has the mill where the silk is warped and woven, and where the employee must be possessed of much more skill. The result is that in a throwing mill the second generation of the more inferior immigrant races can be and are employed to an advantage. The throwing mills have employed the second generation of immigrants from the beginning of operations, and at present the Poles, Slovaks, Magyars, and Lithuanians comprise about 70 per cent of the entire force, while the Americans and Irish-Americans make up the other 30 per cent. On the other hand, when weaving mills were first established in this locality the employees were chiefly Americans, Irish, Germans, and Welsh, with the Irish largely predominating. At that time, however, so far as the individual mill was concerned, the predominant race depended more upon the location of the mill, for the different races were more segregated then than now and the facilities for reaching the mills were not what they are to-day. Considering them collectively, the Irish predominated, with the Welsh and German following in the order named. It is asserted that not over 5 per cent of the immigrants employed are of the first generation, and this 5 per cent is made up mostly of Poles and Slovaks. The employment of the more recent immigrants occurred in the following order: Poles, 1897-98; Slovaks, 1899-1900; Magyars, 1901; and Lithuanians, 1904. Representatives of other races are employed in these mills but in such small numbers that they are in no way a factor in their operation. PERIOD OF RESIDENCE IN THE UNITED STATES OF FOREIGN-BORN EMPLOYEES. A further insight into the history of the employment of the several races may be seen from the table next presented, which shows, by sex and race, the percentage of foreign-born employees who had been in the United States each specified number of years. TABLE 83.-Per cent of foreign-born employees in the United States each specified number of years, by sex and race. (STUDY OF EMPLOYEES.) [By years in the United States is meant years since first arrival in the United States. No deduction is made for time spent abroad. This table includes only races with 80 or more persons reporting. The total, however, is for all foreign-born.] Of a total of 614 males and females, 23.3 per cent have been in the United States less than five years, 21 per cent from five to nine years, 23.9 per cent from ten to fourteen years, 16.4 per cent from fifteen to nineteen years, and 15.3 per cent twenty years or over. Comparing the totals of the two races, it is seen that the Polish show a much higher proportion who have been in the United States under five years than the Germans, while the difference is more marked in favor of the Germans in the twenty years or over period. In the periods from five to nine and ten to fourteen years the Poles show considerably the larger proportion, and in the periods fifteen years or over the races are reversed. Among the males it is seen that of 100 reporting, with the exception of the period from ten to fourteen years, there is an increase in the proportion of employees in each residence period over the one preceding. By far the larger proportion of the Poles are in the lower periods-that is, have been in the United States less than fifteen years while on the other hand the greater proportion of the Germans have been in the United States more than fifteen years. Of a total of 514 females reporting, it is seen that the greater proportions are in the lower periods or under fifteen years, while as regards the individual foreign-born races, the Poles show a very large proportion in the lower periods of residence and the Germans in the longer. RACIAL CLASSIFICATION OF EMPLOYEES AT THE PRESENT TIME. The racial classification of the operating forces of the mills at the present time is set forth in the following table, which shows, by sex, the number and percentage of employees of each race for whom information was secured: TABLE 84.-Employees for whom information was secured, by sex and general nativity and race. The above table shows that of 4,326 employees for whom information was secured 3,759 are females and 567 are males, 61.9 per cent are native-born of foreign father, 23.1 per cent are native-born whites of native father, and 15 per cent are foreign-born. |