VI. Per cent. of employed and unemployed members of trade unions in the State of New York, by months, 1902-1909.

production.... With accumulation, and the development of produc-
tiveness of labor that accompanies it, the power of sudden expansion
of capital grows also. . . . There must be the possibility of throwing
great masses of men suddenly on the decisive points without injury to
the scale of production in other spheres. . . . The whole form of the
movement of modern industry depends, therefore, upon the constant
transformation of a part of the laboring population into unemployed or
half-employed hands. . . . Taking them as a whole, the general move-
ments of wages are exclusively regulated by the expansion and con-
traction of the industrial reserve army. . . . They are, therefore, not
determined by the variations of the absolute number of the working
population, but by the varying proportions in which the working class
is divided into active and reserve army, by the increase or diminution
in the relative amount of the surplus population."—Karl Marx, Capital,
part I., ch. xxv., sec. 3.

that the effects of "the normal glutting of the labor market" may be aggravated by immigration?

It is asserted, indeed, on the strength of the investigation of the Immigration Commission "that the point of complete saturation has already been reached in the employment of recent immigrants in mining and manufacturing establishments." The Commission holds "that even with the remarkable expansion of industry during the past few years there has been created an oversupply of unskilled labor, which "is reflected in a curtailed number of working days."3

It is further argued that the oversupply of unskilled labor indirectly affects the skilled trades; more workers who might otherwise find employment as unskilled laborers are pushed up the scale to compete for skilled positions. This is especially felt in slack seasons when skilled mechanics would welcome any kind of work, even unskilled, which would tide them over the hard times. But the oversupply of unskilled labor restricts their opportunities in this field and intensifies competition in the skilled trades. When two competitors apply for one job in an overstocked labor market, the cheaper man will outbid the other. It is accordingly inevitable that the immigrant with a lower standard of living must displace the American workman.

If this theory is correct, we must find a higher percentage of unemployment among the native than among the foreignborn breadwinners. In fact, however, we find the following percentages of unemployment ascertained by the census for

'Beveridge, loc. cit., p. 13.

2

Jenks and Lauck, loc. cit., p. 197.

3 Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. I, p. 39. The Commission does not consistently adhere to this view. Elsewhere, in discussing the causes of the outward movement of immigrants leaving the United States permanently, the Commission says: "That it is not due to lack of opportunity for employment, except in a period of depression, is evident from the fact that there is a steady influx of European laborers who have little or no difficulty in finding employment here."—Ibid., vol. 4 (in press).

1900: native white males, 21.2 per cent; foreign white males 21.0 per cent.1

The difference between the two classes is negligible. The figures do not sustain the theory that the immigrants have an advantage over the native American workmen in the matter of securing employment. Has the "cheap" immigrant a better chance to hold his job, once secured, than the native American workman? An answer to this question is found in the following table reproduced from the Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 8, p. 87.

TABLE 17.

PER CENT DISTRIBUTION OF NATIVE AND FOREIGN-BORN MALE IRON AND
STEEL WORKERS 16 YEARS OF AGE AND OVER BY NUMBER
OF MONTHS OF EMPLOYMENT

1 Occupations at the XII. Census, p. ccxxvi. The census averages for unemployment among female breadwinners are not reliable. The highest ratios of unemployment were found among school teachers, 61.2 per cent, and in agricultural pursuits, 44.3 per cent, (p. ccxxxi), whereas the ratio for manufactures was 22.4 per cent, for domestic and personal service, 17.1 per cent, and for trade and transportation, ll.l per cent (p. ccxxviii). The teachers' vacation was included by the compilers of the census data under unemployment. Similarly, we find that in most of the census tales on occupations female members of farmers' families who were helping on the farm were lumped together with hired help under the common designation of "agricultural laborers." These "farm laborers (members of family)" numbered two thirds of all "agricultural laborers" (ibid., p. 7). The part of the year when there was no work for them on the farm was also counted as "unemployment."

The statistics of the Immigration Commission do not show that the immigrant holds his position longer than the American-born workman. On the contrary, in the iron and steel industry, which is among those most affected by immigration, the native workman is given more steady employment than the immigrant.

If there exists a causal connection between immigration and unemployment, we must expect to find more unemployment in those sections of the United States where the immigrants are mostly concentrated. This assumption is disproved by Table 18 next following:

TABLE 18.

COMPARATIVE PERCENTAGES OF UNEMPLOYED AND OF FOREIGN-BORN BREADWINNERS BY GEOGRAPHICAL DIVISIONS, 19001

As a result of this method of classification, the number of "unemployed" female agricultural laborers (293,707) exceeded y nearly one third the total number of hired female farm help (222,597). These two classes of occupations furnished two fifths of all unemployed females (494,202 out of a total of 1,241,492), while the ratio of foreign-born was only 5.3 per cent for teachers and 0.8 per cent for agricultural laborers (ibid., pp. 10-11, Table 2). In consequence the average percentage of "unemployment" for native white women in all occupations appears to be higher than for foreign-born. It is evident that the census data on unemploy ent among women are misleading, which is conceded in the census report.

* Occupations at the XII. Census, Table XCIII., pp. lxxxi., ccxxxv., and ccxxxvi., Tables XVII. and XCIII.

A glance at the table shows that the percentage of unemployment is not affected by the percentage of foreignborn engaged in the main classes of occupations. The variation of the ratio of unemployment from section to section is confined within narrow limits. The ratio of unemployment in manufactures is the same for the South Atlantic and the North Atlantic States, though there are very few foreign-born in the South Atlantic States, while in the North Atlantic States they constitute nearly one third of all operatives. In all other sections of the country the ratio of unemployment is slightly higher than in the North Atlantic States, while the percentage of foreign-born breadwinners engaged in manufactures is less, and in the South Central States much less than in the North Atlantic States. The same is true of the miscellaneous collection of occupations lumped together in census statistics under the head of "domestic and personal service," which includes unskilled laborers. We find the lowest ratio of unemployment in the North Atlantic States, with 31.5 per cent of foreign-born breadwinners and the highest in the South Central States, with but 3.7 per cent of foreign-born breadwinners.

Comparative statistics showing the ratio of unemployment and the percentage of foreign-born breadwinners by sex and by States are available for the manufacturing industries at the XII. Census. The measure of unemployment, for the purposes of this comparison, is the difference between the total greatest and the total least monthly average number employed, expressed as a percentage of the greatest monthly average. The data for manufactures relate to the calendar year 1899 and the distribution of breadwinners by nativity is for the summer of 1900. The dates are sufficiently close to make the figures comparable.'

There is considerable variation of the ratio of unemployment, as well as of that of foreign-born, by States. There are some States with a high percentage of foreign-born and 'See Appendix, Table III.