At the same time, German agriculture, stimulated by the increase of the country's population and fostered by a protective tariff, also showed substantial progress, as can be seen from Table 51 below. As a result, there is a scarcity of agricultural laborers during the busy season, which is only partially relieved by the immigration of Polish and Russian temporary laborers. Although organization among agricultural laborers is seriously restricted by law, yet, as an effect of economic causes alone, the wages of agricultural laborers have continually advanced.1

The combined effect of all these causes was reflected in the rate of emigration from rural districts. Towards the middle of the past century the growth of land values had made the primitive methods of farming unprofitable, and necessitated the introduction of more intensive systems of cultivation. In Prussian Poland the change was somewhat retarded by its general economic backwardness, but in the '70's and in the early '80's it drove large numbers of Polish peasants to the United States. These Poles constituted a large element of the German immigration to the United States and were counted in our immigration statistics as tion constituted 64 per cent in a total of 41,000,000; at the census of 1900 the total population numbered 56,000,000, but the proportion of rural population had declined to 46 per cent.-Howard, loc. cit., p. 31. Howard, loc. cit., p. 68.

* Zahn, loc. cit., Annalen des Deutschen Reichs, 1910, p. 578.

"Germans." But the rapid development of German industry within the last twenty-five years opened for these peasants new opportunities at home. This fact, coupled with the disappearance of cheap lands in the United States, has resulted in a falling off in the emigration of farmers and farm laborers to the United States.

As a general rule, industrial progress in modern times has tended to eliminate the independent artisan, the small trader, and the small-scale farmer and to push them into the ranks of wage-earners. In Germany, however, this process has been checked by the development of co-operation.2 Its recent progress can be seen from the following table: TABLE 52.

CO-OPERATIVE ASSOCIATIONS IN GERMANY, 1903–1908.J

The general improvement of the living conditions of the broad masses, which characterizes the recent economic development of Germany, must necessarily have affected the rate of emigration during the past twenty years. On the other hand, the tide of German emigration in the early '80's was swelled by political oppression. Under the "minor state of siege," proclaimed by virtue of the anti-Socialist law of 1878, all labor unions were "put under the ban alike with the political organizations of the Social-Democracy. Of the 25 existing unions 16 were dissolved by the govern

'Trzcinski, loc. cit., pp. 3 and 128.

2 Zahn: Annalen des Deutschen Reichs, 1911, No. 3-4, p. 226. 3 Ibid., p. 227.

ment, the others disbanded voluntarily." The membership of the organizations directly affected was estimated at 50,000. The widespread discontent created by these repressive measures led many workingmen to seek liberty in the United States. The repeal of the "exceptional laws" in 1890 removed the political stimulus to emigration.

The cumulative effect of all these causes upon emigration from Germany can be learned from the following table.

In 1879-1890, contemporaneously with the operation of the exceptional laws of 1878, the average annual immigration from Germany to the United States rose 244 per cent above the average level of the preceding four-year period. On the other hand, the average for the twelve-year period 1899-1910 dropped only one third below the level of the preceding period of equal length, 1879-1890. The immigration of skilled mechanics decreased by 3600 annually,

1 Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, vol. iv., p. 1146.

• Monthly Summary of Commerce and Finance, June, 1903, pp. 4408-4411. Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 1, p. 100. Annual Reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration: 1899-1900, Table VII.; 1901-1904, Table IX.; 1905-1908, Table VIII.; 1909-1910, Table X.

3 Of this number 1110 were farmers and the rest farm laborers.

i. e., by about one fourth. The immigration of farmers and farm laborers dropped 4200 annually, i. e., more than one third, from the high level reached in 1879-1890. The decrease of the immigration of agricultural workers doubtless bears some relation to the decline in the demand for agricultural labor and the increase of land values in the United States.

In order to determine the effect, if any, of immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe upon immigration from Germany, the annual average immigration of unskilled laborers must be considered. The line of demarkation between farm laborers and "laborers not specified" was not clearly drawn in our earlier immigration statistics. Moreover, many agricultural laborers come to the United States to seek industrial employment. If both classes of laborers are merged into one, and an allowance is made for the number of farmers combined with farm laborers prior to 1899,1 the immigration of unskilled laborers may be estimated for 1891-1898 at 11,400 persons annually. In 1899-1910 this average rose to 14,400. At the same time the rate of immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe rose from 48 per cent of the total immigration for the first period, to 72 per cent for the last. It is evident that the competition of the Italian and Slav unskilled laborer did not deter the German unskilled laborer from coming to the United States. On the whole, the average annual immigration from Germany during the period 1899-1910 increased by 14,300, i. e., 60 per cent over the average for 1891-1898.

The average number of farmers for the period 1891-1898 was estimated at 1100 annually, the same as recorded by immigration statistics for 1899-1910, although the combined number of farmers and farm laborers during the former period was only about one half of the total for the latter. In this manner every precaution was taken against overrating the increase of immigration of unskilled laborers during the last period.

2 Computed from Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. I, Table 6, pp. 61-64.

The United States has always been the chief destination of the bulk of German emigrants. Complete data regarding the destination of German emigrants are available only since 1890. The figures will be found in Table 54 next following, with the rate of immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe to the United States in a parallel column. The results are presented graphically in Diagram XIV.

TABLE 54.

EMIGRATION FROM GERMANY TO ALL COUNTRIES OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES, 1890-1904.1

The preceding table and Diagram XIV clearly show the absence of any connection between emigration from Germany and immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe to the United States. Emigration from Germany to other countries was highest in 1890, 1891, and 1893, when immigration from Southern and Eastern Europe to the United States varied from 35.3 to 44.3 per cent of the total immigration to the United States. Since 1893 emigration from ▪ Vierteljahrshefte zur Statistik des Deutschen Reichs, 1905. Die überseeische Auswanderung im Jahre 1904, Part I., p. 120, Table 1. Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 1, Table 6, p. 61.