of occupations, it is readily seen that the hundreds of tables show nothing beyond the fact that supervisory positions and skilled trades are more remunerative than unskilled labor. It was hardly necessary to expend much time and labor in order to establish this fact which is a matter of common knowledge. To justify the conclusions of the Commission, proof was wanted that the rates of wages of the new immigrants in specified occupations were lower than those paid to native workmen in the same occupations and in the same localities. No such proof was produced; on the contrary, the Commission found that, as a matter of fact, the new immigrants "were not, as a rule, engaged at lower wages than had been paid to the older workmen for the same class of labor." The numerous tables showing variations in weekly earnings by race are therefore meaningless.

The popular prejudice against the new immigrant races justified an unbiased comparative study of their social and economic conditions in the United States2. Unfortunately

the experts and investigators of the Commission were themselves so completely under the sway of the popular sentiment that they perceived the effect of race differences even in small variations of the number of mine accidents, where the element of chance called for the exercise of extreme caution in drawing conclusions. The following example is typical of the generalizations which abound in the reports of the Commission. In the year 1907 there were 75 fatal and non-fatal accidents among the Lithuanians and 139 among the Poles employed by one anthracite coal company. As the Lithuanians were somewhat more numerous than the Poles, the following conclusion is drawn in the report:

The differences between the Lithuanian and Polish figures, after

3 Reports, vol. I, p. 38.

"In studying the immigration situation in Europe the Commission was not unmindful of the fact that the widespread apprehension in the United States relative to immigration is chiefly due to this change in the character of the movement of population from Europe in recent years."-Ibid., vol. 4, p. 12.

making due allowance for error in both cases, is still so great that it gives ground for the inference that here a real race difference is exposed. When it is remembered in how many other instances in this report tables have shown a superiority of the Lithuanians over the Poles, the conclusion gathers strength that the former show greater skill and carefulness in their work.'

In Lawrence, Massachusetts, however, "the Lithuanians are said to resemble the Poles in their industrial characteristics, but are thought to be less intelligent or at any rate more illiterate." The average percentage of illiteracy among the Lithuanian immigrants admitted from 1899 to 1910 was 48.9 per cent and among the Polish immigrants admitted during the same period 35.4 per cent.3 These averages are derived from the records of over a million individuals of both nationalities, whereas "the superiority of the Lithuanians over the Poles" is deduced from 214 accidents that occurred in one year in the mines of one company.

As far as the statistics of the Commission permit to judge f the antecedents of the Lithuanian and Polish anthraite coal workers in their native countries, it appears that none of them had worked in mines before coming to the United States; 96 per cent of the Lithuanians and 86 per cent of the Poles from whom information was received had been peasants (farmers and farm laborers) in their home countries, the proportion of farmers and farmers' sons being somewhat higher among the Poles than among the Lithuanians, viz., 70 per cent and 60 per cent, respectively, of the total number reported for each race. To judge by the historical experiences of the two races, there is no warrant whatsoever for rating the mass of the Poles below the mass of the Lithuanians. For centuries they have been close neighbors. Since the organic union of Poland and Lithuania in 1386, Polish civilization was dominant in Lithuania. The ruling classes, the landed nobility and the clergy were thoroughly Polonized. Since Ibid., vol. 10, p. 772.

1 Reports, vol. 16, p. 667

Ibid., vol. I, p. 99, Table II.

4 Ibid., vol. 16, p. 596, Table 9.

the policy of Russianization was inaugurated in Poland and Lithuania fifty years ago, the Lithuanians have been at a disadvantage compared with the Poles; the Lithuanian language was barred from the public schools; they were denied the right to have a press in their own language, while the mass of the Lithuanian people do not understand the Russian language.

The Immigration Commission has discovered no anthropological evidence that would sustain the hypothesis of the superiority of the Lithuanian race, unless the difference of 64 accidents be accepted as such evidence. Yet it appears from the same accident statistics that the native Americans also contributed more than their share of accident victims, whereas the Irish exhibited an exceptionally low accident rate. This variation, however, must not be construed to show a superiority of the Irish over the native Americans, because "for the accident report the State mine inspector generally has to get the nationality from others, usually friends of the victim or his boss," and the information is often erroneous. "Probably the same source of error accounts for some of the Polish accident excess. Still, if not all of the 64 accidents then some of them are deemed sufficient to place the Poles below the Lithuanians on the sliding scale of foreign races.

It would seem as if the investigation of the Immigration Commission proceeded upon the supposition that immigrant races represented separate zoological species. Thus we find the following under the head "diseases peculiar to immigrant races":

The testimony of the physicians and hospital authorities is to the effect that apparently (sic!) there are no diseases peculiar to any one single race. The chief diseases among the aliens are the following: (a) Rheumatism; (b) heart diseases; (c) typhoid fever; (d) pneumonia— this is one of the diseases most common to the foreign population, but they seem no more subject to it than the natives.2

Thus it has been officially established that disease 1 Reports, vol. 16, p. 667. Ibid., vol. 8, p. 433.

"apparently" makes no distinction of race, color, or previous condition of servitude, "the aliens" being subject, alike with native-born and naturalized citizens, to rheumatism and pneumonia. The habits of the new species are described in the language of the naturalist. We learn, e. g., that among the Bulgarians beef "is usualy cooked as a stew with vegetables and eaten with bread. They also consume all forms of green vegetables in season. The usual drinks are coffee and beer. Many drink hot milk in the morning." The adoption of the "race" idea as a basis for classification has inevitably led to the splitting up of all statistical data into minute groups unfit for any generalizations. The Commission has nevertheless systematically reduced all such data to percentages, which are used for comparison among races. It is an elementary rule in statistics that averages and percentages may be used for generalizations only when derived from large numbers, the reason being that where the number of observed cases is small personal characteristics or casual circumstances may affect the results. How deceptive percentages may be when derived from insufficient numbers, is illustrated by the following table compiled from the Commission's statistics, showing the "per cent of foreign-born employees (in the clothing factories investigated) who speak English, by sex, years in the United States, and race."

TABLE 1.

PER CENT WHO SPEAK ENGLISH, BY YEARS, IN THE UNITED STATES

The significance of the preceding table is in the fact that the Bohemians and Moravians are classed by the Immigration Restriction League among "desirable" immigrants, whereas the Poles belong to the "undesirable aliens from Eastern Europe." A comparison of the figures in the first three columns shows, however, that in each group classified according to length of residence in the United States the Poles show a higher percentage of males, as well as females, able to speak English, than the Bohemians. And yet when the totals are compared for both nationalities, irrespective of length of residence in the United States, it appears that the Bohemians exhibit a larger percentage of persons of either sex able to speak English, than the Poles. The reason for this arithmetical aberration is disclosed only in another part of the volume, where the number of persons in each of the preceding groups is given. It appears that about one-half of all Poles had resided in the United States less than five years and accordingly exhibited a small percentage of persons able to speak English, whereas three fourths of all males and two thirds of all females of Bohemian nationality had resided in the United States over five years and had had more time to learn English.' 'The following are the numbers relating to the two nationalities: