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CHAPTER IV.

WORKING CONDITIONS.

Regularity of employment-The immigrant and organized labor-[Text Tables 238 to 240 and General Table 181].

REGULARITY OF EMPLOYMENT.

The regularity of work offered in Community D is set forth in the following table, which shows, by general nativity and race of individual, the months worked during the past year by males, in the households studied, who were 16 years of age or over and who were employed away from home.

TABLE 238.-Months worked during the past year by males 16 years of age or over employed away from home, by general nativity and race of individual.

(STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS.)

[This table includes only races with 20 or more males reporting. The totals, however, are for all races.]

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The above table shows that 72 per cent of the males reporting complete data worked twelve months during the past year, 82.6 per cent worked nine months or over, 93.3 per cent worked six months or over, while 98.7 per cent worked three months or over. Nativeborn report the highest percentage working twelve months, followed by native-born of foreign father and foreign-born in smaller proportions. The same order is preserved for each of the following periods. Germans report a higher percentage of males who worked twelve months than any of the other races. Magyars and North Italians follow closely, the other races showing decreasing proportions, South Italians showing the smallest percentage who worked for the whole year. Only one race, the South Italian, shows less than 80 per cent

working nine months or over. English, Hebrews, Irish, and North Italians show all males working six months or over, the South Italians again showing very small proportions. None of the races show less than 97 per cent of males who worked three months or over.

The table below shows, by general nativity and race of individual, the months worked during the past year by females, in the households studied, who were 16 years of age or over, and who were employed away from home.

TABLE 239.-Months worked during the past year by females 16 years of age or over employed away from home, by general nativity and race of individual.

(STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS.)

[This table includes only races with 20 or more females reporting. The totals, however, are for all races.]

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The foreign-born show a somewhat higher percentage of females who worked twelve months and nine months or over than nativeborn and native-born of foreign father which follow in the order named. Native-born show the highest percentage who worked six months or over, followed by native-born of foreign father and foreignborn. Native-born of foreign father, and native-born show all females working three months or over and foreign-born only a fraction less. All of the foreign-born races, except Magyars, show all females working three months or over during the past year. The percentage of females who worked six months or over is also high for all races, while Slovaks and South Italians alone show less than 90 per cent who worked nine months or over. Magyars and Ruthenians show 90 per cent or over of females working twelve months during the past year and Poles and Slovaks over 80 per cent, South Italians showing only 56 per cent of females who worked twelve months.

THE IMMIGRANT AND ORGANIZED LABOR.

The membership in labor organizations of the representatives of the several races of wage-earners in Community D is set forth in the table following, which shows, by general nativity and race of individual, affiliation with trade unions of males, in the households studied, who were 21 years of age or over, and who were working for wages.

TABLE 240.—Affiliation with trade unions of males 21 years of age or over who work for wages, by general nativity and race of individual.

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The foregoing table shows that of 795 persons from whom information was secured 7.5 per cent were affiliated with trade unions. Native-born of foreign father show a considerably higher percentage who are affiliated with unions than foreign-born. Of the foreignborn races, Hebrews show the highest per cent affiliated with trade unions, English follow in considerably smaller proportions, while Irish and North Italians show a much smaller percentage than the English.

CHAPTER V.

INDUSTRIAL EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION IN COMMUNITY D.

Effect of recent immigration upon old employees-The employment of womenThe relation between the growth of the community and the immigrant labor supply.

EFFECT OF RECENT IMMIGRATION UPON OLD EMPLOYEES.

The most marked economic effect of immigration in Community D has been that of racial displacement. Immigration from southern and eastern Europe took its rise at the time of the introduction of the large textile factories, which occurred about 1889 or 1890. Within the past twenty years the Poles, Slovaks, Hebrews, Ruthenians, Magyars, and the North and South Italians have, to a very large extent, displaced the English, Scotch, and Irish immigrants who came to the community before them. Racial displacement has occurred both in housing and in industry. Most of the southern and eastern Europeans who have come to the community have settled in the part of the city originally occupied and built up by the Scotch and Irish. The newly arrived immigrants secured employment in the mills of this section, and found it most convenient and cheapest to live near their work. In recent years many immigrants of the different races have settled in the locality referred to in order to be with their own people. As immigration increased, the original settlers, the Irish and Scotch, moved out, in many cases disposing of their properties at handsome figures. By 1892 or 1893 almost all of the Irish and Scotch had been displaced and the land values of the locality were still rising. Immigrants were crowded into all the available houses of the quarter and the building of cheap tenements became profitable. The larger part of property in the district was soon acquired by the Jews. Besides the displacement of the Scotch and Irish there was also a displacement of the few negro residents of the city. This displacement was effected by the North Italians in one section of the city and by the South Italians in another. In 1899, 1900, and 1901, when Italian immigration was at its heaviest, immigrants of this race began to settle in different sections of the city, and the negroes, following the example of the Scotch and Irish, removed to other quarters.

In the industries themselves racial displacement has not been so apparent. By the time of the beginning of the later immigration, the Irish and Scotch immigration had become very light, and, while the new labor supply may have kept away some of the Scotch and Irish workers who might otherwise have come to the community, it displaced few who were already there. The Irish and Scotch who were still in the mills were holding positions which could not be filled by the inexperienced immigrants, and the few who were displaced by the immigrants at one factory had no difficulty in securing employment

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