TABLE 31. DECREASE OF THE NUMBER OF NATIVE WHITE MINERS, 1890–1900, The total loss of 1300 positions by native miners would have been amply compensated by the employment of 70,000 American miners of native stock in excess of the number employed at the preceding census. In fact, however, not all of this decrease represents "racial displacement.' In Connecticut, Maine, and Nevada, it was due to a general decline of the mining and quarrying industry, which affected all employees, native as well as foreign-born. The actual "displacement" was confined to 400 men in New Hampshire, Vermont, and the Dakotas, without any allowance for decrease by death. None of these States was affected by the "new immigration." Such States as Pennsylvania and Illinois, on the other hand, showed large increases in the number of native miners, both of foreign and of native parentage. The statistics of iron and steel workers classified by race and nativity appear in Table 32. The fundamental fact brought out by the table is the difference in the rate of industrial expansion between the two last decades of the past century; while in 1880-1890 the increase in the number of employees was equal to about one fourth, during the period 1890-1900 the demand for labor doubled. The effect of this difference is seen in the fact that during the first period, when the number of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe was negligible, only 12,000 additional American workmen found employment in the iron and steel industry, or one man to every six who had been employed in 1880; during the period 1890-1900, on the other hand, when immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe began to come in, the number of native employees of every nativity more than doubled. For every one additional American workman engaged in 1880-1890, eight new American workmen were added to the labor forces in 1890-1900, and there was still room for immigrants. TABLE 32. NUMBER OF IRON AND STEEL WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES, BY RACE AND NATIVITY (THOUSANDS), 1880, 1890, AND 1900.1 As stated above, an increase of the total number of native workmen in the United States does not preclude the possibility of local displacements of native workmen by immigrants. As an actual fact, however, no evidence of such displacements can be discovered by a comparison of the distribution of iron and steel workers by States in 1890 and 1900. In two States only the census returns for 1900 showed a decrease of native white iron and steel workers since 1890, viz., in Montana 100 men, and Nebraska 300 men; total, 400 men. Neither of these States holds an important place in the iron and steel industry. Both 1 Compiled from the Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 8, pp. 21-22, Tables 14 and 15, and vol. 1, pp. 784, 785, Table 4. States show a general decline of the number of iron and steel workers from 1890 to 1900, viz., Montana from 600 to 300 and Nebraska from 1000 to 500. This decline affected foreign-born as well as native workers. Alabama alone shows a displacement of the majority of colored iron and steel workers (1300 out of a total of 1700) by immigrants. But while the aggregate decrease of the number of native white and colored workers through racial displacement and other causes did not exceed 1700 men in three States, the total increase of the number of native-born iron and steel workers in the United States was as high as 99,000, distributed over all important iron- and steel-producing States.1 We may go one step further, following the lead of the Immigration Commission into four of the principal centers of the iron and steel industry, but we shall look in vain for evidence of "racial displacement. The results of the comparison are presented in Table 33. TABLE 33. INCREASE OF THE NUMBER OF IRON AND STEEL WORKERS IN THE PRINCIPAL CITIES OF THE MIDDLE WEST BY RACE AND NATIVITY, I 1 XII. Census, Occupations, Table 41, pp. 220-423; XI. Census, Population, Part II., pp. 530-627. 2 Computed from Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 9, p. 9, Tables 559 and 560. In every one of the four cities chosen for comparison by the Commission we find an actual increase in the number of native workers of native and foreign parentage, white and colored. Of course, this fact does not mean that every individual worker of old American stock who had been employed in the iron and steel mills of Chicago or Cleveland in 1890 was holding his old place in 1900. Some surely have left the mills and gone to other occupations, while their particular places may have been filled by immigrants, which gives occasion to old-timers to speak in a reminiscent mood of “racial displacement." But the scientific investigator must look beyond individual life stories to the movements of population as reflected in great numbers. The effect of immigration upon the distribution of the native- and foreign-born labor forces is shown in Table 34 next following, compiled from material collected by the Immigration Commission. "In this table skilled laborers are arbitrarily considered to be those who are receiving more than $1.45 per day (142 cents per hour), and unskilled laborers those receiving $1.45 or less per day. The classification is made upon the basis of the wage-scale of the steel company, which provides for a maximum payment of $1.45 for a day of ten hours to unskilled or common laborers." The effect of immigration upon the distribution of the labor forces in the iron and steel industry is apparent from the following table; all but one tenth of the native and Northern and Western European workmen have been shifted to skilled occupations, while nine tenths of all unskilled positions have been filled by new immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe. "The change is sometimes described as a forcing out of the American and Americanized foreign employees: That is hardly accurate, however," says the Immigration Commission, "for the |