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THE INDUSTRIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF RECENT IMMIGRATION.

RECENT EXPANSION OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY.

Recent immigration is responsible for many social and political problems. Its chief significance, however, is industrial, and of the industrial phases of the subject none is of greater importance than the effect of recent immigration from southern and eastern Europe upon native Americans as well as upon wage-earners belonging to the races of past immigration from northern and western Europe and Great Britain. The changes are of almost equal importance to industrial organization, and industrial methods and processes resulting from the entrance of such large numbers of southern and eastern European and Asiatic immigrants into the industrial life of the country during the past thirty years. The effect of recent immigration upon the working and living conditions of wage-earners in industrial localities is also of great interest and importance.

The period covered by the past thirty years has been marked in the United States by an extraordinary industrial development, including manufacturing, mining, and all branches of industrial enterprise. This expansion has obviously been most pronounced in the manufacturing States east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio and Potomac rivers. There has been, however, a considerable development in the territory between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains and in the South, although not so extensive as in the Middle West and the Middle and New England States. The remarkable growth in manufactures in the territory between the Rocky Mountains and the Atlantic seaboard during the twenty-five years 1880-1905, may be readily seen from the table below, which shows the amount of capital invested and the value of output of all manufacturing establishments during this period according to census years:

TABLE 101.-Total capital and value of products of manufactures in the States east of the Rocky Mountains, 1880-1905, by census periods.a

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a These computations are made solely for manufactures in the States chosen, as it is impossible to form parallel comparisons for the mines and quarries, owing to the various statistical forms used in their tabulation in the several censuses.

INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF WAGE-EARNERS.

The most significant fact regarding recent immigration disclosed by the industrial study is the unprecedented increase in the operating forces of the mines and manufacturing establishments

accompanying the rapid extension of industrial activities. The number of employees of mines and manufacturing establishments in the territory east of the Rocky Mountains was more than doubled during the thirty years 1880-1909. The extent of this increase during the first twenty-five years of that period is shown in the table below, which sets forth, according to the federal census returns, the average number of wage-earners engaged in mining and manufacturing in the years specified:

TABLE 102.-Average number of wage-earners employed in mining and manufacturing, 1880-1900, by census periods.

Year.

Number.

7,037,731

1900. 1890. 1880..

5,618, 306 3,743,374

The great increase in laboring forces becomes more apparent when the agricultural States of the area under discussion are eliminated and those engaged principally in manufacturing and mining are considered. In order that the real significance of the situation may be seen, the growth in the number of wage-earners in the principal manufacturing and mining States east of the Rocky Mountains is shown for the period 1880-1900 in the table which immediately follows: TABLE 103.-Total number of employees engaged in manufactures, mines, and quarries in 1880, 1890, and 1900, by selected States.

[Compiled from Census of 1900, Special Report, "Occupations," page c.]

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From these figures it will be noted that there has been a steady increase in the number of employees in the manufactures, mines, and quarries of each of the States specified. The total number of employees rises from 2,816,877 in 1880 to 5,191,684 in 1900, an increase of 84.3 per cent. Between 1880 and 1890 there was an increase of 47.4 per cent in the total number and the slightly decreased growth in the next decade can probably be attributed to the general introduction of labor-saving machinery during that period. In the case of the individual States, it will be noted that but three, Alabama, Indiana, and West Virginia, show their greater increase in numbers

in the ten years from 1890 to 1900. Several western States show a great increase from 1880 to 1890; for example, Illinois shows an increase of 73 per cent, Michigan of about 56 per cent, Minnesota of 147 per cent, and Wisconsin of 66 per cent. In the East and North the proportion has not been so great. The increase in number of wage-earners from 1880 to 1900 ranges from 51 per cent in the case of Maryland to 260.8 per cent in the case of Alabama.

EMPLOYMENT OF IMMIGRANT LABOR.

The labor force that in large part was used for this industrial expansion was drawn from the recent immigration from southern and eastern Europe and Asia. The result has been that the racial composition of the industrial population of the country has within recent years undergone a complete change, and the cities and industrial localities of the United States have received large additions to their population in the form of industrial workers of alien speech, manners, and customs. The greater proportion of the wage-earners at the present time engaged in manufacturing and mining are of foreign birth, and of the total number of foreign-born employees the larger part consists of representatives of races from the south and east of Europe and from Asia. This condition of affairs is not limited to the manufacturing areas of the Middle States and New England. It prevails wherever manufacturing interests or mining operations are of any importance. The southern and eastern European is extensively employed in the iron ore and copper mines of Michigan and Minnesota, in the coal mines of the Middle West, Southwest, and South, and in the steel plants and glass factories of the Middle West and South, as well as in the mines, mills, and factories of Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey, and the cotton and woolen goods manufacturing establishments of New England. The presence of this class of wage-earners is not only characteristic of the basic industries of the country, but is also found in all minor divisions of manufacturing and mining. Moreover, railroad and canal construction, together with other temporary and seasonal work, in all sections of the country is now being done by members of races of recent immigration. There is not an industrial community of any importance east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio and Potomac rivers which does not include within its borders a considerable number of industrial workers of races of recent immigration. Of the total number of wage-earners employed in the principal industries within this area from whom information was secured, about 60 per cent are of foreign birth, 39 per cent being from southern and eastern Europe and Asia. Of the total number of foreign-born about 6.7 per cent are of races of southern and eastern Europe and Asia."

REASONS FOR THE EMPLOYMENT OF RECENT IMMIGRANTS.

It is not possible to determine definitely whether the recent rapid and unprecedented expansion of industry has been the cause of the recent influx of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe, or

a The racial composition of the operating forces of the principal industries within the geographical area between the Rocky Mountains and Atlantic seaboard is shown in detail in Table 6, pp. 320–322.

whether the existence of an available supply of cheap labor easily induced to immigrate was the cause of the industrial expansion. It is a possibility that if the demand for labor had not found so large a supply of cheap labor available, increased wages and better working conditions required to attract labor might have induced a continuation of immigration from northern and western Europe and the United Kingdom. On the other hand, less immigration of a character tending to keep down wages and working conditions might have been attended by a larger natural increase among the native-born portion of the population. There is ground for argument or speculation on each side of these various points. As a matter of fact, it has not appeared in the case of the industries covered by the present investigation that it was usual for employers to engage recent immigrants at wages actually lower than those prevailing at the time of their employment in the industry where they were employed. It is undoubtedly true that the expansion in all branches of industry between thirty and forty years ago was primarily responsible for the original entrance of the southern and eastern Europeans into the operating forces of the mines and manufacturing establishments. They were found, from the standpoint of the employer, to be tractable and uncomplaining. Although they were possessed of a low order of industrial efficiency, it was possible to use them in a more or less satisfactory way. Upon the ascertainment of this fact by the employers and with the realization of the existence of this large source of labor supply, a reversal of conditions occurred. The industrial expansion which had originally caused the immigration of southern and eastern Europeans was in turn stimulated by their presence, and new industrial undertakings were doubtless projected on the assumption of the continuing availability of this class of labor. At the same time, the influx of southern and eastern Europeans brought about conditions of employment under which there was no sufficient inducement to the races of Great Britain and northern Europe to continue to seek work in those industries. It may be said, therefore, that industrial expansion was the original reason for the employment of races of recent immigration, but that after the availability of this labor became known further industrial expansion was stimulated by the fact of this availability, the original cause thus becoming largely an effect of the conditions it had created.

CONDITIONS WHICH MADE POSSIBLE THE EXTENSIVE EMPLOYMENT OF RECENT IMMIGRANTS.

An interesting point in this connection is the fact that it was possible to receive such a large body of employees of foreign birth into the American industrial system. The older immigrant labor supply was composed principally of persons who had had training and experience abroad in the industries which they entered after their arrival in the United States. English, German, Scotch, and Irish immigrants in textile factories, iron and steel establishments, or in the coal mines, usually had been skilled workmen in these industries in their native lands and came to the United States in the expectation of higher wages and better working conditions. In the case of the more recent immigrants from southern and eastern Europe this condition of affairs has been reversed. Before coming to the

United States the greater proportion were engaged in farming or -unskilled labor and had no experience or training in manufacturing or mining. As a consequence their employment in the mines and manufacturing plants of this country has been made possible only by the invention of mechanical devices and processes which have eliminated the skill and experience formerly required in a large number of occupations. Probably one of the best illustrations of this fact is to be found in the operation of coal, copper, and other metalliferous mines. In bituminous coal mining, for example, the pick or hand miner was formerly an employee of skill and experience. He undercut the coal, drilled his own holes, fired his own shots, and, together with his helper, loaded the coal which came down upon the cars, and was paid so much per ton for the entire operation. By the invention of the mining machine, however, the occupation of the pick miner has been largely done away with, thereby increasing the proportion of unskilled workmen who load the coal on cars after it has been undercut and the holes drilled by machinery, and the coal knocked down by a blast set off by a shot firer specialized for that division of the labor. Such work can readily be done, after a few days' apprenticeship, by recent immigrants who, before immigrating to the United States, had never seen a coal mine. The same situation is found in the cotton factories, where unskilled and inexperienced immigrants can, after a brief training, operate the automatic looms and ring spinning frames which do the work formerly requiring skilled weavers and mule spinners. In the glass factories, also, which are engaged in the manufacture of bottles and window and plate glass, untrained immigrants, through the assistance of improved machinery, turn out the same products which in past years required the services of the highly trained glass blowers. In the iron and steel plants and other branches of manufacturing similar inventions have made it possible to operate the plants with a much smaller proportion of skilled and specialized employees than was formerly the case. It is this condition of industrial affairs, as already stated, which has made it possible to give employment to the untrained, inexperienced, nonEnglish-speaking immigrant of recent arrival in the United States.

PRESENT-DAY INDUSTRIAL COMMUNITIES.

The general effects of the extensive employment of immigrant labor in American industries are found in the municipal and civic problems which are the outgrowth of the presence of the alien population. The foreign or immigrant communities which have come into existence because of the recent industrial expansion and the resultant influx of immigrants from southern and eastern Europe are of two general types. The first type is a community which has, by a gradual process of social accretion, affixed itself to the original population of an industrial town or city which had already been established before the arrival of races of recent immigration. Foreign communities of this type are as numerous as the older industrial towns and centers of the country, any one of which in New England, in the Middle States, or in the Middle West or Southwest will be found to have its immigrant section or colony. The second type of immigrant community has come into existence within recent years because of the development

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