for labor. The low standards of the southern and eastern European, his ready acceptance of a low wage and existing working conditions, his lack of permanent interest in the occupation and community in which he has been employed, his attitude toward labor organizations, his slow progress toward assimilation, and his willingness seemingly to accept indefinitely without protest certain wages and conditions of employment, have rendered it extremely difficult for the older classes of employees to secure improvements in conditions or advancement in wages since the arrival in considerable numbers of southern and eastern European wage-earners. As a general proposition, it may be said that all improvement in conditions and increases in rates of pay have been secured in spite of the presence of the recent immigrant. The recent immigrant, in other words, has not actively opposed the movements toward better conditions of employment and higher wages, but his availability and his general characteristics and attitude have constituted a passive opposition which has been most effective. EFFECT OF THE EMPLOYMENT OF RECENT IMMIGRANTS UPON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW INDUSTRIES. The extensive employment of recent immigrant labor has not resulted in the establishment of new industries of any importance. As a result of the presence of southern and eastern European immigrants in American industrial communities small and unimportant industries have been established to supply the peculiar demands of the immigrant population in food products and similar articles. Very few of the recent arrivals, however, had any training abroad which qualified them for manufacturing or mining pursuits of any description. By way of contrast, it will be recalled that a large proportion of the earlier immigrant laborers were originally induced to come to this country to contribute their skill and experience toward the establishment of new industries, such as mining and textile, glass, and iron and steel manufacturing, or after these industries had been developed in the United States, English, Irish, Scotch, German, and Scandinavian wage-earners employed in similar work abroad emigrated to this country in search of better wages and working conditions. On the other hand, the presence of the recent immigrant wageearner and his household has had a pronounced effect upon the distribution of certain industries. Cigar and tobacco factories, silk mills, and men's and women's clothing manufacturing establishments and other small industries have been located in iron and steel, anthracite coal mining, and other localities, developed in connection with some of the principal industries of the country. The reason for this policy has been the availability of cheap woman and child labor of the immigrant households the heads of which were employed in the steel mills or furnaces, the coal mines, or some other basic industry. One of the best illustrations of this tendency is seen in the localization of the silk industry in the anthracite coal-producing area of Pennsylvania. The erection and operation of large cigar and tobacco factories in localities in which the primary industry consists in the manufacture of iron and steel also furnishes another example of the same tendency. ABSTRACT OF THE REPORT ON RECENT IMMIGRANTS IN AGRICULTURE. For the complete report on recent immigrants in agriculture see Reports of the Immigration Commission, vols. 21 and 22. 543 General sociological survey of the immigrants in rural communities from whom information was secured.. 601 LIST OF TABLES. TABLE 1. Scope of investigation 554 2. Households studied and number of persons for whom information 557 3. List of Italian rural communities in the United States investigated 560 4. List of Italian rural communities in the South investigated by the 566 568 576 583 601 5. North and South Italians admitted and departed during 1909.. 8. Persons for whom detailed information was secured, by sex and 9. Per cent of persons within each age group, by sex and by general 602, 603 10. Per cent of foreign-born persons in the United States each specified 11. Number and per cent of heads of families who have been in locality 12. Per cent of persons in each conjugal condition, by sex and age 15. Industrial condition before coming to the United States of foreign- 603 604 605 606 607 607 |