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NEW YOU IC LIBRA E

LENOX AND FOUNDATIONS.

REPRESENTATIVE COMMUNITY B.

CHAPTER XIX.

INTRODUCTION.

ustrial significance of the community-Description of the community-Inducements and obstacles to immigration. [Text Table 286].

INDUSTRIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COMMUNITY.

This community is only 10 miles distant from Community A, a anch line of railroad connecting the two towns. It is situated on the estern slope of the Alleghenies, on the main line of a large railway stem. Community B is engaged in mining practically the same nd of coal as is Community A, and its population, though somewhat ore concentrated, is in round numbers the same as Community A. s contrasted, however, with Community A, Community B is strongly mionized. All the laborers and miners employed by the mining ompanies are members of the United Mine Workers of America, this organization meeting with full recognition from the operators and controlling the labor employed at the various mines. As a matter of fact, organized labor is probably as strongly intrenched in this comnunity as in any in Pennsylvania. All of the eleven mines in he community have the union wage scale in force. The local organization of the United Mine Workers of America is large, having 1,400 members. Because of this fact, and by reason of its close proximity to Community A, in which there are no labor organizations, Community B affords a basis for comparative study.

DESCRIPTION OF THE COMMUNITY.

As is the case in almost all mining communities, Community B consists of an urban center with small semidetached settlements of mine workmen clustering around coal mines which are situated on the outskirts of the town proper or at a very short distance. The distribution of the population appears in the accompanying chart. The main settlement is found at the junction of the two small rivers shown on the map. The town proper occupies the lower slopes of the valleys drained by the two rivers and is at the junction of the streams and of the branch and main lines of the railroads. Surrounding the town itself and within a short walking distance of its limits are small semidetached mining communities represented on the map by the letters A, B, C, D. The climate is like that of western Pennsylvania in general, except for the fact that the river valleys are damp and foggy until about 9 o'clock in the morning.

INDUCEMENTS AND OBSTACLES TO IMMIGRATION.

Bituminous coal is practically the only product of the locality, and the gradual expansion of mining operations with the resultant demand for labor has been the main inducement to immigration. No satisfactory statistics are available regarding the extension of the industry, but the following figures, compiled from the report of the state mining inspector, throw light upon the development which took place during the period 1893 to 1902, and indicate the importance of the community from the standpoint of coal mining. About 300 more men than in the year 1902 are now employed in the mines.

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The mountains surrounding the town are barren and rocky, so that practically no agriculture is carried on within the community. Farm fand is found upon the bluffs extending back from the town. Mining has been carried on in the community for more than thirty years. The industry is now in the hands of four companies which employ about 1,400 men. The coal of the community is peculiarly suited for the transatlantic carrying trade and is in constant demand, thus enabling the operators to run the mines more regularly than is usually the case in bituminous coal-mining localities. The principal factor in the coming of the aliens to the community has been the presence of fellow-countrymen there, and it has been through a sort of social accretion that the foreign-born population has been gathered. It can scarcely be said that there are any obstacles which actually deter immigration. One of the most serious checks to the increase of the alien population is the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of settling within the town itself and thus enjoying the educational advantages present there. Local prejudice against all recent immigrants from southern and southeastern Europe who have settled in the community undoubtedly exists among the native-born. This antipathy, however, takes the form of an almost complete aloofness on the part of the Americans, rather than of active opposition.

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