CHAPTER XXVII.

EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION.

Diseases peculiar to immigrants and effect on public health-Industrial and social effects of immigration upon the community-[Text Table 302].

DISEASES PECULIAR TO IMMIGRANTS AND EFFECT ON PUBLIC HEALTH.

The immigrants disregard almost all hygienic precautions and when attacked by disease defer medical treatment so long as to greatly reduce probability of recovery. They are increasingly subject to syphilitic and other venereal diseases. They are also (the Slavic population particularly) subject to a very infectious kind of skin disease, doubtless attributable to their uncleanly manner of living. The Italian, according to the statements of local physicians, is inferior in vitality to the races from farther north and succumbs to disease more easily than do the Slavs. Health regulations are largely nonexistent in the outlying foreign sections, and so far as they exist have to be frequently brought to the attention of the immigrant population.

INDUSTRIAL AND SOCIAL EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION UPON THE

COMMUNITY.

Recent immigrants can not be said to have exerted any marked influence upon the life of the community, for the community ignores the immigrant to as large an extent as possible. Neither is any industrial effect as yet apparent, because the miners' union has compelled the alien to comply with the regulations and working conditions which were in force before his arrival. The only tendency of this sort is to be seen in the employment of recent immigrants in machine. mining, which has within the past few years been introduced into several mines. The natives and older races refuse, or dislike, to work with the machines because of the disagreeable nature of the work. Since the races from southern and eastern Europe were employed, there have been no changes in hours or wages which are traceable to their employment. None of the older races employed in the mines have been displaced by the newcomers, who have been given work because of the increased demand for labor growing out of the opening of new mines and the extension of old ones. other hand, and probably without direct connection with recent immigration, the English-speaking races seem to leave the mines as soon as they accumulate earnings, and to enter mercantile pursuits or seek more remunerative or more pleasant work of other kinds. The greater number of the business and professional men in the town were formerly mine workers. Among the labor-union leaders and the older mine workers the feeling is strong that the employment of nonEnglish-speaking races has complicated the problem of safety in the

mines. Many of the recent immigrants are unable to read their own language as well as English, and placards of warning do not reach them.

For

Data showing the nationality of persons killed or injured in the mines in Community B are not to be had for years prior to 1900. two companies which have operated continuously throughout this period and whose operatives have gradually increased in numbers, from 450 in 1900 to nearly 800 in 1907, accidents occurring among employees are given, by years and according to nationality, in the following tables:

TABLE 302.-Accidents in selected mines in Community B, 1900 to 1907.

The presence of the recent immigrant population, although it has made possible the extension of mining operations, has not been responsible for the development of any new industries. Outside of

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mining, there are practically no industrial enterprises in the community except a brewery, which has recently come into existence, principally because of the large and constant demand for beer on the part of recent immigrants. So far as the methods and organization in the mining industry in the community are concerned, no changes are due to the immigrant miners. Stated in summary form, the employment of recent immigrants seems to have had no direct effect upon former employees in the mines, because the newcomers were absorbed by the industry without exerting competitive pressure upon old operatives, owing to the coincident expansion of the industry. At the same time, the labor organizations assimilated the recent immigrants and forced compliance with existing working conditions. Up to the present time there has been, therefore, so far as the community under discussion is concerned, no direct competition of former employees with the races from southern and eastern Europe. The new races have also been unable to affect working conditions seriously because of the presence and power of the miners' union. The recent immigrants have entered the less desirable places, while the former employees have retained their old positions or secured some of the more pleasant and remunerative work arising from the expansion of the mining industry in the community. In this respect, therefore, Community B differs significantly from Community A, where there was, it is true, a large expansion in mining coincident with immigration, but no organization among the former workmen to insist that the immigrant should work under proper conditions. The situation in Community B also differs widely from that produced by immigrant competition seen in other mining communities in Pennsylvania, where the advent of the recent immigrant was not coincident with the extension of the mining operations and where, consequently, there was a strong pressure and an active competition on the part of the immigrant for the work of the former employees. 48296° -VOL 6-11-37

CHAPTER XXVIII.

GENERAL PROGRESS OF IMMIGRANTS IN THE COMMUNITY.

Ability to speak English-School facilities and attendance-Citizenship-Americanization-[Text Tables 303 to 305].

ABILITY TO SPEAK ENGLISH.

The first of the two tables which follow shows the ability of foreignborn persons to speak English, by age at time of arrival in the United States.

TABLE 303.-Ability to speak English of foreign-born male employees, by age at time of coming to the United States and racé.

Information is afforded in the above table regarding ability to speak English for 354 employees, 34 of whom were less than 14 years of age when they came to the United States and 320 of whom were 14 years of age or over at the time of their arrival. Of the total number who were under 14 years of age when they arrived in this country, more than nine-tenths are able to speak English, while of the total number who were 14 years of age or over when they reached this country, only about one-half are able to speak English. A comparison of the two groups clearly indicates the superior tendency toward adaptation and Americanization possessed by those immigrants who come when