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EMPLOYEES FOR WHOM INFORMATION WAS SECURED.

The following table shows the number and per cent of employees for whom detailed information was received, by general nativity and race:

TABLE 310.-Male employees for whom information was secured, by general nativity and

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The relative importance of the different races and nativity groups employed in the mines of the Middle West may be quickly seen from the accompanying chart, which is based upon the figures of the preceding table.

Number of male employees for whom information was secured, by general nativity and race. [This chart shows only races represenced by 100 or more employees.]

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CHAPTER II.

RACIAL DISPLACEMENTS.

History of immigration to the coal fields of the Middle West-Period of residence in the United States of foreign-born employees and members of their households-Racial classification of employees at the present time-Racial movements to representative localities-Representative communities in Illinois-Representative communities in Indiana-Representative districts in Ohio-[Text Tables 311 to 321 and General Tables 104 and 105].

HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION TO THE COAL FIELDS OF THE MIDDLE WEST.

The extraordinary increase in the production of coal in the Middle West during the past fifty years has already been pointed out in detail. The remarkable increase in the number of persons employed in bituminous coal mining in this section has also been noted, but in the present connection it will be worth while to put forward again the number of men employed at different periods in the mines of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

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As can be readily seen from the above statement, the expansion of the coal industry brought with it a rapid increase in the number of employees, the working force being more than trebled during the period 1870 to 1889, and more than doubled during the following eighteen years. This remarkable increase was made possible by the arrival of increasing numbers of immigrants in the coal-mining regions, either directly from abroad or from other coal-producing areas of the United States. A great many native as well as immigrant miners also migrated to the Middle West after the year 1890, as the result of labor disputes in the Pennsylvania and West Virginia coal fields.

Racial movements to the coal fields of the Middle West correspond to the general periods during which representative races of immigrants have been coming to the United States since 1870, as well as to the periods of most rapid extension of coal-mining operations. In general, it may be said that the pioneer coal-mining operatives in this territory were, in addition to Americans, English, Irish, Scotch, Welsh, Germans, and a few French and English Canadians, and Scandinavians. There are no available statistics of nationalities

a See pp. 4 and 5.

48296°-VOL 6-11-38

b See p. 5.

581

employed prior to 1890. The following table, however, furnishes information as to the country of birth of miners in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio in 1890, and shows conclusively that very few immigrants, with the exception of those from Great Britain and Germany, were in the coal mines of these States. The figures include persons engaged in all forms of mining in the three Middle Western States, consequently they do not afford, nor are they put forward to show, a satisfactory exhibit as to the actual number of bituminous coal miners, but they do indicate the general nativity of the coal-mining employees in the year 1890, which is the main point under discussion at present.

TABLE 311.-Number of miners 10 years of age or over in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, by country of birth, 1890.

[From Eleventh Census of the United States, 1890, Population, Part II, pp. 552, 554, 596.]

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a Includes persons of negro descent, Chinese, Japanese, and civilized Indians.

During the next ten years there was a change in the racial composition of the industry, but the Americans, English, Irish, Scotch, Welsh, and Germans still maintained the ascendancy, constituting the largest proportion of the total working forces. Some races of more recent immigration, however, including the Slovaks, Magyars, Italians, and Poles, had already begun to enter the field in considerable numbers. This situation is clearly shown in the following series of tables, which exhibits the country of birth of miners employed in Illinois in 1899 and in the Middle West in the year 1900.

The first of the tables shows the country of birth of mine employees in Illinois in 1899. By referring to the preceding table it will be seen that, with the exception of 3,185 persons who are classified under "other countries," all the persons engaged in mining in 1890 were native-born or born in Great Britain, Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, or Germany. In Table 312 the changes which began after 1890 are set forth. Although the Americans, English, Irish, Scotch, Welsh, and Germans still constituted 75 per cent of the total number of persons engaged in coal mining, it is seen that the remaining 25 per cent were largely persons born in France, Italy, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Belgium. The Italians in 1899

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