constituted 8.35 per cent of the total number of miners, the Poles 5.90 per cent, and the employees from Austria-Hungary 4.84 per cent. The majority of these recent immigrants had entered the northern field in Illinois because the southern field was not developed until the following period of ten years. The table follows:

TABLE 312.-Coal-mine employees in Illinois, by nationality, 1899.

[Compiled from Illinois report for 1899. This table does not include 861 employees whose nationality was not reported.]

In order to show the distribution of nationalities in the State, the following table is given showing nationalities for mining districts and countries:

TABLE 313.-Nationality of coal-mine employees in Illinois, by district and county, 1899. [Compiled from Illinois Coal Report for 1899.]

constituted 8.35 per cent of the total number of miners, the Poles 5.90 per cent, and the employees from Austria-Hungary 4.84 per cent. The majority of these recent immigrants had entered the northern field in Illinois because the southern field was not developed until the following period of ten years. The table follows:

TABLE 312.-Coal-mine employees in Illinois, by nationality, 1899.

[Compiled from Illinois report for 1899. This table does not include 861 employees whose nationality was not reported.]

In order to show the distribution of nationalities in the State, the following table is given showing nationalities for mining districts and countries:

TABLE 313.-Nationality of coal-mine employees in Illinois, by district and county, 1899. [Compiled from Illinois Coal Report for 1899.]

TABLE 313.-Nationality of coal-mine employees in Illinois, by district and county, 1899-Continued.

5

2.994

30

Grand total 15, 580 3,394 1,412 2,086 645 4,138 373 3,016 975 774 2,133 487 498 619 861 36,991

The movements exhibited in Illinois during the period 1890 to 1900 were representative of the tendencies at work throughout the Middle West. This fact is shown by the returns of the census of 1900, which are presented on the following page. By reference to this table, which shows the country of birth of persons engaged in the occupation of mining, it is seen that the flow of immigrants to the Illinois fields was stronger than to those of the other States, but that

considerable numbers of persons from Austria-Hungary, Italy, Poland, and Russia were engaged in mining coal in Indiana and Ohio."

TABLE 314.-Number of miners and quarrymen 10 years of age or over in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, by nativity, 1900.

[From Twelfth Census, United States 1900, Occupations, pp. 264, 270, 362.]

After the year 1900, the movement of immigrant races of southern and eastern Europe into the Middle West steadily continued, and was especially marked during the period 1902 to 1907, on account of the extraordinary development and the opening of new fields. The extension of coal-mining operations and the consequent inflow of recent immigrants was particularly noticeable in Illinois in the five lower districts embracing the counties of Sangamon, Christian, Macoupin, Montgomery, Madison, St. Clair, Clinton, Perry, Franklin, Randolph, Jackson, Saline, and Williamson. In the State of Indiana, Greene, Sullivan, Vermilion, and Vigo counties absorbed the main part of the immigrants to the coal mines. The counties of Ohio which underwent the greatest development and received the largest number of immigrant miners were Athens, Belmont, Guernsey, Jefferson, Perry, and Tuscarawas."

a The census figures for 1900, as in the case of those for 1890, include all persons engaged in mining of any description, and are not put forward with the purpose of showing the racial composition of the bituminous coal-mining forces of the Middle West, but merely to indicate the racial movements to the industry.

The tendency in racial movements may be seen from the comparative number of mining operatives in the districts of Illinois, and the coal-producing counties of Ohio and Indiana in 1907, as compared with 1899. These figures are compiled from the annual reports of the department of mines of the respective States.