CHAPTER V.

INDUSTRIAL EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION IN COMMUNITY D.

Effect of recent immigration upon old employees-The employment of womenThe relation between the growth of the community and the immigrant labor supply.

EFFECT OF RECENT IMMIGRATION UPON OLD EMPLOYEES.

The most marked economic effect of immigration in Community D has been that of racial displacement. Immigration from southern and eastern Europe took its rise at the time of the introduction of the large textile factories, which occurred about 1889 or 1890. Within the past twenty years the Poles, Slovaks, Hebrews, Ruthenians, Magyars, and the North and South Italians have, to a very large extent, displaced the English, Scotch, and Irish immigrants who came to the community before them. Racial displacement has occurred both in housing and in industry. Most of the southern and eastern Europeans who have come to the community have settled in the part of the city originally occupied and built up by the Scotch and Irish. The newly arrived immigrants secured employment in the mills of this section, and found it most convenient and cheapest to live near their work. In recent years many immigrants of the different races have settled in the locality referred to in order to be with. their own people. As immigration increased, the original settlers, the Irish and Scotch, moved out, in many cases disposing of their properties at handsome figures. By 1892 or 1893 almost all of the Irish and Scotch had been displaced and the land values of the locality were still rising. Immigrants were crowded into all the available houses of the quarter and the building of cheap tenements became profitable. The larger part of property in the district was soon acquired by the Jews. Besides the displacement of the Scotch and Irish there was also a displacement of the few negro residents of the city. This displacement was effected by the North Italians in one section of the city and by the South Italians in another. In 1899, 1900, and 1901, when Italian immigration was at its heaviest, immigrants of this race began to settle in different sections of the city, and the negroes, following the example of the Scotch and Irish, removed to other quarters.

In the industries themselves racial displacement has not been so apparent. By the time of the beginning of the later immigration, the Irish and Scotch immigration had become very light, and, while the new labor supply may have kept away some of the Scotch and Irish workers who might otherwise have come to the community, it displaced few who were already there. The Irish and Scotch who were still in the mills were holding positions which could not be filled by the inexperienced immigrants, and the few who were displaced by the immigrants at one factory had no difficulty in securing employment

at some other where skilled labor was required. While the negro suffered a displacement in housing, yet the coming of the immigrant did not compete with negro labor in the mills, as labor of this class has not at any time been employed extensively in the industries.

THE EMPLOYMENT OF WOMEN.

The industrial employment of women is another marked effect of the more recent immigration. The handkerchief manufacturing industry, which is one of the leading industries of the community, depends, almost entirely, upon the labor of immigrant women. In this industry most of the work is done by machinery and the division of labor is such that each operative has but a single simple task to perform. Knowledge of English on the part of the workers is not necessary. Foreign labor is preferred because it is docile, cheap, and tractable. No organization exists and hence no strikes occur. Any number of hours of labor may be exacted, and as the labor is paid on the piecework system, no complaint is made when in the holiday seasons overtime work is required. No skill, aside from the knowledge of one or two simple operations, is required of the operative, and it is not necessary for her to exercise any thought. For these reasons the labor of immigrant women is constantly in demand and readily finds a market.

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The employment of women, however, has certain attendant results. One of these is a reduced birth rate. The infant mortality is also high. From the returns of the United States Census Office it appears that of 661 deaths reported for the community in 1904, 261, or 39.5 per cent, were of infants under 1 year, and 355, or 53.7 per cent, were of children under 5 years. In 1904 the death rate for the city was 19.5° for each thousand of the population One of the reasons for the high death rate among infants is that the women, against the advice of employers, continue to work in the mills until pregnancy has been far advanced. After the birth of a child, also, its nurture is often not properly looked to, malnutrition develops and death results. A second result of the employment of women in the textile establishments of the city has been a dearth of domestic labor. Owing to the more obviously desirable features which millwork offers to women, as for example, Saturday afternoon holidays, Sundays, and evenings free, few domestics can be found who will continue long in service, although the wages offered are ample and board and room are included with the wage. With the labor of women so constantly in demand another peculiar condition has arisen. In a number of cases the men, unable to obtain steady employment, remain at home and fill the rôle of housekeeper while the wives labor at mills. While this condition is not a permanent one, still it exists, and may be noted as a result of the labor of women. The large number of unmarried girls who work in the mills has also made of the community a sort of marriage mart for the immigrant male from central Europe. From the anthracite mines of Pennsylvania and from the foundries, rolling mills and factories of the western part of the State come Slavs, Poles,

a United States Census Special Report "Mortality," 1900-1904, pp. 658, LXII and CII.

Magyars and Ruthenians in search of wives. After informal introductions a man who wishes to marry selects a girl, marries her, and returns with her to his occupation, or, as has sometimes happened, stays in the community until he has spent his savings, and then permits her to support him.

THE RELATION BETWEEN THE GROWTH OF THE COMMUNITY AND THE IMMIGRANT LABOR SUPPLY.

As immigrants have been coming steadily into the community since 1889, the city has grown rapidly in population and also in industrial wealth. Immigration and the expansion of industry have gone hand in hand. The industries of the community are varied. While worsteds, woolens and cotton goods predominate, other manufactures are also carried on. The manufacture of dress goods, rubber hose, belting, dyes, prints, cigars, tin cans, matches, wire cables, leather goods, silk machinery, waxed paper, compressed foods, and silk goods are some of the minor industries to which the unskilled workers may turn if a depression occurs in a major industry. This labor is cheaper than any to be found in the vicinity; it is not organized into unions; it is tractable. In all the industries in which the immigrant is employed the product turned out is a machine-made product and therefore little skill is required on the part of the workers. For their work the women receive from $4 to $8 a week, according to the piece, while the wages of the men are slightly higher, ranging from $9 to $12. Except in the very lowest grades of labor the worker is fairly well paid for the work he or she completes.

The industrial growth of this community has been directly due to the creation of industries representing vast amounts of foreign and domestic capital, which in turn have been dependent on immigrant labor from Europe. In other words, capital and immigrant labor have, together, made industrial progress possible.