so fast that all but "the thriftless, unprogressive elements of the original operating forces" have had the opportunity to advance on the scale of occupations. The few examples of "captains of industry" who have risen from the ranks of labor will inspire only the most optimistic. But the presence of great numbers of commonplace American workmen who started at the bottom and have advanced to better I paid positions in the mills has kept up in the average American wage-earner the ambition to rise individually.

A good illustration of these tendencies is furnished by the statistics of the iron and steel industry. Of the 15,657 white iron and steel workers employed in all plants of Industrial 'Concern No. I in 1907, about one half were American and Americanized skilled men. (See Table 34 above.) Looking back to the time before the advent of the immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe, we shall find that the opportunity for all of the original operating forces to advance to skilled positions was conditioned upon the concern doubling its force within the period of working efficiency of one generation. It has been shown that the total number employed in the iron and steel industry of the United States doubled from 1890 to 1900. It is easy to calculate what the opportunities of the "English-speaking" wage-earners 'Jenks and Lauck, loc. cit., p. 194.

The Immigration Commission has adopted the race classification popularly used in mill towns and mining camps. This classification is thus explained by Mr. Fitch: "By the Eastern European immigration the labor force has been cleft horizontally into two great divisions. The upper stratum includes what is known in mill parlance as the 'English-speaking men'; the lower contains the 'Hunkies' or 'Ginnies.' Or, if you prefer, the former are the 'white men,' the latter the 'foreigners.' An 'English-speaking' man may be neither native American, nor English, nor Irish. He may be one of these, or he may be German, Scandinavian, or Dutch. It is sufficient if the land of his birth be somewhere west of the Russian Empire or north of AustriaHungary. A 'Hunky' is not necessarily a Hungarian. He may belong to any of the Slavic races. 'Ginny' seems to include all the 'Hunkies' with the Italians thrown in."-The Pittsburgh Survey: The Steel Workers, pp. 147-148.

would have been, had the rate of expansion during that decade been as slow as in 1880-1890. Of the total number employed by Concern No. 1, 8728 were Americans or older immigrants; the others belonged to the new immigrant races. Had the concern progressed at the 1880-1890 rate, the force would have been increased by one fourth, approximately to 11,000. Only one half of this number, i. e., 5500, could have been given skilled employment, while the ' other 2304 of the 7804 English-speaking workmen who were so employed in 1907 would have had to content themselves with unskilled work. In other words, a slower expansion of the industry recommended by the Immigration Commission would have deprived more than thirty per cent of the "English-speaking" workmen of opportunities for advancement. Their standard of living would necessarily have remained that of unskilled laborers. It is only because the new immigration has furnished the class of unskilled laborers that the native workmen and older immigrants have been raised to the plane of an aristocracy of labor. This evolution must not be lost sight of in the discussion of "racial displacement."

That the statistics of iron and steel workers show an increase of 49,000 native-born of native parentage from 1890 to 1900, does not mean that the same individuals were employed in 1900 as ten years before. Some surely have advanced on the scale of occupations and others succeeded them in the mills, still the figures do not disclose the change of individuals. But when English-speaking workers of foreign birth are classified separately, the shifting of a number of Englishmen, Welshmen, and Irishmen to other, more remunerative pursuits, will manifest itself in a corresponding reduction of their numbers employed in the iron and steel industry, unless there have been new immigrants of the same nationalities to take their places. This may be observed in many industries. It has been shown that actual displacement of native- by foreign-born wage-earners

I

1 Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. 1, p. 45.

is exceptional and negligible. But there has been a decrease of the number of English, Welsh, and Irish workers in certain occupations, simultaneously with an increase of the number of recent immigrants and native American workers in the same occupations. Upon a superficial glance this coincidence might be interpreted as the forcing out of Americanized workers by immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe with a lower standard of living. Such an interpretation would not harmonize with the fact that new native workers of native parentage, presumably with as high a standard of living as the Irish, have entered the industry in large numbers. A comparative study of the distribution of the foreign-born workers by country of birth and occupation will bring out the real tendencies of the industrial readjustment produced by immigration.

We find in the first place, that the total number of English, Welsh, Irish, and German male breadwinners in the United States decreased from 1890 to 1900 as follows:

TABLE 35.

NUMBER OF ENGLISH, WELSH, IRISH, AND GERMAN MALE BREADWINNERS (THOUSANDS), 1890 and 1900.'

It must be borne in mind that the number of foreign-born can increase only by immigration, since their children born in this country are classified as native. Had there been no immigration, the four nationalities named should have lost 'See Appendix, Table XI.

by death from 1890 to 1900 about 20 per cent of their numbers. The actual per cent of decrease indicates that the net immigration of the English and Welsh, Irish, and Germans must have been equal respectively to about 10 per cent, 9 per cent, and 15 per cent of their numbers in 1890. In other words, there was no "displacement" of those nationalities by the races of the new immigration.

In the next place, the reduction in numbers affected only certain occupations, while others showed an increase. Among the English and Welsh, the latter class comprised the following occupations: manufacturers, with an increase of 5000; agents and salesmen, with an increase of 3900; and professional men, with an increase of 2500. All other occupations showed a decrease; the greatest numerical decrease was found among the farmers, viz. 14,500 men, or 20 per cent, which was somewhat in excess of the death roll for the ten-year period. Apparently, no new farmers came from England and Wales to fill the places of their countrymen who were carried off by death. This fact, obviously, had nothing to do with the "new immigration," since the "undesirable aliens from Southern and Eastern Europe" kept away from the farming sections and left the field open for English and Welsh immigrants.

The tendency characterizing the readjustment which took place in the occupational field is brought out in the following comparative statement of selected occupations which exhibited a marked divergence, one way or the other, between the percentage of decrease of the number employed and the occupational death-rate:

The annual death-rate among the foreign-born, according to the census of 1900, varied from 19 to 20.6 per 1000.-XII. Census, Vital Statistics, Part I., p. xc.

The annual death-rate for farmers and farm laborers according to the XII. Census was 17.6 per 1000.-XII. Census, Vital Statistics, Part I., p. 209.

TABLE 36.

SHIFTING OF ENGLISH AND WELSH MALE BREADWINNERS IN SELECTED OCCUPATIONS, 1890-1900.1

The preceding table indicates that while the English and Welsh were leaving the mines, the textile mills, and the tailor shops, their numbers were increasing in some of the better paid skilled trades and in mercantile pursuits.

The tendency among the Irish was substantially the same as among the English and Welsh. There were 5000 more manufacturers in 1900 than in 1890; 4700 more agents and salesmen, and 500 more professional men. All other specified occupations showed a decrease. The greatest decrease, both numerical and relative, appeared among farmers, viz., 26,000, or 28 per cent, which was much in excess of the loss by death. It is evident not only that the soil had no attraction for the recent Irish immigrants, but that it could not hold the older Irish farmers who must have given up farming for other pursuits. The direction in which the Irish shifted within non-agricultural pursuits is indicated in Table 37 next below:

1 See Appendix, Table XI.

The death-rate for 1900 among machinists was 10.5 and among blacksmiths 18.3 per 1000. (Vital Statistics, loc. cit.) In order to make the estimates in this table more conservative, the lower rate has been selected.