Period

Massachusetts and Connecticut have received large accessions to their population from Southern and Eastern Europe. Thus the greatest activity in the field of organization coincided with the unparalleled new immigration of the past decade.

TABLE 98.

NUMBER AND DATE OF ORGANIZATION OF ACTIVE LABOR UNIONS IN SIX

The aggregate membership of labor organizations in the United States and Canada was estimated by the Industrial Commission at 1,300,000 for July 1, 1901.7 The aggregate

Compiled from Report on Statistics of Labor, Massachusetts, 1908, pp. 185-186. Ohio Bureau of Labor Statistics, 24th Annual Report, 1900, p. 297. Minnesota Labor Report, 1905-6, p. 365; ibid., 1907-8, p. 83. Report of the Bureau of Labor Statistics of Illinois, 1886, p. 198; ibid., 1901, p. 298. Report of the Connecticut Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1909-1910, p. 217. 32d Annual Report of the Missouri Bureau of Labor. 2 Periods: Up to 1880; 1881-1890; 1891-1900; 1901-1908. 3 1900-1908. 4 1900-1909. 5 1900-1908. 6 In 1900-1901-183. The total membership of enumerated unions was estimated at 1,208,000, to which was added an arbitrary allowance of 191,100 for the Knights of Labor "and unenumerated organizations." The former were at the time in a moribund condition, and the Industrial Commission believed that its estimate was subject to a probable error of 100,000.Reports of the Industrial Commission, vol. xvii., p. xix.

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membership of all unions in 1910 was estimated by the New York Bureau of Labor at 2,625,000 for the United States and Canada. Thus in nine years from 1901 to 1910, with their unprecedented immigration, the membership of labor organizations doubled, whereas the average number of wage-earners employed in manufactures increased from 1899 to 1909 only about 40 per cent, the number of railway employees from 1900 to 1910, 67 per cent, 3 etc.

The reports of the New York Bureau of Labor Statistics since 1897 furnish a record of the annual increase or decrease of union membership, which permits of a comparative study of the relation between trade-unionism and immigration. New York State is the receptacle of more than its proportionate share of "the new immigration." New York City is a temporary stopping-place for many a stranded immigrant lacking the funds for continuing his journey to final destination. The evil effects of immigration, if such they be, must appear in aggravated form in the State of New York. The relation between union membership and immigration is shown graphically in Diagram XX.4 The curves representing trade-union membership and the immigration of breadwinners5 run almost parallel, showing that union New York Labor Bulletin, Sept., 1911, p. 418.

2 XIII. Census Bulletin. Manufactures: United States, p. 74. The real increase of the average number of wage-earners is smaller, because the number for 1910 is the average of 12 monthly pay-rolls, whereas in 1900 the average number was computed "by using 12, the number of calendar months, as a divisor into the total of the average numbers reported for each month." The effect of this change of method is shown in the case of twelve selected industries, where the average number computed "as an abstract unit (like the foot-pound)" was 475,473, whereas the total "computed on the basis of time in operation would have exceeded 650,000," the variation being as high as 36 per cent.XII. Census. Manufactures, Part I., pp. cvi., cx., cxi.

Interstate Commerce Commission. Twenty-third Annual Report of the Statistics of Railways, pp. 33-34.

4 The figures from which the latter is plotted will be found in the Appendix, Table XXIII.

5 All immigrants save those that have 'no occupation (including women and children)," in official terminology.

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membership rises and falls as immigration rises and falls. : The New York statistics thus disprove the conclusion of the

2800.000

100,000

DIAGRAM XX.

AND CAPORTS

LABOR UNION

MEMBERSHIP

XX. Labor union membership in the State of New York, number of immigrant bread-winners destined for the State of New York and combined imports and exports through the port of New York. 1897-1910.

Immigration Commission that "his (the recent immigrant's) availability and his general characteristics and attitude have constituted a passive opposition which has been most

140

135

125

120

105

100

92

85

80

70

60

The

effective. The third curve represents the aggregate exports and imports through the port of New York. import and export trade of New York gives employment, directly and indirectly, to a large portion of the population of the city. It feeds the traffic of all railways in the State with terminals in New York. The fluctuations of the export trade may therefore be taken as an index of the business situation in the State of New York. It will be observed that the curve of union membership follows very closely the curve of foreign trade. The fluctuations of union membership accordingly depend upon the business situation. The latter likewise determines the fluctuations of immigration. The harmonious movement of immigration and organization among workers is thus accounted for by the fact that both are stimulated by business prosperity and discouraged by business depression.

The question may be raised, however: given the industrial expansion of the past decade, would not the progress of trade-unionism have been greater "without the availability of the recent immigrant labor supply"? An answer to this question is furnished by the comparative statistics of union membership in the States of New York and Kansas for 19001909. While New York has received great numbers of immigrants during this period, the ratio of foreign-born in Kansas has been steadily decreasing since 1880: in the latter year the ratio was 11.0 per cent, in 1910 only 7.3 per cent. The proportion of foreign-born from Southern and Eastern Europe to the population of Kansas was only 2 per cent. At the same time Kansas has shared in the industrial expansion of the period, as witnessed by the amounts paid out in wages to factory operatives in 1899 and 1909, shown in Table 99. While the increase in the United States at large amounted to 71 per cent and in New York City to

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1 Reports of the Immigration Commission, vol. I, p. 541.

2 Statistical Abstract, 1910, Table 25, p. 53. XIII. Census Bulletin Population, Kansas. Advance information relative to the population of Kansas issued by the Director of the Census to the press.

65 per cent, in Kansas it reached 100 per cent. The comparative growth of trade-unionism in New York and Kansas in 1900-1909 must accordingly reveal the effects of

TABLE 99.

TOTAL WAGES PAID TO FACTORY OPERATIVES IN THE UNITED STATES AND IN THE STATES OF NEW YORK AND KANSAS (MILLIONS OF DOLLARS), 1899 AND 1909.1

industrial expansion upon the progress of organization among the wage-earners, with and without the availability of the recent immigrant.

2

Table 100 shows the ratio of organized workers in each of the two States to its total urban population. The relative number of organized workmen is higher in New York with a large and growing immigrant population drawn from Southern and Eastern Europe than in Kansas 'with a small and decreasing foreign-born population. Prior to the recent crisis the percentage of organized workmen in New York was more than twice as high as in Kansas. The industrial depression of 1909 reduced the percentage of organized workmen in New York, while in Kansas the year 1908 was a record year for labor organizations. Yet even then the proportion of organized workmen in New York remained higher than in Kansas.

1 XIII. Census Bulletin. Manufactures, United States, pp. 85-86. 2 Urban population is defined by the census as "that residing in cities and other incorporated places of 2500 inhabitants or more" (XIII. Census Bulletin. Population of Cities.) The population for 1900 is that enumerated by the census. The urban population for each subsequent year is estimated in accordance with the method followed by the United