Immigration and Labor

299

Wages of older employees kept up by immigration from Southern

and Eastern Europe

What would have been the increase of wages without immigration

from Southern and Eastern Europe?

Hours of labor of native American mill hands in the ante-immi-

gration period.

Reduction of hours contemporaneous with immigration

311

313

Foreign unskilled laborers in the steel industry working shorter

hours than English-speaking skilled and semi-skilled em-

ployees .

314

Reduction of the working day in the cotton mills

Comparative reduction of hours in New York City and in the

remainder of New York State, 1901-1910.

Child labor in the early days of the factory system

Decrease in the employment of children contemporaneous with in-

crease of immigration

318

Employment of children in the South relatively greater than in

States with a large immigrant population

Child labor in rural Missouri.

CHAPTER XV.

LABOR ORGANIZATIONS.

Conclusions of the Immigration Commission contradicted by its

statistics: Trade union affiliation of Jewish and Italian cloth-

ing workers in New York City above the average for the

wage-earners of the country at large.

Membership in labor unions unaffected by race

Organization among immigrants from Southern and Eastern

Europe as strong as among natives and immigrants from

Northern and Western Europe

Labor unions previous to 1880 ephemeral

Greatest progress coincides with the great tide of immigration of

the last decade

Union membership in New York State rising and falling with

rise and fall of immigration

Trade-unionism stronger in New York than in Kansas with its

decreasing foreign-born population

337

Trade unions stronger in New York City than in the remainder

Discrimination against immigrants.

Strikes increasing with immigration

Trade unions mostly confined to skilled crafts. Unskilled laborers

not eligible for membership in craft unions

.

Conflicting interests of the skilled and the unskilled

Example of the Lawrence strike

Possibilities of organization among the unskilled

Home training of immigrants in organization

Effect of machinery upon craft unions

Trusts against unions

CHAPTER XVI.

PAUPERISM AND CRIME.

A. Introductory: The period of the greatest immigration at-
tended by a decrease of pauperism and crime

Difference not due to "racial displacement."

Pauperism the result of industrial invalidism

C. Crime.

Supposed criminal proclivities of the foreigner: Popular

Increase of immigration coincident with decrease of crime. 360

PART III.

IMMIGRANTS IN THE LEADING INDUSTRIES.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE GARMENT WORKERS.

Origin of the sweating system antedates immigration

Real wages of sewing women of past generations lower than

to-day. Long hours in the past

century.

Competition of farm-house labor in the middle of the nineteenth

Expansion of the clothing industry the result of immigration

Introduction of the factory system followed by increase of wages. 366

Rates of wages not influenced by racial factors

363

365

366

Earnings of recent immigrant women higher than those of native

Americans

366

370

American garment workers in the country accepting a lower rate of

wages than Jewish city workers

Organization among clothing workers more effective than among

other industrial workers in the United States

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Wages in 1875-1908: intermittent advances and reductions prior

to the "new immigration"; upward movement since.

Effect of immigration on organization of labor.

No competition between union labor and unorganized immigrants.

In labor contests immigrants have supported the unions. 377

Competition of the Southern mills: Cheap white labor of the

South keeping down the wages of immigrants in the North. 381

Native Americans left the woolen mills before 1880,-not forced

out by recent immigrants.

Americans of native stock coming back to the mills since the
arrival of the new immigrants.

Recent expansion of the woolen industry.

Wages stationary prior to the new immigration, increasing since.
Wages of unskilled laborers increased at a higher rate than
those of skilled operatives

Tales of induced immigration unconfirmed

Strike record of English-speaking operatives exceeded by recent

immigrants

The "princes of labor" and the "white coolies."

394

No "crowding out" of English-speaking workmen by immigrants. 395

Highly paid men a small fraction of the force in the past, as in

Technical revolution in the iron and steel industry

Retention of skilled men conditioned upon the employment of in-

creasing numbers of unskilled laborers

401

New immigrants not working for less pay than natives or older

immigrants

Wages in the iron and steel industry vary directly as the ratio of

recent immigrants

Sunday work and long hours the general rule long before the period

of the "new immigration." Demand of employers for an

eight-hour day in the 80's resisted by organized skilled iron

and steel workers. Piece-workers firm for a twelve-hour day. 409

The Amalgamated Association a union of skilled workers only.
Common laborers barred from membership

Decline of the organization due to substitution of machinery for

skill

Attempt of recent immigrants to organize along industrial lines. 413

CHAPTER XXI.

412

THE COAL MINERS.

The "racial displacement" theory of the Immigration Com-

Opening of new mining fields the real cause of the westward move-

ment of coal miners.

422

424

Other avenues opened by the general expansion of industry
Caste prejudice against the immigrant the outgrowth of occupa-
tional stratification.

Displacement of the pick-miner by the mining machine: employ-

ment of unskilled immigrants the effect, not the cause, of the

introduction of mining machines

Fluctuations in the demand for coal

Part-time employment in lieu of unemployment

The migratory worker the product, not the cause, of irregularity

of employment

Average number of days per man has increased with recent immi-

The company house and the company store as old as the coal-
mining industry

History of the miners' unions in the bituminous coal fields.
Biennial conferences between the mine operators and the United
Mine Workers in the bituminous coal fields