as many of the unmarried South Italian immigrants, have adopted_a method of living usually designated as the rooming group system. In the company houses of one of the large steel manufacturing corporations near Birmingham, several hundred of these laborers live in groups, varying in number from two to fifteen individuals. The smaller groups occupy only one room, while the larger frequently rent an entire house, four or five men occupying each room. Where a group is composed of as many as five individuals the most intelligent of the number is usually chosen "boss," who acts as disbursing agent and pays the bills for house rent, light, and fuel, the other members contributing equally to these expenses. Various methods are followed in buying and preparing the food. A member of the group who possesses superior culinary ability will sometimes act as cook for the entire number, his pro rata amount of the grocery bill being paid by the other members as compensation for his services in this capacity. In other groups a common fund is maintained for groceries and each member acts as cook for a certain period. Where a group is composed of only a few members it is frequently the practice of each individual to buy and prepare his own food. Many of the Bulgarians patronize restaurants conducted by members of their race.

Some semblance of order and neatness is maintained in many of the houses occupied by these laborers, but some of the larger groups live in more squalid surroundings than are seen among the Slav and South Italian boarding groups. The furniture is confined to a few benches or chairs and bedsteads and the personal belongings of each individual. These consist of a few cooking vessels and pieces of bed clothing. The latter is sometimes used constantly by both night and day shifts of laborers.

The section dealt with in this report, including the city of Birmingham, Jefferson County, and various counties in northern Alabama, represents industrial activity in various forms, but all related or tributary in a general way to the iron and steel industry, the chief factor in the prosperity which has thus far attended this region. Bituminous coal mining, while an independent industry, is closely interwoven with iron and steel, in the first place through the ownership by these companies of many important coal mines and, second, through their consumption of the product of mines in which they are not financially interested. In discussing housing conditions, it is possible to treat of employees of many of the different industrial enterprises in the same report, as the same general conditions obtain throughout the entire district.

In comparing housing conditions of the different races employed in this locality, a general division is easily made into skilled and unskilled laborers; the skilled laborers are composed principally of the native whites with a very small proportion of Scotch, English, and Welsh, while among the unskilled laborers is found a wide diversity of races, the principal types being South Italians, Poles, Slovaks, Greeks, Bulgarians, and Macedonians. The English, Welsh, Irish, Scotch, and French races are represented in small numbers about equally divided between the skilled and unskilled labor.

Housing conditions among the high-priced or skilled laborers, which class as previously stated is composed principally of the native whites, show a marked improvement over conditions among the immigrant

races; the contrast is especially noticeable between the natives and the South Italian, Greek, and Slav races.

The ordinary type of "company house" does not satisfy the requirements of the skilled American workmen. Many of these are more comfortably housed either in their own dwellings or in privately owned houses, fairly well equipped with modern devices for comfort and sanitation, while in other cases the company provides for them a better type of house. In Bessemer, for example, skilled employees in the rolling mills occupy two-story houses of far better type and construction than the average company house.

Approximately 90 per cent of the whole number of employees of all races live in rented houses. Where company houses are not available, these laborers usually congregate by races in the outskirts of the town most convenient to the place of employment and occupy houses which can be obtained for the lowest rent. In one community there is a small colony of Slovaks employed in bituminous coal mining who have purchased homes and are living in small three and four room frame cottages, but property owners among these races are as a general rule very infrequent. The type of company house most frequently seen in the locality adjacent to Birmingham is a onestory frame building containing from two to four rooms, the fourroom houses being frequently divided into two apartments. The buildings are usually provided with a small veranda in front, are weatherboarded and finished with dressed lumber, and sometimes whitewashed. They are usually devoid of any modern conveniences, such as bath or flush toilet, and in consequence of being built in close proximity to the steel, iron, or coke yard in which the laborers are employed are without a yard or garden plot. A fairly accurate impression of housing conditions among the unskilled laborers employed by the most important industrial corporations of Birmingham may be obtained from a description of the houses provided for employees at the steel plant at Ensley, Ala. Ensley is situated a few miles from the city of Birmingham proper, but within the corporate limits by virtue of a recent legislative enactment. The conditions and races represented here are fairly typical of conditions throughout the territory adjacent to Birmingham.

The company quarters here are located on a slight elevation in the outskirts of Ensley, adjoining the yards of the steel plant which separates the quarters from the principal business and residence district of the town. The races represented are South Italian, Polish, Greek, Roumanian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Negro. A public road separates the quarters of the negro and immigrant races. Occupancy of company houses is not a condition precedent to employment, but in selecting a home the immigrant is usually governed by three considerations, viz, house rental, presence of fellow countrymen, and proximity to place of employment. The first of these usually exerts the greatest influence and has resulted in approximately 75 per cent of the immigrants occupying the company houses, which are customarily rented to them at a lower rate than houses obtained from other sources.

The houses occupied are of the familiar type, painted, weatherboarded, frame structures of one story, divided into two apartments of two rooms each, finished with dressed lumber, and provided in front

with small porches. Provision for heat for each apartment is made. by a chimney erected in the center of the building. Water is obtained from hydrants outside the house, one for every three houses. Water-closets built of rough lumber are placed in the rear of the buildings, one closet being provided for every twelve houses. These closets, which are flushed by running water, are divided by partitions into twelve stalls or sections. A public bath for the use of the employees is also maintained. A monthly rental of $10.50 for each house, or $5.25 for an apartment, is charged.

Among the Polish and South Italian races where the boardingboss system prevails, one family frequently rents an entire house and sometimes two houses, the extra space being used in housing lodgers, who vary in numbers from ten to fifteen to a family. The Bulgarians, Roumanians, Greeks, and Macedonians are practically all single men and live in groups, varying from two to twelve individuals, each group occupying one or two rooms usually, but sometimes an entire house, the members sharing equally in the house rent. In the company quarters occupied by the negroes, the houses are smaller and less substantial in construction. Many are finished on the exterior with rough lumber, to which a coat of whitewash is applied. Only dry closets are provided and there is no public bath as in the immigrant section.

In the outlying coal and iron-ore mining towns there is a greater diversity in the types of shelter provided for employees-the buildings varying from substantial four and six room houses to nondescript clapboard shacks and cottages designed to satisfy the requirements of transient and migratory class of laborers who value their wages more than the comforts of a modern home involving increased rent. The American devotes more attention to material comfort than does the immigrant and usually provides himself with a comfortable home. Even where the same type of building used by the immigrant is occupied, it presents a more attractive appearance than the house occupied by the South Italian or Slav laborer in the same grade of employment.

RENT IN ITS RELATION TO STANDARD OF LIVING.

The rent payments of the households studied in the Birmingham district, as in the case of other localities, have an important bearing upon the cost of living, but owing to the crowding within the immigrant households in order to reduce the rent payment per capita, these payments are chiefly significant in the index which they afford as to standards of living and general living conditions. The first table submitted in this connection shows, by general nativity and race of head of household, average rent paid each month per apartment, per room, and per person.

48296°-VOL 9-11-16

TABLE 687.-Average rent per month, by general nativity and race of head of household. (STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS.)

In the foregoing table the native-born households report a lower average rent payment each month per apartment and per room, but a higher payment per person, than do the foreign-born, indicating, owing to the higher rent payment per person, less crowding in the native than in the foreign-born households. The most significant fact disclosed by the table is the more favorable showing made by the native negro than the native white, the average rent paid by the former per room and per person being higher than that paid by the latter. Among the households whose heads were foreign-born, the worst showing is made by the Bulgarians, the average rent payment per month per person being only 60 cents. The showing of the Macedonian households is not much better, their rent payment per month per person being only 78 cents. The highest average rent per month per person is paid by the French households, followed by the Polish, North Italian, Scotch, South Italian, Greek, and Slovak households in the order mentioned.

The range in monthly rent payments per apartment is exhibited by the table following, which shows, by general nativity and race of head of household, the percentage of households paying each specified rent per month per apartment.

TABLE 688.-Per cent of households paying each specified rent per month per apartment, by general nativity and race of head of household.

(STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS.)

[This table includes only races with 20 or more households reporting. The totals, however, are for all races.]

In the above table a bare majority of the 525 households studied pay less than $5, although only 6.3 per cent as much as $7.50. The majority of the foreign-born pay $5 or over, but only 7.6 per cent pay $7.50 or over. Of the individual races studied, the majority of the native-born negroes, South Italians, and Slovaks, and large proportions of the Bulgarians and French, pay less than $5. Only 9.4 per cent of the Greeks pay less than $5, but on the other hand, only 6.2 per cent pay as much as $7.50. All the Bulgarians pay less than $7.50 and all the Slovaks and native-born negroes less than $10.

The following table shows, by general nativity and race of head of household, the percentage of households paying each specified rent per month per room.

TABLE 689.-Per cent of households paying each specified rent per month per room, by general nativity and race of head of household.

(STUDY OF HOUSEHOLDS.)

[This table includes only races with 20 or more households reporting. The totals, however, are for all races.]