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practise is generally applied to the transportation men, it is sometimes indulged in also when men who are leaving are badly needed to continue the work. The chief methods have been: (1) through the local authorities, and (2) by armed guards. The method of having the escaping men arrested on the charge of violating the boarding-house law is the safest to the contractors and most frequently used. Laborers are frequently brought to the work on free transportation, having made an agreement to work out their indebtedness. After getting to the neighborhood in which the work is being done, they leave the contractor who brought them in and work for another company where they do not have the cost of their transportation deducted from their wages. In order to protect themselves against this practise, the contractors have the men arrested and confronted with a jail sentence when attempting to leave. They are then willing to remain and work out their indebtedness. Sometimes in the

more isolated camps the men are closely watched by the foreman and other bosses, who carry arms, and are driven back and shut up in their shanties and held until they agree to return to work; or their baggage may be taken from them and held until they have worked themselves free from debt. These practises are more in evidence during the periods of special activity in construction work, as these men are more often offered transportation in advance, and after getting into the neighborhood are better able to find other work.

Similar practices amounting technically to criminal peonage have been found in nearly all the states.

Southern Employer's Preference for Labor

The order in which the labor is classed as to preference by the Southern contractor is: (1) negroes, (2) Croatians, and (3) all others except Italians. In point of numbers the Italians exceed by far any other foreign race on construction work in this region, with the Croatians coming second. The other foreign races are so sparsely represented that the comparisons are made between only these three. Negroes are everywhere preferred to members of any other race. They are good teamsters, and are used as wagon-drivers and in all cases requiring the control of more than a single mule. Altho they do not work regularly, it is said that while working only four-fifths of the time they do more work than the foreigners working full time. A contractor employing negro labor keeps a full camp at all times, thereby assuring himself a full force. After each pay-day there is a considerable falling off of the negro labor for two or three days, during which time the workmen gamble, drink and spend their money in the commissary. After having spent all their money they return and work regularly until the next pay-day. Another respect in which the negroes surpass the foreign labor is the ease with which they are handled on the work. They do not resent rough treatment as readily as do the foreign laborers, nor do they unite to leave when one of their number is discharged. Still another, and probably the strongest reason for employing negro labor is, as has already been stated, the inclination to spend the entire earnings in the commissary. Despite these conditions, the Southern contractor is not able to secure a sufficient supply of negro laborers and must depend upon

the Italians who present themselves in the greatest numbers for this class of work.

Maintenance of Law and Order in Southern Camps

The maintenance of law and order rests solely with the foreman or walking-bosses, as the camp superintendents are called. Local authorities never interfere, unless there is some infraction of the law affecting people outside of the camp. They are occasionally called in when the contractors wish to detain transportation men, but rarely to settle trouble in camp among the men. There is a characteristic feeling among these walking-bosses that to ask for the assistance of the local authorities is to acknowledge their own inefficiency.

In all camps where immigrants are employed, beer, or some substitute which is practically the same thing, has to be supplied in order to keep the men. It is handled principally by the padrone or contractor, who has it shipped to the camps in barrel lots, consigned to different men in the camp so as to get around the prohibition laws. It is then sold at the commissaries with a profit. In many instances the men do actually order it for themselves by the keg or crate, and it is the existence of this practise that renders it possible for the commissaries to handle it without molestation from the authorities. When the sentiment of the neighboring population is too strong against this practise, a contractor sells an imitation beer as a substitute. This is often a cheap grade of beer in bottles bearing a label of a malt extract.

The Middle States

The conditions of work and living are practically the same in construction and other seasonal work in the Middle States, or New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, as in the South. Laborers are secured by means of regular agencies, and the padrone system is also followed. The housing facilities are also the same as in the South, with the exception that in cases where the work is being carried on near the larger cities and towns the workmen often provide their own quarters. Because the country is more thickly populated, the laborers also frequently buy provisions in the stores of the towns or cities located near the work, but in the more remote localities the commissaries are always found. The negro, of course, does not form such a large proportion of the labor force in the North as in the South, and the contractors mainly depend upon the recent immigrant.

In connection with the construction of the new water-supply system for the city of New York, at Brownsville, where some of the heaviest work is in progress, a model temporary city has been constructed. Churches and schools are provided for the workmen, and the health of the community is safeguarded by proper sanitary measures. This condition of affairs has been brought about by the fact that the work near Brownsville will require a number of years for its completion.

XI

THE IMMIGRANT AS A DYNAMIC FACTOR IN INDUSTRY

The absorption of so large numbers of alien people into the mines and manufacturing establishments, and into the general labor force of the United States, was obviously attended by very important results. These effects of the extensive employment of southern and eastern Europeans may be briefly considered, from (1) the standpoint of the general industrial situation, and (2) that of native Americans and of foreign-born workmen of early immigration. Before entering into a discussion of these effects, however, it will be necessary, in order that the situation may be fully comprehended, to review briefly the personal and industrial qualities of the recent immigrant labor supply to the United States.

Salient Characteristics of the Immigrant Labor Supply

LACK OF TECHNICAL TRAINING

One of the facts of greatest import in connection with the recent immigrant labor supply has been that an exceedingly small proportion have had any training abroad for the industrial occupations in which they have found employment in the United States. The greater number of recent immigrants have been drawn from the agricultural classes of southern and eastern Europe, having been farmers, or farm labor

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