ing displacements and by retarding advancement in rates of pay and improvements in conditions of employment.

(3) Industrial efficiency among the recent immigrant wage-earners has been very slowly developed, owing to their illiteracy and inability to speak English.

(4) For these same reasons the general progress toward assimilation and the attainment of American standards of work and living has also been very slow.

(5) The conclusion of greatest significance developed by the general industrial investigation of the United States Immigration Commission is that the point of complete saturation has already been reached in the employment of recent immigrants in mining and manufacturing establishments. Owing to the rapid expansion in industry which has taken place during the past thirty years, and the constantly increasing employment of southern and eastern Europeans, it has been impossible to assimilate the newcomers, politically or socially, or to educate them to American standards of compensation, efficiency or conditions of employment.

(6) Too exclusive emphasis in the discussion of immigration, within recent years, has been placed upon the social and political results of recent immigration, altho no one questions that in the long run these social results may be of chief import. But that side of the question has been kept well in mind in previous legislation. Now the emphasis should be shifted. The main problem at present is really fundamentally an in

dustrial one, and should be principally considered in its economic aspects.

The Outlook for the American Wage-Earner

To establish firmly an American standard of work and living, to guarantee a proper distribution of the benefits of our marvelous natural resources and our wonderful industrial progress, and at the same time to maintain the spirit of enterprise and the stimulation to industrial progress and efficiency, it is absolutely necessary to impose some limitations upon the numbers of immigrants who are rapidly entering the country. Unless there is a restriction of immigration, the situation for the American industrial worker is not very promising. A policy of permanent or absolute exclusion is not imperative. All that is essential is to limit temporarily the number of incoming aliens so that the foreign workmen already in the country may be industrially assimilated and educated to the point where they will demand proper standards of living and will be constrained by the economic aspirations of the native American. If the existing influx of immigrant wage-earners continues, there is no ground for expecting any noteworthy improvement in the near future in the working and living conditions of the employees of our mines and factories. Organized effort is rendered almost impossible. Industrial workers of both native and foreign parentage, because of the constant extension of the use of improved machinery and the decline in the demand for skill and experience, have been gradually losing the opportunity to help themselves by concerted action. They are also rapidly passing beyond the reach of those altruistic persons who

would assist them for the reason that one group of workmen is no sooner raised toward a higher economic status than the competition of the next wave of immigration completely inundates them and causes a downward tendency in methods of living and in conditions of employment.

It is clearly apparent that a restriction of immigration would be in reality an arbitrary curtailment of the increase in the existing labor supply and might be attended by a temporary check in the rapidity of the remarkable industrial expansion which has been characteristic of recent years, but it is equally true that the measure of the economic welfare of the citizens of an industrial and commercial nation does not consist in the number of tons of coal produced or the tons of pigiron, steel rails, or yards of print cloth manufactured. The real indication of material prosperity is to be found in the extent to which the wage-earners in mines and factories share in the industrial output which is partly attributable to their labors, and unless there is a limitation placed upon the inexhaustible supply of cheap foreign labor of low standards and aspirations which is now coming to this country, it is perfectly clear that the American wage-earner can not hope to participate properly in the results of our industrial progress. Moreover, altho the present rate of increase in the supply of unskilled labor would be lessened by a restriction of immigration, it can not be questioned that the higher wages and better standards of living which would be the logical outcome, would attract to our shores skilled and highly trained workmen from northern and western Europe who, under present conditions, have ceased to immigrate to the United States. The return of this more efficient class of wage-earners

would probably have the effect of reducing labor costs of manufacturing and of making possible a greater diversification of industries. In addition to the prevailing system of manufacturing comparatively lowgrade articles upon a quantitative basis, the tendency would be toward the promotion of industries for the production of more finished and special commodities which are now sold in our own and the world markets by foreign manufacturers.

At this point it is worth noting that, without any additions to our existing labor supply, due to the cutting off of immigration by war conditions, the United States has been able to increase its production in almost every line of activity to unprecedented totals. This clearly shows that there must have been present a large amount of slack labor at the opening of the war, which needed to be taken up before any real shortage of labor could be said to exist. The situation, as it developed, gave striking and conclusive evidence to the accuracy of the conclusions reached by the Immigration Commission regarding the labor situation, especially that of the unskilled in this country. There is no doubt that the condition of labor, in fact general social conditions, have been vastly improved as a result of the temporary cutting off of immigration from foreign

countries.

Our political and social conditions also are sure to be profoundly influenced by the great war, tho it is yet too early to make an accurate forecast. The democratic revolution in Russia, the similar revolt in favor of more popular government in Greece, the earnest declaration of the governments involved in favor of more recognition of the will of the people, all will be certain to make their influence felt. The Socialistic.

workmen in Russia are certain to have a determining effect upon the policy of that government, and whatever terms of peace may be finally agreed upon they will recognize to a marked degree the wishes of the wage-earning classes. All these facts will certainly change greatly the viewpoint of European workers. This in time will affect not only new immigrants, but also those already here.

The present situation is also developing social and political dangers which demand immediate action. The hopelessness of the wage-earner under existing conditions leads him to receive radical teachings with increasing eagerness, and to follow blindly the revolutionary programs of over-zealous political, social, and economic propagandists. The remarkable spread of socialism in all its forms, the extraordinary growth of such un-American organizations as the Industrial Workers of the World, together with the recent strikes in Lawrence, Massachusetts, Paterson, New Jersey, and other industrial communities, are but an earnest of what may be expected in the future unless some attempt is made to improve existing industrial conditions.

Not only the economic welfare of the American wage-earner but the maintenance of our political and social institutions are threatened, and a necessary preliminary, or first step toward amelioration of the present condition of industrial affairs, would seem to be the adoption of a policy of restricted immigration. Without such action, all other measures will certainly be much less effective.

Since this chapter was written Congress, in 1917, prepared for the future by the passage of a bill embodying the literacy test. The overwhelming vote re