8. What limitations should be placed upon child labor with respect to hours of employment?

9. What provision should be made for the physical examination of employed minors?

10. What problem is closely related to the question of child labor? II. Is it the opinion of most students of the problem that the employment of women should be prohibited, or that it should merely be safeguarded?

12. Outline the standards recommended by the Department of Labor with respect to the hours during which women ought to be employed.

13. What are the standards of this Department with respect to the wages of women?

14. Outline the chief recommendations of the Department of Labor with respect to the conditions under which women ought to work.

15. What is the recommendation of the Department with respect to home work?

16. When and where was the first minimum wage law enacted in this country?

17. Summarize the opinions of employers toward the minimum wage, as ascertained by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 1919. 18. What, in general, was found to be the attitude of organized labor toward this type of legislation?

19. What forms may social insurance take? Which of these forms is well developed in the United States?

20. Summarize the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Law of New York with respect to the employer's liability for compensation.

21. What does this law say regarding the treatment and care of injured employees?

22. What does the law say concerning the schedule of compensation in case of disability?

23. What are some of the factors which have obstructed the progress of labor legislation in this country?

24. Enumerate some constitutional clauses which have artificially strengthened individual and corporate rights.

25. What reason does Professor Carlton give for the conservative character of the decisions of our Supreme Court between 1900 and 1910?

26. What does Professor Carlton conclude as to the recent trend of court decisions with respect to labor legislation?

Of the

numerous

phases of the immigration problem,

the eco

nomic is perhaps the most fundamental.

Recent immigrants unfamiliar with the occupations which they enter in

this country.

Illiteracy.

CHAPTER XX

IMMIGRATION AND ASSIMILATION

115. The nature of the immigrant labor supply 1

Of the numerous problems confronting the American people, few are more pressing and none is more complex than that of immigration. Of the many aspects which this problem presents, perhaps the most fundamental is the economic. The influx into this country of millions of unskilled laborers has exerted a profound effect upon our industrial life, and, indirectly, upon our social and political institutions. The industrial significance of the immigrant is shown by the following extract, in which the United States Immigration Commission outlines the salient characteristics of the labor supply furnished by the "new" immigration:

(a) From a strictly industrial standpoint, one of the facts of greatest import relative to the new arrivals has been . . . that an exceedingly small proportion have had any training or experience. for the industrial occupations in which they have found employment in this country. The bulk of recent immigrants has been drawn from the agricultural classes of southern and eastern Europe and most of the recent immigrants were farmers or farm laborers in their native lands. In this respect they afford a striking contrast to immigrants of past years from Great Britain and northern Europe, who were frequently skilled industrial workers before coming to the United States, and who sought positions in this country similar to those which they had occupied abroad.

(b) In addition to lack of industrial training and experience, the new immigrant labor supply has been found to possess but small resources from which to develop industrial efficiency and advancement. . . . Practically none of the races of southern and eastern

1 From the United States Immigration Commission, Abstracts of Reports, with Conclusions, etc. Washington, 1911, Vol. 1, pp. 498–500.

Europe have been able to speak English at the time of immigration to this country, and, owing to their segregation and isolation from the native American population in living and working conditions, their progress in acquiring the language has been very slow. The incoming supply of immigrant labor has also been characterized by a high degree of illiteracy. . . .

lack of

funds upon

arrival.

(c) Still another salient fact in connection with the recent immi- Effect of grant labor supply has been the necessitous condition of the newcomers. . . . Recent immigrants have usually had but a few dollars in their possession when they arrived at the ports of disembarkation. Consequently they have found it absolutely imperative to engage in work at once. They have not been in position to take exception to the wages or working conditions offered, but must needs go to work on the most advantageous terms they could secure.

(d) The standards of living of the recent industrial workers from the south and east of Europe have been low. . . . During the earlier part, at least, of their residence in the United States, they have been content with living and working conditions offered to them, and it has been only after the most earnest solicitation, or sometimes even coercion, upon the part of older employees, that they have been persuaded or forced into protests. . . . The life interest and activity of the average wage-earner from southern and eastern Europe have seemed to revolve principally about three points: (1) To earn the largest possible amount of immediate earnings under existing conditions of work; (2) to live upon the basis of minimum cheapness; and (3) to save as much as possible. The ordinary comforts of life as insisted upon by the average American have been subordinated to the desire to reduce the cost of living to its lowest level.

Recent immigrants

have a low standard of

living.

class.

(e) [Again, recent immigrants] have constituted a mobile, migra- A transient tory, wage-earning class, constrained mainly by their economic interest, and moving readily from place to place according to changes in working conditions or fluctuations in the demand for labor. . . . In brief, the recent immigrants have no property or other restraining interests which attach them to a community.

(f) The members of the larger number of races of recent entrance Attitude in to the mines, mills, and factories as a rule have been tractable and easily managed. This quality seems to be a temperamental one

industrial disputes.

acquired through present or past conditions of life in their native lands. When aroused by strikes or other industrial dissensions, some eastern European races have displayed an inclination to follow their leaders to any length, .. but in the normal life of the mines, mills, and factories, the southern and eastern Europeans have exhibited a pronounced tendency toward being easily managed by employers and toward being imposed upon without protest, which has created the impression of subserviency. . . .

116. Living conditions in immigrant communities 1 The congestion of immigrants in large cities has long been considered one of the most unfavorable features of the modern problem Immigration of immigration. In 1911 the United States Immigration Commission Commission.

Survey conducted by the U.S.

Foreword.

Predomi

nance of recent immi

grants.

reported upon the results of an extensive survey, conducted under its direction for the purpose of ascertaining the character of living conditions in immigrant communities in the crowded quarters of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Buffalo and Milwaukee. A summary of the results of this investigation follows: In view of the fact that this study is limited to congested and poor districts of the cities investigated, it is important to keep in mind that the report does not represent conditions outside of such dis tricts, and that comparisons by race apply only to those representatives of each race who live in the poorer sections of the cities.

1. The search for immigrant races in congested districts revealed the fact that the population of such districts consists predominantly of races of recent immigration. Races of the older immigration and their descendants are represented for the most part only by the remnants of an earlier population, whose economic progress has not kept pace with that of their fellows who have moved to better surroundings. . . .

2. Forty-eight of every 100 foreign-born male heads of households studied have come to the United States within the past ten years, and 21 of every 100 have come within five years.

3. Immigration to the United States has been, on the part of male heads of households in the districts studied, largely a migration from

1 From the United States Immigration Commission, Abstracts of Reports, with Conclusions, etc. Washington, 1911, Vol. 1, pp. 727-730.

country to city of people unfamiliar with urban conditions. Thirty- Previous condition. nine of every 100 who were 16 years of age or over at the time of coming to the United States were engaged in farming in the country of their former residence. .

4. Nearly one-tenth of all the families investigated own their Proportion homes. . . . In general much larger proportions of the older immigrant races than of those of recent immigration are home owners.

of home owners.

5. Twenty-six households in every 100 studied keep boarders Boarders and lodgers. or lodgers. . The proportion is smaller in native-born white households than in foreign households. Considering all immigrants regardless of race, it will be found that the proportion of households with boarders or lodgers is only about half as great among immigrants who have lived in the United States ten years or more as among the more recent immigrants.

6. Forty-five in every 100 of the homes studied are kept in good Cleanliness, condition, and 84 in every 100 are kept in either good or fair con

dition. As a rule the races of the older immigration have a higher proportion of well-kept apartments than have the recent immigrant races, but in general the proportion of well-kept homes is high. The neglected appearance of a great many of the streets is a result of the indifference on the part of the city authorities.

In frequent cases the streets are dirty while the homes are clean. 7. Sanitary equipment depends primarily on the city. The sanitation, districts investigated in Philadelphia and Cleveland make the least satisfactory showing in this respect. . . .

8. In the households investigated the average number of persons per 100 rooms is 134, and per 100 sleeping rooms 232. The cities may be arranged in regard to crowding in the following order: Boston, 144 persons per 100 rooms; Philadelphia, 141; Cleveland, 140; New York, 139; Buffalo, 133; Chicago, 126; Milwaukee, 114. Density of population, or congestion per acre, is not the only factor in determining the degree of crowding per room. Well-regulated tenement houses are better adapted to the needs of a crowded city than are private homes converted for the use of several families. Enlightened tenement-house laws, effectively enforced, minimize the unavoidable evils which arise from the crowding together of large numbers of families.

and congestion in

the cities surveyed.