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In 1899 the State of Illinois collected data for the classification, according to general nativity and race, of nearly all the employees in the coal mines of the State. The results are shown in the following table:

TABLE 136.-Nationality of employees of Illinois mines, 1899.

[Compiled from Illinois Coal Report, 1899, pp. LXXII and LXXV.]

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General nativity and race are given for 36,130 out of a total of 36,991 employees. Fifty-six and eighty-eight hundredths per cent of all those classified according to general nativity and race are foreign-born.

The following figures are for West Virginia:

TABLE 137.-Nationality of employees in the bituminous coal mines of West Virginia,

June 30, 1908.

[Compiled from annual report of the Department of Mines of West Virginia for the year ending June 30,

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Information as to nativity and race is given for 51,777 out of a total of 60,484 employees. Thirty-one and nine-tenths per cent of the employees classified according to race and nativity, or 27.3 per cent of all the employees, are of foreign birth. The figures of the table are for the year 1908.

Upon the authority of the data presented it seems safe to make the assertion that a very large proportion, at least one-half, of all the employees in the bituminous coal-mining industry of the United States are of foreign birth.

RECENT AND OLD IMMIGRATION COMPARED.

The foreign-born workmen may be further classified, by race, as the old immigrants and the recent immigrants. The meaning of the distinction has been explained elsewhere in this report."

The fact that many of the mine employees are men of the races of recent immigration is shown by the preceding tables. In order to make the comparison more graphic, the figures of these tables have been rearranged in racial groups. In the six tables next presented Group I in every case comprises the native-born and the races of northern and western Europe and of Great Britain, and Group II comprises the races of southern and eastern Europe. In arranging these groups, those entered in the state reports as "mixed "unknown" have been omitted."

a Page 21 et seq.

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The different races and nationalities have been divided into two general groups. In the first of these are included the Americans, together with the immigrants from northern and western Europe-the less recent immigrants. The second group is made up of the natives of southern and eastern Europe. These are the recent immigrants. This division into groups is made for two reasons. In the first place, the object of the tables being to contrast in a general way the number of old immigrants with the number of recent immigrants, it is believed that the grouping enables this to be done much more clearly than had the races and nationalities been left uncombined. In the second place, grave doubts are entertained, in the case of the three tables compiled from figures in state mine reports, as to the accuracy of the classification according to nationality and race. Information seems to have been set down as received from operators or workmen without any attempt at editing or combination. In some of the reports consulted the words "Hervat" and "Croatian," "Hungarian" and "Magyar" frequently appear in the same table. The list of nationalities has also been found to differ materially from year to year. The mine inspectors of the States have little reason to be, and are not, trained ethnologists, and clearly mistakes have been made. It is believed that by the grouping these mistakes have been rendered of less importance. That a Pole should be reported as Austrian, a Ruthenian as a Russian, or a Slovak as a Hungarian would appear quite possible; but there is little likelihood that any of these or an Italian would be reported as an Englishman or a Scandinavian. By dividing the nationalities into the older immigrants and the more recent immigrants, it is possible to be reasonably certain that all the men are included at least in the general group in which they properly belong.

The data secured by the Immigration Commission are presented in the following table:

TABLE 138.-Classification of employees by general nativity and race and by groups.a

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In this table all localities are combined. It will be seen that 50.4 per cent, slightly over one-half, of all the individuals are included in Group II.

The following table gives the figures for Pennsylvania in 1907:

TABLE 139.-Classification of Pennsylvania employees by nationality or race and by groups.a

[Compiled from annual report of Secretary of Internal Affairs of Pennsylvania for 1907, Part III, Industrial Statistics, pp. 95 and 96.]

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In this table 72,319 employees are classified according to nationality or race. The men of the races included in Group II constitute 54.6 per cent of this total.

A comparison of the figures of the above table with the original data for the same territory, secured in 1909, is of interest. The original data appear in the following table:

TABLE 140.-Classification of Pennsylvania employees by general nativity and race and by groups.a

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Of the 49,137 individuals classified according to general nativity and race, 64.3 per cent are natives of southern and eastern Europe. In this table the proportion of recent immigrants reported is higher than in the table compiled from the figures given in the state report. The difference in the percentages may be due in part to the difference in dates, the figures for one table having been secured, as has been noted, in 1907, and those for the other in 1909. In comparing the percentages of the several tables, the fact should not be overlooked that the number of men employed in mining is much larger in Pennsylvania than in any other State or locality in the country." The exceptionally high percentage of eastern and southern Europeans employed in the mines of the State is therefore significant.

Conditions in Illinois in the year 1899 are shown by the next table presented.

a Production of Coal in 1908, Edward W. Parker. U. S. Geological Survey, Mineral Resources of the United States. Table on page 39.

TABLE 141.-Classification of Illinois employees by nationality or race and by groups. a [Compiled from Illinois Coal Report, 1899, pp. LXXII and LXXV.]

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a For explanation of grouping, see p. 224.

The Austrians and Bohemians are classified together in the state report. The majority of persons of Austrian nativity employed in the mining industry are probably of the recent immigration. Upon the other hand, a large percentage of the Bohemians have been in the United States for a considerable period of time. (See Table 144, p. 229.) It being impossible to separate the figures, "Austrian and Bohemian" have been included in this table, arbitrarily, in Group I.

In this table only 17.8 per cent of the 36,130 individuals classified according to nationality or race were natives of southern or eastern Europe. It is over ten years since the data for the table were secured and there has been, in the interval, a change in the racial composition of the working force of the mines of the Middle West. The prevailing tendency in Illinois, as well as in the neighboring States, is probably fairly indicated by the original data for the Middle West, presented in the following table:

TABLE 142.-Classification of employees in the Middle West by general nativity and race and by groups.a

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