COMMUNITY A.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

Industrial significance of the community-Inducements and obstacles to immigration-Methods of securing immigrant labor-Reasons for the immigration of the several races to the United States and to the community-Households studied— Members of households for whom detailed information was secured-Employees for whom information was secured-[Text Tables 236 to 240 and General Tables 114 to 116].

INDUSTRIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE COMMUNITY.

Community A is primarily a manufacturing center. Its chief industry is the manufacture of steel, in which three concerns are engaged. The largest of these, which may be designated as Company 1, has three plants, called for the purposes of this study a, and C. In normal times this company has a pay roll of over $1,000,000 a month and employs about 18,000 men. It also operates bituminous coal mines having an annual output of 1,600,000 tons of bituminous coal, and ore fields in Michigan and Minnesota having an annual output of 1,237,724 tons. A second local steel establishment which may be designated as Company 2 is comparatively small and is a branch of a company of Cincinnati, Ohio. Its annual capacity is 7,500 tons of open-hearth steel castings, 4,680 tons of iron castings, and 24,600 tons of switches, frogs, etc. Of nearly the same capacity is another plant engaged in the manufacture of steam radiators which is designated as Company 3. Company 1 exerts a strong influence over the affairs of the city, politically, socially, and industrially. It owns the largest department store, the largest hotel and café, supervises the public library, owns a large and flourishing American residential suburb, which is situated on a mountain that rises directly from the city; owns and operates the railroad which carries all of the passenger and freight traffic between the city proper and this suburb; and owns the ground and a majority of the houses in two residential districts for its employees and considerable land on which houses owned by its employees have been built.

In addition to the steel industries proper there is considerable bituminous coal mining done in and about the community. These mines, however, are nearly all operated by the steel companies, and their products are used almost entirely in the plant by which they are owned and are not marketed to any great extent. Other minor manufactories are two breweries and a brick-manufacturing establishment. Besides these there is a flour mill, a city gas plant, a passenger railway company, and many small establishments of a private character which contribute entirely to the needs of the community.

Community A is located in the southwestern portion of Pennsylvania. The city proper lies in a valley between ranges of hills which rise to a height of from 500 to 700 feet above two rivers. Its elevation is 1,147.8 feet above mean sea level. One river has a drainage area of about 188 square miles and flows through the northern portion of the city; the other, with a drainage area of about 430 square miles, flows along the southern and western portions of the city. The two streams unite in the northwestern part of the city to form another river which is a tributary of the Allegheny. Two railroads afford communication with distant points, and the country around furnishes products that are consumed entirely by the residents of the city. Trolley lines connect Community A with several small towns, which are mining centers and residential sections for Americans and for a few of the more Americanized immigrants.

The accompanying map furnishes a graphic presentation of the community. It will be noted that the location of the principal industrial establishments and the several immigrant colonies is indicated on the map.

For convenience in describing the several racial colonies Community A has been divided into 18 sections, and an inspection of the map will show that some colonies are composed entirely of natives, while others are composed of natives and both first and second generations of the races of old and more recent immigration. The industrial establishments lie in each instance in close proximity to localities inhabited by immigrants while the purely native colonies are found at a distance from the industrial plants.

Native colonies are designated on the map by the numbers 6, 7, 15, 16, and 18. In section 6 will be found, in addition to the natives, practically the whole of the Welsh population. Section 7 is the oldest portion of the city and contains the chief business interests of the community. The natives living in sections 15, 16, and 18 are principally of the class of skilled mechanics employed in the steel works.

In sections 13 and 14 the majority of the residents are persons of native birth, but of foreign parentage. All of the races of older immigration will be found among these people. Sections 11 and 12 are composed of both natives and immigrants. The natives in these two sections are in most cases employed in the mills in the higher occupations.

The remaining sections are populated entirely by immigrants who have entered the community during the last fifteen years. In sections 1, 9, and 17 the inhabitants are of mixed races and nationalities from the south and east of Europe. Macedonians and Croatians live in section 2, where industrial establishment No. 4 is located. Section 3, the most important immigrant locality in the community, supports a very large immigrant population composed of all races to be found in the district with the exception of Welsh and Italians. Industrial establishment No. 5 is located in this section. Section 4 is settled by Poles, Croatians, Slovaks, Magyars, and Germans and lies just north of the blast furnaces of plant a of industrial establishment No. 1. On the other side of this plant is section 5, a colony of South Italians. Section 8 is a colony of North and South Italians and is situated to the south of plant b of industrial establishment No. 1. The Slovaks

have a colony of their own in section 10, across the river to the north of plant c of industrial establishment No. 1. Industrial establishments Nos. 2 and 3 are located to the west of sections 17 and 18 in the southern end of the community.

INDUCEMENTS AND OBSTACLES TO IMMIGRATION.

The inducements offered to immigrants and other settlers may be briefly stated as follows:

(a) Employment in the steel industries, particularly with the largest concern, steel company No. 1, chiefly in the unskilled occupations. (b) Employment in fire-brick work, in the two breweries, and other small manufacturing establishments.

(c) Employment on railroad, trolley, and street-construction work, and in other occupations connected with these industries.

(d) Employment in the mines connected with the steel and brick industries and in a few small independent mines.

(e) Opportunities for operating steamship agencies, mercantile establishments, immigrant banks, street trades of various kinds, barber shops, restaurants, boarding and lodging houses, shoemaker and shoe-repair shops, etc., in the foreign sections of the city.

(f) Opportunities for operating fruit stands and other street trades in the American sections of the city.

(g) Employment for women as cooks, housemaids, and laundresses in American and assimilated immigrant families and as chambermaids, waitresses, etc., in hotels.

(h) The total absence of unions in all of the industries and trades with the exception of the breweries may be stated as an inducement for new labor.

The obstacles at present existing which are experienced by immigrants may be briefly stated as follows:

(a) The demand for skilled labor in the steel industries and the other establishments employing skilled labor is smaller than the supply. This operates as an obstacle to the new settler and the immigrant in their efforts to advance in the scale of occupations. That this is a real obstacle is seen in the fact that when the supply of American skilled laborers is short laborers with the capacity of skilled work have been found among immigrants, who, when advanced to skilled occupations, have been able to maintain their new positions. Another evidence is seen in the attitude taken by the employers in general toward immigrants, which is treated in another section of this report.

(b) In this connection may also be mentioned what has the effect of an obstacle, namely, the tendency on the part of the southeastern European immigrants to take on the more vicious habits of the Americans, which, in most instances, are an exaggeration of certain tendencies already inherent in the immigrants themselves. A good example of this, so far as it affects their efficiency, is seen in the tendency on the part of the Croatians to use intoxicants to excess. Before immigration they had the habit of drinking beer and to some extent wine and whisky. After immigration this tendency seems to have been. greatly magnified, until weekly drunken sprees are considered a mark of their race. The employers state that these sprees incapacitate them for work on Mondays, and when the labor supply is sufficient

to warrant it such laborers are promptly dismissed. Although they immediately appear at other plants or establishments, under different names, ages, and addresses, and obtain work, their shifting from one place to another destroys to some extent their chances of learning how to do the more skilled forms of work. Thus, on the part of the immigrants, the tendency to take up injurious American habits should be considered as a distinct obstacle to obtaining and retaining employment, as well as to advancing in the scale of occupations.

(c) Their ignorance of the English language, while not regarded in all instances by the employers as a disqualification for advancement, operates nevertheless as an obstacle as a general rule.

METHODS OF SECURING IMMIGRANT LABOR.

The two largest industries, of which the steel plant is one, during the period of great industrial activity in 1906 and 1907, sought and obtained the cooperation of certain of the local priests in securing immigrant labor. The Polish priest was the most active in this respect, his reason for cooperation being that he desired as much as possible to build up his parish and that the augmenting of the membership by inducing the immigration of members of his own faith and race brought this result. Other methods than this of inducing immigration were, however, explicitly denied by all employers. The only manner in which the desire for more laborers had been signified was the posting of notices upon the gates of the plants, and this, it was claimed, with the exception already noted, was sufficient to command all the available workmen at any time. In all cases, it was stated, there was usually a larger number of immigrant applicants for work than there were vacancies.

According to the statements of the employers in the smaller plants, practically all of the immigrants employed came from the immediate vicinity, and only a very few from other parts of the United States or from Europe. This was accounted for by the fact that nearly if not quite all of the immigrant labor supply in this locality is attracted by the large steel plant. In this plant, according to the opinion of the employers, 50 per cent of the immigrant employees have come direct from their native countries and nearly as many from other parts of the United States. It seems a warrantable assumption, in the absence of other evidence, that these immigrants were secured through the activity of their friends, relatives, and priests, and through newspapers and private methods. Whatever the actual conditions may be, it is unlikely that the activity of labor agents has a very great effect upon the number of immigrants employed. It is a kind of effort which, if it really exists to any extent, merely affects some individuals within a race, but not their total representation. The supply of immigrant labor since the depression of 1907 has been amply sufficient to meet the demands of all the employers.

REASONS FOR THE IMMIGRATION OF THE SEVERAL RACES TO THE UNITED STATES AND TO THE COMMUNITY.

The answers to the inquiries as to the reasons for coming to the United States in preference to other countries have been identical with almost no exception. In practically every instance the immi

grants have stated that they decided to come to the United States because they had heard through letters from their friends and relatives, through testimony of returned countrymen, and through the press that an abundance of employment was offered in the United States at a much higher wage than they could earn in any of the European countries. The inquiries have revealed that in the communities in the foreign countries where the immigrants lived before coming, the United States has been known as a country of opportunities for earning money, and for economic and political independence, and consequently there has grown up a feeling that it is a country for the dissatisfied and ambitious.

With reference to the reasons for coming to Community A, the answers to the questions asked have failed to reveal more than occasional instances where immigrants have been brought through the efforts of labor agents. Considerable care was exercised in making these inquiries for the purpose of ascertaining whether there has been any such influence, but, as a general rule, the reasons given for coming to this particular locality have been: (1) The knowledge obtained through the newspapers and through immigrants of the various races that employment was offered to immigrants. (2) The information furnished in letters from friends already there and of relatives who had preceded them. (3) Information furnished by the priests of the community. With regard to the influence of the priests, it should be noted that not only is influence of this nature exerted for the purpose of increasing the number in their parishes, but that the large steel company located in the community has in some instances worked in cooperation with them in order to obtain a larger labor supply. It has been definitely ascertained that this company cooperates with the Polish priests in securing laborers, and there seems to be little doubt that the same cooperation has existed with other priests.

Although no definite information could be obtained, officials of this same company, as well as immigrant residents, have stated that foremen have acted as labor agents in the past. No evidence has been secured to show that such practices now exist. The company maintains that they have discouraged such activities on the part of their foremen or other employees by discharging all of those who have been detected, and claims that as a result the practice has been discontinued. Although no direct evidence could be obtained, it is stated by certain of the older immigrant residents and by some of the city officials that the steamship agents have acted as labor agents in the past and that they are still doing so.

HOUSEHOLDS STUDIED.

In addition to the other data collected in the community, a detailed study was made of the local industrial employees and of a number of selected households, the heads of which were employed in the iron and steel establishments of the community. The table next presented shows, by general nativity and race of head of household, the number and per cent of households studied.