CHAPTER IX. INDUSTRIAL EFFECTS OF RECENT IMMIGRATION. Industries established by immigrants-Changes in industrial methods and organization-Effect of employment of immigrants upon wages-[Text Tables 321 and 322]. INDUSTRIES ESTABLISHED BY IMMIGRANTS. Demand by immigrant consumers has not brought into existence any industry for the production of commodities for their exclusive use that has had a direct effect upon the community as a whole. The presence of immigrants has, of course, increased to some extent the output of minor industries conducted by natives, though not to the extent that would have been true had the increase in population been of native instead of foreign origin. On the other hand, the industries in immigrant sections that have been started as a result of demand on the part of immigrant consumers are small and few in number. The two breweries, to some extent, supply the barrooms with a cheap kind of beer; a small factory furnishes to some extent sauerkraut used by the Germans, Magyars, Croatians, and Slovaks; one restaurant manufactures a small portion of the ice cream sold at retail in the alien stores; two tailoring establishments depend almost altogether upon the patronage of the better class of immigrants. These constitute all of the evidence of industries started as the effect of the peculiar demand of immigrants. CHANGES IN INDUSTRIAL METHODS AND ORGANIZATION. None of their plants were established because of the presence or availability of immigrant labor, but the presence of immigrants was due to the plants which, on account of their expansion and development and the increasing scarcity of labor in the less skilled occupations, in turn became more or less dependent upon immigrants for their labor supply. This dependence has greatly increased in recent years. The steel plant, employing a large proportion of unskilled workers, could not, according to the statements of its representatives, have been operated at all without the aid of immigrants. The same is true, in proportion to the ratio of unskilled laborers employed, of all the other plants in the locality. In addition to the growing dependence of the employers upon recent immigrants as the source of their labor supply, the peculiar training and skill of certain races of immigrants has had its effect certainly upon the racial classification of employees, if not upon the development of the establishments themselves. Thus in the early history of the local steel industry, from 1852 until the strike of 1858, the Welsh constituted a majority of the miners and ironworkers on account of their experience in Wales, and contributed much to the development of the industry in this locality at a time when it was comparatively new in this country. Another illustration may be found in the English mechanics and engineers who came from England already trained and experienced, and individual instances in every race, except Italians and Macedonians, have been found here of workers, trained in their native land in specific trades, who have found positions, according to skill, in the steel plant. A very clear example of the almost exclusive employment of German brewers was found in a brewery established in the German colony, while there is a distinct tendency on the part of Irish to hold minor executive positions. While exerting no real effect upon industrial organization of the plants, instances have been found where immigrant foremen have been employed for gangs of workmen of their own race. This seems to be confined almost entirely to Italians. Other than this, no specific effect on industrial organization was discovered. The same is true of method of work and the use of machinery. On the other hand, there are various instances where the personnel of various departments has been affected. Thus, there has been in the history of the steel plant an occasional tendency to the preponderance of English among machinists, Irish among brick masons, Croatians among carpenters, Poles in the mines, and Italians on the construction gangs. The causes of this appear to vary in the different cases, such as previous training and skill or lack of skill, preponderance of a given race in the vicinity of a department, and other causes peculiar to the specific situation. In general, then, the conclusion may be safely drawn that while the employers have been unquestionably dependent in an increasing degree upon the availability of immigrants as unskilled laborers and possibly as semi-skilled workers, no really appreciable effect upon industrial organization or methods of production has taken place. The substitution of machinery, according to the testimony of employers, has progressed in a sufficient ratio to the decrease in the supply of hand-skilled workers to preserve the natural improvement in methods; the immigrant, in affording unskilled labor, has been able to supply the increased demand caused by the growth of production. EFFECT OF EMPLOYMENT OF IMMIGRANTS UPON WAGES. The employment of recent immigrants in such large proportions has undoubtedly had the effect of preventing an increase of wages to the extent which would have been necessary had the expansion in the local industries occurred without the availability of the southern and eastern Europeans. At the same time, the expansion in the iron and steel industry in the community and the extensive employment of recent immigrants has been attended by an increase in rates of wages due to the general scarcity of labor in the face of the remarkable industrial expansion of recent years. This fact can be readily seen from a comparison of the wage scale of steel company No. 1 for different periods. In the table immediately following, a comparison is made of the rates paid in the different occupations of the principal departments in 1903 and 1908, showing a general increase in the latter year as contrasted with the former. TABLE 321.-Rate of pay per ten-hour day, in steel company No. 1, by department and occupation, 1903 and 1908. |