CHAPTER I. GENERAL SURVEY. INTRODUCTION. Statistical studies of Poles are peculiarly liable to error, since almost all official enumerations have been made on a basis of nationality as indicated by country of birth. In recent United States censuses Poland has been regarded as a political entity, and persons who reported Poland as the country of their birth were so recorded in the census returns. It is not contended, however, that even an approximately correct count of persons of the Polish races was accomplished by this method. Poland as a nation has not existed for more than a century, and even though the census returns show the number of persons in the United States who were born in the Polish provinces of Germany, Austria, and Russia it would avail little, for the reason that a large proportion of immigrants who were born in such provinces are not Poles by race. Waclaw Kruszka, in his History of Poles in America, estimates that, including both first and second generations, one-fifth of all Poles in answer to the question "Where were you born?" or "Where was your father born?" answered "Poland," and were enumerated by the census accordingly; two-fifths answered "Germany," "Russia," or "Austria," and were so recorded. According to this authority the census returns of Poles must be multiplied by five to arrive at a reasonable approximation. Whether this method of procedure can be relied on with reference to Poles in the aggregate it is impossible to say. The census returns for 1900 give a total of 687,671 persons one or both of whose parents were born in Poland. This would mean, according to Kruszka's method of calculation, a Polish population of more than 1,720,000 (first and second generations) in 1900. According to the figures of the Twelfth Census there were 209,030 male breadwinners whose parents were born in Poland; of these 183,055 were foreign-born and 25,975 were males of the second generation. Of this number nearly nine-tenths of the first generation and more than three-fourths of the second generation were engaged in other than agricultural pursuits. Next to the Italians the foreignborn Poles report a larger percentage (29.1) of general laborers than any other race group. The second generation enumerate a smaller percentage (15.7), but larger than the percentage of general laborers of the second generation of any other race. In agricultural pursuits 19,256 males of the first generation, more than one-tenth of all foreign-born Polish breadwinners, were reported; a Historya Polska W. Ameryce, Part I, Vol. I, Chapter IV. See Kruszka op. cit.-Kruszka estimates nearly 2,000,000, arriving at the statistics in various ways. about half of these were farmers and the remainder were agricultural laborers (4.3 per cent of all male breadwinners in the generation) or belonged to some other occupation group classified as agricultural. Of the second generation 6,236, or 24 per cent, were in agriculture; the percentage of farm laborers is relatively high (18.2 per cent), doubtless owing to the large number of Polish children between 10 and 21 years of age on farms of their parents who were enumerated as agricultural or farm laborers. The corresponding percentage of the first generation is 4.3. The number of farmers and other agriculturists of the second generation is 1,507 (5.8 per cent) as compared with 11,461 (6.3 per cent) of the first generation. These numbers seem small in the aggregate and multiplication by four would probably be short of the actual number on farms. The table following shows that only 6,236 Poles of the first generation and 658 of the second were engaged in agricultural pursuits in the seven States specified, although nearly 70 per cent of the first generation and 45 per cent of the second generation who were breadwinners were living in those States. TABLE 1.-White male breadwinners in the United States and certain specified States, having one or both parents born in Poland, by general occupations, 1900. [Compiled from United States Census Reports, 1900.] Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. Number. Per cent. A better presentation of the distribution of Poles in rural districts is made in the following table: TABLE 2.-Geographical distribution of male breadwinners, farmers, and agricultural laborers, of Polish parentage, by States specified, 1900. [Compiled from occupations of the First and Second Generations of Immigrants in the United States. Reports of the Immigration Commission, Vol. 28.] Number. distribu- Number. distribu- Number. distribu- Number. distribu A glance at the figures makes evident the concentration of Polish farmers and farm laborers in the North Central and prairie States. Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin reported 63.4 per cent of all Polish farmers of the first generation and approximately 60 per cent of the second generation in 1900. In the 10 States specified, of which New York is the only eastern representative, 90.7 per cent of the foreign-born Polish farmers and 55.7 of the agricultural laborers were found. The figures for the second generation are similar; 91.9 per cent of the farmers and 94.1 of the Polish agricultural laborers were reported in these States in 1900. The increase in the percentage of Polish farm laborers in the second generation is noticeable. In Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin the increase is from 19.2 per cent in the first to 63.5 per cent in the second generation. In part the increasing percentage is explained by the number of nativeborn Polish children less than 21 years of age who lived at home and were classified as farm laborers. This explanation is patent when it is recalled that Polish immigration in a large way began after 1870. But it is also true that large numbers of Polish boys 15 to 20 years of age find employment on farms, Polish or American, in the neighboring communities. American farmers living near Polish rural settlements in the West recruit most of their farm labor from the nativeborn Polish boys. Until 1900 few Poles of either generation remained farm laborers very long. Land was practically free, and the young man very soon entered on a homestead or claim or purchased wild land and set up a home. There are very few farm owners less than 25 years of age, and since a large percentage of the native-born rural Poles were less than 25 years old in 1900, census statistics can throw |