fifteen years; in his humble way did valiant service in his political club against the "boss" of New York during the last campaign. And yet he declares that we have no meats or vegetables with "the flavor or substance" of those in the old country; reproaches us severely for having "no place which is such a pleasure to see as Naples," and swears by "Torqua-ato Ta-ass" as the greatest of poets, though he only knows four lines of the Gerusalemme. Side by side over the fireplace in his living room are two unframed pictures tacked to the wall. Little paper flags of the two countries are crossed over each. One is a chromo of Garibaldi in his red shirt. The other is a newspaper supplement portrait of Lincoln.

A man like Giovanni Aloi, yearning for the home of his youth, sometimes goes back to Italy, but he soon returns. Unconsciously, in his very inmost being, he has become an American, and the prophecy of Bayard Taylor's great ode is fulfilled. Their tongue melts in ours. Their race unites to the strength of ours. For many thousands of them their Italy now lies by the western brine.

THE NEWER SLAVIC IMMIGRATION: SINCE 1880

EMILY GREENE BALCH

CHANGES IN COMPOSITION OF SLAVIĊ IMMIGRATION

WITH

WITH the coming of the eighties the original contingent of Bohemians and Poles began to be overlaid by a much larger volume of newcomers differing in various important respects from the old. In the first place, the later Slavic immigrants were largely of nationalities previously little represented in America. Since up to 1899 the American immigration data are classified only by "country of last permanent residence" and not by nationality, it is not possible to get any precise measure of this change in the make-up of the Slavic stream.

Neither can the beginning of the movement to America among the newer immigrant nationalities - Slovaks and Ruthenians, Slovenians and Croatians, Bulgarians, Serbians and Russians be dated in any hard and fast way. Apparently, as already said, the impulse spread from the Poles in Germany eastward to their brothers in Galicia in the latter part of the seventies, and to the Poles in Russia somewhat later. The Slovaks began to come in considerable numbers in the early eighties, and the Ruthenians at about the same time.

These three nationalities converge in the eastern Carpathian district, and more or less interpenetrate one another; and emigration to America having once started, it was natural that so contagious a movement should spread through the whole Carpathian group. Moreover, among all these peoples trade is largely in the hands of the Jews, who are apt to have international affiliations, and it seems often to have happened that

1 Discussion of the origin and spread of the emigration movement among the first four of these nationalities will be found in the appropriate chapters in Part I, of "Our Slavic Fellow-Citizens" but for convenience it is resumed here as a whole.

some enterprising Jew first among his fellow townspeople became aware of the land of promise across the Atlantic, explored and reported on it, and thus set the stream of immigration flowing.

The South Slavs began to come to America somewhat later. Though individual Slovenians came very early, as already mentioned, it was not till about 1892 that the movement became noticeably important among them. In the Croatian group, the Dalmatians, sailors and wanderers, had sent now and then an immigrant from very early times; but it was not till toward the middle of the nineties that Croatians, and especially Croatians from the country back of the coast, began coming in numbers. Serbians and Bulgarians are still more recent comers, numerous only since 1902 or so, but growing rapidly. As to Russians, of 66,000 in the last eleven years (1899 to 1909 inclusive), over nine tenths came after 1902 and over two thirds in the last three years.

CAUSES AND INDUSTRIAL CHARACTER

The grounds of the earlier immigration may be said to have been, roughly, the opportunity of acquiring farming land cheaply, if not gratuitously, and in a less degree the desire for the greater political and religious freedom promised by America. In the course of time both these grounds lost their importance. As the supply of desirable land to be had on easy terms diminished, this incentive to immigration grew weaker, and lessening political ' unrest in Western Europe allayed the other. On the other hand, the great industrial development of the United States, following after the Civil War, and especially after the hard times in the seventies, meant a great increase in the demand for labor. The Teutonic element of the older immigration, to which the Bohemian was very similar, was not looking primarily for wage jobs, but for independence, especially the independence of the farm owner. The same was largely true of the British immigrants, English, Welsh, and Scotch. Besides, neither belonged, in any sense, to the class of cheap labor. The Irish alone were not enough to supply the demand for "hands," and French-Canadians, while an important element in New England, have not been numerous elsewhere. Italians and Slavs, proving most available, were consequently called in to meet the want.

These newer groups of Slavic immigrants were mainly drawn from more primitive districts than the earlier groups, districts where the population was less in touch with Western Europe. They generally came, not intending to take up farms and settle, but hoping to earn money to send back to their homes, to which' they planned to return. To this end they sought the best-paid work that they could find in mines, foundries, factories, and elsewhere. A large proportion of both the old and the new comers were peasants, that is, small independent farmers; but among the new, the proportion of men possessing trades was less, and mere laborers were more numerous.

IMMIGRATION INDUCED BY EMPLOYERS

Historically, the American origin of the more recent immigration, so far as such a movement can have a specific origin, seems to have been the desire of certain Pennsylvania anthracite mine owners to replace the employes that they found hard to deal with, and especially the Irish, with cheaper and more docile material. Strikes were a frequent source of friction, the Molly Maguire affair had caused great bitterness, and it was natural that employers should be on the lookout for new sources of labor supply. In a number of places these raw recruits of industry seem to have been called in as the result of a strike, and there probably were plenty of instances of sending agents abroad to hire men or of otherwise inducing labor to immigrate either under contract or with an equivalent understanding. These proceedings were, of course, perfectly legal up to 1885, when the law forbidding the importation of labor under contract was passed.

One story is that the first comers were brought over for a certain mine operator at Drifton, Pennsylvania, through an "Austrian" foreman. I have never been able to verify the story nor to date it. I was interested to run across a Slovak hatter in Bartfield, Hungary, who emigrated about 1880, and told of having gone "to Drifton, where there was an Austrian foreman," who, however, does not appear to have had anything to do with his emigrating.1

1 Industrial Commission, Vol. XV (1901), page 32.

Mr. Powderly, formerly Commissioner of Immigration, testified before the Industrial Commission:

I believe in 1869, during a miners' strike which was then in prog ress, a man who was connected with one of the coal companies made the statement that in order to defeat the men in their demands it would be necessary to bring cheap labor from Europe, and shortly after that, miners were noticed coming to the anthracite region in large numbers from Italy, Hungary, Russia, and other far-off lands.

It will be seen that Mr. Powderly mentions a comparatively early date at which the importation of workmen under contract was in no way forbidden. But even then such a course, while legal, would have been unpopular among workingmen, and probably always more or less sub rosa. This may be one reason why it is very hard to get any definite information about these matters; but indeed, on both sides of the water, the doings of less than a generation ago are surprisingly hard to ascertain.

INFLUX INTO THE ANTHRACITE FIELDS

In Pennsylvania the great early goal appears to have been, as already indicated, the anthracite coal region of the eastern part of the state. The Poles seem to have been the first to come, and right on their heels came the Slovaks. An informant from Hazleton, a district where they appeared quite early, gave me, in 1904, the following account of their first arrival:

They began to come about twenty years ago; a few stray ones came earlier. Nowadays not so many are coming, but at one time they came in batches, shipped by the carload to the coal fields. When they arrived they seemed perfectly aimless. It was hard for them to make themselves understood, and they would be sent to a man who kept a saloon on Wyoming street. They would land at the depot, and at the beginning they would spend the first night on the platform. I have quartered many in my stable on the hay. One pulled out a prayer-book and read a prayer. They were mainly Catholics, but some were Protestants, though we did not know that till later. Sometimes they would go up into the brush and build a fire and sleep, or if it was too cold, just sit there on the ground. As soon as they had earned something, or if they had a little money, they would go to the baker's or get meat of any cheap sort, regardless of