own country, the foreign governments are willing to encourage their going. In fact, about 40 per cent. of the new emigrants from southern and eastern Europe do return to their home country after a short period of residence in the United States, and some 30 per cent. of all those coming to this country return home to make their permanent investments and remain.

Effect Upon the United States of the Return to Europe of the Immigrant

It can hardly be said that taken by itself the sending back to the old country of the savings of the immigrant is directly an injury to the United States. Speaking broadly, for every dollar sent more than a dollar's worth of productive labor has been expended here. The worker has fully earned his dollar. On the other hand, if that dollar, instead of being invested in his home country, were invested in the United States the benefit would be greater. America should have the productive influence of not only the labor but also of the capital made from the savings; and, furthermore, this country and not the home country would be deriving in the years to come the benefit of the added experience, improved skill and stimulated spirit of enterprise of the immigrant. While, therefore, we may not properly oppose the return of the immigrant, we may well offer inducements to change his mental attitude so that he will prefer to make his investments and his permanent residence here. Again, if the process of selection is practicable, we may well select those immigrants whose intention it is permanently to identify themselves with their adopted country, rather than those whose residence is but temporary.

But the question of the transfer of unskilled labor from Europe to America must be considered, not only from the point of view of the country of emigration, but likewise from that of immigration. Our papers frequently discuss the need of a cheap labor supply to build our railroads, dig our canals, till our fields and perform the manifold other kinds of work which call for unskilled labor. This demand for a large supply of unskilled labor had doubtless justification in the days when the first Pacific railroads were building, and when the country was recovering from the shock of the Civil War, and the consequent loss of a considerable percentage of its labor supply. But is the demand as insistent to-day?

How Far Does America Need a Cheap Labor Supply?

Before one can express any definite opinion on the subject, it is necessary to inquire who it is that is asserting the need of an increased supply of labor, and, still further, What constitutes a real demand for labor? The suggestion of a scant labor supply has come primarily from the employers of labor and those closely associated with them, especially perhaps from the great corporations and contractors who need thousands of unskilled laborers for work in mines or in large manufacturing plants or in public improvements. At certain seasons of the year also the demand comes from farmers who wish to harvest their crops, and who would be glad to pay a considerable extra wage, for the sake of securing this temporary labor, which can be used a week or a few weeks at will and then discharged without thought of its future.

But what constitutes a real demand for labor? Is it

a demand for more hands at lower than the prevailing rates, so that the manufacturer may reap a larger profit? That has seemed to be the judgment of some of those at any rate who have been attempting to import labor for work on farms, and perhaps also of certain large employers who, while not directly importing labor, have been willing to encourage the coming of many laborers with the thought that they could furnish these work, temporarily at least, at low wages.

What is the True Demand for Labor?

But we can hardly speak of a proper demand for labor unless we mean a demand at wages certainly not less than the prevailing rates, with the conditions of labor not less good than those now obtaining. In very many instances the labor supply in any locality would be found to be elastic, provided the employer were willing to increase his wages but slightly or to improve the conditions under which his laborers work.

The attitude of the wage-earners and of the immigrant is, of course, different. The more intelligent of the wage-earners naturally prefer a demand for labor, which means a demand at something more than existing rates, or under conditions better than those prevailing. The immigrant unfamiliar with American conditions, often not even understanding the language in which he must make his contract, and ignorant of the working methods which are new to him, while naturally preferring the best that he can get, is often willing to work under conditions and at wages which would not appeal to American working men, but which to him seem ample and satisfactory because they are

so much better than he has ever known before. Moreover, when the wage-earner is one unfamiliar, as are most immigrants, with American conditions, he is likely to be eager, perhaps too eager, to secure work at almost any wage above that affording a mere subsistence. Usually he is not in touch with the American working man or with trade-unions, and does not know what he could do by proper effort. He is not a member of their trade-organization, and can not bargain through officials who know the conditions. Moreover, if he is one who is expecting as soon as possible to return to his home country with his savings, what he dreads most of all is lack of work, and he is willing to take low wages and bad working conditions, rather than to be idle even for a short time and see any of his savings disappear.

Immediate Inducement of Immigration

In the large majority of cases, doubtless, the immediate inducement to the emigrants to leave home and sail for America comes in the form of a personal letter from friends or members of their own families already in the United States. It is thus that they learn of the much higher wages and the better living conditions; and usually they are practically sure of a job almost as soon as they arrive, at wages which seem to them more than satisfactory.

Such letters are, of course, of great interest in a country village. Often they are by no means kept in the family, but pass from hand to hand till a large proportion of the villagers have seen them, and in consequence have felt the lure of the new and prosperous

land. On the other hand, the influence of industrial depression in the United States is in the same manner felt almost as quickly, and the tide of emigration recedes.

THE RETURNED IMMIGRANT

In large sections of Italy, Sicily, and Austria-Hungary, in almost every village, will be found some of the returned emigrants who, after a few years of prosperous work in the United States, have returned with means which seem to the uncultured peasant ample, and with a social status much improved, whose living example is perhaps a stronger influence toward leading his neighbors to emigrate to the United States than any letter, tho it is perhaps not so frequently a moving cause.

STEAMSHIP AND RAILWAY COMPANIES

The great companies who derive an income from the transportation of emigrants, naturally, as far as possible, advertise their business throughout the countries from which most emigrants come. Altho under the laws of most countries they can not enlarge at length upon the prosperous conditions of the new country, or upon the comforts and delights of travel, but must merely make announcement of their sailings and accommodations and prices, nevertheless the agents of these companies by the hundreds do invade the country districts, especially of southern Europe, and by skilful argument, and even perhaps by enthusiastic descriptions of the delights and comforts and satisfactions of a home life in America, stimulate many more to come than otherwise would be possible. These agents, doubtless, at times deliberately misrepresent conditions