312

EFFECT OF THE EMPLOYMENT OF RECENT IMMIGRANTS UPON WORKING RELATIONS

As has already been pointed out, there has been a sharp segregation of the native and older immigrant employees into distinct occupations in the mines and manufacturing establishments growing out of the employment of southern and eastern Europeans. This segregation also obtains, as already noted, in the case of living and business relations. The general attitude of the nativeborn industrial workers toward the recent immigrant is one of antipathy and superiority, but this attitude does not manifest itself except under special provocation. Normally the recent immigrant in the mines and manufacturing establishments is treated with indifference by the classes of older employees who are not directly associated with him. Practically the only cases of open hostility on the part of the native Americans and older immigrants from Great Britain and northern Europe toward the southern and eastern European, met with during the course of the general industrial study, arose from the unusual pressure of competition due to the curtailment of employment during the industrial depression of 1907-1908. During that period the tendency of the recent immigrant to concentrae in localities where employment was available and to accept a normal working conditions often led to acts of hostility or coercion. upon the part of the native American and older immigrant wage-e-ners.

OF RECENT IMMIGRANTS UPON
EFFECT OF THE EMPLOYMENT
WAGES AND HO
RS OF WORK

It has not appeared in the indu ries covered by this investi-
gation of manufactures and mining at it is usual for employers
to engage immigrants at wages actual, lower than those prevail-
ing at the time in the industry where hey are employed, what-
ever the ultimate tendency of the largimmigration may be. It
is hardly open to doubt, however, that t.
availability of the large
supply of recent immigrant labor prevent the increase in wages
which otherwise would have resulted duri

recent

years

from the

increased demand for labor. The low standards of the southern and eastern European, his ready acceptance of a low wage and existing working conditions, his lack of permanent interest in the occupation and community in which he has been employed, his attitude toward labor organizations, his slow progress toward assimilation, and his willingness seemingly to accept indefinitely without protest certain wages and conditions of employment, have rendered it extremely difficult for the older classes of employees to secure improvements in conditions or advancement in wages since the arrival in considerable numbers of southern and eastern European wage-earners. As a general proposition, it may be said that all improvement in conditions and increases in rates of pay have been secured in spite of the presence of the recent immigrant. The recent immigrant, in other words, has not actively opposed the movements toward better conditions of employment and higher wages, but his availability and his general characteristics and attitude have constituted a passive opposition which has been most effective.

EFFECT OF THE EMPLOYMENT OF RECENT IMMIGRANTS UPON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF NEW INDUSTRIES

The extensive employment of recent immigrant labor has not resulted in the establishment of new industries of any importance. As a result of the presence of southern and eastern European immigrants in American industrial communities small and unimportant industries have been established to supply the peculiar demands of the immigrant population in food products and similar articles. Very few of the recent arrivals, however, had any training abroad which qualified them for manufacturing or mining pursuits of any description. By way of contrast, it will be recalled that a large proportion of the earlier immigrant laborers were originally induced to come to this country to contribute their skill and experience toward the establishment of new industries, such as mining and textile, glass, and iron and steel manufacturing, or after these industries had been developed in the United States, English, Irish, Scotch, German, and Scandinavian wage-earners

employed in similar work abroad immigrated to this country in search of better wages and working conditions.

On the other hand, the presence of the recent immigrant wage-earner and his household has had a pronounced effect upon the distribution of certain industries. Cigar and tobacco factories, silk mills, and men's and women's clothing manufacturing establishments and other small industries have been located in iron and steel, anthracite coal mining, and other localities, developed in connection with some of the principal industries of the country. The reason for this policy has been the availability of cheap woman and child labor of the immigrant households the heads of which were employed in the steel mills or furnaces, the coal mines, or some other basic industry. One of the best illustrations of this tendency is seen in the localization of the silk industry in the anthracite coal-producing area of Pennsylvania. The erection and operation of large cigar and tobacco factories in localities in which the primary industry consists in the manufacture of iron and steel also furnishes another example of the same tendency.

25. THE ANNUAL EARNINGS OF IMMIGRANT FAMILIES

PER CENT OF FAMILIES HAVING A TOTAL YEARLY INCOME OF EACH SPECIFIED AMOUNT (APPROXIMATE), BY GENERAL NATIVITY AND RACE OF HEAD OF FAMILY

[This table includes only races with twenty or more families reporting. The totals, however, are for all races. Twenty-two families are included which report income as "none."]

OLD AND NEW IMMIGRATION COMPARED WITH RESPECT TO AVERAGE ANNUAL FAMILY INCOME OF THE FOREIGN-BORN,

Upon comparing the yearly incomes of the two classes of immigrants, it is seen that the highest average shown by any race of recent immigration is below the lowest average shown by any race of past immigration.

[The preceding table is from the United States Immigration Commission, Summary Report on Immigrants in Manufacturing and Mining (61st Congress, 2d Session, Sen. Doc. No. 633), pp. 125–127. A total of 17,141 households, the heads of which were miners or wage-earners in manufacturing establishments, were studied in detail in the course of the general investigation of immigrants in industries in the territory between the Rocky Mountains and the Atlantic seaboard. These households were selected upon the following basis: (1) A certain maximum number was allotted to each industry studied; (2) the number of the households of each recent immigrant race studied in connection with each industry was apportioned according to the relative numerical importance of the several races in the operating force, and a limited number of households the heads of which were native Americans or older immigrants without reference to the number of such employees in the industry were secured for the purpose of comparison with the households the heads of which were wage-earners of recent immigration.]