That the movement of these immigrants to these particular States was not unintelligent or an evidence of a desire for or a shiftless drift. toward slum concentration, but has proceeded on rational lines, is shown by the extraordinary industrial activity, progress, and wealth of these States over all others, and by the fact that in these States, the demand for labor was greatest and the wage rates the highest in the United States. With only 37 per cent of the population of the United States, these seven States in the census year 1900 produced 61 per cent of the manufactured and mining products of the United States. They employed 3,529,168 individuals in this production, or 59.85 per cent of the total wage-earners of the United States in those industries. The value of the agricultural products of the same States was nearly 25 per cent of the total of the United States, amounting to $1,170,114,388 out of a total of $4,717,069,973. The following table shows the population, value of manufactured, mining, and agricultural products, and number of wage-earners engaged in manufacturing and mining in each of the specified States and in the United States in 1900: POPULATION, VALUE OF MANUFACTURED, MINING, AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS, AND WAGE-EARNERS ENGAGED IN MANUFACTURING AND MINING IN SEVEN SPECIFIED STATES AND IN THE UNITED STATES, 1900. 1 Massachusetts.. Pennsylvania. Ohio. Total. in manufacturing. ing. (a) Other States.. United States (main- 75,994,575 13,010,036,514 5,314,539 796,826, 417 289,575 581,728 4,717,069,973 a From Special Reports of the Bureau of the Census: Mines and Quarries, 1902. That these States should have had 73.2 per cent of the total Italian, Slavic, and Hungarian immigrants in 1900, and in 1906 should have attracted 78.82 per cent of the immigrants of all races and 86.55 per cent of the Italian, Slavic, and Hungarian immigrants is not surprising in view of the industrial conditions in them. Before the immigrant can realize any return from his labor in the form of American wages, he must incur the following expense or indebtedness, for even if one or all costs are prepaid for him by relative, friend, or other person, he eventually pays them all by deductions from his wages or otherwise. 1.-Cost of preparation at his home in Europe for the journey. 4.-Cost of immigrant head tax to the United States Government. 5.-Cost of steamship transportation, European port to the United States. Omitting 1, 2, 6, and 8 in the above items and including only steamship and railroad tickets (head taxes are included in steamship tickets), a conservative estimate of the aggregate cost to the 470,534 common laborers in 1906 who went to the seven specified States was $19,053,324, and an estimate of similar expenditures for the 640,474 Italian, Slavic, and Hungarian immigrants to the seven States is $25,862,317.(a) With the investment of this amount, together with that of the labor they came to expend, these laborers began their work in the United States as aids in its industrial development. In the State of Pennsylvania in the census year 1900 there were 199,436 persons of the Slavic races, 47,393 Hungarians, and 66,655 Italians, a total of 313,484 for the three groups. Included in the Slavic group were 50,959 from Russia, mostly Hebrews, Russian Poles being tabulated separately. Of the total of 313,484 of the three races, 90,473, or 29 per cent, were living in Philadelphia and Pittsburg, the two great cities of the State, 63,580 in Philadelphia and 26,893 in Pittsburg, the remaining 71 per cent being distributed among the villages and towns of the State. Included in the total for Philadelphia were 28,951 Russians, principally Hebrews, who, unlike other nationalities included in the Slavic group, do not engage in the heavier manual labor occupations. In 1906, 97,495 of the immigrant Slavic group (including 16,685 Hebrews), 13,222 Hungarians, and 54,405 Italians, a total of 165,122 for the three groups, went to the State of Pennsylvania, with proportionate numbers for the intervening years since 1900. That this State should be the destination of such large numbers and that 71 per cent of them were distributed through the villages and towns outside of the two great cities of the State is explained by the State's industrial resources and conditions. Pennsylvania ranks first in value of mining products, which in 1902 was $236,871,417 out of a total of $796,826,417 for all the States and Territories. In manufactured products Pennsylvania was second with a value of $1,834,790,860 of a total of $13,010,036,514 for all States and a In estimating the cost of steamship transportation $36 was taken as the average steerage rate from European ports. The cost of railroad transportation was based on the railroad fare to a central point in each of the States specified. ITALIAN, SLAVIC, AND HUNGARIAN IMMIGRANTS. 413 Territories in 1900. In number of wageworkers in both mining and manufactured products Pennsylvania ranked first. In bituminous coal mining and coke production it ranks first, and in anthracite mining it stands alone. Its iron and steel industries rank next to mining. The nationality of the anthracite mine workers was secured in detail for the year 1905 by the bureau of industrial statistics of the State of Pennsylvania. In a total of 92,485 men employed by 116 companies out of a total of 140 the numbers were as follows: NUMBER AND PER CENT OF EACH NATIONALITY WORKING FOR 116 ANTHRACITE COMPANIES OF PENNSYLVANIA IN 1905. [Compiled from the Report of the Secretary of Internal Affairs of Pennsylvania for 1905: Part III, Industrial Statistics, pages 458 and 459.] In the bituminous coal-mining region of Pennsylvania 398 companies employing 55,583 men reported nationality in full detail as follows: NUMBER AND PER CENT OF EACH NATIONALITY WORKING FOR 398 BITUMINOUS COMPANIES OF PENNSYLVANIA IN 1905. [Compiled from the Report of the Secretary of Internal Affairs of Pennsylvania for 1905: Part III, Industrial Statistics, page 475.] It will thus be seen that the Slavic, Hungarian, and Italian races are numerically predominant in both the anthracite and bituminous coal fields of Pennsylvania. The Slavic races are also numerically strong in the iron and steel industries of Pennsylvania, while in the cotton, woolen, and textile industries their representation is small. One hundred and one iron and steel plants, employing 42,004 men of a total of 113,295 employees in the entire industry, report in 1905 that 20.9 per cent of their employees were Slavs, Hungarians, and Italians. Forty-two pig-iron plants, employing 8,665 men of a total of 16,747 in the entire industry, report that 6.4 per cent were Italians and 40.3 per cent were Slavs and Hungarians. Combining the employees in the anthracite, bituminous, pig iron, and iron and steel industries of Pennsylvania for 1905, the figures indicate that 41 per cent of all employees were of the Italian, Slavic, and Hungarian races, the Italians being, however, but 6 per cent of the total. In the woolen, cotton, and textile industries of Pennsylvania the Italians, Slavs, and Hungarians numbered but 1,211 in a total of 36,815 employees in 1905, or only 3.3 per cent of all. The thoroughness of Italian distribution in industrial occupations in another State is shown in a very complete manner. The bureau of statistics of Massachusetts, in its thirty-fourth annual report, published in March, 1904, reported the result of an exhaustive inquiry into the subject of "Race in Industry" in that State. It was found that the 10,956. Italians in Massachusetts, of whom 92.33 per cent were males and 7.67 per cent females, were represented in each of the 13 classes of production in the State and in 89 subdivisions of these classes. Of these Italians 34.33 per cent were in 58 different manufacturing industries; 34.52 per cent in 3 classes of production as laborers; 13.73 per cent engaged in 5 subdivisions of trade; 7.58 per cent in personal service; 2.06 per cent in 9 subdivisions of the professions; 1.88 per cent in 2 branches of domestic service; 1.83 per cent in 3 branches of transportation; 1.82 per cent in mining; 0.34 per cent in 3 branches of governmental service; 0.31 per cent engaged in agriculture; 0.15 per cent in the fisheries; 0.44 per cent apprentices, and 1.01 per cent children at work. DISTRIBUTION OF LABORERS BY THE EMPLOYMENT AND PADRONE AGENCIES OF NEW YORK CITY. A law regulating the keeping of employment agencies in cities was enacted by the legislature of the State of New York on April 27, 1904, and amended April 27, 1906. It provided that where fees are charged for procuring employment, such agencies are required to procure a license from the commissioner of licenses and to be under his supervision. To conduct such an agency without a license subjects the offender to a fine or imprisonment or both. A bond is also required of each agency, and a laborer or other person who has been deceived by the employment agency or padrone, or from whom money has been extorted by such agency, may maintain an action upon the bond if a judgment of a court remains unsatisfied. The law governing the agencies permits them to charge unskilled orkers a fee of 10 per cent of the first month's wages, so that a laborer earning $40 the first month, under the law, may be required to pay to the agency $4 fee. The agency fees are $2 each as a rule, and in the case of some padrones no fee is charged, provided the employer gives the padrone the commissary privilege of selling food supplies and articles of clothing to the workmen at the labor camps or other places. If the workman refuses to accept the position to which he is sent, or does not obtain employment, the agency is required to refund the fee in full upon demand. When the licensed employ: ment agency or padrone sends one or more persons to work as laborers outside of the city where the agency is located, the law requires such agency within five days thereafter to file with the commissioner of licenses a statement containing the name and address of the employer of such laborers, the name and address of the employee, the nature of the work to be performed, hours of labor, wages offered, destination of the persons employed, and terms of transportation. A duplicate copy of this statement must be given to the laborer in a language which he is able to understand. After the passage of the law some of the employment agencies filed with the commissioner of licenses of the city of New York the statement required, but many of them did not. It was not until after the passage of the amended act in April, 1906, that the law on this point was enforced, and that the licensed agencies reported the number of persons shipped out of the city, with other details. In August, 1906, 61 licensed agencies shipping laborers out of the city were reporting in detail to the license commissioner. As the license fee is $25 per annum and the bond required is in the sum of $1,000, there are persons who evade the law and who secretly engage in the business of sending out laborers without taking out the license. Quite often, too, such persons are swindlers, who take the fee and have no employment to furnish the laborers. It can be stated, however, that such agencies are of little importance and can send out comparatively few men without the knowledge of the bureau of licenses. A complete year of the enforcement of the law will probably show shipments out of New York City by the licensed agencies of from 50,000 to 60,000 men. Through the courtesy of the commissioner of licenses, the writer was given access to the individual statements of each shipment of each labor agency reporting up to the month of August, 1906. The distribution of immigrants by the licensed New York labor agencies and by societies for the protection of immigrants of the various nationalities is, in a sense, a redistribution. At Ellis Island immigrants having tickets for and destined to the various States are so reported. Immigrants having tickets for New York City and giving that as their destination are sent from Ellis Island and landed at Battery 16251-08 -2 |