contained 35.7 per cent. of all the gainful workers of foreign parentage and only 17.3 per cent. of those of native parentage. This difference may be logically connected with, and is doubtless partly due to the fact that in the Northern states, which contained the largest population of immigrants, manufacturing and mechanical pursuis are prominent, while the Southern states, in which the foreign element is of slight importance, are principally agricultural. It should be remembered, also, that manufacturing and mechanical pursuits include mining, an occupation which employs large numbers of foreigners and their children.

This concentration of the foreign element in particular localities and occupations greatly intensifies the evil effects of their competition with native laborers, and also with each other. If, however, the problem is regarded as less serious when it concerns the races which furnished the earlier immigration, the situation is somewhat improved, for even in 1900 two-thirds, or 67.2 per cent., of the total number of gainful workers of foreign parentage were of British or German extraction, 29.5 per cent. being of German, 21.7 per cent. of Irish and 16.0 per cent. of English parentage, including in the latter the English Canadians, Scotch and Welsh. Of the races which have furnished the recent immigration, moreover, the persons of Scandinavian parentage, including Norwegians, Swedes and Danes, and representing a thoroughly desirable element, constituted, in 1900, 7.8 per cent. of the total number of persons of foreign parentage, while the French

Canadians constituted only 3.1 per cent., the Italians 2.9 per cent., the Poles and Russians each 2.2 per cent., the Austrians 1.7 per cent., and the Bohemians 1.2 per cent. It should be stated, however, that the British and German elements were of much more importance in the second generation than in the first, constituting 79.5 per cent. of the workers of foreign parentage born in this country and only 56.1 per cent. of those born abroad.

(c) Wages and Unemployment: Although it is evident that immigration has had a demoralizing effect upon certain industries, it is impossible to prove statistically that the influx of foreigners has depressed the general level of wages or produced widespread unemployment. The close connection previously shown between the volume of immigration and the cycles of business prosperity and depression serves effectually to obscure any close relation that may exist between immigration and wages or unemployment, for these cycles have a greater influence than can be attributed to the competition of alien labor. At best the problem of separating immigration from the other causes affecting wages and unemployment, such as the introduction of machinery and division of labor, the competition of women and children, country work, and labor organization, is an extremely difficult one, especially as it is found that the alien standard of living usually exerts its greatest influence in precisely those occupations where other causes also tend to depress wages.

It may be safely stated, however, that the rise of wages during the past century has taken place in spite of the

lowering influence of immigration rather than because of the development resulting from the foreign contributions to the labor force of this country. At the present time "immigration and the tariff together prevent wages from rising with the rise in prices of commodities and cost of living. This permits profits to increase more than wages, to be followed by overproduction and stoppage of business. * * Thus it is that immigration, instead of increasing the production of wealth by a steady, healthful growth, joins with other causes to stimulate a feverish overproduction followed by a collapse.""

The chief force to be relied upon in counteracting the evil effects of the unequal competition between workmen who possess wholly different standards of life is the labor organization. First, in those trades in which skill is an important factor and in which machinery has had little influence, labor organizations have been able to practically force out the immigrant. Second, in the comparatively unskilled occupations "organization is the only means by which the immigrants themselves can rise to the standards of those whom they displace." In the very industries, however, in which the influence of the labor organizations is most needed, their formation and growth are most hindered by the multitude of disintegrating factors directly based on immigration, such as differences in race, education and religion. Moreover, the new immigrants "have largely come from despotic countries where or

1 Commons, "Social and Industrial Problems," Chautauquan, Vol. XXXIX, pp. 21-22.

ganization was put down by the military power and where violence is the accepted remedy for oppression."" Wherever labor organizations have been successfully maintained among foreigners, however, they have been important factors in effecting the assimilation of their members.

5. Special Problems: The special problems which are here to be discussed are four in number, illiteracy, the padrone system, the so-called "birds of passage," and Canadian immigration.

(a) Illiteracy: The ability to read and write is an important part of the equipment of the American laborer, and, though illiteracy is also a social question, it affects vitally the ability of foreigners to compete with native workmen and is, therefore, a part of the labor problem involved in immigration. According to the Twelfth Census 12.9 per cent. of the foreign whites were illiterate, as compared with only 5.7 per cent. of the native whites of native parentage, and an even smaller percentage, 1.6, of the native whites of foreign parentage. That this is not due to the superior education of the former immigrants is shown by the fact that in 1880 the percentage of illiteracy among the foreign whites was nearly as great as in 1900, or 12.0 per cent.

Clearly the children of illiterate immigrants have shown a very strong tendency, from one cause or another, to join the literate classes of this country. Upon the whole, then, it is obvious that illiteracy is only a tempo

1 Industrial Commission, XV, p. 313.

rary problem of immigration, and one which is practically solved in the second generation. So far as it is an evil in the first generation, however, it is now associated almost entirely with the immigrants from eastern Europe, for of all the aliens who came to the United States from the western European countries during the year ending June 30, 1903, only 3.9 per cent. were illiterate, the largest proportion of these being from northern Italy, while of those who came from the countries of eastern Europe, including the natives of southern Italy, 37.4 per cent. were illiterate.

(b) The Padrone System: The padrone system arose during the period of industrial recovery following the Civil War, when the pressing demand for labor induced a considerable amount of solicited immigration. It existed originally only among the Italians, but has recently been found among the Armenians, Turks and Greeks. In the early stages the padrone was the agent of the contractor or the manufacturer, and his business was to persuade his fellow countrymen to come to the United States under contract to his employer. His revenue was derived from commissions of various kinds, from the men for obtaining employment for them, for sending money back to Italy and for boarding them while in this country, from the manufacturer for obtaining laborers, and from the steamship company on their passage.

During the decade 1870 to 1880, however, when the system attained its greatest odium, the padrone acted upon his own initiative and was himself the employer. He