Furthermore, the fact that recent immigrants are usually of non-English-speaking races, and their high degree of illiteracy, have made their absorption by the labor organizations very slow and expensive. In many cases, too, the conscious policy of the employers of mixing the races in different departments and divisions of labor, in order, by a diversity of tongues, to prevent concerted action on the part of employees, has made unionization of the immigrant almost impossible.

The significant result of the whole situation has been that the influx of the southern and eastern Europeans has been too rapid to permit of their absorption by the labor organizations which were in existence before their arrival. In some industries the influence and power of the labor unions are concerned only with those occupations in which the competition of the southern and eastern European has been only indirectly or remotely felt, and consequently the labor organizations have not been very seriously affected. In the occupations and industries in which the pressure of the competition of the recent immigrant has been directly felt, either because the nature of the work was such as to permit of the immediate employment of the immigrant or through the invention of improved machinery his employment was made possible in occupations which formerly required training and apprenticeship, the labor organizations have been, in a great many cases, completely overwhelmed and disrupted. In other industries and occupations in which the elements of skilled training and experience were requisite, such as in certain divisions of the glass-manufacturing industry, the effect of the employment of recent immigrants upon labor organizations has not been followed by such injurious results.

Racial displacement. Competition of the southern and eastern European has led to a voluntary or involuntary displacement, in certain occupations and industries, of the native American and of the older immigrant employees from Great Britain and northern Europe. These racial displacements have manifested themselves in three ways:

(a)   A large proportion of native Americans and older immigrant employees from Great Britain and northern Europe have left certain industries, such as bituminous and anthracite coal mining and iron and steel manufacturing.

(b)   A part of the earlier employees who remained in the industries in which they were employed before the advent of the southern and eastern European, have been able, because of the demand growing out of the general industrial expansion, to rise to more skilled and responsible executive and technical positions which required employees of training and experience. In the larger number of cases, however, where the older employees remained in a certain industry after the pressure of the competition of the recent immigrant had begun to be felt, they relinquished their former positions and segregated themselves in certain other occupations. This tendency is best illustrated by the distribution of employees according to race in bituminous coal mines. In this industry all the so-called "company" occupations, which are paid on the basis of a daily, weekly, or monthly rate, are filled by native Americans or older immigrants and their children, while the southern and eastern Europeans are confined to pick mining and the unskilled and common labor. The same situation exists in other branches of manufacturing enterprise. A stigma has become attached to the working in the same occupations as the southern and eastern European so that, in some cases, as in the bituminous coal mining industry, the older class of employees segregate in occupations which, from the standpoint of compensation, are less desirable than those occupied by recent immigrants. In most industries the native American and older immigrant workmen who have remained in the same occupations in which the recent immigrants are predominant are the thriftless, unprogressive elements of the original operating forces.

Another striking feature of the competition of southern and eastern Europeans is the fact that in the case of most industries, such as iron and steel, textile and glass manufacturing, and the different forms of mining, the children of native Americans and of the older immigrants from Great Britain and northern Europe are not entering the industries in which their fathers have been employed. All classes of manufacturers claim that they are unable to secure a sufficient number of native-born employees to insure the development of the necessary number of workmen to fill the positions of skill and responsibility in their establishments. This condition of affairs is attributed to three factors: (1) General or technical education has enabled a considerable number of the children of industrial workers to command business, professional or technical occupations apparently more desirable than those of their fathers. (2) The conditions of work which have resulted from the employment of recent immigrants have rendered certain industrial occupations unattractive to the wage-earner of native birth. (3) Occupations other than those in which southern and eastern Europeans are engaged are sought for the reason that popular opinion attaches to them a more satisfactory social status and a higher degree of respectability. Whatever may be the cause of this aversion of older employees to working by the side of the new arrivals, the existence of the feeling has been crystallized into one of the most potent causes of racial substitution in manufacturing and mining occupations.

Effects upon wages and hours of work. . . . There is no evidence to show that the employment of southern and eastern European wage-earners has caused a direct lowering of i wages or an extension in the hours of work in mines and industrial establishments. It is undoubtedly true that the availability of the large supply of recent immigrant labor prevented the increase in wages which otherwise would have resulted during recent years from the increased demand for labor. ... As a general proposition, it may be said that all improvements in conditions and increases in rates of pay have been secured in spite of their presence. 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.

General conclusions. (1) The influx of recent immigrants has, by affording an adequate labor supply, made possible the remarkable expansion in mining and manufacturing in the United States during the past thirty years.

(2)   The extensive employment of southern and eastern Europeans has seriously affected the native Americans and older immigrant employees from Great Britain and northern Europe by causing displacements and by retarding advancement in rates of pay and improvements in conditions of employment.

(3)   Industrial efficiency among the recent immigrant wage-earners has been very slowly developed, owing to their illiteracy and inability to speak English.

(4)   For these same reasons the general progress toward assimilation and the attainment of American standards of work and living has also been very slow.

(5)   The conclusion of greatest significance developed by the general industrial investigation of the United States Immigration Commission is that the point of complete saturation has already been reached in the employment of recent immigrants in mining and manufacturing establishments. Owing to the rapid expansion in industry which has taken place during the past thirty years, and the constantly increasing employment of southern and eastern Europeans, it has been impossible to assimilate the newcomers, politically or socially, or to educate them to American standards of compensation, efficiency or conditions of employment.

(6) Too much emphasis, in the discussion of immigration within recent years, has been placed upon the social and political results of recent immigration vastly important as they are. The problem at present is really fundamentally an industrial one, and should be principally considered in its economic aspects.