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

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 wageearners 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.

WAGES AND COST OF LIVING

[IN "A comparative study of railway wages and the cost of living," etc. (Bulletin 34 of the Bureau of Railway Economics, Washington, D. C., June, 1912, L. G. McPherson, Director; F. H. Dixon, Chief Statistician), summaries are made of various official reports on the subject, including the recent report of the British Board of Trade. The following are the main conclusions, conveniently summarized by the Bureau (p. 5):]

Railway wages. Information is not obtainable upon which can be based a comprehensive statement of railway wages being paid at this time in the different countries. Therefore it is necessary to make comparisons for the latest year for which comparable data are available.

The average daily compensation of railway employees of all classes for the year 1910 was in the United States, $2,23; in the United Kingdom, $1.05; excluding supplementary allowances negligibly affecting the average, it was in PrussiaHesse 81 cents, and in Austria 89 cents. The lowest paid railway employee in the United States, the ordinary trackman, receives a greater compensation than many of the railway employees of France, even those of higher grades and with responsible duties. The compensation of railway employees is from two to three times as high in the United States as in Italy.

A recent report of the Board of Trade on railway wages shows that the average weekly pay of enginemen in the United Kingdom in 1907 was $11.17; of firemen, $6.67. In the same year enginemen on American railways received an average weekly compensation of $25.80, counting six days to the week, and firemen $15.24. Recent returns make it clear that in 1912 enginemen and firemen in the United States are compensated

at rates of pay for specific runs that are two, three and four times as high as the corresponding rates on representative English railways. The annual compensation of enginemen in the United States, as reported by two representative railway companies, now ranges from $1,100 in switching service to over $2,800 in passenger service, and of firemen from $700 in switching service to over $1,700 in passenger service.

For Continental Europe official returns in requisite detail are not available for a later year than 1908. The salaries and allowances of the typical engineman in Germany amounted for that year to $646.88, in Austria to $870.80; of a fireman in Germany to $424.59, in Austria to $532.03. The annual compensation of enginemen on two of the principal railways of France ranged in 1908 from $505.66 to $906.91, and of firemen from $324.24 to $595.98. In Italy enginemen received in 1908, salary and allowances included, from $581,10 to $812.70 a year; firemen, from $330.30 to $475.05 a year. In these Continental countries the maximum compensation is received only after many years of service.

The average annual compensation of enginemen in the United States in 1908, on an estimated basis of 300 days' service, was $1,335; of firemen, $792. In this country the rate of compensation to these employees does not depend on length of service.

In Belgium enginemen received in 1907 from $23.16 to $38.60 a month; firemen, from $17.37 to $23.16 a month; conductors and station employees, from 46 cents to 96 cents a day. In the United States, in the same year 1907, enginemen averaged, on the basis of 25 days' service, $107.50 a month; firemen, $63.50 a month; conductors, $3.69 a day; station employees, from $1.78 to $2.05 a day.

An accurate wage comparison must take into account relative cost of living, and this has been done, so far as ascertainable data permits.

Rents [page 60]. The material regarding rents gathered by the British Board of Trade in its investigations into cost