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

of living may be summarized in the following tabular statement. The statistics relate to the housing accommodations of the kind and grade usually occupied by workingmen's families in the different countries.

The Board of Trade found that the predominant type of dwelling in the United States and in England and Wales was the four- or five-room house. The English house usually possesses, in addition, a scullery, or back kitchen. In the other European countries the houses, or in some instances flats, contained a smaller number of rooms, usually from two to three or from three to four. That is, the standard of housing was higher, on the average, in the United States and England than elsewhere. With this fact in mind, it becomes clear that a comparison of rental expenditures, for example, of the United States and France, would involve setting the rental value of a four-room house in the United States over against that of a three-room house or flat in France. Such a comparison would undoubtedly be proper and fair, but in the interest of caution rental values of the same grade of

1 Inasmuch as local rates, or taxes, in the United Kingdom are paid by the occupier of a house, they are included in the rentals here reported for the United Kingdom, but not for the other countries. The burden of taxation must in the last analysis fall on the renter, whether the tax is paid directly by him or by the owner; this being true, no deduction is made in this table of the tax paid by the British occupier.

2 Exclusive of London.

accommodation are here compared, regardless of standards of housing in the several countries.

The rental value of a three-room house or flat in the United States is higher than in any other country. In fact, with the exception of London, Paris and Berlin, the minimum value of such accommodation in the United States is higher than the maximum value of the same accommodation elsewhere. The same is true of four-room houses or flats, again excepting London. Data are not available for two-room accommodations..

The range of rents may be standardized by taking the median or halfway point as the type in each case. . . .

This table, while only approximate, shows clearly that rental values in the United States range considerably higher than in the several European countries under consideration.

[The examination of a table of prices of standard grades of commodities leads to the following conclusions.]

Comparative costs of living [page 66]. The comparison made by the Board of Trade of the cost of living in England and Wales with that in France shows that an English workingman transported to France would pay for the same standard of comfort about 18 per cent. more than he does in England. If coal be excluded, he would pay 11 per cent. more. Conversely, a French workingman would pay in Eng