Perth Amboy evening news., 1905-11-08
Immigration
AND The WAGES.
An Interesting Article on the
New Corners to This
Country.

of the immense influx of workingmen
in preventing an increase of wages
to workingmen in the United States.
The article in part is as follows:
There are two ways in which the
immigrant injuriously affects the con-
ditions of labor. First, by injecting
into the labor market a greater
amount of labor than that for which
there is at the time a remunerative
demand, and secondly, by a willing
ness, at least temporary, to accept a
lower wage than that to which the
resident worker has been accustom-
ed. Even without the last factor, the
mere rapid increase of the labor force
would tend TO depress wages. 1t needs
no adherence to the old wage fund
theory to be convinced that a surplus
labor force lowers the rate of wages.
1t is true that the new immigrants,
TO the extent to which they are en-
ployed without displacing others, in
troduce a new demand for commodi-
ties and an increased demand for la
Dor, but the increase is not so great
as the increased supply of labor; lot
so great, in other words, as the pro-
portion which they, the immigrants,
bear to the already resident working
population. If they did not work for
lower wages than the resident work
ingmen, but completed on absolutely
equal and fair terms, the effect would
be that a very much larger proper
tion would Starve, or would sicken
and die of mal-nutrition, overcrowd-
ing and preventable disease, than at
the present time. The fact that by
means of their lower standard of liv-
ing they succeed in displacing resi-
dent workers obscures the extent to
which their advent means a wide
spread unemployment, but does not
affect the fundamental facts of the
case.
The unemployment which exists in
our present day society results large
ly from our methods of production
and distribution, and would to a on
siderable extent exist without any i'm
migration at all, but it is immensely
and accurately aggravated by the fact
of this immigration. Some of the UNI
employment is due to the purely sea-
sonal character of the work, and to
the fact taht it is physically impossi-
BILE to spread the work over the year.
In many trades, however, such as
coal mining, the sewing trades, etc,
apart from other factors, the main
cause of the seasonal employment Is
the readiness with which a supply of
labor car be secured at any time. ut
is cheaper to store men than COAL"
was practically the testimony of the
anthracite coal operators, and the
fact that the manufacturers of ready
made clothing can at any time secure
unlimited quantities of low-priced
immigrant labor operates quite as eff
fectively as the rapid change in styles
to produce the long hours of labor,
the unsteady employment, and the
generally evil conditions in the
sweated garment trades.
The wave of immigration sweeping
over the boundaries of the United
States retards the advance of wages
in good times and hastens the lower
ing of wages in bad times. The law
against the Importation of contract
labor, even if it could be enforced,
would be ludicrously inadequate to
meet the situation that arises when
an increase of wages in the United
States calls from the farms of Eur
ope a million of people a year. The
fact that large employers can secure
an unlimited supply of cheap labor
ever in good times, and, consequent
ly, an unduly large share of the bene-
fits of prosperity, enables them to ex-
tend their production more rapidly
than they would normally do, with
the result that the period of prosper
ity is shortened and the period of de-
preston fastened and heightened.
This enormous o%versupply Of labor,
by one of the striking contradictions
of modern industrial life, leads to
the lengthening of the worrying day.
or, rather, to state it more exactly
prevents the progressive shortening
of the working day from proceeding
as rapidly as it would otherwise. The
more men there are to compete for a
job the longer each will be willing
to work. and the greater, in conse-
quence, the competition for the next
job.
Moreover, this enormous supply of
cheap labor retards the development
of machinery by rendering it less i'm
perative to the employer to save la
Dor. We commonly fail to realize the
eormous mechanical progress which
could be made if. by limitation of the
labor force, we were able to raise
wages. Finally, the enormous sue
ton of labor from Europe, by main
tanning wages at a low level, tends to
aggravate the present inequalities of
wealth and to extend and intensity <
the commercial ~depressions and cries.
The Unrestricted immigration into
the United States has the effect of re-
wages or preventing an fin
in wages, both by increasing
the number of competitors fof the