The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1913-01-04
IMMIGRATION
AND LABOR

In his book on Immigration and La
bor," DR.. Houtwich treats the problems
purely as an economist and with accu-
rate data to support all his statements.
In the Summary Review, with which
his book opens, DR.. Hourwich outlines
what he demonstrates in the remainder
Of the volume. Many of the facts will
be surprising to the reader. 1t is not
generally known, for example, that there
was as much opposition to the immigra-
ton of the early part of the nineteenth
century as there is to that of today; nor
that the immigrants, then coming from
Great Britain and Ireland, were not con-
sidered either financially or otherwise
more desirable than those coming at the
present time from Southern and Eastern
Europe.
The close relationship between indus
trial prosperity and high immigration,
and between industrial depression and
reduced immigration has often been not
ed. But it remained for Or. Hourwich
to point out the very simple fact which
explains this relationship. The immi-
grant comes upon the invitation of his
relative already here. When times are
good this invitation is freely extended.
When times are bad not only is it with
held, but on the contrary, every reason
is shown why this country is, at such a
time, not a desirable place.
The absence of relationship between
immigration and unemployment is also
shown Nothing can be clearer than DR..
Hourwichs demonstration that in the
absence of immigrant labor the oppor-
tunity for employment would be curtail-
ed, and, to the extent that employment
exists, the unskilled work would be done
by native labor but only at the price
that unskilled work is worth.
1t will probably be new to most read
ers to learn that the average number of
days of employment for wage arners
declines as immigration declines and
increases as immigration increases. And
he states the law of relationship in this
concise fashion: Those economic forces
which produce business expansion re-
duce unemployment and attract immi-
grafton; those which produce business
depression increase unemployment and
reduce immigration.
An interesting contrast is shown in
the effect OF the introduction of mach
inery upon industrial and upon farm
labor respectively. The introduction of
machinery in the factory has tended to
displace the small proprietor and Sub
Stitute the wage Garner; whereas on the
farm it has had precisely the reverse
effect, since the proprietor is apre To
dispense with the wage -earner by the
introduction of mechanical device.
Under these circumstances, and in view
Of the disappearance of free homestead
land, it is not surprising that the immi-
tn tho nitv rot HOY 70 ba
country and it is a fact that there is an
insistent industrial demand from the city
and strong tendency to draw native
American labor away from the farm to
engage in manufacturing in the city-a
tendency checked only by the immigrants.
The disappearance of native born wo-
men from mills and factories is shown
20 be due not TO social prejudice
against working with an immigrant, but
Ia, the fact that so many new vccupa,
tr-ns have opened for women, that for
every native woman of American parent
age who left the mill or clothing factory,
forty women of the same nativity have
found new openings in other directions;
and the increase in the number of native
American women in professions is nearly
five times as great as the decrease in
the number of native American factory
girls.
In considering the racial changes in the
bulk OF our immigration, We nave been
apt to be unmndful of the fact that Ger
many Sweden and Denmark have be-
come countries of immigration, that their
own labor supply is found to be INSULT
rient for their requirements, and that
necessarily, since they call for men from
pther lands to help them do their work,