The Connecticut labor news., 1923-12-01
RESEARCH BUREAU BEGINS STUDY
 OF MIGRATION

By International Labor News Service New York, Dec. I.-1nvestigat1on of the industrial results of the move ments of great numbers of people from one country to another has been begun by the National Bureau of | Economic Research at the request of the National Research Council. The work will be done by Dr. Harry Jerome under the supervision of the Wesley C. Mitchell Outlining the bureaus purpose in undertaking this study, Dr. Mitchell said:
 l Since the National Bureau of Eco homie Research aims to aid all thoughtful men, however divergent their views of public safety, to base their discussions on objective knowl- edge as distinguished from subjec- tive opinion, 1t is keenly interested in the series of investigations into human migration, inaugurated by the National Research Council
 l There are few public questions on which men now differ more sharply than on the wisdom of maintaining, relaxing, or abolishing the present restrictions upon immigration into the United States.
 l "The Research Council, represent
 
 l country, holds that the national pol l icy should be shaped in the light of the best obtainable knowledge of the causes and effects of mass movements l of populations from one country to another.
 "To gain such knowledge 1t Is nec- essary to enlist the cooperation ot workers from several felds-biology, anthropology, sanitary science, psy- cho1ogy, economics and sociology. Accordingly, a committee of the council has been appointed to select qualified investigators and to secure such coordination of their work as IS necessary. But each group of lnves- tigators will define it's special prob lens, choose it's own methods of work, and publish it's results.
 This committee on sc1entlhc problems of human migration, under the cha1rmanship of Dr. Robert M. I Yerkes, has asked the National Btu reau of Economic Research to under take a study of te relation of mi grafton to the supply of labor.
 tiduch of the bureaus earlier work will throw light upon the problems ot migration The bearing of per capita hincome figures for various countries lis obvious. Our careful estimates of te population of the United States at the beginning and middle of each Iyear since 1900 afford better basis !. than the government figures for com putting the annual percentages of i'm migration and emigration.
 Upon the foundation laid in the bureau $. .work and the governments s records, Dr. chrome is building an inn Iporta11t superstructure. He believes 1 1t will be possible to throw light upon the way in which the varying supply of foreign labor has affected the ! growth of various industhries, and how it. has modified their industrial technique and organization.
 "There is a widespread belief that . the remarkable development of labor saving machinery during the last few : years has resulted largely from the , relative scarcity of cheap labor. Re cent critics. have pointed out that the connection between the price of labor and the extent to which machinery is used is far from simple. May It not be, however, that changes in the differences between the wages of the :" labor that makes machines and the labor that. uses machines are of great : economh cisignihcance?"