Problems in American Democracy Part 32

12. What are the chief objections to social insurance? (Ely, pages 593-594.)

TOPICS FOR INVESTIGATION AND REPORT

1. The extent of child labor in your state.

2. Control of child labor by the laws of your state.

3. The difficulties of enacting child labor legislation to cover the employment of children in agriculture. Interview some one familiar with farming conditions for data on this topic.

4. Relation of child labor to the administration of the school attendance laws in your community.

5. Extent to which women are employed in industrial establishments in your community or state.

6. Interview a friendly employer on the relative desirability of men and women employees.

7. The status of the minimum wage in your state.

8. Social insurance in your state.

9. Interview the officials of a trade union concerning the payment of sickness insurance by the union.

10. The emergency treatment of injured workmen in a near-by mill or factory. Compare this treatment with the treatment outlined in the references which are appended to Topic 21.

II.

11. Causes of child labor. (Mangold, _Problems of Child Welfare,_ part iv, chapter i.)

12. Effects of child labor. (Mangold, _Problems of Child Welfare,_ part iv, chapter iii.)

13. Women in industry. (Select some phase of this problem for report.

Consult Butler, _Women and the Trades;_ MacLean, _Women _Workers and Society_; Kelley, _Some Ethical Gains through Legislation; Annals,_ vol. lxv; Abbot, _Women in Industry,_ and similar works.)

14. Relation of home conditions to industrial efficiency. (_Annals,_ vol. lxv, pages 277-288.)

15. Industrial efficiency of women compared with that of men. (Lee, _The Human Machine and Industrial Efficiency,_ chapter x.)

16. Housing the unskilled worker. (Wood, The _Housing of the Unskilled Wage-earner._)

17. Work of the National Housing a.s.sociation. (Write to the a.s.sociation office in Was.h.i.+ngton, D. C., for descriptive literature.)

18. Summary of Irving Fisher's report on national vitality. (_Bulletin of the Committee of One Hundred on National Health,_ etc., prepared for the National Conservation Commission, by Irving Fisher, Was.h.i.+ngton, 1909.)

19. Preventable diseases. (Hutchinson, _Preventable Diseases._)

20. Occupational diseases. (Oliver, _Diseases of Occupation._)

21. How to act in case of an accident. (Gulick, _Emergencies; Tolman, Hygiene for the Worker,_ chapter xvi.)

22. The right to leisure time. (Kelley, _Some Ethical Gains through Legislation,_ chapters in and iv.)

23. Legal status of workmen's compensation. (_Annals_, vol. x.x.xviii, No. i, pages 117-168.)

24. Health insurance. (Rubinow, _Standards of Health Insurance_, chapters iii and iv.)

25. The police power. (Guitteau, _Government and Politics in the United States_, chapter xii.)

FOR CLa.s.sROOM DISCUSSION

26. The minimum wage for men.

27. Should old age and sickness insurance be made a feature of the social insurance program of your state?

28. Should pensions be paid out of public funds to mothers having dependent children?

29. Should labor legislation be enacted primarily by the Federal or by the state governments?

CHAPTER XX

IMMIGRATION AND a.s.sIMILATION

215. RACIAL ELEMENTS IN OUR POPULATION.--The Federal census of 1920 gave the population of continental United States as 105,710,620.

Approximately nine tenths of this population is white, while about one tenth is negro. Those who are neither white nor negro, namely, American Indians and Asiatics, together const.i.tute less than one half of one per cent of the population.

The great majority of our people are either European immigrants, or the descendants of European immigrants who came to this country within the last century and a half. With reference to European immigration we distinguish three groups: the foreign-born, the native-born children of the foreign-born, and natives. Natives include those whose ancestors have been in this country two or more generations. On the basis of this cla.s.sification, about one seventh of our population is foreign-born while over one third is either foreign-born or the native-born children of foreign-born parents.

The ease with which immigrants have adapted themselves to American life prevents any accurate cla.s.sification of nationalities in our population, but probably Great Britain and Ireland, Germany, Italy, Russia, (including Poland), and Austria-Hungary have, in the order named, contributed the largest numbers.

216. THE "OLD" IMMIGRATION.--European immigration to the United States may be divided into two groups, the "old" and the "new." The "old"

immigration extended from the beginning of our national history to about the year 1880, and was derived chiefly from Great Britain and Ireland, Germany, and the Scandinavian countries. Between 1820 (the first year for which we have accurate records) and 1880, about nine tenths of our immigrants came from these countries.

The striking features of the "old" immigration should be noted. In comparison with present-day immigration, it was relatively small in volume. In view of the abundance here of free land, and our consequent need for pioneers, the small volume of immigration prevented the rise of any serious problem. Moreover, the "old" immigration was largely made up of individuals who were similar to the original American colonists in political ideals, social training, and economic background. The "old" immigration therefore merged with the native stock fairly easily and rapidly.

217. THE "OLD" GIVES WAY TO THE "NEW" IMMIGRATION.--In the period centering about the year 1880 there was a distinct s.h.i.+ft in the immigration movement. Whereas before 1880 most of our immigrants had been Anglo-Saxons and Teutons from northern Europe, after 1880 the majority of our immigrants were members of the Mediterranean and Slavic races from southern and southeastern Europe. Before 1880 about nine tenths of the aliens coming to our sh.o.r.es were from northern Europe and only one tenth were from southern and southeastern Europe.

In the period since 1880, less than one fourth of our immigrants have come from northern Europe, while more than three fourths have been derived from southern and southeastern Europe. The bulk of this new immigration has come from Russia, Poland, Austria-Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Italy, and the Balkan countries.

218. INCREASING VOLUME OF IMMIGRATION.--Since it is in connection with the "new" immigration that the modern immigration problem arises, it will be profitable to inquire more fully into the character of the movement after about 1880.

Not only has the character of immigration changed since the eighties, but the volume of immigration has steadily increased. Of approximately 35,000,000 immigrants who have come to our sh.o.r.es since 1800, more than half have come within the last thirty-five years. The peak of immigration was reached in the decade preceding the World War, when as many as a million and a quarter of immigrants landed in this country in a single year. This heavy flow was interrupted by the World War, but after the signing of the armistice in the fall of 1918, a heavy immigration again set in. [Footnote: Various cla.s.ses of immigrants are excluded from the United States by the immigration laws summarized in section 223 of this chapter. In addition to these laws, which may be said to const.i.tute the basis of our permanent immigration policy, President Harding signed, in May, 1921, a bill relative to the temporary exclusion of aliens who would ordinarily be admissible. This temporary exclusion act provided that between July 1, 1921, and June 30, 1922, the number of immigrants entering the United States from any other country might not exceed three per cent of the former immigrants from that country who were within the bounds of the United States at the time of the last census.]

219. DISTRIBUTION OF THE "NEW" IMMIGRATION.--One of the most significant facts in connection with the immigration problem is that our immigrant population is unequally distributed. About two thirds of the immigrants in this country are in the North Atlantic division; about a quarter of them are located in the North Central division; while less than one tenth are located in the western and southern sections of the country combined. Three fourths of our foreign-born live in the cities of the North Atlantic and North Central divisions.

Forty per cent of the present population of New York City is foreign born, while in Boston and Chicago more than a third of the population is foreign born. In the smaller manufacturing cities of the North Atlantic division it often happens that from half to four fifths of the population is foreign born.