[270]. Races and Immigrants in America, p. 115.
[271]. Professor Taussig says that there is evidence that “a standard of living so tenaciously held as to affect natural increase” is a force which acts on the numbers of the well-to-do in modern countries and is coming into operation in the upper tier of manual workmen. Prin. of Econ., Vol. II, p. 152. In these upper groups it operates mainly upon the birth rate. In the lower groups, where there is less conscious control of the rate of reproduction, a decrease in the means of subsistence must almost inevitably result in an increase of the death rate, particularly of infants.
[272]. A certain amount of repetition of matter already given—particularly in the discussion of the effects of immigration on population—has seemed unavoidable in the following paragraphs. The matters of population, wages, and standards of living are obviously closely associated.
[273]. See page 145.
[274]. Mr. Earle Clark has shown by a comparison of recent figures that “the wages paid in the Massachusetts cotton mills do not enable the men employed to maintain a standard of living higher than that which the men employed in English mills can maintain upon English wages.” The Survey, March 23, 1912.
[275]. A further consideration, in addition to the difference in standards, which gives the foreigner an advantage over the native, is found in the different price levels here and abroad. In general the price levels in the countries from which the new immigration comes are lower than in the United States. This means that the immigrant, who saves part of his earnings for the support of a family in Europe, finds it possible to accept a lower wage than the native, who supports his family in this country, and yet keep his family on a standard equivalent to that of the American workman.
[276]. Professor Taussig says, “The position of common laborers in the United States (that is, in the Northern and Western States) has been kept at its low level only by the continued inflow of immigrants.... These constant new arrivals have kept down the wages of the lowest group, and have accentuated also the lines of social demarcation between this group and others.” Principles of Economics, Vol. II, p. 139. See also p. 234.
The same general opinion is expressed by Jenks and Lauck, The Immigration Problem, p. 195; by Hall, Immigration, pp. 123–131; by Commons, Races and Immigrants in America, pp. 151, 152, 159; by Miss Balch, Our Slavic Fellow Citizens, pp. 288–289; and by Wilkins (with reference to England), The Alien Invasion, p. 68.
[277]. Cf. Byington, M., Homestead, pp. 6–11.
[278]. Cf. Ripley, William Z., “Race Factors in Labor Unions,” Atlantic Monthly, 93:299.