Economists tell us that the "rise and fall of the immigration waves are very closely connected with the phenomenon of prosperity in this country," and that the general causes of westward expansion lie in the presence of foreign political and religious persecutions, low wages, bad economic conditions, ease of transportation, inflated rumors of great opportunities in America, and the appeal of separated friends and relatives.
The early immigrants, being largely of Teutonic and Keltic origin, were thrifty and self-reliant by nature and entered our American life as skilled workmen in agriculture and in the trades. In the last quarter of a century the source of the tide has changed from the northern to the southern countries, resulting in a far different type of foreigner who is generally unskilled, lacking independence and initiative, and blindly submissive to authority. Many come from nations with a per cent. of illiteracy rising as high as seventy, and notwithstanding the fifty per cent decrease in the total percentage of illiteracy in this country during the past thirty years we must face the fact that some twenty-eight out of every one hundred of the new arrivals over fourteen years of age are annually classed as illiterates. In the future we may expect to receive an increasing flood of immigration from China, Japan and India, with problems and conditions even more perplexing.
Some say that the incoming foreigner directly affects the entire laboring class native to America in that he adds materially to the supply of wage earners, lowers the scale of wages due to lower standards of living, changes working conditions through the subdivision of labor, modifies labor organizations, influences local and national politics and increases social difficulties. It has been said that "low standards of living on the part of unskilled workers menace the higher standards of the skilled workers. The man of skill is recognizing this fact and he is frequently found joining hands with the unskilled to right the grievances of the latter. In the cotton mills, in the meat packing industry, in the coal mines, in the clothing industry and elsewhere, one nationality has been displaced by another satisfied with a lower standard of living. In turn the second has been displaced by a third, and so on. Wave after wave of immigrants may be traced in the history of one of these industries. As rapidly as a race rises in the scale of living, and through organization begins to demand higher wages and to resist the pressure of long hours and over-exertion, the employers substitute another race and the process is repeated. Each race comes from a country lower in the scale than that of the preceding until finally the ends of the earth have been ransacked in the search for low standards of living combined with patient industriousness." (Carlton).
Our civilization cannot remain unaffected by these changing characteristics and the threatening, industrial conditions confronting us. With the army of the unemployed rapidly growing larger and larger, it behooves the American nation to encourage immediate consideration of ways and means to prevent unfortunate results in our industrial, political and social life.
The national government, being concerned chiefly with the admission or rejection of the immigrant, quickly places him under the care of state and local governments, who are duty-bound to assume the entire responsibility of developing him into an efficient worker and a good citizen. The regulation of private employment agencies, protection of the foreigner in transit, adoption of standard employment laws, creation of municipal unemployment commissions, etc., indicate that state and city governments are beginning to respond to this duty of offering more sympathetic understanding, more adequate care and better protection to the newly arrived, confused, unemployed and homeless immigrant. These governments are slowly realizing that their obligations have been sorely neglected in the past when such problems were wholly consigned to the well meaning but quite inadequate field of private philanthropy. Public libraries, as departments of city governments, concerned with the dissemination of knowledge of the masses, must soon realize their large responsibility in the naturalization, education and socialization of our foreign born population. It is very gratifying to announce that the state of Massachusetts has very recently taken the lead in this particular field of service by the passage of an act authorizing the appointment by the Board of library commissioners of a field worker to direct the educational work of libraries among the aliens of the state.
Libraries, like human beings, can reach a high point of efficiency and service in a particular line only when that line is encouraged and promoted. The development of libraries favoring certain classes of citizens has been quite general and extremely successful. Much has been said but comparatively little has been done for the foreigner among our laboring men. The "man in the yards," the unskilled foreign wage-earner, being taxed, while needing more and receiving less from society than others, "has done much of the rough and hard work of recent decades. He has built the roadbeds of our railways, mined our coal and iron, unloaded our vessels, and cleaned our streets. The recent immigrant has performed the crude manual labor necessary for the upbuilding of big industrial plants and huge transportation systems. His services in developing the resources of the nation have been extremely important. Many industries would be almost depleted if divested of all wage-earners of foreign birth and those born on American soil but of foreign born parents. If the foreign born and the native born of foreign parents were removed from our large cities, the latter would shrink to approximately one-third of their recent size." (Carlton.)
This "man in the yards" with whom "intimate contact removes prejudice, inspires appreciation and kindles self-respect," displays an astounding amount of seriousness and earnestness in his desire to learn and to improve himself when once informed of the possibilities in our libraries. Very often he finds his chief delight in the best of books, like a child calling for good instead of new books, and many times he is not as dull and as ignorant as generally supposed, being more appreciative of better things than our average native laboring man. The opportunity is a great one to be of practical and inspirational help to an eager reader seeking to increase his earning power and joy in life, and to learn of the higher ideals of citizenship and the coming brotherhood of all.
In order to devise worth-while methods of approaching him and securing his interest, place yourself in imagination in similar surroundings and conditions on a foreign shore. Only through direct appeals touching your personal needs, pleasure and occupation would you be attracted in like circumstances by strangers. The same is true with our new Americans.
Foreigners who speak the same language largely settle in the same locality and move from place to place in groups. A thorough educational survey of these groups in the community tributary to the library or branch is of first importance to determine the characteristics, conditions and needs of each group. Whenever it is possible an experienced library and social worker should be employed. The advice and assistance of factory managers, labor leaders and social workers cannot be valued too highly. Following these steps branch and deposit stations administered by local assistants may well be located in favorable shops, yards, factories, settlements, centers, and labor headquarters, without arousing undue suspicion among the men, even more extensively than in many of our progressive library systems today.
The formation of the recently named "Creative" or "Extension" departments and the appointment of one or more trained assistants to create interest and regularly visit and supervise the library work in each district, group and institution will soon become a customary feature in the large cities. I firmly believe that it will not be many years until our large manufacturing institutions employing much labor will construct recreational centers in their plants equipped with social, reading and gymnastic departments sufficient to meet the needs of their employees. Furthermore, I see little to discourage the establishment of traveling library collections on wheels, visiting certain districts on scheduled time, after the manner of the now famous Maryland wagon and automobile. In libraries near foreign centers special departments are needed to supply practical and simple information in different languages on requirements for naturalization, instruction, employment, investments, American customs, travel and history, demands of law and order, American money and banks, and friendly advice on many things of fifty-seven or more varieties.