TABLE VI. Summary of Business at the three State Free Employment Offices. III. Changes in Rates of Wages and Hours of Labor. Twenty increases in rates of wages, affecting 3,421 employees, and one decrease, affecting 79 employees, took effect during the first quarter of 1911. The net result of all the changes was an increase of $4,083 a week. Three increases, affecting 1,042 employees, were granted voluntarily by employers without solicitation by the employees; 16 increases, affecting 2,295 employees, were arranged between employers and representatives of organizations of employees. In the case of 738 employees the increases were preceded by strikes. The changes in hours of labor taking effect in the first quarter, 1911, affected 818 employees, whose working time was reduced by 1,721 hours a week. IV. Strikes and Lockouts. The most important strikes in progress during the quarter were those involving 640 granite cutters and quarrymen at Rockport and Gloucester, 60 shoe cutters at Hudson, and six strikes, involving 224 strikers, in the garment industry at Boston. The total number of strikes commencing during the quarter ending March 31, 1911, was 62, as compared with 31 in the last quarter, 1910, and 66 in the corresponding quarter of 1910. In these disputes there were 2,660 strikers and 1,462 other employees thrown out of work, making a total of 4,122 employees affected by strikes, as compared with 7,590 in the first quarter of 1910. Of the 62 strikes, 23, involving 1,272 strikers, arose on demands for increases in wages alone, and three, involving 230 strikers, arose on demands for increase in wages combined with other causes; 10, involving 411 strikers, against reductions in wages; five, involving 98 strikers, for closed shop; three, involving 246 strikers, for reductions in hours of labor; and 18, involving 403 strikers, for 15 miscellaneous causes. Definite results were reported in the case of 54 strikes involving 2,202 strikers. Of these, 17, involving 41 strikers, were successful; 10, involving 1,033 strikers, were partly successful; and 27, involving 828 strikers, failed. The number of working days lost as a result of strikes which began during the quarter was 57,600, as compared with 12,302 in the last quarter, 1910, and 81,400 in the corresponding quarter of 1910. There were 20 strikes in Boston, involving 590 strikers, resulting in a loss of 2,666 working days. In Lynn there were 12 strikes, involving 230 strikers and 338 other employees, resulting in a loss of 3,744 working days. 1. Immigrant Aliens Destined for Massachusetts. The material presented in this bulletin, and referring particularly to Massachusetts, has been selected from the Annual Reports of the CommissionerGeneral of Immigration for the years 1896 to 1910, from the Annual Reports TABLE I. of the Superintendent of Immigration for the years 1892 to 1895, and from the report of the Chief of the Miscellaneous Division to the Secretary of the Treasury for the year 1891. Number of Immigrant Aliens Destined for Massachusetts and Total Number Admitted to the United States, with Percentages: By Years, 1891-1910. 1 An "immigrant alien" is a person, not already a citizen of the United States, who enters this country with the avowed intention of settling here and who is not returning to resume a domicile formerly acquired here. 2 An "emigrant alien" is a person, not already a citizen of the United States, whose permanent residence has been in the United States who intends to reside permanently abroad and who is not making a temporary trip abroad. 3 The years referred to throughout this article are in each case the years ending June 30. Similar presentations of this nature for prior years have been published by this Bureau in Labor Bulletins Nos. 38 (December, 1905), 49 (May, 1907), 56 (January, 1908), 63 (April, 1909), and 75 (August, 1910). 5 In this table the returns for the years 1906-1910 are not strictly comparable with those for the earlier years because in 1905 and in prior years all aliens arriving at ports of the United States, with the exception of those merely in transit to other countries, were reported as “alien arrivals." During the years 1906-1910 there have been segregated from those arriving not only aliens in transit, but all aliens returning from visits abroad to resume previously established permanent domiciles in the United States, and all coming simply as visitors or tourists with the intention of returning to homes abroad. The totals for the years 1891 to 1905 are directly comparable with each other as they stand in the table. IMMIGRATION CHART - Showing Number of Immigrant Aliens Admitted to the United States and Number Destined for Massachusetts. Numerically considered, Massachusetts has always been one of the leading States in this country as a declared destination for immigrants. For at least a score of years it has been either third or fourth in rank, having been exceeded only by New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, and during the period 1894-1904 having been exceeded only by New York and Pennsylvania. On reference to Table I it will be observed that during the past 20 years there had been a marked increase both in the number of immigrant aliens destined for Massachusetts and in the number admitted to the United States, the increase, however, in both cases having been interrupted during the four short periods 1893-1894, 1897-1898, 1904, and 1908-1909. During the year 1907 (the record year of immigration to this country and also to Massachusetts) the total number of immigrant aliens admitted to the United States was 1,285,349, of which number 85,583, or 6.66 per cent, were destined for Massachusetts. The period roughly including the years 1908 and 1909 was one of general industrial depression throughout the country and was marked by a decided decrease in the volume of immigration to the United States and by a corresponding decrease in the number destined for Massachusetts. The figures for the year 1910, however, show a remarkable increase over the two preceding years and an approach to the remarkable totals for the prosperous years just preceding the recent period of depression, the number admitted during the year 1910 having again passed the million. mark with a total of 1,041,570 immigrant aliens admitted to the United States, of which number 82,666, or 7.94 per cent, were destined for Massachusetts.1 These totals for the year 1910 stand out in marked contrast to the averages for the 20-year period, 1891-1910, namely, 621,944 immigrant aliens admitted to the United States and 48,657 destined for Massachusetts. In 1891 the percentage of total alien arrivals in the United States who were destined for Massachusetts was 7.11; in 1892 the percentage fell to 6.90, then increased each successive year until 1895 when it was 11.61-the highest percentage reached during the entire 20 1 The number of immigrant aliens admitted to the United States during the 10 months ending April 30, 1911, was 712,207 as compared with 803,001 during the corresponding 10 months ending April 30, 1910. See footnote 1 to Table IX on page 8, post. year period, 1891-1910. Since 1895 the percentages have been less each successive year (except in 1897 when there was no change as compared with the previous year) until 1908 when it reached 6.66 per cent the lowest percentage noted during the period. In 1908 and again in 1909 an increase was noted, but during the last fiscal year, 1910, there was a slight decrease in the percentage, it having been for that year 7.94 as compared with 7.82 for the entire 20-year period considered as a whole. Within recent years there has been a notable change in the sources of immigration. Formerly very large percentages of the immigrants were of Teutonic and Celtic origin, but within recent years many immigrants have come from Slavic and Iberic countries, 723,942, or 69.50 per cent, having come from those countries to the United States during the past year. Massachusetts receives a much smaller proportion of these people than the country as a whole, consequently the decline in the percentages of all immigrants to the United States destined for Massachusetts is interrupted in those years of depression when the Slavic and Iberic elements constitute lower percentages than usual of the total volume of immigration. Table II presents, by races or peoples, for the year ending June 30, 1910, the number of immigrant aliens admitted to the United States and the number destined for Massachusetts, with corresponding percentages. In this table the 15 leading races (North and South Italian being separately specified) are arranged in the order of the numbers destined for Massachusetts, but the races specified do not include all of the leading races so far as the numbers admitted to the United States are concerned, nor in the same order. Of the 192,673 Italians (south) admitted to the United States during the year 1910, 16,182, or 8.40 per cent, were destined for Massachusetts, numerically outclassing all other races with respect to destination for Massachusetts. Following the Italians in order of importance as to the number of immigrant aliens destined for Massachusetts the leading races or peoples are as follows: Polish, 9,551; English, 7,405; Irish, 6,579; Greek, 5,787; French, 5,171; Hebrew, 4,693; and Portuguese, 4,228. Without reference to the absolute numbers of each race destined for Massachusetts, it will be observed that 55.22 per cent of the Portuguese admitted to the United States were destined for Massachusetts (as compared with 62.90 per cent in 1909 and 49.63 per cent in 1908), and the corresponding percentages for other races or peoples showing over 10 per cent so destined were: Armenian, 29.10; French, 24.50; Irish, 17.14; Finnish, 16.20; Lithuanian, 15.20; Greek, 14.79; English, 13.84; Scotch, 12.63. This order is identical with that for 1909 except that the Finnish and Lithuanian have changed places and the Polish have fallen below 10 per cent. The large percentages destined for Massachusetts represent the attractiveness of this State over other States for the races or peoples just mentioned. On the other hand large numbers of immigrant aliens of certain other races come to the United States of whom only a small number declare their destination to be Massachusetts. Thus out of 39,562 Croatians and Slovenians admitted to the United States in 1910 only 25 were destined for Massachusetts; of 32,416 Slovaks, only 124; of 27,907 Ruthenians (Russniak), 660; of 27,302 Magyars, only 56; of 17,760 Mexicans, only one; of 15,130 Bulgarians, Servians, and Montenegrins, only 63; and of 14,199 Roumanians, only 29. 1 Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for the year ending June 30, 1910. TABLE II. Number of Immigrant Aliens Destined for Massachusetts and Total Number Admitted to the United States, with Percentages: By Races, 1910. For comparison with Table II the following table (Table III) has been compiled, showing similar data for the five-year period, 1906-1910, the races or peoples being arranged in their numerical order of importance as regards numbers destined for Massachusetts. Considered on this basis the seven leading races for the period as a whole were Italian, Polish, Irish, Hebrew, English, Greek, and Portuguese. The Italians (south) ranked first for each of the several years of the period, while the Poles held second place both for the TABLE III. period as a whole and in 1910. But the rank of the other races specified varied somewhat in 1910 from their rank for the period as a whole, the most notable change in rank being that of the French who had risen from the tenth place for the period as a whole to the sixth place in 1910. It will be further observed on reference to the table that during the five-year period 59.33 per cent of the Portuguese and 30.08 per cent of the Armenians admitted to the United States were destined for Massachusetts. Number of Immigrant Aliens Destined for Massachusetts and Total Number Admitted to the United States, with Percentages: By Races, 1906-1910. |