IMMIGRATION. 253 



A depressing influence upon wages is exerted by the competition 

 of the rural factory or shop. The manufacturer in the rural com- 

 munity often receives a bonus, exemption from taxes, free water or 

 other inducements from the municipality. He finds abundance of 

 cheap labor, men, women and children, who can afford to work below 

 the wage scale of the city, because of the lower cost of living. He is 

 thus enabled to place his products upon the market at a cost much 

 below that of the city-made product, and to compete with him the city 

 manufacturer is forced to reduce his wage scale. This competition of 

 the rural shop or factory is felt in tobacco, cotton, silk, leather and 

 many other industries. Many of the industries of the south are of a 

 similar competing character. The wages paid, the standard of living 

 and cost of necessaries are all much below those of the North. This 

 cheap native labor of the south is felt most as a competing factor by 

 the textile industries of New England, who are forced to secure cheap 

 labor for their own salvation. 



The difficulty of maintaining efficient labor organization is the cause 

 ascribed by many labor leaders for wage depression. In this difficulty 

 the immigrant has played an important part. The failure of the 

 strike of 1875 in the coal mines, and of the great Homestead strike in 

 the steel and iron industry, is explained by the introduction of alien 

 labor. After years of effort the aliens in the mining fields have been 

 organized successfully and are now, for their own betterment, heart and 

 soul in the movement for living wages. The cheap native labor in the 

 soft coal mines has caused the organizer much more trouble than the 

 alien laborers. 



Most of the skilled trades are able to maintain their unions and 

 their wage-standards in spite of foreign immigration. In some occu- 

 pations, however, the stream of skilled alien addition is so great and so 

 constant, that disorganization and confusion result in the trade, and 

 wages drop to a minimum. In this confusion and disorganization 

 caused by the influx of foreign skilled labor, the clothing trade suffered 

 more than any other industry. So constant has been the stream of 

 foreign tailors to this country that they have now almost monopolized 

 this occupation. The wage scale has descended to a point where the 

 American can no longer compete, and he has been finally forced out of 

 the business as a workman. A revolution has taken place in the manu- 

 facture of clothing. The wholesale manufacture of ready-made cloth- 

 ing has superseded the output of the individual tailor shops. Under 

 the present system of wholesale manufacture of ready-made clothing, 

 the work is subdivided into many branches. Formerly a tailor made 

 and completed the garment himself, by reason of skill which it took 

 four or five years to acquire ; now the garment passes through the hands 

 of a dozen or more workers, who are each skilled in some particular 



