532 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Without a robust constitution and average physical strength, the immi- 

 grant can not cope successfully with the hardships which he will be 

 called upon to endure in his new home. The immigrant of poor physique 

 is not able to perform rough labor, and even if he were able, employers 

 of labor would not hire him. The large employers of labor expect and 

 demand men physically strong enough to do a fair day's work. The 

 only place where the immigrant with a poor physique can make a 

 living is in the large city, where he becomes either a parasite or a com- 

 petitor of American skilled labor. The unfair competition of this 

 type of immigrant can be better understood if one takes into considera- 

 tion his standard of living and the system of sweat-shop production. 



There is no longer demand for foreign skilled labor in the United 

 States. Skilled labor in its ratio to unskilled labor among Americans 

 has steadily increased until now the American skilled laborer can 

 supply every demand, and each foreign skilled laborer who comes here 

 comes as a competitor of our own workmen. On the other hand, the 

 demand for unskilled labor is increasing in proportion to the decrease 

 of American unskilled laborers. This demand will continue until our 

 present industrial and commercial expansion ceases. New lands are 

 opened up by settlement or by irrigation. Intensive methods of farm- 

 ing make possible a great increase of rural population, and this agri- 

 cultural expansion creates an increased demand for manufactures. 

 Thus our industrial and agricultural expansion progress side by side, 

 and for this progress we must have plenty of brawn and muscle — un- 

 skilled labor. Americans can fill the requirements of the skilled 

 laborers and mechanics, but if capitalists had to depend on native 

 Americans for the unskilled labor necessary for their projects, these 

 projects would never be carried to completion, or, if attempted, would 

 be certain of financial failure. 



The introduction of improved machinery, with its enormous effect 

 upon our power of production, made necessary increased numbers of 

 unskilled laborers and without these sturdy workers the use of ma- 

 chinery would not be successful financially or otherwise, and we should 

 retrogress to the position of manual production which we occupied 

 twenty-five years ago. Immigration and machinery are both charged 

 with displacing American labor and depressing wages, but they are 

 simply new forces demanded and made necessary by the expansion of 

 our industries. To prohibit either is to paralyze industry, to stand still 

 as a producing power, and to stand still is only the temporary pause 

 before retrogression begins. Commercial prosperity is simply this ex- 

 pansion of industry and trade consequent upon the development of new 

 resources. This development is the result of capital invested. Capi- 

 talists before investing invariably demand assurance that sufficient labor 

 is forthcoming to carry out the proposed work, and that the compensa- 



