Cycles of business depression seem to reach us almost periodically, as they do every other country. These are hard to explain and can not be ascribed to any one particular cause.
Immigration falls off very noticeably during these periods, and, in addition, the stream of aliens leaving our ports for Europe is vastly increased. During such periods of industrial depression the wages of the toiler are necessarily reduced. It is not an oversupply of immigrant labor which is responsible for the stagnation, but an unwillingness on the part of the capitalist to invest money in enterprises whose success is doubtful, owing to commercial uncertainty. It is not a lessening of demand, owing to over supply, but often a complete absence of demand for labor, with abandonment of all attempts at production, due to lack of confidence in financial conditions.
The influence of improved machinery upon wage depression can not be over estimated, although its introduction is closely associated with immigration. Improved machinery would probably have been introduced and would have had its effect upon wages in the entire absence of immigration. The use of improved machinery made possible the employment of thousands of unskilled laborers under the direction of a few skilled workers, where formerly the work was done entirely by skilled laborers or mechanics. Its use immensely increased the power of production, and created a new demand for unskilled labor. The effect of machinery has been felt upon wages in the textile trades, woodworking, steel and iron industries, soft coal mining and other occupations. The advent of improved machinery was inevitable, and no labor organization, however strong, could indefinitely clog the wheels of progress by postponing its employment. The immigrant is not responsible for its introduction, for it has been introduced in countries with no immigration problem. He simply took advantage of the demand for labor thus created and played no small part in the wonderful growth of our mining and manufacturing industries. His coming no doubt facilitated the introduction of improved machinery, and it is probable that without this unskilled labor our present position as a producing power would not have been reached for many years to come. The employment of women and children in textile, leather and tobacco trades has demoralized the rate of compensation for male workers in those occupations. Many immigrant women and children take advantage of this practise, but it existed before the immigrants were employed in this way, and to-day thousands of native women and children are employed in factories and mills, especially in the south. The practise is here to stay, and beyond the limitation by law of the age of child workers, can not be stopped. The immigrant's wife and children are not responsible for it, but by means of it increase the family earnings and raise their standard of living.
