Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 1.djvu/655

 WORKERS AND THINKERS.

CONDUCTED BY J. D. FORREST, C. H. HASTINGS, AND PAUL MONROE.

Report of the National Divorce Reform League for the year ending December 31, 1895. A Review of Fifteen Years. This brief document surveys the history of an enterprise which deserves much more extensive and sympathetic attention than it has received. The corresponding secretary. Dr. Samuel W. Dike, has been foremost among American pioneers both in theoretical and in applied sociology. This history of the movement in which he has been the most important factor is therefore a considerable contribution to the history of American sociology. The report is also a valuable outline of specific subjects of inquiry, and an indication of needed effort to be centered about the family institution. (26 pp. Boston: The Everett Press Co., 47 Franklin St.)

The Restriction of Immigration.—Measures for straining out the unfit will not be neglected by our government in the future. Americans are changing their minds about further admission of foreigners fit for citizenship. It may be that the past view and the present view are equally right in their relations. Certain ideas about the effect of immigration are untenable: (a) That immigration constitutes a net reinforcement of the population of the country. The population of 1850, in spite of a million and three-quarters added from abroad was only 6508 above what it would have been according to the estimates of in 1815, based on the rate of natural growth up to that time, (b) That luxury, other than relative luxury tends to diminish the birth rate. Prior to 1850 the increase of luxury in the United States, was in ways to improve natural vigor and reproductive capability. (c) Immigration was economically necessary because our own people would not do the necessary work. This opinion puts the cart before the horse. Americans never refused to do manual labor till the foreigners came.

The positive reasons for restricting immigration are, (a) our arable land is practically exhausted; (b) the prices of agricultural products have fallen below a remunerative level; (c) we have a glutted labor market and consequently a labor problem; (d) immigration now brings to us elements least like our own people, and centuries behind us in capacity for civil action. The wage earners and not the rich will decide whether immigration shall be checked. So long as the working people are willing to see their standard of living threatened by the admission of more working people, the invasion will continue. I am willing to leave it to them, whether, for the sake of the American standard of living and the American rate of wages, the ports shall be at least temporarily closed.—, in The Manufacturer, Philadelphia, December 21, 1895.

Labor in England.—The general condition is a distinct improvement over the preceding year and the preceding months. The proportion of unemployed was only 4.26 per cent, as compared with 7.0 for the corresponding month in 1894. Trade disputes for November were 38 as compared with 77 in October and 56 in November 1894. Only 50 laborers sustained a decrease in wages in November as compared with 117,000 in the corresponding month in 1894. Immigration shows a slight increase. (The Labor Gazette, December 1895.)

Labor in France.—The French Labor Bulletin furnishes a model analysis of the status of labor based upon full reports by special correspondents, by patronal institutions, by labor organizations and by various other associations. This analysis reveals the conditions of the various departments and cities and of the various industries. The report on strikes shows twenty-nine for November and twenty-four for December 1895, an increase in both months over the corresponding months of the two preceding years. The syndicate movement in France is one of the most significant