Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/734

 702 Employments of immigrants. [iseo- population have the opportunity of taking up free land of great fertility ; but this influx of labour made possible an extension of industry on a great scale, at the periods of particular speculative activity, which might otherwise have been checked. The vast extension of railroads and the accompanying growth of coal and iron mining required large quantities of both skilled and unskilled labour ; and, in the main, during the early period the filling-up of the lower branches with foreign labour still left ample opportunity in the higher branches for the native population. The almost automatic machine processes made the employment of immigrants in factories possible ; and in the manufacture of textiles, for instance, it was not long before the immigrants employed numbered one-half of the total. Nor were these the only economic effects of immigration during this period. The settlement of the West was hastened by the influx of immigrants, but in a less degree than has sometimes been supposed. The colonising movement has been carried out primarily by native stock. Even of the German immigrants hardly more than 25 per cent, have become agricultural settlers or farm-labourers, and of the Irish not more than 12 per cent. The Scandinavians, constituting a smaller absolute number, are relatively more inclined to agriculture, nearly 40 per cent, of that race choosing that occupation. This, however, is less than the percentage of the native population. Special sections of the country, however, have been largely colonised by special nationalities, notably such States as Wisconsin by the Germans, and Minnesota by the Germans and Swedes. In the main, however, the tendency of the foreign popu- lation has been towards city life, and mechanical and mining occupa- tions, or personal service, hand-trades, and shopkeeping. An important reason for this is the necessity on the part of the newcomer to seek paid employment at once; and it should be noted that this tendency, while hastening the expansion of industry, has also hastened the estab- lishment of a more permanent and dependent wage-earning class than had formerly existed. It would, however, be a one-sided picture which showed only the effect of relatively unskilled labour on the growth of manufactures. Although the proportion of skilled labourers to other immigrants has been small, their actual numbers have been considerable, especially from Great Britain; and their skill has been an important factor in many industries, notably in iron and steel manufactures and in shipbuilding. Furthermore, the contribution of individuals of high talent has been immeasurable ; and Americans, attributing too much to the native character, are frequently inclined to forget that many of the most striking cases of success in the industrial and commercial world have been those of poor immigrants who have distanced the dominant nationality in the race for wealth. The effect of this movement on the growth of population presents yet another problem. The population of 1870 was 38,558,871,