96 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY
class, and has not always the polish of education. He calculates closely. He is occupied with his own business and not with that of others, and thus becomes profoundly individualistic, often egoistic and harsh with his fellow-citizens. When work is done and wages paid, manager and workmen think they are no further bound to each other — a right judgment from a legal point of view. From the social point of view this individualism is seen to exclude schemes of patron- age. The American workman wishes to be independent, and recognizes no obligation of gratitude to his employer. He is in the shop on a bargain and not as a child. He goes where he thinks he can do best for himself.
Immigration is offensive to the working class, because it intensifies competition for wages. But, since America owes its industrial advance to immigration, it cannot be entirely suppressed. The mold of char- acter is an Anglo-Saxon type. The English, Scotch, and Germans have furnished the most highly esteemed element, and the Scandina- vians only a little less. The Irish, spite of being less acceptable, are numerous enough to be politically strong ; the Italians and the Slavs in a lower degree. The Canadians form a group suspected on account of their clannish ways, but are prized by employers because they will work for low wages. The French are too few to influence politics. The party of the workingmen has demanded and secured laws restrictive of immigration. The Chinese are entirely excluded. Con- tract labor, in spite of the employers, has been prohibited. Defectives are excluded on grounds of general welfare.
Nomitial wages have, perhaps, doubled in fifty years. It is impos- sible, on account of the variety of conditions, to state an average. Perhaps Si. 75 to $2 represents nearly the average in the United States, about double that in France. The wages of women are almost half those of men. Children under sixteen receive less than women. There are fewer married women in factories than are seen in Europe, a sign of better conditions. The number of women employed in industry has relatively diminished ; that of children has decreased still more.
In America, as in Europe, there are famine wages, that is, wages which do not afford the income of married laborers. These are found chiefly in the sweated industries of clothing, and, while difficult to improve, affect comparatively few workmen. Real wages have increased even more than nominal wages, because the prices of most commodities have fallen, while wages were rising. The American
