avs into Pennsylvania, and his investigations may profitably be
studied.[63]

[Sidenote: Slav domination]

The results in Pennsylvania thus far are the reverse of satisfactory.
The cheap labor has become dear in more senses than one. Where in 1880
the English-speaking foreign-born composed nearly ninety-four per cent.
of the mine workers, in 1900 they were less than fifty-two per cent.,
and to-day are much less still. The Slavs dominate in the mines. Strikes
are not less frequent, but more difficult to control, and the necessity
of frequent state control by militia, the riots and bloodshed, mark the
failure to Americanize this growing class of aliens. A striking
illustration of non-assimilation and the attendant perils may be found
in Pennsylvania. Fortunately all the Slavs do not go to the mines, and
those who follow agriculture or trades afford a pleasanter study. The
census of 1900 gave a million and a quarter of foreign-born Slavs and
the number has been largely increased. In 1903 221,000 came, not
counting the 67,000 Russian and Roumanian Jews. Since these peoples are
all prolific, with an oversupply at home, there is every prospect that
immigration will increase, unless some check is put upon it. The Slavs
will have to be reckoned with, most assuredly, as an element in our
civilization.

[Illustration: SLAV DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES]

The maps here given, by the courtesy of _Charities_, show the sections
from which the Slavs come and how they disperse in this country.

[Sidenote: Chiefly Unskilled and Illiterate]

An analysis of the official statistics shows that, with the exception of
the Bohemians, these newest immigrants are mainly unskilled, illiterate
peasants from country districts, and with little money in their pockets
when they land. Of the Bohemians and Moravians forty-four per cent. are
skilled laborers, and only 1.50 per cent. over fourteen are unable to
read and write; but of the Poles eighty-five per cent. are unskilled,
and thirty per cent. can neither read nor write; and this represents the
average. We are getting in an illiterate mass, therefore, and the amount
of money they bring per capita averages about $10. But on this point a
writer says, speaking from a wide observation:[64]

[Sidenote: A Hopeful View]

"This does not necessarily mean that they are undesirable immigrants.
The illiterate, unskilled immigrant may be, in fact, more desirable than
the better educated skilled lab