CONCILIATION IN BRITISH TRADE DISPUTES. The sixth Report of the Board of Trade, United Kingdom, on their proceedings under the Conciliation (Trade Disputes) Act, 1896, deals with two years, viz., from July 1, 1905, to June 30, 1907. Fifty-one cases were dealt with in the two years covered by the Report. No fewer than 23 cases occurred in the last six months of the period (January to June, 1907). The number of cases in which a stoppage of work occurred was 16. The total number of cases dealt with under the Conciliation Act between August, 1896, when it came into force, and June 30, 1907, is 232, and of these, 168 cases (or 72 per cent of the cases dealt with) were settled under the act. The total number of cases of joint application during the two years under review was 46, or 90 per cent of all the cases dealt with. In the earlier years of the operation of the act applications for the intervention of the Board of Trade came mainly from one side only (generally the workpeople). The great majority of the applications in the last six or seven years have been joint applications, either from the parties themselves or from organizations directly representing them. Of the 51 cases dealt with in the two years under review, 14 arose in the building trades; 13 in the boot and shoe trade; seven in the metal, engineering, and shipbuilding trades; seven in the printing and allied trades; four in mining and quarrying; and six in other trades. Among the cases settled during the period covered by the Report two are of special importance, the Nottingham lace trade dispute and the Music Hall dispute, both of which were settled by Mr. G. R. Askwith after prolonged negotiations with the parties. In the former dispute Mr. Askwith found that the lace trade in Nottingham had a system of "cards" or price lists framed when lace-making machines were much less complicated than those of modern construction, and the extras charged when additional "bars" were used seriously affected the manufacture of many kinds of lace in the city of Notting. ham itself, where these "cards" were in use. These restrictions, however, were not in force in the smaller towns and villages surrounding Nottingham, to which manufacturers were accordingly migrating in large numbers. Mr. Askwith entirely abolished the old " cards," which were 21 in number, and substituted 15 other "cards," simpler in construction and better adapted to modern conditions. The Music Hall dispute was also of great importance, as it affected the future terms of engagement of all music hall artistes throughout Great Britain and Ireland, and the wages, hours, and conditions of service of all musicians, stage hands, carpenters, etc., employed at music halls in London. Of the 13 cases in the boot and shoe industry, four had reference to applications made by the workpeople for a minimum wage to be fixed, or for the raising of a minimum already in existence. The awards made fix a minimum wage for lasters and finishers in London, for clickers and pressmen at Kettering, and for all classes of adult male boot and shoe operatives at Anstey and at Stafford. No addition has been made, during the period covered by this Report, to the number of Conciliation Boards registered under the act. Both the registered and the unregistered boards, however, with few exceptions, furnish the department with annual returns of their operations, and a summary of these returns is published in the annual Report on Strikes and Lockouts, and on Conciliation and Arbitration Boards. The total number of such boards at present known to be in existence is 209. The rules of Conciliation Boards, and the "working rules" or other agreements observed by the employers and workpeople in the several trades, frequently contain a clause providing that, in the event of the Conciliation Board (or other conciliatory agency) failing to effect a settlement, application shall be made to the Board of Trade for the appointment of an arbitrator, umpire, or conciliator. Such clauses, so far as known to the department, now exist in 60 agreements. THE IMMIGRANT POPULATION OF MASSACHUSETTS. Of the social forces which operate in the industrial world possibly none has a more subtle yet more far reaching effect on our national welfare than has immigration. But while immigration itself exerts an active influence wherever it has an opportunity to be felt, its volume, and to a certain extent its character, are determined by the economic conditions prevailing in the field which it enters. Thus, in seasons of prosperity the stream of immigration to the United States has swollen to huge proportions and in seasons of depression the influx has greatly decreased, and even, as in the past few months, the strange phenomenon of a stream flowing in the opposite direction has been observed. The material presented herewith and referring particularly to Massachusetts covers a period of generally increasing prosperity in the United States, during which period immigration to this country has shown a corresponding increase. It is in two parts, the first being based upon the statistics of the Massachusetts Decennial Census of Population in 1905, and treating of the population of the Commonwealth by Parent Nativity; the second being a study, based upon the Annual Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration, of the Immigrant Aliens destined for Massachusetts. I. Population of Massachusetts by Parent Nativity – 1905. In Labor Bulletin No. 51 (for JulyAugust, 1907) tabular presentations were given, compiled from the Decennial Census taken May 1, 1905, showing for the State the place of birth of the native and foreign-born population of Massachusetts, and making comparisons with the census figures of 1895. Similar presentations were made for the city of Boston. We now present an exhibit of population by parent nativity in 35 tables, condensing somewhat the classification by States of the United States and by foreign countries, although any one desiring the figures in greater detail may obtain them upon application at the Bureau, and they will also be given in full in the completed Census volumes to be issued during the current year. An arrangement of States and countries, intended to bring out in bold relief the relation which the numerical strength of the various racial or native elements in our population bear to each other and to the total population, has been substituted for the arbitrary alphabetical classification employed in the tabulations of the July August Bulletin, it being conceived that for purposes of statistical comparison the arrangement in order of rank by numbers or percentages exhibits much more graphically the facts in which most readers are probably chiefly interested. Thus, it may be seen at a glance from Table I that the Greeks, with their increase since 1895 of 1,242.7 per cent, are increasing with the greatest rapidity of all peoples of foreign parentage in our population; that those of Austrian parentage are second on the list; that the Italians are third, etc., and that the Irish, although they still form the largest single element of foreign parentage in our population, are now furnishing the smallest percentage of increase of all. The shifting of the immigration to our shores from the North to the South of Europe has been apparent for some years, both as a matter of common observation and of statistical fact, and these figures from our last State Census are but cumulative evidence, in a fresh and specific form, that the great additions to our Massachusetts population during the decade, 18951905, were from the Slavic and Iberic races of Southern Europe. That which we have, therefore, suspected, but perhaps too vaguely, for some years, we can no longer avoid accepting as fact, namely, that our problem of assimilation in the years immediately ahead must have to do less and less with Keltic and more and more with Slavic and Iberic infusions. This appears even more significantly when we take the various countries out of the classification according to which they are arranged in Table I and rearrange them as nearly as possible in racial groups, as in Table II.1 The annual exodus of immigrants to their native lands in Southern Europe must, of course, not be entirely overlooked in this connection, but it seems doubtful whether this custom is to become permanent to an extent sufficiently large to exert a perceptibly modifying influence upon the character of American citizenship. From Table II it appears that the population of Slavic parentage in the State increased during the decade 1895-1905 188.12 per cent; that those whose parents were of Iberic stock increased 185.17 per cent; that those whose parentage was Teutonic increased 22.71 per cent; and that the increase in the population of Keltic parentage was only 3.64 per cent. Table III furnishes a comparison of the number of persons in Massachusetts returned by the Censuses of 1895 and 1905 who were foreign born of foreign parentage. The table also shows the increase by country of nativity both in absolute numbers and in percentages. The fifth and sixth columns of the table show the absolute percentage of the persons of the nativity specified in relation to the total foreign-born population of foreign parentage of the State. Because of the numerous elements entering into this tabulation, the countries of birth are arranged alphabetically. Table IV gives the same data as Table III for the native-born population of foreign parentage. Table V summarizes the population of Massachusetts according to the leading States and foreign countries of parent nativity, the totals being separated according to sex. Table VI is a display of the population of foreign parentage of the city of Boston, by wards, according to the country of parent nativity. Tables VII and VIII give for the city of Boston the same data as are given in Tables III and IV for the State. Table IX gives for the city of Boston in detail the same class of data as are given by leading States and foreign countries in Table V for the State. Table X shows the dominant foreign parent nativity of the population of Boston by wards. Tables XI to XXXV show for each ward the percentage which the foreign parentage of the country specified is of the total foreign parentage of the ward; the total number of persons of foreign parentage of each country, and the two computations which enter into this total, namely, the foreign born whose parentage is of the country specified and the native born whose parentage is of the country specified. 1 This racial classification follows that used by the United States Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, according to which natives of Greece, Spain, Portugal, and the greater portion of the natives of Italy are classed as belonging to the Iberic race; Austria, Poland, and Russia to the Slavic; Belgium, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, Germany, and England to the Teutonic; and France, the greater part of Switzerland, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland to the Keltic. The Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization in its statistics differentiates between the North and South Italians, but the Massachusetts Census takes no account of this difference. Hence the figures given in the tables under the Iberic classification include the North Italians who are, strictly speaking, Keltic; their number, however, is comparatively small and is hardly sufficient to affect the relative proportion of the racial groups. The Swiss, also, are not entirely homogeneous, being partly Teutonic, but the larger portions are classed as Keltic; and the Poles, though partly Teutonic, are generally Slavic |