d in large gangs, because of (2).

4. Agriculture. If large numbers of immigrants should go into
agriculture, it will mean one of two things, probably the second:

(a) Continuous subdivision of farms resulting in inefficient and
wasteful application of labor and smaller crops per man, although
probably larger crops per acre.

(b) Development of a class of landed proprietors on the one hand and a
landless agricultural proletariat on the other.

It is true that the great mass of unskilled labor which has come to the
United States in the last few decades has made possible the development
of many industries that have furnished an increased number of good jobs
to men of intelligence, but many who have made a close study of the
immigration problem think that despite this, unskilled labor has been
coming in altogether too large quantities. Professor Ross publishes the
following illustration:

"What a college man saw in a copper-mine in the Southwest gives in a
nutshell the logic of low wages.

"The American miners, getting $2.75 a day, are abruptly displaced
without a strike by a train-load of 500 raw Italians brought in by the
company and put to work at from $1.50 to $2 a day. For the Americans
there is nothing to do but to 'go down the road.' At first the Italians
live on bread and beer, never wash, wear the same filthy clothes night
and day, and are despised. After two or three years they want to live
better, wear decent clothes, and be respected. They ask for more wages,
the bosses bring in another train-load from the steerage, and the partly
Americanized Italians follow the American miners 'down the road.' No
wonder the estimate of government experts as to the number of our
floating casual laborers ranges up to five millions!"

"It is claimed that the natives are not displaced" by the constant
inflow of alien unskilled labor, says H. P. Fairchild,[150] but that they
"are simply forced into higher occupations. Those who were formerly
common laborers are now in positions of authority. While this argument
holds true of individuals, its fallacy when applied to groups is
obvious. There are not nearly enough places of authority to receive
those who are forced out from below. The introduction of 500 Slav
laborers into a community may make a demand for a dozen or a score of
Americans in higher positions, but hardly for 500."

"The number of unskilled workers coming in at the present time is
sufficient to check decidedly