of these gains have been in
trade, in manufacturers, and in real estate as the cities have taken
and retained an ever-growing share of the immigrants. Successive waves
of immigration, composed of different races, have ever been ready to
fill the ranks of the unskilled workers at wages somewhat lower than
the current American rate.

The lower enterprisers' costs that resulted from immigration surely
did not accrue to the advantage of the employers alone. Bearing in
mind the fact that the employing-enterpriser is a middleman,[3] we
may see that the lower costs must, in most cases, be passed on to
the consumers in the form of lower prices of products. And often the
consumer, as the employer of domestic service at lower rates than
otherwise would be possible, gets this advantage directly. This
increases the number of those whose self-interest, at least when
narrowly judged, leads them to favor the policy of unrestricted
immigration, Tho perhaps less general than it once was, this sentiment
in favor of immigration is still potent. The continuous inflow
of immigrants has in many industries come to be looked upon as an
indispensable part of the labor supply. Conditions of trade, methods
of manufacturing, prices, profits, and the capital value of the
enterprises have become adjusted to the fact. Hence results one of
those illusions cherished by men whenever they identify their own
profits with the public welfare. Without immigration, it is said, "the
supply of labor would not be equal to the demand." It would not at the
wages prevailing. But supply and demand have reference to a certain
price. At a higher wage the amount of labor offered and the amount
demanded would come to an equality. This would temporarily curtail
profits, and other prices would, after readjustment, be in a different
ratio to wages.

Sec. 6. #Pressure of immigration upon native wage-workers.# There
must always have been cases where the labor incomes of workers were
somewhat depressed by the incoming of immigrants. Indeed, that must to
some extent always be so when the natives continue to work alongside
of the immigrant at just the same job. But before the Civil War living
conditions were simple, wages comparatively high and (more important)
pretty steadily rising, and the wage-earning class not yet a large
share of the population. Moreover, this conflict of interest was
minimized and often quite avoided by the native changing to another
occupation. In th