THE CAUSES OF IMMIGRATION
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from which more than 80 per cent, of our present
immigrants are coming, are indeed very low as com
pared with those in the United States—often not
over one-third as much. Moreover, the assertion
often made that, owing to lower prices in Europe,
the low wages will furnish practically as good living
conditions as those in the United States is a mistaken
one. While the peasants or workmen may live on
those wages, the standard is far below that of the
United States as regards houses, which are often
mere huts with earth floors; or clothing, which is
scant or coarse as compared with that of the cor
responding classes in the United States; or food, in
many cases the people being rarely able to afford any
food but the simplest vegetables, meat being tasted
only on an occasional feast day, or among the better
classes perhaps on Sundays.
It is to improve these conditions that most of the
immigrants leave their country, often with the thought
of making a home in the new country to which they
can later bring their families, if they are unable to
take their families with them. But often, too, they
take the risk of breaking up their homes temporarily
with the thought that by rigid economy and hard
work for three to five years in the United States,
they can send enough money home to purchase land,
so that they may improve decidedly their economic
and likewise their social status in the home country,
and become, instead of mere laborers, peasant pro
prietors, with the opportunity of placing their chil
dren in a class distinctly above their own.