THE PROBLEM 7
they lessen the inequalities in employment due to seasonal and
cyclical variations in industrial activity. The immigrant, they say,
comes and goes as he is wanted, aiding us when the need for men is
greatest, departing to his native country when jobs are scarce.
The maladjustment theory. On the other hand, those who take a
more pessimistic view urge that migration fails to synchronize well
with the seasonal and cyclical fluctuations in industry and to that
extent increases unemployment in dull seasons of the year and in
periods of industrial depression. They suggest that when industry
begins to slacken, immigration continues, and even if it decreases
in volume, the change comes too slowly to aid materially in the
improvement of employment conditions.* Furthermore, it is suggested,
 the very fact that a new supply of labor is available in
times of industrial expansion is a vicious influence in that it enables
the employer to enlarge the scope of his operations readily, and by
this very expansion increases the intensity of the subsequent depression.
 ?
As usual in such cases, there is doubtless some element of truth in
both points of view—that which stresses the susceptibility of mioration
 to employment conditions, and that which stresses the imperfections
 of such adjustments. The relative credence to be given
to these conflicting interpretations can be determined only by close
scrutiny of the ways in which the tide of migration ebbs and flows
with seasonal and cyclical changes in industrial activity.
Summary of the Contents of Succeeding Chapters.
The first of the following chapters is devoted to a sketch of the
major features of immigration into the United States, partly to indicate
 the reasons for the selection of the elements to which special
attention is given and the reasons for the methods of analysis which
are applied, and partly for the convenience of those readers who
have not given close attention to the character of immigration into
this country in recent decades. This chapter can be scanned
quickly by the reader who is familiar with the major features of immigration
 to the United States.
To facilitate the study of the relation of migration to employment
 conditions, it is necessary to have before us a picture of the
alternations in prosperity and depression during the period covered
by our analysis. Accordingly, in the third chapter, we turn to a
3See the argument by Professor Gustav Cassel to the effect that immigration aggravates
 the severity of depressions, The Theory of Social Economy, Vol. II, pp. 545-547.
*Cf. Director’s footnote ‘a’, p. 120.

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