ASSIMILATION AND PROGRESS 
335 
Industrial Progress and Efficiency 
As the period of residence increases, the industrial 
progress and efficiency of the immigrant is noticeable. 
Handicapped as the southern or eastern European 
ls > however, by an absence of industrial training and 
experience and the inability to speak English, progress 
must needs be very slow. The greatest obstacle to a 
more rapid industrial advancement, as in the case of 
other lines of progress, lies in the fact that the recent 
immigrant can not speak English and, as a rule, is so 
isolated in his working and living arrangements, that 
he has little opportunity to acquire the language. In 
this connection his attitude toward the industry in 
w hich he is employed should also be considered. In 
general, it may be said that the southern and eastern 
'uropean often does not intend to remain permanently 
m the country or at the work in which he is engaged. 
ls primary object is to earn as much as possible 
within a limited period of time under the conditions 
employment obtaining at the time he begins his 
work. He is not looking to advancement in the scale 
. occupations, or to gaining permanently a position 
m any branch of mining or of manufacturing. Conse 
quently, industrial progress is an individual and not a 
racial phenomenon. Representatives of all the races of 
recent arrival in the United States are indeed found 
scattered through the higher and more remunerative 
occupations in the principal branches of mining and 
manufacturing. Very rarely, however, is a recent im 
migrant employed in a supervisory or administrative 
position of any importance. The great mass of for- 
e ign-born workmen remain in the ranks of unskilled, 
° r semi-skilled, laborers. In cotton and woolen goods