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Show cieney, their Treats tare risen rora $3 or $3 a week Probltss of Pckmg-Hou Strike. . The progress of the strike ofthe unskilled work-f work-f r in.the meat-packing industry has called atten- ' tton to the people who-inhablt that' "suburb" of the Chicago stock yards known as PacWngtown. Alien - In race and feeling and ambition, they are intimately concerned in the solution of a labor problem which affect the whole country. Some insight into their . manner of living is given by William Hard and j Ernest Poole in a recent article in the .Outlook. ' rVactically all of the 15,000 unskilled meat workers in Chicago are foreigners: j ' ( "From central Europe, from the poorest parts of Bohemia, Poland,- Lithuania, j and Slavopia these immigrants have poured in great overlapping, waves info the stockyards. The standard of living of each wave rises slowly, constantly ; sucked down, by the lower standards of Jhe waves behind. Tha. Bohe-- Bohe-- mians, here ten years, live the best; the Poles and Lithuanians, who came nextj liveIowerrand the Slovaks, who came last, live lowest of all. The most . recent comers of the three latter races,' by their bousing and food and habits, show best how the law of supply and demand works here to lower a com-munity's com-munity's standard of living. In scores of houses in Packingtown you may find a double quota of boards, one shift sleeping at night, the other shift, who do nigwt work, using the same beds in the daytime." In spite of the small wage received by the' workers, work-ers, many of them manage to save a comparatively large amount annually, and there are few who. do not confidently expect to return to their native land' in a few years. All the immigrants, however, are riot content with their small wages and their isolation isola-tion from American life. Especially among, the Bohemians is the process of Americanization working, work-ing, slowly but perceptibly. Mr. Poole adds: Through the labor union they have helped to pafca the child-labor laws and are sending their children chil-dren to American kindergartens and school. They themselves have learned to speak English. Their cottages have been freshly painted. Their wives do not work in the factory, but are caring for their . children at home. To keep their wives at home the husbands mustShave higher wages. Hence these more progressive immigrants have been mojt active In tie Ubor unions. Partly through the unions and --ft1 7 through gaining more skill. and greater effl- |