Excerpt from The Jugoslaves of Cleveland: With a Brief Sketch of Their Historical and Political Backgrounds Coming from a country where agriculture and a few hand trades are the only occupations, getting their first sight of a factory upon their introduction to work in America, these Croatians have inevitably had to begin life in this country as unskilled laborers. Having real natural ability and those quali ties of character which go to make dependable workers, some of them have risen to be foremen, while others have mastered such trades as electric weld ing, other electric work, and carpentry. Many are employed in the various plants of the American Steel and Wire Company, in the Van Dorn Iron Works, the Otis Steel Company, in the Lake Shore Shops at Collinwood, and in the various railroad roundhouses. Many of the girls and women are now responding to' war demands by taking up shop work, in such plants as the National Screw Tack Company. At home these Croatians were poor; perhaps 90% came to America to earn money to pay debts and to establish better conditions for themselves at home; but, as with every other immigrant race, they were drawn from their first intention by the irresistible appeal of American political liberty and economic freedom. Within the last five years the tendency to, buy property has increased with great rapidity, and in some neighborhoods the number of property owners is now estimated as high as A few have returned to agricultural life, and it seems that with proper encouragement, this move ment may be greatly accelerated. This return to the land has been greatest in the direction of West Park. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.