Smyrna times., 1886-02-17
immigration.

1t IS a very striking circumstance
that the great foreign immigration to
the United States, which formerly was
our common boast, begins now to be re-
garded by large part of the people, in
the older communities more especially.
with different feelings. Instead of
swelling with pride at the thought that
the republic offers an asylum for the
poor and oppressed Of every land, they
are asking themselves whether the
welfare of those already here does not
require more discrimination as to who
shall be invited.
This changed sentiment as to foreign
immigration finds frequent expressions
in labor unions, and, of course, is based
on the theory that the effect of our
present policy is to flood the labor mar
ket with strangers ready to work at
any price that will keep soul and body
together, and who willeventually bring
down to their own low level all the
WOrkmen with whom they compete.
1t was first aroused in California, and
was directed against the Cinnamon
with such success that the act of Con-
gress of 1882, suspending the immigra-
tion of Chinese labOrers, was passed,
and precedent established which now
leads these unions to cry out for the re-
strictictiOn of immigration generally.
This demand, too, is fortified by rec
concentrations from Commissioners of
the State Bureaus of Labor Statistics
erected in response to the urgent re-
quest of the labor organizations. Mr..
Peck, the commissioner of Ohio, de-
votes a large part of his recent annual
report to a discussion of the subject as
one of the gravest concern, and comes
to the conclusion that if the tide of i'm
migration is not checked the unskilled
American labOrer must either fall to
the level of the foreigner or himself be-
come an emigrant in search of a better
country. Very many of these for
eIgner5, he says, using the common ar
gument of the labor unions, manage to
subsist where an American would
starve, and care little for the moralities
and refinements of life. Nor does he
refertO Cinnamon alone.
One-ffth of the population of Wind
ham county in Connecticut are Cana
dians, who make up two-thirds of some
towns, and they are not any less intel
ligent and enterprising than the rest of
the community; but they have been
brought in great part to the state by
companies which have imported them
and contract or hold them with a des-
pOtic power.
tits different with the Italians, who
come almst entirely in gangs from the
southern districts Of Italy, and, if not
under contract with employers, have
leaders of their own nation, who ar
range for their employment and pay.
The averaged Italian emigrates for the
sole purpose of saving two or three
hundred dollars, competence for him
IN his own country, and then going
back, and he is willing to sacrifice com
fort and decency to that end. Though
| not so industrious as the French Cana
dian, his greed for money gives him
stimulus, and he will almost always
work with a will for small wages, ac-
cOrding to the American standard, eX-
ist on little, and bear any amount of
| filth and crOwding. " His diet is even
! cheaper than that of the French Cana
dian," for, "while the Canadian relies
largely on peas and other cheap and
nutritious vegetables, the food of the
Italian consists largely of stale bread,
stale fruit and stale beer" Mr.. Hadley
therefore concludes that "if the Italian
immigration into Connecticut continues
to increase in the next ten years, as il
has done in the past five years, it is
! certain to become a most perplexing
social problem what effect it will have
! on our native unskilled labor The
result of the competition, in his opinion,
will be that the native laborers will
have to choose between the alternative
"rise or die" and "sOme will rise and
| some will die"