Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1886-04-14
FROM THE RECORD.
How Maxey and Coke Voted ON the
Bill 10 Prohibit the Importation
Of Foreign Labor.
Coke's Amendment and why II Was
offered--what s1axey said OF It-Ex-
tracts from the Record,

FORT ORTIZ, litNs, Aprll IL, ie-b.
! TO the Editor Of the Gazette
/ A few papers in the state, in theirefforts
to find something against Senator Maxey
have taken up and repnblished com.
munication which appeared a few weeks
ago in the Labor Siftlngs under the sou.
brlquet of alliances and which seeks to
condemn his vote on the bill TO prohibit
the importation and migration Of foreign
/ laborers. The discussion upon that bill
occurred in February 1885, and Senators
Coke and MaxeY stood together upon 1t,
as they do upon most questions affecting.
| the interests Of Texas, and knowing that
| the provisions of that bill would seriously
affect the agricultural interests OF our
4 great and growing state, they attempted
| to secure an amendment, which was
| offered by Senator Coke and which sought
/ to except from the provisions of that bill
/ laborers to be employed In agriculture and
/ stock raising In this measure, they
lvoted with the best Democrats in the
senate, and their votes win meet with the
hearty approval Of the great mass of peo-
| pie and farmers of Texas. We give below
portion of the debate which occurred in
the senate February II, 1885, as taken
from the congressional record pages 2002
TO zoos.
! The following was the amendment:
! "And provided further. That labor to be
employed in agriculture and stock rails
| ing shall not be included In the prohibi.
tions and penalties of this act"
I Mr.. Coke said: One word Mr. Presi-
dent, as to this amendment.
I As understand the bill, 1t is directed
I in It's effects especially to the Northern
and Eastern states, which are said to be
overstocked with labor, whereas in the
country from which come, and the same
may be said generally of the country
west of the Mississippi river, there is
great scarcity OF labor The bill
without the proviso that have offered as
an amendment will prohibit the ilnporta-
ton Of labor, which means people who be-
come honest traders and landowners, as
well into the South and West and North
west, where labor is needed and scarce,
as in the North and East, where 1t is not
needed. | therefore ask that this eXcep-
ton may be made in favor Of labor needed
in agricultural and stock-raising pursuits.
II is very well known that the owners
of large bodies Of land in the South and
West frequently go to foreign countries
and bring in people who desire to engage
in agriculture, and settle them on their
| lands, making contracts with them under
which they acquire homesteads of their
own on the lands. This practice could
not be pursued under this bill.
| 1t is a fact also well known, / presume,
to my colleague as it is 10 myself that
when we make very large crops of cotton
in the state Of Texas, as we frequently do,
the laborers who make the crops are una
BILE to gather them, and many Of our peo-
pie 90 over into Mexico and gather up
! large numbers OF laborers and bring them
into Texas, where they pick and save the
cotton. That would be prohibited under
| this bill.
| In short, Mr.. President, the great agri.
cultural areas of this untry are not
overstocked with labor, ana the theory OF
/ this bill as applied to theIa is a false one.
| II you will 90 upon the far MS of the South
! and Southwest and West youwill find that
there is great scarcity Of labor. The
labor problem is the one most difficult of
! solution there. Go, for instance, TO my
state, and you will md vast areas of rich
| land, much OF 1t under fence, much of it
! broken, that is not in cultivation because
there is no labor there to cultivate it,.
| Especially Is 1t the case that we have an
| insutllciency of labor Tor gathering our
cotton crops. With the aid of machinery
we can cultivate large areas Of land in
cotton which can not be gathered by the
labor which makes it, because the cotton
must be picked with the fingers, and in
order to save it We must have human
labori there has been no machinery in
vented by which it can be saved.
| While have no doubt that the bill cor
i sat s.tt f,,N 81 Il i
ern portions of this country, 1T will be
productive, as the senator from Delaware
has well said, of very great hardship
upon other sections of the country. We
in the South and West want labor; we
need men, women, and children to labor
In our fields, to take homesteads upon our
lands, and to grow up and constitute a
part of the landholding citizenship of the
country, as the people who 90 there do.
| We do not desire to see any of the
avenues of immigration closed. We are
not overstocked. II you are overstocked
in the East and North, take care of your
| selves, but do not create distractions to
that which Is absolutely necessary to our
! prosperity,
| We can not cultivate our country, we
caa not gather our crops, we can not
| develop as we ought and as we desire to
/ do without human labor and great
many of our laboring people and our best
citizens came from Europe, and immigra-
ton from that quarter sLill flows in daily
with increasing volume.
In Texas there are eatire counties pop.
plated with Germans AID Bohemians. We
have whole sections OF country populated
with immigration of that class, and they
are our very best inn grants. They pro-
duce more, they add ure to the wealth
OF the country than ai.5 other people who
come there. This b.ll viii be a pro
hibition In great measure upon many of
the methods through " mich those people
come TO our country, aud 1t will be pro
hl5ltion upon the same methods in the
Northwest. The Germans come to Texas
and get land; they go TO work on it and
make little money. They send it back
to Germany to pay the way of others Of
their countrymen out. They ret more
land than they need themselves, and they
will send ON TO the fatherland and bring
out a family and put them at the other
end OF the tract, and In little while that
land will be improved and that family win
take It aud pay good price for it. That
Is the process through which our copn-
try Is being settled This lar win 10 =