, 1888-07-31
BEFORE THE BOARD.
The Emigration Investigation
Continues.
Dyer of the Granite Cutters
Union Testifes.
Contract Labor Imported from
Scotland.
The Emigration Investigation

NEW YORK, July 30. Just as the
congressional committee investigating
matters relating to emigration was about
to assemble to day a telegram was handed
Chairman Ford telling him that his sister,
Miss Esther Ford, had died died suddenly
from accidental poisoning while on her
way from Lansing to meet her elder sis.
ter Fannie, who Is attending the conven-
ton OF charities organization at Mackinaw.
AT the request of Ford no adjournment
was taken and the investigation was con-
tinued with Col. Ates in the chair, Ford
leaving for Michigan on the first train.
In the afternoon John b. Dyer, secre-
tary of the Granite Cutters National
Union, said he knew of stone cutters
brought out here under contract to work
for George Berry, acting for Gus Wilkie,
the contractor employed by the syndicate
to build the new state capitol at Austin,
Tex. He had brought a number of stone
cutters under contract to work on that lob.
Witness had met them at Castle Garden.
and three of the men were taken before
the United States district attorney, but he
refused to act and they were allowed to go
to Austin. Seventy eight of them came
over and ffty-five went to Texas. They
came over in April. 1886. Witness pro-
duced ar affidavit made by one of them to
which was attached a copy of a circular
given by Wilkes agent in Aberdeen.
Scotland, setting forth the nature of the
work to be done, the scale of prices to be
paid for stone cutters and blacksmiths,
rates of board in Austin, the manner of
paying, etc. One hundred and fifty
granite cutters were needed and a number
of blacksmiths. The circular stated also
that there was eighteen months work to
cut enough stone for the building, the
passage paid by the contractors to be re-
funded out of their first earnings. Dyer
stated that when he found he could not
stop the men here he notified the Knights
of Labor at Austin, and they now have a
suit pending 10 the United States court
against the capitol syndicate under the
contract labor law.
Witness said that the government fur
nlshed the contractors convict labor to
hurry the work. The stone and granite
cutters were asked by the quarrymen not
to cut granite which was quarried by con-
wet labor, and then Wilkie sent over to
Scotland Tor these men. He said Sena-
tor Farwell Was the chief man of the
syndicate, and Wilkie represents himself
as acting for the syndicate. Witness
would not swear that the senator knew of
Wilkes action in importing this contract
labor. The state of Texas gave the syn
dictate 5000, 600 acres of land and the
labor of 500 conyicts.
David Dawson, one of the contract la
borers brought over by Berry, was next
sworn. He worked in Austin for the
syndicate eighteen months. He under
stood before he went there that Wilkie
hol nnnu;ot loIo, -, tlo ,al H.. 80 III
that the %convicts would be taken off as
soon as Wilkie could get enough free la
Dor to do the work. On the contrary,
witness declared. Wilkied doubled the NUN
Der of convIcts. Wilkie paid witness 81
a day, and at his request witness wrote to
a friend in Aberdeen, who on the assur-
ance that there was work for them he Sc
cured about fifteen others who came out
here and were employed by Wilkie.
Witness said it was a very common thing
for the people of Aberdeen to come here
and work in the summer and return home
in the winter. Witness said he could
make S2.75 a day here, but in Aberdeen
he could only make $l.25 a day. Skilled
laborers who come over here for summer
work are mostly stone cutters.
6 james X. Anderson, another Aberdeen
man, said he made s.. % a week at his
trade of stone cutting in Scotland, but
here he made $2.75 a day. He was
asked no questions at Castle Garden when
he landed there,
Stanislans NJ. Lcdocheuski, a native Of
Russian. Poland, next swore that the
Brent, Hamburg and Antwerp steamship
lines have agents there who persuade
people to emiGrate by means of most up
true re~nrpsantatIons The most IGNORANT
and poorer classes are those who come
here. The authorities rigidly enforced
the law compelling all emigrants crossing
the frontier to show that they had suffi-
cient money to carry them through, and
emigrants with bogus drafts, which they
show at the frontier, and which are taken