The morning call., 1890-05-12
THE EVILS OF IMMIGRATION.

Master Workman T. Y. Powderly has
contributed a somewhat exhaustive article
to the New York Tribune, in which he dis
cusses the i'm migration question as it exists
to-day. What it was in the past he does
not consid or. Concerning its present as
pect he says:
Until very recently the immigration question
was not considered of sufficient Importance to
waste time words on, and TO raise the Ques.
tiOn at all was the signal for voley OF eplthets
TO be fired at the head Of the offender. The man
who binted that immigration was assuming
undue proportions was put down as "know-
nothing" and that charge. once levelIed at a
man, efieciually seal'd his lips or gave him no
end OF trouble explaining 10 his friends that he
was misunderstood.
Mr.. Powderly assures the public that he
is not animated by spirit of knOw-nOthing-
ism, but by desire TO limit immigration to
proportions in harmony with the present
condition Of the country. The time was,
he says, when men who were crowded out
OF the manufacturing centers could go west
and take up land on which to build home.
That time exists only in memory. The
best of our unoccupied lands are in the
hands Of corporations and syndicates. and,
consequently, those which men without
money may possess are so remote from
market that the workman does not better
his condition by locating upon them. An
other reason why immigration should be
limited is the general and growing use of
machinery, which enables one man to do
the work Of many. MIR. Powderlv assumes
that this country would not be sought by
the oppressed of the earth if it were not
that We had constituted a government of
and by the people. but he asserts that
the government of the people has dis
appeared as completely as our free land.
We now know, he says. that there is
no longer a government of the people. but
that We have developed the worst possible
form of goVernment-that OF a plutocracy.
While there is some truth in Mr.. Pow
derly's structures upon the politics of the
day, he will find few who will accept his
conclusions. So far from having the worst
possible form of government, it may be
reasonably concluded that we have the
best. Offices, as he says, are sometimes
sold to the highest bidder, but the people
still retain the right and power to determine
the main lines of policy upon which the
government shall be conducted. While the
Government of the United States has not
at all times been as mindful as it should
have been of the interests of the people, it
has never been so regardless of the rights
of the masses as the governments with
which ours must be compared. From the
immigrant point of view, Mr.. Powderly
concludes that immigration is a mistake.
immigrants do not improve their condition
particle by coming here, and by coming
they make The condition Of the workmen of
this country much worse. Here is the
point in his argument which will not be
disputed in its reference to the consequences
Of immigration to the workmen of this
country. Whether the immigrant improves
his condition by coming or not, there is no
doubt but that the large addition to the
labor force of the country is an INJURY to
those who are here. The immigration of
Chinese and other cheap laborers has been
opposed GU the ground that their competi-
ton crowds the native laborer down in the
industrial scale. There are more cheap
and comparatively unskilled laborers to
push into vacant places and underbid those
in employment. The conclusion will easily
be reached that, while at one stage of
our national progress a large immigration
was desirable. the present condition of the
country does not require any considerable
addition to our labor force from abroad