Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-09-06
A DEAD LETTER LAW.
Hundreds of Contract Laborers Are
Brought in Annually, to
THE DETRIMENT OF AMERICANS.
Inspectors Who Don't Inspect and Careless
Port officials the
The DETRIMENT OF AMERICANS.
CAUSE OF THE EXISTING TROUBLES.
rcoHRrspoSprScr OF THE prspArcHJ

uu1NcIsd1 experience Is CnaL l0eT6 mas Deen
no protection. The law was drafted by the
labor unions, and passed exactly as they
wanted it. Representative workingmen
were selected to serve at the port of New
York as special agents or examiners to carry
out the law; but the efforts of these chosen
representatives of the men who were to be
protected have been ridiculously barren of
results. Large operators in need of labor,
skilled or unskilled, to take the place of
striking workmen have no trouble whatever
in bringing into the country promptly all
the help they want Nothing isJeasier than
to beat the law.
1 have been talking with the Treasury
authorities in New York on this subject
They acknowledge fully the uselessness of
the law, and are very indifferent about it.
One Of the officials of the service says the
Pennsylvania 1nions demanded piece of
crank legislsdo and got it, and now they
are not willing to cooperate with the Treas
ury Department in its enforcement. There
fore, he said, the department people are not
lying awake nights or shedding any hot
Salt tears over the situation.
MUST FIGHT THEIR OWN BArrLEs
liz StAAN ANAbhSA budb II l1l6 1dUOT uulOQS
want protection under this law they must
work it out for themselves as the port
officers are powerless without their helm
Two hundred or 500 able-bodied men come
along in ship, all healthy and able to do
for themselves, and they are let in as ordi-
nary immigrants, yet these men come with
the tacit understanding that they are to
- concentrate at given point where the
labor uniens are oIt on a strike, and take
their places.
This is a typical case. It is contract
labor without contract. Every man comes
as an individual He has been told by the
agent of large employer that there is
job open at so much day for SO many men,
On this verbal assurance he comes to
America, probably with the EMPLOYERS
money in his pocket; but in any event he
comes, and passes the contract labor in
spectors without the slightest trouble The
inspectors are objects of quiet ridicule
among the men who pass them as immi-
grants. 1t is unfortunate that bright men,
as these inspectors are, ahould be placed in
such a position; still, as long as the Govern
ment can afford TO give them IS or IS day
for going through the motions of executing
an impracticable law they seem to be will
ing to stand it.
HEAVY VIOLATIONS OF THE LAW
One of these Government agents, Mr.,
Mulholland, has lately expressed the opinion
that % per cent of the immigration into this
country through the port of New York is
of the induced kind and comes contrary to
the spirit, ifnot the terms, of the contract
labor statute.
A late and rather exasperating instance
Of the evasion of the law is noted in New
England. The granite cutters who are
working on the great blocks that are shipped
by rail and schooner to Washington to be
placed in the new Congressional Library,
had trouble with the association" or COM
pany that runs the quarry, and they threw |
down their picks and drills to bring the en-
ployers to terms. An advertisement was
Immediately cabled to London for the
desired number of stone cutters who were
referred in the advertisement to an
agent in that city. Fifty cents an
hour was offered, and as the price in
England and Scotland is but 20 cents an
hour, there was no trouble in getting very
speedily as many skilled stonecutters as
were needed. The contract was made, but
they came on faith and in body to the
number of $50 or 500 brawny English and
Scotch artisans
TAUGHT TO ANSWER QUESTIONS.
Every fellow was coached in advance and
all were admitted; and within month from |
the time of the trouble the sturdy foreign |
workmen took away from the dissatisfied |
Americans, who had been propitiated tenn
porarily by the company, jobs that aggre- |
gated from 5000 to 81 200 year in hard cash. |
The foreigners did not come to stay as q |
rule, but are described officially as "birds of |
passage" The company has limited con-
tract and could not afford to waste time in |
temporizing with its dissatisfied quarrymen |
and cutters, and therefore gave, them heroic |
treatment with the unfortunate result 1
stated.
This is the kind of thing the contract
labor law is intended to prevent; but it is
about as effective in q case like this as so
many pages of soft brown manila paper
would be- 1t simply might as well not have
been passed.
During the fiscal year which ended june
30, 1891, SlS immigrants were barred and
sent back in all the classes, out of a total of
more than 400, 900 arrivals at the port of
New York. OF these exclusions those sent
back under the contract labor law number
fewer than 80, the great bulk having been
barred on the ground that they were paupers
or were 'ikely to become public charge"
Considerably more than one-half of the i'm
migrants are men; but counting the proper
tion as even up between men and women,
Inspector Mulholland's estimates would
signify the admission of so, 600 laborers in
the course of the year contrary to the con-
tract labor law, or about 900 unlawful ad-
missions TO every one seeking to come in un-
lawfully who was detected and sent back.
ANXIOUS TO ENFORCE THE LAW.
General O'Beirne, the acting Superinten-
dent of immigration at New York, has as
sured me that the Treasury Department is
not only willing but anxious to investigate
fully any chew that the labor unions may
communicate, in order that laborers illegally
admitted may be found out and sent back
to the point of embarkaUion. There is
large fund available for this purpose, and
representatives of the workingmen's organi-
zetions have been asked to lend a hand, as
the results would be exclusively for their
benefit, but thus far not a single effort has
been made by the labor unions, as far as the
department has been advised, to ferret out
cases of illegal importation of workmen.
As long as the people Immediately inter-
ested are so Indifferent, the astonishing
record OF the fiscal year just closed may be
expected TO be repeated indefinitely, and as
before noted, the federal officials charged
with the execution of the law are not likely
to take things to heart to any great extent,
no matter how many jobs are lost or how
many troops have to be called out to keep |
the peace in riOtous labor communities.
have had a long interview with Sena-
tor Chandler, the Chairman of the Senate |
Committee on immigration, on this SUBJ
ject. He has given the immigration Ques-
tion more careful study than any of our pub
lie men and is we'll qualified to discuss it in
ali its phases.
WHERE THE TROUBLE LIES.