The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-12-19
UNJUST TO OUR OWN.
$25,OO0,000 Taken to Great Britain
and Italy by Laborers Every Year.
FOREIGN BIRDS FATTEN HERE.
Competition &sith the sordid and
Wretched Interiopers impossible, and
for Every Dollar Taken away Ameri-
cans suffer-How Can IL be stopped?

NEW YORK, Dec l9.-The extent to
which money is carried out OF this coun-
try may be partially realized when IL Is
:onsidered.that more than seventeen thou
sand Italians have gone home in the
steerages of the big liners this year so far,
aud the Mulberry street bankers say that
each man carried back with him at least
$50, and that fair average would be
$3.50. That is s., ,250. 900 taken out of Amer
ica to be spent in another country. It's
holders could not possibly have made that
sum in their own country, where the
wages are low aud the taxes high. Yet
when they come to America, where these
conditions are reversed aud are able to
speedily ge together what in their eyes
are small fsrtunes they do not spend a
cent more than is absolutely necessary
here, but take their savings to enrich the
mother country. which did so little for
them. They work so cheaply that the
American laborer, whose wages would be
spent among his neighbors to the ulti-
mate benefit OF the country at large, cam
not compete with them, and his Id leness.
unproductiveness and. poverty doubles
the de bit on Uncle Sans ledgers.
John Ball the Main Beneficiary.
But the Italiaps are few as compared
with the great number of birds of pass
age" as they are generally called, who
go between Liverpool and Glasgow and
New York, Boston and Philadelphia
every year. The commissioners who
went abroad under the orders of Secre-
tary Foster in 1901 to gather information
fer Congress on the enforcement oil the
Alien Contract Labor law. reported that
the books OF the Government Board OF
Trade of Great Britain showed that
$1,000 steerage passengers were carried
back to Liverpool and Glasgow in the
year ending JuOe 80, 1891, aud that the
heads OF the steamship companies counted
on taking four-ffths Of this number back
TO America the following year. The
figures for the year ending June 30, 1892,
are about the same. Thus about 10000
more foreign laborers regularly earn
money in the United States to spend it
at home.
These men are skilled laborers-
masons, brickiayers, painters, carpen-
ters ana stonecutLers principally-and "a
fair estimate OF the amount each man
takes away with him was put by num-
ber of labor union leaders yesterday at
$500. This gives a total of s2l.O0O,000
which, added 10 the "a, 100000 taken by
Italian labo.ers and the smaller sums
taken back by Hungarians, Hollanders
and Swiss. makes h round sum of So. .000,-
600 that is made in the United States
yearly and is spent in European mar
kets. No other nation iD the world
would allow such a milking process for
one month. head tax OF Sl0G for every
immigrant would stop this drain OF the
United States la short order.
Some Statistics.
The claim of the Italian bankers that
the "bird of passage" immigration is be
coming less and less is apparently sup
ported by the statistics of the minister of
agriculture, industry aud commerce in
Italy. There were 10S1U emigrants to
America in 1876, of which 10, 156 were set
down as permanent " and S902l "tem-
porary" in 1856 there were l67,377, of
which s4,352 were permanent aud s3.025
temporary, and iii 1891 there were about
10000, OF which $1,000 were permanent
and 1900 temporary.
such exact figures could net be OBJ
tanned for the different classes Of emf
grants from other countries, but
Mr. .Judson n. Cross of the Contract La.
Dor Commission, who paid special atten-
tion TO the temporary emigration from
the British Isles, said in his report:
There is very large movement OF ma
sons aud mechanics, generally from Scot
land, Ireland and England who 40 across
in the early spring TO work in the princi-
pal seaport cities OF the United States
until winter. when they return to
their homes and families. There is
smaller movement from Belgium,
Holland and Switzerland and it sadly in
terferes with our own workingmen. All
these men come to the United States to
live very cheaply and Luy scarcely any
clothing here. 1t is an unnatural com
petition with our mechanics, artisans
aud laborers by those who have no in
terest in our country and who spend as
little as possible of their earnings here
They greatly interfere with the labor
market, which rightfully belongs to the
men who have their homes, their fami-
lies and their interests in their own
country"
Americans X outed Ont.
Joseph Powderly, another member of
the commission, found that from 1851 to
1850, inclusive, $40 697 English, Irish and
Scotch immigrants returned to their
homes. This kind OF competition" he
says lis ruinous To our workmen and a
menace TO any community. Look at the
mining towns of Pennesylvania. for in
stance, Once they were inha bited by
Americans. whose object it was TO earn
sufficient to provide "A home, to educate
their children and keep up American in-
stitutions. To-day tie citizens are gone
and the home of the family is occupied
by from ten to twenty men, who live as
cneapy as possibly ami eventually get
out with their savings TO the old coun-
try"
A remarkable development of these
"birds of passage" Is that they are becom-
] x as particular about the speed OF their
ships as are cabin travellers. The North
German and Lloyds and the Hamburg