The record-union., 1896-03-30

their defeat because their places have
been filled by foreign laborers brought
here by the cupidity of the wealthy cap
italists of the nation to take the places
of American laborers.
1 do not claim to understand all the
various relations of labor and capital
or of laborer and employer, but 1 do
claim to know that the bringing into
this country of this foreign element, of
these foreign ignorant laborers. has re-
suited in preventing the American
workman from maintaining his rights,
and has permitted the capitalists to
lower the wages, because he has found
his raw, unripe material from the Old
World ready to accept low wages and to
take the places of American laborers
who were contesting the reduction of
their pay.
Wages have steadily deteriorated in
the United States. Why? AS 1 be-
lieve it has been the direct result of for
eign labor competition. Mr.. Stump, the
United States Commissioner Of Immi-
grafton, apparently does not agree with
me in this statement, but the American
workman knows it. The American
workman thinks it is so. You may tell
a man that his head does not ache or
his finger bleed, and you may prove it
to him by mathematical demonstration
or physiological lore, but he knows for
all that better than you do whether the
ache remains or the blood flows. So
say that the workmen of America know
better than Commissioner Stump, who
sits in his office at Washington and
writes his reports while they draw their
weekly pay and steadily count the
diminished amount on Saturday night,
whether their wages have been going
down or not. In his report he shows
that he is in incorrect because from the
answers he has published there, given
by the men to whom he wrote, asking
reply to this question: What effect, if
any, immigration has had upon the
wages of labor or opportunities for en-
ployment in the United States, and
whether or not the existing industrial
condition of the country is attributable
in any degree to the influx of 1aborers
from abroad?" 1 find that nearly all
of the labor leaders to whom he wrote
unite in saying that the wages of Amer
lean workmen have steadily deteri-
grated by reason of the influx of for
eign laborers into the country.
They also say that the foreign Ia
borer stands ready to take their places
in case of a strike, and is always will
ing to cut the price of labor and reduce
the wages paid in the United States.
From the limited time at my disposal
l cannot read the letters of these men,
coming as they do from every State in
the Union, all speaking in the same
tones. I will, however, briefly extract
scme of the statements. w. G. Bal
lard, Portland, Oregon, says: 1T is my
judgment that it can be truthfully as
serted without any fear of successful
contradiction, that the large influx of
alien immigration has been the great
est cause of the decline in the wages of
the American mechanic. The American
mechanic, in trying to maintain fair
pay for his labor, has been driven from
the field of labor by his foreign COM
petitor, who was always ready to take
his place for less wages" He adds:
"Scandinavians are now workink in
sawmills in Portland, Oregon, for 81
and 81 % per day of elevn hours, where
as Americans We're paid 81 and 81 90
few years ago for the same work"
W. F. Bunce, Recording Secretary
District Assembly No. 102, Knights of
Labor of New Orleans, La, writes:
'"The constant influx of foreign labor is
naturally and undeniably one of the
chief causes of labor depression in this
country at present. 1t is a well-known
fact that this Importation of the lower
classes of Huns, Slavs and Italians has
been the principal cause of violence and
dissatisfaction, as every 100 immigrants
necessarily force a corresponding num-
Der of United States citizens to either
accept lower wages or go on a strike
and join the already too large army of
the unemployed"
E. II. Barrett, City Clerk, Bismarck,
North Dakota, writes: Foreign con-
tract labor displaces domestic toilers
and breeds dissension. Political bosses
can dominate and can control the for
eign trash at the polls far easier than
our own citizens. Corporations can
swing them into line and aid their own
interests so-called
Edward F. Daley, General Secretary,
Lasters' Protective Union of America,
writes from Boston, Mass, that ''the
effect immigration has had upon wages
OF labor, in the shoe industry in par
ticular, has been to furnish a supply of
labor from which the employers could
fill the places of the old hands who re-
fused to accept reduced pay, or who
might by strike or otherwise be trying
to better their condition. In all such
cases the immigrant labor has been
willing to work on the employers terms,
and these terms invariably meant re-
duced wages
John ]. Hartman, Whiteport N Y,
r;t ha1inuo INN Or,
quite figure at present in shaping
wages in the cement industry, especially
among the common laborers. Present
indications point strongly toward a re-
duction of wages in the higher grade of
work from the same source. The for
eigners in the Whiteport cement region
are chiefly Polanders, Austrians and a
few Italians. Upon what these people
do live an American would starve.
Their abodes are everything except an
American type. hope to God no Amer
lean will be compelled to live and slave
as they do
w. F. Harvey, Newburg, W. Va,
writes: 1.-THE opportunities for employ
.nent have been reduced proportionate-
ly to the number of foreigners landed
on our shores; wages have been re-
duced at least 20 per cent, directly and
indirectly caused by the competition of
foreign labor The present industrial
depression is due to said influx of Ia
bor"
1. D. Hayes, Dickson City, Pa, after
speaking of the 80 to 80 per cent. re-
duction in wages in the coal mines of
Pennsylvania, writes: "And now you
would very likely ask me to give you
my opinion as to how this lamentable
condition of things has been brought
a ahout But the answer is brief and