The record-union., 1896-03-30
RESTRICTING IMMIGRATION.
Continued from Sixth Page.)

ton has had upon the wages OF our trade
has been manifested the past year in
several of the cities of this State where
the American workmen have been dis
charged and foreigners hired in their
place at a reduction of from 80 to 80
per cent
And thus I could go on with letters
from other cities and States and other
kinds of business, all corroborating to
the fullest extent, my statement that
the American 1aborer and the American
workman has been crowded from his
place in the shop and mine by foreign
iaoorers; his wages have been reduced
Dy the same cause; and that whenever
ne has tried to redress his grievances
OF protest against the reduction of the
plttance he receives for his toll, he finds
these foreigners, alien to our institu-
tons, our language, our customs, our
thoughts, our desires and our freedom,
more than ready to take his place at
reduced wages, hive themselves in
novels like swarms of bees and laugh
at the misery and degradation and pow
erty that the American workman and
his family are compelled to suffer.
The remedy is not to sugar-coat the
pill nor to inspect the unripe fruit nor
to clothe it with a consular certificate,
emblazoned with red tape and gold
seal, but to say to these paupers of the
Old World, Thou shalt not enter into
American fields of labor any more"
The lessons of the strikes with which
we are all familiar, the testimony of
these workmen and labor leaders, and
our own knowledge of the industrial
condition of the country demonstrates
that we have too many laborers in the
United States, too many men seeking
employment, too large an army of un-
employed tramping the country vainly
asking for work, and that the supply of
labor is greater than the demand for
1t. 1t also demonstrates that the race
of American laborers and American
workmen has nearly died out We have
boasted for so many years about our
American laborers and the high wages
paid to our American workmen that it
has become too natural to US and has
blinded US to the true state of facts.
Ihere are, Mr.. Chairman, at the present
time, say it in sorrow, but very few
American laborers in these United
States, and their number is decreasing.
You have heard the statements [ have
read to you from these men, who, by
labor leaders, know whereof they speak
and let me add little more testimony
from the same people
Thomas J. Morgan, General Secretary
International Machinists' Union, Chi
cago, Ill, writes: "The International
Machinists' Union, of which 1 am Cen
eral Secretary, is composed almost
wholly Of foreign born mechanics, my
self included
A. j. Zoller of Jersey City writes: "For
years the immigration of Bohemians
and Russian Jews has furnished the
manufacturer of cigars a full supply of
cheap labor
Henry Hood, in the Forum" volume
XIV, September, 1892, page ia, saws
that when stranger visits the an
thracite regions of Pennsylvania he
sees thousand idle Americans. and a
like number of foreigners shaving for
81 or 10 cents per day. He sees the
Americans sending their children to
school, supporting churches, living in
decent houses, trying to be cleanly and
10 wear presentable clothes. He also
sees the scum of Europe taking the place
OF the former, content to swarm in
shanties like hogs, to contract scurvy
by steady diet of the cheapest salt
pork; to suffer sore eyes and bodies
rather than buy towel and wash tub:
to endure typhoid fever rather than un-
dergo the expense of the most primitive
sanitary apparatus"
Mr.. Stump himself, in his report, SAYS:
1T is not an exaggeration to say that
during the ten years ending January,
1895, 10000 immigrants have been given
employment in Pennsylvania alone
gradually supplanting that number of
miners who have found it impossible
TO live at the low rate of wages estab-
lished by the immigrants
He also says that foreign 1aborers
who come and go between this country
and their native country, birds of pas
sage as they have been aptIy termed
are a serious danger He adds: THAT
a large number of those counted as i'm
migrants have really been aliens, who
have come and gone (some only two or
three times, some more than ten times),
and who have taken out of the country
the boards, which a standard of living
far below that of the American wage
Garner has made it easy for them to ac-
cumulate." He adds: Intimately as
sociated with the evil effects of the mi
grafton of the birds of passage are
those of the so-called 'padrone SYSTEM
The padroni still manipulate immigrant
labor very much as they please, and it
is thus still possible for contractor to
secure within few hours any number
of Italian laborers, skilled or unskilled,
at wages SO to 80 per cent. below the
American standard"
He further adds "In the shoe trade
large numbers of Italians have been
substituted for American workmen who
We're on strike"
These statements are corroborated by
those of many others which have not
time to read. In addition, let me call
attention to the fact that you can walk
through the streets of Baltimore, Allie
ghany City, Pittsburg, Cincinnati and
Chicago and find miles of streets where
the signs above the doors and the
names upon the houses are those of for
eigners, and the language spoken is not
English. Why as you go through the
streets of some of these cities where
manufacturing is carried on you will
think you are in a foreign country, and
you win wonder regarding the speeches
that are made about protecting the
American laborer, when that same So
called American laborer cannot speak
the English language nor understand
your remarks when you are declaiming
as his special friend and champion.
There is only one remedy, and that is
to prohibit immigration.
You remember the statistics that
were cited to you a few days ago by the
Immigration Restriction League of Bos-
ton, when they showed you that ii per