The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-02-04
PROTECT AMERICAN LABOR.
From the Philadelphia Ledger.

From the Philadelphia Ledger.
Congress is to ~ called, it is confidently
stated, to meet in the spring i'm eNtraordi-
nary session for the purpose of placing on
the statute books a tariff act more amply
protective of American capital and labor
than the present one. The attainment of
this object will be secured, it is declared.
by imposing such additional duties upon
the products of foreign cheap labor as to
discourage their Importation, the result
of which will be the lesscning of allen
competition in our home markets That
such would be one of the consequences of
higher duties would be indisputabe If the
importation of foreign cheap labor itself
We're discouraged; but our immigration
laws, instead of dscouraging the influx of
alien cheap labor. distinctly encourage,
promote and foster 1t. These laws We're
originally based upon the magnanimous
idea that the great Republic should be the
home and asylum of the oppressed of all
countries, that upon its broad and hospi-
table hearth and about its generous table
there should be room and welcome for all.
The theory Is beautiful-as a theory-and
it was wise and commendable as an actual
condition at the time 1t was formulated
by the founders of the Republic.
That, however, was a long while ago;
the founders have passed away and new
conditions obtain. Indeed until within
comparatively few years, under the linn
tied restrictions of the early laws the
character of immigration was such as to
render it desirable and the immigrants
welcome They We're commonly fairly in
telligent, hardy industrious. frugal folk
from England, Scotland, Wales. Ireland,
Germany, France Switzerland, the Meth
erlands, Norway and Sweden. They We're
not without means; they We're more or less
educated; they We're people of energy and
morals They went out into the wilder
ness, cleared It, set up their homes, Great
ed farms, factories, cities, beginning gem
orally by building churches and school
houses. They came here to make this
their home, their country. They quickly
assimilated with the native born; they
learned our language, adopted and safe
guarded our political and social institu-
tions; they became in deed and fact
American citizens. In ever lessening num-
| bers immigrants of this class are still
coming, but there are also coming in ev-
cry ship hordes of a different sort, who
represent the dregs and scum of Old
World civilization. In great proportion
they represent vice, ignorance, abject pc
| nury. sloth, squalor and, in part Social
ism and Anarchism in their most dan
gerous forms. What else they represent
is cheap labor, which they bring here and
put in active competition with our do
nestle labor.
Senator Lodges bill aims to discour-
age and decrease this undesirable kind
of Immigration and also that other un-
desirable sort which Is merely temporary,
which contemplates no permanent resi-
dence, no naturalization and no citizerA
ship. Both these classes fill our markets
with cheap labor, competing with do
nestle labor, reducing the wage rate TO
all, and introducing here the squalor de-
moralizing and sordid living of European
pauperism. So long as this condition is
permitted, it will be folly to maintain that
| tariff laws will afford adequate and real
| protection to American labor. To secure
| that congress must make immigration
| laws which are also protective. To tax
the mere products of alien labor in order
| to protect our domestic workingmen while
| encouraging the present immigration,
| which is the essence of the rulnous COM
| petition of alien labor, is pretence and a
| sham. Tariffs cannot afford any real pro
| lection to American labor as long as for
| eign cheap labor is permitted to flood our
| labor markets. The law of demand and
supply becomes the potent factor in such
| case.
Senator Lodges bill may not be perfect
| 1t is easy enough to criticise it, to pick
| flaws in it, and to prove that it might,
| and no doubt if made law, would work
| hardship to many really desirable and
| worthy immigrants; but it proposes that
| justice shall begin at home, and it is in
| tended to protect our own countrymen,
| not to confer benefits upon aliens, prefer
| ring the welfare of the former to that of
| the latter. Whatever it's imperfections
may be, 1T is an improvement on the pres
| ent laws and that which Is wrong about
| 1t can be made right as its execution eX-
| poses its errors. Our workingmen need
| protection from the great mass of demOr-
| alizing alien labor they need to be pro-
| tected from not only its cheapening of
| wages, but from its vice, illteracy,
| squalor, sordidness; its unclean living, its
| lower morals its ignorance of, indiffer-
| ence or antagonism to our political and
| social institutions. However great the
| obligations of hospitality are, we are
| not required by them to invite the leper to
| our fireside and feast; yet that is what we
are doing now in large and Overlooking
mo