Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-05-08
kN|GHTS0f LABOR
WILL TRY TO SECURE LEGIsLA-
TON TO RESTRICT IMMI-
GRAFTON.
FOREIGN LABOR is A MENACE.
Draft of Proposed Bill Prohibits Japan
csc and Covers the Whole Field
of Labor.

NV oaT NASy
rescntatives of district assembly %,
knights of Labor: District Assembly IS
and 220 of Brooklyn, the Central f..cdcr-
ated Union and the Central Labor Union
of Brooklyn was held last evening in this
city to devise NEAR to secure Legislation
to restrict Immigration. and to amend the
Chiese EXCLUSIVES act So as 10 include Jap
anese in it's provisions. The call for the
conference began by saying that an army
of foreign lai.orers were docking to these
shores and We're crowding into occupa-
tons that We're already ovcrstocked, thus
intlicting great hardships upon American
workmen. 1t was declared that 4 large
proportion of these aliens were merely
birds of passage, and did not intend be-
coming citizens. ~
Delegate VIM. Allen, of District ASSEM-
bly, 40 said that the object of the confer
ence was to see what could be done to re-
strict the immigration hat was pouring
in.
I'VE read that strikes are breaking out
all over the country" he continued. but
the obstacle to their success is that there
is a large amount of unemployed labor
that is ready to step in and fill the gaps.
This unemployed labor is caused by the
great immigration that flows i'll and As
long as employers can get these new COM
ers they will never yield to the demands
of the strikers for an advance in wages
or a reduction of the hours of labor. Last
year several employers tool immigrants
from Ellis Island to fill the places of the
strikers.
THAT there are more men even in the
skilled trades than there is room for, is
seen from the fact that some unions have
-. ! -: 80 49, u = - =. -
tory figures of 500 and $125 and several
unions nave closed their books and will
not admit any one to membership on m
terms. So l do not see how trade organl-
cations will ppose a movement for re-
striction of immigration. 1t is in fact an
outrage on our workmen to allow an alien
to come in and take away his work or
compel him to accept starvation wages
and it is an outrage upon the alien to let
him come here until there is work for
him."
Delegate Allen then submitted a rough
draft for a proposed bill. 1t prohibited
n alien from entering the United States
to engage in occupation who did not in
tend to become a citizen, or who intended
to engage in any congested occupation or
to take the place Of a striker or locked
out workman, or to work for less than the
prevailing rate of age
The bill requires the commissioner OF
labor statistics to collect all Information
upon industry and trade and send it to
the immigration bureau and the United
States consuls. All intending immigrants
must apply for certificates from the con-
suls who will furnish the certificates or
not according to the information they re-
ceive as to the demand for labor or the
congestion of labor in this country.
The bill finally roposes an amendment
to the Chinese exclusion act provided that
all laws now in force prohibiting the i'm
migration of Chinese or persons of Chin
csc descent be amended SO as to include
the japanese in it's provisions.
A committee was appointed to draft a
bill and submit it for consideration to the
various central labor organizations, and
to report.