The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-07-27
LABOR and LABORER
Great immigration Problem Facing
! United States Is to Get
L. Them Together.
Cities of the East Overwhelmed With
Laborers While There's a La I
Dor Famine in West.
from The Journal Bureau, Room As, Post Build.

from The Journal Bureau, Room 40, Post Build
ing, Washington.
tribute the foreigners who come to the United
States, and to locate them where there IS
an industrial need for them, Is the real m
migration problem, says an official OF the
treasury department who has made this sub
ject special study
1--WE cannot solve the problem by merely
eheekng in the Of aew ap
must take more active interest IN scattef-
ing the immigrants over the country. rms
appears at first glance, a difficult thing to
do; but difficulty has never daunted the
American people, and the task. when nolaiy
faced. may not be so difficult as it appears
are made plain in the recent. published
figures Of the bureau Of i immigration u for the
past OF hs sSS ssp were wh desned
to New York, Massachusetts,, Rhode Island,
New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania-
six states. Only thirteen per cent OF the
Moreover, the greater part OF them conGre-
gate in New York city, Philadelphia, bos-
ton and other large centers OF population
New York alone receives, full third OF the
entire immigration, and most of these new
citizens are from the south of Europe, and
and IN h most I9sae
Poles Hebrews, ScandlnaVlans, Germans.
Sloyacks and Grotians
Now many OF these people are doubtless
willing to work, and are able to work under
proper direction But they are thousands of
miles away from the place where the work s,i is
reeking in the slums. herding ten and
twenty In single room, and doing sweat
shop labor at starvation wages, pushing ped
dlers' carts, hawking suspenders, and living
on the borderland of crime, the whole west
Is crying out for able-bodied laborers. Fruit
Is hanging on the trees in California for lack
OF pickers, haryests are ripe and s sta oil
the wheat belt, and college youths are being
pressed into the service at $3.50 and $500 a
day, and farmers are almost holding up trains
in search Of more men. From the Pacific
coast agents have been sent all thru the east
to lecture and publish abroad the great OPP
portunities in the Gar west for able-bodied
pagc-carners.
These facts are all matters of common
knowledge. II Is also we'll known that up in
the NeT ENGLAND states even it. is ~ al most
the demand lie greatly in excess of the supply
And farms once productive are abandoned
and going to waste.
Greek. Jew should not be able to work
in the harvest field. Many of them do hard
sweepers, and even in building There are
many SORTS of farm labor they could do, and
by doing 1t. earn good wages and live much
more comfortably than they do at present
There is land enough to support them; it is
only question of bringing more of it under
cultivation. The land would be improved,
aid the condition Of the people would be made
much better. At the same time the congestion
OF the great cities would be relieved -,
"Tha power of the federal government in
dealing with in coming aliens is quite unre-
stricted This has been demonstrated in it's
dealings with the Chinese. In the case Of
them out entirely. Now 1t Is found that GER
tain of the European peoples are degrading
the social and economic conditions of our
eastern cities. In dealing with this evil
1t Is a question whether these people should
be kept out or whether they should be admit
ted upon certain conditions.
In fn fit,,at ,onfh has, 10
no eeort to dctate tic to the mgra na as te
what he should do or where he should go
after passing the portals He Is left to work
out his own salvation. 1t Is open to some doubt
whether there is anything the government can
do in this direction. Once within the United
Ste ry the n W c It'll en- is % Ttth
remain tole, to be a farmer or a peddler as
the native-born. If the immigrant insists
upon settling where he is not needed, and
Is too ignorant to work out his economic sal
walton, the government may have to go on
the theory that the only remedy is exclusion.
Undoubtedly the president will recommend a
limited exclusion, some measure to lessen
to- oe the snt
might we'll consider the problem Of distribu-
tcn. The time has not yet come when we
labor for agricultural purposes; the prob
lem Is to bring labor ana the laborer to-
gether."
The immigration problem is now up to the
secretary of commerce and labor. The bureau
S OF immigration Is one Of the numerous
Mr. Cortelyou. He has taken it up with
Commissioner Sargent and, in course of time
will work out some recommendation to be
submitted to the president, who will have
something to say on this subject in his mes
sage to congress. Secretary Cortelyou does
not forget that the newly created department
Is a department of commerce AND LABOR
The needs OF the farmers of the west for
laborers are among the problems of his de-
partment. w. w. Jermane