Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-12-07
IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE.
Belmont, Gompers and Stratus Opened
Discussion at New York.

The first annual conference ever held in
the United States upon the subject of immi-
grafton began in New York yesterday under
the auspices of the National Civic Fedora
ton Its delegates were appointed by the
governors OF the states and territories and
the commercial. economic. ecclesiastical,
labor and agricultural organizations.
The problem of immigration will be con-
sidered in its relation to the industrial and
social conditions of the land This discus
sion will include the adequacy of existing
legislation. the efficacy with which present
laws are administered and the need for new
legislation
A principal topic of the conference will be
the relation of allen labor to domestic labor
Another phase of the question to be deter
mined is the bearing which alien labor will
nave upon the industrial progress of the
negro, and an entire session will be devoted
To the discussion of the Asiatic end of the
situation
August Belmont, president of the National
Civic Federation, called the conference to
order and will preside over it's delibera-
tlons He made the address OF welcome.
Other speakers at the session held yester-
day were Samuel Gompers. Oscar s. Stratus
and Frank p. Sargent commissioner of inn
migration
There We're seated upon the stage In adj
ditlon to the speakers, ex-Mayor Seth Low,
Leonard Glabisz of Poland, Charles A.
Schieren, j. j. Hannahan. H. H. vreeand
W. s. West, Albert Shaw, Prof ]. w. jerks,
a. + Gardner. Charles A. Moore Samuel
Mather. Edwin L. Scott and Daniel K
Keefe.
In the body of the hall were SIT dele
gates Many commercial bodies through
out the country were represented
At Ellis Island the delegates obtained an
admirable Idea of the workings of the immi-s
grafton law. They saw the steerage pas
sengers Of the Kaiser Wilhelm II passed
. through the doors, and inspected the build
ings from top to bottom.
The visitors watched the process Of pass
Ing the immigrants from the gallery Of the
main inspection hall. A few of them SUBJ
mitted themselves to the examination, being
cheered by their comrades as thew were
marshaled into the pens
Mr. Belmont introduced Samuel W. Com
pers, who said:
have the honor to associate most inti-
mately, the wage earners, l know with a
peculiar emphasis the evils from which they
suffer as the result of unrestricted and un-
regulated immigration. Apart from the or
ofnary trend of immigration to our shores
they are forced to compete with aliens
brought hither by artificial causes There
are three chief artificial stimuIants:
First, there is the work of those who are
interested as carriers in the handling of i'm
migrants.
Second. there are the efforts of the Amer
lcan employers of labor, who are continu-
employed workmen who shall act as a mem
ace to those employed.
Third. there are those tyrant monarchs
who seek to drive out and Cypress the peo-
pie or some particular race as a safety valve
for the dissatisfaction of his subjects and
for the preservation of monarchical insti-
tut.ons
THE situation, as a whole, makes the con-
dltlon of the American workingman eX-
tremeiy precarious. Further, we have the
millions OF colored men, who. while they
have not yet manifested any great desire to
exert themselves for their own material i'm
provement. have to be reckoned with
The American people should adopt some
practical measure which would stop. in a
considerable degree, the wholesale immi-
grafton OF peoples from several monarchical
countries where tyranny. poverty and mis-
cry walk hand in hand; these peoples should
Do compelled to remain in their own coun-
tries and find the remedies there for the
social and economic ills from which they
suffer" (Applause)
Mr.. Sargent commissioner of immigra-
ton, said he proposed to furnish the dele
gates with facts, not theories, regarding i'm
migration
Last year was the banner year" said he
in the history of immigration, with 1.026,-
900 arrivals. exclusive of those from Canada
and Mexico OF this number New York re-
ceived 3l5,o1l, Pennsylvania 210, ToS Massa-
chusetts 72.150, Illinois 72,1T0, New Jersey
57,S5S and Ohio 1881. In other words, six
states of the Union received 16 per cent of
tiie "lloie- % iie west III the great open
country only 43l 81 immigrants found their
way The south received but AZ, 3I3
why this inequality of distribution? Be-
cause the average alien goes where he has
friends or TO a point of which he knows
through friends. Last year nearly 200
men, women and children within sight Of
this country We're returned as unfit under
the law. They should never have been per-
mftted to take passage"
Mr.. Sargent advocated laws which would
put the government inspectors at the ports
OF embarkation and plan of distribution
which would send them through other ports