The San Francisco call., 1908-07-05
GOVERNMENT TOAD
ALIENS find WORK
Plan to Direct European lmmi-
grafton to West for Labor
on Farm and Ranch
By Ira E. Bennett

w NASdlNI lOlN. July 9---ENSTS per-
son living on a rural mail route in this
country will soon receive a card read
ing as follows:
Department Of Commerce and Labor, Bureau OF
immigration and Naturalization, Division Of In
formation. Washing gton-The division of infOrma
tion is authorized by act Of congress to pro
mote a beneficial distribution Of admitted aliens
and other persons seeking employment
All persons who are unable 10 secure neces-
ssry help farm laborers. common laborers me
chanies etc.l should obtain application blank
by. detaching and mailing the attached card
the kind of labor needed.
Officers in charge OF this work viii exercise
every precautiOn I'm selecting suitable men and
directing them 10 destination.
No charge is made or fee accepted, either from
employer or employe T. Y. POWDERLY.
Chief Division Of Informa tio1.
This action is being taken in COM
pliance with efforts now being made by
Assistant Secretary William r. Wheel
sr of the department of commerce and
labor to distribute immigrants over
the country. The division of informa-
tion is really an intelligence Office. II
was created for the purpose of giving
immigrants information regarding
chances of work in various sections of
the country in order that the congestion
of newly arrived aliens in the eastern
cities would be prevented and the rural
districts be assisted in their efforts to
obtain competent labor.
Only one office has been in operation
thus far-that at New York. About
700 immigrants have been placed on
farms in the east, west and south
through this office. Another office is
being established at Chicago. where
there are a large number of immi-
grants Another Office is to be opened
at Pittsburg and later on, possibly, at
Wilkesbarr
1t is a curious fact that 80 per cent
of all European immigrants and 80 per
cent of those from Southern Europe
are agricultural laborers. yet only
per cent of them find their way 10 the
farms after their arrival in this coun-
try. They congregate in the large
cities, particularly those employing fac
tory, mill hands and miners They be-
come factory hands and miners doing
the coarser labor. The reason for this
is supposed to lie in the fact that most
of the immigrants go to places where
they have friends or relatives and stick
there merely because they do not grasp
the fact that further west there is
plenty of work for them of the kind
TO which they are accustomed Since
the shutdown of many mills. factories
and mines thousands of these immi-
grants are out of work. They are hang
ing about, waiting for the mills and
mines to reopen. while in the west the
cry for farm help becomes louder every
day.
COMMON LABORERS WANTED
The experience of the New York
Office of the immigration service shows
that nearly all of the jobs filed with
government assistance call for common
or farm labor. Very few mechanics are
found among the immigrants and 1t is
seldom. that employers call upon the
government bureau for mechanics.
When the bureau was first opened there
was protest against it by the labor
unions, which feared that the govern
ment would becomes busy filling up
good mechanical jobs with raw i'm
migrant mechanics to the injury of or
ganized labor. This, however. has not
occurred. As a matter of fact the re-
suit Of the governments employment
agency work has been to benefit Ameri-
can labor by placing immigrants upon
the farms and giving American labor
that much better opportunity 10 NIL
places in the industries.
The immigrants have no objection
whatever to doing farm work as soon
as they learn that 1t is available. They
are merely ignorant of their Oppor-
tunity. They have never heard of Kan
sas or California They have friends
in the coIliery and steel districts Of
Pennsylvania and they go there as
remain. The government in acting as
the go between for farm employers and
these immigrants performs a double
service for which it charges nothing.
Employment agencies have been dis
posed TO object to the governments
action in running a huge employment
agency. but some of the better in
formed labor agents have discovered
that they are benefited by the increase
in the farm and common labor supply.
L his kind of labor is always migratory
and once the immigrant is out of the
grind of the factory districts he is
ready to go about wherever he Is
needed.
Assistant Secretary. Wheeler. is espe-
cially interested in getting European
immigrants out to the Pacific coast. He
is certain that both the immigrants and
the California ranchers viii be bene-
flied by this immigration. He does not
regard the demand of California fruit
growers for Asiatic labor so much of a
pro-Asiatic sentiment as a pro-Iabor
sentiment The Californians. he thinks.
are first of all anxious to get fruit