The labor argus. [volume] (Charleston, W. Va.) 1906-1915, 1909-01-06
OF the Immigrants and
1ndignities to Which
They Submit
Made Public by Irr1rr1i-
grafton Commission
Are Victims Of Cheap
Labor Exploiters.
TROUBLES

The suffering of the immigrants on
their way to this country and then to
the points of their final destination--the
horrors of the steerage, the indigrities
to which they are subjected, the imposi-
tons practiced upon them at Ellis Is
land by the sharks representing all the
swindling :sA parasitic concerns that
fatten on the immigrant s ignorance and
helplessness, the erowding in the coast
wise and river boats-these have been
made known to all the world by the
United States Immigration Commission
And the world, as is usually the case,
at first stands aghast at the disclosure
OF such horrors, and in a few days for
gets all about it.
We submit, however, that with the
publication of it's report on the condi-
tions under which the immigrants travel
to this country and to the places in which
they work, the United States Immigra-
tion Commission has only begun its la.
bors y
We respectfully submit that the time
has arrived for making a thorough inves-
tlgation into the methods by which immi-
grants are being lured into this country,
as well as into the conditions of their
employment, for making these results
public, and for adopting measures to pro-
tect the immigrants against the revolving
cheating and swindling which begins
While they are still on their native soil
and does not end until after they have
been laid to rest in American soil.
What are the methods by which the
industrial magnates, particularly of the
coal and iron regions, have managed to
attract Immigrants in numbers SO ssrge
that there is always, even in the periods
of greatest industrial activity, an abun-
dant, even an excessive supply of cheap
and docile laborers?
What are at present the wages, the
hours of labor and conditions of work
in these industries as compared with the
ltime-somc twenty years ago-when the
majority Of the coal miners and iron and
steel workers were of native origin, or
at any rate, of English speech.
The immigrant has played peculiar
role in the economy of this country The
native or long resident workman looks
on him as an enemy, as beater down
| of wages. The employer, who makes an
extra profit out of the unpaid labor of
the immigrant, and who is therefore
averse to all anti-immi migration laws, by
no means objects to the presence of ILL
feeling and dstrust between the native
and the immigrant workman He even
encourages this feeling SO far as it lies
in his power, for it serves his purpose,
particularly in time of strikes. And
none knows better than he that many
a great American fortune has been de-
rived, in whole in large part, from
the excessive exploitation of the i'm
migrant.
The immigrant laborer is the indus
trial pariah of this country. He is ex-
plotted beyond the ordinary measure of
common exploitation. He is manned and
killed in perfectly reckless fashion, as
in the recent Cherry disaster. And of
late years there has also developed a
tendency to turn him into a political
helot, by making it increasingly difficult
for him to become naturalized. The i'm
migrant suffers under the two-fold curse
of laborer and foreigner, and the ruling
powers seem to have entered into a silent
conspiracy for the purpose of forcing him
to remain a foreigner.