St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1910-02-02
The immigration Commission.

XII
sensation was caused in the House
of Representatives last week when Con-
gresham Macon of Arkansas rose to dis
cuss paragraph providing an appropri-
alton of $125, 900 for the immigration
commission and proceeded to make a
vigorous attack on the commission it
self Put in the fewest words his charges
were that the commission had expended
in a most lavish and extravagant man.
ner $657, 1872 81, that it had never made
any report upon its use of the money,
that it had not made any reports of val
ue to the country, that W. R. Wheeler,
who is secretary of the San Francisco
Merchants Shipping association at a
salary of $4,000 year and devoting
his entire time to the work ofthat organ
ization had also been drawing 81, 500 as
a member of the commission. that Prof.
J.W. jerks of Cornell University who had
been performing his regular duties and
drawing his regular salary as a profess
sor in the university had drawn salary
of 81 500 as member OF the commission,
that the trip of the commissioners to
Europe in 1907 was a junketing trip,
during which little work had been done
and the sum CISCO, 900 had been expend-
ed, and that there was no excuse for fur
Their expense in maintaining the commits
sion. He made point of order against
the paragraph which the speaker sustain
ed and The appropriation was thrown
out of the bill.
This action and attack upon the integ-
rity of the immigration commission has
especial interest in this section because
SEN W. P. Dillingham; is it's chairman and
w. W. Husband of this place is one of the
secretaries.
Congressman Bennett of New York,
member of the commission. was not
present when the matter was under dis
cussion, but the next day he rose to
question of personal privilege and made
a statement in behalf of the commission.
He stated that Messrs. Wheeler and jerks
of the commission had done valuable
work for the commission and that the
former had given up his salary of $1O,-
900 a year to give his attention to the
work of the commission, that the ex-
pense of the trip to Europe hadco $751;
900 instead of 500 900, that the trip was
in no sense a junket, but the commission
had worked hard and secured class of
information that had never been collect
ed by any commission before. that the
commission had secured an increase in
the head tax on immigrants which had
netted the government about So. 100000
and that Mr.. Macon had received his in
formation from ]. H. Patten of Boston
who had tried to secure a position on
the commission and failed.
Some of his defence we give in his own
words. Speaking of the white slave traf-
fic he said:
Men, and women too, risked their lives
to get some of the facts that are in the
white-slave traffic report of the Immigra-
ton Commission to this House We
started our public work, so far as the
courts were concerned, in the city of Chi
cago and almost simultaneously in the
city of New York. There were 27 indict-
ments and IL convictions and pleas OF
guilty, and the fines and forfeited bail
bonds paid to the United States as the
result of the work of the Immigration
Commission in Chicago alone amounted
to S125. 900; and, as | am reminded, our
information is now being used by the
grand jury in the county of New York, in
addition TO some 20 convictions in the
United States district court in that dis
trict.
He summed up the work of the commits
sion as follows:
We have investigated the coalindustry
the iron industry, the textile industry
and the shoe industry, and the conditions
of the foreign born in these industries
1t is into these industries that the foreign
born, who are the most subject to inves-
LEGATION in this country. go. We have
investigated the condition of the aliens
in the agricultural field, in the schools
we have in our records facts in relation
to 100000 persons in this country
We have done our work. We have ex-
pended and planned to expend large sums
of money that we were directed by Con
gress to do. We have accomplished
cally broken up in the big cities the
white-slave traffic; and if we had done
nothing else, it would have been worth
the whole $3.50, 900. We have a plan
which l think will be adopted for shut
ting out the alien criminals, and that is
worth more than all of this money put
together. We have improved already,
and we will improve further-I refer to
Senate bill 50S3 of the last Congress
the storage condition for immigrants un-
til as between this and foreign countries