The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1910-02-03

work is done except the work of tabu-
lation. 1t is the most valuable for
questions of any report
within twenty-five years, so valuable
that when we went into large estab-
lishments they adopted our system of
in over 100 cases as
part of their permanent index system.
The United States Steel Corporation,
which certainly is not body of phil
expended from 100000 to
$40, 900 of its own money to collect for
the United States Government the in
formation that we have over there in
our records, waiting simply for tabu
lation - We have done our
work. We have expended and planned
to expend large sums of money that
we were directed by Congress to do.
We have accomplished many things
already. We have practically broken
up in the big cities the white-slave
traffic; and if we had done nothing
else, it would have been worth the
whole $650,000. We have a plan which
| think will be adopted for shutting
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 refer
to Senate bill 50S3 of the last Con-
gress-the steerage conditions for i'm
migrants until as between this and
foreign countries they are the best in
the world, and we will go further
along that line before this session of
Convress closes, | hope. We have
worked in the spirit in which we were
Mr.. Macon admitted later in the de-
bate that he received his information
from James A. Patten, who had a
grudge against the commission which
Mr.. Bennett explained as follows:
Mr.. Speaker, am reminded of hav-
ing said that before | had closed |
would indicate what | believed to be
the source of the authority of the
gentleman from Arkansas, and so l
shall. When we came back in 1907 a
man applied to our commission for
employment. His name was and is
James A. Patten. He was the secre-
tary of the immigration Restriction
League | objected to his appoint
ment | said that so far we had been
absolutely free and open and nonpar-
tisan, and that | would object as
strongly to the secretary of the Nat
ional Liberal immigration League as
| would to the secretary of the Immi-
grafton Restriction League. | know
that James A. Patten received the in
formation that he was not employed
because of my objection. He went in
to my district in 1908. He attempted
to use this same kind of stuff, He
tried to get friends of mine to believe
that had defrauded the United States
Government out of 50-cent pieces. He
could not get his stuff in a paper in
the city of New York, not one, and
there are papers there that will pub
fish almost anything about me Qaugh-
teri; and in my own district. with this
fight. bad S,075 plurality, the largest
plurality that any Republican ever had
in the county of New York. Cap
plause.) 1t is from that kind of source,
| say, that the gentleman from Arllan-
saas obtained his information, at least
indirectly"
The Boston Transcript well says:
1T will be a great mistake to at
tempt to starve out the immigration
Commission just as it is about to pub
lsh it's report. It's inquiry has been
the most thorough going ever attempt
ed Immigrants are coming to this
country at the rate of million a
year, and yet no statistics or other
data had previously been available
showing their progress, race by race
in the industries, in education and in
civic affairs Incidently the commits
sion's study included the racial com
position of the children of the public
schools of twenty-one cities and of the
parochial schools in twenty-four. This
study of two million pupils, or nearly
one-seventh of the total number re-
ported in the last census, proved an
exceedingly ambitious project. In full
Ter details the cases of sixty thousand
of these have been studied to determine
the comparative standing as pupils OF
each race, in the different branches
of study, their regularity of attend
ance and the cause of backwardness
where that exists.
THE commission has investigated
the effectiveness of our examinations
at foreign ports; the treatment of i'm
migrants on shipboard and the opera
ton of the present law on their reach
ing our shores. The economic eff
IpCIS Ol lll6 RANT vi III lllCl CIi'
ployes of an industry and the relation
of the newcomers to crime and chart
table relief have been pursued as new
er before. This information has cos
much, but it is well worth having, ant
now that the work of the commission
is so nearly over, the attack upon il
is wholly inexpedient from a practica
point of view, as we'll as being unjust
to a group of earnest and effective
workers"
The people of Vermont know the
chairman of the immigration Com
mission, Senator Dillingham;, too wei
to believe the charges made agains
that body They know that he would
not permit a commission over which
he presided to squander the public
money, or to fail to perform the du
ties to which they were assigned. l
any furthr refutation of the absurd
not to say malicious, charges are need
ed, the senior Senator from Vernon
is capable of performing that tasl
completely and satisfactorily and h
may be counted upon to do it.
The SiIkworm Business.