Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1912-03-23
IMMIGRATION COMMISSIONS
FINDINGS.

Bul otin readers will recall that,
In the year 1907, Congress passed an
Act creating an immigration Commits
sion. The act empowered the Vice
President to appoint three distin-
guished Senators, the Speaker of the
House three members of the House,
and the President the power to APP
point three distinguished publicists,
thus constituting Commission of
nine members The function of this
Commission was to examine into the
whole subject of immigration into the
United States. The Commission was
to report TO Congress on the various
effects of immigrants on the native
Americans as to vice, crime, diseases,
economic effects, standard of living,
and ideals. The Commission recently
made a report, and Congress embodied
It in forty volumes.
Professor jerks, the distinguished
publicist of Cornell University, chair.
man of the three publicists, has con-
dcnsed the substance of the forty vol
umcs into one octave volume of some
eight hundred pages. The findings of
the Commission are numerous. This
book is well worth the perusal of all
Americans who have the present and
future welfare of their country at
heart. II is difficult, even impossible,
to give anything like resume of the
findings of the Commission in one
brief newspaper article. We shall,
therefore. endeavor to touch upon only
three or four of the most important
findings.
First, as to the effect that the i'm
migrants have on the vices of Amer
leans Second, as to the probable in
crease of crime. caused by the. new
immigration. Third, as to the eco
nomic effects, standards of living and
ideals on the American population.
The Commission is of the opinion
that the immigrants have no percept-
ible effect on the increase of vice. The
Commission also Is unanimous In the
opinion that crime. other than small
violation of ordinances, of which they
are not informed, is not increased.
The findings in gainful crimes-that
Is in the shady transactions Of getting
mOncy-the native Americans are
more criminal than the immigrants.
| Even in the bringing of diseases, such
care is now taken by inspection at the
places of landing that, practically no
diseased persons come into the coun-
try. The effect most noted and regret
ted by the Commission is an economic
one.
For the most part, the vast number
of Eastern and Southern Europeans
that have come into the United States
are unskilled. agricultural peasants
They are engaged by the great manu-
featuring. mining and railroad com
panes. They work for wages that no
native American. Scotchman, English
man, Irishman. German, or Scandina-
Wan could subsist on. The invention
of labor-saving machinery, and the
mechanical devices invented, enable
the unskilled Slavs, Slovak, or south
crn Italian, to do the work necessary
in all the manufacturing processes at
II pitiful, low wage. Thus they have
displaced or run out, the higher class
old immigrants that have made our
country great, and assimilated so well
with the native Americans. Until
1884, approximately ninety per cent of
our immigrants were English, Irish,
German, Scandinavian, and French.
Since 1884, the reverse is true. From
that time until the present, about
ninety per cent of our immigrants are
eastern and southern European peo-
pie. These people assemble and live
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