The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-31
CALLED JADES VINCE

MT O'Shaunessy: Will the gentleman yield?
 Mr. Burnett: I cannot yield to the gen. tleman; I have not the time.
 MT. O'Shaunessy: The gentleman said something about Rhode Island and l wanted to correct him.
 MT. Burnett: When I speak of Rhode Island I speak the truth.
 MT. OShaunessy. I want to say that my constituency is a complex one
 MT. Burnett: MT. Chairman, I object to the gentlemans making a speech in my time.
 Now, let me read what the immi- grants official publication says about themselves and their condition. I have here, MT. Chairman, the Immigrants in America Review, and on page IA of that review for March, 1915, published in the city of New York, it says:
 Tn regard to the schools. there are 2,565,012 foreign born in this country 2l years of age and over that cannot speak English and only 35,614 are attending pub lie schools presumably to learn.
 "Only S5,0O0 out of more than 2,O00,00 and a half are trying to learn to speak English. MT. Chairman, they are the ones the illitera tes-that have congested the labor market in the coal fields of Penn sylvania, and yet the gentleman from
  crocodile tears in his eyes about the poor foreigners being driven back to their na- tive lands by this legislation, but he never said word about the poor Americans that the foreigners were driving out and whose places they were taking and whose families were being made to suffer by such ruinous cut-throat competition. (Ap- p1ause.)
 'I can disagree with my republican f,..1 I can see where they can go to the labor ing man and say that the high tariff is for the good of the laborer. On the other hand, I can see that I can consistently argue that it is not that way. but how man that favOrs protective tariff tC protect the products of labor of the fac. tory or mine in which laborers work can favor an open door to those who come here to beat down the price of labor and to directly compete with the labor itse,i is something that I cannot understand and such protectionist cannot explain or reconcile. (Applause)
 ''They are the men who in the gentle mans state advertised few years ago Laborers wanted: Poles and Italians pre- ferred.' Why? For the same identica reasons they preferred them over ther, at Youngstown-just as the railroads pre- ferred the il,iterate Mexicans in Kansas when the letter of the railroad attorne, was written to the Kansas delegation twt years ago asking them to oppose the lit eracy test, because it was said the lit eracy test would keep out the Mexicans 90 per cent of whom w~fe said to be illit crate. They wanted these illiterate for eigners to beat down the price of labor.
 CLAMOR FOR HEARING
 MT. Moore of Pennsylvania--Mr. Chair man
 MT. Burnett: MT. Chairman. I declln yield. I stated at the beginning I dit not have the time to yield, and I decline to yield. because I have only short tim' in which to reply to all these inuendoe' of gentlemen who are from the Steel trus districts whether they want a surplus o servile, cheap labor from abroad to bea down American wages and standards O living. (Applause.) I never heard thu gentleman utter a word in the interes of the boy or the girl of the American working for the Steel trust in his state not one. Gentlemen, who favor this Great organizations of farmers in tn north as we'll as in the south. I havi here the last declaration of the grange | with more than million dues-payini | farmers as members in the north. declar 1 ing absolutely and distinctly in favor o | this bill.
 MT. Sabath MT. Chairman, will tn gentleman yield?
 Mr. Burnett: I decline to yield. and | hope the gentleman will respect my dec I laration.
 MT. Sabath: MT. Chairman, wish
 Mir, Taylor of Colorado: Nr. Chairman