The labor advocate. [volume] (Cincinnati, Ohio) 1912-1937, 1916-04-15

trusts are the chief opponents or
immigration restriction intended to
protect American workers, said
Frank Morrison, secretary of the
American Federation of Labor, at Il
recent hearing on this legislation be-
fore the House Committee on Inn
migration. The A. +. of Il. official
declared that American manhood
can not compete with the living
standards of eastern Europe and
Asia and that it ''is unwise to ex-
pect them to resist the tidal waves
of Slav and Oriental onslaught"
He further said:
The proposition to prohibit immigra-
ton to the United States of able-bodied
men and women because they can not
read, has sympathetic viewpoint, where
individuals are considered; but, notwith-
standing such viewpoint, the American
Federation of Labor, which represents
the organized workers of the country,
and which is the only method of organi-
zation or agency which can with any JUS
tlflcatlon or reason represent the unOr
ganized workers, has repeatedly declared
by resolutions in convention that the
literacy test is the most practical means
of restricting the present immigration of
cheap labor whose competition is so
ruinOus to the workers already here,
whether native or foreign
A great deal has been said and pub
lished in an endeavor to create the i'm
preston that 1t is necessary to induce
to come to this country for
the purpose of securing agricultural
workers. There is no question, in my
mind. but that such agitation has for its
purpose the enticng of immigrants to
our country to supply the United States
Steel Corporation, the great manufac-
turing concerns, coal companies, packing
houses, and railroads with men willing to
work at cheaper wage than those who
are born here.
The opponents to this test make the
argument that common laborers would
belong to the class that could not pass
the literacy test, and that this country is
very much in need of that particular
kind of labor.
The great industrial companies of this
country have more men today than they
can employ, but they want two men for
every job They know that unemployed
men must work to live and their neccssi-
ties will force them to accept any wage
ers' wages are literally held below liv-
ing wage by the hunger, misery and dis
tress of the unemployed.
4
cared in favor of restriction of immi-
grafton to maintain uncovered the Amer
lean standard of life. Those who op-
pose restriction are representatives of
companies and associations composed of
employers of labor whose dominant in
tcrest is the dollar, and associations that
depend for their existence upon contri-
buttons from the employing class.
They feel that a reduction of immi-
grafton will result in higher wage for
their workers which will disturb the
profits and dividends from products
manufactured by them, or perhaps they
have been informed that if the steam
ship companies do not receive 100000, 900
a year for transporting aliens they will
raise their freight rates.
This reason will account in great
measure for the opposition of societies
of various nationalities composed wholly
or partly of business men, and the at
torneys of business men. Restrictions
may interfere with their profits.
We oppose any attempt to lower the
standards of American life. We want to
raise them, and we are opposed to the
exploitation of millions of aliens with its
attending evils to swell the profits of
the steamship companies, even if ii adds
to the resources of those companies $780,
100000 year, even if it enables the
United States Steel Trust to pay div-
dendS and interest on Si00000000 of
stocks and bonds, which never cost that
company one cent.
! wish to call your attention to the
fact that industry is protected by a tariff,
but labor is not; that the products of
labor are protected, but we have a free
flow of labor coming to our shores all
the time; that manufacturers have pro-
lection against products manufactured
by cheap labor in foreign countries, but
labor has no protection against the I'M
portation of cheap labor
The opponents of this measure say
that if the products of labor are pro-
tected then labor itself must be bene.
fited, because the manufacturer can sell
the products at a much higher price than
can be obtained in other countries and
will be in a position to pay higher wages
to his employees. The protected manufac-