The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-03-31
FARMERS INDORsE BILL

to go. (ApplauseD
 FARMERS INDORSE BILL
 That Is the National grande or Pat rons of Husbandry of the north. Mr. [ Chairman; then. there is the great Farm CTS union of the south; the great Feder- ation of Labor. with 100000 toilers, has ! indorsed it: the railroad brotherhoods, with over 50OOO0 members; then there are the patriotic organizations that gentlemen
 have attempted to decry, which have in- dorsed it. And in attacking those organ izations gentlemen have undertaken to inject a religious prejudice into the mat ter-it has come entirely from and been by those opposed to the bill-knowing that it is the song of the dying swan One man undertook to pose as Presby- terian elder and represent the great Cath ollie communities of the country. I answer that by reading from the declaration of a member of this House. who is himself a Knight of Columbus and Roman Cath olic. ! read now from the speech of the ; gentleman from Kentucky (AIr. Johnson): " It is not pretended by anybody that any provision of this bill is aimed at Catholic France. or at Ireland, or at Hol land or at Germany neither is 1t aimed at England. where there Is union of church and state. Those who favor this bill out of apprehension of union of | church and state in this country are with cut argument, while those who oppose 1t simply because the others are for it are not sufficiently broad and do not search for potent and substantial reasons be- yond those fallacies.'
 Away back wonder in time the state ment was made that He that provideth not for his own household, had denied l the faith. and was worse than an infidel, and at the same time was asked the question. How much better is man than utn Tn1o l ringing down through the 2000 years and l Is asked of those gentlemen who want to protect the great industries of the country and yet are not willing to protect the men who toll in those industries-how
 much better is a man than a sheep? (Ap- plauseD Oh, these gentlemen from Bos- i ting I want to read just a little extract
 from Hon. Henry J. Skefington, the com
 missioner of immigration at Boston. This 1 United States officials says in his official report for 1915
 1 The foreign element of the popula ton | of Massachusetts. according to statistics | constitutes more than 50 per cent of the | total population. These figures suggest the price that is being paid for unre-
 stricted immigration
 | After the war comes the deluge' l lGentlemen. there is no question about | that. l have not time to read from the strong logical statements of President | Compers two years ago and Secretary Morrison last year and this year be-
 fore the committee, and the statement
 of Professor Jenks, who was a former
 member of the commission, calling at. tention to previous wars: but when the i flags are furled and some great nations l. are defeated, who doubts that the best
 of those people will stay at home? MT. 1 Chairman, l saw that condition in our
 own southland. Those who were among
 the best stayed during the civil war,
 and many of those who were not the best left for other sections After that
 war was oyer-after the stars and bars
 was furled forever--those who stayed
 were the ones who rebuilt and who lrehabilitated my desoiated and ruined country So, MT. Chairman, it will be I on the other side after this terrible
 conflict there. The patriotic people wio | love their homes. who love their faini- | lies, moved and inspired by the spirit
 of true patriotism and love of country, will remain there, but the slums of tho
 cities, the crippled, the defectives, the
 dependents, the despirited, and de- Ilinquents will be dumped upon our
 shores, and far wrose conditions, fear,
 will prevail than any of us can imagine. We should prepare for such possible
 and probable emergency.
 RESPECTING CRIME
 II Now, what are the facts in regard | to crime? Gentlemen, here is a state lment by Charles Overlander, one of 1 the commissioners of state prisons in | New York, in which he says:
 "'That our records in county and state
 will show that foreign illiterates have
 committed at least 75 per cent of the entire crimes
 1 That is from Buffalo, N. T., where the gentleman lives. and he is member
 of the New York prison commissions. Gentlemen you will find it that way Why, gentlemen say, oh, 1t does not 1 keep out the crooks, it does not keep out the educated rascals. Gentlemen, 1 this bill tightens up and strengthens | far more than our laws have ever been | frightened and strengthened along that l line But suppose that were true, and ! we do not claim that the iiteracy test | will keep them out It is not proposed 1 as substitute for tests for keeping l out educated criminals, literate insane. l and other admittedly undesirables. The | bill keeps them out, and, gentlemen, l the reading test would keep out hum dreds and thousands of illiterates who | are such easy tools and pliant dupes in | the hands of the literate Black Hand Header, under the padrone system, under ! the boss in the coal mines, and the corrupt ward heeier. Gentlemen, if you want to defeat this bill and desire to l take the consequc1ces. then you can take the sweet unction to your soul that you have thrust a dagger in the vitals l of the men who toll. Talk about men not being in favor of an illiteracy test and protecting labor by this legisla- l ton and yet having labor cards in their lpockets and believing in the principles of organized labor.
 i You talk about the textile mills all over the country, and child labor. Go with me to my home-and, by the way gentlemen have sought to inject the child-labor question. Gentlemen, I have always been in favor of laws in that iregard. was specifically paired for the il child-labor bill recently and voted for the bill creating the childrens bureau. voted for the child-labor bill last Con- gress. Why. when was but boy. as a member of the state legislature, in 1884, when we passed the first child-labor law that any state in the union had I (applause), people came from Mass3-
 chusetts and asked to establish cotton
 mills at my town. and asked me to sign a petition to the Alabama iegis- llature to repeal 1t. I said, No, gentle
 men; I helped to pass that law and | am not eoing to help repeal it. Go
 with me to the textile mills of my
 state and I will show you there girls and women-many of them with hearts as white as the untrodden snow. every one of them speaking the English
 language and many of them t0iiing
 stricken father or mother or child. l realize some of you gentlemen are un- fortunate and feel in a middle of fix :