The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1921-01-22
SUGGESTION FOR
IMMIGRATION LAW

If American workingmen, union
placed by the foreign laborers what
then becomes of the argument that
one of the chef purposes of the pro-
tective tariff policy is to maintain
the high living standards of the
American workers?
That is a question which is bother
ing not a few of our political and
Industrial students here in Winnie
mucca.
Frank Morrison, secretary of the
American Federation of Labor, re-
Gently declared to the Senate Com
mittee on immigration that his or
ganization objected Ito throwing the
doors wide open, flooding the Ameri-
can labor market with cheap Euro
pean labor and denying the American
worker the same protection you give
his products under the tariff laws"
Incidentally, If there is an "Ameri-
can labor market, what becomes of
the declaration of the Federation that
labor is not commodity
The secretary of the Federation is
partly right and partly wrong in his
There is decided difference between
the free admission of the products of
foreign labor and the unrestricted
immigration of the labor itself. The
first is destructive of American in
dustries with no compensating fea-
lures of permanent character so far
as we are concerned. The second at
least has the merit OF developing and
extending industries here. 1t is better
to have the goods produced here by
foreign labor than to have the goods
produced aboard and dumped here at
prices which put American industries
out of business. Again, the foreign
laborers who are paid here, spend
portion of their wages here.
Moreover. it Is highly probable that
thC C4udhiihity Win tiiC piSo~
ent immigration wave is viewed by
some, If not actually encouraged by
others, of our producers is due large
ly to the vicious methods adopted by
Mr. Gompers, and other labor leaders
in their attempt to destroy legitimate
industry. Contractual obligations have
been repudiated, inefficiency has been
insisted upon, boycotts have been re-
sorted to on the slightest pretext, and
the Government has been coerced. BY
their own acts these leaders have be-
Titled the human equation In labor
and made it a commodity for which
many producers find themselves COM
PEELED to scour Europe.
On the other hand. there is no deny
ing the fact that unless some effec-
tive measures of restrictions are en-
acted the alien hordes of undesirables
which will pour into this country will
standards of the American working
men. The digestive apparatus of this
nation has long been taxed to its ut
most to assimilate its immigrants
If some system of dietary is not soon
prescribed we may well fear the tor
ments of political dyspepsia due to
clashing racial mixtures, and ulti-
mately stroke of anarchistic apop-
ley.
Two suggestions have been offered
with respect to proposed immigra-
ton legislation. in addition to the
percentage basis. One is that the
number of immigrants permitted tic
enter from any particular country be
governed so far as possible by the
percentage of that element of immi-
grafton which over a period Of say
the five years Immediately preceding
the war sought to be naturalized, the
number to be regulated at the ter
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