Milford chronicle., 1922-09-01
KEEP ALL UNNATURAL
lied FOREIGNERS OUT
OF LABOR UNIONS
(From the Manufacturers Record.)


(From the Manufacturers Record)
During the steel strike in Penn
sylvania a few years ago an army
officer stationed in the strike region,
in reply to a question by a Con-
gressman, said that he had not been
able to find an American citizen
among the strikers, and some of the
Congressman who investigated the
situation, when they returned to
Washington told their associates
that they had not been able to find
among the strikers anybody who
could understand the English Ian
guage and the strikers spoke no Ian
guage which they could understand.
In the recent attack by Pennsyl-
Vanla miners upon a West Virginia
mine, most of the attacking party
were foreigners and few davs
thereafter a large number of women
Lrom the Pennsylvania village from
which these miners marched. went
into West Virginia seeking their hus-
bands, but the Associated Press dis
patch said that not one of these wo-
men could speak the English Ian
guage.
1t was in the light of this condition
which has existed for years THAT the
Manufacturers Record years ago
urged that no one but American citi-
zens should be permitted to belong to
labor unions in this country. The
unions seek to use these ignorant
foreigners for the purpose of stirring
up strife and are affecting politics by
creating the impression of an enor-
NOUS membership when a very large
proportion of the members of some
unions are not American citizens and
do not know the English language
and are simply being used as tools by
designing radicals. Once more this
situation has become acute and a
letter from Mr.. Charles e. Heillier. of
New York, to this paper saws:
There is one other suggestion
Whlcn is worthy or consideration and
that is the passage of a Federal law
prohibiting any alien from belonging
10 any labor union. 1 recently visited
the ConnellsVille district and found
that most of the miners making
the trouble there are foreigners and
aliens, not American citizens, and
they neither read nor spoke the Eng
Ilsh language. They should not be
allowed to come over here and make
trouble for Americans by joining the
labor unions"
This is an issue which the country
must face. In the first place it must
be recognized that we have too many
foreigners of that class in this coun-
try. Infinitely better would it be for
us to make slower material progress
than to make progress by DESTROYING
the foundation of our civilization in
flooding our land with aliens who are
alien in thought, in morals and in
political views to everything which
has made for the safety and the adj
vancement of the United States.
Our immigration laws need to be
made more strict than they are. In
effect we are letting foreigners get
entrenched in order to destroy our
institutions and laws. This class of
the off-scOurings of Southern Europe
should forever be debarred from our
shores. General Grants fear express
ed forty years ago against the danger
OF this foreign immigration, which he
thought might destroy our nation, has
been tremendously intensified since
the time when he uttered that warn
ing. If General Grant could have
lived to the present day and seen
something of the millions of foreigners
who through labor unions help to in
huence the politics and the business
interests of this country adversely, he
would realize that his fears might
soon be fulfilled.
There should be a Federal law for
bidding any alien becoming a member
of labor union, and no alien should
be permitted to become an American
citizen until he can intelligently read
and understand the English language.
American-bOrn boys are not allowed
to vote until they are twenty-one
years of age but the American boy
twelve to fifteen years of age has far
more knowledge of our country and
our government than millions of, aliens
who without a knowledge of the Eng
lish language or of our system of gov
ernment are permitted to become citi-
zens and to vote within a brief time
after reaching our shores. The intel
ligent well-educated American boy
must wait until he is twenty-One, but !
the ignorant foreigner and debased |
alien can become an American citizen
and vote when he is as ignorant Of our |
country, our laws and our form of |
as a HOttentot, and by |
becoming a member of a labor union |
even the alien eXerts a great power |
for evil in our political and business