Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1922-11-07

Washington, ID. c., Nov. 4.-WM
congress pass a new immigration law
at the approaching session? Will 1t
be made more difficult for foreigners
to enter the land of the free and the
home of prohibition. or will existing
restrictions be so midified as to bring
in a larger and steadier supply of the
labor that is needed in certain indus
tries?
These are questions of widespread
which much will be heard when the
national law-making body is back on
the job. That there will be numer-
u new immigration measures pro
posed is q foregone conclusion, and at
this time it is evident that their fate
will not be determined without a mem
orable fight.
Certain interests want immigration
made easier. First of all there are
the foreigners themselves who are
anxious to get away from distressing
conditions In their native countries and
establish themselves in the new world
of opportunity and peace. Second,
there are the steamship companies
that find a great source of revenue in
carrying immigrants to these shores.
They would find it greatly to their
advantage if the limitations imposed by
! the present Law were removed or so
changed that practically every for
eigner who could pass the mental and
| physical tests would be assured of u
welcome when he approached the
Statue of Liberty.
Various industries in the United
States are also interested in more lib
eral immigration regulations. Notable
among them is the steel industry,
, which is being seriously handicapped
| by a shortage of common labor.
The turnover among the unskilled
workers employed in the steel mills
has always been exceptionally large.
1t is the sort of a job that a man
does not stick at very long after he
can find another at equally as good or
even approximately as good wages.
The hours are long and the work is
greatest physical strain necessitated in
any kind Of labor.
Europe a Reservoir
For years Europe was a reservoir
which supplied a steady stream of this
common labor for the steel industry of
| the United States. There were prac-
tically no restrictions~upon immigra-
ton and the immigrants from the old
world were accustomed to arduous toll
that earned them but a bare exist
ence. They found that they could go
| into the steel mills Immediately upon
their arrival, that their ignorance of
our language Or of the work was little
or no handicap to them, and that they
could earn wages that were to them
almost unbelievably large. They well
coined the change.
In time this stream of foreign labor
was checked by immigration laws and
then came the world war which cut it
off entirely. After the war it was
as if the da informing the reservoir
had burst and there was a prospect of
this country's being overrun with cheap
European labor. This led to the more
drastic law limiting the number Of i'm
migrants who may come from any one
country to the United States in one
year to three per cent of the foreign
born Of that nationality resident in
this country in 1910. /
Under the strict enforcement of that
law the number of foreigners given
the glad hand By Uncle Sam dropped
from 1,0O0.0 900 TO something like 300,
600 III the course of one twelve-month,
and almost Immediately the steel in
tdustry encountered difficulties in Sc
curing a normal supply of common
labor.
When wages of steel workers were
voluntarily raised just at the time
wages in other industries were gen
orally being reduced and when the