After the war came a third form of forced identity of interest. against the foreign capitalist and the foreign paiuper. and to a rapidly diminishingextent this remains today. But how rapidly this identity is melting out ofsight and existence under the influence of internal conflict I think I see better from this distance than I should ifI were in the midst of it. It is not only pauper labor in Eurole. but the labor of women and children and imported contract laborers and everimproving mansuperseding machinery in America that the American workingman must ever more and more compete JUN 3. with. as our industry develops home competition under a fostering tariff. And the same policy which shields him against European capital and European pauper competition today must do what it can to support his manhoodfor his growing struggle with American capital and American pauperism. if it is to be true fo itself as a workingmens policy. and not. as the freetraders claim. work more in the interestof the American capitalist than the American laborer. And the eighthour law seems to me. from this point of view. not a possibility of the future but a need of today. Sir. agreeing with thd conclusions of this young but profound student of political science. I ask the House to do what may be done to reclaim these inclosed lands for the American laborer. and in due time I shall ask it at the earliest possible moment to prohibit the importation of contract labor from abroad and to establish in this District and in our Territories an eighthour law with heavy penalties for its violation.
Keywords matched
pauper labor contract labor contract laborers