Speech #480122031

I believe. in the city of New York a regular organization. a regnlar company I may say. of Italians who have brought into New York within the past few years many thousands of Italian laborers. and they have beenput upon our railroads and public works under contract. and always at prices ranging from 50 to 75 per cent. only of the ordinary wages paid to American citizens in the same localities where this labor has been employed. Large amounts of this labor have been employed in my own State. I now particularly recall the conditions under what is known as the West Shore Railroad was built. The great majority of all the labor used upon that road for three or four years was Italian contract labor. The men came in gangs. They were not able to speak our language.