Speech #500108693

It is refreshing even at this late day to have gentlemen on the other side confessing that there is much cheaper labor than ours. and that to bring such labor into competition with ours at the wages it is accustomed to receive abroad would do great harm. Mr. Speaker. the gentleman from Indiana offers only one fact to sustain his charge that the Republican party favors the importation of cheap labor. and that is the fact that in midst of the war when five hundred thousand citizens were in the field fighting to preserve the Government. and when it was found that there was insufficient labor to produce the food and furnish the supplies needed by our Army and our population. on recommendation of President Lincoln an act was passed to encourage immigration by authorizing immigrants to make agreements to pay for their passage out of their earnings after arrival. It is the judgment of eminent military men that this act materially aided to strengthen the Union cause. without reducing the wages of a single workman. If our blockade of the Southern coast bad not prevented the South from receiving substantially the same aid. the contest for the preservation of the Government might have been greatly prolonged. The gentleman from Indiana complains that this act was not repealed as soon as the war closed. It should be borne in mind that immediately after the war there was such an increased demand for labor in consequence of the revival of suspended industries. particularly railroad building. and such a desire to recuperate our resources by filling up the far West with settlers. that many States took measures on their own account to encourage immigration. and it is not surprising that these facts led the General Government to delay the repeal of the act passed during the war. It is not surprising also that the Democratic party. which controlled both Senate and -House from March 4. 1879. to March 4. 1881. should not have thought it necessary to repeal the law. When. however. it became evident that the act of 1864 was being used to import laborers under contracts made abroad at lower wages than prevailed here. the Fortyeighth Congress. composed of a Democratic House and a Republican Senate. united in repealing it and in unanimously enacting a new law prohibiting the importation of contract labor. paupers. convicts. and other undesirable immigrants. This act was approved by a Republican President. Why the gentleman from Indiana should take all the credit to the Democrats for an act passed under such circumstances. can be explained only on the ground that "drowning men. even in a political sense. "catch at straws." Surely.