Speech #510057259

This industry like that of iron is protected by a duty of 75 cents per ton. and if protection is a benefit it is natural to presume that coal miners have realized its advantages. But has their wages beenadvanced or their condition improved? I submit the following extract from the report of the committee which had the subject under consideration during the last Congress. which tells its own story: Generally speaking. the class of immigrants who have lately been imported and employed in the coal regions of this country are not such. in the opinion of the committee. as would make desirable inhabitants of the United States. They are of a very low order of intelligence. They do not come here with the intention of becoming citizens. their whole purpose being to accumulate by parsimonious. rigid. and unhealthy economy a sum of money and then return to their native land. They live in miserable sheds like beasts. the food they eat Is so meager. scant. unwholesome. and revolting that it would nauseate and disgustan American workman. and he would find It difficult to sustain life upon it. Their habits are vicious their customs are disgusting. and the effect of their presence here upon our social condition is to be deplored. They have not the influences. as we understand them. of a home. they do not know what the word means. and. in the opinion of the committee. no amount of effort would improve their morals or Americanize" this class of immigrants. They havebeen brought here in such numbers and have been employed at such low wages. that it has resulted in their replacing the American citizens who formerly performed this class of labor. until now there are comparatively few Americans engaged in mining coal in Pennsylvania. As further illustrating the condition of those who work in the coalmines of the country.