Our tariff laws are designed primarily for the protection of labor in this country against the cheaper labor of foreign countries. but those laws have been directly evaded and their effect lost by the practice of certain employers of importing labor under contract to work for stipulated wages based upon the price of labor in the country from which they are exported. This practice rendered the tariff laws valueless as affording any protection to labor. and Congress very wisely undertook to remedy this abuse. The administration of these laws has developed certain weaknesses which this bill undertakes to remedy. and makes it very dangerous for any person to engage in the business of importing contract labor. The Government should not allow the standard of wages maintained in the United States to be lowered by the competition of foreign cheap labor brought within our borders. We gladly welcome all labor that will enter into honest competition. but shut our doors stoutly against the intruder who would lower our standard of living.
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contract labor