Speech #510212555

Their ambition lacks both in quality and quantity. Thus they will work similarly cheap as the Chinese. and will interfere with a civilizeti laborers earning a hie laborers wages." . The emigration from Italy comes largely Irom the southern provinces. from NaplIs and Sicily. a smaller proportion being drawn from the finer population of Northern Italy. In regard to this Italian emigration Mr. Alden. consul general at fierc. says (1886): "As to the habits and niorals of the emigrant to the United Statds from the northern and central portions of Italy. both men and women are sober and indu. rious. and as a rule trustworthy and moral. They are generally strong. powerful workers. and capable o f enduring great fatigue. A less favorable viewv may ho takecn of the emigrants from the southern districts and Sicily. These are tie most illiterate parts of Italy. and In these districts brigandago was for many year xtremel prvn." rin regard tteemgainfoRussia. Mroung . the consul general sy "The Government of Russia does not encourage emigration. On the contrary. it prohibits all Russian subjects from leaving the Empire of Russia. cxrcept Poles acnd Jews. * " The M[ennonites have emigrated perhaps more xtcn~ively than any oilier class of Russian subjects. " * " The lowest cla- es generally form the greater part of emigration." Thu. it is proved. first. that immigration to this country is increasing and. s~econd. that it is making its greatest relative increase from races most alien to -The Hungarian immigration appears to be mainly Slavic. and not MIagyar. and hence I have classified it with that of the Slavic countries. thebody of the American people. and from the lowest and most illiterate classes among those races. In other words. it is apparent that. while our immigration is increasing. it is showing at the same time a marked tendency to deteriorate in character. It has been the policy of the United States until very recent years to encourage immigration in all possible ways. which was. under the circumstances. a wise and obvious course to pursue. The natural growth of the people established in the thirteen colonies was not sufficient to occupy or develop the vast territory and valuable resources of the Union. We therefore opened our arms to the people of every land andinvited them to comein. and when all the region beyond the Alleghanies. or even beyond the Mississippi. was still a wilderness. the general wisdom of this policy could not be gainsaid. To the practical advantages to be gained from the rapid filling up of the country we also joined the sentimental and generous reason that this free country was to be a baven of refuge for the unfortunate of every land. This liberality toward immigration. combinedwith the normalgrowth of the population in the course of the present century. rapidly filled the country. and the conditions under which at the outset we bad opened our doors and asked every one to come in changed radically. The firstsign of an awakening to this altered state of things was in the movement against the Chinese. When that great reservoir of cheap labor was opened and when its streams began to pour into the United States. the American people. first on the western coast and then elsewhere. suddenly were roused to the fact that they were threatened with a flood of lowclass labor which would absolutely destroy good rates of wagesamong American workingmen by a competition which could not be met and which at the same time threatened to lower the quality of American citizenship. The result was the Chinese exclusion act. much contested in itsinception. but the wisdom of which everybody now admits. The next awakening came upon the discovery that employers of labor were engaged in making contracts with large bodies of working people in other countries. and Importing them into the United States to work fora remuneration far below thatwhich American workmen were accustomed to receive. This resulted in the passage of the alien contractlabor law. intended to stop the Importation of this lowpriced labor.