Speech #540118006

I say. then. Mr. Speaker. that. so far as the immigration that comes to us from western Europe and from northern Europe is concerned. it will be affected very little by the proposed law. There is a demand for some legislation on this subject. a demand that reaches us as we sit here from day to day and scan our public journals. There is not a great city in the North that is not organizing charities for the purpose of feeding men and women who are able to work. In my own Congressional district. where we have no large cities. the farmers are providing the coal miners and the men who have worked in the mills and factories of that district with the cheap grain and the cheap vegetables from their farms. in order to keep them from starving. Associations are being organized everywhere. outside of the regularly constituted charities of the land. for the purpose of relieving the hunger and want of the people of our large centers at this time. This immigration that has been thrown upon our shores in the last fifteen years has mainly gone to the great centers of population. A portion of the Scandinavians and of the Germans who immigrate go onto the farms and become producers of grain. but in the main the immigration seeks the great centers of population. and the social statistics of the censuses of 1880 and 1890 show that whilst we had a total per capita increase of about 24 per cent in the decade. the increase in our cities having a population of 10.000 and upward was 60 per cent. and that does not include all that were thrown upon our shores in that decade. In our mining centers and in our smaller centers of population these people have congregated in great numbers. I was struck with a remark in one of the morning newspapers a few days ago. that if we could start every wheel in this country. and give every man. woman. and child employment at fair wages. in the present condition of our immigration laws there would. within twelve months. again be 250.000 or 300.000 idle men in the land. These idle men and idle women must be dealt with and must be heard. I do not speak here for the class of weary men who never want to work. but I speak for the men who want to labor. who have come here from the old country to work. who are out of employment. and who beseech of this Congress some legislative action in this direction as well as in other directions. Now. there is one other feature of this bill. known as the Corliss amendment. by which it is proposed. at least in some measure. to stop the coming to this country of what are known as the "birds of passage"-men who seek our shores at the beginning of the working season. who work for the better wages paid in this country during the summer. and go back to their native country. taking their money with them. leaving their families there. perchance. and then return again in the spring. Of that class who came within the last year there were almost 49.000. The Commissioner in his report. in spbaking on this subject. says: Some aliens come and go so often that old officials at the immigrant station recognize them. They. are each year listed as new arrivals. These immigrants are not considered desirable. as they have no love for our country or its institutions. pay no taxes or assessments. contribute nothing to the common weal. but. after taking advantage of the high wages paid for labor. carry their earnings with them to spend in a foreign country. The statistics of immigration show that during the year ending June 30. 1896. there were between 48.000 and 49.000 of these immigrants. returning from spending their winters and their money in the Old World. or Canada. to take the labor of the American citizen. We think this legislation is in the right direction. I concede that there is great trouble in dealing with these birds of passage. and if anyone will attempt to draft a law that will in any way exclude them or catch them. it will probably prove a more difficult matter than it is imagined to be until the attempt is made.