I have but little further to say upon this very important question. for it certainly is important to the consumers of coal in this country. I want to repeat. and I want to emphasize. and I want to italicize. if I can. the fact that the coal miners of this country are the poorest paid class of laborers we have. and I want to emphasize the further fact that the law of the United States against the importation of contract laborers is absolutely and unqualifiedly set at defiance. that the owners of these coal mines bring from any port of Europe they see fit any class of laborers they see proper. that these laborers come under a contract to labor in this country. and they pass the inspection office by some meansI do not know howbut they come into this country by the thousands and by the hundreds of thousands. I want. Mr. President. to repeat. that the great body of coal miners in this countryand I am not speaking now of American citizens. but of that class of people who are brought here under a system of contract laborbecome paupers within thirty days of the time they are thrown out of their occupation. In fact. not one out of a hundred of them ever leaves his employment with a cent in his pocket. and the very contract. which is the consummation of infamy itself. which was just read here. shows conclusively that it is the policy of those companies to rob their operatives of eVery dollar they make. Who before ever heard of a contract that said that an employee should not leave the service of his employer without his consent?
Identified stereotypes
European laborers are described as becoming paupers within thirty days and being robbed by their employers.