Speech #590022837

Think of it. gentlemen! At the rate they are now coming they would .equal the population of North Caroliifa in less than two years. and a Congressional district as large as my own in a little more than two months. The annual immigration has more than doubled in the past five years. At the same ratio of increase it would require only a little over one hundred years for our country to reach the limit of the density of popalation. By that time we would have eight or nine hundred maillions of people. or a territory as densely populated as the Empire of China. This of. itself is enough to arouse us to a full realization of the importance of checking this swelling tide of immigration. But this is by no means the gravest phase of the question. I concede. of course. that a great many good citizens have come and will still come to us from other countries. but statistics show that in more recent years a very large part of our immigration comes from a strata of civilization far beneath our standard. that they are composed in a great degree of the vicious and ignorant elements of foreign countries. that they are lacking in comprehension of the principles of our form of government and have no sympathy with them. and that they do not possess the mental or moral qualifications which should be insisted upon as a prerequisite to clothing them with the rights and privileges of American citizenship. Moreover. the percentage of this class of immigration is now rapidly increasing. This is doubtless due in a large measure to the fact that the great steamship companies are sending their agents throughout foreign countries. where they gather up the indigent and illiterate. who are willing to come across the water as steerage passengers. and it is reputed that they are making millions of dollars out of this nefarious business. In our warfare to protect the public weal against trusts and combinations we might with profit devote some of our time to legislating so as to limit the operations of these companies. As a result of our lax system of immigration laws. we are permitting our country to be flooded annually with a horde of undesirable aliens. who come here to incite strikes and resistance to organized authority and to infuse into our body politic the spirit of socialism. communism. anarchy. and other evil influences which sap the lifeblood of a nation. If it is permitted to continue unchecked. it can hardly mean less in the end than a change of our nationality. But putting aside for the noment the question of the effect of this immigration upon our Government and civilization. I desire to call attention to another phase of it. The Republican party seeks to pose as the champion of American labor. and points to its tariff legislation as an evidence of its desire to protect the industries and the laboring interests of this country from the products of thepauper labor of foieign countries. I shall not take time to discuss now the question as to the utility of such legislation to that end. but I challenge the consistency of their course in building a tariff wall around this country for the avowed purpose of keeping out the products of pauper labor when they. although having unhindered control of every branch .of the Government for many years. have not lifted their hands to close the flood gates through which the pauper laborers themselves come in. Surely the importation .of the products of pauper labor can not do as much harm to American labor as does the presence of the pauper laborers themselves. The competition is more direct and. necessarily. more disastrous. On the other .hand. it is a benefit to the employers of laborers. because it enables them to obtain labor at a lower rate of wages. So that whatever benefit the American laborer might otherwise obtain as a result of the protective tariff. it is more than offset by the failure of the Republican party to enact effective legislation to keep out the pauper laborers themselves. and in the end the employers of laborersthe captains of industryare the only ones who are benefited. The CommissionerGeneral of Immigration in his last annual report calls attention to the fact that during the last decade the percentage of immigration arriving at the southern ports. as compared with those arriving at other ports. is increasing. This is said to be due. in part at least. to the concerted action of certain railroad interests with a view to diverting immigration to the South in. the hope. of coiirse. of ultimate profit to their business. This significant fact brings the question directly home. to the Southern people. I have no sympathy with the views of some of my Southern friends.. that we iieed more Immigration there of the kind now coming to this country. The men who cultivate their hundreds and thousands of acres of cotton. the men who employ large numbers of laborers. may need them. but the small producer and the small business man does not. It might be better to have them if we -considered the question solely from the standpoint of the present and of the men who desire to make money regardless of future consequences. but we are not legislating for the present alone.