Mr. Chairman. we are told every day that the cardinal principle of the Republican party is and has always been. protection to American. Industries and American labor. that by levying a duty on articles of foreign manufacture. the product of cheap foreign labor. coming nto. our markets in competition with the products of our factories. made by intelligent. wellpaid American labor. our manufacturers would. be enabled to sell their products high enough to. permit them to pay their laborers a scale of wages much higher than those paid to the poorly fed. poorly clothed. poorly housed. and poorly paid laborers in other countries. � To do this meant an increase of prices on all goods. purchased and consumed in the United States. but as it was the declared purpose of such a law to better the condition of the laboring men of our country it has been acquiesced In by a majority of the people until now we find ourselves confronted by entirely changed. conditions. brought about. as it is claimed. largely by the manufacturers of protected articles who. greedy for still greater profits.. clandestinely aid in the importation of contract labor from Europe. with which they are filling the places of American. labor at reduced prices. so that the American laborer. who was intended to be a beneficiary of this protection system-. now wakes up to find that the cheap labor of foreign countries. against whom he could not compete. are in large numbers locking at the doors of factories. workshops. and mines. asking to supplant him and to be allowed to take their places at a lower scale of wages. In this way the menace from foreign cheap labor. which: the country has been taught by the advocates of protection to fear. has been transferred from foreign countries to our own hearthstone. and the American laborer is confronted with the proposition that he has to pay protection prices for everything he buys. while the only thing he has to sell. with the. proceeds of which to buy.. is his labor. and that the price of this is daily in danger of decrease and absolute loss from the cheap and poorly paid laborers: of other countries who are daily being dumped on our shores by the thousands. who never in their lives received a fair- wage and whose poor and destitute condition compels them to seek work at any price. Mr. Chairman. the whole situation is capable of but one solution. and that is larger profits and more money for the wealthy manufacturer and less wages and fewer family comforts for the American laboring man. Then if you are the friend of the poor man. reduce the schedules on. imported goods so that he will have a chance to purchase them as cheaply in proportion as his wages are reduced by the. competition with these foreign immigrants. and amend your laws so as to make Impossible this system of peonage and commercial immigration. which means- no good for anyone and ruin for our wageearner. Mr. Chairman. this is not an imaginary evil which confronts us. but a real one. and the country is fast working: up so that a spirit of unrest is widespread. among our people. not only prompted by dread of labor disasters. but of the inoculation of disease not only into our families. but into the body politic as well. Prior to the eighties. when the tide of our immigration changed from northern: to southern Europe.. labor troubles were few and strikes were practically unknown. But since their advent in any considerable numbers the country has been the scene of almost constant social turmoil. the result of -innumerable strikes and lockouts. attended. with violence and destruction. not only of the lives and. property of private individuals. but often. times breeding a contempt for the law and a desire to accomplish its overthrow. culminating in such tragic scenes as the Haymarket massacre. the assassination: of President McKinley the assassination of exGovernor Steunenberg. of Idaho. and the currently reported plot against the lives of exGovernor Peabody. as well as Governor Pennypacker. of Pennsylvania.. and Governor Pattison.. of Ohio. The only cause of complaint against any of these victims is that they represented and upheld the law.
Identified stereotypes
European laborers are poorly fed, clothed, housed, and paid, willing to work for lower wages and displace American laborers.