Speech #590091337

Now. there are a large number of farm laborers coming into this country. a larger number of common laborers and a considerable number of those who have owned farms in the old country. The difficulty is. when they get to this country the avenues to employment are so many and so various. many of which afford a so much higher rate of wages than can be derived from farm labor. they leave the farms and go to the manufacturing centers. Owing to this tendency there is an unequal distribution of incoming aliens among the various industries of the country. and the problem of directing immigrants to the agricultural districts is a very difficult one. although much time has been devoted to the study of it. The committee proposes an amendment to the bill which it Is hoped may have a tendency to relieve the congestion of alien immigrants in manufacturing centers. and in a mcasure answer the demand of agricultural districts for laborers and settlers. The amendment offered is in the form of a new section to -the law. which provides for the establishment of a division of information in the Bureau of Immigration. It is proposed that this division shall gather from the various States and Territories such information as might aid Incoming aliens in selecting a home. and shall publish it for the benefit of such alien�. Upon the suggestion of the Senator from Kentucky . the section was broadened until In Its present form it provides that the different States and Territories desiring immigration may. at their own expense. send agents to the various immigrant stations of the United States to confer with incoming aliens. to present those considerations which might induce them to settle in the States and Territories represented by them. and giving the CommissionerGeneral of Immigration. under certain restrictions. the right to allow them to make a display of the products of their States or Territories at those stations. I will not go further into that question. because I know that the Senator from Kentucky. who is deeply interested in it. as Kentucky very much desires agricultural laborers. wishes to speak upon it.