Speech #600006397

So great was the rush that the steamship companies had trouble to furnish transportation. And these hundreds of thousands took away with them millions of dollars that otherwise would have gone into the pockets of American workingmen. I shall further on endeavor to show the harmful effect of this unrest ricted. or insufficiently restricted. immigration upon the individual and collective interests of our laboring population. not only upon skilled. but also upon unskilled labor. But before proceeding to do so. I shall first quot6 some significant passages from the last report of. the CommissionerGeneral of Immigration. He says in one place that the question " must arise in the mind of any person examining the figures as to whether or not our ability as a race to absorb foreign elements is not on the verge at least of being overtaxed" (p. 5). In another place (p. 60) the report says: What will be the effect If the present phenomenal Immigration continues is a question that Is constantly being asked. With regard more particularly to quantity. the question may be answered by the following illnstration: China proper is the thickly populated portion of the Chinese Empire and is the country popularly thought of as representing the limit of density of population. With a net increase to our population by Immigration of 1.000.000 per annum. which is less than the present rate. and the present rate of natural Increase (14.66 per cent per decade). the United States would reach the density of China proper in about four generations. or. more particularly. In one hundred and thirtyfour years. at which time we would have a population of .)50.000.000. This is In no sense an estimate of future population. it is simply an illustration of the present pace. In another place the report says: Another years experience but emphasizes and confirms the conviction that a considerable part of the large immigration of the past few years is forced or artificial. Two separate and distinct factors are from interested motives responsible for such of the immigration as is not natural . first. the violators and evaders of the contractlabor feature of the law. and second. the steamship runners and agents. * * * An Influence which perhaps has not heretofore been accorded the recognition to which its importance entitles It is the " letter to the home folks." written by the alien temporarily or permanently domiciled here. These letters constitute the most extensive method of advertising that can be imagined . almost innumerable " endless chains " are thus daily being forged link by link. A letter is written to his brother. father. or other relative by an alien. who. after a fewmonths employment here. has been able to save $150 or $200a small fortune In the eyes of the Italian or the Hungarian peasantpicturing In homely but glowing terms the opportunities of this country for money making.