Speech #610019343

In many of the mills the only white labor employed is the filer. the engineer. and the foremanall skilled labor. The oriental labor receives less than onehalf the wages paid in the United States. from 80 cents to $1.25 per day. while we pay white labor in our mills from $2 to $2.50 per day. Why did Congress pass the Chinese exclusion act? To protect white labor. yet the spirit of that law is being violated every day by the increasing. importations from British Columbia of shingles made by the labor of Asiaties. Senators who come from the agricultural States and who say that they believe in protection to American labor never had a better opportunity than now to vote for what they voice. I have submitted irrefragable proof that Orientals can and do make lumber and shingles cheaper than white labor can or will make them. I ask Senators to remember the resolutions of the shingle weavers union adopted at the state capital last January. They call attention to the facts that a 30cent duty is totally inadequate to protect them in their labor. or to permit the manufacturer to proceed with his business. that the steady increase in Canadian importations has meant a loss to the white workmen in the Washington mills of approximately $1.000.000 per annum. that the shingle manufacturers in British Columbia are able to inflict this enormous loss on the wageearners in the Washington mills by the employment of Asiatics. who compose 80 per cent of the working force in the British Columbia mills and who accept a much lower wage as compensation for their labor than American workmen can afford to accept for theirs. that the increase in the importations to the United States from British Columbia of Asiaticmade shingles is driving white workmen out of the Washington mills. and depriving them of the means of maintaining themselves and their families. They show that they are idle a great portion of the time. that they are to a considerable extent engaged in producing shingles from fallen. fireblackened. and other cedar that otherwise would be wasted. they maintain that the first consideration of the United States should be the welfare of its own people. and to this end they appeal to Congress to assist them in saving the shingle industry of the United States and to protect them in their wages by fixing a tariff of at least 50 cents per thousand on shingles. It matters not. Mr. President. what others may say in an effort to refute the fact that from 75 to 80 per cent of the labor employed in the mills of British Columbia is Asiatic. and that they are paid a much smaller wage per day for the same character of work performed by white men in the State of Washington. the shingle weavers are acquainted with conditions on the coast. and with the wages paid in Washington and British Columbia. They have been compelled by reason of the depressed condition of the shingle industry to seek employment from mill to mill. and they know. from personal observation. the facts set forth in their resolution.