Speech #620115482

In view of the fact that the argument is constantly made when tariff bills are under consideration that the wages in our industries are so high that we can not compete with the labor of the chief industrial countries of the world. Mr. President. the pointI am seekoing to make. and it is the crux of the question under discussion. is that the bulk of immigration coming to this country in recent years is from the lowwage countries of Europe. where wages are much lower than in industrial countries like England and Germany. and when they come here they are not only willing to work for less. but they do work for less and live for less than the American laborer. and so they are displacing in the industries. where employed. the American labor. whether native or of the older Inmigrant class. reducing both the American standard of wage and living. That these recent immigrants do underbid and are paid. in the industries employing them. less wages than the American is conclusively shown by the facts found by the Immigration Commission. Undoubtedly the class of immigrants now coming here represents the cheapest labor of Europe. far cheaper than that of Germany and France. and. underbidding American labor. they are employed in the very industries that are complaining that they can not compete with Germany and France because of the low wage scale which obtains in those countries. The same conditions with reference to the employment of foreigners which I have described as existing in the factories and in railroad and construction work prevail in the coal mines of Pennsylvania. In corroboration of this I wish to read a statement from the recent hearings of the House Committee on Immigration. based upon the report of the Immigration Commission. showing that something like 76 per cent. slightly more than threefourths of the laborers in the bituminous coal mines of Pennsylvania. are of foreign birth. The statement is as follows: Of the employees In the bituminous mines of Pennsylvania In 1909 only 15 per cent were native Americans or born of native father and 9 per cent native born of foreign father. while 76 per cent. or slightly more than threefourths. were of foreign birth. What is more significant is that less than 8 per cent of the foreignborn mineworkers were English.