Speech #620115504

The commission found that the great mass of common labor coming into this country in the last 10 years has overstocked the market for common labor. that the great majority of that class of immigrants have gone into those sections of the country where the basic industries are carried on. like those which the Senator has mentioned. coal mining and other classes of mining. meat packing. and various other industries. We found that in many of those communities there were vastly more unmarried men who had come from the sections the Senator mentioned. largely from southeastern Europe. more than could he employed permanently. and that in many instances they would be employed four days in a week instead of six. The commission found that there was an overnumber of those who were classed among common laborers. and they thought it had a depressing influence. as the Senator has suggested. upon the labor market of the United States. and with the exception of one member of the commission they agreed that some method should be adopted to restrict that class of immigration. They recommended that the educational test was perhaps the most feasible method of cutting down the number who would come from those sections of the Old World and seek employment in the basic industries of this country. Now. i am heartily in favor of the educational test for that particular reason. and because I have interrupted the Senator to give him figures which I thought were fair to state this case I would not want to have him think that I was in any way opposing the amendment which he has offered to this bill.