Speech #620150399

Mr. Chairman. in recent years the conditions have clianged. and a new state of affairs now confronts us. The class of immigrants now coming to our shores is entirely different from that of the earlier period. During the last 25 or 30 years the source of our immigration has largely shifted to southern and eastern Europe. I can not do better. Mr. Chairman. to get a clear understanding of this feature of the subject that I am now discussing. than to read a brief statement from the report of the Immigration Commission. The part I desire to read is as follows: The old immigration movement was essentially one of permanent settlers. The new immigration Is very largely one of indiViduals. a considerable proportion of whom apparently have no intention of permanently changing their residence. their only purpose in coming to America being to temporarily take advantage of the greater wages paid for industrial labor in this country. This. of course. is not true of all the new Immigrants. but the practice is sufficiently common to warrant referring to It as a characteristic of them as a class. From all data that are available it appears that at least 40 per cent of the new immigration movement returns to Europe and at least 39 per cent remains there. This percentage does not mean that 30 per cent of the Immigrants have acquired a competence and returned to live on it. Among the immigrants who return permanently are those who have failed. as well as those who have succeeded. Thousands of those returning have. under unusual conditions of climate. work. and food. contracted tuberculosis and other diseases. others are injured In our industries. still others are the widows and children of aliens dying here. These. with the aged and temperamentally unfit. make up a large part of the aliens who return to their former homes to remain. The old Immigration came to the United States during a period of general development and was an Important factor in that development. while the new immigration has come during a period of great industrial expansion and has furnished a practically unlimited supply of labor to that expansion. As a class the new immigrants are largely unskilled laborers coming from countries where their highest wage is small compared with the lowest wage in the United States. Nearly 75 per cent of them are males. About 83 per cent are between the ages of 14 and 45 years. and consequently are producers rather than dependents. They bring little money Into the country and send or take a considerable part of their earnings out. More than 35 per cent are Illiterate.. as compared with less than 3 per cent of the old Immigrant class.