Speech #620175877

President. it is a remarkable fact that the chief complaint in the United States today for the overworking and underpaying of employees comes from those industries for whose benefit the American people are paying an enormous tax in Increased cost of living. possibly a thousand million dollars a year. The very industry whose hypocritical owners knock at the door of Congress and ask to have taxes levied for the pretended reason that they may pay American wages to American workingmen are the very ones who are working their men 12 hours a day and 7 days a week. They are the ones who are prohibiting labor organizations and who are. as I believe. and as the Senator from Missouri has stated. stimulating immigration. not from England. because the English laborer will not come to America to work for those wages. not from Germany. because the German laborer has refused in recent years to come here. nor from France. from whose industries we have practically no immigrat)n. but from those countries of Europe that are pointed to as unhappy and unfortunate. as far as their industrial classes are concerned. It Is a strange case of circumstantial evidence against the Iron and steel industry. If the fact can not be proven. as the Senator from Missouri has charged. that they have induced and procured this immigration. it is a strange case of circumstantial evidence against them that they are the ones who take advantage of that Immigration when it comes here. In the current number of the North American Review. which the Senator from Texas has just been kind enough to land me. I find a statement discussing Lawrence labor difficulties. We all know that during the present session ~1~ of Congress a great uproar was produced in this country because of a strike. followed by bloody riots and the practical suspension of the rights of Alneric:n citizens in the town of Lawrence. It developed in that strike that a very large percentage of the men and women employed in those mills were foreign born. It developed that they were underpaid. earning six. seven. and eight dollars a week. Now. look at the table published in this article. and I say this is circumstantial evidence against the protected industries. If they are not inducing this immigration. by reason of their connection with the steamship companies. they certainly appear to be the beneficiaries of this immigration. In the manufacture of agrcultural implements and vehicles 59 per cent of the employees are foreign born. In cotton mannfactures 68 per cent of the employees are foreign born. In the lmanufacture of gla~s 39 per cent are foreign born. In the iron and steel industry 57 per cent are foreign born. In ironore mining 52 per cent are foreign born. In the woolen and worsted goods industry 61 per cent are foreign born. That is some circumstantial evidence against these protected industries which are asking to have maintained this exorbitant tariff for the benefit. as they pretend. of the American workingman. Mr.