Everywhere we cast our eyes it is the privileged that have an interest in obtaining cheap labor in forcing the increase in population. We must ultimately define privilege as any system whereby one man may secure an unfair proportion of the product of anothers toil. The argument I have heard on the floor of this House. the argument that I have heard from my earliest recollections of the discussions of this immigration question. is that the foreigners who come in to accept the socalled menial occupations. to do the socalled dirty work. and thereby displace the Americans engaged in these pursuits. force their predecessors into higher positions of employment. This may be well upheld as an aristocratic argument but never as a democratic one. We are striving to establish justice all down the scale. All of us can not be statesmen. nor capitalists. superintendents. nor even section foremen. nor mine bosses. If this proposition of pushing our own people up be analyzed clear through it will be shown that it has pushed out at the financial top the parasites known as the idle rich. that all along the line it has provided an existence for those that prey upon the unpaid toil of the immigrants. whether he be capitalist. padrone. or employmeatagency shark. It is not a benefit to our people to spend their energies in distribution rather than in production. It is a great evil that so many of us refuse to work at all. and that we are dependent on newly arrived foreigners for necessary labor.
Identified stereotypes
Foreigners accept the so-called menial occupations, to do the so-called dirty work.