Speech #620269503

Gonipers. lresident of the American Federation of Labor. said: The reader of this indictment of Americas civilization may well wonder if there could be worse conditions for the burean to investigate and describe. In the body of the report. of which tilere are 184 pages. and diagraimls besides. the details bear out 1i10 ugly summllatry. If there are any Iodily ills or human brutishness or crooked customs or skin games to which tie immigrants are not exposed. from their landing at Ellis Island until they either go back home to Europe or get away from the clutches of the harpies that beset them here. it would be interesting to have them set forth. The record of the ills under which they suffer. as given In the report. is sickening. and the thought that most of thcm come from the immigrants own countrymen or from men who should be their protectors is. in the extreme. discouraging. The question naturally arises. Why do the inmigrants come at all. when their experiences are so outrageously bad as here officially given? Do they know beforehand the risks they run of misfortune iu endless forms? 0r. bad as conditions are for them here. are they possibly worse oft in their own country? Of coures there are immigrants and immigrants. The attention of tle bureau Is naturally taken tip with the case of the poorest. most ignorant. most helpless. But of these there are great numbers. The moving sentiments of the chief investigator. Frances E. Kellor. with regard to the immigrants are well known. They are humanitarian.. We all sympathize with her work. As a fact. on reading her statements one is seized with the feeling that there is urgent need for her work. and nothing else is to be done but have her go on witll it. She is tackling. in a nay creditable to her heart. one phase of immigration. One plase only. There are larger phases. The one having the closest interest to American labor is the bearing that immigration has upon American labora matter frequently dealt withi in this magazine. We make note of it now merely to denoto our position and not to dwell upon it or even to restate it. It is unchanged. But when we contemplate the fate of the lorde of immigrants arriving in New York we do not feel pIroud of what is being done with them by our country. The opporlunty for the poor of all lands. of which our people once boasted. is a sadly dwindled vision. Organized labor for more than a quarter of a century has persistently sought the passage by Congress of restrictive immigration laws. Some steps in that direction have been taken. but as yet they have been entirely inadequate for the protection desired]. Every commission that has been appointed by our Govermnent has recomlmlended that immisigration be restricted. and about all. if not all. have recommended the educational test as the liost feasible-. The provisions of this bill are very moderate. and it seems to me that no patriotic American who understands the need of solving this immigration question cau find reasonable grounds for opposing this mild modification of our imuigration laws. It has been argued here by some that we need these poor foreigners for the purpose of doing our drudgery. In other words. these men seen to favor unlimited immigration. so that the shackles of industrial slavery may be clamped upon the incoming foreigners as fast as they arrive. and this. in nsy opinion. is far msore brutal than the negrochattel slavery which existed before the Civil War. To their further contention that Americans Will not do the work that the foreign pauper labor is employed to do. I say that if a sutlicient wage scale were maintalined aiid the nen were employed under equitable working conditions. such as 1n eighthour day. and so forth. it would not be difficult to find willing.American workmnl on hand to do the work. And if it were possible to effect a law that would require the payment of t fair niuinuin wage and all eighthour day the employers of this country woud not desire to employ foreigners in ])reference to Americans. as is tile case today with the United States Steel Trust and other large industrial corporations. and evidence of which is found in the following advertisement appearing in the Pittsburgh papers not long ago: )ien faited. tinners. catchers. and helpers. to work in open shops.