Speech #620291700

An argument against this bill? They show conclusively that native Americans have been crowded out of employment by the immigrants from foreign shores. that native Amcrians have not been able to compete with the wages and standard of living that is brought in here from abroad and practiced by the immigrants. especially from southern and eastern Europe. who work at a low wage and live largelymany of themon bologna sausages. bread. and macaroni. as is stated by Profs. Jenks and Lauck. high authorities on this question. The American standard of living and of wages have been lowered to such an extent that an American can not compete with that sort of business. If it is all right and proper for alien immigrants to crowd our native American wage earners and laborers out of employment by low wages and low standards of living. it would be equally all right and proper for them to crowd all other Americans out of their places. and let this country be turned over to foreigners to own. rule. and control. With all due respect for the opinion of the able Member from Missouri. I can not concur in that character of logic. As has been suggested. the industrial phase of the immigration question Is one of farreaching importance. It is indisputably true that in many of the basic industries in this country the nativeborn American wage earners have been driven out of employment by the illiterate. nonEnglishspeaking immigrants from southern and eastern Europe. while the American standard of living has received a staggering blow at their hands. The Commissioner General of Immigration in his annual report for 1911 said: A large proportion of the southern and eastern European immigration of the past 25 years has entered the manufacturing and mining industries of the Eastern and Middle States. mostly In the capacity of unskilled laborers. There is no basic industry In which they are not largely represented. and in many cases they compose more than 50 per cent of the total number of persons employed in such industries. Profs. Jenks and Liuck. who were appointed by the President on the Immigration Commission aid who have given much study to this question. and who boiled down the substance of the commissions report and investigations in their splendid volume entitled "The Immigration Problem." said on page 135: In most of the principal branches of the industries the native American and immigrant employees from Great Britain have. to a large extent. especially in the unskilled occupations. been displaced by recent immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and the Orient. On page 136. same book: It was found that only onefifth of the total number of wage earners in 38 of the principal branches of industry were native white Americans. while threefifths were of foreign birth. Almost onehalf of all the wage earners were from southern and eastern European countries. On page 137. same book. they say: More than threefourths of the Iron and steel workers. employees of oil refineries. slaughtering and meatpacking establishments. furniture factories. leather tanneries and finish establishments. and woolen and worsted goods and cottonmill operatives. together with twofaftbs of the glass workers. onethird of the silkmill operatives. and glove factory employeeswere of foreign birth. On page 140. same book: The reason for the employment of recent immigrant wage earners In the United States was primarily the inability of the manufacturers and mine operators to secure such labor at the same wages. On the same page: * It may be said in general that the recent immigrant wage earners from the south and east of Europe are found on the lowest level of the Industrial scale.