Speech #630056306

In the last part of the paragraph quoted it states only 7 per cent of the foreign wageearning males and 11.3 per cent of the native born were members of labor organizations. Now. it will be observed that Mr. Copeland says that the reason why laborsaving devices could not be successfully employed in Europe was because of the strength of the labor organizations. they being in old countries. with homogeneous population. with a long line of hereditary operatives. they demanded a certain scale of wages per piece. and it made no difference how many laborsaving devices were installed or how great was the increase per operative. the devices simply increased the income of the operative and not the income of the mill. whereas in America. by virtue of the fact that we are the dumping ground for every nationality and race and tongue and kindred under the sun. it is impossible to organize into a compact labor organization alien races. because of a barrier of difference of speech. difference of training. difference of nation. and the consequence is that. according to the testimony of the Immigration Commission. the manufacturers of New England have installed their laborsaving devices. eliminated the necessity of skilled labor. and by virtue of the impossibility of organizing. as I say. these alien people of diverse tongues and diverse nationalities. are employed at the miserable price of $470 per family per year. and with a system that increases as the machinery increases the output for the benefit of the manufacturer. while the laborer himself receives no increase. On page 511 of the report of the ImmigTation Commission. it says: The Americans. who formerly composed the bulk of the cottonmill operatives in the North Atlantic States. at the present time form only about oneterth of the total number of the employees in the cotton mills. and are divided In about equal proportions between males and females. If the employees of the second generation of immigrant races. or. in other words. persons native born of foreign father. be added to this pure American stock. or those native born of native father. the total number of nativeborn operatives amount to about threetenths of the operating forces of the North Atlantic mills. The remaining part of the operatives. or about seventenths. is composed of employees of foreign birth. Of the total foreignborn operatives about onehalf are representatives of races of southern and eastern Europe and the Orient. the remainder being composed mainly of English.