Who are the laboring men and farmers of this country? They are all of foreign stock. By far the largest number of them are sons of immigrants. and many of then ire immigrants themselves. Are they so unjust that they would now deny their kinsfolk to come and dwell among them? Mr. Chairman. I can not believe it. It is argued that the immigrant competes with American labor and causes the lowering of wages and lowers the American standard of living. I believe that this is an assertion without proof. In spite of a steady immigration wages have increased. and the American standard of living has not been lowered. but. I believe. is higher today than it has ever been. It is a wellknown fact that the presentday immigrant becomes the unskilled laborer. The native American and the earlier immigrant are the skilled workers. It is true that the unskilled labor is cheaper than skilled labor. and hence the standard of living among the immigrants is lower than that of the skilled workers. Such a condition will always exist. Such a condition is a part of an industrial system. We have unskilled work to do. The native American will not perform unskilled labor. and we need the immigrant to advance us in industry. Since the immigrant takes up the unskilled work he does not compete with the native American skilled laborer. It is sometimes claimed that the immigrant is detrimental to the organization of labor. The statistics of the Immigration Commission show. however. that unions are as strong among foreign born as among native Americans. The following two tables show percentages of different classes of labor organized. These two tables are taken from Senate Document No. 690.
Keywords matched
immigrants immigration Immigration immigrant foreign born