Speech #630162860

But the Nevada. Washington. Oregon. and California from 31 to 42 per reirictionists claim that the presentday immigrant is fron cent of the farming population are of foreign birth or foreign the lowest strata and is an undesiralle acquisition. That claim parentage. is. iot borne out by the reports of the immigration Commission. There is. unfortunately. prevalent an impression that a differis appeirs from the following extract: ence ill religions beliefs is partly responsible for the continued The present movement is not recruited in the main from the lowest and growing agitation over this immigration question. I should economic and social strata of European populations. In European coun- be sorry to believe any of those interested in this matter are iries. a" in the United States. the poorest and least desirable element being influenced by any such consideration. The only persons in population. from an economic as well as a social standpoint. is found I should be willing to have excluded on accout of their rein lhe large cities. and as a rule such cities furnish comparatively few emigrants. Neither do the average or typical emigrants of today gleus beliefs are those who have none. represent the lowest in the economic and social scale even among the Sonie of the labor leaders of the country favor greater restricclasses fromn which they come. a circumstance attributable to both tion of inmigartion. but I do not believe those who hold this nalural and artificial causes. In the first place. emigrating to a strange and distant country. although less of an undertaking than iaiew have considered the matter in all its aspects. They forformerly. is still a serious a1d relatively difficult matter. requiring a merly took the same view with reference to the introduction of degeft of courage and resoumeofuln..ss not possessed by the weaklings machinery. but soon found the use of machinery increased the of any clas-. Tilts natural law in the main regulated the earlier European emigration to the Unted Slates. and under its influence the demand for highpriced labor. preseat emigrution. whether or not desirable as a whole. nevertheless Tile industries of the country require the labor of the forrepresents the stronger and better element of the particular class from igner. and the immigrant is not a harmful competitor of our which It is drawn. .American labor. His employment creates a demand for a better The history of the immigrant in this country is a continued grade of labor and is productive of better wages for the Ameristury in evolution. Take. for instance. the German. than whose can workiugntn. The work performed by the immigrant is of descendants none among our people occupy a more honorable the hardest kind. and to do which it is almost impossible to place. Although they came from highly educated Germany. secure American labor. but it is work which. nevertheless. must amany of them took humble positions. often performing menl.1 be performed. labor "rnd for lodest pay. but they were intelligent. frugal. The foreign element are by no means antagonistic to organthrifty. and ambitious. They acquired property. embarked in ized labor. They know the market value of their work and business enterprises on their own account. and were soon able insist on getting the highest wage prevailing. They are quite to famish positions for and otherwise assist those of their ready to join the unions. and a large proportion of the membercountrymen who followed .Ihem. ship of labor organizations in this country are immigrants or Only a few years ago ninetynine out of every hundred men their descendants. seen in a ditch were knig.hts of the pick and shovel from the The most usual and perhaps just complaint of the repreEmermld Isle. Now these gallant sons of Erin are conductors. sentatives of labor is that labor does not get its just proportion motormen. engineers. fire fighters. guardians of our public safety. of what it produces. partly because capital takes too large a .ind rianagers ill chief of our ship of state. and scarcely is one share of what is produced and partly because there are too lormitted to lanld before his welcoming brothers have him put many drones to support. on the force. It is an increase In the number of our population who will Formerly the Jew immigrants were peddlers. oldclothes men. not work that we should try to prevent. There is much wisdom and shoestring vendors. Today they are our bankers. prosper- in the philosopihy of the old darky who objected to an aristo-� eus merchants. successful manufacturers. skillful physichans. cratic gentleman from another State buying a farm in Georgia ind able attorneys.