Speech #640260999

The House promptly passed it over his veto by a large margin. but. as it only reached the Senate for actl6n on the veto on the 4th of March in the closing hours of that Congress and of Mr. Clevelands administration. it was not acted on by that body. There was some excuse for the veto of President Cleveland. for at that time the tremendous alien immigration from southern Europe to this country had not set in. During the year 1897 the total foreign immigration to this country was only 230.832. while for the year ending June 30. 1914. it was 1.218.480. The south Italians alone coming in during the last fiscal year before the war in Europe were 251.612. or 20.000 more than came in from all cointries during the year of President Clevelands veto. So it will be. seen that no such necessity for the law existed then as now. Of course. with tile war raging in Europe. the number of arrivals has greatly decreased. but when the war is over huffdlreds of thousands of the denizens of the slums of European and of Asiatic cities will rush to our shores unless they are kept out by this law. In 1913 President Taft vetoed the bil and the Senate passed it over his veto bya vote of 4 to 1. but it failed of passage over his veto in the House by only a few votes.In 1915 President Wilson vetoed the bill and it failed of passage over the veto by only eight votes. Last March the bill passed this House by a vote of 307 to 87. and a few weeks ago it passed the Senate by 64 to 7. Unless many Representatives and Senators go back on this recent vote. it will nov be passed over the Presidents veto in both Houses by a large majority. Twelve years ago. at my own request. I was assigned to the Committee on Immigration and began the study of this important question. During that session the Senate passed a bill containing the illiteracy test. but that provision was stricken out by the House. and in conference an agreement was reached providing for a commission to investigate the subject of immigration both in tie United States and foreign countries and to report its conclusions to Congress. I was appointed as a member of that commission. and with five others visited Europe. where we made extensive investigations. Several of us went to Sicily. and to me the conditions there seemed worse than I had ever dreamed of. We visited many other countries in Europe and made extensive investigations both in that country and our own. When we began our investigations only three or four of us believed that the reading test was the best plan for restricting immigration. but after three years of earnest. careful investigation all the nine joined in the following statements and recoinmendations: The Investigations of the commission show an oversupply of unskilled. labor in basic Industries to an extent which indicates an oversupply of unskilled labor in the industries of the country as a whole. and therefore demand legislation which will at the present time restrict the further admission of such unskilled labor. * * * As far as possible the aiiens excluded should be those who. by reason of their personal qualities. would least readily be assimilated or would make the least desirable citizens. The commission as a whole recommends restriction as demanded by economic. moral. and social considerations. furnishes In its report reasons for such restrictions. and points out methods by which Congress can attain the desired result it its judgment coincides with that of the commission. Eight out of the nine. after citing various methods of restriction. concurred in the following: A majority of the commission favor the reading and writing test as the most feasible single method of restricting undesirable immigration. It is certainly interesting. and we believe iniportant. to know some of the reasons which led the commission up to these conchisiobs. and we will make.a few extracts from the " Brief statemeat of conclusions and recommendations of the commission." On page 25 of this statdment they say: The proportion of the mere serious crimes of homicide. blackmail. and robbery. as well as the least serious offenses Is greater among the foreign born. The disproportion In this regard Is due principally to the t evalence of homicides and other crimes of personal violence among telians and to the violation of city ordinances previously mentioned. On pages 29 and 30 they say: It is certain that southern and eastern European immigrants have almost completely monopolized unskilled labor activities In many of the more important industries. This phase of the industrial situation was made the most important and exhaustive feature of the commissions investigation and the results show that while the competition of these Immigrants has had little. if any. effect on the highly skilled trades. nevertheless. through lack of industrial progress and by reason of large and constant reenforcement from abroad. it has kept conditions in the semiskilled and unskilled occupations from advancing. Several elemedts peculiar to the new immigrants contributed to this iesult. They came from countries where low economic conditions prevailed and where conditions of labor were bad. They were content to .accept wages and conditions which the native American and immigrants of the older class had come to regard as unsatisfactory. They were not. as a rule. engaged at lower wages than had been paid to the older workmen for the same class of labor. but their presence in constantly Increasing numbers prevented progress among the older wageearning class. and as a result that class of employees was gradually replaced. An instance of this displacement Is shown in the experience in the bituminous coal mines of western Pennsylvania. This section of the bituminous field was the one first entered by the new immigrants. and the displacement of the old workers was soon under way. Some of them entered other occupations and many of them migrated to the coal fields of the Middle West. Later these fields were also invaded by the new immigrants. and large numbers of the old workers again migrated to the mines of the Southwest. where they still predominate. The effect of the new immigration is celearly shown in the western Pennsylvania fields. where the average wage of the bituminous coal worker is 42 cents a day below the average wage in the Middle West and Southwest. Incidentally. hours of labor are longer and general working conditions poorer in the Pennsylvania mines than elsewhere. The recent report of the Committee on Industrial Relations on their investigations at Youngstown.