Speech #660333688

Mr. President. in dealing with this subject of immigration and our attitude toward the alien. I think it well to state the situation from an economic standpoint. and I quote the following from an address by Commissioner Wallis: Immigrant workmen contribute 85 per cent of all the labor in the meatpacking industries. seventenths of the coal mining. 78 per cent in the woolen mills. contribute ninetenths of all labor in the cotton mills. make ninetwentieths of all the clothing. manufacture more than half of the shoes . build fourfifths of all the furniture . make onehalf of the collars. cuffs. and shirts. turn out fourfifths of the leather . make half of the gloves . refine nietwentieths of the sugar make half of the tobacco and cigars. I read from another summary by another author. Miss Keller. as follows: Immigrant workmen mine threequarters of the output of iron and coal. They constitute the bulk of labor in the lumber camps. They are used almost exclusively to build our tracks and roads and to keep them in- repair. In all forms of construction immigrant labor predominates. The building of houses. delayed first by the war and then by the high price of materials. now finds itself seriously handicapped by the shortage of immigrant labor. lmmigrants bake onehalf of the bread in America. refine onehalf of the sugar. prepare fourfifths of all the leather. make 50 l)er cent of the gloves. shoes. and silk. and make 905 per cent of all our clothing. Sixty per cent of all packinghouse employees are foreign born. That is the contribution of alien labor to American industries. mines. and agriculture.