We are passing through a period of very grave depression. the gravest this country has ever faced. Periods of depression have not been unknown in the past. And we never emerged from a period of depression except under the influence of increased immigration. It has been the fashion to attribute the wonderful growth of this country in the late forties and in the early fifties to the discovery of gold in California. That was but an incident. it was not the source of that marvelous industrial development. The source of that enormous prosperity was chiefly the tide of immigration from Ireland. which sent a million pairs of human hands to cultivate fields that had lain waste for centuries. erecting towns. building sewers. and performing all that fundamental and useful labor without which higher skilled labor can not be employed at all. For I am sure it is unnecessary to remind gentlemen that skilled labor can not be exercised on the earth itself. but only on some product of the earth. And that raw product must be drawn from the earth by unskilled labor. That no man can labor without creating a demand for other labor is an abstract proposition which even the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. C .E] would doubtless concede. But he may ask how does that tide of immigration work practically? How can the immigrant find employment here while hundreds of thousands are unemployed. although all of them are eager to work? The answer is simple. The converse of the proposition. that no man can work without creating employment for other men. is equally true.
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