standard of living is so low that few of them are in need of charity, and that the Associated Charities' centres in Italian districts have nearly disappeared.23

He further considers that the American standard of living is menaced by immigration, and as evidence of this fact quotes Richmond Mayo-Smith and the report of the British Board of Trade of 1892, which implies:

"The moment foreign labor can do no harm to the native standard of living it ceases to come; while the moment conditions here improve, immigration comes to share in and limit the improvement."

Professor Hall adds:

"Foreign labor stands as a constant menace to the progress of the American laborer and a check to his advancement.' 24

AUTHORS FAVOR RESTRICTIVE IMMIGRATION TO MAINTAIN AMERICAN STANDARD OF LIVING

The claim is made that formerly the older immigrants wanted to lift themselves to a higher social level, but this is not a fact with the recent migratory wage-earner. We are endeavoring to raise a foreign community to our standard of living. The FrenchCanadian has migrated into New England and is replacing the native in some vicinities. By remaining under the power of the priest, by not sending his children to the American public schools, and not entering into the general life of the community, he lowers the general intelligence and civilization of the country.25

The Massachusetts Commission of the Unemployed, in its report in 1895, seems to concur in the belief of the organized workers that immigration lowers wages in the United States and that this lowers the standard of living.26

In 1896, Mr. Bryan, the Democratic nominee for President, declared that "we hold that the most efficient way of protecting

23 See Hall, Prescott F., “Immigration Legislation,” 1907; pp. 57, 123, 131.

24 Hall, Prescott F., "Immigration," 1907, pp. 57, 123, 131.

25 Mayo-Smith, Richmond, " Emigration and Immigration," 1898,

P. 132.

26 Roberts, Dr. Peter, "Anthracite Coal Communities," Chapters 1 and 2.

American labor is to prevent the importation of foreign labor to compete with it, in the home market."

At the same time, the Republican Party in its platform declared:

"For the protection of the quality of our American citizenship and of the wages of our working men against the fatal competition of two-priced labor, we demand that the immigration laws be thoroughly enforced and so extended as to exclude from entrance to the United States those who can neither read or write."27

Dr. Peter Roberts asserts:

"The lowering of the standard of living of American workmen is a two-fold evil . . . it is inimical to all that is best in American life and it retards the progress of man's civilization."28

He further adds that the foreigner is very soon influenced by the high standard of living of the American workmen, although, in his opinion, the alien will never attain the standard of living of the native American, as the immigrant has little sympathy with the waste which he views in the native American home.29

Writing of the alien at this time, Woodrow Wilson notes that multitudes come in increasing numbers of the most hapless class and "men whose standards of life and work were such as American workmen had never dreamed hitherto."30

The late Francis A. Walker, the economist, seems to agree in this when he states that the United States has been an asylum for many unfortunates of other countries, but that it is not necessary to carry this "hospitality one step beyond the line where American institutions, the American rate of wages, and the American standard of living are brought into serious peril."""1

AGRICULTURE A SOLUTION FOR IMMIGRATION

Professor Robert DeC. Ward of Harvard University, writing in 1904, feels that it is impossible permanently to raise the stand

27 Congressional Record, Vol. LIII, Appendix, p. 632.

28 Roberts, Dr. Peter, "The New Immigration,” p. 292.

29 Ibid., pp. 45-6.

30 Wilson, Woodrow, "History of the American People," 1903, Vol. V, p. 213. 31 Warne, Frank J., "Immigrant Invasion," 1913, p. 313.

ards of immigrants, so long as they crowd together. He quotes from the annual report of the Boston Associated Charities, in the following words:

"With an immigration as unrestrained as at present, we can have little hope of permanent gain in the struggle for upbuilding the poor of our cities, since new comers are always at hand, ignorant of American standards." and, referring to the Chicago conditions among the immigrants, he adds:

"The standard of living of each man rises slowly, constantly sucked down by the lower standards of the masses behind."32

In the opinion of Professor Ward, the only solution is to turn the immigrant to agriculture, and not to add further restrictions as the remedy.

The author of "The Vanishing American Wage Earner," W. Jett Lauck, considers that the modern industrial laborer has "brought about living conditions or a standard of life with which the native American and older immigrant employees have been unwilling to compete." He adds:

"The impossibility of competition by the native American with such standards of living needs no discussion."

Professor John R. Commons, of the Faculty of the University of Wisconsin since 1904, and author of many works on economics,

states:

"To have an enlightened and patriotic citizenship we must protect the wages and the standard of living of those who constitute the bulk of the citizens. This argument had been offered by employers themselves, when they were seeking a protective tariff against the importation of pauper-made goods.' "'33

32 Popular Science Monthly, 66: 166-75, December, 1904, " Agricultural Distribution of Immigrants."

"Commons, John R., "Races and Immigrants in America," 1913, p. 112.

CHAPTER IV

GRADUAL TREND TOWARD RESTRICTIVE

IMMIGRATION

Resolutions adopted at successive conventions of the American Federation of Labor indicate the immigration policies of organized labor. Report of the Immigration Commission of 1907-10 directly influences the Burnett-Dillingham Act of 1917.

AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR FAVORS RESTRICTION TO MAINTAIN AMERICAN STANDARD OF LIVING

The first convention of the present American Federation of Labor, known at that time as the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, passed resolutions in 1881 regarding immigration, as follows:

66

We believe the gaining of higher wages and shorter work day to be the preliminary steps toward great and successful passing improvements in the condition of the working people."

The American Federation of Labor convention proceedings December 14-19, 1891, show that, in its opinion, the immigration question had become serious, and the convention instructed the incoming executive council to secure legislation restricting immi

1 Report of Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, 1881, p. 1. CONTRACT LABOR ACTS

Act of 1885, Feb. 26 (23 Stat. 332, C. 164).

An act to prohibit the importation and migration of foreigners and aliens under contract or agreement to perform labor in the United States, its territories, and the District of Columbia.

Provisions: Contracts for labor or services of aliens made previous to migration or importation are unlawful and void. Penalty for violation of Act.