a ican foreign carrying trade," passengers coming in vessels employed only in trade between the ports of the United States and the ports of Canada and Mexico were exempted from the provisions of the act of 1882. This act was held constitutional in the Head Money cases. (112 U. S., 580.) THE FIRST CONTRACT-LABOR LAW. One of the earliest methods by which immigration to the United States was stimulated was that of advertising abroad for laborers. It is said the practice began in 1869. Advertisements offering inducements to immigrants to proceed to the bituminous coal fields of western Pennsylvania were carried in New York newspapers, and these announcements frequently were copied by European papers. It is said that usually when such advertisements appeared in the New York newspapers stating that several hundred men were needed in a certain place there were no vacancies, the object of the advertisement being to send more laborers into the coal regions than were necessary, so that when two men were seeking the same situation they would be more likely to work for reduced wages. In the first general session of the Knights of Labor, held in Reading in 1878, this subject was discussed, and it was finally decided not to insert anything in their preamble against the importation of any class of laborers, because their principles theoretically demanded that they extend welcome to all. But with the growth of labor organizations investigations into the subject showed that land-grant companies, steamship companies, and manufacturers had agents all over Europe advertising for laborers. Then workingmen began to question whether it was wise to support a policy which made it possible for the employer to flood the market with foreign laborers to compete with them. They could not see why the articles made abroad by foreign workmen could be landed here only upon payment of a duty, while the foreigner himself was allowed free entry. To fight an agreement of the manufacturers of window glass to import foreign laborers to take the place of native-born Americans, in 1883, the Knights of Labor drafted a bill forbidding the importation under contract of foreign workmen, and January 14, 1884, Mr. Ferrel, of New Jersey, introduced it in the House of Representatives. Another bill to prohibit the importation of foreign labor (H. R. 2550) had been introduced a few days before by Mr. Foran, of the Committee on Labor. On February 24, 1884, Mr. Foran's bill was reported back with a recommendation that it pass. The committee found that the evils complained of and sought to be remedied actually and to an alarming extent existed. They declared that the foreigner who voluntarily and from choice left his native land to settle in this country with the intention of becoming an American citizen was welcome. No one was injured by his coming; instead the state was benefited. The bill in no measure sought to restrict such immigration. Its object was to restrain and prohibit the 23 Stat. L., p. 58. Powderly, Thirty Years of Labor, pp. 427-451. H. R. 3313, Forty-eighth Congress, first session. House Report No 444, Senate Report No. 820, Forty-eighth Congress, first session. importation of a class of persons who would never immigrate here but for the inducements of men whose only object was to obtain labor at the lowest possible rate, regardless of the social and material wellbeing of our own citizens. After several amendments, one of which provided" that nothing in this act shall be construed as prohibiting any individual from assisting any member of his family or any relative to migrate from any foreign country to the United States," the bill was passed by the House June 19, 1884. In the Senate, July 5, 1884, action upon the bill was postponed until December, and on February 13, 1885, the bill was brought out of committee, and after brief consideration it passed the Senate February 18 by a vote of 50 to 9, and was approved by the President February 26. After the bill had passed the House a general assembly of the Knights of Labor held in Philadelphia declared against the importation of foreign labor. The question of the bill received considerable attention, and later, when its progress was delayed in the Senate, the organization became impatient. On January 14, 1885, their general officer sent a letter to the Senate requesting the passage of the bill. In closing his letter, he said: "Do not think that I call your attention to this matter upon my own responsibility. I but obey the request of the 700,000 workmen who respectfully ask for the speedy passage of this bill." The contract-labor act of 1885 made it unlawful for any person to assist or encourage in any way the importation or migration of any foreigner into the United States under any kind of a contract to perform labor or service here, and it further provided that all such contracts should be null and void. The penalty for violating the law was a fine of $1,000 upon the solicitor or importer of immigrants, to be recovered by the United States or the person who should first bring his action, including any alien who was a party to such a contract. The master of any vessel knowingly bringing any foreigner under contract of labor was liable to a fine of $500 and imprisonment for six months for each alien so brought. Skilled workmen to perform labor in any new industry, provided that such labor could not otherwise be obtained, were excepted from the provisions of the act, as were professional actors, artists, lecturers, singers, and personal or domestic servants. It was also provided that any individual could assist any relative or personal friend to migrate here for the purpose of settlement. The act of 1885 was defective in that no inspection was provided for, nor was any arrangement made for the general execution of the provisions of the law or for the deportation of the contract laborer himself. Labor organizations, and especially the Knights of Labor, were instrumental in bringing these defects to the attention of Congress, and Mr. O'Neill, of Missouri, introduced the bill to amend the law. Its purpose was simply to make the law operative. It passed the House July 15, 1886, and the Senate in the following February. It was approved by the President February 23, 1887. a Appendix C, p. 125 (23 Stat. L., p. 332). CH. R. 9232 (H. Rept. No. 2901), Forty-ninth Congress. By this amendment the Secretary of the Treasury was given the same power to exclude and deport contract laborers that he had been given under the act of 1882 over criminals, paupers, idiots, and lunatics. Again, in the deficiency bill approved October 19, 1888," the act of 1885 was amended and the Secretary of the Treasury was given power to return within the year any immigrant landing contrary to this law, and at the expense of the owner of the vessel bringing such immigrant, or if they came from adjoining territory then at the expense of the person previously contracting for his services. The Secretary was also authorized "to pay to an informer furnishing original information that the law had been violated such a share of the penalties recovered as he may deem reasonable and just, not exceeding 50 per cent, where it appears that the recovery was had in consequence of the information thus furnished." From 1882 until 1888, besides the passage of the contract-labor laws referred to, there was little attempt at other immigration legislation. Numerous bills in amendment of the laws of 1882 were introduced in Congress, but no consideration was given them or action taken. SENTIMENT TOWARD IMMIGRATION. During the eighties, immigration having reached enormous figures, there was a quite general sentiment throughout the country that something should be done to check the foreigner from coming in such numbers. The following editorials from newspapers in various sections of the country illustrate the prevailing feeling: Minneapolis Journal: We have indulged the false sentiment about the United States being the land of refuge for the oppressed of the world long enough. It is time to set some bounds of reason to our welcome, and to make some discrimination between those who seek the shelter of our shores. We are not called upon to receive the vicious and the ignorant, the paupers, and the criminals of Europe and Asia in limitless quantity, to the everlasting advantage of the countries from which they come, and to the constant danger of our own institutions; but we are called upon by every feeling of love for our country and every sense of justice and devotion to our hallowed institutions to shield them from the dangers which threaten from the side of unrestricted immigration. If we must be ruled in this matter by sentiment and be governed by generosity, there is room for it on the safe side. We owe it to ourselves, we owe it to the honest, law-abiding foreigner whom we do welcome, and we owe it to the world that here republican institutions shall be given a fair chance to justify the wisdom and hope upon which they were founded. With a prospect before us for the heaviest foreign immigration in 1887 ever known in a single year, the importance of some protection against the continued and prospectively increased inflow of "the Cazzaroni and the criminals" of Europe can scarcely be overestimated. New Orleans Picayune: The work people in America are not in a thoroughly prosperous condition, and there are already many out of employment. We would be glad to welcome the distressed people of all nations, but it must be admitted, under existing circumstances, the wholesale immigration from the Old World is not the unmixed blessing it was so long held to be. Ohio State Journal: What statesman will be wise enough to sift the hundreds of thousands of emigrants crowding over from Europe and say which, in justice to ourselves and to them should be admitted, and which, in the exercise of the sacred right of self-protection, should be excluded? Fortunately, 25 Stat. L., p. 565. These are taken from Public Opinion, Vol. III, pp. 97, 196, 249, 336, 356 (1887). it is a question upon which there is not likely to be any division upon party lines. Wise men of all parties belonging to the industral elements of our population are asking for relief. Nor will the sympathies of our foreign-born population necessarily be arrayed against some wisely discriminating measure of restriction. It is a significant fact that certain measures taken last winter by the State of Wisconsin to discourage the influx of certain classes of foreigners into that State were heartily and earnestly supported by the larger portion of Wisconsin's Scandinavian and German citizens, and Wisconsin, whose population is so largely foreign born, was, we believe, the first State in the Union, certainly the first of all the Western States, to forbid unnaturalized citizens from acquiring real estate within her limits. The last measure is not mentioned for the purpose of approving it. It is a measure that goes too far, both as to principle and policy. We only refer to it as an evidence that our present foreign-born population, as well as the native-born, is alive to the dangers that may spring from the crowding to our shores of undesirable elements from Europe, and that the discussion of how best to restrict that emigration will not excite the hostility of foreign-born American citizens. Baltimore News: Immigration must be restricted, if not entirely prohibited. Springfield (Mass.) Republican: We have now a larger alien element than is safe, and ought to have 20 years to digest and assimilate it. New York Commercial Advertiser: One of the first things to be done in this country in the near future is to put a stop to indiscriminate immigration. San Francisco Bulletin: Public opinion is undergoing a radical change on the general question of welcoming to our shores all grades of Europeans, and, having already decreed the rejection of paupers and criminals, will readily adopt the rule that to secure admission to the United States the immigrant must not only be of decent character and with some present means of support, but must also be of sound mind and of suflicient intelligence to offer a reasonable guaranty that he will not become a charge upon public charity. Omaha Republican: Voluntary immigration is welcomed to this country-men and women who come of their own accord, to better their fortunes, and who are willing to work to that end. Even though many do not bring money in their pockets, they add to the wealth of the country in brawn and brain and heart and spirit. But the criminals, paupers, and imbeciles who are "assisted" here levy a tax upon honest and industrious people for their support, and their presence, under the circumstances, is an insult to the Nation. However, that all sentiment was not unfavorable to the immigrant is shown by the following newspaper editorials. Favorable comment was usually more guarded than the unfavorable, and always the desire was for the "worthy " immigrant. And, too, the South seemed more ready to favor immigration, because of the need of labor to open up and develop new industries. This is seen in the first editorial: Memphis Appeal: They can come and welcome. Overcrowded as many of our cities are, there is still room for these hard-working, honest people, especially here in the South, where manufactures are in their infancy, and there is abundant opportunity for labor as well as capital. New York World: The United States is yet the most sparsely populated by far of the great civilized countries. Since it became a nation, a hundred years ago, immigration has been largely instrumental in making it what it is. Its powers of assimilation are very great, and immigrants become heart and soul American citizens with marvelous unanimity. We are the last people in the world to stop immigration. It would be a heartless, injurious, and stultifying act. The anti-immigration party will be a very short-lived one. Laboring men continued their campaign against foreign contract labor, and in a party convention, held in Cincinnati, May 15, 1888, the following plank was adopted: "We demand the strict enforcement of all laws prohibiting the importation of subjects of foreign countries under contract." The American Party also demanded a restriction of immigration, declaring that" one of the greatest evils of unrestricted foreign immigration is the reduction of the wages of the American workingman and workingwoman to the level of the underfed and underpaid labor of foreign countries." The remedy suggested was consular inspection and a tax of $100 on every passport issued to an alien coming to the United States. On July 12, 1888, the House of Representatives passed a resolution in which note was taken of the charges of prominent journals that the laws prohibiting the importation of contract laborers, convicts, and paupers were being extensively evaded owing to the lack of machinery to enforce them. This resolution authorized the appointment of a select committee to investigate the matter. INVESTIGATIONS OF THE FORD COMMITTEE. This committee, known as the Ford committee, consisted of Messrs. Ford, of Michigan (chairman); Oates, of Alabama; Spinola, of New York; Guenther, of Wisconsin; and Morrow, of California. a The report of this committee was made at the following session of Congress. A bill (H. R. 12291) accompanied the report. The report alleged that there were thousands of alien paupers, insane persons, and idiots annually landed in this country, who became a burden upon the States where they happened to gain a settlement; that many of these were assisted to emigrate by the officials of the country from whence they came; that the number of persons not lawfully entitled to land in the United States who came in by the way of the Canadian frontier was large, and was becoming a matter of serious danger, the testimony showing that in many instances immigrants coming by steamer to Quebec had within 48 hours after their arrival there been applicants for shelter in the almshouses of the State of New York. This was probably the first time that serious attention was called to the matter of overland immigration. The committee also declared that the law of 1882 as regards the excluding of convicts had been and was being repeatedly violated, and to such an extent that it demanded remedial legislation. The contract-labor law was easy to violate and conviction hard to secure. Το remedy these defects they recommended that the enforcement of all acts relating to the regulation of immigration be intrusted solely to the Federal Government rather than to State authorities, as was provided by the law of 1882. The committee praised the immigrant of the past, but said that it could not praise the immigrant then coming. The idea of selection was emphasized, and it was asserted that "the time had come to draw the line and to select the good from the bad, because the country could not properly assimilate them." Besides excluding idiots, paupers, lunatics, and convicts, the bill proposed by the Ford committee added to the excluded classes polygamists, anarchists, and persons afflicted with a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease. The provisions of the contract-labor law were also incorporated in the bill. It provided that any person found in the United States, having come contrary to law, could be deported within two years at the expense of the transportation company bring • House Report No. 3792, Fiftieth Congress, second session. Testimony taken by this committee is found in House Mis. Doc. No. 572. |