THE IMMIGRATION COMMISSION-ITS ORGANIZATION AND WORK.

Returning to the question of restrictive immigration legislation, let me say that in 1907 there was a general revision of the immigration laws. The bill was one which I had the honor to introduce in this body. I did not in that bill, as I presented it, include the literacy test. As I have frequently stated, I entered

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the Senate with the conviction that this country was large enough and broad enough and its resources of such magnitude that we would be able to properly care for and assimilate all who would naturally seek admission as immigrants. I was really very much opposed to the literacy test until subsequent study convinced me that it had become vitally necessary. So, I say, when I introduced the bill which became the law in 1907, it did not contain the literacy test; but on the floor of the Senate it was offered-I think by the Senator from Massachusetts [Mr. LODGE]-as an amendment, and was adopted. The bill went to the House, where that provision was eliminated that there might be a full and impartial investigation of immigration conditions before final action was taken in that direction. The following amendment was substitute for it:

That a commission is hereby created, consisting of three Senators, to be appointed by the President of the Senate, and three Members of the House of Representatives, to be appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and three persons, to be appointed by the President of the United States. Said commission shall make full inquiry, examination, and investigation by subcommittee or otherwise into the subject of immigration. For the purpose of said inquiry, examination, and investigation, said commission is authorize to send for persons and papers, make all necessary travel, either in the United States or any foreign country, and, through the chairman of the commission or any member thereof, to administer oaths and to examine witnesses and papers respecting all matters pertaining to the subject, and to employ necessary clerical and other assistance. Said commission shall report to the Congress the conclusions reached by it and make such recommendations as in its judgment may seem proper. Such sums of money as may be necessary for the said inquiry, examination. and investigation are hereby appropriated and authorized to be paid out of the immigrant fund on the certificate of the chairman of said commission, including all expenses of the commissioners and a reasonable compensation, to be fixed by the President of the United States, for those members of the commission who are not Members of Congress.

It will be seen that an immigration commission with broad powers was provided for, and no limit was placed upon the expense which it might incur in making that study. It consisted of three Senators, appointed by the Vice President, three Members of the House of Representatives, appointed by the Speaker of the House, and three civilians, selected by the President.

The commission at first consisted of Senators DILLINGHAM of Vermont, LODGE of Massachusetts, McLaurin of Mississippi, all of whom were members of the Senate Committee on Immigration. Mr. McLaurin, on his own motion, was excused, and Senator Latimer, of South Carolina, who was also a member of that committee, was appointed in his sted. The Speaker of the House appointed Mr. Howell, of New Jersey; Mr. Bennet, of New York; and Mr. BURNETT, of Alabama. Mr. Howell was the chairman, and the other members on the part of the House of Representatives on the commission were members of the Committee on Immigration of the House of Representatives.

The President of the United States appointed Hon. Charles P. Neill, of Texas, who was then United States Commissioner of Labor; Prof. Jeremiah W. Jenks, of Cornell University; and Mr. William R. Wheeler, of Californi». After the death of Senator Latimer, Senator Percy, of Mississippi, took his place. That constituted the membership of the commission which made these inquiries.

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The general scope of the commission's work is well stated on page 14 of their report, as follows:

The main subjects considered in the European inquiry were as follows:

1. Causes of emigration, natural and artificial.

2. Economic conditions in Europe and the effect on emigration to the United States.

3. Steamship companies and their agents as factors in promoting emigration.

4. Classes and character of European emigrants.

5. Emigration of criminals.

6. Attitude of European Governments toward emigration.

7. Laws of the various countries respecting emigration and emigrants.

8. Effect of the United States immigration law in preventing the embarkation of undesirable emigrants.

9. Medical examination of intending emigrants at ports of embarkation and elsewhere, and practicability of having such examinations made by United States medical officers.

10. United States consular officers as a factor in regulating immigration.

11. International regulation of emigration and immigration.

The following was the plan adopted for the work in the United States:

The plan of work under which the field investigations of the commission were carried on contemplated an extensive inquiry into the status of the new immigrants and including the following subjects:

1. Congestion of immigrants in New York, Chicago, Boston, and other large cities.

2. Immigrants as industrial workers in the leading industries, including effect on wages, employment of native-born workers, conditions of work, etc.

3. Effect of recent immigration on wages and other conditions in various trades, from the standpoint of native-born and older immigrant workers in such trades.

4. Progress of immigrant industrial workers.

5. Recent immigrants as residents of industrial communities.

6. Recent immigrants in agriculture.

7. Immigrant children and the children of immigrants in schools.

8. Extent of which recent immigrants and their children are becoming assimilated or Americanized and agencies promoting or retarding Americanization.

9. The physical assimilation of immigrants.

10. Alien criminality.

11. Immigrants in penal and reformatory institutions.

12. Immigrants in institutions for the insane.

13. Immigrants as charity seekers in various cities.

14. Immigrants in charity hospital.

Other features included in the commission's plan of work and which required the collection of original data through field agents were: 1. An inquiry concerning the importation of women for immoral purposes-the 'white-slave" traffic.

may say in this connection that the report which I presented to the Senate upon that subject was the beginning of the movement in this country against that great evil.

2. An investigation of immigrant homes, aid societies, and employment agencies.

3. An investigation of the immigrant bank system, which included also an inquiry relative to the amount of money sent abroad by immigrants.

4. An investigation of conditions under which immigrants are carried at sea.

I omit reading other classes of information that was sought by the commission because of the time it would take to do so and the space it would occupy in the RECORD, but it may be found on pages 15 and 16 of volume 1 of these reports.

FINDINGS AND REPORTS OF COMMISSION.

These reports as completed constitute 41 volumes substantially of the size of the volume I hold in my hand [exhibiting], a 83350-14620

summary of all the reports being found in the first two volumes, from one of which I am now reading. In pursuing their work and in securing the information desired the commission's agents came in contact with more than 3.200 000 individuals.

I want to call attention to what the commission have to say regarding the two principal types of immigration, which will be found on page 23 of volume 1. They say:

From 1820 to 1883 more than 95 per cent of the total immigration from Europe originated in the United Kingdom. Germany, Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, and Switzerland. In what follows the movement from these countries will be referred to as the "old immigration." Following 1883 there was a rapid change in the ethnical character of European immigration, and in recent years more than 70 per cent of the movement has originated in southern and eastern Europe. The change geographically, however, has been somewhat greater than the change in the racial character of the immigration, th's being due very largely to the number of Germans who have come from Austria-Hungary and Russia. The movement from southern and eastern Europe will be referred to as the "new immigration." In a single generation Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Russia have succeeded the United Kingdom and Germany as the chief sources of immigration. In fact, each of the three countries first named furnished more immigrants to the United States in 1907 than came in the same year from the United Kingdom, Germany. Scandinavia, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Switzerland combined.

Then the commission discusses the old and the new immigration in a general way, and says:

The old immigration movement in recent years has rapidly declined, both numerically and relatively, and under present conditions there are no indications that it will materially increase. The new immigration movement is very large, and there are few, if any, indications of its natural abatement. The new immigration, coming in such large numbers, has provoked a widespread feeling of appr hension as to its efect on the economic and social welfare of the country. Because of this the commission's investigations have been mainly directed toward a study of its general status as part of the population of the country.

The old immigration movement was essentially one of permanent settlers. The new immigration is very largely one of individuals a considerable proportion of whom apparently have no intention of permanently changing their residence, the r only purpose in coming to America being to temporarily take advantage of the greater wages paid for industrial labor in this country. This, of course, is not true of all the new immigrants, but the practice is sufficiently common to warrant referring to it as a characteristic of them as a class. From all data that are available it appears that nearly 40 per cent of the new immigration movement returns to Europe, and that about twothirds of those who go remain there. This does not mean that all of these immigrants have acquired a competence and returned to live on it. Among the immigrants who return permanently are those who have failed, as well as those who have succeeded. Thousands of those returning have, under unusual conditions of climate, work, and food, contracted tuberculosis and other diseases.

Further on the commission says:

The old immigration came to the United States during a period of general development and was an important factor in that development, while the new immigration has come during a period of great industrial expansion and has furnished a practically unlimited supply of labor to that expansion

As a class, the new immigrants are largely unskilled laborers coming from countries where the highest wage is small compared with the lowest wage in the United States.

I may say, in passing, tha' when I was in Europe with the commission, substantially one-fourth of the entire immigration to the United States came from Italy, and we there learned that the men who constituted that vast immigration from southern Italy were almost wholly farm laborers and until the emigration movement began had never received more than 25 cents a day for their labor; but owing to the vast number who 83350-14620

had come to this country the price had advanced, so that the landowners were then paying substantially 40 cents a day for labor. I proceed with the reading:

About 83 per cent are between the ages of 14 and 45 years, and consequently are producers rather than dependents. They bring little money into the country and send or take a considerable part of their earnings out. More than 35 per cent are illiterate, as compared with less than 3 per cent of the old immigrant class.

To what extent has this immigration grown? Is restriction desirable? I have in my hands voluminous tables showing the immigration from Europe, including Asian Turkey, since 1882 by periods, the countries named in order by periods, under division, including the countries in southern and eastern Europe furnishing the greater part of the recent immigration, and countries of western and northern Europe furnishing what is called the old immigration.

It should be remembered that between 1820 and 1882 we had received about 9,000,000 aliens, about 5,000,000 coming prior to the Civil War, and this included the great Irish immigration resulting from the potato famine in Ireland, as well as the German immigration which followed the Civil War, during which time occurred a marvelously great development of the agricultural area of the Central West.

From these tables it appears that in the period 1882 to 1889 the old immigration admitted numbered 3,019,696 and the new immigration only 708,357, making a total of 3,728,053. Now, mark the increase during the next seven years, from 1890 to 1896, inclusive. The new immigration had increased in number and the old immigration had decreased, so that there was very little difference between the two, the old immigration amounting to 1,562,797 and the new immigration to 1,194,189, which combined makes a total of 2,756,986.

But it appears that between 1897 and 1914, a period of 18 years, there was an unprecedented increase in the volume of alien immigration, particularly among the races constituting the new immigration. During that period the old immigration amounted to only 2.983,548, while the new immigration from eastern and southern Europe jumped to 10,057,576.

To recapitulate, the total old immigration for the period of 33 years from 1882 to 1914 has been only 7,566,041, while the total new immigration for the period of 33 years has been 11,960,122. So that the total immigration from Europe, old and now, during that period has been over 19,500,000 souls.

The impress which this new immigration is making upon the character of the population of the United States is very clearly shown by the census of 1910, covering the census years between the years 1900 and 1910, from which it appears that there was an actual decrease in the number of foreign-born population of the United States which came from Germany of 11.1 per cent, a decrease in those born in Ireland of 16.3 per cent, and a decrease of those born in Wales of 11.8 per cent. On the other hand, what was the increase coming from the nationalities of the new immigration? It was as follows: Those from Greece, 1,089 per cent; those from Italy, 175.5 per cent; those from Russia and $3350-14620