NO LABORING CLASS FIXED WITHIN UNYIELDING BOUNDS.

In another division of the same message he said:

Due regard should be also accorded in any proposed readjustment, to the interests of American labor so far as they are involved. We congratulate ourselves that there is among us no laboring class, fixed within unyielding bounds and doomed under all conditions to the inexorable fate of daily toil. We recognize in labor a chief factor in the wealth of the republic, and we treat those who have it in their keeping as citizens entitled to the most careful regard and thoughtful attention. This regard and attention should be awarded them, not only because labor is the capital of our workingmen, justly entitled to its share of Government favor, but for the further and not less important reason, that the laboring man surrounded by his family in his humble home, as a consumer is vitally interested in all that cheapens the cost of living and enables him to bring within his domestic circle additional comforts and advantages.

This relation of the workingman to the revenue laws of the country, and the manner in which it palpably influences the question of wages, should not be forgotten in the justifiable prominence given to the proper maintenance of the supply and protection of wellpaid labor. And these considerations suggest such an arrangement of Government revenues as shall reduce the expense of living, while it does not curtail the opportunity for work nor reduce the compensation of American labor, and injuriously affect its condition and the dignified place it holds in the estimation of our people.

V.

LABOR IMPORTED UNDER CONTRACT.

THE REPUBLICANS ENACTED LAWS TO BRING IN CHEAPER LABOR WHILE THE SOLDIERS WERE IN THE FIELD.

Now that the Republicans are seeking to pose as the special friends of the laboring man in the United States, it is proper to subject their pretensions to analysis. If they are so friendly now it is well to try and discover whether they have always been so, or whether it is merely a new-found zeal which is intended to be merely “a good enough Morgan for this election."

Among the questions most important to the American laborer is the immigration under contract of men from other countries. If this can be done, every employer who is anxious to squeeze his labor down to the lowest notch of wages, every manufacturer who is confronted by a strike on the part of his employes may simply send his agents abroad and import, under contract, as many men and women as he needs without any regard, during the time for which the contract is made, to the ruling rates of wages in this country.

It was legislation by a Republican Senate and House of Representatives which allowed this to be done from 1864, when the law was enacted, to 1885, when after s long and determined opposition on the part of the Republican Senate, a Democratic House finally succeeded in securing the repeal of the obnoxious law.

A CONTRACT LABOR LAW WHICH FILLED THE SOLDIERS' PLACES.

In 1864, while our mechanics, operatives, miners and laborers were in the field fighting for the perpetuity of the Union, there was introduced into the Senate of the United States a bill which inflicted untold misery upon the laboring population of the United States. Senator Sherman in introducing the bill made use of the following words in explaining it:

The special wants for labor in this country at the present time are very great. The war has depleted our workshops and materially lessened our supply of labor in every department of industry and mech anism. In their noble response to the call of their country our workmen in every branch of the useful arts have left vacancies which must be filled or the material interests of the country must suffer. The immense amount of native labor occupied by the war calls for a large increa se of foreign immigration to make up the deficiency at home. The demand for labor never was greater than at present, and the fields of usefulness were never so varied and promising.

The second section of this law reads as follows:

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That all contracts that shall be made by emigrants to the United States in foreign countries, in conformity to regulations that may be established by the said commissioner, whereby emigrants shall pledge the wages of their labor for a term not exceeding twelve months, to repay the expenses of their emigration, shall be held to be valid in law, and may be enforced in the courts of the United States or of the several States and Territories; and such advances, if so stipulated in the contract, and the contract be recorded in the recorder's office in the county where the emigrant shall settle, shall operate as a lien upon any land thereafter acquired by the emigrant, whether under the homestead law when the title is consummated, or on property otherwise acquired until liquidated by the emigrant; but nothing herein contained shall be deemed to authorize any contract contravening the Constitution of the United States, or creating in any way the relation of slavery or servitude. (U. S. Stats. at Large, vol. 15, 1863-'65.)

The extent to which the authors of this measure knew they were going is apparent from the last lines of this section-"but nothing herein contained shall be deemed to authorize any contract contravening the Constitution of the United States or creating in any way the relation of slavery or servitude."

This will serve to show to many persons, who have often wondered how many men got rich so rapidly during the war, how it was done. While the bone and sinew of the country were in the field fighting their country's battles, the manufacturers, subsidized by the most exorbitant duties ever levied in this country, were authorized to send their agents to Europe and there seek out men to fill the places of the absent soldiers, who were fighting for the munificent wages of $13 a month and found.

IT REMAINED A LAW UNTIL REPEALED BY DEMOCRATS.

This law remained in force until 1885-more than twenty years-and nearly nineteen years after the war, which was given as the excuse for its enactment, was over; and every effort to repeal it in the interest of American labor was thwarted by Republicans in the interest of the contractor and manufacturer. From the time of the enactment of this law till its repeal over 6,500,000 immigrants came to our shores. How many of these came voluntarily upon their own resources because of their admiration for our institutions, and how many debased and vicious characters were brought here under this contract system cannnot even be estimated. Laborers were imported under the provisions of this law up to the time of its repeal, and the statutes now in force prohibiting the same are being evaded in every possi

ble way by the men who cry loudest "protection to American labor!" The Republican party, supreme in all the Departments of the Government, was cognizant of the fact, but no step was taken to protect American labor from this competition.

Not only was the war long past and the necessity for its continuance gone, but all through the panic of 1873 and the prolonged financial disturbance which followed, this law remained unrepealed. During this time more than half a million of men were discharged from mills and factories. But the contract labor law still went on. Under its provisions the Carnegies, the Ammidons, the DePauws and the Phillipses could go freely into the markets of the world and buy all the labor they could find and pay it such prices as it would take.

The soldiers of the union had long since returned, and were as bravely pursuing the arts of peace as they had those of war. Still they were cut off from employment unless they would accept the wages satisfactory to what the over-protected interests saw fit then, as well as now, to call the pauper labor of Europe," or the Coolie contract and servile labor of Asia.

REFUSAL EVEN TO CONSIDER THE QUESTION.

Individual efforts were made from time to time to secure a repeal or modification of the law. On the 13th of December, 1869, Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, introduced a bill to regulate the importation of immigrants under contract. This bill was called up by him on the 22d of April, 1870, and its consideration urged; but Senator Ferry, of Michigan, objected, and the bill was referred to the Committee on Commerce, a majority of whom were Republicans, who reported against 'its passage. They were unwilling to consider a bill to even regulate the subject four years after the war was over.

On the 5th of February, 1870, Senator Wilson introduced another bill (S. 563) to make the importation of immigration under contract unlawful. He made several efforts to secure consideration of the same without reference to a committee, but objections were made, and on December 12, 1870, it was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor, and was never heard of again. No power was strong enough to carry a bill through the committee; the ears of Republicans were deaf to all appeals. They saw American workmen out of employment, wages going down, strikes and lock-outs daily occurring, but none of these aroused their attention.

Further attempts were made from time to time to give the needed relief to labor, but they were all successfully resisted.

Even when the matter had grown so serious that organized labor had begun to make itself felt, the proposition to repeal this law was continually resisted. On the 8th of January, propitious as the anniversary of General Jackson's victory at New Orleans, Martin A. Foran, a Democratic Representative in Congress from the State of Ohio, introduced a stringent bill to prohibit the importation of labor under contract.

The bill passed the Democratic House on June 19 following, and was at once sent to the Senate. Here, however, it was subjected to the same old tactics of delay; it did not secure attention and reach passage until February, 1885, after the people at a general election had passed judgment on the Republican party and evicted it from office.

VI.

ENFORCING THE LAW.

PERSISTENT AND SUCCESSFUL EFFORTS TO EXCLUDE LABOR IMPORTED UNDER CONTRACTS MADE ABROAD.

The most vigorous and determined efforts have been made by the President and Department of Justice to enforce this law. Prosecutions have not only been instituted whenever complaint has been made, but District Attorneys have been instructed to give their personal attention to any case which might arise in the districts over which they have authority.

Soon after the amended law became in force the Attorney-General wrote the following by way of instruction to J. S. H. Frink, United States District Attorney for the district of New Hampshire :

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, WASHINGTON, D. C., April 26, 1888.

J. 8. H. FRINK, ESQ., U. S. Attorney,

Portsmouth, N. H.

SIR:-In response to my request I received yours containing affidavits and other papers relating to a violation of the provisions of the acts of 1885 and 1887 concerning the importation of foreign labor by contract, to be used in the construction of the Upper Coos Railroad.

By the provisions of the second section of the act of 1885, the penalty is imposed for the violation of the first section of the act. The penalty may be sued for and recovered by the United States, or by any person "who may first bring the action." The duty is imposed on the United States Attorney to prosecute every such suit at the expense of the United States. If any suits are brought by private parties under the act to recover the penalty, examine the facts on which they are founded with care, and if they warrant action, prosecute them with diligence. If suits are not brought by private parties in such cases as from the facts brought to your knowledge show a wilful violation of the law, thoroughly investigate the facts that can be proven by evidence that can be relied on, and bring suit or suits against the culpable parties or corporation, in the name of the United States, sufficient in number and amount to vindicate the sanctity of the law.

Very Respectfully,

A. H. GARLAND, Attorney General.

THE PRESIDENT HIMSELF GIVES INSTRUCTIONS.

President Cleveland has taken a deep interest in the enforcement of the law. In April last there was reported an attempt on the part of employing fishermen on the Massachusetts coast to import under contract a considerable number of men to be employed in the fisheries. Thereupon the President wrote the following letter of instruction to the District Attorney for the district of Eastern Massachusetts:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, April 18, 1888.

To the HON. O. A. GALVIN, United States District Attorney, Boston, Mass.:

DEAR SIR-Information has reached the Treasury Department that a large number of foreigners have been brought into Massachusetts under violation of the contract labor law, for the purpose of manning American fishing vessels sent out from the ports of Gloucester, Boston, and Beverly for the purpose of taking fish along the Canadian coast.

It seems to me quite certain that such foreigners, aliens, have been brought in by parties in direct violation of the statute covering such cases, and I believe that the importation of such foreigners tends to the displacement of American labor.

I am aware that many of these persons have, through the care of the officials, been returned to the country from which they came. I, therefore, enjoin on you the duty of a prompt investigation of these cases, and request that you confer with the Collectors of the ports of Boston and Gloucester, that prompt and effective measures may be taken.

The department has ordered that special agents be detailed who will report directly to you, and if you require any further assistance it will be given you upon application.

SUGGESTING ADDITIONAL LEGISLATION TO CONGRESS.

The following letter, addressed to Congress by the present Democratic Secretary of the Treasury, illustrates the efficient and diligent efforts. of the present administration to prevent such importations of pauper labor:

TREASURY DEPARTMENT,

To the Speaker United States House of Representatives :

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY,

Washington, D. C., July 16th, 1888.

SIR: The attention of the Congress is respectfully invited to the necessity of further legislation for the better enforcement of the Alien Contract Labor Law.

The initial enactment upon this subject was approved February 26, 1885 (23 Stats. at Large 332). It declared that all contracts to perform labor or service, or having reference to the performance of labor or service, with a few unimportant exceptions not necessary to be here noticed, made previous to the immigration to, or importation into this country of the laborer, should be void, and it should be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to in any manner assist any foreign laborer into this country under a contract or agreement, parol, or special, express or implied, made previous to his entry to perform labor or service of any kind in the United States.

The landing of the immigrant was not, in terms, prohibited, nor was there any provision for his return to the country from whence he came, and the only measures incorporated into the law which were designed to secure its enforcement were the imposition of a penalty of $1,000 for a violation of the provisions of section 1, to be sued for and recovered in the Federal Courts.

*

THE LAW MADE MORE STRINGENT.

Presumably this law was not found to be sufficiently effective to prevent the evils against which it was aimed, and on February 23, 1887, it was amended (24 Stats. page 474) by adding thereto sections 6, 7 and 8, which charged the Secretary of the Treasury with the duty of executing the provisions of the act, and authorized him to enter into contracts with any State Commission, board or officers having charge of the local affairs of immigration in the ports within the State, and prohibiting the landing of any person found to have been brought here under contract to labor contrary to the provisions of the act, and providing that all persons included in the prohibition of the act should be sent back to the nations to which they belonged and from whence they came, and authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to designate any State Board or any Commission, or any person or persons in any State whose duty it should be to cause all such persons to be returned, and who should be entitled to reasonable compensation therefor to be fixed by the Secretary of the Treasury, who was authorized to prescribe regulations for the return of such persons and furnish instructions to the board, commission or persons charged with that work, and the expense of the return must be borne by the owners of the vessels in which they came, and