should look upon them as inferior people. Moreover, whether they recognize this fact or not, whether or not we ourselves believe that race prejudice is something to be heartily condemned, we must still recognize the actual existence of this feeling as an important political fact. RACE FEELING ELSEWHERE The feeling against the negroes has forced us to recognize that race feeling is an extremely important political question and may well become a social question. Moreover, we should recognize the fact that the feeling on the Pacific Coast against the Chinese, the Japanese and the Hindus is not in itself exceptional. A similar feeling against these same races is found in Canada, in Australia, in South Africa, in every place where these oriental races have come into immediate contact with the white race, and especially when they have come into active competition with it in ordinary labor. We must recognize this feeling, then, as a usual one and one that must be considered when we come to political action. ORIENTALS NOT EASILY ASSIMILATED Altho these races may not be considered in any way inferior to ourselves, it is a fact that they are materially different: that they are not so easily assimilated as are the members of the European races; that they do not readily marry with our people nor our people with them. And we should reflect that, short of intermarriage, there is no real amalgamation of races. FORM A SEPARATE CLASS On the Pacific Coast they have, as a matter of fact, usually made an entirely separate working class. Gen-\ erally speaking, when they have entered largely into a business, or when they have undertaken certain classes of work, there has been a rapid separation between them and the American workingmen, they taking the harder kinds of labor and the members of the white races taking types of work entirely different. In this way they have become, to a considerable extent, almost a separate caste. Indeed, there is a feeling on the part of many people who have carefully observed conditions in that region that the Chinese and Hindus— not the Japanese-have almost made a servile caste; and many of the most thoughtful, most cultivated, most kindly people on the Coast have thought that, inasmuch as these are facts, they must be recognized, and that it is wise for us to take action accordingly. GOVERNMENTAL ACTION OF CHINA AND JAPAN The Governments of China and Japan have really no reason to object to our wishing not to admit the working people of their races in large numbers. As a matter of fact, Americans are not admitted to China or to Japan on even terms with the natives there. They can go into these countries as residents only in very limited communities; they are not permitted to buy land; and they are not admitted to citizenship in those countries. In truth, our country, as a whole, has treated the members, particularly of the Japanese race, more liberally than the Japanese have treated the Americans. The Japanese have been allowed to buy land, in many instances in large tracts: ing displacements and by retarding advancement in rates of pay and improvements in conditions of employment. (3) Industrial efficiency among the recent immigrant wage-earners has been very slowly developed, owing to their illiteracy and inability to speak English. (4) For these same reasons the general progress toward assimilation and the attainment of American standards of work and living has also been very slow. (5) The conclusion of greatest significance developed by the general industrial investigation of the United States Immigration Commission is that the point of complete saturation has already been reached in the employment of recent immigrants in mining and manufacturing establishments. Owing to the rapid expansion in industry which has taken place during the past thirty years, and the constantly increasing employment of southern and eastern Europeans, it has been impossible to assimilate the newcomers, politically or socially, or to educate them to American standards of compensation, efficiency or conditions of employment. (6) Too exclusive emphasis in the discussion of immigration, within recent years, has been placed upon the social and political results of recent immigration, altho no one questions that in the long run these social results may be of chief import. But that side of the question has been kept well in mind in previous legislation. Now the emphasis should be shifted. The main problem at present is really fundamentally an in dustrial one, and should be principally considered in its economic aspects. The Outlook for the American Wage-Earner To establish firmly an American standard of work and living, to guarantee a proper distribution of the benefits of our marvelous natural resources and our wonderful industrial progress, and at the same time to maintain the spirit of enterprise and the stimulation to industrial progress and efficiency, it is absolutely necessary to impose some limitations upon the numbers of immigrants who are rapidly entering the country. Unless there is a restriction of immigration, the situation for the American industrial worker is not very promising. A policy of permanent or absolute exclusion is not imperative. All that is essential is to limit temporarily the number of incoming aliens so that the foreign workmen already in the country may be industrially assimilated and educated to the point where they will demand proper standards of living and will be constrained by the economic aspirations of the native American. If the existing influx of immigrant wage-earners continues, there is no ground for expecting any noteworthy improvement in the near future in the working and living conditions of the employees of our mines and factories. Organized effort is rendered almost impossible. Industrial workers of both native and foreign parentage, because of the constant extension of the use of improved machinery and the decline in the demand for skill and experience, have been gradually losing the opportunity to help themselves by concerted action. They are also rapidly passing beyond the reach of those altruistic persons who would assist them for the reason that one group of workmen is no sooner raised toward a higher economic status than the competition of the next wave of immigration completely inundates them and causes a downward tendency in methods of living and in conditions of employment. It is clearly apparent that a restriction of immigration would be in reality an arbitrary curtailment of the increase in the existing labor supply and might be attended by a temporary check in the rapidity of the remarkable industrial expansion which has been characteristic of recent years, but it is equally true that the measure of the economic welfare of the citizens of an industrial and commercial nation does not consist in the number of tons of coal produced or the tons of pigiron, steel rails, or yards of print cloth manufactured. The real indication of material prosperity is to be found in the extent to which the wage-earners in mines and factories share in the industrial output which is partly attributable to their labors, and unless there is a limitation placed upon the inexhaustible supply of cheap foreign labor of low standards and aspirations which is now coming to this country, it is perfectly clear that the American wage-earner can not hope to participate properly in the results of our industrial progress. Moreover, altho the present rate of increase in the supply of unskilled labor would be lessened by a restriction of immigration, it can not be questioned that the higher wages and better standards of living which would be the logical outcome, would attract to our shores skilled and highly trained workmen from northern and western Europe who, under present conditions, have ceased to immigrate to the United States. The return of this more efficient class of wage-earners |