A  "Parliamentary  Blue  Book,"  containing  a  re-
port made  to  the  British  Government  by  an  official
commission,  which  was  sent  to  this  country  last
year  to  inquire  into  the  influence  of  the  more  re-
cent immigration  upon  American  industries,  the
public  welfare,  and  the  community  at  large,  is  in


48  LABOR'S  SIDE   OF

my  possession.  The  investigation  made  by  these
commissioners  was  extensive  and  exact ;  and  the
facts  printed  in  their  report  are  both  striking  and
serious.  They  give  evidence  that  the  influence
has  been  unfavorable,  and  has  already  resulted  in
evil  to  the  country.  I  am  unable  to  quote  here
from  this  report,  or  to  analyze  its  tables  and
documents  for  this  book,  but  I  must  take  the
space  needed  to  tell  that  it  proves  conclusively
that  great  numbers  of  immigrants  have  been
brought  from  sundry  countries  of  Europe  to  the
United  States  by  the  order  or  at  the  instigation  of
our  great  corporations,  with  the  object  of  obtain-
ing cheap  labor,  or,  in  other  words,  of  cutting
down  the  wage-rates  that  had  previously  pre-
vailed«  Agents  have  been  sent  abroad ;  false
promises  were  made  to  the  ignorant  people  whom
they  were  able  to  hire,  and  means  at  once  cruel
and  shameful  were  taken  to  lead  them  to  leave
their  homes.  As  soon  as  these  corporations  had
got  their  victims  here,  they  taught  them  that  cor-
poration promises  are  made  to  be  broken,  and
gave  them  such  paltry  pay  that  they  could  not
raise  the  money  to  go  back  to  their  native  places.
We  have  probably  over  a  million  foreign  labor-
ers in  the  country  who  have  thus  been  brought  to
it.  And  I  do  not  believe  that  the  abhorrent  busi-
ness has  been  stopped  by  the  passage  of  the
Alien  Contract  Labor  Law.
