Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 51, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 August 1888 — POWDERLY ON IMMIGRATION. [ARTICLE]

POWDERLY ON IMMIGRATION.

General Master Workman Powderlv, of the K. of L., appeared before the Congressional Committee on Immigration Abuses Monday. lie said that the order was in a flourishing condition and numbers about 600,000 members in the United States. He said it excludes from its ranks bankers, lawyers, rum sellers, loafers and professional politicians. A professional politician, he said, was a man who was to be. seen on election day with his hand stretched out for boodle. On the subject of 'imported contract labor, Mr. Powderlv said the system was a most reprehensible one. These foreigners who come here under sudh conditions are grossly immoral, and the influence which ordinary foreigners meet iathis country never reach these competitors with honest labor. They are brought here under promises of lands and great prosperity which they never realize. Describing the condition of workers in the Pennsylvania mines, Mr. Powderlv said it was scarcely describable. In the coal regions the native miners have been driven out of their employment by Hungarians and other foreign workingmen, who Jive in a filthy state. They live on the cheapest kindiof food so that American, miners can not compete with them. Their sleeping quartersare simply disgusting. Their, immorality, the witness acid, was startling. He told of a conversation he had with an abandoned woman, who acted as housekeeper for eight Hungarians. These Hungarians, be said, never learn the English language and herd together until they die dr return to their native country. They never become Americanized. “The universal opinion of Amercan workmen,’’ said Mr. Powderly, “is that men who work akuig the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad—Hungarians and Italians, who are designated only by brass check* bung on their pantaloons—are not desirable American citizens. They bear no names, and their checks are frequently changed to cheat them out -of their wages.” Germans,he found, took pride in learning the English language. He thought no person should be admitted to citizenship until he is able to read and understand the declaration of independence and the constitution of the United States. Of course foreigners should not be kept out of the country until they were able to do this, but our consuls abroad should inquire and report on the character of every man who leaves foreign countries for the United States.