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Brothers, had a depressing influence upon our credit and our commerce. italists of Great Gritain have for many years been large holders of American stocks and securities. They have furnished the money to build and equip our railroads, to develop our mines, to carry forward our great improvements, and hence we are and have been largely in their debt. Having large investments in South America when the stress in the Argentine government began to be felt, it was but natural that they should throw upon the markets our stocks and securities, which were the best in the world, and that our people who were interested in upholding thei· values should be forced to become heavy purchasers. No doubt the effort to fill this sink first started the large exports of gold to Europe in 1890. The effects of this, however, would have been but temporary had it not been for the harmful and extravagant legislation of the Fifty-first Congress, which so closely followed it. That Republican Congress assembled with a determination to so modify our revenue laws as that no surplus should remain at the end of the year as a protest against a high tariff.

The House immediately entered upon its unbridled course, and within less than four months Members began to ask of each other, when some measure requiring an expenditure was under consideration, "Where is the money to come from?" The McKinley act, which increased the taxes of the people but reduced the revenues of the Government, was rushed through under cloture. The Sherman law, which stopped the coinage of silver and required the Government to purchase 4,500,000 ounces of silver bullion each month and to pay for the same in Treasury notes redeemable in gold, was likewise forced through. By the McKinley act the burdens of the people were increased while the receipts of the Government were diminished, and by the Sherman law, silver was reduced to the level of a commodity and the Government forced to purchase large quantities of it every month and pay for it with gold obligations.

The effect of these two measures was to so impair the credit and cripple the commerce of the country as to augment instead of allay the fears of the people. Under the Sherman law $156,000,000 in Treasury notes were issued and immediately became a charge against the gold reserve in the Treasury. This constantly and rapidly increasing menace, with a promised deficiency, was more than the credit of the nation could stand, and hence during the last year of Mr. Harrison's administration there was an actu 1 deficiency of $9,115,849, while the balance of trade, which, under reasonable conditions, should always be in our favor, at the end of the fiscal year, was $18,735,728 against us. The Sherman act, in compliance with the Chicago platform, was repealed, but not until serious damage had been done to both public and private credit. The repeal of this measure, while it may not have had the immediate beneficial effects that were predicted, was certainly an important factor in allaying the fears of the people and staying the course of the panic. The net exports of gold during the last fiscal yea" was only $4,585,603, as against $86,897,275 the year previous.

The repeal of this measure, although an imperative necessity, left the country without any means of increasing its volume of money except by additions to its stock of gold or an increase of national bank currency. The disturbed condition of affairs has made it impossible for the Democratic party to mature a satisfactory plan for the reformation of our financial system, but after the settlement of other questions, now pressing for solution, this great desideratum will unquestionably be successfully accomplished.

IMPORTATION OF LABOR BY CONTRACT---A REPUB

LICAN MEASURE.

The subject of legislation affecting the interests of the laboring classes has become an important matter.

Our wage-workers are in a great measure an organized class, and as such have become a most potent factor in educating and influencing the masses upon political questions. All parties, therefore, are making great efforts to win their approbation and support. The most ardent professions for their interest and welfare have been and will be expressed in platforms and proclaimed upon the stump.

This class of our citizens, however, have long since realized that but little faith could be put in the pledges of platforms or the profession of politicians, and that the only sure guide to the principles which control a party is to be found in the record which it has made.

The members of the Republican party are boastful in their professions of devo-, tion to the interests of American labor. They profess to be its special protectors, and without their guardianship one would conclude, from their pretensions, that our laboring classes would long since have been reduced to a condition of dependency and servitude more deplorable than that of the poorest-paid labor of Europe. It is not intended at this time to do little more than call attention to some of the legislation which seriously affected the welfare of our laboring classes, so that they may readily fix the responsibility for their enactment or non-enactment where it rightfully should be.

In 1864, Congress passed an act substantially entitled an act to encourage immigration. This was its ostensible purpose, but its real object was to clothe contractors, mine owners, and manufacturers with power to contract with and import laborers from Europe to supplant American workmen, and to reduce the price of American wages.

Mr. E. B. Washburn, in reporting the same to the House, said:

The vast number of laboring men, estimated at nearly one million and a quarter, who have left their peaceful pursuits and patriotically gone forth in defence of our government and its institutions, has created a vacuum which is becoming seriously felt in every portion of the country. Never before in our history has there existed so unprecedented a demand for labor as at the present time. This demand exists everywhere. It exists in the agricultural districts of the northwest; in the central States; in New England, and among the shipping interests of the lakes and the seaboard, and is felt in every field of mechanical and manufacturing industry. The dearth of laborers is severely felt in the coal and iron mines of Pennsylvania; in the coal mines of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois; in the lead mines of Galena; and in the gold and silver mines of California, Nevada, Idaho, and Colorado. is believed that the demand for laborers on our railroads alone will give employment for the entire immigration of laborers in 1863.

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It

The second section provides that contracts may be made whereby immigrants shall pledge the wages of their labor to repay the expenses of their immigration, and further provides for the enforcement of the contracts, and that it shall operate as a lien upon any land acquired by the immigrant when recorded in the county where the land is situated.

So drastic were the provisions of this measure that it gave to the importer of

The fact that this statute remained in force nearly twenty years, eighteen after the war had closed, and that every effort to repeal it in the interest of American"labo: was thwarted is sufficient to satisfy the most skeptic person that it was fashioneċ and framed 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 left their native land and came to us 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 cannot be told. Laborers were impo ted under the provisions of this law up to the time of its repeal, and the statutes now in force prohibiting the same are still being evaded in many ways 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, that while honest laborers were unable to secure employment, imp rtations under contract were constantly being made, but no step was taken to protect them from this competition.

Dump all the paupers and criminals of Europe and all the Mongolians of Asia in here. What cared the operator and manufacturer? Labor was made more dependent and wages cheaper. This was the policy of the Republican party. Open wide the doors for the importation of cheap labor, but close them tight against the importation of cheap clothing and cheap food. Let us see if the attention of the Republicon members of Congress was ever called to this matter.

On the 13th of December, 1839, Senator Wilson, of M ssachusetts, intro luced a bill (S. 378) 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 o 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 o 'er.

On the 5th of Februa y, 1870, Senator Wilson introduced another bill (S. 593) to make the importation of immigrants under contract unlawful. He madə 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 ag sin. 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. I remained for a Democratic House of Representatives to repeal th s odious and injurious measure, and to force the Republican Senate to take action befere anything could be accomplished. On the 8th of January, 1884, Mr. Foran of Ohio introduced a bill (H. R. 2550) to prohibit the importation of foreign labor under contract. This bill passed the House on the 19th of June, 1884.

The bill was sent to the Senate where it was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor. It was reported back at an early day, and repeated but fruitless efforts made to secure consideration of it until in February, 1885, when it fi aliy passed that body. Let every intelligent workingmen in the country examine without prejudice this record and if he does not come to the conclusion that those who upheld this law for the importation of contract labor for so many years were not his friends, we shall doubt his ability to select them.

laborers not only a lien upon any land that they might enter, but upon the wages they might earn.

Senator Sherman, in reporting this measure to the Senate, very adroitly tried to conceal its real purpose, but inadvertently disclosed the secret before concluding his statement. He said:

"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 inechanism. In their noble response to the call of their country our workmen in every branch of the useful arts have left vacıncies, 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 increase 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 sɔ varied and promising."

It was true, as stated by Senator Sherman, that there was "a noble respon se tc the call of their country " by the workingmen, but while absent fighting its battles their vacant places should not have been filled with cheap laborers imported frɔm Europe under contract. Paupers unable to get to this country under the terms and provisions of this law could virtually enslave themselves in foreign countries to American contractors and American manufacturers, and the contract would be enforced here to the fullest extent.

The second sec.ion 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 inay be established by the said Commissioner, whereby enig ants 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 creasing in any way the relation of slavery or servitude." (U. S. Stats. at Large, vol. 15, 1833-65.)

The extent to which the authors of this measure knew they were going is appar-, ent from the last lines of this section-"but nothing herein contained shall be deemed to authorize any contrast, contravention of the Constitution of the Unitel States, or creating in any way the relation of slavery or servitude."

A further provision of this law exempted the immigrants imported under contract from military service. The American workman might be taken from his place in the shop at any time, but the imported laborer was in no danger.

When we ask Republicans why they took advantage of the absence of the wageworkers who were in the Army, they say it was necessary. Labor was scarce and wages were high! Will they answer why, when the war was over, when the armies disbanded and the men returned home to take their places, this law was not repealed? Will they inform us why, when a half million or more of men were discharged from the mills or factories in 1873, this law was kept upon the statute books? Will they answer why during that long period of depression, when hundreds of thousands of men were out of employment and seeking work, it was neces sary to import as was done under this law, large numbers of European labore s?

LABOR DAY A HOLIDAY.

Made One by a Democratic Congress for the Benefit of the Workers.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the first Monday of September in each year, being the day celebrated and known as Labor's Holiday, is hereby made a legal public holiday, to all intents and purposes, and in the same manner as Christmas, th· first day of January, the twenty-second day of February, the thirtieth day of May, and the fourth day of July are now made by law public holidays.

Approved, June 28, 1894.