The Alien Invasion

foreign labour, cannot but exercise a prejudicial effect upon the wages of the native working-classes. It forces the decent British workman to compete on uneq

evil has yet reached. These are not great trades, perhaps, in the sense of the textile or metal industries, but

ch rules the market. If then we have a body of men combining together for the purpose of getting what they consider to be a fair wage, how can they maintain that combination, if, when a strike occurs, or any little dispute arises between employer and employed, by which the employed hope to get a little better terms for themselves, the destitute

fierce as the competition among the employed. Much indignation has been directed against the "sweater," the bloated human spider, who, according to Alton Locke, sucks the life-blood of his victims, or who more recently has been

nate study of the facts will show that the great bulk of the "sweaters" are very poor; and that with their profits driven down by competition, they can hardly make a living. In fact, both employers and employed are alike the victims of

some say, "they can turn their hands to something else." But it is not so easy for a man who has been apprenticed and brought up to a certain trade, to turn his hand to "something else." His craft is his bread, his trade is his capital; it is dear to him, for upon it he has lavished all his skill, all his energies. It is hard that he should be robbed of it by the foreigner. These two trades

ots, leather-lined throughout, were bought for 3s. 11-1/2d.; labour received 2-1/2d. for the "lasting" (i.e. sewing, heeling, and putting together); this 2-1/2d. did not include nails, wax, thread, all necessary to the work, which had to be found by the workman. Three pairs of boots can be "lasted" in an hour. There is also the "finishing," which costs 2d., and five pairs can be "finished" in an hour. But the most striking instance of all is that of a knickerbocker suit, well-made, and properly adorned with braid, made by a "sweated" wor

return again to the Continent," when there are already so many of these indigent foreigners in our midst. Even supposing for the sake of argument-I do not for one moment admit it-that the numbers arriving are comparatively small, they would still have a very bad effect upon the price of wages, in the trades and industries upon which they entered. The inflow of a comparatively small number into a neighbourhood where much of the work is low-

Kingdom, is obviously wide of the mark. We must consider their distribution in particular localities and particular trades; more than t

d of London. As we have seen, the two trades principally affected are

our ends in getting or attempting to get our proper wages." Mr. Freak reckons that about 25 per cent. of the persons engaged in the whole of the boot and shoe trade in the city of London are foreigners; but that the commoner kind of work is monopolized by foreigners entirely. He further said that the introduction of this pauper labour has seriously affected the rate of wages received by the English operatives, not of course so much in the best shops, but very greatly in the commoner class of work. It had also the effect of reducing the employment of a large number of Englishmen, and of driving hundreds out of work altogether. He went on to say:-"I know that at the time when I first came to London, any one could get work at the middle or common class of goods; and now they are sent out to the homes or given to the sweaters, who take them on the system that they are working themselves in the way I have mentioned; and the price is reduced so low that to work single-hand

n the tailoring trade, in the parish of St. George's-in-the-East, over 80 per cent. are foreigners. Mr. Zeitlin, Secretary of the Jews' branch of the Tailors' Association, himself a Russian Jew, stated before the same Committee that there were altogether employed

in their habits and their customs they have nothing in common with the native community. He stated that there were not more than 250 Englishmen employed in the cheap tailoring trade in the whole East End of London. They have all been driven out by Jews. There is, however, still a considerable employment of Englishwomen. Mr. Burnett also drafted a memorandum on the immigration of foreigners, and in it he stated that in respect of the trades and districts chiefly affected by it, the evil had assumed serious aspects. He considered that London, Bir

any of them German, Russian, and Polish Jews. He draws a distinction between the Germans pure and simple, and the German, Russian, and Polish Jews, for this reason. The Germans are found in the superior workshops of the West End, and they are found receiv

f our own workmen is not to be measured by the small percentage foreigners bear to the general populat

xious to obtain it. Nor is this large intrusion of a foreign element confined in its effects to the displacement of native labour alone. It brings down to its own level labour that is not displaced. In all trades that do not require long apprenticeship and technical skill, the supply of labour is greatly

to the level of the foreign labour which is brought into competition with it. When the struggle is between those accustomed to a higher, and those accustomed to a lower standard of life,

orities say on the sub

t the present moment, fully two-thirds of the sweaters in Liverpool are foreigners; the majority of whom, as I have already stated, are not tailors at all, and have never served one hour in the tailor trade properly as an apprentice. I was told by a Jew some time ago, and he made a serious complaint to me on that head, that he was already finding the competition of his own people so severe, that being a practical man, h

matter, and we are opposed to it in the main (i.e. foreign immigration), and we passed a resolution that the importation of

the markets of England to oppose and to act detrimentally to the interests of the English people. I do not think it would be wise, and I don't know that we could advocate, and I am sure any intelligent man would not advocate altogether, the complete prohibition of foreign labour; but at the same time I think there must be, or ought to be, some means devised whereby skilled labour should contend against skilled labour i

e Huguenots established new industries of silk, glass, and paper; the Flemings introduced the finer class of weaving into England; in both of these cases the alien influx was beneficial. But it cannot be seriously maintained that these low

"pool of unemployed," or superfluous supply of labour. So long as this standing pool remains, and so long as it is ever being augmented by the endless influx of cheap, destitute foreign labour, so long it is difficult to see how the wages of the low unskilled workers can be materially raised. Let the pool be gradually drawn off, and wages will ri

on of the masses in their wages, their habits, their homes, their scale of living, and their condition generally. Anything which tends to reduce the price of labour tends also to reduce the labourer's standard of comfort and prosperity, and there can be no manner of doubt that this continuous influx of destitute foreigners does tend both directly and indirect

ed little island? It is the high rate of wages which has given to the American workmen their unexampled prosperity as citizens. It is the recognition of this truth which has induced the United States Government to guard its doors so jealously against the

nd to mouth. They know that if they lose their wage one week, they will be destitute the next, and starving the week after. Under these circumstances it is not surprising to find that there exists among the native working-classes the strongest feeling against the great and increasing invasion of their rights. This feeling is not only confined to the trades chiefly affected, it is rapidly spreading throughout the country. So far as I have been able to judge, the feeling among the working-classes in favour of restrictive measures is practically unanimous. A vast majority of the great Trades Unions and Labour Organizations-not only those

f unfair competition. My Executive desire me also to say that these conclusions are arrived at reluctantly, as they would like this country to be a really happy England, giving welcome to the oppressed of every land. While, however, they hold this view strongly, they are also of opinion that this broad principle must not be allowed, to any ap

ce does not stand alone; it is but an echo of the opinion of similar organizations throughout the country.[19] The English workman is naturally patient and law-abiding. It is his nature to suffer and be strong. All that he asks for-and surely it is not

." Whatever may be the immediate interests of the hour, labour questions constitute the politics of the future. There are signs all round the world that social problems and labour questions are gradually taking the place of older issues over which men have contended. There is no likelihood now of a war about creeds, no dynastic contest is now on the cards; the rivalries of nations and of races are not as potent as they were; but the lot of the "dim millions," the labouring-classes, who were ignored by all the warriors and statesmen of the past, is now forcing its way to the front. The contest which is gathering will not be around "exhausted factories and obsolete policies," as Mr. Disraeli said in 1852, but living problems, coming home to the hearts and to the firesides of all labouring men. Labour legisl