Two very important policies have been adopted by this country which, while
extending their benefits also in other directions, have been of the utmost
importance to the wage earners. One of these is the protective tariff,
which enables our people to live according to a better standard and receive
a better rate of compensation than any people, any time, anywhere on earth,
ever enjoyed. This saves the American market for the products of the
American workmen. The other is a policy of more recent origin and seeks to
shield our wage earners from the disastrous competition of a great influx
of foreign peoples. This has been done by the restrictive immigration law.
This saves the American job for the American workmen. I should like to see
the administrative features of this law rendered a little more humane for
the purpose of permitting those already here a greater latitude in securing
admission of members of their own families. But I believe this law in
principle is necessary and sound, and destined to increase greatly the
public welfare. We must maintain our own economic position, we must defend
our own national integrity.
It is gratifying to report that the progress of industry, the enormous
increase in individual productivity through labor-saving devices, and the
high rate of wages have all combined to furnish our people in general with
such an abundance not only of the necessaries but of the conveniences of
life that we are by a natural evolution solving our problems of economic
and social justice.