hich the weak, the oppressed, and the
ignorant of all nations are invited to come among us and share in the
economic and political opportunities and privileges of American
citizens. Such high-sounding and professedly disinterested
cosmopolitanism appeals to a certain class of sentimental believers in
democracy. It does not appeal, however, to any one who fully understands
present-day industrial and political conditions. This capitalistic
sympathy for the weak and the oppressed of other nations may be regarded
by some as the expression of a broader patriotism, but its tap-root is
class selfishness--the desire to secure high profits through maintaining
active competition among laborers. As a matter of fact, all legislation
does, and always must, appeal to the interest of those without whose
influence and support it could not be enacted, and nothing is ever
gained for true progress by making the pretence of disinterested love
for humanity the cloak for class greed.

The desire of the employing class for cheap labor has been responsible
for the greatest dangers which menace this country to-day. It was the
demand for cheap labor which led to the importation of the African slave
and perpetuated the institution of slavery until, with the voluntary
immigration of foreign labor, it was no longer an economic necessity
from the standpoint of the employing class. Indeed the very existence of
slavery, by discouraging immigration, tended to limit the supply of
labor, and by so doing, to cripple all enterprises in which free labor
was employed. In this sense the abolition of slavery was the result of
an economic movement. It was to the advantage of the employing class as
a whole who found in the free labor hired under competitive conditions a
more efficient and cheaper instrument of production than the slave whom
they had to buy and for whose support they were responsible.

Had it not been for this eagerness on the part of the employing class to
secure cheap labor at first through the importation of the African slave
and later through the active encouragement of indiscriminate foreign
immigration, we would not now have the serious political, social and
economic problems which owe their existence to the presence among us of
vast numbers of alien races who have little in common with the better
class of American citizens. This element of our population, while
benefiting the employing class by keeping wages down, has at the same
time mad