tion. We will all leave the 'Great White Way' and migrate to the 

 farms. 



"There is another subject very closely connected with these farm- 

 ing interests. We need more help. The farmer complains that he 

 cannot get sufficient help. We want first-class farmers from some 

 source*. It is a difficult problem. As you know, the laws of the 

 United States are very strict about making any arrangements for 

 foreigners to come from their countries to this; but we wish some 

 of them would come here. We had hoped to have with us Secretary 

 Nagel, of the Department of Commerce and Labor, at Washington, 

 but unfortunately he has not been able to come. We have with us, 

 however, Assistant Secretary Cable, and would appreciate it if he 

 would say a" few words to us, perhaps along this line." 



MR. BENJAMIN S. CABLE, Assistant Secretary of the Department of 



Commerce and Labor, Washington, D. C., said: 

 "Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen : I am very thoroughly con- 

 vinced that it is the duty of the Department of Commerce and Labor, 

 through the Bureau of Immigration, to properly distribute some of the 

 thousands of immigrants that are coming to these shores every day. 

 Up to the present we have devoted most of our time and most of our 

 energy to trying to determine what immigrants should be excluded 

 and what immigrants should be admitted. We have, however, come 

 to the point where we have found that there is one other thing for 

 us to do, and that is to properly distribute and attempt to assimmilate 

 those various persons, that come. The immigration into the United 

 States now runs from 3,000 to 5,000 aliens a day. Most of these 

 people come in at the port of New York. A great many are farmers 

 have had considerable farm experience in the old country. Thev 

 would be glad to carry on that work here if they knew where to go 

 The difficulty has been in the past that they have fallen into the clutche? 

 of labor agencies who exploit this labor, take away the little money 

 these men bring in in fees, and get them a poor job, or probably a 

 job in some sweat shop to end up with. We have a Bureau of 

 Information in the Bureau of Immigration, and an office here in New 

 York. We are just beginning to get the work of that division well 

 under way. We average now probably 100 immigrants for whom 

 we secure good and permanent positions on farms. Most of these 

 men are taken to farms in New York State. We expect to have 

 more every day, as soon as we can do something further toward 

 perfecting this system of distribution. It seems to me that supplying 



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