NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
The common, almost universal, fact 
in our country is a scarcity of labor. 
The same complaint is heard from 
farms, factories, and shops all over 
the country. Immense areas in the 
United States are not settled at all, 
or are very sparsely inhabited. From 
New England to California the crops 
are not thoroughly gathered and mar- 
keted, because there are not hands 
enough to do the work. In all the 
great industries the desirable develop- 
ment is hindered not by lack of capi- 
tal, but by lack of workmen. Not 
only is an adequate supply of skilled 
labor lacking, but unskilled labor is 
also scarce. In some spots or at some 
moments a temporary oversupply of 
labor may occasionally exist in large 
cities, but this temporary difficulty is 
soon cured by a redistribution of the 
laboring population. There is al- 
ways a considerable number of un- 
employed people, but they are chiefly 
persons who are disabled, incompe- 
tent, or unwilling, or they belong to 
trades which, because of climatic 
conditions or seasonal fashion, do not 
afford continuous employment during 
the entire year. One may see in the 
large cities many poor people, but 
they constitute only a small fraction 
of the population, and, for the most 
part, it is not low wages that have 
made them poor, but drink, drugs, 
disease, or the premature death of the 
breadwinner of the family. The two 
main facts about the American indus- 
tries are, first, that labor is scarce, 
and, secondly, that wages have been 
high relatively to those prevailing in 
other countries; that they. have risen 
very much within the last 50 years 
and are still rising. 
There is almost universal assent 
to the proposition that every healthy, 
honest laborer who comes _ hither 
from other lands contributes appre- 
ciably to the productiveness and 
wealth of the country. Lately, how- 
ever, there is a disposition to make a 
distinction between the skilled and 
the unskilled immigrant, and between 
the immigrant who comes to stay and 
the immigrant who comes for a few 
years to lay up money enough to en- 
able him to live comfortably in his 
fatherland, but even an unskilled la- 
borer who works faithfully makes an 
addition to the wealth of the country, 
although not so large an addition as 
the skilled laborer, and every immi- 
grant who, after a few years, returns 
Restriction of Immigration 
By Charles W. Eliot 
to his native land with his savings 
must have done good work for the 
country during his entire stay here, 
else he would not have saved money 
enough to go home with contentedly. 
The unskilled laborer who only lives 
a few years in the United States is no 
exception to the general rule that 
every healthy and faithful laborer is 
profitable to the country and _ that 
more labor is needed in every branch 
of American industry. 
An educational test to restrict im- 
migration is both misdirected and 
untimely. It is misdirected, because 
ability to read is no proof of either 
health or character. Many entirely 
illiterate persons are vigorous, hon- 
est, and of sound judgment in affairs 
and in the conduct of life. It is un- 
timely, because the right moment to 
apply an educational test is on ad- 
mission to the suffrage, not on ad- 
mission to the country. In all races 
the most dangerous criminals come 
from classes than can read and write, 
and not from the illiterate. A test 
founded on ability to read will not 
keep out the worst criminals, and will 
furnish no safe guide in action to the 
officers charged with the execution of 
the existing restrictive laws. 
All attempts to exclude healthy 
and honest immigrants are inconsis- 
tent with the rightful generosity of 
freemen toward people who wish to 
be free, and of working people whose 
conditions of labor are favorable 
toward people in other lands whose 
conditions of labor are less favorable 
and who are ambitious to improve 
their environment by going to free 
America. The present people of the 
United States have themselves been 
immigrants in to the fresh continent 
within generations still recent; and 
they ought to shrink, and do shrink, 
from imposing hard conditions of ad- 
mission to the country on the newer 
immigrants who are ambitious to fol- 
low their example. It is the mission 
of the United States to spread free- 
dom and democracy throughout the 
world by teaching as many men and 
women as possible in freedom’s larg- 
est home how to use freedom rightly 
through practice in liberty under law. 
Some American publicists have 
been disquieted about immigration, be- 
cause the new immigration is to some 
extent different from the old, as re- 
gards race and religion. They appre- 
hend that these newer immigrants 
ANNUAL 
Pop Concerts 
Under the Auspices of Second Corps Cadets 
by the 
Salem Cadet Band 
Cadet Armory 
Saturday Afternoons 
APRIL 29, MAY 6, 13 
AT 3 O’CLOCK 
COURSE TICKETS 50 CENTS 
Exchangeable at Emilio’s music store, Y. M. C. A. 
building, on or after April 22. 
The Christian Army 
Essex County Rescue Home 
SALEM, MASS. 
(16) 
129-131 Derby St., 
Telephone 278 
HE work of the Christian 
Army is not a duplicate of 
any other. It stands as a dis- 
tinct up lift charity. The ONLY 
home in this section where a person 
without money, if sober, can be 
SURE of admittance. 
You can help us by giving to 
our wagon, old newspapers, books, 
magazines, rags, rubbers, furniture, 
etc.. which are sold as a means to 
support the home. Cast off cloth- 
ing is given free where needed. In 
giving goods please look closely at 
wagon marked plainly ‘‘ Christian 
Army’’ Rescue Home. If in any 
doubt please hold over and drop us 
a postal or phone 278 Salem. 
BOOKS OPEN FOR INSPECTION 
The Best results are Obtained by 
playing the Edison Records on an 
Edison Phonograph. Have 
heard the new Model O Reproducer? 
you 
If not come in and hear it. 
PUT’S 
76 Washington St. 
SALEM, MASS. 
(Mention the Breeze.) 
(14) 
will not settle on the land, as the older 
did, and will not be scattered among 
the people who have been longer in 
the United States, but, rather, will 
live by themselves in seperate quar- 
