STARVE A FEVER

There is at present a considerable protest by manufacturers, particularly in New England, against the existing immigration laws. Mill owners are beginning to feel the pinch caused by a shortage of labor. A Greater Boston manufacturer wrote recently, "Unless there is some relief in the shape of immigration, we will be forced to shut down our plant. . . . It is not a question of wages; the help is not here."

Undoubtedly the limitation of immigration has been a boon to this country in every way, save apparently in this resulting scarcity of labor. But, on careful examination, this very shortage is indicative of some good. It indicates one of two things. Either, the number of laborers remaining the same, industry has improved, or, industry remaining the same; many of the former laborers have advanced themselves above the laboring classes; either of which should be beneficial to the country. Still more important than this; if there is a shortage of labor, then the unemployment period must be at an end.

Some lack of labor was readily forecasted when the immigration bill was passed, but the supporters of the bill were blessed with much more extensive point of view than the manufacturers now possess. The latter regard the question merely in relation to the immediate benefits which industry will or will not gain from it. The former recognized the fact that immigration to this country had attained such enormous proportions and was of such a deplorably low character that it was no longer possible to assimilate the newcomers. They formed a constantly growing abscess in the body of our nation which no amount of legislative surgery could drain, until at last the physicians clearly saw that the only cure lay in destroying the disease which fed it, in effectively limiting immigration. Since that time, the abscess has shrunk noticeably. The fresh supplies of labor, however, are no longer forthcoming and industry is suffering accordingly.

This scarcity of labor may cause serious inconvenience for a time, but it is bound to adjust itself in the end.

If a patient was suffering from a bad abscess, it would be criminally ridiculous in his physician to foster the disease because a serum was obtainable from the abscess which could innoculate the patient against irritating fleabites.