| Show EMIGRATION gINQUIRY Progress of 1 he Congressional Committee Investigation I IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS It Consider the 11111 to Investigate th Cli rjjeB Against PamellA Lively i cbnte Otbur NoteS The Tlnmlgrat Ion Inquiry NEW YORK July 30 ln the afternoon session of the committee inrestigatin tffliiiifiralion affairs John B Dyer secretary of the Granitacutters National Na-tional 1 Union aaid he knew of stonecutters stone-cutters brought out here under contract con-tract to work One George Berry acting act-ing for Gas Wilkou co contractor employed em-ployed by a syndicate to build the new stutp Capitol at Austin Tex ha brought over tf no tuber of stoaecutters under contract to work on that job The witness had met them at Castle Garden and three of the men were takeu before the United States District Attorney but he refused to act and they were allowed to go to Austin yeventyeiRht of them came over and aftynve went to Texas They came over in April 1886 The witness produced an affidavit made by one of the man to which was attached a copy of the circular given by Wilkies agent in Aberden Suoilanu setting forth the nature of the work to be done scale of prices to be paid for stonecutters and blacksmiths rates of board in Austin manner of paying etc A hundred and Jifty granite cutters were needed and u zuuib r ol falacUemiths It stated also that there was egb en monthsworlc to cut enough stone for the building The paBas money was paid by toe contractor to he refunded Hut of the lirst earning Dyer stated when lie found he could I not BOP the men here lie notified the I Knights of Labor at Austin arid tbev now have a tuit punding in the United States courts against the cnjiitnl syndicate syndi-cate undercontract labor law Witness said the government furnished contractors tractor convict labor ti quarry stone and that the granite cutters were asked oy quarry men not to cut granite which was quarried by convict labor and then Wilkio 1m over to Srotland for theee rued Ho said Senator Fanvtl was tnecbief man of the syndicate and Wi1k1iYprsntObim5elf as acting theIJynuicatg Wirt B would not swear that Senaor arwGn h W cf ViikIes action in importing this con r act labor Tile State of Texas gave I the syndicate 3000000 acres of land and the labor of 500 convicts DaVId JJawson one 01 tho contract laborers brought by Berry was the next sworn He worked in Austin Aus-tin for the syndicate eighteen mouths He understood before that ho went there that Wilkiehad convict con-vict labor on the job but was told the convicts would be taken oil as soon as Wilkiu could gut enough free labor to do the work On the contrary the tvitucba declared Wilkie doubled the nomber of convicts Wilkie paid the witness H a dry and at his request the witness wrote to afriend in Aberdeen who on his assurance there was work for them seourul about fifteen others who came out here and were employed bv Wilkie Witness said it was a very common thing for the people of Aberdeen Aber-deen to oome here and work during the summer end return homo in the winter win-ter Witness said that ho could make 2 75 a day here but in Aberdeen he could make only 125 a day The skilled laborers who coma ovor here for I tue iunmier work are mostly stonecutters stone-cutters Stanislaus MLcdeochou3kia native of Russian Polundnejit swore that the Bremen Bre-men Hamburg and Antwerp steamship steam-ship lines have agents there who persuade per-suade people to emigrate by tho means of most untrue representations The most ignorant and poor clatser are those who come here The authorities rigidly enforced the Jaw compelling all emigrants crossing the frontier to show hu they had sufficient ironey to carry them through To meet this difficulty agents famished emigrants with bogus exchange drafts which they show at the frontier and which art taken up again aa soon as they have crossed |
