CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

In compliance with paragraph 2a of Rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the following is submitted:

IMMIGRATION

TO CLARIFY THE APPLICATION OF THE CONTRACT-LABOR PRO-
VISIONS OF THE
LAWS TO INSTRUMENTAL
MUSICIANS

JANUARY 23, 1932.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed

Mr. JOHNSON of Washington, from the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 8235]

The Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 8235) to clarify the contract-labor provisions of the immigration act of 1917 with reference to instrumental musicians, and for other purposes, having considered the same, reports it to the House with the recommendation that the bill do pass.

Your committee has held hearings which show clearly the necessity for the proposed legislation. The bill is favored by the Bureau of Immigration and the Department of Labor. The purpose is to protect American instrumental musicians from the destructive competition brought about by great numbers of alien instrumental musicians who gain admission in the guise of "professional artists" exempt from the contract labor law, whereas in fact such musicians are not artists of any kind or in any sense of the word but are only musicians of the most ordinary type coming here for a livelihood.

They enter in rather large numbers, apparently several thousand annually, the exact number not being known or ascertainable. Many return to their own lands upon the completion of their engagements but doubtless many remain here, unlawfully; but whether they return or remain they deprive our musicians of their rightful opportunities to earn a living. They are brought here not because of any excellence as musicians, for they are inferior to our own musicians of comparable type, of whom we have some 150,000, many of them now unemployed; they come because they will accept inferior conditions of labor and wages and can be had more cheaply than our own musicians.

No obstacle should be placed in the way of admitting any instrumental musician who by any fair interpretation of the word can be called an artist. Artists should be permitted to enter as freely as

reasonable administrative regulations will permit. Our people are entitled to the cultural pleasures and advancement which visiting artists make possible. But there is no justification for admitting great numbers of cheap, ordinary alien musicians who are not distinguished at home or elsewhere, who contribute nothing of art to this country and who come simply for a livelihood, displacing our musicians.

At this time there is distressing unemployment among American musicians, not alone because of the general economic situation but also because of radical changes in the music employment field. During the last two decades, the demands of motion pictures, night clubs, cafes, and like places of entertainment, brought about a great increase in the number of instrumental musicians depending upon their employment as such for a livelihood.

The American musician has had to adjust himself to many adverse conditions precipitated upon him. The legitimate theater is in decline; motion pictures are generally adopting sound and dispensing with orchestras, so that where some 23,000 musicians were employed in motion pictures a year or so ago only about half of that number are employed now; also the radio, which of itself decreases musical employment opportunities, is resorting to records and recorded programs. This condition is aggravated by the admission of these alien musicians. That such alien musicians can be and are admitted is due to the construction given by the courts to the contract labor law. That law when first enacted, in 1885, got off to a bad start in the courts, and notwithstanding subsequent amendments designed to perfect the statute and to lead to a change of judicial construction, the first decisions still persist and prevail as precedents. The result is that the contract labor law is not construed as a general prohibition from which certain specified classes, including professional artists, are exempted; instead, the prohibition itself is virtually limited and made applicable to manual laborers only. Under such construction, the exceptions, exempting professional artists, etc., have little or no effect. Consequently, the test, in substance, is not whether one seeking admission is a "professional artist" but whether he is a manual laborer; if he represents himself as able to play, in some way or other, however indifferently, some musicial instrument he is admitted. The player not being a manual laborer in the judicial sense must be an artist. An alien who played a little on a clarinet was an artist, even if he made the most of his living as a farrier. It has been said, probably with truth, that organ-grinders have been thus admitted.

The proposed legislation is designed to remedy this situation. It lays down a rule excluding from admission all instrumental musicians who would come here for employment, from which it excepts those who are instrumental musicians of distinguished merit and ability or who are members of a musical organization of distinguished merit applying for admission as such. It also provides for legal assurance, by bond or otherwise, of the departure of those thus admitted upon the termination of their engagements. The clause stricken from the bill was thought by the Bureau of Immigration to cover a phase of the matter which can better be handled by administration.

It is believed that the proposed legislation is necessary for the rightful protection of the employment opportunities of many American citizens from alien competition, that it is entirely consistent with the

principles of the existing immigration laws and is in full harmony with the policy of Congress.

Some of the important provisions of the existing contract labor law (U. S. C., title 8) are:

That the provisions of this law applicable to contract labor shall not be held to exclude professional actors, artists, lecturers, singers, nurses, ministers of any religious denomination, professors for colleges or seminaries, persons belonging to any recognized learned profession, or persons employed as domestic servants.

The foregoing paragraph is the fifth proviso of section 3 of the immigration act of 1917, to which the bill, H. R. 8235, refers.

Persons hereinafter called contract laborers, who have been induced, assisted, encouraged, or solicited to migrate to this country by offers or promises of employment, whether such offers or promises are true or false, or in consequence of agreements, oral, written, or printed, express or implied, to perform labor in this country of any kind, skilled or unskilled.

SEC. 5. That it shall be unlawful for any person, company, partnership, or corporation, in any manner whatsoever, to prepay the transportation or in any way to induce, assist, encourage, or solicit, or attempt to induce, assist, encourage, or solicit the importation or migration of any contract laborer or contract laborers into the United States, unless such contract laborer or contract laborers are exempted under the fifth proviso of section three of this act, or have been imported with the permission of the Secretary of Labor in accordance with the fourth proviso of said section, and for every violation of any of the provisions of this section the person, partnership, company, or corporation violating the same shall forfeit and pay for every such offense the sum of $1,000, which may be sued for and recovered by the United States, as debts of like amount are now recovered in the courts of the United States. For every violation of the provisions hereof the person violating the same may be prosecuted in a criminal action for a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of $1,000, or by imprisonment for a term of not less than six months nor more than two years; and under either the civil or the criminal procedure mentioned separate suits or prosecutions may be brought for each alien thus offered or promised employment as aforesaid. The Department of Justice, with the approval of the Department of Labor, may from any fines or penalties received pay rewards to persons other than Government employees who may furnish information leading to the recovery of any such penalties, or to the arrest and punishment of any person, as in this section provided.