The Canadian French in New England

Wright, Carroll Davidson

Transcription of an 1881 "informal hearing" at the Massachusetts legislature regarding the publication of the annual report of the Massachusetts Labor Statistics Bureau in which the French Canadians are famously referred to as "the Chinese of the eastern states." The report argued on the point of a ten-hour workday in Massachusetts and denigrated the French Canadian immigrant population there for being an alleged hindrance to it. The hearing here contains local French Canadian reactions to the report, as well as responses from the author of the report, the Chief of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, who compiled the book at hand. Discussions about processes of immigration, repatriation to Canada, Americanization, naturalization, French Canadian desire for education, and the desire to rid reported French Canadian stereotypes of their public weight. Letters from local leaders expressing support for the French Canadian populations of their communities by attesting to their public political involvement and admirable work habits. All comments driven by the Bureau's reported assumption that French Canadians would resist a mandate limiting the workday to ten hours. Concludes in saying, "we have proved by overwhelming evidence that the statements contained in this report are groundless. We have not proved that they are malicious, but we deduce from the fact that they are false, that they have been presented to you from a malicious spirit or in a spirit which is just as sordid and despicable..." (pp.84-85). Recognizes the report's flawed data collection methods, as well as flawed samplings in largely unrepresentative communities, and excuses the use of the famous racial remark as being of the economic parlance of the times.

1882

en

Book

1881-1882; Massachusetts, New England

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