The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-05-01 00:00:00

INCREASE OF EMIGRATION TO
AMERICA.

A Times' telegram says that emigrants are arriving
in the United States in numbers beyond all precedent
—lrish, Germans, and Swedes chiefly. Over 34,000
arrived at New York this month, 3,342 landing on
Saturday. Castle Garden is overflowing. The rail-
ways were compelled to despatch extra emigrant
trains on Sunday to remove them,. in order that
this week's steamers may land fresh arrivals. At other
ports a similar state of things exist.

The Times of Wednesday commented upon the above
increase in emigration in a leader, from which we
make the following extracts
. . . " What are the causes of this sudden movement of
population from the Old World to the New? Probably they are
many and various, and differ very much in different
localities First, we must place as a common motive the
opening up of new and attractive fields of enterprise in the
United States. Not only is labour of all kinds in demand,
but the alluring accounts of agricultural prosperity which
have lately reached Europe through many sources must
have proved unusually attractive in a time of almost
universal depression. Moreover, a general revival of
prosp-erity, such as we are now witnessing, tends in
itself to increase the stream of emigration. This
is due partly, no doubt, to a general quickening of activity
in all parts of the world, but as much, perhaps, to a desire
on the part of intending emigrants to escape once for all
from the evil times they have just passed through. . . . We
should not be surprised to find that Ireland is more or less
an exception to the general law of emigration which seems
to prevail in the United Kingdom at large, that the tide of
emigration rises and falls together with that of general
prosperity. The habit of emigration which set in in Ireland
' during and after the famine seems to have taken a firmer
root than it has in otter parts of the United Kingdom; for
whereas the total amount of emigration from Ireland
in the period from 1853 to 1879 inclusive was 2,004,375
persons, it was only 1,918,47 from England during
the same period, and 413,207 from Scotland. . . . It
is not difficult to account in some measure for
this remarkable disproportion. Certain parts of Ire-
land, from their soil, climate and general social and econo
mical condition, are peculiarly unfavourable to physical and
moral progress. Agriculture is difficult and thriftless, and
there is no adjacent industry of other kinds to sustain it in
times of adversity. In such times and under such conditions
emigration in large numbers is almost the only alternative
to extinction, and it is not, therefore, surprising to find that
the tide of emigration from Ireland towards the United
States is again flowing strongly. For Continental emigration
from germany and the, Scandinavian kingdoms the same
general causes—continued depression at home and
the boundless promise of America—may be assigned.
The Swedes have always been an adventurous race, and the
Germans, though naturally more phlegmatic, are irresistibly
drawn to a land where patient labour finds a ready market
and reward, and where there is no military service to clog
life at its outset. To all these' causes may be added the
cheapness of the transit between Europe and America.
Many of the poorer. emigrants are conveyed from this country
to the United States for no more than £6 per head, which
amounts to less than a half-penny a mile for the whole dis-
tance traversed; and though much personal comfort cannot
be had for such a sum, yet the travellers to whom
comfort in the homes they have left is not very familiar, are
at least substantially and plentifully fed throughout the
voyage. Thus to many a poor man and struggling family in
Europe the assemblage of motives for trying their luck in
America is irresistible. Poverty, depression, and hopeless
prospects at home are set in forcible contrast with the
teeming soil and limitless range of enterprise to be found in
America, while the cheapness and facility of transit seem in
themselves to offer an invitation to the promised land in the
West.

The Pall Mall Gazette remarks :—"The number of
emigrants from Europe arriving in New York in the
month of March—namely, 21,658—was greater than
in the corresponding month for many years, and it is
expected that the arrivals at that port in the present
and a few succeeding months will be almost beyond
parallel. The large increase in the number of persons
seeking new homes in America is attributed chiefly to
'hard times 'in Europe. It is nevertheless a remark-
able fact that the condition of the families that have
arrived at New York this season is by all accounts far
better than that of immigrants in other years. Nearly all
of them were bound for the West, where they had been
preceded by one of their number acting as agent, and
nearly all of them had money left in their pockets
after paying their fares to their destination. The Irish
immigrants, it is stated, do not seem poorer in conse-
quence of the present condition of their country, and
altogether the general appearance of the newcomers by
no means conveys the idea of destitution."