The native American., 1838-08-25


now in progress here, with the motto tive strike
for our country" may indicate how wise it will
be for Legislators to appease the wrath by speedily
removing the cause.
The number of passengers who ar
rived in New York in 1886 was sO,952
of whom only 4,Ol3 were born in the United
States.
The increase of immigrants into that city alone
in years has been fourfold.
In 1929 there were l5,064
In 1896, 60,54l
The arrivals from one port, namely from Cork,
/ in 1896, were 1893; and the quarterly returns
from lst January to 9th July, 1887, show that
the increase at that port over the last year was in
ratio of four to one the number within the first
quarter having been 34,554.
The poor in the alms-houses in 1886 we're
In Boston, 500 Americans 673 foreigners
In Philadelphia 1906 do. 1866 do.
The report of the Board of Aldermen of the
city of New York, Of 18th June, 1887, states
that the paupers in the ams-house were 3,O74, of
whom three-(ourths were foreigners. That out
Of !, 200 persons admitted into the alms-house at
Bellevue, 982 were aliens. The annual report,
dated 29th March, 1887, shows that 6,S74
foreigners were supported or relieved there du-
ring the past year. The Mayor of New York,
in a communication to the Common Council,
states that ''neary 1000 (emigrants) arrive each
week, and it is not likely many months will elapse
before the number per week will be 5000. Our
streets are filled with the wandering crowds OF
these passengers, clustering in our city, unaccus-
toned to our climate without money without
employment /; without friends many not speak
ing our language; and without any dependence
for food, or raiment, or freside. What is to be-
come of them is question of serious import.
Our whole alms-house department is so full, that
no more can be received there without manifest
hazard to the health of every inmate. Petitions,
signed by hundreds, asking for work, are present.
ed in vain. Private associations for relief are
almost wholly without funds. Thousands must,
therefore, wander to an fro, filling every part of
our once happy land with squalid poverty and
prohigacy."
The tax for the relief Of paupers in New York
has increased fifty per cent. in six years, as i'll
1890 the total expense was $246,752 80, while,
in 1886, it had augmented to $780, 100 O5. But
if you take the general amount of support, it will
be found to have more than doubled itself in seven
years.
The revenue of the Champlain canal, which is
81 miles long, and the next largest in the State,
is annually about $l32, 900, so that it would
take the gross receipts Of the tolls of this canal
for three years to support the poor Of the State
for one year. .... ..
The amount expended in New York and
Pennsylvania, for one year, for the poor, woulc
pay one half of the yearly charge of the whole
legislative executive, and judiciary department.
of the General Government of the United States
besides the costs of the Territorial Governments
the officers Of the mint and public surveyors
The annual outlay for paupers in the Unitet
States would have paid the appropriations made
by Congress in 1888 for all diplomatic purposes
and foreign intercourse, three times over anC
it would, within half million, have sustained
the whole charges Of the navy, including the
gradual improvements, building and rebuilding o
rigates, subsistence, and all other items for tha
year.
| 1t would, within fraction, have satisfied al
the revolutionary pensions under the act of June
1882 and it would have paid the pension
granted to widows and orphans under the militar,
establishment up to 1893, for. fre hundred gears
! The public contributions by tax, Throughout
| the different States would sustain the en!ir
charges of the civil list of the United States, ant
leave balance for sinking fund, which, in tel
years, would pay national debt of fifteen mil
| lions Of dollars.
| In contrasting the expense of foreign pauper
already among us as all interminable burden
with the expense of public schools, will be loun
that the former very considerably exceeds that 0
the latter. In Pennsylvania, the new law O
1896 authorizes each county to determine by it
votes 'whether it will entitle itself to the aid o
the public fund, by assuming certain portion o
the expense" And the scholars already taugh
in the common schools, under that system, in thu
State, was, in 1887, l39, ,6O4, and in the Phadel
phia schools IL ,234. The whole cost was s. 80,
900, while the charge for foreign paupers in til,
city of Philadelphia alone, supposing that i ,5l5
rs reported, was the full number, would be at $5t
per annum each, $75,750, or more than half al
much as the whole cost Of public instruction
throughout the entire State. But if you contras
the actual cost Of the foreign paupers in Phadel
phia, as supplied by regular Institutions, to say
nothing of hundreds who subsst upon the con
tngent bounty of individuals, with the expense o
the | ,234 scholars taught at the common schools
in that city, it will appear that the former lmpos.
a regular tax per annum of S75,75O while the
poor scholars are instructed for $l 900; or, il
other words, that the city of Philadelphia pays
seven times more as regular tax to support the
idle and profigae of other countries, than she
does to instruct her own sons i'll the elements o