Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1854-03-20
speech Of Mr.. Young.
OF GRANT CO., IN THE ASSEMBLY, MARCH
ON THE IMMIGRANT AGENCY.

OF GRANT CO., IN THE ASSEMBLY. MARCH &
ON THE IMMIGRANT AGENCY.
The House being in committee of the whole
I Mr.. Davis moved to amend the bill by strikin.
out so much as referred to the election of q,
agent to reside at Quebec, and of Traye lin,
Agent.
Mr.. Young arose and addressed the chair a.
follows:
/ Mn. CHAIRMAN -
am opposed to this amendment. mucf
/ fear, Sir that if it prevail, it will extract ali
Of the marrow out Of this bone. There is fof
1 much merit in this Travelling department OF
the agency service to be abandoned without
devoted, patient, agonizing- investigations
What, Sir abandon the travelling agency?
am astonished at such want of sound dis.
elimination. Why, ] ask members of the
committee to give me their candid attention
JUST one moment, while recall to their minds
the laudable, the unprecedented, achievements
of that service, during the past year.
Why, Sir, just turn to the top of page foul
OF the late report of that agent. You see
there, Mr.. Chairman, that he has Travelled Just
':forty-rwo thousand miles y and when you are
reminded that he was Gen routes only about
SIX months, you see that the said agent has a.
chieved the unparalleled velocity Of motion OF
233 l-3 miles each day of this entire time
Sundays not even excepted! This, it occurs
to me, is trareling "sone - and it would seem,
Sir, at glance, that the State of Wisconsin
cannot, with safety to her future hopes, dis
pense with such rate of progress. She must
have travelling agency, and gentlemen cannot
contend but that this is sufficiently straueing .
Indeed, Sir, it would be wrong. very wrong,
for US to desire any faster travelling! Wrong,
Sir-physicdlly wrong! We must not urge
any public service out of breathing speed
But, Mr.. Chairman, should any member of
the committee think that this agency has not
been sufficiently "trareling," permit me to call
Their attention TO the circumstances Of delay,
which they will also find in the late report of
that flinctionary. On page 4, likewise, of the
said report, the committee will find, as con sid
erations of diminished speed, that the agent
during the six months, entered into cover nine
hundred contracts with country publishers in
the eastern and Middle States From this,
Sir, honorable gentlemen can see for them
selves, that the vexatious details of over five
different negotiations per day were the contin-
gent elements of detention and delay attendant
upon the travelling achievements of this agen-
cy. This is sufficient, think, to satisfy any
one why this agency has not been more trap
citing - and | hope that when the committee
connect together the two ideas of speed and
business, the amendment will not prevail. and
iioI tuS agency VIII uc StliI permit
ted to trayei. Why, sir, if the committee sus-
tain this amendment, and deny TO Wisconsin
"straveing'' aid so fleet, and business talent so
prompt, do not know but shall go against
the whole agency system; | certainly shall
feel like resenting discrimination SO unwise-
1t is always desirable, sir, to sustain the main
points of merit in any measure. whether of
dollars and cents or of phiianthropic enter
prise and | must be permitted to remark Mr..
Chairman, that these extraordinary manifesto
tions of merit do not attach themselves TO the
late incumbent more than to the nature of the
Office itself. Notwithstanding that functionarv
has nndoubted claims to distinguished consid-
eration--c!aims perhaps above al! panegyric,
leled performances is referable to the office it.
SELF Indeed, sir, this Office could not fail to
produce unequditca fruts of ser,i-r,-frcrr,. the
inherent peculiarities of its nature. Think,
sir, for moment of its object. Was human
energy ever called forth in a nobler cause p
All Yankeedom appeals to our sympatbies -
They must be protected from imposition =
Their migratory wants are sufficient to call up
the tenderest sentiments of our being. Who
help!essness? Why, sir, the resident depart
ment of this agency dwindes into insignif-
canoe when compared with this.
The resident line of service is among for
eign immigrants among class of immigrants
who do not need-do not want your aid. We
are told upon this aoor by our adopted fellow
members, by Germ an. Irish, and English MEM
bers of this comrlittee, that immigrants from
these countries rely chiefly and exclusively
upon their friends here for the desired infor-
mation; aud that they are invariably posted
up with Dlat information before they leave
their ratterland. But not SO, sir, with the
verdanf Jonathan of the Green Mountains, or
the stf.id sires of the universal ankee nation !
They mrlst be protected from imposition =
From i'ie frauds and machinatio rs of rune. S.
and tr ansportation interests. They must be
enlrshtened Must know more about our ge-
OK faphy, our resources, Our sharp business
specuiations, and stock !jobbings, or they will
be ruined, wholly. and irredeemably ruined
Now. MIR. Chairman, are not these considera-
tons inspiring? Are the achievements recor-
ded in the report any longer matter of sur
prise? Could we expect less from any incum-
bent, under such overwhelming appeals for
aid Z?
Such efficiency and such dispatch then be-
ing inseparab'e from the nature--the aims-the
objects, of this travelling agency itself, it is as
king too much, sir, to ask this committee to
dispense with it, and do implore the commit
tee not to sustain the amendment, but vote ii
down with vengeance! and leave the travel
ing agency to remain as monument, not only
of speed and business dispatch, but also of uceIt
directed sympathy!