The Irish republic. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1867-18??, 1867-06-22
Irish Emigrants in New York.
New York, June 8, 1867.

res touching the treatment extended to Irish emf
grants on their arrival in this city, through whose
portals the great proportion make their INTRODUCTION
on our Shores My investigation is not yet COM
plete, and [ will return to this most important sub
ject as one that will bear careful and renewed
examination. [ shall say nothing to-day IN the way
of statistics nor charge the results OF the present
SYSTEM or want of system, on anyone particularly
1t is very probable that the Commissioners of EN-
graton at Castle Garden do all in their power for
the protection and guidance of the crowd OF fugi-
tives who seek, by flight to America, to escape
from the curse of bad government in anotherland;
and if these officials do this, you scarcely ex-
pect that outsiders, who not paid anything to
interfere shall offer services or advice, or seek to
vary the sublime dogma, s'Whateyer is, is right"
The candidate for citizenship is dumped on the
dock, and-reversing the practice of the South Sea
Islanders in regard to their infant progeny-we
say, if he swims we'll and good; and, if not, that's
his business or hers, as the case may be- Natur-
ally, the most desperate land-sharks on the track
Of the newly arrived, are country people OF his own,
and all of them graduates of the Introductory
system. What wonder if the kindly Irish nature
becomes callous, and that we have regions OF NOR
al and physical squalor within our precincts which
are caviare to the passenger From such specta-
Giles one shrnks and turns away, preferrng even to
thrust his head in the same, rather than be forced
to their cotemplation. Turn as you will, they are
there, and the question recurs, why, in this free
country, have we wv alter Street." or the " Five
Points," or baskerville ?" and as the deep val
leys in the earth have their counteparts in the lofty
mountains, an ''arstocracy" (save the markD that
is scarcely less offensive? Alderman Rooney may
receive the japanese Commissioners in official
state or grace the board at dinner in honor OF At
lantic Cables - and Mrs. Rooney, the accomplish
ed, may preside at Ladies' Fairs" but no matter
how lofty the pinnacle on which they stand, eva
ter Street, with its dancehouses, must remind
them, like Philip of Macedon, that they are but
mortal Why, therefore, don't the Alderman, and
all other influential people of his race, attack these
strongholds of degradation and crime, and dry up
the sources of their increase? No doubt, the
worthy people will reply, "Because it would MT
pay"
But the question becomes more and more impor
tant for the shAmerican race, throughout the
country, and might be answered in another man
ner Let general Western Emigration Bureau
be established, which might place itself in commu-
nication with the Commissioners of Emigration of
this city, or, as the Germans have done, with spe
cial emigration agency of their own, through whose
fundamentally Irish emigrants mi ht be forwarded
to such places in the West might need their SER
vices, and take care of them on their arrival, until
fairly set to work.
This machinery would be indispensable, because
based on the practical foundation of demand and
supply in the labor market, and it is this principle
and not any insane appeals to patriotism or philan
thropy, or any nonsense Of that kind that will fur
nish more desirable field for poor Irish emigrants
than New York. German emigrants go West be-
cause friends living in that direction have made the
necessary preparations for their reception. Irish