Middletown transcript., 1868-07-11
wonderful r.s.e or Imn,urat,on.

many to the United States, always large,
is now expanding into almost startling pro-
portions. 1t appears that from january I
to June, the number Of emigrants who
started for the United States by way of
Bremen was more than 27 ,00O In addi-
ton to this, nine steamers were advertised
in the beginning of june to sail from Bre-
men for New York and Baltimore, which
would bring over. it was anticipated, seven
thousand more emigrants. The increasing
magnitude ofthe German emigration is be-
ginning TO be discussed by the statesmen
Of that country as serious drain upon
the population Of those districts from which
they are drawn, and even upon the strength
of the nation. A recent conversation with
Baron Won Buest, the Prime Minister of
Austria, is published in the magazine
Hours at Home, and, among other things,
the distinguished German statesman is said
to have alluded to the increased emigration
to America, brought about by the late po-
litical changes in Northern and Central
Germany. What sad spectacle" he
exclaimed, ''to see hundreds of thousands
of strong able-bodied Germans leaving our
shores and helping to build up magnif-
cent empire beyond the Atlantic Here is
a question to be solved by our political
economists--to devise means and ways of
public economy by which an end would be
put to this most calamitous loss of the ma
tion's vital strength"
So long as large standing armies are
kept up in Europe, involving heavy taxa
ton, and so long as rivalries of dynasties
for ascendancy keep the population of Eu-
rope in peril of war, the exodus of the
people will go on, especially under the ad-
ditional incentive of the greater demand
and higher remuneration for labor in this
country. Since the forced union of SO
many lately independent States with Prus-
sia, considerable increase has been made
in the income tax, by which the common
iaborer now pays two per cent. on his
yearly earnings, and all who have an in
come over a thousand rix dollars pay three
per cent. Whilst this is not as high as
our own oppressive income tax, it is col
lected monthly and in a very vexatious
manner. In determining the taxable prop
erty of each citizen, the house rent is re-
garded by the assessor as the basis of the
estimate, and it is assumed that his income
is five times the amount of his actual or
estimated house rent. If he protest, he
must be sworn and subjected to detailed
examination. In the villages the tax
gatherers ring their bells up and down the
streets, summoning the tax payers to come
out and settle their monthly dues. Labor
and industry bear the whole burden of tax
alton, ministers, teachers and government
officers being free. In the Rhine region
and about the Main there are some most
embarrassing regulations about the time
and method of tillage, which may be con-
sidered in the nature of tax on labor and
production.
1t is said that laws, which in Germany
as in France, partition out the landed es-
tate Of deceased proprietor among his
children, have gone SO far that the right
OF way in certain districts to these fraction
al lots exceeds the value of the land. The
wages of labor are very low, common field
laborers getting twenty -four dollars a year
wages, with their board, which is estima-
ted to cost about sixty dollars more, and
women about sixteen dollars a year and
the same quantity of food. Or, by the
day, thirty-two cents day for men, and
sixteen cents for women, during the har-
vest season. Two pounds of black rye
bread, quarter of pound of cheese, suf-
icient potatoes, with butter or lard enough
to cook them with, ON four days of the
week, and every other day half pound of
meat Cabbages are sold at one dollar
the hundred head, and are considered an
article OF luxury, not entering into the
common food of the laboring class. Meat
costs from ten to four teen cents per pound;
flour seven cents pound; potatoes seventy
cents for two hundred pounds. The price
of labor has only risen two per cent. in ten
years. Mechanics wages are from 48 to
54 cents per day. 1t is noticeable fact,
however, that the emigration to this coun-
try is usually from districts the most ad-
vanced in comfort and mental activity and
it is the best and not the worst part of the
laboring population that comes to Ameri-
ca. Whilst the cost of living may be con-
siderably less in Germany than in this
country, yet the higher wages here and
the greater comfort and ease of living in
the U. States, especially in the Southern
States, present very strong attractions to
men of enterprise and aspiration. A New
York contemporary, in late article, ex-
presses itself gratifed i" to notice that
German emigrants are beginning to direct
their attention to the South as field of
enterprise. In many important respects
the South offers superior advantages to the
industrious and thrifty emigrant than are
offered by the West. We commend the
South to the Irish and the Germans both.
| The South needs their little capital, needs
more their labor, and the rich and teem-
ing soil is ready to reward them. Be-
sides, a flood of Irish and German emisra-
tion to the South would soon settle the ne
gro question, and determine the balance
of power. ."--Balt. Sun.