The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-12-13
GERMAN EMIGRANTS.
rom the London Saturday Revtew.


GERMAN EMIGRANTS.
From the London Saturday Reuieu
1t appears from the last returns that the
German emigrants landing in New York ex-
ceed in number the total amount of both
English and Irish emigrants landing there.
There are in round numbers 130, 900 Germans
who land at New York in a year, while there
are about 60, 600 English, and as many Irish
The United States are thus receiving within
their pale an accession of newcomers of
whom only one in four belongs to the old
race which is still the governing race in
America, and from which the law, the reli-
gion, and the Constitution Of the Union are
mainly derived. This exodus of Germans
must have most important effect one day
both on the country they go to and on the
country they leave. And the emigration of
Germans to America is only one part of
great whole. Everywhere throughout the
globe Germans are pushing their way. 1t is
said that the North German Confederation is
In treaty with Holland for the purchase of
one of the Banda Islands, and the reason
given Is that so much of the coasting trade in
the Eastern seas of Asia has fallen into the
hands of Germans that it becomes necessary
that some local centre should be created for
the protection of their interests In every
part OF South America Germans are creeping
into business, and competing successfully
with their older rivals. They are not ambi-
tous or pretentious, and it is because they
are content to begin in q humble way that
they succeed. They will live on much less
than Englishmen. They are content TO do
huckstering sort of business. They seldom
offend the natives, and keep clear of local
politics. They are species of Christian
Jews, plodding on without attracting atten-
ton till they grow rich. They are
very patient, very Industrious,
and devote themselves entirely to busi-
ness. They have no grand dreams or
prospects whatever They do not want to
found great German colonies, or to build up
an empire on which the shall not set.
They prefer to leave to others the trouble of
conquering and ruling. They neither aspire
to make nor to unmake constitutions they
keep themselves beneath the notice of revolu-
uonary chiefs, and are entirely indifferen as
to who the President of the day may be. All
they ask is to be allowed to lead their own
quiet family life, to have their little enthusi-
asms and sentimentalities, to drink q mode
rate amount of beer, and to make money
This vast irruption of orderly Industrious
unaspiring, but in no way contemplate,
people must add a strange but valuable ele-
ment to the countries into which they pour
There are no emigrants parallel to them.
Frenchmen do not emigrate at all, or are per-
fectly wretched if they do. Russians over
spread new territories, but do not emil
crate. A few stragglers go off from the
Latin and Scandinavian nations, but all emil
grants that set out in numbers sufficient to
produce great results are Germans, English,
or Irish. The English go out as a conquer
ing, enterprising race, to seize on the earth
and hold it; the Irish go out partly to share
in the spoils of the English, partly to kick up
row and promote the cause of general dis
turbance. But the Germans go out because
they like going, and because they can make
emigration profitable and pleasant, if other
people will take the trouble of empire and of
getting up public excitement off their hands.
And yet, wherever they go, they have a GER
tain weight and influence They hang to-
gether, and this gives them importance; they
are friendly, quiet, thriving people; they
commit few crimes, and they provoke few
enemies. The real Yankee hates the Irish
man very often, owning that he is useful but
getting weary of his rowdy, noisy, anarchical
ways; but he never hates the German. He
laughs at him, and thinks him of lower type
than himself, but he has no bitterness against
him. The Breitmann Ballads show that the
Germans seem odd, and perhaps ridiculous,
to many Americans, but still they breathe a
kindly spirit towards the consumers of lager
beer.
SO great is the power of assimilation which
occupied lands, its free institutions, and the
tenacity which the governing race exhibits in
clinging to its old political ideas, that neither
the Irish element nor the German element has
as yet shown itself in a separate form, acting
| In distinct manner, and producing distinct
| vote. We hear of politicians doing and saying
this or that to catch the Irish vote or the Ger
man vote, but neither Irish nor Germans
| affect the policy of the States in any very de-
cisive way. Still these clements are becoming
rapidly SO considerable that Americans may
reflect with pleasure that they are antagonis-
tic, and that, if the present proportion of
emigrants is preserved, the German must be-
fore long preponderate. OF all non-English
races the German is nearest to the English,
most in harmony with it, and most easily
guided byit. great German colony and de-
| pendency might fail, for the Germans, from
their history and their position on the con-
tlnent, have no notion of government except
through soldiers and officials. But they
are excessively tractable, and have a
turn of mind which suits free insti-
tutions. While the Irish element was
always leaning towards the South
during the war, the German element was
firmly Republican, and strongly upheld the
Union. The Germans may be looked on as
the subordinate allies of the English race,
numerous, conservative, and prosperous. In
the foreign politics of the Union they are
strongly for peace, and they have the merit of
| faalipg anainQf HnUlanH IhaU