The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-03-21
EMIGRANTs FOR THE WEST.

from the Syracuse J0eTHdt
The one thousand German emigrants who
have decided to accompany Governor Solo
mons to Washington Territory have a pros
porous future before them. The curse which
rests upon the immigrants who land in this
country, is their disposition to hive in the
filthy alleys and slums of the city. Some of
them come from foul homes in European
cities, or we should say foul stopping places,
and are quite ready to drop into the first
reeking cellar or tumble-down tenement house
which they can flnd just as naturally as swine
90 to wallow in the mire. Consequently
they reflect, or rather they continue to live,
the same kind of lives which were begun in
dregs of European immortality. The almost
ineffaceable injury which these people imprint
upon American society is startling. 1t is seen
in our criminal calendars, our politics, and
our prisons; and stretching upward, it leaves
its marks upon higher social grades, and
subtly pervades nearly all circles.
One of the most beneficial plans which
could be devised, would be that which should
scatter the immigrants all over the almost
illimitable unsettled territory which the Gov
ernment has at its disposal A large work is
| being conducted now by the Commissioners
| of Emigration, but it is not adequate to the
necessities of the case. The Irish immi-
grants are the most intent on settling in cities
| One reason for this is traceable to the squalid
| lives which England land system forces them
to lead before leaving their own country. An
antipathy is engendered in their minds against
agricultural pursuits by the expressions of
| grinding, avaricious landlords and the mo-
ment they are within the jurisdiction of a
free government they very naturally seek for
a change of employment, disliking to engage
| in an occupation which they have always re-
| garded nearly as distasteful as serfdom. An
| Irisbmans dislike for the life of farmer can
be definitely traced to the causes which have
been enumerated by those who will take the
trouble to study the reasons which create @
call for reform in Ireland to-day. This coun-
try is reaping many of the tares which Great
Britain has been sowing for generation after
generation. Shall not the people make an
effort to convince men and women who come
into our midst, to escape the oppression of
their mother countries, and then to assume
the responsibilities of naturalized citizens
that there are splendid probabilities of sue
cess for every person who wishes to GRASP
| them?
The German immigrants having been born
and bred under different system of govern
ment, are now ready to apply our vast agri
cultural resources to their own uses. Though
large numbers remain in our cities, still
larger numbers pass on to the great West
where they are building up substantial settle
ments which, by hardy thrift and persisten
industry, are daily bsnefting the new State
and Territories. When the tide of Irish i'm
migration shall have been turned in the sam
direction, there will be far less cause for tn
enactment of reformatory laws and for la
menting the Generalization of our society.