The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-06-28
Your Loss Our Gain.

1t is said that the inhabitants of
Alsace and Lorraine, aud other pro-
vlnces, over which the contending ar
mics of France and Germany have
passed, are suffering terribly by the
destruction which has been caused,
and in many places the restitution is
so great that hundreds and thousands
are absolutely dying of starvation. 1t
is also stated that appeals are coming
TO this country for organized assist
ance to aid these people to emigrate
hither. Here then will be another
field for philanthropic effort, and
Whatever form this may wisely take,
none can fail To wish it success. The
field seems hardly less promising to
those who have heart to do good
than that of supplying the needs of
wounded men, which sanitary COM
mittees have been endeavoring to do
with SO much zeal and success. But
whatever may be the result of the APP
peals which are made, of one thing we
may be certain; either with assistance
from this country or without.it, many
thousands who have been made home
less in those regions will find their way
hither. We may yet see q tide flowing
liohi Il iahNt tlhN lilil W Hull HIS COiut
in other years from Germany or Ireland.
Destitution abroad has always had this
result. One year of famine in the lat
ter country gave us nearly half a mill
lion of her people. In their utmost
poverty and need they found some way
TO come to this land of promise. And
so ii will be with these Others, whether
we help them, as both humanity and
self-interest may prompt us TO do. or
not.
But dissatisfaction with govern
ments, as well as restitution, has al
ways been powerful motive to induce
foreign population to come here. OPP
pressions and political revolution have
filled our emigrant ships hardly less
than famine. This was attested most
thoroughly after the revolutions in
Europe in 1913; emigration hither
from the countries effected being dou-
bled or Quadrupled. But every account
now is that the people in the French
provinces which Prussia demands,
shall be ceded 10 her, and which, in all
probability, she will have, are not in
favor of this transfer, and that the war
has only tended to embitter their oppo-
sition. A conciliatory policy on the
part of Prussia would doubtless help to
smooth away this feeling, but the eX-
igencies of war hardly seem to allow
such policy TO begin with, however
much the Germans might be disposed
TO adopt it. They feel compelled TO
regard all the inhabitants of the con-
quered provinces as prisoners of war,
and we are told they have announced
by proclamation that whoever leaves
them now to Join the French armies, if
taken, shall he shot. All this, and
many other things which they may be
compelled to do, will not help to con-
ciliate, and we may depend that null
titudes will wish TO get away on this
account, even though not compelled
10y pecuniary straits or the want of
bread and a home.
OF the value to us of such immigra-
ton we need not speak. The best in
vestigation which our authorities have
been able to make as to the average
amount of money brought by immi-
grants, as they now come, places it at
not less than $50 each, which makes
the nation the gamer by some S50,000,-
600 per annum from this source. But
the productive power of those who
come is, of course, the great thing !:
and though there should be now an
influx of men who had lost all 10y war;
and many of whom we were even
asked to help to the means to emigrate,
this productive power, which is so
much the greatest gain, would remain.
Political economists do not hesitate to
place this, as a capitalized value to the
country, at from one to two thousand
dollars for each immigrant. Nor does
this seem an extravagant statement.
Even the slave was reckoned worth
the smaller of these sums, and more.
But at this computation we are now
receiving from three TO five hundred
millions per annum addition TO our
national wealth from foreign immigra-
ton, or, say, more than 81, ooo, 600 in
value per day. And what now, If this
were swelled, within year or two to