Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1874-11-18
TsE RECEDIEG TIDE OF EMIGRA
n,unE

Nothing indicates more plainly the
ruin which the Radicals have brought
upon the country as the statistics Of en-
igraton. Il seems from these that the
tide Of emigration has not only stopped,
but the current Is pouring back. Here
are the figures:
E-IIGR ANTS OTHER THAN CABIN PAS
sENSEss ARRIVED IN NEW YORK
FROM 1872 To 1874:
Quarter ending September 80, ls72..--... 1854
Quarter ending September 50, lo73--.--.. o, SIS
Diminution.........-.............. ....... 1888
Quarter ending December 81, ls72......... g., 45l
Quarter ending December 81, lS73-.....-... 4l,7o9
DIminution....-... ....................... 1852
Quarter ending March 81, BIB. Z7,O55
Quarter ending March 81, l55i............- ll-sl5
Diminution.--.............................. I52i2
Quarter ending June %, ls7S............. I5s,30i
Quarter ending June 80 lSl4......-........ Is SO
69 ,33S
This "exOdus Of strong arms and
trained intelligence not only weakens
our actual working and producing
force" but it viii retard emigration 70:
years, as each man who returns will
greatly exsggerate the unsettled condi-
ton Of America. There are very few
persons who realize the enormous sg-
gregate Of national wealth that is
brought to our shores by the influx Of
population from the Old World.
Shrewd arithmeticians have been figur-
ing about it, and they, with the statis-
tics before them, calculate that the
money value OF our immigrants, since
lIS3, amounts to the enormous sum Of
seven billions Of dollars, II which eighty
per cent. has accumulated since 1880.
This is an estimate of value which
everybody can understand and appTe-
ciate. People who might be quite
unable 70 make an approximate
calculation Of the value Of think
er5 and investigators like Agassiz
and Herbert Spencer, whose ideas
may not have direct and immediate
pecuniary significance, are quite able to
see the worth Of the average immi-
grant in dollars and cents. 1t is in
this respect that the Liverpool Courier
reckons the money value OF a Euro
pesn emigrant in America as one hun
bred and sixty-six pounds thirteen shil-
lings and fourpence, and traces the
connection between that fact and the
diminutiOn Of our national debt. Seven
million pounds per annum is our En-
glish contemporaries estimate of the
profit neaped by this country every year
by the mere arrival Of these immi-
grants. The compound interest on this
sum, it is said, would extinguish the
war debt, and it would not take a great
while to do ii. According to the
figures given above, the falling off for
the first nine months Of the present
year was one hundred and five thousand
six hundred and eighty-four, as COM
pared with the preceding year, and Of
one hundred and ten thousand five
hundred and forty-two as compared
with 1872. Counting these immi-
grants at an average value Of $1,000 per
head, the country has lost this year $685.
6s4, 900 in the non-arrival Of the usual
quota Of immigration. And all summer
long, outward bound steamers were
crowded with wOrkingmen returning to
Europe in search Of that employment
which they had sought in vain in this
country. From Ethese data the people
can form some idea Of the damage done
by the laundering financial policy that
has brought such stagnatiOn upon the
country. Emigration lie a curse instead
Of blessing, when we can give no en-
ployment to the emigrants IS they be.
come consumers instead Of producers.
As the New Orleans Tines says: "No
country can be prosperous that does not
afford profitable employment to those