New-York tribune., 1878-12-04

IMMIGRATION or GERMAN SOCIALISTS.
1t is proposed to relieve Germany in some
measure of those pests of civilization, the So
cIalists, by shipping thousands OF them to the
United States. A letter on the subject, signed
"Berliner," to Tie Christian Union, extracts
from which are elsewhere given, sounds
warning which should be needed Whatever
we may think of the reasOnings of the writer
in some respects, or of the remedy proposed
by him, we cannot close the eyes TO evidence
that the deportation of politically dangerous
persons may be resOrted to by Germany in
this case, as it has been in other instances;
and unless the Government of the United
States takes measures to prevent 1t. many
may come hither. Nor does the letter quoted
depct in too strong language the danger to
free institutions which the arrival of such
cargoes of moral and political pestilence
would involve. 1t is, indeed, dan
ger immeasuIaby greater than any in
Cured by the Importation OF Chinese labor
ers. The Socialist comes to poison public
opinion and political action here; to infect
the more ignorant wOrkingmen, and especially
other newly-arrived immigrants, with notions
which have made freedom impossible in
other lands and to spread among our people
his own hostility to all reheiUn and
to the institution of marriage, the basis of
the family. This enemy of property and in
dustry, of domestic life, of religion, and, in
short, of all civilization, can do only mischief
in any country ; but to tLis country, with its
freedom of institutions, the danger is tempo
rarily the greater, because the civil war and
the pressure of pubic Indebtedness have rem
] ., Y IN
infection.
Earnestly seconding the warning given, we
cannot, however, pass without protest and
dissent the remedy proposed or some of the
arguments employed by "Berliner." 1t does
not seem to us true that the Constitution
empowers Congress to prohibit immigration,
in the sense contemplated, for it is admitted
that the ninth section of the first article was
| intended and understood to apply only to the
involuntary importation of slaves. Nor would
formal prohibition of voluntary immigration
or involuntary importation OF such persons
be the right remedy, for the obvious reason
that no conceivable Custom House inspec-
ton could determine whether each pas
senger was or was not 50 far infected with
/ Socialistic notions as to be a dangerous per-
son. A great majority of the persons who
| give more OF less mental assent to Socialist
theories, as the result of training under Old
| World conditions, are persons who decidedly
oppose the practical application of those the
| Ories even in Europe, and who quickly get
| cured of them after contact with American
! freedom. Moreover, any attempt to exclude
such persons by law would involve in
| tolerable abuses. Assuredly it Is not true
/ that this country has more wOrkmen than
work.; the difficulty here Is not that we
/ have TOO many willing workers, but that their
distribution in the various industries is faulty,
! Neither Is 1t true that the German Socialists,
az a class, would come here "nOt primarily
TO work, but to vote" The worst of them,
if they come at ALL will come under compul-
| SION. The rest will come, like other InmI-
grants, primarily to work and to better their
condition.
/ The proper remedy lies wholly within the
power of the Executive, and there is no rea-
/ son TO doubt that it would be effective. The
! Executive has already been called upon to
/ protest against the importation of criminals TO
our shores. 1t can with equal propriety
represent to the German Government that the
deportation of dangerous Socialists to this