Daily globe., 1880-06-03
WHY THEY COME.

WHY THEY COME.
In,pertaItsm DrtvinG the Germans to
An,ertca--The Scandissavtans Drjven
from Home by Poverty and Despair.
d liverpool Cor. New York Times.
OF the German emigration q compare
lively small proportion comes this way. The
main body proceeds direct from German
ports. 1t is not difficult, however, at this
point, to measure the forces that are at work,
and their probable duration. In some re-
spects German emigration is conducted un-
der difficulties. Authority, local and impe-
rial, is against it. You cannot actively pro-
mote it without subjecting yourself to an
unpleasant surveillance, and to contingen-
cies still more distasteful. And yet nowhere,
perhaps, is emigration pursued so methodie-
ally, or with SO fixed a determation to seek
new homes far away. The authorities
would not tolerate the direct advo-
cacy of emigration, but they can not prevent
the keen search for information, which, out
side of the chief cities, any one experiences
who is in position to talk practically of the
different fields of emigration in the United
States, and of their varying opportunities
and attraction. Winter is the season during
which the pursuit of knowledge under diff
culties goes on most energetically. Clubs
are formed. Reports received from friends
on the other side of the Atlantic are handed
round. The cost of removal is carefully cal
culated, and provision for meeting it is
made gradually. So far as Germany is con-
cerned, emigration signifies little that is
spasmodic or evanescent. It represents a
settled and growing purpose to escape from
conditions which the glories of German uni
fcation cannot conceal. The country peo-
pie especially are wearied of
burdens which the Bismarkian
policy constantly increases, and of risks
which that policy naturally entails. More
than anywhere else in Europe, therefore, the
volume of emigration indicates a steady
yearning for deliverance from the yoke of
imperialism, and though good times or bad
times necessarily effect some of the points to
be decided, they really do but effect tempo
rarily the essential features of the emigra-
ton question in Germany. The drain which
is gradually undermining the military
strength of the empire, may at periods be
the. receipt of less favorable news from
America, and, in not improbable contin-
gency, by sterner measures on part of the
government; but flow it will. and, as hereto
fore, the United States will monopolize its
benefits. We may yet discover that the dis
position to extinguish the peculiar privi-
leges of the free cities has remote bearing
upon the repression of German emigration,
which this year proceeds mainly through
these outlets.
scandinavian emigration, again, is wholly
free from political complications. The Swed-
ism government cannot look favorably upon
the diminution of a population already
scanty, but it resorts to none of the harsh
measures for averting it which are among
the features of Bismarck's g rule. As regards
the Swedes, poverty is the impelling cause
of change. In Sweden, as in Norway and
Denmark, labor has no hope. It sees no
chance of improvement. Engaged in hand
to-mouth struggle for tolerable existence,
their eyes turn toward America with some-
what extravagant conception of its benefits.
To them the northwest is the promised land.
Letters and newspapers received thence do
service throughout. neighborhood. One
of themselves, returning on visit
FROM Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Dakota,
becomes the center of local movement.
People cluster around him, and he becomes
their leader. This tendency to depend upon
persons who profess to speak of their own
knowledge is often turned to base account.
Two OF three months observation at this
point supplies illustrations of the manner in
which popular credulity is sometimes abused.
That there are truthful, upright men whom
circumstances have converted into small
oS,f
doubt. They are made leaders in spite of
themselves. On the other hand, it is equally
certain that unworthy men are enabled to
abuse an opportunity, and do abuse it most
shamefully. Large clusters of emigrants
follow individuals who, professedly dlsinter-
ested, are intent upon making money at
every step. They obtain free passage; they
receive commission on the passage money,
and if they deliver those who trust them into
certain hands at tine end of the journey they
receive another bonus. The ultimate for
tunes of the emigrants may not be impaired
by the sinister proceedings of their leaders,
but the fact has something to do with the
complaints and reproaches which come to
the surface at the stopping place on the
journey which Liverpool really is. For
Swedish emigrants are not more amiable
than the emigrants sent forth by other
Their grumbling does not get
into print, which, to certain parties, is de-
cided gain. but there is plenty of grumbling
among them, nevertheless. Here and there
the trickery of self constituted leaders is de-
tected, and then the grumbling is legitimate.
In other cases it is capricious and unreason-
able. The steamship companies have more
than their share of it. Their contract with
the emigrant obliges them to provide for
him during the period which elapses between
arrival here and the sailing of
the steamship; and speaking gen.
orally the obligation is discharged honorably.
Each company has its own lodging houses,
where wholesome food is supplied in abund
ance. Even under these circumstances, an
extra days detention gives rise to vexatious
complaints and now and then to threats of
litigation.
These are not pecuiliarities, however, and
they do not distract from the remarkably
high average of the Swedish immigration of
the present year. All the information from
the Swedish ports and from Copenhagen,
through whose agencies many of the Swedes
come, is to the effect that the emigrants are
nearly altogether of the peasant class. OF
farmers there are this season few. |
The great majority 90 out the view
of working for others. Germans have gone |
in large numbers to Michigan and Illinois. |
Swedes bend their footsteps in the direction
of northwestern Wisconsin, Minnesota, and |
Dakota. There are returned emigrants"
among them. One man I saw who had al |
ready crossed the Atlantic four times, each |
time under the influence of discomfort, and |
yielded at last to the feeling which so often |
proves irresistible in the minds of men who |
nave grown familiar with American life. |
Nearly all tell of the hardships they have |
endured in Sweden; of, ill requited toll and !
/ lot that knows little sunshine. Keeping |
his fact in mind, the appearance of COM
ort possessed by the emigrants is remark |
lble. Men and women are well clad, clean