The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1882-02-16
German Emigration.

There is abundant reason why these
people should come to us, and very little
why they should remain where they are.
There is no doubt that one and all OF
them have a natural attachment for the
land in which they have been born and
reared, or that they will shake the dust
of Germany off their feet with many and
bitter regrets !; for the Germans are not
only a housekeeping people, but patriot
ism is a very vital force with them. But
if they are patriotic they are also prac-
teal, and if Germany makes life harder
than it Iced be, and new careers can be
secured elsewhere under better auspices,
her children will smother their COM:
Functions now as aforetimes, and will
go where they can have q living chance
for themselves and for their children.
The kind of government to which they
have been subjected from time immemo-
rial has always pressed heavily upon the
Germans of all classes in life, but
especially upon the commonalty, and it
would seem that the present Imperial
system presses rather harder han any
other kind of government. That the
Germans do not need to be ruled with a
particularly heavy hand our experience
with them abundantly proves. We have
no more industrious, frugal, law-abiding,
orderly, and useful class of foreign-born
citizens than those which come to us
from the land where Bismarck's policy
of iron and blood apparently render life
scarcely worth having. 1t is the con-
scription that these emigrants who are
hurrying to our shores are chiefly flying
from, and if they keep hurrying at the
present rate, it will oon become a ques-
ton with the powers that be whether
something must not be done to modify
the system which compels SO large a
portion of the male population to pass
the best years of their lives under arms,
or else to check emigration. It certainly
seems feasible to devise some method of
preventing the military service from
being the bugaboo that it now is, while
maintaining the military establishment at
its proper strength for the meeting OF
certain contingencies which are exceed
ingly likely to occur in the near future.
These contingencies would not have
their present Importance had the men at
the head of German affairs refrained
from pushing their enemies of 1870 and
1871 to the wall, but they could not re-
sist the temptation to humiliate the
French to the uttermost, and now they
are paying the very dearest possible price
for their lack of generosity and states
manlike forecast. The modification of
the military system, however, so as to
give the young men of Germany some
kind of reasonable pretext for staying at
home instead OF flying to America, does
not seem to occur to the rulers Of Ger
many; while they have been cudgelliDg
their brains for a good while past to put
some check on emigration. In this, how
ever, they nave thus far had little or no
success, and are not likely to have ex-
cept by the adoption of stringent meas
ures such as even SO bold and unscrupu-
lous a man as Bismarck would be apt to
hesitate about proposing. Meanwhile
the tide of emigration is steadily and
with increasing force setting America
ward, and we are receiving accessions to
our population which we can we'll afford
to heartily welcome, and which are GER
tain to add materially to u wealth and
u Observation-Disclosures Telegraph.