Omaha daily bee., 1883-06-28
INCOMING PAUPERS.
The Question: Of Irish Immigration Dis.
CuSSGd.
Another View OF the Matter Present
ell to President Arthur.

In last evenings issue of T1B BEE q
correspondent signing himself IN. b.
s." appears greatly annoyed ty the pro-
test made, on last . aturday, to President
Arthur, by a dele alton of prominent
Irishmen, headed by Alexander Sullivan,
against the deportation to our shores of
En~glish-made paupers. M. b. S." is
guilty of the grave mistake of appearing
in print to discuss a subject about which
he evidently knows but very little.
In the meaning of Mr.. Sullivan's ad-
dress and according to general accepta-
ton a pauper is one who, having been
reduced to absolute poverty, depends for
subsistence upon the charity of
worst, because i~rredeemable, phase of
pauperism is that produced
by decrepitude. IN. B S." does not
deny, because he can not, that hundreds
of penniless and age-worn, helpless peo-
pie, gathered from the poor houses and
poverty-stricken districts of Ireland have
been landed during the last three months
upon our shores by the English govern
ment The greater part of these people
are unable to work, and being without
money, become unjustly a charge upon
the taxpayers of this country, Those who
are able to labor have not the means to
leave the large cities, and hence must
settle there and pass the remainder of
their years on a miserable pittance in the
very lowest state of American society,
where their children, born in poverty and
educated upon the streets and
wharves make fit candidates for the
ranks of our worst criminal classes. Is
not such a practice in direct violation of
international equity Is it not inhumanl
~flagrantly unjust if those people were
compelled to flee to their native country
because of its over-population and its
inability to support its inhabitants. Its
population is only 1852 to the square
mile against 445 in England,
1873 in France, 213 in Germany
and 4S5 in thrifty and prosperous Bel
GUM. OF her twenty millions of acre,
only three millions are under cultivation
J yet she exports food, pays forty millions
of dollars per year in taxes, and over
eighty millions in rents. Even during
the famine ricken years three of he
crops have produced eight pounds of food
per day for every man, woman and child
in the island. Why did millions
~starve2 These are hard facts
drawn from English statistics which
show that pauperism in Ireland is not
due to failure of crops or inability of the
country to support its population. But
cause there is for Ireland's poverty and
that cause is found in a system Of land
laws preserved from the middle ages, and
which is a disgrace to the Christian civil.
zation of the nineteenth century. Re.
duced to pauperism not through any fault
of theirs, not through any fault of theil
country, but that a relic Of
feudal barbarism may be maintained
These unfortunate people instead of being
supported by the system which pretends
to govern them are permitted by the gov.
eminent of ''Her Most Christian Males.
ty" to die by the horrible means of star
walton or are departed to these shores tc
become a burden upon the tax payers Of
America. Against this forced and whole
sale immigration of English made paup
ers the Irish National League protest.
and not against the immigration of per
sons DESTROYS of improving their condition
and capable of doing SO without becom
ing a charge upon u government.
In order that IN. B. s." may c~riticist
~intelligently the researchful and scholarly
address of Mr.. Sullivan he must furnish
instead of high-sounding and meaningless!
sentences a contradiction of cold facts
gathered from the works of Engliah stats
t%icians. And let me suggest to him, il
all friendliness, that in his characterize
ton of that duputation of leading Amer
lean citizens who waited upon Presidenr
Arthur as a body of cranks- a deputatior
that represented fifty millions of dollar,
amassed through their W genius anc
industry-he only manifested his owl
, lack of courtesy. G. S. S.