New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-06-29

would encounter popular prejudice and be
speedily condemned.
What is required in the present emergency is
an orderly and systematic enforcement OF the
present regulations relating to incoming aliens.
Some embarrassments have arisen owing to
the premature landing of immigrants from
steamships, since it is impracticable to SEND
them back when they have once been placed
on shore. The Decentralization ought to be de-
ferred until there has been thorough inspec-
ton and proper precautions have been taken to
exclude paupers and inmates of warehouses
and similar institutions. The authorities at
Castle Garden, we are inclined to believe, have
ample authority under the existing law to re-
fuse admission to immigrants of this class and
to compel the steamship companies to carry
them back to England. At the same time the
State Department ought not to neglect its plain
duty to protest against the shipment Of pau
pers to this country. The British Government
must be informed in the plainest language
that the United States cannot be converted
into a cheap poorhouse and convenient jail for
Irish paupers or criminals. II is not to be
forgotten, howe or, that there is no evidence
that the British Government is deliberately
assisting immigrants of this class The Irish
members of Parliament have been bitterly op-
posed to the depopuation of the island through
emigration, and it is possible that the local
officials, especially the Poor Guardians in the
counties, have emptied the warehouses; in
order to discredit the Government scheme for
draining of the surplus population. Whether
the responsibility rests with tho Government
agents or with the local authorities, 1t is a
proper occasion for diplomatic remOnstrance.
In the redistribution of population caused by
famine, discomfort and the iniquities of the
land system, America gets large share OF the
ignorance and sedition. The pauperism ought to
be kept out
There is reason to believe, however, that
there are comparatively few paupers' and GRIM
inals among the immigrants who have received
aid from the State, and that the presence OF
any representatives of this class is the result
of carelessness on the part of local officials.
The acceptance of State aid does not make a
man pauper. Many of the immigrants who
arrive have very little money; but so it has
been since the century opened. An lrishman
who is able bodied and willing to work ought
not to be sent back simply because his passage
has been paid by English agents, and he has
only few dollars in his possession. The dis
charged paupers ard criminals ought to be
sent back, but not. every poor immigrant. For
sixty years America has been receiving vas
horde from every nation in Europe-a great
mass of ignorant, impoverished and discon-
tented exiles-and il has trained them in
workaday habits and in the duties and re-
sponsibilties of citizenship. 1t offers to-day to
the Irish immigrants whom England finds it
impossible either to govern, reconcile or feed,
a home living and country. 1t does not
want paupers. but men and women who can
work and it provides them with living
which, as Tile Spectator has confessed, as re-
- CARDS food clothing lodging and education, is
distinctly better than that of any large popula-
- ton in the Old WOrld.n