Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1885-07-22
(From the Real Estate Register.)
Limiting immigration.

81. raul P1Oneer GfeSS.
The first practical application of
the law against the importation of Ia
borers under contract by the deten-
ton at Castle Garden of number of
girls brought over under the forbid
den system, PROXIES discussion of a
principal new American legislation.
1t was so expected tina t the eagle
would utter some harsh notes at this
unwonted Infringement of his tail
feathers. 1t has been for so long the
habit of the country to boast of this
as general refuge for everybody and
every thing an asylum, home, the
land to which all the world is well
come, that so, abrupt a change as the
turning back of immigrants because
they come pennyless causes little
bit OF a shock. The captain of YES
sci who now brings to our shores any
laborers engaged abroad under con-
tract is liable to q fine of $1,000 and
Imprisonment for each offence. The
change of policy is radical. AS the
New York Times puts it, ''Barely a
score of years ago a law was passed
creating an officer of the Uunited
States, whose sole and official duty it
is to reside abroad and supervise ex-
actly such contracts to labor. And a
little over century ago it was one
count in the Indictment against his
majesty that he :endeavored to pre-
vent the population of these states,
for that purpose Obstructing the laws
of naturalization of foreigners and re-
fusing to pass others to encourage
their migration hither.'" This change
the Times and some others are inclin-
ed to censure on the ground that uni
versal freedom of trade, whether in
labor or in products, is the worlds
only true gospel. There is enough
truth in all this to make it worth dis
cussing when we get around to that
condition of universal freedom from
which we are yet good way distant,
and to which we mustNcome only by
gradual approaches.
Meantime the practical man con-
tents himself with the present. Moth
ing in that present is more notable
than the tendency to apply tests for
the purpose of sitting immigration.
Our new country still wants dew set
tiers, men sturdy men of muscle, de-
pendent upon no one and sure not to
become 80. There are others that we
do not want, and these are the classes
which other nations, under the guise
of freedom of entry, are anxious to
foist upon us. We have found it
necessary to protect ourselves agasnst
an irruptiOn of foreign paupers and
conyicts. We have had to take the
measures to prevent the country from
being charged with the support of the
helpless and criminal classes of the
world. This we are right in doing,
Notwithstanding the apparent violence
to old traditions. We made a long
extension of the principle when we
passed the anti-Chinese bill. Yet
that law, too. is approved by the pub
lie opinion of the country. We are
justified in the latest prohibition.
For many a year our legislators have
talked about protecting labor from
''paupe" competition by levying taxes
upon imports, while the greatest COM
petition of all, the competition of Ia
Dor in it's own territory, was left un-
molested. The employer was not |
slow to take advantage of this. Under |
5he contract system it became posi-
ole to suplant the native labor with
class of workers who were far from
desirable as citizens. They brought
% lis no capital. They did not go to
'edeem our untitled spaces. They
we're used only to to displace labor all
eady in mines and manufactures,
md the terms under which they were
did not suffer the surplus of
heir products to be added to the
took OF the laborer's resources and
lsed to raise the laborer's STANDARD of