St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-19
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

A suggestion made by member of the
conference of charities and corrections in
his remarks yesterday, that our population
was becoming too cosmopolitan for the
safety of the country, is but the echo of
sentiment of growing popularity all over
the country. 1t cannot be denied that there
is a disposition to revive the spirit
of Know-nothingism in this country.
The recent uprising of anarchists
in some of our leading cities is the excuse
for reviving a crusade against the further
immigration of foreigners tits only pre-
text for awakening the latent spirit of
Know-nothingism, the roots of which are
still alive in many sections of the country.
While it is true that anarchsm is an exotic
plant that has been transplanted to Ameri
can shores by a certain class of foreigners it
doesn't follow that all foreigners, are an
archists. On the contrary, in many sections
the very best population of loyal and law
abiding citizens consists almost exclusively
of foreigners, who have found an asylum
from the expressions of their mother land
in our own. We are disposed to be vain
glorious in our boasting of the greatness of
our republic and yet we fail to consider
how much we are indebted to our foreign
population for Our national greatness. The
men who came from Ireland and from
Scotland and from Germany are the
men who have assisted in laying
the foundations of our greatness.
The Irish and the Scotch and the
Germans in our midst to-day are the people
whose thrift and enterprise are aiding in
pushing us forward to still greater condi-
tions of wealth and power. They are here
in Minnesota, and in addition to them are
the sons of Norway and Sweden, who are
adding their industry and hard earned
wages to the wealth of this country. They
come here sick of the governments
which have oppressed them, to find
health and homes in free America.
Above all other classes of American citi-
Zens they have reason to be Jealous in their
efforts to preserve our free Institutions
We who are native born know nothing of
tyranny such as they have fled from. They
know better than we do the blessings of
free government, and can appreciate them
as we cannot. Why, then, should they be
dangerous to our country and its insttu-
tons. Are we afraid this country is going
to be overcrowded with this population?
The Austrian empire supports $4,000, 600
people. and yet the state of Texas is larger
than the whole of Austria. Texas is larger
than either France or the Germanic empire,
and yet the former supports Sc, 000 900, and
the latter Al, 600, 600 people. 1t is absurd
to talk about being overcrowded with
foreigners for the next 100 years. They
are needed to turn our territories into
states, and our wilderness into gardens,
and we should give them the great gospel
of welcome.
1t is duty we owe to ourselves as well
as to the better class of our foreign popu-
latiOn to place certain restrictions upon i'm
migration. We do not want the criminal
and vagabond classes. 1t is always easy to
sift the chatf from the grain. We want a
winnowing machine in our Immigration syS-
TEN. We do not want nihilism with its
feet of red slaughter on our soil. Nor do
we intend to endure it if it does come The
loud-moqthed anarchist, who ranges up
and down the streets of our principal cities
talking about his rights will be made to IN
derstand that his first right is the peniten-
tiary. That is the proper way to crush
out anarchism, and not by excluding worthy
foreigners from American soil