Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-04-23
THE FLOW OF IMMIGRATION.

It is noted that there is an unusual
 flow of European immigration to the
 United States this spring, it being esti-
 mated that no less than twenty thous-
 and people left the various ports of the
 old country last week to find homes and
 happiness beneath the stars and stripes.
 Why such an unusual tide should set in
 IS not accounted for by any apparent
 natural conditions beyond the impress
 sion that exists among the laboring
 classes of Europe that they can do better for themselves in this new and develop ing country. And so, indeed, they can.
 There Is room in our broad land for
 many millions more, and so long as the
 character of those who come to dwell among us is good the United States will hold out its hands to them in hearty and unselfish welcome. It is commerce, represented by labor power, rather than war or conquest that has always ruled the world, and it is in this peaceful march of progress that the United States will always battle for supremacy among nations. We have no vast standing armies here to drain the revenues and suck the life blood of industry, no great naval establishments quartered like teaches above the heart of trade and commerce-naught but great hive of throbbing, ceaseless energy in which
 every man that has will can find a way to the accumulation of home and hap piness. Tbe knowledge of this has per meated the nations of the old world, has gone into the crowded homes of the working people where large families and small means have produced and pre- served poverty, and has urged them to turn their faces to the setting sun and seek their fortunes in this new and promising land of ours. In the con- tinuing and increasing immigration from Europe we see the realization of the idea put forth two hundred years ago by Bishop Berkley of the westward progress of the star of empire, and which, ss it was dis closed to his prophetic gaze, must eventually place the United States in the van of the civilized world. So long as our teeming lands ere pregnant with produce, so long as our virgin forests groan with their burdens of lumber, so long as cr~ fact tories tbrob with the 1ush- ing pulee of busy life, so long as our trade and commerce continue to grow and expand, so long will immigration be attracted and our country continue on its triumphal march to pre-eminence among the nations of the world And when the restrictions of a hamperinp tariff are thrown off and it's benefits are arranged with an eye to the welfare of the whole people there will be an addi- tional impulse of growth, widening influence of expansion and a more potent factor of progress and prosperity for the country. It will be glorious day for the United States, glorious day for the American people, when the tariff conditions are so that we will be competitors for the trade of the world instead of be- ing kept largely as we are now to | our own immediate confines. It is the l conditions that now prevail, that make | the sources of accumulation radically | unequal, that tend to make the rich richer and the poor poorer, that discrim- mate against the classes in favor of the masses-it is these unequal and multi plying conditions that impede our tri- umphal march and darken the outlook. that give force to the poets words, l
 Ill fares the land, to hastening ills a prey.
 Where wealth accunulates and men decay
 Unless we can hope to see our tariff conditions readjusted we must look to the increasing immigration as a source of danger rather than of blessing. This land of ours, rich in promise and great m attainment as it certainly is, cannot provide for constantly increasing mill lons m such way as to diffuse happi- ness and prosperity to all our people. As brings in additional con- petition in the labor market and restricts the avenues of employment, creating 1lsaftection and misery, there will be problem that this country has only just begun to face. Its solution must be sought in change of tariff conditions hat will give a larger outlet to our and agricultural in- 1ustries.
 Only ln this way can we look with confidence on the flow of immigration hat IS constantly turned and turning to )ur shores. "
 Pulling the wool over your eyes is. to