The daily morning Astorian. [volume] (Astoria, Oregon) 1883-1899, 1889-05-14
RESTRICTING IMMIGRATION.


sin labor commissioner, and consists
of digest Of some five hundred COM
munications received during last year
from employers of labor in his state,
and is, therefore, interesting from sew
eral points of view. Laborers and
mechanics are understood to be op-
posed to immigration, on the ground
that it floods the labor market and
keeps wages down; but it is singular
to note that while only sixty-three of
the employers whose opinions had
been solicited, deprecated restrictions
of any kind, seventy were in favor of
actual prohibition, and the remainder
promulgated more or less practical
schemes of restriction. Thus, in Wis
consin, at any rate, capital as well as
labor is beginning to cry enough, and
the intending immigrant will note this
practical unanimity as at any rate
singular occurrence.
The five hundred answers were
unanimous on one point only, and
that was with reference to the eXclus-
ion of anarchists, criminals and pau
pers. 1t is license rather than liberty
which would require nation to re-
ceive with open arms outcasts of this
kind, but there is grave difficulty to
be overcome at the outset. An op-
pressed Pole struggling for bare life
is branded by Russian tyrants as an
anarchist; almost any German who
resolutely opposes Bismarckism is
called a socialist, if not an anarchist;
and the Irishman who raises his voice
against English oppression is classed
among advocates ofmurder, bloodshed
and anarchists. To turn back men
such as these, who have crossed the
ocean in search of freedom, would
appear to be un-American in the ex-
treme. 1t is just the same with GRIM
inals. Many deeds known as crimes
in imperial Europe are not considered
Offenses at all in Republican America,
and to exclude all who have not GER
tifcates of good character from their
respective governments would hence
mean keeping out some of the very
men who are most useful and most
welcome. If England had excluded
all political refugees from France, she
would never have worked up a great
silk trade or have developed an in
dustry, previously confined to coarse
earthen-ware, into high-class china
and porcelain manufacturing. More
over, there is scarcely one industry in
this country that has not benefited OF
does not still benefit from the skille Z
labor driven out of some Of the
monarchies of Europe.
Paupers should be excluded at all
hazards, and greater supervision
should be exercised. in this respect
than is at present the case. Some o
the outrageous attempts on the par
of England to get rid of English pau
pers by giving them free passage t.
New York have been detected, and
landing refused, but in scores of in
stances the trick succeeds. The rec
ords of the British poor law board
conclusively prove this. These boards
meet weekly in every district in tn
country. and it is quite common
thing to accede to a request for
Door house inmate to be sent to Amel
lea. A steerage passage from Liver
pool or Queenstown to New Yor
costs S15 or less, and for another S
suit of clothes with a suspicion {
respectability can be obtained I'll
railroad fare is seldom more tina
another So, and thus, for sum rarel
exceeding S25, troublesome paup'
can be effectually got rid of. So Ion
as a practice best described as di
honorable can be continued with but
small percentage of discoveries, IL
tramp population of the country mu
steadily increase. Unfortunatel
paupers cannot be excluded by IL
simple rule applied to the Chinese,
many of them look much more artist
cratic in their disguise than bona fC
workingmen.
Several of the suggestions made
the $50 advocates of restriction mig
be tried, but most of them look muC
better on paper than their resul
would on trial. Thus to exclude {
who could not read or write, wou
mean keeping out many hard worke
and admitting many broken-doV
ne'er do weels; while closing the POI
TO all who do not bring with them
sufficient sum to start in busine!
would be open to serious objection,
any rate from the capitalists point
view. A per capita tax of $500 is su
gested, a remedy certainly for q pc
ton of the evil, but also a rene
which in some cases would prove