Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1890-03-21
GERMAN CITIZENS SPEAK OUT.
Vigorous Protests Against the Proposed
Immigration LIE gisiation.

vigorous PROTESTS Against the proposed
Immigration lie gisiation.
WASHINGTON CITY, March 2l.-The senate
and house committees on immigration met
in joint session yesterday morning and
heard protests against the passage OF any
laws restricting foreign immigration. Ed
ward Rosewater, editor and proprietor of
The Omaha Bee, made the first address. He
stated that he repre,entei number OF Ger
man societies and societies of other national
tiles in ths west, and proposed TO tell the
committee of the views they entertained on
the subject He said that but 9.639, 655 i'm
migrants had arrived in the country in the
last thirty-three years. He himself was born
in Bohemia and was as good an American
citizen as his brothers, who were all born in
America. Tbs accident of birth did not
make them any better than be. This belief
in pride of national birth he believed 20 be a
survival of barbaric fanaticism.
what Pauper Labor Is Good for.
The pauper laborers transplanted on this
side of the ocean were generally supposed TO
inJure the interests of our laboring people.
This, he contended, was not SO. When the
pauper laborers came 10 this country their
condition became better Their wants were
greater and they consequently became
greater consumers. The native Americans
had given up the heavier kinds OF labor, and
these immigrants were needed to take their
places The Americans who worked on the
streets and railroads to-day were compare
lively few. There had been great deal
said about the Italians in this country Mr.
Rosewater said that he, for one, had a ten
der feeling for Italy. Christopher Column
bus, the discoverer of America, was ali
Italian, and the Italians were skilled in the
arts and sciences hundreds of years before
America had been thought of He believed
in the adoption Of the golden rule towards
foreigners.
with Regard to the Socialists.
Persons who believed that there was some
thing wrong with the machinery Of govern
ments were classed as Socialists. Senator
Mitchelrs bill would prohibit their immi-
grafton To America; yet Edward Bellamy
and Henry George, who were rank Social
lists, were allowed to live here and distribute
their books about the country. He believed
that the present law was sufficient If prop
erly enforced, and was backed up by Rich
ard Bartholdt, of The st. Louis Tribune
who presented protest against the pro-
posed legislation from the German Ameri-
can societies, which said that the proposed
legislation was full of the same spirit that
characterized the treatment Of the colonies
by George Ill. The immigrants had been
a chief faction in the development of the
country and had always been devoted pa
riots.
Makes a Serious Charge.
Mr. Celso Caesar Moreno, an Italian by
birth but prominent citizen of Washing
ton, said the Italian emigrants would be an
Al.
could free themselves from the cruel padrone
system that brings them to this country
through false representations with, as he as
serted, the completely of the Italian minis
ters and consuls in the United States, who
divide the spoils that grow out of the traffic.
The Italian consulate in New York city, he
said, was the headquarters Of this nefarious
traffic in human flesh.