The morning call., 1891-07-30
IMMIGRATION.

The immigration table for the fiscal year
ending June so, 1891, shows a total immi-
grafton Of 800, 400, as against AL, 219 in the
previous fiscal year. This figure has only
been exceeded three times in our history
in 1881, 1882 and 1883, when the boom was
on in the East. It implies remuneratiYe
wages in the country simultaneously with a
scarcity Of work on the continent Of Eu-
rope. 1t may also mean that the working
class among Europeans are fearful of
changes in the immigration laws, and want
to get into the United States before more
stringent laws are enacted.
The chief increase is from Eastern and
Southeastern Europe, Southern Germany, It
ally, Austro Hungary and Russia. With the
exception of the Italians the natives of these
countries are rarely ideal material for Amer
lean citizens. The Hungarians, Russians and
Slays do not readily acquire our language;
they are generally uneducated, they have
rarely learned trade. Their capital is raw
labor, aud to sell this in the open market in
competition with natives involves a cutting
of rates. People will not employ Slav If
they can get a workman who speaks our
tongue and has been brought up in accord
ance. with our rules of life. Yet the half
million people-Russians, Slavs, Hunga-
riaps, Germans, Italians and the others-who
came to this country in 1890-91 seem to
have passed into consumption without
much friction or disturbance. There have
been few strikes in the past twelve months.
and no occasion In which it was necessary
to call out the military.
The event is an Illustration Of the new
uses for labor which progress in science
and industry is developing. The march Of
discovery is opening new employments for
idle men. Marshes which were useless are
being dyked and drained and cultivated.
Rivers which were of no value. in conse-
quence of shoals and rapids, are being
dredged and made to serve as channels of
transportation. Veins of ore which lay I'M
disturbed under the soil are being opened
and are consuming the labor of vast bodies
of men. Quantities of raw materials,
which were once useless, are now being
turned to account in one way and another.
Plants which were called weeds, and which
every one tried 70 eXtirpate, are found to
possess valuable properties, which make
their cultivation remunerative. As single
illustration, Pennsylvania claims to
have discovered that by mixing peat
from our tule lands with coal carrying too
little carbon to possess a commercial value
an excellent fuel can be created. Another
diseoyerer predicts that within few years
he will impart commercial value to com
mon clay by showing how to convert 1t into
metallic aluminium. Yet third philoso-
pher, who has been studying the sewerage
systems of Paris and Edinburgh, tells us
that there is fortune in city sewage,
and that the day of patent fertilizers has
passed. So on throughout the whole range
of products and combinations.
All these discoveries ard inventions and
improvements create new demand for la
Dor. 1t takes the whole of esx naturaI in
crease. besides our increase from mmigra-
ton, TO supply the demand. The move
ment is progressive. One discovery leads to
another. Each new application of an ex-