Omaha daily bee., 1891-10-19
WASHINGTON GOSSIP.
WAsnINcToS BUREAU OF THE BEE,
5l3 FOURTEENTH STREET,

NV ~ llulluu W tOuhN \ press dispatches
by way Of Kansas City that Major George
W. Steele had resigned his position as gov
ernor OF Oklahoma, creates no surprise here.
The report is not confirmed officially but is
dou true. When in WASHINGTON a
short time ago, George Steele said he was
not satisfied with his official position, either
its duties or location ana that he intended
before many months to return to his home in
Indiana, whore he wanted to resume his
private business.
Some months since the parliament of Great
Britain passed a law IN aid of the Irish ten
antry and looking to the relief OF the con-
gested districts OF Ireland. Under the pro-
visions of that act five commissioners have
been appointed in Ireland to seek out meas
ures OF relief for tho destitute poor of Ire
land. Onoof the commissioners, Hon. Hor-
ace Plunkett, has been detailed TO the United
States for the purpose of inqulring into the
immigration laws of this country, and espe-
cially why the late immigration law was
passed, which Is so strongly prohibitive of
the poorer classes of the old world into the
United States, and the inquiry into the de-
mands of labor IN this country ana the OPP
portuntties OF securing homesteads In the
United States.
Mr.. Pluukett is accompanied on his travels
by the earl of tingall. They have made a
tour of the United States. travelling along
the Union Pacific railroad, passing through
Colorado and Il large section of the western
~ hiNSh y 4 INV WV lAAOOl lllhNNRlS ttNiNA
the land question, and were, on October IL,
at the Treasury department in consultation
with the superintendent of immigration MIR.
Plunkett says that Ireland has lost one-half
OF her population IN the last fifty years, and
yet sections of that country are so taken up
with Baronical castles and the preserves of
the lords, that the land left to the labor
man. and out of which the tenantry must
make a living, is so limited in quality and so
steril in its soil, that it is hardly possible for
these people to raise crops that will so much
rs pay the rents On the western shores of
Ireland dwell 10000 people on hold
ings where the soil is exhausted,
and they are confessedly unable TO raise
sufficient to meet family needs, and they are
relying on the poor rates of that country. The
proposition under the new law is to combine
four, five or six of these holdings into one,
and one family will be able to MAINTAIN itself
probably; but the trouble arises as to what
will become of the four or five families thus
disposesseu. There is no place in Ireland for
them to go to; England won't have them, and
MIR. Plunkett and the earl are In America
seeking an Interpretation of our immigration
laws That will permit these people to be trans
ported to America.
The manufacturers of Ireland are so
limited that the people dispossesed of lands
are unable to earn u living and cannot go to
the factory districts for employment, and
they cannot go to England for the factory
districts in England are on the verge of the
bread riots now. Mr.. Plunkett hoped 1t
would be possible to pre-empt large sections
of land in the far west, and locate his people
there, or to find sections of the country
where there was greater scarcity of
labor, and ship these people to those
sections, with arrangements made
with contractors so hat they
could be given employment at once and not
become public charges. Mr.. Plunkett
frankly stated that the hitherto unsatls-
factory condition of the people Of Ireland
was rapidly approaching that of real want,
and necessitateu governmental action on
their behalf, that there was no place for
them on the continent of Europe, ana no
place for them in England; their mother
country refused to accept them or to let
them set up housekeeping so they could have
their own homes that South America could
offer no inducements to feed them in their
condition, and the United States presented
the only possible hope.for them on the globe.
The superintendent told Mr.. Plunkett that
thirty years ago the people of this country
sang that Uncle Sam was erich enough to
give us all a farm and that it was believed
the territory of the United States was prac-
tically lneXhaustible, but the building of
three railways across the continent has re-
suited in towns every few miles along those
roads, and splendid cities in many instances.
Branch roads were projected from the main
lines, until the whole country was now
pierced and interlaced with railroads until
what was twenty years ago a desert is today
a populated region. An empire of people
now live beyond the Mississippi river, and
the rush of American people tor free home
steads IL the United States where the
rapidly developing country enhanced the
value of lands and afforded opportunities
for money making had been so great that
the public domain is now practically con-
sumed, SO that, a few months since, when
the president of tho United States declared
II 900 homesteads in Oklahoma open to entry
for whoever should be first to settle on them
after II o'clock on a given day, there were
five times as many men on the border line at
II o'clock that day, awaiting the stroke OF
the clock to rush into that land, as there
were holdings. The result was many con-
fllcts, and in some instances bloodshed, and
four men out of every five were disap-
pointed, and that in his opinion the national
or even the municipal effort on the part of
foreign people to come to this country and
colonize a large section of the public
domain would result in an en-
phatic protest from the American peo-
pie. He said there was a demand
for labor in many sections OF our country, yet
the commissioner of labor recently reported
more than 500, 900 men in the United States
out of labor. This is because we are so rap
idly developing as a country that we are not
vet able to equalize our supply and demand,
but when our laborers could be diverted to
the fields of demand, the probabilities were
that we had sufficient people in our own
country to supply all labor wants.
The superintendent said there was a rising
protest in this country against immigration
IIlhb iIlS lbN 80 AN1b AhtS 1NN1 ~ "
divide the desirable from the undesirable and
let the desirable In and keep out the undesira-
bic; that when the Bureau of Immigration
was fully established he believed this end
would lie achieved, nut there was n strong
sentiment in this country tor more restrictive
legislation than this law, and what congress
might do this coming winter could only be Il
matter of conjecture. Personally, he
believed that every man who
was dissatisfied with the conditions
of the old world and came TO America to
escape those conditions and with q deter
mined purpose TO build up u home in the new
country and become one of its citizens in
deed and In fact, should and woulc have no
hand OF opposition raised against him, but he
was satisfied that if the people of Ireland, or
elsewhere, sought to move their congested
districts by Wholesale TO this country who
mad been under the care of the poor officers
for years, that their coming would meet
general opposition and they ought not to
seek to come, for under the law of 1891 they
would not be permitted to land.
The superintendent expressed himself in
high regard for the Irish character. He
mentioned tho fact that 20, 900 Irishmen bore
arms in the revolutionary struggle for the
colonists. In the wars of 1912 and 1916 and
in tho war of the rebellion the lrishman had
always been found n patriot; that no foreign
class assimilated with American life moro
rapidly. nor had contributed more for the
upbuilding OF this country; that the IRISH
men in America were rapidly ceasing TO be
hewers of wood and drawers of water. but
were moving up in the scales OF American