The record-union., 1892-09-24
A QUESTION OF IMMIGRATION.

Henry Rood, writing in the September
Forum, presents phase of the immigra-
ton problem that demands graver atten-
ton than it is receiving. The question is
pressing home upon us hardly whether
we are to continue to admit freely those
immigrants of the laboring order who do
not become Americans, have nothing in
the bond of sympathy with US, who come
to the United States only for the pur-
poses of profit and with no idea what
ever of here laying foundation-stones for
homes, of becoming familiar with our
institutions and laws, or of taking inter-
est and share of responsibility in free
government. Mr.. Rood refers i'll his
paper especially to the conditions in the
anthracite fields of Pennsylvania, and
says:
There one who desires to study the vital
phase of the immigration problem will find
one of the richest regions of the earth overrun
with horde of Hungarians, Slavs Polanders,
Bohemians, Arabs, Italians, Sicilians, Rus
slams, and TyroIese of the lowest class; a sec
ton almost denationaliZed by the scum of the
continent where women hesitate to drive
armed men are not safe after the sinking of
the sun. There he will see prosperous little
cities like Hazleton, Mahoney, Ashland
Shenandoah, with line business houses and
educated people of fortune, and surrounding
these towns great wastes of the common
wealth diseased by thousands and tens of
thousands of foreigners who have no desire to
become Americans, who emigrate to the
United States for a few years to make money
who have driven to the cities and to the West
the great army of English, Scotch, Irish,
Welsh, Germans and Americans who once
gave stability to the coal regions; in short, a
condition OF affairs which, if eQualed else
where, may become more than National
problem-a National peril. They leave their
families abroad and send to them sums of
money that seem enormous when the fact is
considered that they belong to the laboring
class. The little city OF Hazleton is said to
send each month to Southern Europe from
$4,000 to S125,000. Such immigrants as
rule, make no attempt to become Ameri-
cans. They care naught for our country put
as place where they can accumulate enough
money TO make them independent when they
return home.
Unless we mistake the sentiment of the
people most concerned for the elevation
and preservation of our free institutions,
there is room here for no more of the
order of beings to whom Mr.. Rood re-
fers. We have just room enough for
those fitted ito become American citizens
and SOLICITORS to become inseparable
parts of our political and social system.
The question of fitness is not to be as
sumed in the future policy of this Ma
ton relative to those we admit to the
benefits and protection of our laws and
system-it is to be established by affirm
alive proof, and to be established more
over beyond reasonable doubt.
The immigration referred to, Mr.. Rood
thinks, may become national peril; we
incline to the belief that it is perilous
even now. The classes in mind cannot
occupy merely middle ground; they
are either for or against the country, and
the evidence is not great that with any
frequency they are outspoken advocates
of the American system of civilization,
or are found, when the test is applied
within the ranks of law and order.
The future in which a new policy will
prevail may not be close at hand, but it
certainly is not very remote. The bars
have been down long enough, and that
the American people are awakening to a
sense of that truth is evident when one
moves among them and gives heed to
what he hears. In this Government by
the people, the undercurrent of their
thought and desire becomes the tidal
sweep, in time, that is resistless. 1t is
because we observe that there is deep
undercurrent of opinion that immigra-
ton to this country ought to be less free,
and that the classes of the order described
by Mr.. Rood are menacing to the country,
that we believe a change of immigration
policy viii, at no distant period, be de-
creed by the people of the nation.