Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-12-16
TIE IMMIGRATION PROBLEM.


the views of several prominent profess
siOnal men, thinkers, writer's and stu
dents, on the subject of immigration,
which just at present next the tariff
question is uppermost in the legislative
mind, and the views expressed upon it
are about as widely different.
EDWARD ATKINSON, the famous stat
isticiaI, thinks consideration of the
question should be postponed until the
present tariff, which he believes is re-
sponsible for the greater portion of inn
migration, is repealed or modified. He
says;
The effect of the high duties upon food
and fuel upon US has Oeen malignant, and
the exclusion from our markets put upon
the Canadians by our legislation has in
duced immigration from Canada to this
couhtry in very great volume.
Senator Morrill, teStifieS that through the
single town of Newport, VT, 500 Cana
di6nS or foreigners pass daily In the
spring, seeking work in New England and
in the Middle States. In the autumn an
other tide begins to flow, which extends as
far south as Savannah. In this way our
own laws have increased the cost of the
food and fuel of our working people, and
have promoted immigration to the extent Of
100000 in the single year ending June 80,
1891.
Again, the effort TO establish certain
branches of industry in this country, which
are now conducted in other countries, like
the tin-plate industry, can only be sue
cessful by promoting the immigration OF
many Objectionable classes of people to
this country, where there are none capable
of doing the kind of work who cannot do
better, and none out of employment who
would be capable of doing it. The act of
dipping the plates requires an inherited
aptitude, and the work is done under nox-
ious and baueful conditions. The present
tariff act increases the cost of tin plates,
restricts our home market for the sale of
our farm products by checking the exports
Of the products OF our farms by which we
chiefly pay for our imports, and promotes
most undesirable kind of immigration.
The Rev. SOLOMON ScHTNnI.En tii~i'"
we would still not be overcrowded If all
Europe were to immigrate to our shores,
and that competition will not be weak
ened by keeping immigrants out. he
believes that
The evil of pauperism, or rather the duty
laid upon us to support the feeble and the
destitute whom foreign governments will
dump upon our shores, can be easily rem
edled by a simple legislative act, the execu-
tion Of which need not cost this country
penny II the steamship companies would
be compelled by law to return all such per-
hy-cfa rrnf pfraFs q md
who are unable to make a living within
two years. they would be very careful in
regard to passengers, and would bring only
that desirable element that has good pros
poets of success.
AS to the danger of cholera he says:
Ifall vessels arriving at American ports
within the next year would be compelled
TO remain at quarantine for twenty days,
| the steamship companies would be very
careful aud introduce scrupulous cleapll-
ness on board of ship. 1t would also be
against their interests to make contracts
with people who come from places upon
which the suspicion even Of cholera rests
President ELIOT Of Harvard College
is strongly opposed to further restrict
ed immigration. He says:
1 believe that every honest and healthy
man, woman or child brought into the
country is a gain to it. Our population
is on the average very sparse. Immense
regions south Of the Ohio and west OF the
Missouri are still undeveloped for lack OF
! human labor; and not single one OF the
old states has anything like the number Of
! inhabitants it is capable of supporting.
| Fields. forests, quarries, mines, roads,
| trades, mills and factories, all need more
| laborers, and will need more ana more for
many generations TO come.
1 DENY that such political and social evils
as we suffer from are to be justly attrlo-
| uted to recent immigrants IL is the ex-
perienced voters and not the inexperienced
| who are responsible for weak or bad legis-
I lation and administration. 1t is not new
/ immigrants who buy votes or who pass the
/ tariff acts which inevitably breed vote
| BUYERS Our notorious spoilsmen and po-
| litical machinists have been some time IN
| this country.
! believe that The admixture Of many as
! similable races makes fine stock. The
| English people are the result Of such an
admixture, and the American people are
to be.
Mr.. CHARLES W. ERNEST believes We
have nothing to fear from immigration,
and says:
The fear that the immigrant and his de-
/ scendants will displace aud outnumber the
native stock is wholly groundless. AS the
| city is the cemetery Of the country, sc
/ America is the cemetery Of the immigrant,
the Irish and the German included. We
have more foreign born persons In Massa
| chuSettS than natives whose parents were
born abroad. In the frightful struggle fol
existence forced upon the immigrant, only
/ the few survive; most immigrants perish
| without leaving issue. The census OF 1880
the latest on the subject, reports low brit
rate for the immigrant States and higE
| birth rate in the States where immigra
| tion is light. The per mile Of births (sC
! many births TO each thousand of popula
tom was 10 in New Hampshire, "a il
! Massachusetts, so in Wisconsin, IS in Ken
lucky, IS in South Carolina, and nearly 4;
| in Arkansas.
Aswe can have the best, only the bes
should be admitted Politicians may d.
well to learn that no party can live Ions
that rejects the nataraliZed vote.
PATRICK Dc SUE, Of the Boston
Pilot thinks I'D be mindful o
the fact thu immigrant wht
| built up prosperity o
this gloriA sprssent dis
custom p these CUES
| tions:
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