The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1892-10-26

Transforming Luzerne, Schuykin,
Carbon, Lehigh, and Northumber-
land counties into section of south
eastern Europe.
The majority of Hungarians, Slavs,
Polanders, and Italians who emigrate
to this country, leave their wives and |
families behind them. They have |
no more intention than the Chinese |
have of making the United States |
their permanent abiding place. They
come here precisely as Cinnamon
used to go to California, to make in
a few years what seems to them a
fortune and then go home and enjoy
it. The amount of money which
these emigrants from southern Eu-
rope send home is astonishing when
we bear in mind thai their wages
range from go cents to q,l.lO per day.
The little city of Hazleton is said to
transmit every month from $4,000
to Sl25,00O. As a rule, the Hunga-
rians, Slavs, Bohemiaus, Polanders,
and Italians in the mining regions
make no attempt to become Ameri-
cans. Except in rare instances, they
never StllNl lIltlI CllllNllc cl w lllO pun
lie schools. They do not even try
to learn the English language. That
is one reason why mine superintend-
ents keep all accounts with them by
number instead of by name. When
employed, each man receives a brass
check with number stamped on it,
and thereafter he is known by the
number instead of by his name.
Even if the clannish habits of the
Slavs and Italians did not prohibit
the acquisition of the English Ian
guage, the Americanization of these
immigrants would encounter in
superable distractions from another
quarter. English-speaking citizens
in the coal regions will have nothing
to do with the low-caste foreigners.
In fact, so excessively repulsive are
the latter that decent people shrink
from waiting near them i'll the rail
way stations of mining towns, from
fear of being overrun with vermin or
of contracting disease. 1t is well
known throughout the mining towns
that the emigrants from southern
Europe who have taken the place of
Irishmen, Welshmen, and Germans,
are content to swarm in shanties like
hogs, to contract scurvy by a persist
ent diet of salt pork, to suffer sore
eyes and body rather than buy a
towel and washtub, and to endure
typhoid fever rather than undergo
the expense of the most primitive
sanitary apparatus. The police aver
that the Slavs, Bohemians, Poland
ers, and Italians are guilty of name
less crimes and abhorrent vices,
and that the enforcement of
justice is almost impracticable be-
cause the foreigners have not the
slightest scruple about commit
ting perjury. This is particul-
arly alleged of the Italians: if one
of them wishes to prove an alibi, he
has merely to express such desire,
and he can get dozen men to testl-
fy in his behalf. The result of the
Investigations made by Mr. Rood in
the coal regions was to convince him
: that among the Italian miners there
exist secret societies for the express
purpose of shielding their members
from the consequences of crime. lie
found that the belief in the existence
of these societies prevailed among
the police and judicial authorities
of the anthracite region.
We are not surprised that in the
: eyes of English-speaking residents
of the coal regions the most urgent
public question should seem to be
that of immigration. To them the
Federal Congress seems shamefully
neglectful of it's duty in permitting
swarms of irreclaimable European
outcasts to settle an freed degrade
tion in the United States. The fact
is that Congress has not taken the
proper steps to obtain adequate in
formation on the subject of immi
grafton. 1t is true that special con
sular agents have been sent abroaC
to gather statistics, and that cur
sorry investigation has been made il
certain American cities; but the
Commissioner of Labor acknowl
: edged in January, 1892, that up tC
that date no examination had beel
made of the state of things in The
anthracite districts of Pennsylvania
1t is time that the existence of sucl
plague spots on the American com
munity should be made known, ant
that the necessity of imposing rigor
Gus limits on the inflow of emigrant
from southern and eastern Europ
should be recognized.-N. Y. Sun