The DeLamar nugget. [volume] (DeLamar, Idaho) 1891-1900, 1892-11-05
Concerning Immigration.

In the early DAYS of the Republic, be-
fore steamships we're known, and when
locomotion was difficult, the possible in
fux of foreign immigration was limited.
We drew our immigrants from the
British Islands, Germany and Scandl-
navia. We needed them; we offered
good inducements to good men and We
got the pick of all those countries. The
Young, the energetic, the ambitious !;
men desirous of bettering their for
tunes, men With capital--if not in cash
at least in brains and musician inven-
tive force and adaptibility to new con-
ditions, came in response 10 the invita-
tion.
But this furnishes DO argument why
the United States to-day should consti-
tute itself an employ bureau for
the pauper labor of Europe. We want
men who speak, or at least will learn,
our language, who are willing to adopt
our institutions and to become good cit
izens of the greatest Commonwealth the
world has ever seen. For their protec-
ton we ought to draw the line against
the class who possess none of these de-
siderata. without invidiously particu-
larizing, it can truthfully be said that a
large proportion OF the present imml-
grafton is neither desirable nor to be
endured This undesirable addition TO
our population is isincreasing yearly. and
ought to be stopped. We have quaran-
tined against the cholera, let US ouaran-
tine against the mental, physical and
moral degradation entailed by the con-
tinued admission of the refuse Of Eu-
rope.
a strong objection, probably the
strongest of all objections, to the admis-
sion of certain class of foreigners, is
that they can never become Americans.
The Irish, German, Swede, French or
English bora immigrant, either can
speak our language or soon learns it. No
ties of race or creed prevent him from
marrying into families of American
birth. His children attend the public
schools, his Sous and daughters are as
one with the native born. But the Rus
sian Jew, hampered by his creed, his ig-
norance OF language which neither he
nor his children will ever learn; the
c.annieh Slav-neitber of these any
more than the Chinaman contain the
material of cilzenship. What service
would they be to nation in case of 9
call to arms ? What are they st for bat
he@ers of wood and drawers of water ?
The ways and means for carrying ont
the needed reform can be found. The
President of the United States discoy-
cred that he had ample power to deal
with the cholera exigency and acted ac-
cordingly. If the statutory power OF
exclusion does not exist, Legislation CAP
be had, for there is nothing in the Con
stitution to inhi5iS it. Assuming that
difIicnlties might arise if absolute pro-
hibition of entire classes were proposed,
the imposition of practically prohibit
tive capitation tax would meet the case.
This country is not hungering and
thirsting for the coming of people who
are shipped by European governments
n order to get rid Of them and Who land
at New York without dollar, ignorant
alike of our language and our laws.
Such tax-say of hundred dollars
per head-would not keep out the class
of immigrants whom we DO want, but
would prove an e6ectual barrier to the
influx of pauper lunatics and pestilence-
breeding Dnisances with whom we are
afflicted. 1t is time that the sacred
right of self-protection was Invoked
Belford's Monthly.