The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-05-15

brings into the country, and by his value as
laborer and producer of wealth.
While all this is admitted as to the Ger
manic races 1t is said that people Of other
and inferior races, wholly unit for Ameri-
can institutions and wholly unfit for self
government, flock to our shores. Russians,
Poles. Hungarians and Italians are cited as
examples of these races. He who belittles
ana Affects to despise these races knows lit
tie Of their history and ethnic makeup.
1T may be urged" he said, taking up an
immigration has depressed, or will depress,
the price of labor. This might be true If
American labor was content TO remain in the
rut of mere labor but our experience in the
East, and oil over the country has demon
strated that the large influx of foreign labor
has led American labor to seek higher pur-
suits and more profitable callings. The re-
suit has been, on the whole, the promotion
OF American labor to greater and
larged spheres of usefulness. When the
American boy was crowded out of the fac
tory. the mine and the rolling mili by his
foreign born brother, he became a captain
or lieutenant of industry and sought and
assumed higher callings in various directions
And the process that has thus been going on
between the native and the foreign-born
has also been going on among the foreign
born themselves. H Hgh wages and good liv-
ing. under the sunshine of American insti-
tutions, have produced earlier crop of
foreign born laborers, fit and anxious to be
crowded out Of their labor sphere, and placed
on higher industrial level. by a later
come to pass that continued immigration, so
for from depressing the scale of wages has
rather resulted in gradually promoting labor
to higher level. And this is great gain"
IMMIGRATION AND CRIME.
As to criminal classes. Mr.. Nelson said:
"But finally the objection comes to us that
foreigners furnish undue proportion OF
Grim nails. This may be true as to numbers,
but not as to character quality In mat
ters of defalcation and embezzlement in fdu-
ha y,Ir1ior M in fho
front rank, nor do they excel in shocking
and barbarous crimes. Holmes, Hayward
and Durrant the greatest and most depraved
criminals of day and generation, are
neither M . immigrants, nor the sons OF immi-
grants. tefs--S - <is-#
Referring directly to his own state, where
population, many of his own race, Senator
Nelson paid glowing tribute to the sons
of Scandia. He said:
"Fifty-f years ago Minnesota was a ter
ritory; an undeveloped wilderness; the home
of large bands of rowing Indians, with but
5000 white people within her borderes Eight
years later she became member of the
$50, coo people. In 1866, pursuant to a census
then taken, she found herself with a popu-
lation of 1.574,619 people, of whom 1885
were of foreign birth, and 5737s3 were ma
tiyes of foreign parentage; In 1894 her as
sessed valuation was $e42, 500. .651, and her
permanent school and university fund was
$11, TAG, 1877. She expended during the year,
Tor educational purposes IN all, 3o,Sf0, ,of0, anu
3S7 ,761 pupils We're enrolled in her common,
graded and high schools, 1889 in her normal
schools, and l 1913 students in her state uni
versity.
a "Out of all this population there were but
61S inmates in her state prison and state re-
= sformatory-the only places for the conf1ne-
ment of adult criminals outside OF the 1ails
and workhouses-and out of this prison popu-
lation 423 were native born and 100 foreign
born. In the state reform school, for incor-
rigibIes and Juvenile offenders, there were
428 inmates of whom 339 were native born,
and SO of foreign birth. No state can show
a finer record than this, and the foreign born
have a prison record better even than the
native born. Such is Minnesota. And she Is,
to a large extent, under the sunshine and dew
of her free institutions, the product OF the
Industry the perseverance, the frugai1ty ana
the thrift of her foreign born citizens ana
their children. But she is entitled TO all,
and more than ALL they have brought her;
They came there, most of them, poor ana
empty handed, with no capital but stous
hearts and willing hands, but possessed Oh
an intense desire and purpose to become
good American citizens. The state received
them with open arms, as though they were
to the manor born, and on a parity with her
own people And today, after the lapse Oh
half century, she can truly say that they
have not betrayed the trust she reposeo IN
them. AS the good wife, though loving her
mother still gives her husband the upper
most place in her affections, SO 40 the Ior
eign horn sons and daughters OF Mlnnesota,
though loving the lands of their birtn, sun
place her, and the great country Oh whicl
She is a part. uppermost IN tneir iose anu
Affection"