The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-07-04
WOULD KEEP THEM GERMAN.


The government Of Germany, having
caught the colonizing fever, views with
dislike the movement of its migrating
people to this country and is attempt
ing to defect the current to it's own
possessions. It would emulate Great
Britain by developing it's West African
and other territory, and, by securing its
settlement with Germans, extend the
empire. Emigrants there would find
German institutions, language, laws
and customs and remain German. The
German who comes to the United
States, no matter how strenuously the
national spirit is sought to be retained
by instruction in the native tongue, or
the preservation of national customs,
finds himself being gradually submerg-
ed and lost in the Americanism that is
the dominating spirit. He may resist
it UNNECESSARILY, but his children yield
to it with hardly an effort at resist
ance; in fact, they regard as irksome
attempts by parents to retain their ma
tionality.- BY the time the third gen
GRAFTON has come on all traces Of ori-
gin are lost, and it is as thoroughly and
completely American as are they who
trace a direct and unmixed line of an
cestry back to the colonies.
Putting ourselves in his place we
can appreciate the wish of the emperor
and his government to prevent this loss
and to provide for the perpetuation of
the German spirit in those who find
conditions too hard at home and seek
easier ones elsewhere. When an Astor
takes his wealth to England and be-
comes citizen subject of her majes-
ty, we are quick enough to fling a bit
ter taunt after him, and we cannot
imagine how an American can expatri-
ate and decitizenize himself Were the
movement general we might also be
devising laws to check it or provide
places where it might go and find our
institutions over and around them.
From this point of view one can bet
ter understand the recent law enacted
by the reiChstag to take effect next
April, which requires intending emf
grants to obtain a permit and restricts
permits to transportation companies
to those which are carrying on bust
ness between Germany and it's depend
encies. The purpose is to discourage
migration to other countries and to
turn it towards the possessions in the
East Indies, New Guinea and West
Africa. 1t is quite certain If the Ger
man has not changed his nature, that
the law will not bring about the intend
ed result unless the inducements for
settlement in these regions are equal to
or greater than they are in this or
other countries. 1t is better conditions
the migrant always seeks. There is a
strong attraction, too, towards those
regions where relatives or friends have
gone, and the immense German popula
ton here will be lodestone that will
continue to draw even should superior
inducements be offered elsewhere.
One can find another reason for this
enactment in the growth of the social
ed Social Democracy within the en-
pire in recent years. It's spirit is de-
mocracy. the insistence of the indi-
vidual on his largest possible free
dom, although its present purpose is So
cialistic, the extension of paternal care
and guidance to the mass. It's growth
has been SO rapid, it's demands so revo-
lutionary it's tone so defiant, that the
government from coddling it under
Bismarck, has taken to fruitless eff
forts at repression. Discerning the real
spirit that animates it, knowing that
it is the reflection there of German ex-
perience here, it gives another induce
ment to the government to obstruct
further migration here and favor it's
movement to German dependencies. !
But it will not avail The emigrant
will only seek other ports of departure
and other lines of transportation and
go where he will
Soren Listoe has received the appointment
Of consul at Rotterdam, Observation-Disclosures !
Sun.