The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-01-09
IMMIGRATION PROBLEM.
TO DE TAKEN UP by CONGRESS AT
AN EARLY DAY.

Baclx-HOw Laws Are EVaded-In-
migrants Who Learn the Language
Quickly.
New York, Jan. THE capabilities of
! immigrants and steamship companies in
the way of evasion are the nightmare OF
the immigration authorities at the barge
office. who sometimes find themselves In a
thoroughly pessimistic mood. Rarely does
a day pass when some immigrant or other
does not succeed in entering the United
States by a compliance with the forms of
the law though the experienced inspec-
tors at the island are thoroughly convinc-
ed of the candidates undesirability. The
inspectors are allowed no margin in ad-
ministration. The letters of the law are
rigid, and they must be applied as they
are.
Commissioner Fitchle Is authority for
the statement that the proportion of the
number of undesirable immigrants admit
ted since the establishment of the educa-
tional test is larger than ever before-not
because of the failure of the educational
test in any sense, but because of the
change in the general qualities of immi-
grants
Against the great decrease in immigra-
ton is the great increase of old immi-
grants who are leaving the country. Ital-
ians are returning home.in great numbers,
some to spend the winter and others to
buy little wine shops or garden plots and
live permanently in their sunny homeland.
Many of them came here when the flow
of Italian immigration was at its hight,
intending to return as soon as they had
saved up the thousand dollars which is a
| competency for a member of their class
in Sicily and the southern portions of the
peninsula.
Some of the steamship companies in Ho-
bol1en have been unable to carry the num-
Der of passengers Offering themselves, and
| Italians have been obliged to wait for the
sailing of another steamer. Twenty years
ago the percentage of returning imnli-
grants was so small as to be scarcely no
tceable Then the Scandinavian, the Ger
man. the Briton and the Irishman const-
tuted the bulk of immigrants, and almost
invariably they came here to build homes.
| Our climate was much the same as that
of their native lands and it was easy for
them to make this country their own.
1.-The educational clause" says Commits
sioner Fitche, was aimed particularly
| at the Italian. The percentage of illitera-
| cy in Italy, as we know, is very large,
| but the italian, think is eminently pre-
| ferable to the subjects of the sultan who
are now streaming into the barge office.
| The Syrians, the Dalmatlans and their
| kind can read and write well enough for
/ the purpose of the law. They become ped
| dlers. Throughout the south and west
( they are a pest. Transplanted from an
| unlimited oriental monarchy, it is scarcely
| to be expected that they will understand
! American institutions. They do not till
| the land and, indeed, they are not pro-
ducers in any respect
1.-THE Italian on the contrary, though
| he is illiterate, is hard worker He Is
! maker of vineyards. He will turn a
| side hill which the ordinary American
| farmer considers useless into q garden
| plot Even when he does return to his
| native land with the money he has earn
| ed, it cannot be said that he has given no
| return for it in the Drawn he has expended
| as a producer
A steamship with an immigrant list of
| 500 last week contained 200 Syrians. Fiji
teen years ago a Syrian, even in New
| York, was a curiosity. To-day there are
| 5000 of them in America. Their imm-
| grafton has increased with what is called
| at the barge office alarming rapidity'
| during the last six months. The Syrian
! is a true child of the orient a subject
of the sultan, with the marvellous gift of
| subject races for bargaining. The dislike
| of veracity, of which he is accused, If
| true is not surprising as 1t is Characters
| tic of all the down trodden oriental races
! except the Turk, who is too proud to lie.
In the orient it is generally supposed
| that both the Armenian and the Greek
! are superior to the Syrian as a trader. In
| America the contrary has been proved. As
49,. 10.
! all other classes of orientals, who turn to
| some form of trade rather than to any
| form of production. In three weeks after
! he arrives in the country he has a pack
| on his back and is travelling from vii
! lage to village and from farmhouse TO
! farmhouse, perhaps in New England, per-
| haps in Texas and perhaps in Dakota. He
! picks up the language with all the facility
| that characterizes other subject races.
In Constantinople an Armenian or a
| Syrian who does not speak more than
| two languages Is as rare as a Turk who
| speaks more than one. II would amaze
| well-to-do American schoolboys who strug-
| gle in vain with French and German to
| find how quickly a Syrian will learn to say
| to a farmers wife with scarcely a trace
| of accent: kind lady, fine day. Look
| al my beautiful goods" In six months a
| Syrian will learn to speak the language
better than a German can in two years.
rev popular novels nave nad q larger
| circulation than a book instructing ped
| dlers how to speak English. the author
| of which Is a local Syrian doctor With
| this in his pocket the Syrian starts out
TO conquer the world, and succeeds. In
| two or three years he will have a little
| store and will have brought over his fam
| lily from Syria.
How large an influence one man. and
! that man, to begin with, a foreigner. NAV
| have upon the future citizenship of the
| United States is well illustrated by the
merchant who is responsible for the Syrian
| migration. Ten years ago he was keeping
| a little shop in Egypt. He came to Amer
lea with a little capital, bringing with
him number of Syrians These he fitted
| out with packs. Others followed on his
| invitation. His business has gradually ex-
tended, until now he occupies a whole
front on Washington street, and is the
pantata OF all the Syrians in the country
to them every whit as big a man rs
John d. Rockefeller is to a Standard OIL
Company employe. Moreover, he Is repu-
ted to be a millionaire
His dealings are entirely with people
out of town. He ships orders to Syrian
stores and Syrian peddlers not only ali
over the United States, but as far awav
as Central America. His success has. OF
| course, resulted in imltators, but thusIfar
he Is still their leader. For the Syrians