The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-08-20

snakes as your companions.
Tom Richardson of New Orleans adj
dressed the convention as follows:
THE question of immigration into
the United States is one which has
gradually been becoming more acute
! during the past decade. and which will
continue to augment in Importance and
significance as time progresses.
To-day the United States represents
/ a most alluring prospect to the INDECENT
and poverty-stricken natives of the
European countries, who recognize in
| the spirit and freedom of America d
panacea for the evils and misfOrtunes
which have oppressed them for ages,
and permanent relief from the sub
1 lower classes of nearly all sections of
the civilized world save those included
in our own glorious galaxy of states.
From the time when the pilgrims
were forced from their early abiding
places by the tyranny of illiberal and
often despotic oppression, and landed
upon the then inhospitable shores of
New England. the old world has been
contributing in an ever increasing
ratio to the population of this country.
Day by day, month by month, and
year by year. the sailing ships and the
steamers have been increasing their
| accommoda tions and efficiency in
transit to take care of the incoming
throngs of men. women and children
seeking prosperity and habitatiOn in the
new 'Golconda,' and paving the way in
/
tives. friends and acquaintance.
THE glory of America, speaking as
/ it did and as it does, freedom, happi-
| ness and home, represented a proDa-
| ganda which gradually scattered to the
four corners of the earth. and the light
which emanates from the great proto-
type of liberal thought, speech and
action, radiated among the oppressed
awakening hope in their hearts and
stimulating their minds and energies
to the end that the country beyond the
seas received their bodies and what
few belongings they possessed, thus
adding to the population of the United
states and forming what is today the
most polyglot and composite people
upon the face of the globe.
Whlle of course, a very large pro-
portion of the immigration which has
yearly been coming into this country
through the Atlantic and Gulf ports
has been of a benign character, it is
unfortunately the fact that our possess
sions have been made the dumping
ground of Europe, and the transporta-
ton of undesirable adults and their
progeny has been facilitated by private
and governmental aid. not because of
particular desire to assist in the up
building of American citizenship. but
rather through a desire to rid the
countries and provinces of the old
world of class which contributed but
to the evil and villainy of the coun-
tries out of which they were sent
VI buLeAlCiys the united states with
its magnificent domain and possibili-
ties for amalgamation has been but
little hurt through the causes men
toned. Be the newcomer what he NAV
ms nativity, habits, speech and thought
are obl1terated forever in the second
and third generation, and even the ira
dltlons of early habitation are absorbed
by the free atmosphere of the new
nome, and thus in less than half a CEN
fury there is generated a purely Amer
lean type from which
moved the ills and attributes which
characterized the immigrant himself
Wheh hrst landed upon American soil
am sure no one can blame the op-
pressed and poor of Europe of seeking
harbor in this country. The overcrowd-
ed sections of the old world and the
necessarily cramped and lessening on
portunities for individual prosperity
nave, and are yet, inducing poverty and
crime. 1t is to escape these things that
the oppressed come to America and. as
L nave remarked, no one can blame
them for a most natural desire to i'm
prove their condition and that of their
families. Yet the fact that we are the
dumping ground of Europe is a fact
that has reached such gigantic proper
tons as to demand, without any further
delay, the urgent attention of the United
states authorities in order to prevent
possible contamination of our social
structure, and to prevent also the pass
ing OF our municipal governments into
the control of people whose inherent de-
sires have been fOstered by conditions
existing elsewhere, and which should
nave no place in this country of ours.
THE emancipation of the Russian serf
or the peasantry of Italy. Austria Hun
gary, and even of republican France is
gradual yet permanent when these i'm
migrants entering the United States are
carried into the agricultural areas well
removed from the great centers of COM
merce and acute civilization and are
permitted to enjoy their new freedom in
the cultivation of the soil. In these
areas even the slave becomes the free.
man and the wolf becomes the lamb.
The peace of a pastoral occupation
quiets the disturbing elements of an
archy, and socialism and the man be-
comes in time an American, contribut-
ing to his particular commonwealth the
fruits of his energy and effort, which is
one of the elements of state prosperity.
am strongly opposed to an unre-
strlcted immigration, and the force of
this opposition is borne out by several
of the suggestions which have preceded
this remark The scum of Europe must
not be dumped into the circulation of
our large cities, if it should be received
at all. The degenerate may continue
the degenerate even though his chill
dren become fair American citizens The
murderer, the thief, or the social out
cast should be given back to the coun-
try which gave him BIRTH but the inaTni-
grant, in all cases, so long as he or she
be in health, should be given the benefit
of possible doubt. The government
however, should not lose sight of the i'm
migrants Immediately upon having per-
mitted their entrance into this country
1t should be demanded that they be ia
ken from the large cities where in a
number of instances. they add to the
undesirable portion of their population,
creating additional demands for charity
and public benefactions, and existing
with what energy or Drawn they pos
sess, In an atmosphere frequently little
better than the one they left
The great west can furnish homes for
millions of people. and it is into the
great transmississippi country which is
crying with open arms for the agricul-
turists and the artisans that the inn
migrant should be taken. there to work
out his material redemption and become
an honest, prosperous member of the
body polite.