The Hawaiian gazette., 1903-07-31
IMMIGRATION.

The immigration problem is the mos
serious one which the United States II
called upon to meet. In Its new form
4, means that the country Is taking ir
about 100000 immigrants a year, the
majority OF them from inferior or de-
caying races with which there Is and
should be no assimilation. Unless this
influx is soon checked there may be
its organic life.
The first great tide of Immigration
came from Ireland. On the whole 1t
was a desirable gain for the uniteo
States. The Irishman was sturdy Ia
borer and he was willing to settle IN
the country and work on farms In case
there was no good opening for MIN IN
the town Today he is in both city ana
country doing his part In building UP
the commonwealth. During the last
thirty years the number of farms ana
the amount OF urban property owned
by people of Irish blood has vastly
increased: and intermarriage In the
rural districts between young people OF
Irish and American or English ancestry
has improved the strain in both. FROM
the Irish peasantry the United states
is deriving good middle class citizen
ship from which many national leaders
have already sprung.
After Irish immigration began to de-
cline in volume, German and Scan
dinavian tide commenced to flow. Here
was an Anglo-Saxon replenishment
from the old fountains. AS a usual
thing the German became American In
his ideas in proportion as he learned
the language. He was already we'll
disposed. Most of our Teutonic immi-
grants were either social democrats at
home or were in sympathy with liberal
ideas, and the creed of the American
republic appealed to them at the out
set. 1t was, indeed, the reason of their
coming So, as a result the German
American became a good citizen and, in
the second generation, nothing was
German about him but his name To-
day the German strain in American
blood Is one of it's elements of strength
it is a tincture of iron. Ard the same
is true of the scandinavian strain.
Unfortunately the spirit of migration
to the United States has moved towards
the Balkans and Russia and into Italy
the lands of the serfs and The la2-
zaroni. We are taking the entire nat
ural increase of Southern Italy and
something more. For every boy born
there two men emigrate to the United
States. All in all the accretion from
Southern Italy in 1902 was 15S,0O0 From
Austria Hungary we got $4,000 Slovaks,
81, 900 Poles, 200 Croats and Siovenes,
5000 Magyars, 49, 900 Germans, 1900
Jews and the rest of the grand total of
III 900 are divided between Ruthenians,
Roumanians, Lithuanians Dalma-
tians, Boznians, Herzogovinians, Bo-
hemians and Moravians. Russia gave
us 100000 of Jews, Poles, Firms and
Lithuanians.
These people have certain definite
ambitions and antipathies. They wish |
10 live by themselves in great cities and
have nothing to do with agriculture.
II they go into the country at all It
must be as pedders. For the Ameri- |
can they have no friendship; their hope |
is merely to get something away from |
him that he owns: and the American,
on his part, does not want to mix his |
blood with theirs. These low-born peo- |
pie come as foreigners and stay as for |
eigners; and their only idea of the suf- |
frage Is thing of merchandise. They |
form allen ana predatory camps On |
American ground. A surprising pro-
portion of them belong to the depend
ent, defective and delinquent classes,
the very material, during hard times.
of which to make mobs and criminals.
1t cannot be shown that, except in
cheap labor, America derives any good |
from their presence; and even cheap la
Dor has it's disadvantages
What the United States needs is n
period of rest and assimilation. 1t
would be a godsend IL the incoming
immigrant were made to bring at least
$500 Of his own. In THAI case we should |
only get farmers and other men of sub
stance, leaving out the riffraff that are
here to exploit the cities. Admitting |
that the reform would be difficult it |
yet remains true that any country has |
the right to protect itself from unde- |
sirable guests and that the countries !
most likely to complain of American !
safeguards are the ones which freely |
make use of them on their own account. |