Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1904-09-05


text. the more they multiplied and
grew, and the Egyptians grieved be-
cause Of the children Of Israel La
bOr's Affections. We first find them
in the American labOrer being com
PEELED TO compete for work in a home
market that is glutted with foreign
immigrants We find t.sen in the great
svpsy of invaders which each year dis
embarks at Ellis island, New York's.
Castle Garden of the present day. We
find them in the impoverished Italians
and the Bohemians and the Portuguese
and in the human offscOurings of
Europe who each year come to our
manufacturers and foundrymen and
contractors and say: Let me handle
your pick" Let me lay your asphalt
pavement" Let me dig your mines"
Let me chop your wood" Let me
work in your fOundries." I'VE are for
eigners. We do not intend to become
citizens Of the United States. As soon
as we can save up a little money we
intend to return to our native land and
live there. But meantime we VIII work
cheaper than any American man can
work. Why? Because our living ex-
penses are practically nothing We will
live in dugOuts. We will eat food that
no American family would eat. We will
buy no books and will wear the cheap
est clothing AS d result Of these con
ditions of living we can crowd your
American workman to the wall"
Protect American Laborers.
The American laborer from this for
eign competition. must have help, and
help right soon. to save him from this
condition of affairs. Our national leg
islature must give it. Shall we lift
high our tariff walls to protect capital
and not at the same time lift high our
walls of immigration laws to protect
our native workers? Is not the Amer
lean -laborer's sturdy arm as valuable
in the sight of our government as the
capitalists pOcketbOOk? What do you
mean by such a statement as that!
some one asks. Would you start an
other Know Nothing party? Would
your ballot box slogan be American
work only for the American born
American political offices only to be
held by those Graded under the Shad-
ows of Mount Washington and Pixies
peak " Oh, no, l am not preaching
any such political nonsense. l do not
believe there ever was a political party
wrapped in the Swaddling clothes of
so many errors as that born in 1858,
and which, with eX-President Willard
Fillmore as it's presidential candidate,
swept many of our northern states in
1856 with the political cry, America
only for the American born" Ameri-
can liberties and American prOwesS
both on land and sea, militarily and in
dustrially, have been won and built
up by Americas adopted sons as well
as by her native born children. Were
there not foreigners among George
Washington's mightiest companions in
! arms? Baron Johann De Kalb, who was
shot at Camden in 1850, and Kosciusko
and Lafayette and many Others-they
were all foreign born. Who was the
most valued statesman during Wash
| ingtOn's administration next to the
president himself? Alexander Hamil-
ton, who was foreign born. Who was
John Ericsson, the inventor of the
Monitor, that revolutionized naval war
fare and saved the American navy off
Newport News? He was a Swedish
American; he was foreign born. Some
of our greatest merchants, like A. T.
! Stewart of New York; our greatest
! foundrymen, like Andrew Carnegie Of
| PittSburg; our greatest scientists, like
| Agassiz of Harvard; our social reform
ers, like Jacob A. Riis Of New York,
and the most eminent political leaders
of our day, like Carl Schurz, once SEN
| atOr from Missouri and member of
| President Hayes cabinet-they were
! all foreign born. If you blot out from
our nations history all the deeds which
| Americas foster sons and daughters
have accomplished for the land of their
adoption you blot out some of it's
brightest pages
Where to Draw the Line
But while we, as American citizens,
would welcome gladly into our midst
the German or Englishman or Scotch
man or Swede and the men of any
foreign nationality who with intelli-
gence would come among us and say
Brother, give me thy hand, for today
1 would be one with you and become
an American citizen" yet today we
would not welcome the ignorant, the
idle, the filthy, the pauper, the lazza
roni or the criminal offscourings OF
Europe or Asia, who would come tC
this land, not to become American citi
zens. but to stay here just long
enough to scrape together few thou
sand dollars and then go back to the
land of their birth. We would not
welcome the ignorant and depraved OF
foreign lands, who would underbid oul
American workmen and compel our
American boys and girls to live il
dugouts or as rats in a cellar as they
live These classes have neither part
nor parcel in the glorious inheritance
Of freedom and equality for which oul
forefathers fought and bled. While we
would gladly open our gates to the
Of Ofbor v-OI,1f