The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1905-04-13

ClIllu, upou iouuiuSs ouu UclOI0 UCiuS
called upen to expend one cent, pos
sessed on an average just 811s cents in
excess of the amount allowed the re-
leased convict by the great state of |
Minnesota.
Now-if you please-ignoring for the
moment every other fact, or averment,
at the disposal of the affirmative, and
considering alone the bare facts of
which the last, and tie preceding,
group of figures are predicated, and l
will undertake to say that no one but
fool or knaye will seriously contend
that when we permitted 80 per cent of
those aliens to land we did not assume
responsibilities overwhelmingly out of
proportion to the benefits-if any there
be-that can accrue to us as nation.
purposely refrain from considering
the good that might accrue to the alien,
as l cannot conscientionsly concede
that the United States has reached a
vantage point where she can, safely, as
sumo the attitude of an indulgent
|
welfare of the ward in preference to
the interests of the guardian. And,
when all of the facts in the premises
are considered, will go even further
and challenge the gentleman to show
that we were justified in permitting
IS per cent of those ignorant paupers
, to even step foot upon American
soil, and defy him to name another
, government on the face of Gods earth
so devoid of prescience as to sanction
the entry of an indiscriminate horde of
, Impoverished illiterates
, In this connection my contention is
corroborated by as eminent an authority
, as the Hon. Andrew D. White, who
has served our Department Of state
with honor to himself and credit to his
! country. Writing in the November
, issue of the Century magazine, he said:
. "While thoughtful American
+ must condemn much which he sees
y in Russia, there is one thing that
: he cannot but admire and contrast
r to the disadvantage of his own
country, and this is the fact that
. Russia sets high value upon its
: citizenship. Russians be-
O lieve that it has been bought at too
a great price and is in every way
h too precious to be lavished and
, hawked about as thing of
q no value. On the other hand, when
one sees how the citizenship of the
q United States, which ought to be a
$ millionfold more precious than
j. that of Russia, is conferred loosely
r. upon tens of thousands of men alb.
! solutely unfit to exercise it, whose
exercise of it seems at times likely
!. to destroy republican government
one feels that Russia is nearer the
true ideal in this respect than We
are. No stockholder ir
- the pettiest manufacturing com
- pany dreams of admitting men te
share in it unless they show theil
- real fitness to be thus admitted
- but admission to American citizen
ship is surrounded by no such safe
:. guards; it has been cheapened ant
. prostituted until many who for
- merry revered it have come to scot
- at it."
y When we consider our total popu
At lation of eighty millions of persons, th'
u number of these machine made" citi
J. zens appears Insignificant by compari
son, but when we analyze the situation
, we find that-at least politically-it il
ut possible for them to exercise an almos
le Overwhelming influence. The state O
I'd New Y York, for instance. has been, an(
e. doubtless will again be, the pivota
a. state in our national elections. He
Mt chief city has foreign-born population
W exceeding that of any other city in tn
"a, world, and it also has the creates
n number of naturalized voters. Th
Mt very fact that this heterogeneous mas
ed of ignorant and unassimilate
d. foreigners, have it in their power
Is, even now, to decide our presidentia
IS elections should emphasize the wisdor
30, of my contention that immigratio
IN should, in fact, be restricted. The sam
1T, can be said of the mayoralty contest
n in the cities of New York an
33, Chicago; they, too, are even now at th
In disposal Of the naturalized voter.