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

cOulu cIalm CnaC CneSe lm-
ported Americans were easily |
then we might take more
charitable view of the matter, but we
cannot ignore the stubborn fact that
hey refuse to be assimilated, and it is
not only matter of common testi-
mony that there is tendency for peo-
pie of the same nationality to
to form colonies and hold
themselves aloof from American Gus
toms, but Commissioner General Sar-
geant officially says that certain of the
foreign countries maintain here colo
MES of aliens which retain their allie
glance to the mother country, practice
the customs of the mother country,
and send back the greater part of their
earnings to support the institutions of
the mother country.
That they do practice their nefarious
native customs, in at least one respect,
the following press dispatch will bear
witness: SIN the past year 301 girls in
Chicago, under legal age have been
married and Superintendent Bodine of
the compulsory education department
has found that it was a common prac-
tice for men of the peasant class to
come from foreign countries, especi-
ally from the southern peasantrles of
Italy and Sicily, and give their II, 13
and 14-year-old daughters in marriage
in consideration for money enough to
pay the passage of the family across
the SEAS" Herein addition to flagi-
tious depravation-we have evidence of
extreme poverty, and we are told by
Mr. Robert Hunter that, already, ten
millions of persons in the United States
are living i'll poverty; that is, IL per
oent of nnrz zentirs pop.siat.srr--is -:sith-
out the necessaries of life. OF this
vast number six millions are vainly
striving to rise out of their deplorable
conditions, while four millions have
abandoned the fight and become chron-
ic, irreclaima5le paupers.
These unfortunates belong, for the
most part, to class of non-unlOn, un-
skilled laborers who must accept what
ever work and wage are offered, and
their wages have been forced to the
lowest possible level by the cutthroat,
competitive methods INDUCED in by
the very class for whom my friend will
plead here this afternoon. One phase
of this matter was recently outlined by
Superintendent Hallimund of a New
York mission, who said: "The farmer
boy who comes here is left out while
Italian and other foreigners, through
the padrone system, are getting the
jobs. Not long ago an agent for one
of these foreign labor syndicates came
to us by mistake and said the Pennsyl-
vania Railroad Company wanted from
500 to 1000 workmen for an emergency
and asked if we could supply them.
l told him we could and placed bulle-
tin on the door of our mission house.
In few hours we had the required
number of men, gave them coffee and
bread and sent them to the Pennsyl
vania Railroad depot. Every one OF
them was refused because he was not
an Italian"
In the Chicago stockyards, foreign
labor has lowered wages to $500 pei
week, and thereby made 5000 paupers
in that one district alone. AS result
we are afforded the unholy spectacle OF
ten-year-old children, and pregnant
women, dabbling around vats of blood
Poverty and crime are inseparable
and it not only appears that recent
immigration furnishes the largest pro
portion of criminals, but the races con
stituting the bulk of the recen
immigration become dependent, an(
delinquent, sooner than the other races
Conditions have grown wors,
steadily since 1900, and the astounding
wave of crime that has swept over tn,
country has not only reached its high
est tide in the localities where alien
predominate, but the percentage o
alien crime to total crime is over
whelmingly out of proportion to tn
percentage of foreigners to total popu
, lation.
J, For instance, in 1903, the alien-borl
population of Chicago, amounting t
, about 10 per cent, committed forty
seven per cent of the crimes. In othe