The Lexington dispatch. [volume] (Lexington, South Carolina) 1870-1917, 1906-03-14
The Lexington Dispatch.
Wednesday, March "a, 1906.
Kentucky and immigration.

now pending in the senate of the
United States to regulate immigra.
ton has special interest for Ken
lucky, not only because it is the So
luton offered by one of the States
senators to question Of great ma
tional Importance, but because Ken
tucky has of late shown keen in.
terest in this subject. The measure
proposed by Senator McCreary in
creases the restriction upon undesir
able immigrants and increases the
facilities by which States with rep
resentatives at immigrant ports may
secure from the great mass of immi-
grants that are pouring into the
country, whatever they may need of
the better class of agricultural and
industrial laborers, and protest them
selves measurably against immigrants
of an undesirable kind.
The first of these things Senator
McCreary proposes to do by increas-
ing the tax on immigrants from two
to five dollars, by adding to the list
of excluded immigrants, and by i'll
creasipg the efficiency Of the iuspec-
ton service for enfo1cing this exclu-
sion. The other and is to be promot-
ed by authorizing and directing the
commissioner general of immigration
to maintain in connection With cash
immigration station o bureau which
shall furnish information as TO the
resources, products, manufactures,
climate, soil, prices of land, etc, Of
each State and territory, the route Of
travel thereto and the cost of trans.
portation, aud the opportunities for
employment in each State and terri
tory in the various skilled and un-
skilled occupations, together with the
rates of wages end the cost of living.
To the same and-aud this is Of
special interest in view of pending
legislation in Kentucky-Senator Nc
Creary's bill provides that when any
State desires to maintain an agent at
any immigration station of the United
States, the commissioner general of
immigration shall provide such agent
with suitable quarters, permit him to
have access to all immigrants and
give him aid so far as possible.
1t is important that the United
States should adopt stringent meas
ures for the exclusion of undesirable
immigrants, in view of the accumu-
lated evidence showing that an Or
ganizsd effort is being made to unload
a vastly greater number than usual
of such migrants on this country. 1t
is likewise especially important to
Kentucky that this state should not
passively take its chance, without
effort to protect or help itself, when
osber States are providing official re-
presentatives at immigrant ports. If
Kentucky does nothing, it will not
only allow all desirable immigrants,
such as are needed on our farms and
in our factories, to be diverted to
States that have the enterprise to 60
after them, but it will be likely to re-
ceive more than it wants of the IN.
desirable class, since there is some
reason to apprehend an organized ef'
fort to send these undesirable people
to the south, while the west and
northwest get the pick Of the thrifty
Germans, Scandinavians and Irish.
This immigration question is an
important one and practical one. A
step toward putting Kentucky iu
position to derive some advantage
from the provisions of Senator Nc
Creary's bill is proposed in the bill
that has been introduced at Frankfort
by Senator Newman. This bill pro-
vides for commission which shall,
among other things, look after the
immigration interests Of the State. 1t
does moi 60 as far as some would like
to have it 60, but it goes in the right
direction and would put Kentucky in
q better position, both for securing