Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-11-20
On the Trail of the En1igrant.

,ok by Prof i. A. Steiner of Iowa Col
acting wide INTEREST,"
TIMES in the hands of men unframed
in citizenship; the very name of cltl'
zen being SO new to them that they
cannot easily grasp It's meaning The
| tuteage of Tammany Hall and of it!
kind all over the United States ha:
been a had proposition for SO mo-
mentous a task. 1t does not diminish
the greatness of the problem in the
least when l say that the foreigner is
| usually the innocent tool. in Il corrupt
ing process which has been going or
for many years, and to the existence
of which the nation Isl just awakening
II have been offered citizenship pa
pers in the city of New York for $40:
and have seen them peddled by Amer
leans who had back of them the pro-
lection of political bosses of no less
genuine American ancestry. / have
seen whole groups of Polanders
marched to the ballot box when they
We're so drunk that they had to be kept
erect by stalwart American patrio!
who swore that they had the right to
vote, when they had scarcely been a
year in this country. / have seen men
who are respected in their commune
ties, buy votes wherever they could
get them corrupting mass of men
who are as ignorant Of the process of
voting and as untitled for it, as little
babes; and these very men | have
heard loudly proclaiming the corrupt
ing influence of the foreign element.
with all that, the foreigner is ris-
ing in the scale of citizenship and is
not so bad as he has the right to be.
considering the example set him.
"The immigrant, it is true. will sell
his vote; but the American buys it,
and sells it too. and ne is the greater
traitor; because he is betraying his ma
tive country.
again. this does not assume that
the Immigrant is not political prob
lem: he is but only because we are,
and in this he rises and falls with us,
and sometimes rises above us"
In the Detention Room.
'Tmagire room filed by at least
fifty people, many of them doomed to
recross the terrible sea and to be land
ed upon strange territory, to find their
way unattended to their obscure little
village When they arrive There they
are usually paupers with a stigma
resting upon them: fer were they not
rejected in America, and why? All,
who knows why! LET us pass thru
this room' Brother, why are you
here?" A stalwart Lettislll peasant boy
answers demurely, Because I haven't
money enough. had some money and
they stole it out of my fathers pock-
cts" The father and the boy have
been marked by the inspector as likely
to become public charges, because they
had neither money in their pockets nor
friends awaiting them. A matter OF
$40 or $40 is between these men and
the fulfillment of all their desires.
"The court may be lenient. but the
father is old and the boy young, and it
is more than probable that they will
both end their days on the rough Bal
tic, where society now is as turbulent
as that northern sea.
"a Servian peasant, Drowned by the
hot sun, hears familiar Slavic note
in my speech, and brings this bitter
plant: How far have travelled from
Budapest, Vienna Berlin and HAM
burg. I have spent all my money, and
now it looks as if / must go back. Must
go? Tell me- The court will tell
him tomorrow that he has passed the
dreaded dead line, is over so years Of
a gre not too we'll built used I'D by the