Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-02-02
GOVERN THE COUNTRY
Immigrants Now in Cabinet,
Senate and House.
FORMER ALIENS MAKE LAWS
Men of Foreign Birth Active as Minis
tiers Abroad.
M THE q. S. SUPREME COURT
kAy One Man of Foreign birth Ever
Had Chance of Being
President. u
n THE q. S. SUPREME COURT

1Copyricht 1907, by John Elfreth Watkins)
Here are some once poor Immigrants VINO
nave risen to make our laws IN the senate
and House of Representatives and 10 en-
Gree them in the cabinet. In spite OF the
axsks and pitfalls lying in the rough ROAD
= success they have forged ahead. while
snfsve competitors-even those having the
eSsNntage of wealthy parentage-have fal-
IzS by the wayside.
These one time aliens who have risen TO
govern the country of their adoption con-
tinue their labors with the realization that
no matter how great their sacrinces anu
benefits to that land it can never cohiei
upon them it's highest honor. With the hope
NJ thus rewarding their great collaboration,
Alexander Hamilton, of foreign blrth, the
makers of the Constitution made the presl-
dency available to any one of foreign birth
who might be citizen at the time OF that
national charters adoption. But time mas
nv now forever barred the PRESIDENTIAL
Office against>a foreign-born aspirant' B..
Immigrant Ship to Cabinet.
In the cabinet we now have two former
tmmierants-James Wilson, Secretary of
Agriculture. and Oscar Straus, Secretary
of Commerce and Labor. Secretary Wilson
was born near Ayr, Scotland, where for
generations his ancestors had conquered
the soil with the pIoughshare. His father,
a poor husbandman, had as youth been
sorely tempted by reports of the great
opportunities for the young man in the
vast unconquered stretches of the new
world and before he married or even
of age had announced his determination
to emigrate hither. But his parents for
babe his taking the long voyage, which to
them seemed as perilouS as would trip
TO the farthest north. Stories-alas, too
true-had reached the old country of how
pilgrims journeying to the new world in
the slow and filthy hulks of those days
died by the thousands of ship fever;' or
from brutal treatment; how from the day
of their departure TO the moment OF their
bed plundered and finally, when fieeced of
their money, sold into servitude by the
ships masters demanding payment-then
impossble-for their fares. But after his
maturity and marriage the elder Wilson
came to realize his dream. This was in
1852 and with him landed on our shores
a son-the future Secretary of Agriculture
then sixteen. They settled first in Connec-
ticut. near Norwich. where they heard of
the many opportunities of the great west.
In three years they had crossed the Allie
ghenies and SCI out across the open prairies,
a full decade in advance of the iron horse
and his track of steel. Reaching Iowa the
father entered a section of government
land under the homestead law. For three
years the long-legged son titled this area.
After Ii had been conquered he took out
a section of his own, and has been farm
ing from that day to this in the same
county, where now he owns a thousand
acres. He soon went to the legislature
where he became speaker, and in seven
teen years after settling in Iowa had been
sent by his neigbbors to Congress.
Our other immigrant cabinet officer, Oscar