The L'Anse sentinel., 1907-09-21

No produces more, OF material or OF
morality, than he consumes. He may
produce very little. yet II his wants
are less than that little he Is still
profitable investment for the nation.
He may, ,,on the other hand. apparently
produce millions; yet II he consumes
more than that, or II he undermines
our standards of morality, or II he
IL found to produce actually much
less than he apparently produces. he
may be great source Of loss, In spite
Of his prominence and power.
The people understand this well.
1t is their habitual application of this
new economic trysquare to men In the
public eye which Is now making mil
| lionairism so uncomfortable.
What 10 immigration WORTH
To which class. then, belongs the
average immigrant? Is he producer
or dissipator of net wealth and NOR
ality? II the former, what is our i'm
migrant worth. net. to the nation?
The law says that dead male adult
constitutes loss of $4,000 to his fam
lily. In this 1t strikes rough average
and draws no distinction Of any sort
between individuals. So It Is hard to
get at It in that way.
The average adult male immigrant
(and half of our immigrants are OF
this sort) earns at least 5000 per an
mum soon after his arrival. Rather.
that is what he is paid. My estimates
have led me to state. elsewhere. that
his actual productivity is from three
to four times that amount, the balance
going to pay the cost Of doing "busi-
ness" with what he produces and con-
sumes. But the benefit Of this doubt
will be left, for the present to the op,
position.
The right will be reserved, however,
to class all immigrants under this fig
ure, for the majority of them have
been here long enough to expand their
income beyond $500. That is to say,
most Of those who were classed as
children at the time of entry are now
adults. or the women some are on
set in their unproductivity by the men
who earn more than $500; the rest
are producing more than that value in
the form of children.
81, ,ooo, ,ooo, GOO Per Annum.
During the last 20 years some 49,
100000 or 1900, 900 immigrants have
arrived. The exact figure does not
matter, for all we wish is an estimate
of the number now alive and working,
and many who came before 1887 are
that. II these people are producing
an average of $500 worth Of goods
and children apiece their current pro-
ductivity is now $4,000, ,000, 900 per an
mum.
This is 200 times as much as our
new automobiles cost us last year.
This enormous fund of current income
we should have lost had we rigidly
excluded immigration in 1887.
How much capital do these immi-
grants embody, not In their pockets
or bank accounts, but in their strength
Of body and character?
Assume that out OF the 100000
aliens arrived since 1887 100000
are now adult males. For each Of
these that you kill his family can COL
lect from you. by law, $4,000. He
must be worth at least half that. That
is to say, we have got from Europe
during the last two decades, for moth
ing, working machine which capital
ICES at from $4,000. 900, 900 to 5O,O0O,-
100000.
This figure agrees fairly well with
our estimate of the animal productiv-
ity Of this great human machine. But
the exactness of the figures does not
matter. It Is plain that, however they
may be modified in detail, they will
still remain enormous. Our crops
have certainly been enormous Of re-
cent years, but 1t has already become
plain that they cannot stand alone as
an explanation Of our remarkable
prosperity. We not only grow hum
dreds' of millions of dollars worth Of
corn, wheat, and cotton at the cost of
much labor each year, but we also i'm
bibe from another continent, without
q cent Of cost to ourselves, upward Of
a billion dollars worth Of human live
stock per annum.
We do not hesitate to assign solid
value to every other form of live stock
which the land needs for its working.
Why should not our immigrants be
figured as similar asset?
Nv pohrp< Na<rhorr