The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1907-05-01
WATCHORN ON IMMIGRATION


Commissioner Robert Watchorn, the s'nan at
the gate at Ellis Island, to whom Dr. Steiner
paid such high tribute the right man in the
right place i'll his book Son the Trail of the
Immigrant delivered interesting lecture re-
Gently before the members of New York
church. He showed the fallacy and injustice of
many of the notions popularity held with regard
to immigration.
To begin with, Commissioner Watchorn de-
clared that it is not true that 100000 people
are added to our population yearly by immigra-
ton. Last year 100000 foreign born persons
went out of the port of New York to foreign
ports. greater number of people than ever
came to New York in any year previous to 1906,
about 40 per cent of the yearly immigration
Many people deplore the fact that these immi-
grants leave the country with the larger part of
the money which they have earned in wages in
this country he continued. Gas matter of
tact these men and women do not take away
from the nations capital for economists have
shown that labor is the only capital. They do
not take away the labor which they have ex-
pended III building bridges, subways and rail-
roads But what if they do? could name you
ten thousand Americans who take more money
to Europe from America yearly than all the
immigrants combined
Commissioner Watchorn refuted the CHARGE
that America has become the dumping ground
OF European countries, which send only their
less desirable people. ''There never were better
since the discovery of America by Columbus
than are coming now,'' he declared, 'sand no
other country has begun to approach the
splendid work that this country has begun to do
for Them
Another erroneous notion he corrected was
that the steamship companies responsible
for the annually increasing number of im11li-
grants. In discussing this, he said
The real reason why the people come is be-
cause they want to better their condition. The
Steamship companies do little more than en-
courage the immigrants to do what he longs TO
DO. III YOU We're blowing one of the barren
hllls1des of New England and man came ND
to you and said that you could earn twice as
much money with less effort in California; YOU
would be very anxious to secure the means of
getting there. Ii you were shown how yoi,
could secure means OF transport ation you would
be more or less OF fool if you did not make
good the opportunity. This is exactly what
this same desire to better his condition that
leads the immigrant to trace his path across a
trackless sea to the boundless republic across
the waters. If YOU do not think such men be-
come loyal Americans, would challenge YOU to
name any laborer who has been here seven wears
who is willing to live anywhere else under the
sun. If you find such one. l would advise
You that you bring him to the Ellis Island phy-
stefan for the feeble minded.
To prove that the low rates offered by the
steamship companies were not the cause of the
number of immigrants coming. the commissioner
showed that in 1894, when the steamship rates
were reduced to $40 between New York and
Hamburg and Liverpool, the tide of i1nrrigra-
ton fell to the lowest ebb it has reached since
the civil war; excepting year. The imlni-
grants did not come that year because the hard
times here threw many men out of work The
demand for labor ceased and immigration ceas-
ed, too.