Arizona republican., 1908-03-21

unemployed: not only the south, but
 every other agricultural section of the
 country is suffering for lack of the
 labor that could be supplied by those in enforced idleness in the cities. It is comparatively little that private or corporate enterprises can do with its limited resources; it is not much that state bureaus can do with their meagre appropriations; is is practic- ally nothing that charity organizations can do, dependent as they are upon a fluctuating tide of subscriptions. al- ways at it's lowest ebb when the need Is greatest. The most that all these forces combined can do is insignificant
 when compared with the need. while the lack of concerted and harmonious
 action is wasteful in the extreme. All these circumstances give pecu- liar weight to the discussion of this
 question of government transportation
 of immigrants and other laborers from cOngested districts to those where bet ter opportunities for employment are offered. which came up at the meeting
 of the National Liberal Immigration
 League held in this city last week. The league advocated the passage of
 a national law providing free transpor-
 tation in such cases. At the meeting it was pointed out that in some new countries. Argentine for example. not
 only are immigrants entertained at the
 expense of the government for a week
 or more. in order to give them an op-
 portunity to decide upon future home and lire of employment. but when a
 choice has been made. free transpor-
 tation is furnished to any part of the
 country, thereby avoiding a congestion
 which makes for poverty and crime. or
 requires the aid of charity. as in New
 York and other large cities of the
 United States. In this country. under
 the present immigration law. a head
 tax of s4 is imposed upon each arriv-
 ing immigrant. with no other practical
 result than still further to impover-
 ism those who are already poor enough while it accomplishes nothing toward
 keeping out the keener- witted crimin-
 ally inclined. to whom a few dollars
 of head tax more or Hess a matter
 of small consequence. Then the im- migrant is turned out to make his own
 way in a new country, with the injunc- tion that if he becomes q public charge within a certain period he will
 be deported.
 It is not necessary to seek the more remote sections of the south and west for the willing worker to find profit
 able employment and the prospect of
 independence and home. Right here in New York state and n other near
 by states within a comparatively short distance of the metropolis. the demand for agricultural laborers is still more insistent because it comes from farm
 CTS to whom the lack of help means de- preciation and loss in the value of their investments in lands and inn provements.
 Within the past three years the state department of agriculture in this city
 has provided over 5000 single men and heads of families with homes in the country. Fifteen hundred such fami- lies have been sent out during the past year. and the demand for reliable help is so great that the department has found it necessary to advertise in the
 help wanted" columns of the daily papers in order to secure satisfac- tory class of applicants Mir. c. w.
 Larmon. confidential agent of the de- partment, said few days ago that fre- quently 200 or more applications are received in a single day. The pre- ferred class are married men. Such men can readily obtain the free use of
 small house with a garden in which can be reased all the vegetables the family will require the year round. ali ! the fruit and milk needed, and an op- portunity to keep sufficient poultry
 and pigs to afford an abundant supply of meat and leave something over to apply on the growers bill.
 As q consequence the laboring man,
 who in New York finds the wages of a day or two at most all that bridges the gulf between affluence and pover- ty. is able to save nearly all of his
 wages, and in a few years himself be- comes a landed proprietor. If he has
 wife or children who are able and willing to work, there is always am pie employment for all in neighboring homes or in the lighter work of the farm.
 In times like these, however. it Is all ways the question of transportation
 which opposes an insurnountable bar
 rier to the free circulation of labor.
 To the man who Is absolutely without funds, employment within a few miles
 of the city seems practically as far
 from the attainable as employment in the more distant sections of the south
 and west The immigration bureaus
 or agricultural departments of most
 of the states have no appropriation
 from which to extend aid to the de- serving; so the only recourse is to
 request the prospective employer to
 advance the necessary funds to pay
 for transportation. In many cases this
 is willingly done. Where it is refus-
 ed, there remains nothing for the seek
 CT of honest employment to do but to
 remain an object of charity or descend
 to crime.