The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-11-28
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.

Year; Our Foreign Immigrants" lisa.
2:1-22.
BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS.
The migratory floods of civilization
paradoxically, the east turns eastward
to find the west. North America has
become the golden land of the dreams
of the older peoples. Here is the coun-
try of the second chance, the fresh
start. On these shores are being
worked out great experiments in hui
man liberty and government. These
ideals, no less than the prospects of
material advantage, lure the jewellers
from the places of poverty and oppres-
sion all over the globe. This pow-ebb-
ing, now-flowing tide of immigration is
great glory Of the new world; and Il
great menace. 1t is at once an oppor-
tunity and a peril; and it constitutes
one of the gravest problems that alert
citizens are called upon to face.
How do we need to keep the nation
whole,
To guard the pillars of the State? We
need
The fine audacities of honest deed;
The homely old integrities of soul;
The swift temerities that take the part
OF outcast right-the wisdom of the
Brave hopes that Mammon never can
detain,
Nor sully with his gainless clutch for
gain.
Edwin Markham.
There have been foreign missionary
enthusiasts who have done more than a
little to stir Christians to a concern for
the whole world. No less sorely need
ed than these are some men of prophet
vision and tongue who will arouse the
churches to the gravity of the situa-
ton in their own land at the present
hour. That such vital and pressing
issues as the immigration question
should be perfunctorily grouped under
the head of Home Missions" and
relegated to the attention of a few
faithful souls in prayer meetings does
not argue very eloquently for the
alertness or craftsmanship of the lead
ers of western Christendom.
The biggest things of our national
life are at stake in this problem of the
alien. All that our fathers won SO
dearly is again on trial The Sabbath,
the church, the reign of law. the free
dom of the individual. all are subject
to attack from these hosts of newcom-
ers with foreign ideals. Simple self
preservation requires US to make it our
first business to transform the imrni-
grant into true citizen of the land.
Canada and the United States have
been created, in divine providence, Gus
todians of certain great principles in
human government 1t is a solemn
manhood duty for all citizens to guard
these principles from corruption. This
can best be done let it be said in all
seriousness, by bringing the alien pop
ulation under the dominance of the
Gospel which has made US whatever
we are that is worthy.
Everv immigrant is man or woman
or child before he is problem. So he
must be regarded as one possessed of
all the old human instincts and needs,
rather than as an abstract question in
sociology or citizenship.
AS most of the older cities on the
continent have developed their foreign
quarter which usually is what once
was fashionable section, transforming
1t into something strange and squalid
just SO the early ideals of the nation
are impaired by the congestion of i'm
migration. There can be no doubt that
the gravest problem in the land is this
one of securing deliverance from the
effect of pernicious immigration Yet
shall we on that account shut our
gates, and attempt a towards escape
from one of the burdens of the strong?
Far from it. Let us rather strengthen
our lines of resistance in school and
government and press and church Is
| 1t not a high and patriotic duty to make
our established standards winsome to
| these newcomers. and thus to win them
| to willing allegiance to a better way?
| Instead of ignoring, avoiding and i'll
/ treating the immigrants, let us increase
| the good Iashlon Oh welcoming them, OF
| speeding them on their way, and of
| helping them to realize in this new land
| their highest aspirations.
The business of religion is to put the
! SAVIOR of sweetness, truth and light
] into all the relationship of mankind It
| should enable every native born citi-
zen to meet the stranger in the spirit
| of Him who said. II was a stranger,
and We took me in
Some men have walked the streets of
the new world as ignored aliens, whom
had we been wiser. We should have
welcomed as heroes and soldiers of lib
erty's universal cause. The narrow
mindedness which indiscriminatingly