The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1909-06-19
FOREIGN IMMIGRATION
John Temple Graves Proposes to Tax
All Immigrants.

All immigrants.
America is the land of opportuni-
ty and as we'll the land of hospitality.
The illimitable advantages of repre-
sentative and popular government,
joined with an attitude of arms wide
stretched in welcome 10 the world,
have sprnkled thick with the native
American tne foreign emierant IL.
every state of the Union, and in
half dozen States and in more than
twenty cities have given clear ma
iority to the outsider.
Nor has it been any half-hearted
hospitality nor any restricted citizen
ship to which this republic of the free
has hidden the people of the Old
World. The best that we have has
always been as free TO the newcomer
as to our own, in proportion to perse-
verence in pursuit and the capacity to
possess. The records of New York
are written thick with official sigma
lures rich in sugge stion of other
lands. Chicago and the great cities
of the West and South have been
more than fair in racial division OF
official honors, while State after State
has spelled in It's chief executive the
impress which Germany ard Ireland,
and the Scandinavian races have
made upon our national confidence
and respect.
But the time has come, or appears
to be at hand, when historic nospi-
tally must draw and know its limi-
tations.
When hospitality is abused it must
also be abridged-and the blood Of
many races mingled in this composite
republic must rebel against the un
worthy and the ungrateful who seek
our shores for a selfish footing and
swift exit with quick gotten gains.
From the testimony of experts be-
fore the Industrial Commission some
stratling facts nave just been stated
upon the floor of the national Con-
gress.
It is declared from statistics that
comparatively few European immi-
grants 90 to South America, Africa,
Canada or Australia, but that under
existing laws America is becoming the
drumping ground for the surplus
population Of every foreign land.
1t is stated that within the past ten
years passing immigrants to this
country have carried back to the
countries from which they came near
ly one thousand million dollarsl
1t is stated from the records that,
during the last year of panic and de-
preston, when money was scarcer
than hens teeth and everybody was
blue as indigo, there left the country
10000 aliens, taking with them an
enormous sum of money estimated at
from s2OO,00O,000 to $500, 100000.
There is neither genius no generosi-
ty in perpetuating or permitting au
immigration like that. Men and wo-
men who come here to play a mans
part or a woman's part in our nat
ional life-to enrich our industries
with enduring citizenship-should be
welcome to the end Of time.
But the wisdom, justice and firm
ness of our American statesm anship
should be equal to some Legislation to
discourage or discontinue these tramp
immigrants who come like the grass
hooper and the locust to eat up our
green fields of glorious opportunity,
and then in tne first arid season 20
skip away with full bellies to some
far country from which they came,
carrying our privileges as spoils to
enrich some land that knows neither
reciprocity nor exchange.
1t is unjust to American workmen
born under our flag or pledged to its
fortunes. 1t is an injustice to our in
dustries to entertain these passing
and irresponsible competitors with
the solid and enduring body of our
own industrial life.
We protect our honest toilers with
a tariff that is supposed to guard
their interests against unequal condi-
lions on tae other side.
But what is the consistency in a
tariff for the sake of American indus
try if the peripatetic tramps of all
countries can come without let or
hindrance or tax to prosper upon our
marvellous opportunities, and then
scamper away in a single panic year
with half enough American money in
their wallets to pay the national debt?
Official Figures
During the past five years, 5.429,9s6
aliens have entered, and 2,219,521 al.