River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1911-02-09

DIUBINllHlIHU here because they have
been caught up and
torn awav from their native homes by
the superior power of vast and 1ntri-
cate machine" In it's main outlines
+hts "rnacbine" NAV be likened to an
enormous dredging apparatus stretching
forth gigantic cranes to every port OF
Europe, catching up and heaving back
loads of ernfgrants collected from every
corner of the eastern hemisphere by the
tireIess efforts OF no less than $4,000
steamship agents and their canvassers
The fuel which energies this colossal
structure is an equally colossal greed for
yearly dividends, and the combined In
tellects controlling our greatest steam
ship and railroad companies may be said
to represent the engineer. The pivot
upon which the entire mechanism turns
is fraud and evasion OF the United States
immigration law.
No large city in the United States is
without its element of foreign-born pur-
chasable voters, criminal cliques, black
handers," anarchists, paupers, its cheap
labor" supply controlled by foreign-born
contractors, its overcrowded tenements
breeding disease furthermore, careful
estimate shows that about 80 per cent.
of the unaccompanied immigrant male
adults who enter our country are legally
ineligible.
Our laws are therefore an ever recur-
rent subject of controversy. Yet, de-
spite all discussion, no person will dis
pute but that an immigrant is desirable
from every sane standpoint, If he has
reasonable amount of intelligence, is
physically sound and of good moral char
acter, Is possessed Of sufficient money
earned by himself to cover the expense
OF his journey and comes here of his
own initiative, capable for work, but not
under contract to work at a wage which
will lower the American standard. But
this in plain language is precisely what
our present immigration law requires;
1t Is the legal definition Of immigrant
desirability.
To understand the real evil underly-
ing the present condition Of immigration
we must take into consideration that
while our dilettante theorists are con-
Stunning reams Of paper with interesting
reflections upon the problem" while
our country Is in its chronic state of op-
timism over present conditions, whatever
they are-and while our legislators are
engaged in the passage of new, unneces-
sary and often impractical laws-thou-
sands of foreigners exciudable under the
laws already passed are being yearly
dumped upon our shores by various in
terests which work together as one ma
chine, 1t is well known that the fabu-
lous profits derived from an artificially
stimulated immigration are participated
in by the allied interests of the trans
atlantic steamship companies, the Ellis
Island railroad pool and the Atlantic
coastwise steamship lines. Cooperating,
as they do, they run automatically of
their own weight practically without
friction, and thrive by reason of a contin-
uing abnormal immigrant supply. They
ell combine upon single instrument
namely. the European steamship agent
to solicit a trade in immigrants that will
appreciably increase passenger fares. He
il is who. actuated by prospective fees
which are dependent upon sales made,
gives impulse to the machine" by sell
ing It's through tickets" in every Euro
pean town and hamlet.
The several affiliated steamship lines,
having created their zones of influence,
enjoy what is practically a monopoly
spreading their field agents over the en-
tire European territory from which i'm
migrants are drawn they effectively sup
press competition.
At the immigrant gateway of Ameri-
ca, all these lines converge to hand over
their immigrant cargoes to the other par
Elephants in the machine
From the vantage point at Ellis Island
the railroad "pool'-known as the I'm
migrant Clearing House." which is a
combination of thirteen of our largest
railroads, together with one of the consol-
idated steamship companies-takes the
immigrants in hand to tag and forward
them to every point In the country at
special third-class rates.
The railroad pool finds it profitable
to pay to the United States an annual
rental of $4,000 for its headquarters on
government ground, where it sells spe-
cial tickets for the benefit of ship i'm
migrants only" for rail transportation
from New York, Boston, Philadelphia and
Baltimore to about 1000 selected places
in the interior OF the United States. Since
these tickets. sold either in Europe or at
Ellis Island, are cheaper in price than
can be obtained by our citizens, the
plain intent of congress to close every
avenue against railroad rate discrimina-
ton, as expressed in the laws relating to
interstate commerce, Is clearly def1ed.
Further, the committee by which this
pool" is managed restricts its private
rate book-"Joint Tariff No. 13"-to the
use Of the European steamship agents
and the pools" Joint agents" here, and
1t is said that the individual companies
Of the pool share in succession in the
lucrative profits.
= is also said that the railroad COM
panies, as we'll as the coastwise steam
4 ERk