Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-12-21

1t is quite generally agreed among
statesmen and philanthropists that II the
new immigration which is Hooking u
our shores at the rate of three-quarters
of a million souls year is to be DleSs-
ing and an economic asset to the natloii
ways and means must be found whereby
it may be distributed widely throughout
the country, for then only can the Gil
gestive juices of American influence
reach the entire mass and fit it for as
similation into the body polite. So long
as it crowds into colonies and holds IL
self aloof in communities that never feel
the touch of American customs and ideas
how can we expect it to become like us
and part of us?
And vet that is what is happening
right along Three-fourths of our RuS-
sian immigrants are to be found IN cities
that have a population of 2oOUo ana up
ward. More than half OF. the ltaiian I'M
migrants, the Polish, the bohemian, the
Hungarian and the Austrian Immigrants
grayitate to such centers of population.
On the other hand. less than one-1ourtn
of our native Americans are TO DE Iouiiu
in such cities, and the same is true OIL
our Scandinavian immigrants More tia,l
half of the great population OF New YORK
city is of foreign birth, and there are
sections of the metropolis that are as lot
eign to America, as far as lnlluenceS 60
as are Warsaw. Naples and vienna. Inc
list of American cities where the Iorelsn
population exceeds the native is large
one There are about fifty cities Where
she population of foreign birth represents
more than two-fifths of the total, ana
among these are about twenty where the
foreign element is in the majority:
;.
that II iS deSiI-
able to secure as many settlers on the
land as posi-
Opinions of ble' but there e
Commissioner Keefe. d. NOT helt~vo
in any other sort of distribution of inml-
natural working of the law of supply and
demand. the ground on which they
predicate their belief is that it will tend
to reduce that kind OF living and wages
which they call the American standard.
One OF those who holds this view IL the
commissioner general of immigration.
Daniel j. keefe
He asserts that many of the arguments
in favor of the distribution of aliens other
than to plant them on the land are fasla-
ciouS. He says that organizations strug-
Cling to solve the problem of putting the
alien where he Is needed vary from those
moved by purely business impulses to
those which are. "or pretend to be. pa
triotic or phiIant ..ropc In their purposes.
They range he adds. from combinations
Of ticket agents. money lenders and labor
agencies to state and municipal organiza-
tons conducted bona iide and from high,
pure motives" He further adds. however,
that the latter "often incidentally produce
some of the same effects as the selfish
organizations.
In commenting on the problem he says
if 1t ever was feasible to devise a COM
plete. efficient plan for the general dis
tribution of aliens 1t probably ia now
too late to stem the tide which has set
toward certain localities. where alien
nucleus colonies have been established.
constituting new reasons why aliens are
drawn to them: even though certain
number of aliens may he distributed, they
will not remain where they placed un-
less the arrangement comedies with their
desires, and unless they are physically
and mentally adapted to their new sur
roundingS. as large percentage of those
who now insist herding in the cities
never will be. and that, viewed from a
na tOnal standpoint. distribution tends to
increase the difficulties of immigration
rather than to reduce them. He con-
cludes that distribution will tend to in.
crease immigration. and that this will. in
turn. tend to drive down the wages of
American Workingmen.
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