The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1914-09-16
NEEDS PROTECTION
WAR WILL DRIVE MANY REFC-
GEES TO AMERICA.
MUST sIFT IMMIGRATION

0EA D aWAW2UNN aUls
The High Water Mark of Those Who
Rush to Our Shores Is Likely to Be
Broken After the Cessation of War
fare in Europe.-This Country Apt
To Become Home of Cndesirables.
Had President Wilson signed the
bill passed by Congress
during his administration, instead of
yetoing it and causing it's ultimate de-
feat by a small margin in the House
of Representatives, the United States
would be in much less uneasy posi-
tion with regard to the multitudes of
immigrants who will be knocking at
our doors after the European war is
ended.
We have had some record-break-
ing immigration during the past few
years, but these records, says K. Fos-
ter Murray, in the News and Courier,
will be small compared with the mil
lions who will rush across the ocean
to our land of peace the moment the
greatest clash of arms in history has
come to its conclusion. There will
be hordes Of pauperized and famished
unfortunates in every nation in the
war zone who will look to America
as a haven from the turmoil and hor-
rors of European imperialism.
Surely we should take measures to
protect ourselves against this inun-
dation.- It is as certain to engulf US
as the sun of tomorrow is to rise, un-
less the dykes of legislation are rails
ed against it while there is yet time.
Fortunately there is time; but there
is none to lose. The immigration bill
which has passed the House of Re
presentatives at the present session
and has been hung up in the Senate
for months, largely because of politi-
cal timidity on the eve Of Congress
ional election, ought to be called up
from its resting place and passed by
the Senate also. Under existing con-
ditions the President would think a
long while before repeating the per
formances of Cleveland and Taft and
vetoing measure.
The bill which would doubtless bs
passed by the Senate if it could be
brought to a vote would not by any
means. stop immigration. It would
merely sift it. It chief feature is the
literarcy test. There has been great
argument over this criterion of immi'
grafton, but the consensus Of Con
gressional opinion is that of all the
methods offered it is on the whole the
most effective and the least objection
able.
The point is not that literacy in it
self is necessarily the best of the de
STABILITY, of any individual immi
grant. Nobody with any breadth o.
mind contends that the ability to reat
and write constitutes the proof o.
good morals and sound intellect. The
simple fact is that the figures of oul
Immigration show that the sections O.
Europe from which our lease desir
able immigration comes are the sec
tions in which the percentage of illit
erarcy is lowest, while the section:
from which our most desirable innmi
grafton comes arethe sections where
the percentage Of iIliteracy is small
est. The proper test of fy-screen
as Senator E. D. Smith, -(chairman O
! the immigration committee,) has sait
| IS whether or not it keeps out the
flies.
II we manage wisely by passing
judicious restrictive legislation now
while the war is going on, we shal
find ourselves in position automati
cally to receive highly desirable in
crease of population. After the dec
laration Of peace and the conseQuen'
changes on the map of Europe hun
dreds of thousands, if not millions O.
the best and most substantial citizen:
Of the unhappy countries which have
been ravaged by military frenzy, vii
be anxious to bring their families ane
resources to country where the!
| will be removed from this menace
millions of the sturdy European class
es who have only little propert!
and only a little education, but who
have made a comfortable livlihood a:
long as there was peace, will also
wish to become Americans, and We
should be glad to receive them with
| in a reasonable limitation of mum
bers.
The absolute riff-raff, however, the
paupers and the primitive, we canno'
afford to admit We have "gone the
limit" in this business, and further
indulgence would be suicidal.
Wholesale and indiscriminate ad
mission of immigrant legions from
Europe is dangerous not only because
of the differences between these peo
pies and ourselves, but also because
| of their differences from and with
each other.
Already since this war began there
have been riots in several of our big
cities on account of arguments be
tween men of one European national
ity and men of other European ma
tionalities over the merits OF the
struggle across the seas. Our Ameri'
can police have had to quell these
disturbances, in some instances with
great difficulty.
Cleveland. Ohio, where there is a
very large foreign population, has
this sort between different elements
of her European guests. 1t stands
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