Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1915-01-24
Plenty of Room in South.


The south can take care of 25o,00o.o0O
of immigrants and do so without crowd
ing out a single negro from the cotton
fields or tobacco plantations.
In other words If 1mmigrat ton Commits
sioner Williams should continue to re-
ceive 1000. 600 immigrants annually at
New York. and half of these. that is,
100000. could be persuaded to go into the
s. nth. Ellis Island would be kept busy
Tor the next century or two hlling up
Dixie. and even then John Temple Graves
and the rest Of the native population
would have abundance of elbow room,
1t must he remembered in this con-
nectiun that the ! 900 900 or more immi-
grants that come to us year by year. all
do net remain. A vast number OF them
return home. Last year. for instance.
there we're 1.2ls.4S0 arrivals. but the de-
partures, including enigrant and nom
immigrant aliens. were no less than 623.-
sos. or about so per cent. This other
side of the ledger is seldom mentioned.
Its gnificance is nevertheless apparent.
This country needs every immigrant
that may come to 1t. Before twenty
five years We shall be seeking immi-
grafton as strenuously az some of our
western states are seeking 1t today.
The sources of supply are drying up.
France sends us very few, practically
none: England Scotland and Wales
send fewer every year, and with home
try can no longer be counted upon to
furnish the immense supply as in the
past. The Germans are seeking new
fields in South America, where the pop
ulation is still less than one-fourth OF
North America, although the area is
only one-eighth less and the soil seem
ingly boundless in its fertility. The
Italians also are going elsewhere. and
it is only a question of time when the
Slavonic immigration will be turned
n Siberia
undeveloped regions on the face of the
earth. Russia is bound to have de-
cent representative government some
day. and when it does there will be an
end of immigration to the United
States The reopening of the vast Eu-
pirates territory by railroads. through
Mesopc tamia and the old empires of
Nineveh and Babylon. is going to draw
Europe. Poles, Hungarians and the
Balkan peoples will he drawn to those
regions and to Asiatic lands that have
long been dead to progress and pros
perity"
You object to the bill entirely.
them"
Against Drastic Legislation.
Yes, ] am against all drastic legis-
lation on this subject. 1t represents
the nation in Mysteries. 1t is pro-
vincialis,n gone mad No more unwise
legislation could be suggested for the
statute books Such perversions OF
economic truth as 1t indicates would
be farcical were it not like militar-
ism. so serious, so tragic in Its posi-
bilities."
What about the literacy test?''
That is one of the most amazing
features of this whole amazing Dill.
Think of it. nation that brags about
its schools and colleges and wonder
full educational facilities. but which,
according to the authorities. allows
3.O00, 900 or 100000 of is children,
white and black. to grow up In Grass.
criminal ignorance, with no knowledge
of the little red schoolhouse on the
hill, without access to the most rudi-
mentary forms of education-such
nation. I say, to talk about applying
educational tests to anybody Is enough
to make a Patagonian blush or brass
monkey duck its head for shame.
But then we are spasmodfc peo-
pie We must have a popular craze
OF some kind at irregularly recurring
intervals, whether it be Pleasonton's
blue grass theory. Hobson's Japanese
invasion or this wild immigration bill.
As Dickens makes one of his immortal
characters to remark, We are young.
sir, very young, only in the callow
youth Of our national existence, but
we will beat our music out all right
vet, in spite of all the little temporary
alterations Of a splendid congressional
brain"