Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-06-09
Foreign Radicalism's Menace

[From the Kansas City Times]
Ever since the revelations, fur
nished by the Seattle strike, of the
obnoxious activities of undesirable
foreigners in this country the Gov
ernment has been to considerable
trouble rounding up and deporting
these elements of our population.
Now we are being treated to another
manifestation of radicalism of dis
tinctly foreign form. that of bomb
throwing. never indigenous to this
soil, and the Government must
again go on the hunt to root out
the perpetrators, and again thin
down by deportation or other process
of disposal the accumulations with
which our immigration laws cumber
our population.
1t seems apparent, after a pretty
thorough trial of this process, that
we are beginning to do our unwind
ing at the wrong end of the skein.
We allow these undesirables to come
in, bringing with them their Euro
pean luggage of anarchism, class
prejudice and ignorance-unlearne
in our language or institutions-and
to coloniZe in our cities by nation
ality. trade or community of ideas
They are gregarious. They do not
mingle except with their own kind
They absorb nothing of America
have no conception of it's govern
ment or institutions as being in any
way different from those they left
Mt home and against which their early
prejudices were formed, and con-
tinue here the agitation and inter-
change of violent ideas that were
their weapons against oppression in
| their native lands. Naturally they
are the violent element in every dis
turbance. In every industrial strike
they see a social revolution. Murder
riot and destruction of property are
the only weapons they know the use
of and anarchy their sole political
| idea.
If America is to be preserved from
the bombing, sabotage and class war
fare that constitute the program OF
these European offscourings it will
not be by t.lated hunting down and
deporting of them after their crimes
have been committed. 1t must be
Gy the rigid exclusion of them from
our shores. Our immigration laws
must be revised and strengthened
against the menace. They should
set up standards by which it would
be possible to know whether an i'm
migrant who applies for admission
has the qualities to make an Ameri-
can or whether he comes as an
enemy of democracy's institutions
1t is encouraging to know that
American labor recognizes the ne
cessity of putting up the bars in
this way. While Secretary Morrison
of the American Federation was CIV
ing out n statement in Washington
demanding immigration restrictions
the Brotherhood of Boiler Makers anG
| Iron Shipbuilders of America in
Kansas City was sending out a let
ter to the 175,000 members in the
! United States and Canada warning
them against the I. w. w. effort tc
combine trades unions into a single
superunion for revolutionary pur.
poses. This, too, is a plan of Euro
pean origin, reflection of the in.
ternationalism which unrestricted
immigration has brought here to re.
peat, If possible, the history of its
| blighting march abroad.
| These evidences of a transplanted
radicalism in America and of its
origin and purpose are before Con-
gress and the country and call for
action.