Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1922-11-08
IMMIGRATION AND LABOR.

EHNlW nat is knOWH dS lIC Tx pei NhS PAoVSA
in our immigration law has been extended tor two
wears, not because anyone believes that we have
reached quite the right basis on which to handle
this problem, but because the three per cent plan
is regarded as the most feasible plan which presents
itself at this time. The provision is that imnlgra-
ton from any country shall be restricted annually
to three per cent of the number of persons now IN
the United States who have come from that coun-
try. In addition to the percentage limitation there
are other provisions relating to the acceptabllity OF
the individual on the score of character, health, ca
pacity for self-support, and so forth.
In the early days of our national existence most
OF our immigrants came from the countries of west
ern Europe, many of them speaking the language
used BY our native population, and practically all
of them of the same great racial stuck. These I'M
migrants distributed themselves generally through
out the country, entered into its miscellaneous ac7
stock. One or two generations usually suftlced to
merge them with the general population.
Recently the bulk of our immigration has been
from southern and southeastern Europe, and the
tendency Of these people has been to settle IN COM
pact groups, usually in the large cities, where they
were impervious to the ordinary processes OF Amer
icanization. There are sections of Chicago and
York which are as foreign to the United States
as is Constantinople and which will remain foreign
through several generations. The simple fact is
that we have been swallowing immigrants faster
than we can digest them, and If the process is con-
I10uSQ there Will OC SCIlOuS CSuAlS --- .al.
The present immigration regulations Were
framed to check this flooding of particular localities
with streams of immigration which cannot be asslm-
Hated. Whatever the method employed, that end
must be kept in sight. "
War is being made on those regulations, pres
sure will continue to be brought to bear on congress
to cause the "liberalizing" of the regulations so that
we may return substantially to the conditions which
we have tried to abandon. One plea advanced in
favor of practically unrestricted immigration is that
we need the manual labor. of the millions who are
clamoring for admission. If we exclude these peo-
pie, who, it is asked, will dig the bitches and carry
the hods, and perform all the other laborious man
ual work which modern American youth scorns, but
which, must be done if the country is to make prog
Tess. x
There may be various answers to that question,
but whatever the correct answer may be, it does not
lie in the assumption that the American people need
to have anN work performed which it 10 a degrade
tion for them to perform for themselves, and that in
order to get this work done we must either breed
or import a special class of hewers Of wood and
drawers of water, a lower order of humanity TT only
for the dirty and disagreeable tasks from which our
superior culture separates us. 1t such an assump-
ton were correct, the system of slavery was the
logical one, and it was a mistake to abandon it.
There is no work which is urgently needed on
this continent which is beneath the dignity of in
telligent and self-respecting American citizenship
and it will pay us better to let some of that work
wait, if necessary, rather than undertake the build,
ing up within the nation Of a separate class of labor
so foreign in culture and spirit that it will be con-
tent to perform the tasks which we are too thin
skinned to perform for ourselves.
The plea for unrestricted immigration on the
ground that we must have a flood of low-grade man
ual labor is one of the worst pleas that could be
made for it. Aa5