Askov American. [volume] (Askov, Pine County, Minn.) 1914-current, 1932-09-01
Crime and the
Foreign Born
BY EINAR HOIDALE

| Dy I1Olbf1LE
Primitive man in his savage state
boosted and was proud of his GRIM
inal pursuits. Indians exhibited the
scalps of their victims with consider
able satisfaction. Even in modern
times the frontiersman cut notches on
his gun to witness the number of VIC
Tins that had fallen under his deadly
fire.
But civilized man, dwelling with
his family and engaged in lawful &C
Invites has assumed a different at
titude toward crime. He was jealous
of his reputation as a law abiding
citizen and naturally sought to de-
fend himself and his family against
all accusers. The clan, the county,
the state and the nation all resented
and objected to being considered as
having criminal proclivities. They
did not want to be known as less
law abiding than their neighbors or
other peoples. If it SHOULD happen
that the records showed that any
particular family, county or country
had fallen down in the scale, it was
find excuses and plausible explana-
tions for the seeming delinquency.
In America we have often been &C.
cused of committing more crimes, pop
ulation considered, than other coun-
tries with which we could be fairly
compared. The explanation and ex-
cuse which has most commonly been
given for this condition is that our
rather high percentage of criminal
offenses have been due to our large
foreign population.
1t is interesting to study and con-
slider the facts and history bearing
upon this oft repeated statement.
This should be done, not only in the
interest of truth, but in justice to
those who have too long been wrongly
accused.
How Crime Increased.
The early days of the Colonial per-
iod were quite free from crime for
reasons easily understood, but as time
sped on, human nature asserted it.
self and the average amount of evil
tendencies appeared. Later, and soon
after our present government was
formed, there appeared to be a con-
siderable increase in criminal ten
} denotes. Much of this was due to
the fact that this land of the free
was open to all countries. Black
sheep of good families were sent over
here. Exiles and fugitives from JUS
tice sought our shores as a place of
refuge. Convicts were, in Colonial
days, transported to America by the
English government.
In 1740 the state of Delaware
passed law reciting that vessels
from England did frequently import
divers persons convicted of heinous
crimes who soon after their coming
into this Government do often commit
many felonies, robberies, thefts, and
burglaries to the great hurt of His
Majesty's subjects trading to and in
habiting the same" and to curb such
importation this statute imposed a
heavy duty upon convicted immi-
grants.
But this practice was not limited
} to England and early in the nine
teenth century there was much COM
plant on account of the practice of
some foreign countries in banishing
to America criminals that they
wanted to get rid Of
This situation resulted in the for
nation of the Native American Party
and the so-called Know Nothing group
both very much biased against for
eigners and opposed to immigration
Industrious Immigrants.
But, Notwithstanding the protests
made, peoples from all lands con-
tinued to pour in at Castle Garden
and it was generally understood that
the rank and file of the immigrants
that came here to settle upon the
constantly receding frontier were in
dustrious, honest, and law abiding.
The government never had any prob
lem in suppressing unlawful activ-
tiles among these people.
In 1882 Congress passed law pro-
viding for the return of convicts upon
their arrival. This was followed by
a Congressional investigation in 1888
into the importation Of various I'M
desirable classes, including convicts.
The report of this investigation was
to the effect that taking the United
States as whole, the whites of for
eign birth are trifle less criminal
than the total number of whites of
native BIRTH"
Speaking of criminal tendencies the
report goes on to say that 1.-THE i'm
migrants from Sweden, Norway, and
Denmark appear to be especially de-
sirable from this standpoint .
The Russians, Poles, and Germans
stand almost on par with one an
other. having a comparatively low
proportion of criminals, while, as be-