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About The American. (Omaha, Nebraska) 1891-1899 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 10, 1897)
THE .AMERICAN 'AM FU'CA FOR. A V ER1CANS" W bold that li men r Americans who Ser AllegU"' to the United SuU- without mental reaervatloo. TRICE FIVE CENTS A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER. OMAHA. NEBRASKA. FRIDAY PHPEM UKU 10. 1897. VoLCMK VII. DliatATION AND Prcscot F. Hall Points Out Where There Is a Cer tain Progression. if t 4 Ime rlcan Enter l N I'rolent Lof ait the Ureal Hulk of the reputation Came From England, Ormanj, France and Scandinavia. Under the foregoing title the North American Review for October contains a noteworthy article by Prescott F. Hall, secretary of the Immigration Re striction league. Mr. Hall's main con tention is for an educational test to bar out all immigrants who cannot read and" write their own language, and he fortifies his arguments with some interesting and significant facts. That the immigration laws at pre sent in force are not particularly efficacious must be admitted from the simDle fact that the persons debarred and returned under these laws are but a paltry fraction of 1 per cent of the total immigration. It is practically imnosslble to say whether or not a man will become a burden on the state within a year by looking at him or at his purse, and the result is that the Blums of our great cities are daily growing at an alarming rate from this source. The importance oi tne mat ter lies not only in the fact that our Blums are almost wholly sof foreign crowth. but also in the less wldelv realized fact that the slum elements come from the countries which have most markedly rncreased their immi gration in the last ten years. In other words, immigration as at present al lowed Is feeding the slums faster than It is filling vacant positions or lands. Immigration during the ten years from 1880 to 1890 amounted to 5.246. 613 souls, or over 35 per cent of the total immigration from 1820 to 1890. Previous to 1870 three-quarters of all immigrants came from . the races of northwestern Europe the United Kingdom, France. Germany, and Scandinavia. By 1880 these countries were sending us only three-fifths, and in 1896 only two-fifths, of the total im migration. On the other hand, south ern and eastern Europe Austria Hungary, Italy, Poland and Russia which in 1869 sent less than one hundredth of the total immigration, in 1896 sent us over one-half. A most profound change has taken place in the character of the foreign elements admitted to our society, and the Im migration question is much graver than It was a dozen years ago. On an average it Is found that the foreign element furnishes one and one half times as many criminals, two and one-third times as many insane per sons, and three times as many paupers as the native element. In Massa chusetts in 1895 the criminals of for eign birth outnumbered those of native birth ten to one iand Massachusetts does not get the worst class of im migrants by any means. From the prison reports of that state Mr. Hall deduces a certain progression in the number of criminals furnished by each of the nationalities. Germany gives 3.6 per thousand, Scandinavia 5.1, Russia, 7.9, Austria, 10.4, Hun gary 15.4, Poland 16.0 and Italy 18.2. The native born give 2.7 criminals to the thousand and the foreign born 5.4 or just tiwice as many. Turning now to the figures On illit erancy, one is startled to find a pro gression almost exactly parallel to the foregoing progression in criminality. In 1896 the percentage of illiteracy among the Scandinavians was less than 2, among Germans less than 3, English 5, Scotch 6, Irish 7, Greeks 26, Russians 41, Austro- Hungarians 45, Italians 55. In other words, the na tions that have so largely increased ' their immigration since 1880 are at once the most illiterate and the most undesirable. Moreover, they form the element that has neither the ability nor the ambition to till the ground or to do any skilled work the element that makes the slums. Those of foreign birth or parentage form 77 per cent of the total popula tion of the slum districts in Balti more, 90 per cent in Chicago, 95 per cent In New York, 91 per cent in Phil adelphia. What is worse, these for eign colonies are drawn from the illit erate nations. Southeastern Europe has furnished three times as many as northwestern Europe in Baltimore, nineteen times as many in New York, twenty times as many in Chicago, and seventy-one times as many in Phila delphia. In other words, the slums of mm.v w:- ctAv--: HMMili ill I SM h i v; fete pS?r S" ; s : our largest cities are a foreign product and the present Immigration laws are powerless tp prevent their rapid In crease. "Do you want this country to be peo pled by British, German, and Scandi navian stock, historically free, ener getic, progressive," asks Mr. Hall, "or by Slav, Latin and Asiatic races, his torically downtrodden, atavistic, and Btagnant?. .The facts are that over four-fifths of our recent immigrants are utterly unskilled in any employ ment, while of some races which have been increasing in Immigration of late, such as Italians, nearly nine tenths are laborers." Just here another important point if worthy of note. In proportion as this influx of unskilled foreign labor has increased the American have with drawn from the manual pursuits thus ; invaided, producing at times a large contingent of Americans who could not find congenial employment. The result has been that these men have not married, or, if they have married, they have refused to increase the size of their families until they had the means to raise their children above the lowest social class into which they were thrown. This Is one cause of the halving of the American birth rate. On the other hand, the birth rate of illit erate immigrants is not only uncheck ed, but their children remain almost as Illiterate as themselves. On the whole Mr. Hall makes a strong case to the effect that the illit erate are undesirable and that the un desirable are illiterate. It is not to be expected that a test of reading and writing would keep out educated criminals and anarchists. But, as the writer remarks, "we know how to deal with these gentlemen, as was Bhown at Chicago and Detroit." The danger to the state comes not so much from the few educated cranks as from the mass of ignorant material upon which they can work. "A reading and writing test will ex clude the dangerous and unassimll able elements by a certain and uniform method; it requires evidence of a ru dimentary education indispensable in a democracy, and it will exclude fewer desirable immigrants than any other test." Such is the summing up of Mr. Hall's argument. He holds with reason that the ability to read and write their own language is no exorbitant thing to demand of men who ask to join oui democracy. The statute of Liberty in New York harbor holds in one hand a torch and in the other a book, which may be interpreted as meaning not merely that immigrants shall be ed ucated to a higher degree after they get here, but that they must be able to read the fundamental law of the land by the light of Liberty's torch be fore they have a right to land. Chi cago Tribune. Who l he AgitHtnr Art. One strike just settled, involving the coal mining Industry, and up rUes an other proposition for a strike in Chi cago involving the street car sys tem! When that is disposed of. another eruption at some other point will fol low, and, to auote Robert M. La Fol lette in his Fair speeches, "every thinking man must have been Im pressed with the unsettled, restless condition of the public mind so mark ed for the last few years. The cry: of discontent has sounded In the land again and again now almost dying away, now swelling In volume until men who consider beyond self and the hour of asking: "Is there not some serious cause for it all?" Of course there Is "some serious cause for it all." To the close, candid and truthful observer, that "serious cause" is not far away, or so hidden that we may not discover It, if we only will. Who Is It that is about to lead the Chicago eruption but our old acquaint ance Mahone, the chief walking dele gate, distinguished in the Milwaukee strike of a year ago? Who was it that practically lead the strike just disposed of but the re nowned Debs, the grand steerer of the Micks, the Huns, the Slavs and the Dagos in their mission of misrule, an archy and revolution? Who are the men that are the trust ed co-workers of Debs, Mahone, Powd erly and the like, but the FlUgerald Hogans, the O'Keefs, the O'Rourks, the Archbalds, the O'HIckeys and the O'Malleys? Who Is it that is at work inciting and creating this unrest, creating dis turbances and collecting the mobs and rioters to march as armies in the land, but the same class of agitators? Who Is responsible for the vast in flux of the scum of Europe into the mining and industrial centers of this nation, to the detriment and, in many cases, the driving out of American la bor? Who is it that controls these hordes of the most ignorant, superstitious and vicious? Who is it that is inciting, ferment ing and stirring up strife and rebellion In our country? Who is it that has its trained bands and cohorts of armed, drilled and equipped "auxiliaries," counting up to hundreds of thousands, scattered through our cities, towns and villages and ready at a moment's notice to march out under the banner of the hierarchy? It Is easy enough to see who it is, but why is it that so many of our Protestant orators, leaders and teach ers ignore the "serious cause of it all" and seek to account for it all upon another and different basis? No one doubts but that combinations and trusts are an evil in the body pol itic! that corporations, by their agents and lobbyists, corrupt legislators, na tional, state and municipal in many Instances; that the concentration of the wealth of the country in the hands and control of the bunkers and money lenders, and that the possession of all political power in the hands of a few men, is contrary to the spirit of our institutions, but to say that these evils are sr,3e1y responsible for the con ditions existing at this time, and have caused the swinging of states first one way and then another, is clearly tin true. If the American people were let alone to pursue the even tenor of their j way, all these questions would be met i and solved without Btrikes, riots, mobB, lynchings or rebellion. Again, who Is the most responsible for the corruption and boodle In our legislatures, national, state and muni cipal, If it is not this same crowd and class? Look where you will and you will find them at the bottom of all such mischief, whether It Is in New York, Boston, Chicago, St. Louis or Milwaukee. Why should we not come out and talk plain and locate in the public mind this "serious cause" for all the rottenness and corruption in our body politic? . Why should we not lay bare this cancer that is responsible for this dangerous, festering and disturbing condition In our land? Are our public men afraid to cat' a spade a spade? Wisconsin Patriot Washington' Idea. WASHINGTON, Nov. 16. The oft agitated question of establishing in the city of Washington a great national university on the lines' suggested by President Washington has taken more definite form than in the past, and a number of representative American women have taken hold of the project with a determination to push it to a successful conclusion if possible. They have started out in a practical manner by seeking to raise the first of the $25, 000 necessary for the erection of an administration building to form the nucleus for the university, and hope to be able to lay the cornerstone on Feb uary 22, 1899. Their purpose in the interim is to urge the matter contin uously on the attention of women all over the world. They will assemble in convention in Washington on Decem ber 14 to devise ways and means for arousing public sentiment. Among those who have Initiated the move ment to fulfill Washington's wish are: Mrs. H. H. Hearst of this city. Mrs. Ellen A. Richardson of Boston. Mrs. Clara R. Anthony, Miss Rachel How land, Miss Louise Tincker. and Mrs. Edmund Anthony, jr., of Massachusetts, Mrs. I. S. Boyd of Georgia, Mrs. W. A. Roebling of New Jersey, Mrs. John K. Goodloe of Kentucky. Mrs. H. H. Ad ams of Connecticut, Mrf. S. B. Brice of Ohio, Miss Eucene Hale. Mrs. David Starr Jordan, Miss Charlotte Blake Brown, Mrs. F. S. Hubbard and Miss Caroline Jackson of California. Mrs. Ella A. Richardson of Boston, chief organizer of the movement, writ ing to George H. Harris of this city, of the plans thus fifr formed, says: "The patriotic women of America are to build the administration building, and. their propose to make the 22d of . February, 1898, the nation's first of- church remain without shadow of fering day. For this purpose they are . turning. A single passage will be asking no large contributions, begging j enough to satisfy the reader's curlos nothlng. America's 70,000,000 people ly. and the whole, would be unbear must build this great monument. If ah'- "The holocaust of all those in the 13,000,000 children in the public nocenta has been willed, Inposed by schools in America would give an of- God, to ransom the Incredulity and the ' fering of a penny each on Washing- j failings of the age, In 1870 the dl ton's birthday they would raise a sum vine God imposed upon France, that sufficient to erect the building and en- I t "-V. the oldest daughter or tne dow it. . Let us, then, join hands and hurh. an invasion of the Prussian have an American university, Aniert- Armies. Thnt chastisement not hav- can sciences and American ideas for InB arrested unbelief, God in his fury, American citizens." turned toward theso women, who Mrs. Richardson further stated that ' providence of the poor, and she had arranged with the proper decided that they should dio in the authorities that the Bureau of Engrav- atrocious sufferings." ing and Printing shall produce err- 1,('re 19 lne ol1 ma. of God's tiflcates which will be given to those dreadful cruelty and vlndictivenesS. who contribute to the movement. , 11 19 he who incites to war and the j burning to death of hundreds of de- Simplv a Hiirhwuv Huhln r. j voted women awakens no reproach In At a place not a thousand miles from the lethargized mind of the priest. Portage city, a young girl employed I"on Deins in a masterly lecture re in a Protestant family was sent a few ported In 1m Puix Universelle. critl weeks ago to the grocery and was en- elzed this horrible sermon, and was trusted with the money to make a pur- met with tremendous applause. One chase. On her return she reported tnat of his most condensed paragraphs is a reverned father had compelled her as follows: "If God be a punitive to give the money for the church, deity, and if it Is H e who sends Her employer not being a coward and scourges upon the earth, then Jesus, not having the usual cowardly fear of who enjoins us to forgive even our a boycott, took the girl and hunted enemies, must be better than God up the "fatherly" dead-beat and hired- himself. " girl bulldozer and compelled him to Leon Denis represents the advance return the money which he know was not the girl's when he took It. Their gall is wonderful. In this city the ghostly fathers do not hesitate to take the last fifty cents from poor washer women. Wisconsin Patriot. Whom the (iod Would Iestrov. "They whom the gods would destroy they first make mad!" How else can we explain the abominable doctrine proclaimed from the altar of the Ca thedral of Notre Dame, Paris, by the Holy Father Olllvler? We have been and are. constantly told that the Catholic Church has changed. That the Spirit of the Age has stirred her clotted blood, and she no longer Is the same that she was centuries ago. We are told that it is unjust to bring up the horrors of the inquisition and anathamas thund ered against the reformers of the past, because the present church has so far thrown off the old beliefs that it is ho longer the same. The American has cried aloud like a faithful sentinel from the watch-tower that this was mislead change, for its strength was In its in ing and false, for the holy church never changed and admitted of no fallibility and unchangeableness. The words of this priest, standing before a vast audience, refer to the fire at the charity fair, which left hundreds of the most self-sacrificing and benevolent persons, who were giving their labor to the suffering, white ashes or chaired cinders, ghostly In the sight of a horrified world. His discourse was most lilaHphemous, yet It proves thut the doctrines of the Holy". of the age. The priests, the church's unchangable doctrines, Identically the same that they were five centuries aro. And can It be for a moment doubted that they who believe In a God who would harm hundreds of the noblest women, engaged In the most elevated labor, would hesitate to fol low His example, and mercilessly crush those their bigotry held as His en emies? What folly, then, to think that be cause the Mother Church does not agitate the school question, that she has relinquished her claims. She has only retired to cover, and la pushing forward in another direction. Her stealthy hand is clutching the throat of the Republic. She demands freedom and liberty, that she may destroy every vestige of these and substitute her ac customed despotism, which is as merciless as her God. HUDSON TUTTLE. Have you noticed our Most Wonder ful Combination Offer for next year on subscription? Kdarat Tsar Rowelt With Can carets. Candy Cathartic, cure constipation forever. We, c IICOO V, riits refund money.