AMERICA AS A FIELD FOR EMIGRATION.

Evening Star, Issue 7298, 24 August 1887, Page 1

AMERICA AS A FIELD FOR EMIGRATION.

The United States, hitherto the emigrants’ home, to which the surplus populations of Europe wended their way, and into which Ireland poured her tens of thousands of poor, and England had begun to send her paupers, has in self defence adopted measures for checking indiscriminate immigration. The rapid increase in population of the United States—the result of unchecked immigration—has been without doubt the cause of the extraordinary advance in wealth, which is without parallel in the world’s history. Every able-bodied man was a producer, and the necessity for administering to bis and his family’s necessities gave constant wosk\ to artisans I and agriculturists. There drawbacks to this prosperity, it is true, for with the able-bodied were mixed loafers and ne’er-do-wells, political agitators, swindlers, and occasionally criminals. Yet these bore but a fractional proportion to the whole; and the law was sufficiently powerful to deal with the dishonest whenever they began their naughty tricks in their new abode. Moreover, in those days the immigrants paid their own passages, or their relatives advanced the money, and the town and country soon absorbed them into the general mass of industrial life. Thus far, then, it was to mutual advantage that the surplus crowds of Europe should find a home in America. There is, however, a time in the history of colonisation when population has become so dense that additions to it cease to be profitable. Development has reached its profitable limits. Artisans and laborers compete for work, and each shipment of immigrants' finds on arrival greater difficulty in obtaining employment. In our sparsely-peopled land, a~ stream of immigration 1 would give employment, perhaps for yearl to come; but in America, where the cultivatable agricultural and mining limit is reached, and the manufacturing requirements of the cities aud towns overdone, for a time additional population leads to additional pauperism, and it becomes necessary to put every reasonable check upon it. This seems to be the position of affairs in the United States, which has led to the determination of the Government not to allow certain immigrants conveyed by the Inman Steamship Company to land, but that they shall be returned by the Company to Great Britain. On this subject a correspondence took place between the Secretary of State for the United States and the British Minister. The latter, under date April 25,. asked “Whether, under the existing laws, “Irish emigrants, sent out at the public “cost, who had friends in the United “States able to help to support them, “would be allowed to land. In reply Mr Bayard pointed out that the Act of Congress of August 3,1882, regulating emigration, ran thus:— That the officers charged with .supervising such emigration shall examine such condition of persons arriving in the United States. 1 ports; that if there be found any person unablfe to take care of himself or herself, without becoming a public charge, they shall report the same in writing to the collector of. such port, and such persons shall not be permitted to land. Mr Bayakd, the United States Secretary, drew particular attention to the specific investigation that the emigration officers were directed to make, and continued: — I am, however, constrained to notice that, aside from the enforcement of the Act of 1882, your inquiry suggested another question, which has heretofore been discussed between the Government of the United States and that of Great Britain, and upon which the views of this Government have been fully set forth. The economic and political conditions of the United States have always led the Government to favor immigration ; and all persons seeking a new field of effort, and coming here with a view to the improvement of their condition, by the free exercise of their faculties, have been cordially received. The same conditions have caused other kinds of immigration to be regarded as undesirable, and have led to the adoption by Congress of laws to prevent the coming of paupers, contract laborers, criminals,' and certain other enumerated classes. Such immigration the economic and political-conditions of the United States render' peculiarly unacceptable. In view of this policy this Government could not fail to look with disfavor and concern upon sending to this country, by foreign governmental agencies, at the public cost, of persons not only unlikely to develop qualities of thrift and selfsupport, but sent here because it is assumed that they have friends in this country likely to help to support them. The mere fact of poverty has never been regarded as an objection to an immigrant. A large part of those who have come to our chores have been persons who relic d for support solely upon the exercise of thrift and manual industry. And to such persons it may be said the development of the country has in a large degree been due. In a subsequent paragraph the Secretary remarked that “ Their exportation hither, “ by a foreign Government, in order to get “ rid of the harden of their support, could “scarcely be regarded as a friendly act, or “ as in harmony with the existing laws.” TKe British Ministry informed Mr Bayakd that the British Government had intimated that the intending emigrants were not paupers, but crofters, whose passages were only partly paid from public funds, and desired to know whether this affected in any way the tenor of the Secretary’s previous statement. The reply was that for the reasons stated the Department was unable “to give any assurance that any partioalar “ class of immigrants wall be permitted to “land.” It is added to the letter from which we quote, under date Philadelphia, June 11, that “The New York Immigration “ Board under a new rule are now requiring “ all children nnder sixteen years old “ arriving here [there] to have guardians.” It cannot be gainsaid that the immigration arrangements which the United States is now enforcing are warranted by the possible action of the societies formed at Home for promoting emigration. There can be no doubt that the cheapness of the passage across the Atlantic from the overpoptilated states of Europe to America has prevented an influx of very undesirable immigrants into Australasia, aud now that American ports are closed to them, it is possible some attempt will be made to send thf m hither. Our overweening compassion led us to invite the crofters; and it is very probably fortunate that the invitation was not accepted. But whether they are or are not eligible immigrants, great care isjnecessary that we are not burdened with the refuse of the Old Country, for, however benevolent the designs of the societies for promoting emigration may be, their efforts are more likely to do harm than good.