UNWANTED IMMIGRANTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18468, 3 August 1923, Page 9

UNWANTED IMMIGRANTS

U.S. DOORS CLOSED AGAIN.

AUGUST QUOTAS FILLED.

A.' and N.Z \ NEW YORK. Aug. 1. There is the keenest competition among steamers to land immigrants before the August quotas are filled. . Eight steamers from various European i ports were docked within a few ; minutes. '; .^'-"r ■'■.: Thousands :of immigrants have been compelled to remain aboard, sFiips in the harbour for a fortnight - awaiting the decision of the immigration authorities. Already the new arrivals i have exhausted the European quotas for August. Thousands will be turned back: after .spending their.savings. : ; , < -;

AMERICA GROWS OLD.

CONGESTION AND UNEMPLOYMENT

An interesting survey of the. United States'immigration problem was recently made to Dr.- Nicholas Butler,; President 3 Columbia University, in a speech at E f SnWßritish impression which •was quite contrary to present ■ fact,, he said, was that. the American people were a branch of the British .and were predominantly :< or exclusively Anglo. Saxon. While that was true for a long time it had not been true for many years,. The ancestors of- the American . people were Anglo-Saxon ••? the foundations of ' their law were British their language was English; but dunng the last. 40 or 50 years there had come a i change oyer the constituents < at the population wnicU had greatly affected public policy in many ways. .*..'■' ~, ■ ' •.-■■„ •■ ._• ' ; In-1880 the centre o? European emigration to America was about the city • of I Antwerp.- That meant; that when Ant- ! werp was the centre there were as many emigrants leaving. Europe for. America from Ireland, England, Scotland, Holland, Scandinavia, and North Germany as. from the rest of Europe combined. These were people who had shared alltho problems of local self-government. V; They had an instinctive participation in what we called public opinion. They were easily adapted' American citizenship. )' Emigration Centra Shifts, *~, -In 1910 the centre; had Amoved to a r>oint considerably ; south-east of Buda Pest More emigrants were coming from Poland, Russia, the Balkan ; States,* and Southern Italy than from all Central and Western Europe combined.. They came, in immense numbers, 700,000 in a year, j and even in one or two years I,OOO,UIXX They were excellent people, full of ambition and hope, but they were primarily trying hot ito better ! their fortunes, but to escape impossible political conditions. They- were largely people without £ participation in local self-government.' They had been tyrannised over for years, either by a monarch, or by a local tyrant, or some political ( organisation. v/ They had shown a tendency, which the early settlers did not show, to coagulate, 60 to speak, in : ;knots or groups ,in the ; great, j cities, or they had gone into certain sec- j tions of the . State. When they . went into those groups and threw about themselves the, protective { covering of, racial or -national -;■• character, they became very. difficult to assimilate. - '"y '•'-' .They tended to be people who looked on'the Government either as the common enemy or as .the' source of all ; blessings. One immediate result of that complexity : was to .-make? exceedingly 'difficult the foreign policy of the United States.tj Account had 3to be taken of the large ele- j ment in the population which .immediately ■ reflected the bones or .grievances of their compatriots in Europe. j{ ; ; ' • '{. ~:: Kealih, ! -; Housing and Education. {;;

The second .influence which had been dominant was ; the ; economic - question. The United States; had had the advantage for 150 years of living on its capital without feeling impoverished. \f Its natural resources were so great that the, ordinary, conservations and ; economies \of the . older

civilisations ; ; were , taken no account of. •It had not occurred to men that ft was important to see to it i that., when a tree came down, , something -was i done to make another tree one of ; these days come up. If &c watercourse was.diverted for power, it was not thought necessary to take tiny steps to provide a substitute. This had come to an. end. ;< The -question of the conservation jof i the nation's : resources % was not only ' a present but a pressing question. ',- ' , . '■' -' ~-,

The Government had not another acre of • land to be >i set aside for settlement, except land of poor quality, or "■land requiring irrigation. ?If new lands were to be settled they;:' must :be ; reclaimed or drained or artificially sated. That was a. major problem, and; with that had come with very acute force the problem which, ever since the industrial revolution, had been presenting -, itself - : to : the -older 1 countries problem of ; congestion and unemployment. Thisv made ■ more ~''• acute every :■;';* day the ;.C three -•■;greati; fundamental problems :in modern , civilisation—health, housing, and education. Theseproblems, which '• ;at one time seemed simple, i were now, difficult 1 : and .-.; compli-' cated. ;; They ; fcquld • no. longer ; 'be ■'■> solved ; i by an appropriation of money, alone, but,: required acrreat deal "of , scientific know- ; ledcre, administrative skill, and organising capacity. The United States, in the last few years, had; "grown old." It had coma to the I vstaee';.of: the older and more thickly-settled countries of Europe.