THE EXAMPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.
Twenty years ago it was a common calculation in the United States that
every new immigrant was worth a thousand dollars to the particular
State in which he settled. A farm might be had for practically nothing
by anybody who chose to apply for it. In those comparatively early
days, what are now flourishing States west of the Mississippi, were
then, in parts, wild unpeopled wildernesses, and the country could not
afford to be very discriminative as to either the character or the
means of particular immigrants. Thus for many years America was the
camping-ground of the social refuse of Europe. Irish paupers driven
forth by famine and political misrule went West in tens of thousands,
to become, many of them, prosperous farmers and worthy citizens of
their adopted country. But there came also, in almost countless hordes,
immigrants of a far less desirable, and, as the sequel has proved,
dangerous kind: Fenians and apostles of dynamite from Ireland; secret
societies from Italy, whose gospel was murder and brigandage; Nihilists
from Russia, and Socialists from Germany, driven forth almost at the
point of the bayonet by their own Governments; Russian and Polish Jews,
fleeing in terror before the fanatical persecution of the Czar. All
this heterogeneous mass of inflammable human material has at length
become a standing menace to the United States, endangering her friendly
relations with foreign countries, as well as the freedom her own
people enjoy under their present form of government. Of course there
were compensating advantages, but the evil of unrestricted immigration
has of late years reached such an extent that the old sturdy race,
the descendants of the English Puritans, who made the great Republic
of the West, have been in danger of being gradually swallowed up by
foreign-born populations.
In a certain sense it may be said that the history of immigration into
the United States has been synonymous with the history of the nation
itself; but it is evident to all unprejudiced minds, that the motives
which induced those early immigrants, the Pilgrim Fathers, to leave
their native land and settle in the New World, were very different
from the motives which actuate the greater numbers of those who are
pouring into the United States at the present day. In fact, the
time from the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers down to the year which
witnessed the inauguration of the first President of the United States,
may not unfitly be regarded not as the period of immigration, but of
colonization. Since then the rapid growth of the population--though of
course largely due to natural causes--has been greatly accelerated by
immigration.
Immigration into the United States appears to come in tidal waves.
It has its flood and its ebb; but each decade, with the exception
of the war period, shows that the new flood is higher than its
predecessor. The magnitude of this influx of alien immigrants is best
shown by the Annual Reports which have been issued by the late Board
of Commissioners of Emigration of the State of New York. Without
troubling my readers with unnecessary statistics, I may say briefly
from calculations which have been made, the total number of immigrant
aliens who arrived at the port of New York from the 5th May, 1847,
until the 31st December, 1890 inclusive, was 10,050,936. It should be
noted that at least two-thirds of the whole number of alien immigrants
who come to the United States from other countries, arrive at the port
of New York.
This large influx has arisen from a variety of causes. One of the
most potent undoubtedly has been steamship solicitation. A regular
"brokerage" business has gradually been established. Some of the
steamship companies have as many as two thousand agents in Europe, and
their sub-agents and solicitors are to be found in every district on
the Continent. These sub-agents receive liberal commissions, varying
from fifty cents to two dollars for each immigrant passenger obtained.
This naturally leads, not only to their selling the tickets which are
required, but also to their endeavouring to create a fresh demand by
solicitation and inducement. These agents picture in the most glowing
terms to the poor peasants of Europe the future which awaits them in
the New World. On the strength of the false representations made to
them, the peasants are often induced to sell out their little homes,
and to spend a life's savings in the purchase of a through passage
to America. Oftentimes they will even borrow money for the passage
at a ruinous rate, and the agents will advance the tickets, taking a
mortgage of whatever property is of value for payment. In some cases
the money is refunded, but in most cases the agent becomes the owner
of the property by foreclosure; and the poor peasants in a few months
find themselves and their families in a strange land, without money,
friends, or employment. Upon arrival, they are taken in charge by a
"labour boss," who herds them together in a tenement house, and hires
them out at wages he dictates, and which he shares with his victims.
Abundant evidence was given before the Select Committee of the House
of Representatives, recently appointed to inquire into immigration,
as to the truth of these statements. For instance, it appeared that
one combination in Galicia induced 12,406 emigrants to emigrate to the
United States within the period of fourteen months.
Another and more indirect cause is the fierce competition which rages
among the steamship lines and the different railroads. In 1888 a war
of rates broke out among them, so that in that year an emigrant could
travel from Liverpool to Chicago for ten dollars, or about two guineas
in English money. This low rate offered exceptional facilities to
foreign governments, poor-law guardians, and charitable institutions,
to rid themselves of the burden of persons unable to support themselves
and their families, by simply purchasing for them tickets, and shipping
them off to America. The chief offender in this respect appears to have
been the British Government; and the Poor Law Guardians in Ireland,
who by the Land Act of 1881 were advanced money to assist emigration,
especially from the poorer and more thickly populated districts
of Ireland. Various charitable societies in Europe and the United
Kingdom were no less active. The so-called "Tuke Committee" assisted
over 8000 persons to emigrate from Ireland in three years, 1882-85.
The Prisoners' Aid Society also assisted convicts to emigrate, while
the Central Emigration Society and the Jewish Board of Guardians
established in London, have both been active in sending their paupers,
and the least desirable portion of the population, to America.
Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, and Germany also help to swell this alien
invasion--Germany more especially with regard to that most undesirable
class of emigrants, liberated criminals and discharged convicts. There
exists, for instance, in Munich, a society with several branches,
especially formed for the purpose of enabling discharged convicts
to begin life over again in some far-off land, and the land almost
invariably selected is the United States.
Another method of evading the Contract Labour Law, and of drawing
large numbers of immigrants to the United States, is the systematic
advertising for labourers by employment agencies through the British
and European newspapers. From evidence which came before the Select
Committee investigating at Boston, it appeared that the Freestone
Cutters' Association of New England had advertised in the English and
Scotch papers for journeymen, agreeing to pay fifty cents per hour for
work. The applicants were directed to call upon the agents signing the
advertisement in London. These agents made no contract with the men,
and so evaded the letter of the Contract Labour Law; but they came to
New England on the representation that employment should be found. As
the freestone cutters in England only get tenpence an hour, or about
twenty cents in American money, the prospect of largely increased wages
naturally induced many of them to go over to America. This is only one
instance out of many; and to quote the Immigration Committee's Report,
"Where good wages are paid, advertisement abroad has become of common
occurrence; the workmen here are thereby brought to terms, or the
market becomes overflooded with labourers, and wages are reduced." In
connection with this must also be considered the immigration coming
into the United States over the Canadian border. During the last six
months of 1890, it is estimated that over 50,000 European immigrants
landed in Canada, and reached the United States, coming by this
circuitous route to avoid inspection. There is also another point to be
noted, viz. that large numbers of Canadians come into the United States
for work, wages being 40 per cent. higher in the United States than in
the Canadian provinces. Several hundreds of these people cross over the
border from Windsor to Detroit every morning, and find employment in
the stores, seed-houses, and so forth, and return to their homes every
evening.
So much for the causes which have led to this wholesale invasion. We
will now consider its undesirable results. The effect of immigration
upon American labour is especially marked. As was shown by the Report
of the Ford investigation of 1888, the pauper and lower classes of
Europe have crowded into the American factories to such an extent, that
in many of the large industries, notably the cigar trade, tailoring
trade, and the shirt manufacturing trade, what was fifteen years ago
90 per cent. American and 10 foreign, is now 90 per cent. foreign and
10 per cent. American. Frequently upon differences arising between
employers and employed as to the price of wages, foreigners were
imported to take the place of American workmen, and the wages were
consequently reduced. In fact, the tendency of foreign immigration is
constantly to lower the standard of wages which the American labourer
has hitherto enjoyed. The only persons opposed to restricting it are
the great manufacturers and contractors, whose interest is obviously
to keep the price of labour at its lowest level.
Another danger of indiscriminate immigration is plainly shown in the
riots which have taken place in New York and other places during the
last twenty-five years. In 1863, in the city of New York, when the
famous draft riots took place, no American dared to display the flag
of his country without running the risk of having his house burned and
destroyed. Recent outbreaks of Nihilists, Anarchists, and Socialists,
in the city of Chicago, and the still more recent lynchings at New
Orleans, are further illustrations of my meaning. This political danger
is deepened by the short period of time in which immigrants may become
eligible for citizenship, and thus invested with political power. In
several States the immigrant is admitted to citizenship after only one
year's residence, and while he is still to a great extent ignorant
of the laws, language, and customs. The right of citizenship thus
conferred is very liable to be abused. American politicians, like
other politicians, are very prone to yield to their prejudices without
sufficiently regarding the interests of the people at large. The German
vote in many localities controls the action of political leaders on the
liquor question. The Irish vote favours, and largely influences, the
policy of antagonism to Great Britain.
The social effects of this increasing immigration are also very
strongly marked. There is an abnormal representation of the foreign
poor in the workhouses and penitentiaries of the United States; and
there can be little doubt that the effect of deporting to America the
destitute, the worthless, and the criminal, has largely added to the
burden there of pauperism, vice, and crime.
How keenly alive American statesmen are to the evils which result from
unrestricted immigration, is shown by a perusal of the Acts which have
been passed upon the subject. The Acts, other than those regulating
the immigration of Chinese labourers, are three in number, viz.:--The
Act to regulate immigration approved by Congress in 1882, the Contract
Labour Law of 1885, and the recent Act to amend all previous laws,
which was approved by Congress on the 3rd of March of this year, and
which came into force on the 1st of April last.[29] I do not propose
to dwell upon the provisions of those Acts in detail; they are given
in full elsewhere;[30] but section 1 of the new Act, which specifies
the class of aliens henceforth to be excluded from the United States,
deserves to be quoted in full:--"All idiots, insane persons; paupers,
or persons likely to become a public charge; persons suffering from
a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease; persons who have been
convicted of felony or other infamous crime or misdemeanour involving
moral turpitude, polygamists, and also any persons whose ticket or
passage is paid for with the money of another, or who is assisted
by others to come." The right of asylum to political and religious
refugees is maintained intact by the insertion of a special proviso.
The working of the Act is very simple. The immigrants are stopped at
the port of arrival and inspected, and the steamship companies are
compelled to take back at their own expense all those who are refused
admission; and heavy penalties of fine and imprisonment are dealt
out to those who attempt to break or to evade the law. This course
of action, though it may seem to press hardly in individual cases,
has been found to have an excellent deterrent effect, for as soon as
steamship companies know that they bring over such passengers at their
own risk, they refuse to bring them at all, and the evil to a great
extent is nipped in the bud.
Now, if such measures of self-defence have become thus early in her
history imperative with a young country like America, with a habitable
area of _more than 3,000,000 square miles_, and a population of not
more than 65,000,000, what are we to think of an old country like
England, with an area of _a little over 32,000,000 acres_, and a
population, according to the census of 1881, of near 25,000,000
souls--and probably of over 30,000,000 now--compelled to spend annually
some £7,000,000 on the relief or support of her own three-quarters
of a million of paupers--leaving her ports, more especially the port
of London, free for the entrance of a huge foreign and degraded
population, from every country in Europe, which statistics demonstrate
to be largely on the increase?
It is impossible for Englishmen not to feel a certain amount of envy at
the energy and firmness which the American Government has displayed in
excluding undesirable aliens. If such action be good, where the vast
territories of the United States are in question, what must be thought
of the _laissez-faire_ policy which allows our little British Islands
to be overrun by the class of foreigner which America so rigorously
excludes?