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EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION
A STUDY IN SOCIAL SCIENCE
RICHMOND MAYO-SMITH, A.M.
•• It
Profbssos qv Poutical Economy and Social Science in Columbia
COLLEGH, mfcniBftE DE L'iNaTlTOT INTERNATIONAL DK StATIS-
TiQUB, Vice-President of the American Statisti-
cal Association, Etc.
NEW YORIC
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1898
.•t»
Copyright, 1890,
By CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS.
Typography by J. S. Cushing & Co., Bostok.
Presswork by Berwick & Smith, Boston.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.tC
Introduction: T>ie Nature of the Question to be dis-
cussed AND OF THE PHENOMENA TO BE OBSERVED.
PAGB
•^ Social problems change from age to age i
The fundamental political questions have reached a solu-
tion I
While the economic and social-ethical are more prominent
than ever 2 ,
The purpose and end of social organization 3
From this standpoint we mi^st decide all social questions * . 3
The importance of immigration is in its effect on civilization, 4
* Characteristics of American civilization 5
Effect of immigration on our political institutions ... 6
On our social morality 7
^ On our economic well-beipg and social trait^ 8
Difficulties of social science 8
Immigration is a very complex phenomenon 9
Method of investigation in such a question as immigration . 10
V
vi Contents,
CHAPTER II.
The History of Emigration.
PACK
Early migrations were either for conquest or colonization . 12
Colonial expansion changed the whole aspect of the world . 13
Emigration differs from colonization and is a modern move-
ment . 15
The statistics of emigration are not very satisfactory . . 15
The history of the movement, especially from Great Britain
and Germany 17
Emigration from all European countries, 1887 and 1888 . 19
Effect of emigration on population 21 -
Comparison of emigration with the excess of births over
deaths 23
It is not a remedy for the evils of over-population ... 24
Why European governments look with disfavor on voluntary
emigration 27
Causes of emigration are mainly economic .-^ 30
CHAPTER III. 0-
The History of Immigration.
Influence of immigration is more important than that of
emigration 33
It is the life history of countries of the New World ... 33
In one sense all the inhabitants of the United States are
immigrants or their descendants 35
Distinction between colonists and immigrants 35
Population during the colonial period 37
Very little immigration during the period from 1783 to 1820, 39
Contents, vii
PAGE
Since 1820 we have a statistical record of immigration . . 41
Causes of immigration in past years 43
Modern means of transportation make immigration easy . 45
Influence of immigrants sending back for their friends . . 48
Sex, age, and occupation of immigrants 50
CHAPTER IV.
iMiiiGRATION AND POPULATION. 1
The astonishing growth of the United States 53
Due to three causes : — (i) free land 56
(2) Railroads ; and (3) iiftnigration 57
How much of our present population is due to immigra- _.
tion 58
Its influence on the ra^^r ethnic composition of our pop-
ulation 62
The negro and the foreigner 64
Immigrants according to nationality 67
Persons o^ foreign birth and of foreign parentage by
nationality 68
The distribution of the foreigners 69
The foreign born flock to the cities 71
Certain forces tend to assimilate these foreign elements . . 72
(i) Economic prosperity; and (2) the exercise of political
rights o 73
(3) The dominance of the English speech 74
(4) Intermarriage of foreigners with natives and with each
other 75
The theory that mixed races are the strongest needs correc-
tion 'J^
viii Contents.
/
CHAPTER V.if
The Political Effects of Immigration.
Large proportion of adults gives the foreign born great
voting power 79
y Only in late years has this excited any jealousy or appre-
hension 8i
Our liberal naturalization laws require merely formal tests
Why not require evidence as to character and fitness ? .
Recent court decisions show a tendency that way . .
Bad influence of the foreign vote when it votes in a body
'^ Our degraded municipal administration due to it . . .
Outbreaks of anarchism and socialism due to foreigners
These theories strange to American life
Unrestricted immigration is a severe strain on democratic
institutions 91
82 \
84
85 ■
86 ^
88 j
90
CHAPTER VI.^'
' The Economic Gain by Immigration.
Our material resources have been developed largely by
immigration 93
Shown by the number of foreign born in different occupa-
tions 94
The economic gain by immigration consists (i) of the
amount of money the immigrants bring 97
This is offset partly by remittances home 99
And what they bring is less than the average wealth here . loi
(2) The value of the immigrant as a man ...... 102
Sometimes measured by the cost of bringing him up . . 104
Sometimes estimated as equal to the value of a slave . . 107
Contents. ix
PAGE
True value is the excess of future wages over expenses
(Dr. Farr) 109
But the immigrant is of use to us only if we can make him
useful 113
Do we need any more immigrants ? 113
Three-fourths of them are unskilled laborers (not even
farmers) 114
Of whom we have already a great supply 117
Progress of civilization demands less of this kind of labor . 119
And it tends to congest in large cities where it is not
needed 120
There is already a host of the unemployed in this country . 121
Karl Marx's theory of the industrial proletariat . . . . I2i
CHAPTER VII. [^
Competition with American Labor.
Must consider not only gain in wealth by immigration, but
also the effect on American labor 123
(i) Direct competition by immigration of skilled laborers
is not great 125
But the immigrants learn trades after their arrival . . . 126
The displacement of American labor 127
Relation between free immigration and a protective tariff . 128
(2) The importation of laborers under contract .... 129
(3) Competition with immigrants having a lower standard
of living ' 131
The Italians, French Canadians, Poles, and Hungarians . 132
The revival of the " sweating system " 136
This competition is unfair to our working classes .... 138
The old immobility of labor is broken down 139
X Contents.
PAGE
And the American laborer is subject to competition from
the world 140
The true office of competition is to spur on producers . . 141
And it benefits all classes, including the laborers .... 142
Evils of increased cheapness due to degradation of labor . 143
The French Canadians and the Scandinavians , ♦ . . 144
CHAPTER VIII. 7
'' Social Effects of Immigration.
Other sides of civilization besides political freedom and
economic prosperity 147
Difficulty of measuring the social effects of immigration . 148
Natural to expect high rates of mortality, vice, crime, etc.,
among immigrants, because they belong to the lower
classes 150
Large proportion of adults has the same eflfect .... 152
Our mortality and morbidity statistics are not satisfactory . 153
The amount of insanity due to immigration 1 53
The blind, deaf and dumb, crippled, diseased, etc. . . . 155
^The prisoners and convicts of foreign origin 157
The paupers and homeless children 158
Immigration the prevailing cause of illiteracy in the United
States 161
Influence of immigration on general social traits .... 166
CHAPTER IX. g
Assisted Emigration and Immigration.
Emigration in former times viewed with dislike . . . . 168
Encouraged for the sake of the colonies 169
Contents. xi
PAGE
Afterwards in order to get rid of paupers and criminals . 169
Early cases of this sort in Switzerland 171
Emigration assisted by local authorities, by charitable soci-
eties, by friends, by steamship agents 172
The British government has assisted paupers to emigrate . 173
Protest of the United States 174
The Tuke Committee 176
The emigrants not welcomed in Canada 178
The National Association for State-Directed Emigration . 180
The opposition of the colonies to assisted emigration . . 184
Other societies that assist emigration 185
Emigration assisted by remittances and prepaid tickets . . 186
Abuses connected with prepaid tickets 188
Induced immigration from Italy 190 - '
Assistance to immigrants from side of colonies and new
countries -. . . 193
The British Emigrants' Information Office . . . L-^ . 196
Emigration is now largely under artificial stimulus . . . 196 'I
State-assisted emigration destined to fail of its purpose » 198
CHAPTER X.
Protecting the Emigrant: The Passengers' Acts.
Practical freedom of a man to choose his domicile . . . 201
The state still feels an interest in the emigrant .... 203
Its diplomatic and consular service looks out for him . . 204
Passengers' acts regulate his treatment at sea 205
Modern efforts to regulate emigration agencies .... 207
The new Swiss emigration law 210
Hardships endured by early immigrants to this country . . 215
The United States Passengers' Acts 216
xii Contents.
PAGE
The legislation of the state of New York 217
Scandalous treatment of immigrants on landing at New
York . i^:, V^'.^-: S^V 219
The New York Commissioners of Emigration 220
Castle Garden 221
The head-money tax declared unconstitutional .... 223
Present relation between the state commissioners and the
federal government 224
CHAPTER XI. <^
y Chinese Immigration.
Prohibition of Chinese immigration by the United States
and Australia 227
> Early declaration that migration and expatriation are in-
alienable rights 228
The treaties of 1844 and 1858 with China 229
The Burlingame treaty of 1868 231
Chinese are promised the same treatment as subjects of the
most favored nation 233
Beginning of the anti-Chinese agitation 235
The history of Chinese immigration into California . . . 236
Californian legislation against the Chinese 238
The investigating committee of 1876 242
Evidence as to the moral and social condition of the Chinese, 243
^Tbe economic effects of Chinese immigration 244
The Chinese do not assimilate with our civilization . . . 247
The question in Congress 250
\
The treaty of 1880 allows the United States to restrict
further immigration 255
The acts of 1882 and 1884 and harsh enforcement of them, 255
Contents. xiii
PAGE
Brutal treatment of Chinese in America 257 .
Negotiations for a prohibitory treaty ; their failure . . . 259 ,
The prohibitory act of 1888 262
The Chinese question in the British colonies 263
^True grounds for the exclusion of the Chinese .... 265
CHAPTER XII. 'T-
Restrictions on Immigration.
^The right of immigration is not perfect 266 <
States often exercise the right to expel aliens 267
Police regulations in regard to residence of strangers . . 268
The new French decree requiring the registration of for-
eigners 270
Alien beggars and vagabonds commonly sent back . . . 272
The legislation of the United States restricting pauper
immigration 273
The act against the importation of contract labor . . . 276
^The control of immigration a necessity 277
Absolute prohibition of immigration not desirable . . . 279
But the present laws should be strictly enforced .... 280
The plan of consular certificates 281
CHAPTER Xlll^Ji.-.
The Question of Principle.
Freedom of migration from the standpoint of political
science 284
All mediaeval life denied any such freedom 285 ^
Expansion of industry and commerce destroyed tke old
restrictions 287
xiv Contents.
% PAGE
French philosophy established the principles of freedom
and equality 288 ^
A Enormous benefit of the doctrine of the brotherhood of
man . . 289
Immigration is a privilege granted by the state .... 290
Sometimes held to be a duty to admit strangers .... 291
, The principle not always applicable 292
V The notion that America is an " asylum for the oppressed," 293
Error in reasoning from the past experience of a country . 294
This country no longer offers the advantages it once did . 295
The control of migration by positive law 295 \
\ Seen in the present tendency of legislation 296
The principles of international law in the case .... 297
Revival of the doctrine of permanent allegiance .... 299
The sovereignty of a state over its own territory .... 300
A state should take care of its own unfortunates .... 301
And this is the higher ideal of international comity and of \
humanity , 301
Bibliography 303
Index 309
EMIGRATION AND IMMKiMTION."
CHAPTER I.
introduction: the nature of the question to
be discussed and of the phenomena
to be observed.
Social problems change from age to age. The
position of a nation, its external history, its inner
development, the n^w demands made upon it by the
Zeit'Geisty — all these things cause first one set of
questions to be presented and then another. The
earliest problems forced on the peoples of Europe
by the evolution of history were political. The
German tribes, as they emerged from the primeval
forest and overwhelmed Roman civilization, began
the great work of establishing a state-form and de-
fining the limitations of nationalities. The strug-
gles of the eleventh century and the subsequent
period of the Reformation determined the rival
spheres of church and state. The absolute monar-
chy destroyed the feudal system as a political in-
stitution and developed powerful nations in the
place of petty local principalities. The French
2 Emigration and Immigration.
revolution overthrew privileged classes and accent-
uated the right of the individual man to liberty and
safety. Finally, the establishment of the represent
' a.t?ve syste;n: ilij ^vpr Europe has given to the com-
. .munity^tjie. oppor.turii^y to use legislative power for
''•'tft.egao'd'o^ the^wholfe in distinction from that of a
class. Thereby the fundamental problems of state-
life have been solved, at any rate for the time
being. Political questions are now matters of detail ;
the machinery of government is so to be organized
as to carry out the will of the community. The
legal and political rights of the individual members
of the community have been determined and are
no longer matter of dispute.
On the other hand, the general economic and
social problems are more pressing than ever. The
distribution of wealth and well-being, the relative
opportunity for attaining the desirable positions and
the desirable things of life, the chances of success,
the duties of man to man and of social classes to
each other, — all these questions are more prominent
than ever. The individual is making demands for
himself whose satisfaction requires the intervention
of the community. He intones a cry of distress that
is an impeachment of the social organization. He
talks about his "rights" as if society were there
. simply to look out for him. It is the era of indi-
vidualistic demands for socialistic action of the state;
Introduction. 3
but the socialistic scheme is no longer altruistic
nor Utopian, but highly personal and practical.
In this condition of things, it is highly interesting
and important to determine exactly what the state
can do for the individual, and what the individual
may justly expect from the state. This is not
merely the old question of the "interference" of
the state, as the economists used to define all gov-
ernmental action, even that of taxation ; neither is
it merely the question of determining the "sphere
of state action," as the newer economists and polit-
ical philosophers would phrase it. It is rather the
investigation of the fundamental purpose of social
organization and state life. Has society an ideal,
towards which it is struggling and which it desires
to reach } Are social traditions to be preserved and
present institutions developed and expanded until
they are fitted to contain that national life to which
patriotism aspirres } Have we ethical ideals which
we should like to see approaching fulfilment, and
whose fulfilment would satisfy us as an advance in
civilization }
It is from this standpoint that we are to test and
decide the social questions that present themselves
at the present time. The demand which is made,
— is it consistent with our ideal of social progress t \
The influence which is to be allowed or discouraged, .'
— does it make for the social end } What is our |
4 Emigration and Immigration.
duty to the poor? What is our obligation to the
laboring classes when competition threatens to ruin
them? Why should the state interfere to check
the free action of industrial forces ?
It is from this standpoint that the phenomena of
emigration and immigration become of lively concern |
to the communities which they affect. It is not the
migration of a few thousand or even million human
beings from one part of the world to another, nor
their good or bad fortune that is of interest to us.
We are concerned with the effect of such a move-
ment on the community at large and its growth in I
civilization. Immigration, for instance, means the
constant infusion of new blood into the American
commonwealth, and the question is : What effect
will this new blood have upon the character of the I
community ? *
In order to answer this question it Will be neces-
sary to consider for a moment the characteristics of
our civilization Which give it strength and worth.
We can then appreciate the influence immigration
has had upon these characteristics, and estimate the
final effect of its continuance on the present scale.
It will be necessary to notice the influence of immi-
gration on the growth of population, and to follow
the ethnic changes which are being wrought thereby.
Equally important is it to observe the effect of im-*
migration on the economic condition of the labor-J
Introduction. 5
ing classes in this country, — whether it is made
better or worse. In the same way it is advisable to
study the influence of the new-comers on the ethical
consciousness of the community, — whether there
is a gain or a loss to us. In short, we must set
up our standard of what we desire this nation to t
be, and then consider whether the policy we have
hitherto pursued in regard to immigration is calcu-
lated to maintain that standard or to endanger it.
Edmund Burke once said : " To make us love our
country, our country ought to be lovely." In order
that we may take a pride in our nationality and be
willing to make sacrifices for our country, it is
necessary that it should satisfy in some measure
our ideal of what a nation ought to be. If there is
to be patriotism, it must be a matter of pride to say,
Americanus sum.
What now are the characteristics of American state
and social life which we desire to see preserved .?
Among the most obvious are the fojlowing : —
(i) The free political constitution and the ability
to govern ourselves in the ordinary affairs of life,
which we have inherited from England and so sur-
prisingly developed in our own history ;
(2) The social morality of the Puritan settlers of
New England, which the spirit of equality and the
absence of privileged classes have enabled us to
maintain ;
6 Emigration and Immigration.
(3) The economic well-being of the mass of the
community, which affords our working classes a
degree of comfort distinguishing them sharply fromV
the artisans and peasants of Europe ;
(4) Certain social habits which are distinctively
American or at least present in greater degree among
our people than elsewhere in the world. Such are
love of law and order, ready acquiescence in the will
of the majority, a generally humane spirit display-
ing itself in respect for women and care for children
and helpless persons, a willingness to help others, a
sense of humor, a good nature and a kindly manner,
a national patriotism and confidence in the future
of the country.
All these are desirable traits ; and as we look for-
ward to the future of our commonwealth we should
wish to see them preserved, and should deprecate
influences tending to destroy the conditions under
which they exist. Any such phenomenon as immi-
gration, exerting wide and lasting influence, should
be examined with great care to see what its effect on
these things will be.
The continued addition to our electorate of hun-
dreds of thousands of persons who have had no train-
ing in self-government, who have other and quite
different traditions of state action, — will this not tend
to weaken our political capacity and self-reliance.?
Will it not also affect the adjustment of our institu-
Introduction, 7
tions to our people, — an adjustment which is so
necessary if the institutions are to work successfully ?
If the new bearers of our political life have neither
the aspirations which our ancestors cherished nor
the experience which we have inherited, — will not
the homogeneousness of our social organization be
seriously imperilled ? A free ballot which was safe
in the hands of an intelligent and self-respecting de- 1
mocracy, is no longer safe in those of an ignorant'
and degraded proletariat.
A code of morality which depended for its life and
strength on a religious system thoroughly believed in
must be undermined when other systems of thought
are suddenly introduced not furnishing the same
basis. The commands of morality are absolute and
must have the sanction of perfect faith in order to be
effective. To destroy the credibility of the sanction,
without putting anything in its place, must for the
time being be destructive of ethical action. How-
ever narrow the religious system, and however much
it may need expanding and liberalizing, the develop-
ment should come from within and not through
destructive forces working from without. German
scepticism, for instance, may be a natural product of
German life and may furnish its own basis for ethical
rules of conduct ; but if it is not also a natural devel- .
opment of American ideas, it must work as a foreign I
substance in the organism of our national life.
8 Emigration and Immigration.
Economic well-being is a difficult thing for a nation
to acquire, and once acquired is too precious to give /
up without a struggle. Once lost it may require
generations to attain again, even if the economic
conditions are favorable. The standard of living in
this country should be jealously guarded, so that our
working classes should not either consciously or un-
consciously lose it. It may be lowered in either of
two ways. Excessive immigration may overstock the \
labor market and reduce wages ; or immigrants accus-
tomed to fewer of the comforts of life may supplant
the native workmen. In either case we have brought
undue pressure to bear on the mass of the people \
and have forced them down to a lower level, (^e
have substituted the lower for the higher, and pre*
ferred that which is inferior.
The change in social ideals wrought by the infiltra-
tion of peoples having different customs and habits
of life can be detected only as these elements gradu-
ally become dominant and as we see the decay of
habitudes which we had valued. We then exclaim
against the degeneracy of the times, forgetting that
we ourselves have admitted the elements which have
superseded the old.
The problems of social science are very complex.
The manifestations of social life are so interwoven
that it is difficult to trace the connection between
them. Even where one influence can be disentangled
Ifitroductio7i. 9
from others, it is almost impossible to measure its
exact effect. The result may be neither direct nor
immediate. It may manifest itself only through sec-
ondary phenomena or after the lapse of some years.
It is impossible to reach exact conclusions, however
sure we may be that the conclusions are certain.
The very characteristics of a science, the exact classi-
fication and the power to predict results, may often
be painfully lacking.
In no department of social science is this more
true than in the entire range of questions pertaining
to population. We readily perceive that one popu-
lation differs from another, and we are able in a
very general way to characterize the difference. We
can often see that national traits are changing with
the passage of time, and we can indicate in a gen-
eral way the direction of the evolution. But to
define the difference precisely, or to specify the
exact cause of the change, is beyond our power.
So it is with immigration. It is a very complex
phenomenon. The quantity of immigration varies
from year to year. Still more does the proportionate
quantity vary, i.e,^ the number of immigrants com-
pared with the number of the population receiving
them. The quality of the immigration does not^
remain the same ; and the conditions of industrial
and social life, whereby a country is able or not
afte to assimilate the foreign material, are not easy
lO Emigration and Immigration.
to determine. Many of these things depend upon
relations which cannot be measured and which can
only, so to speak, be felt. We feel instinctively that
such and such elements are incompatible with our
social life, but we are not able to produce the tech-
nical proof. We are morally certain, but we cannot
make the evidence scientifically complete. In a few
years the new elements become inextricably inter-
mingled with the old, and it is impossible to trace any
national characteristic to either alone. There is
constant reflex action, and the native modifies the
foreign as much as the latter does the former.
Finally, it may be only national prejudice that is I
struck by the change which, in the long run, may
be desirable and not hurtful.
When we undertake, therefore, to investigate the
good or disastrous effects of immigration on a large
scale, only general results can be expected. As so
often in social science, the method is somewhat in-
direct. Cause and effect cannot be precisely deter-
mined. It is only possible to say that such and
such forces tend to produce such and such results.
In the present study we must collect the facts and
carefully observe the following points : We must\
measure the intensity of the immigration ; for it is
to be supposed that when it becomes very large,
absolutely or relatively to the number of persons of
native descent, some marked effects will follow.
Introduction. 1 1
We are to observe the quality of the immigration ; ^
for it is to be supposed that the more alien the
immigrants to our blood and mode of life, the more
difficult the process of assimilation will be, and the
greater the friction and interruption tt a simple and
harmonious development. The character of the at-
tractive force drawing the immigrants is of impor-
tance ; for, obviously, where the force is an ignoble
one the result will not be so desirable as where it
is purifying or energizing. We must determine Z*-
whether the difficulties of migration put in any way a
test on the character of fhe immigrant, so that a pro-
cess of natural selection is instituted whereby the
desirable elements push through and the undesirable
ones are left behind. Finally, we must study the in-
direct evidence of the influence of immigration in the .
statistics of the participation of the foreign born in
vice, crime^ illiteracy and other disastrous social phe- )
riomena. It is only by a combination of all these
elements that we can reach a judgment of the effect
of such a movement on the well-being of the com-
munity in which we are interested. It will be im-
possible to separate strictly the good from the bad,
but we can attain results of sufficient precision to
guide us in state action.
or THB
UNIVERSITT
CHAPTER 11.
THE HISTORY OF EMIGRATION.
Emigration and immigration, as we understand
them, are phenomena of modern life. Of course,
from the beginning of human history there have
been migrations of men. In early times these con-
sisted of movements of whole tribes in a career
of conquest and differed radically from emigration
which is a movement of individuals. A second sort
of migration began with the discovery of America
and of the new route to India around the Cape of
Good Hope and may be called colonization.^ The
newly discovered countries were utilized at first
merely for the purpose of booty and afterwards for
the establishment of trading posts or factories.
Considerable numbers of Europeans went out to
these colonies as officials and soldiers, or as bankers,
merchants and planters. The natives furnished the
labor which was either slave or free, — generally the
former, — and thus we have the peculiar colonial con-
ditions as exhibited in the coffee-growing colonies of
1 See Roscher and Jannasch, Kolonien, Kolonialpolitik und Aus-
wanderung. 3d Ed. Leipzig, 1885. Leroy-Beaulieu, De la Colonisa-
tion chez les peuples modernes. 2d Ed., Paris, 1881.
12
The History of Emigration. 13
the East Indies, the sugar-growing colonies of the
West Indies, and on a large scale in the great impe-
rial possession of India. The value of these colonies
was almost entirely commercial. The planters re-
ceived their capital and supplies from the home
country and naturally disposed of their products
and made their purchases there. The official posts
furnished lucrative places for the younger sons of
the nobility or the governing classes, but the colony
.wasno real outlet for surplus population.
/A second class of colonies differed radically from
these. They were the agricultural colonies or plan-
tations where people came for the purpose of settling
and cultivating the soil. These persons expatriated
themselves with the intention of making their per-
manent home in the new country. They did not
intend merely to trade with the natives or to super-
intend servile labor, but to build up a community
which should be self-supporting and which should
after a while enjoy the same civilization as the
mother country. At the same time they did not
separate themselves from the parent, but continued
under its political control and with the most friendly
and loyal feelings towards it. They were still Eng-
lishmen, or Frenchmen, or Dutch just as they had
been at home?
It is not too much to say that the colonial expan-
sion of the seventeenth and the eighteenth century
14 Emigration and Immigration.
changed the whole aspect of the world. We can
scarcely picture to ourselves the limitations of medi-
aeval life confined within the bounds of Western
Europe. It is difficult to conceive the narrow rela-
tions, the limited resources, the petty struggles of
the nations of that day. The extension of colonies
established the world commerce and brought the prod-
ucts of the whole earth to the inhabitants of Europe ;
it magnified the scale of things tenfold.^
Even when the colonies in America rebelled
against England and Spain and established them-
selves as independent nations, the results were not
lost. The trade still remained, and also the lan-
guage, customs and habits of life. The civilization
of the new world was simply a new European civil-
ization and the expansion of Europe still went on.
It is true that it was no longer an expansion of par-
ticular nations. The wanderers from Europe, if they
went to the United States or to South America, gave
up their home connection. But they still went prin-
cipally to a country where either their language was
spoken or the people were of a kindred race. The
causes which had driven the original colonists from
. ^ Roscher points out how colonization has changed the relative
position of nationalities. It has made the English race and speech
dominant in the world. The painful efibrt of the Germans to find
unoccupied places for colonies so that Germany may become a " world*
empire " is evidence of the same thing.
The History of Emigration. 15
their home were often religious or political persecu-(
tions. Such refugees can still find a welcome in
the United States where they have liberty of religion
and protection against political punishment. In these
cases, however, the movement is no* longer a national
but a private one. The state which sends out its
citizens is no longer transplanting them to another
part of its own dominion, but is giving them up to
a foreign nation. The migrations of the nineteenth \
century are not colonization, but emigration. *
This new movement is peculiar to the nineteenth
century and has grown in intensity until it has be-
come an important phenomenon of social life. It
is worth our while to study carefully its progress,
its causes and the effects which have followed in its
train. It is not to be judged by the previous migra-
tory efforts of the world, but should be considered on
its own basis and with respect to its own influence
on the civilization of modern Europe. Analogy of
names should not confuse our perception of real
differences in influence. Neither are vy^e blindly to
follow principles laid down at a time when the rela-
tions were of an entirely different kind.
The statistics of emigration are not very satisfac-
tory. We have three sources of information. The
first is the permits which formerly were universally
required and are to-day in many states in order that
a man may leave his country. The number of these
1 6 Emigration and Immigration.
permits never represents the real emigration because
modern means of transportation are so extensive that
it is easy to get beyond the frontier without them.
Then we have statistics of the departures from
the principal ports. Those of Great Britain are the
most complete in this respect because her frontier
is entirely water. For Germany we have statistics
of the departures by way of Hamburg, Bremen,
Stettin and Antwerp, which represent the greater
part of the German movement, but not the whole.
Finally, we have the statistics of arrivals in new
countries such as the United States, Australia, etc.
By a combination of these last two bodies of figures
(departures and arrivals) we can calculate approxi-
mately the strength of the migratory movement from
year to year, and from each country.
These statistics do not reach back very far. The
United States began to collect them in 1820. Most
of the countries of Europe do not give us reliable
statistics till a much later date. We know enough
however to get a general picture of the movement
from decade to decade and even from year to year.
At the beginning of the century it was slight. Al-
most the only emigrants were from Great Britain and
a few from Germany. The difficulties of travel were
so great and the knowledge of new countries was
so vague that very few persons in the more back*
I
The History of Emigration. 17
ward and less maritime countries had the courage
to attempt the long and arduous journey.
From Great Britain the number of emigrants for
the year 181 5 was only 2,081. The next year it rose
to 12,510, in 1817 to 20,634, in 18 18 to 2'j,'j%'j and
in 1 8 19 to 34,787. These were dark years in Eng-
land and it is not surprising that some of the surplus
population released from the war, in poverty and
misery, should take refuge in the colonies and th
United States. The number steadily decreased until
1824 when it was only 14,805. The commercial
crisis of 1826 seems to have given a new impulse to
the movement, and in 1832 the unusual number of
103, 140 was reached. During the next years, down to
1845, the emigration averaged about 75,000 annually.
In 1846 the Irish famine started a great movement J
which continued until, in 1852, the number of emi-
grants was 368,764. Down to this time the statistics
give us only the number of emigrants leaving the
United Kingdom without distinguishing whether
they are of British birth or not. From the year 1853
we have the two figures kept apart. The total num-
ber of emigrants of British and Irish birth that year
was 278,129. Since that time the emigration from
Great Britain has fluctuated from year to year, but
we may say that every year between two and three
hundred thousand British subjects are accustomed
to leave their country in order to seek homes else*
1 8 Emigration and Immigration.
where. The greater part of this emigration has
always been to the United States, but considerable
streams have flowed to Canada and to Australia.^ --
German emigration presents very much the same
development as British except that the large num-
bers come little later. From 1819 to 1829 the
vjjrman emigration is said to have been scarcely
5,000 persons per annum. From 1830 to 1843 it is
estimated as only 22,000 per annum. In 1847 it
rose to 110,434 and in 1854 to 251,931 from causes
similar to those that had led to the increase in the
British emigration.^ Only once since then has it
approached that figure.
Emigration from the other countries of Europe is a
phenomenon of more recent date. As is well known,
J the French do not emigrate in large numbers. The
Scandinavians have followed most closely the exam-
ple of their kinsmen in Germany and England. The
Swedish emigration was insignificant in numbers
until 1867 when for the first time it amounted to
nearly 10,000. In 1869 it rose to 39,064 and then
declined, reviving however in 1879, ^^^ reaching a •
maximum of 50,178 in 1882. The Norwegian emi-
gration goes back further than the Swedish, but
has not grown so rapidly during recent years ; it
1 Complete statistics in the Italian Report on Emigration, 1886.
2 Roscher and Jannasch, Kolonien, Kolonialpolitik und Auswan-
derung, s. 330. The figures include all emigrants from German ports.
The History of Einigration. 19
reached a maximum in 1882 of 30,214. The Ital-
ian emigration numbered nearly 20,000 in 1876,
increased suddenly to 40,000 in 1879, ^^^ has since
gone on increasing till in 1888 it was 195,993. This
is the emigration to countries outside of Europe
which the Italians call " permanent " emigration as
distinct from "temporary" emigration (94,743 in
1888) to neighboring countries with the intention of
returnmg,
The present strength of the emigration movement
may be seen by the following figures of emigration
from the different countries of Europe during the
years 1887 and 1888.
1887. 1888.
Italy 127,748 195,993
Austria 20,156 24,819
Hungary 18,270 17,630
Germany 99,712 98,515
Great Britain and Ireland- 281,487 279,928
Denmark 8,801 8,659
Sweden 46,556
Norway 20,741
France 11,170 23,339
I^elgium 3,834 7,794
Holland 5,018
^ Bulletin de I'lnstitut international de Statistique. Tome II. 2eme
livraison, p. 25. Tome III. 2eme livraison, p. 95. Tome IV. p. 136.
The figures for 1888 are not yet complete.
2 England, 1887, 168,221; 1888, 170,822. Scotland, 1887, 34,365;
1888,35,873. Ireland, 1887, 78,901; 1888,73,233.
20 Emigration and Iminigratioft.
Switzerland 7,558 8,346
Russia 29,35s 38747
Spain 37,200
Total 717,606
It thus appears that in ene year over 700,000 peo-
ple from the different countries of Europe left them
for the purpose of seeking homes elsewhere. The
real number was probably greater than that, for the
enumeration would often be incomplete. We knew
from the statistics of the United States, Canada,
Australia and New Zealand, Argentine, Uruguay
and Brazil that the immigration into those countries
^/ amounted to 1,116,000 in 1887, and there are many
other countries that have some immigration. There
is of course a backward current of immigration into
Europe ; but allowing for this,- it is safe to say that
in 1887 2. million people left Europe with the inten-
tion of never returning. Many years the number
has been greater.
It is not necessary to sa/ that a nipvement on
such a scale as this must ijave impcfrtant conse-
quences for the nations of "Europe. It is a steady
abstraction of a fraction of their population, whether
for good or evil. It is not evenly distributed, but is
much greater in some countries than in others. It
cannot be measured solely byjhe absolute numbers,
for some countries have a large population and can
stand an emigration which would be ruinous to
TJie History of Einigration, 21
others. The quality of the emigration must also be
taken into consideration, for the loss of persons from
some classes in society is much easier to bear than
that of others. We must therefore carry our analy-
sis a little further. We shall do this very briefly, for
the same facts will come out again in our considera-
tion of the character of the immigration into this
country.
There are two things to be considered in the ques-
tion of emigration : one is the effect on population,
and the other is the effect on the economic condition
of the country. It is difficult to measure either with
perfect accuracy.
Emigration is a direct drain on the population of a
country, and this is to be measured by the proportion
of the emigrants to the total number of inhabitants.
Such figures we have in a very simple form. For
instance, out of every i,ooo inhabitants of Italy in
1888 there emigrated ^.^T \ of France, 0.61; of
Great Britain and Ireland, 7.46 ; of England and
Wales, 5.97; of Scotland, Z.Z%\ of Ireland, 15.06;
of Germany, 2.10; of Switzerland, 2.85; of Swe-
den (1887), 9.86; of Norway (1887), 10.58; of Den-
mark, 4.01.^ This gives us at once a vivid picture
of the strength of the migratory tendency in the
different countries of Europe without regard to the
absolute numbers from each country.
1 Bulletin tie I'lnstitut, etc, IV. p. 1 90.
22 Emigration and Immigration.
We can carry out a similar comparison for differ-
ent parts of the same country ; as for instance, the
emigration from Germany as a whole during the
year 1888 represented a proportion of only 2.10 per
1,000 of the population ; but for Wiirtemberg it was
3.23 ; for Prussia it was 2.22, and for certain parts
of Prussia it was, Pomerania, 4.81, and Posen, 7.24.^
We can also study the strength of the migratory
movement from year to year ; as, for instance, we
know that in Prussia emigration has been steadily
working its way eastward from the Rhine provinces
to the Baltic. In Ireland, the counties differ in
the strength of this disposition to emigrate. In
1886 the average emigration of natives of Ireland
was 12.2 to every 1,000 of the population; but the
western counties were all above this average, and in
the following order: — county Clare, 20.3; county
Kerry, 20.2; Leitrim, 19.4; Galway, 16. i; and Sligo,
1 5. 1. It can also be shown by statistics that while
the migratory tendency increased in Ireland from
1878 to 1883, two and one-half fold, it increased in
these western counties from three to seven fold
during the same period.^ It is evident that we have
here an exact statistical method of measuring the
I strength of the emigration tendency in different
»countries and at different times.
1 Ibid. p. 146.
2 Emigration Statistics for Ireland, 1886.
The History of Emigration. 23
The effect on population can best be measured by
comparing the figures of proportionate emigration
with the figures of the increase of the population by
excess of births over deaths. It is well known that,
with one important exception, emigration does not
seem to retard population, because it is precisely the
countries having the largest emigration that have the
largest birth-rate, so that the second makes up for
the first. Thus in Germany in 1882, while the emi-
gration was 4.25 per 1,000 inhabitants, the excess of
births over deaths was 11.52 per 1,000. The loss by
emigration was more than made up by the births.
So also, in England and Wales, while the emigration
was 6.17 per 1,000 of the inhabitants, the excess of
births over deaths was 14.29 per 1,000. The great
exception to this rule is Ireland, where in 1882 the
emigration was 16.50 per 1,000 of the population,
and the excess of births over deaths was only 6.^
per 1,000.^ Emigration causes a constant decrease
of the population in Ireland. In some of the prov-
inces of Prussia in like manner there is an excess of
emigration over the natural increase of the popula-
tion.
Emigration does not threaten to depopulate the
countries of Europe. Had there been no emigra-
tion during this century, it is not probable that
the population of Europe would have been any
1 Emigrazione Ttaliana, i8S6.
24 Emigration and Immigration.
greater than it is. The probabilities are all the
other way. Europe has never grown so fast as
during the present century. The commerce withr^
the new world, the possibility of escaping thither,
the supplies of food and raw commodities drawn
thence have given a hopefulness and elasticity to
European life such as it never bad before. The
place of the emigrants has been filled by new births,
and more than filled. Even in Ireland, emigration
has not succeeded in depopulating the country, for
although in some counties like Clare and Kerry it is
estimated that since 1851 emigration has carried off
72 per cent of the average population, those counties
are still over-populated.
From the beginning of this century emigration has
been looked to as a cure for the evils of over-popu-j
lation. Economists who held to the doctrine thatK
wages depended upon the relation of capital to popu-
lation, advocated it on the ground that it would pre-
vent excessive competition in the labor market and
thus raise the standard of living. These hopes have
proved fallacious. As shown above, the growth of
population is not at all impeded by such removals.
The deficit is rapidly made up. Before the new
standard of life is reached, the number has been re-
gained, and the condition of the community is no
better than it was. No such result could be attained
except by the removal en masse of a very large num-
The History of Emigration. 25
ber of persons. This could be done only by a gov-
ernment that would undertake the enormous expense
of transporting the emigrants to a colony and set-
tling them there so that they could earn their own
living. No government has as yet been willing to
undertake such a task. The English government
has offered aid to the Irish to emigrate, but this aid
has not been extensively made use of and has not in
any sense been effective in diminishing the misery
of the whole country. The condition of Ireland is
little better now than it was forty years ago, notwith-
standing the enormous emigration which has taken
place of its own accord.
Emigration by itself is not a remedy for the evils ^
of over-population or of a low condition of the mass
of the people. It is important for us to remember
this, for it is often assumed that by allowing free
immigration into this country we are relieving the <"
miseries of Europe, and helping to raise the people/
there to a higher standard of comfort and well-beJ
ing. The abstraction of population must be accom-
panied by measures at home for bettering the con-
dition of those classes which need elevation.
As emigration does not relieve over-population in
general neither does it relieve congestion of popula-
tion in particular districts, nor over-crowding of land
in particular sections. In Prussia, the emigration
comes now from the poorly settled districts of the
26 Emigration and Immigration.
East, and not from the densely settled Rhine prov-
inces. The difficulty is that emigration is controlled
by other motives which may have absolutely no con-
nection with the desirability of removing certain
elements of the population or relieving the social
pressure at certain points. It is often the poor and
^degraded who have not the courage nor the means to
emigrate, and who remain in a life constantly grow-
ing harder and more hopeless. The mere accident
of good transportation facilities often has more influ-
ence in determining the stream of emigration than
<1do any social causes whatsoever.
It can scarcely be expected that a mere blind
movement following a variety of motives shall of it-
self, without leadership, work out good social results.
There is absolutely nothing in the movement of free
emigration which could lead us to expect that its
results would invariably, or even on the whole, be for
the good of the community which the emigrants
leave. Blind forces must produce chance results, 1
and the probability is that the results will not be
what were expected. Emigration does not bring
about a decrease of population ; neither does it re-
lieve congestion of population, nor remove the bur-
den of poverty and low-living which has been caused)
by an excess of population. These results are mostly
negative. If we turn to the economic effects of emi-
gration things appear in a more positive light.
The History of Emigration. 2/
It is a curious fact that most of the governments
of Europe are opposed to emigration in its present
form. This opposition is partly because it represents,
in many cases, an evasion of the universal military,
duty. During the years 1872 and 1873, which were
good years for the working classes of Germany, there
were not less than 10,000 processes annually for eva-
sion of military duty by emigration.^ The military
authorities naturally look with disfavor upon this
desertion of the fatherland at a time when it calls
upon its youths to serve it. In some cases the large
emigration of agricultural laborers has given rise to
a scarcity of labor and excited the fears of the land-
lords and also of those who look upon the farming
class as the conservative foundation of the whole
national life. This is the case in Italy at the present
time, and has been the case in Sweden and Norway,
where the population is scanty and where the emi-
gration if it continues threatens to leave a portion
of the country without inhabitants.
If we look at the matter from the standpoint of
the whole nation, we can readily perceive the reason
for the sceptical attitude of the European communi-
ties towards free and voluntary emigration. When
emigration is brought about by the free action of a
man's own mind, without extraneous aids or influ-
1 Schonberg, Handbuch der Politischen Oekonomie. 2 Aufl. II.
965-
28 Emigration and Immigratiofi.
ences, it is naturally the men who have intelligence,
some financial resources, energy and ambition that
emigrate. It requires all these to break loose from
the ties of kindred, of neighborhood and of country,
.and to start out on a long and difficult journey.
Voluntary emigration, as was pointed out by Thorold
i'; Rogers some years ago,^ would naturally expatriate
the cream of the working classes. This position is
partly proven by statistics, by which, indeed, we can-
not measure a man's character, but which give us
some particulars in regard to age and sex that are
useful indices of the strength and capacity of the
emigrant. It is well known that a majority of the
^emigrants, generally sixty per cent, are males. This
in itself is an indication of ecgnoiiiiil-jStreaglh, for
men are stronger and more self-reliant than women.
This excess of males is due to the large number of
unmarried men who migrate. An additional fact in
this connection is that the majority of the emigrants
*are in the most vigorous ages of manhood and
womanhood.. Of the German emigrants, for in-
stance, over sixty per cent are between the ages of
fifteen and forty, although only thirty per cent of the
population are between those ages.^ Not only do the
emigrants come from the best ages, but the drain on
1 Manual of Political Economy. 3d ed., 1876.
2 Rumelin, in Schonberg, Handbuch, etc. II. S. 916.
The History of Emigration. 29
the adult men of the country is twice as great as
on any other class.
It is true that emigration does not decrease popu-
lation, because the places are taken by new births,
but this is not a paying process for Germany. She
has the expense of bringing up her children to man-
hood, and then loses the benefit of their labor and
commences the nursing process again. She is left
with an abnormal proportion of children, of old people
and of the weak and disabled ; while the new country
is provided with able-bodied adult laborers at her
expense. The only offset to this would be a com-
pulsory emigration by which she could get rid of
the weak and the infirm, — those who are a burden '
to the community. We therefore find the authorities
of Europe generally opposed to voluntary emigration,
while in some cases engaged in or encouraging se\
cretly the emigration of the poor and the viciousj
The economic and social gain or loss by emigration
isdetermined more by the character of the emigrants
than by their number. It is not an easy thing to
say how far it is a benefit and how far an injury to
any country at the present time. There are very
few nations that would be willing to encourage it
on any great scale and most of them prefer to have
their people stay at home.
Of course there are circumstances in which the
chance to leave one's country is in every sense a gain,
30 Emigration and Immigration.
both to the emigrant and to the country itself. The
leaders of a party that has been defeated in a civil
war find it more congenial to live in a new country
than to stay under the rule of their opponents, and
it is for the peace of the country that these restless
spirits are removed. So in case of the decline of
a national industry, it is a gain that the workmen
can leave the neighborhood where there is no longer
employment for them. Those who have been per-
secuted for their religion have often found safety in
expatriating themselves. Even the vicious may oc-
casionally use the new opportunity to begin a more
creditable career.
With the causes of this immense migratory move-
ment of the nineteenth century it will be better to
deal further on under the study of immigration, when
we shall attempt to analyze them more closely in
order to study the worth of the immigrant. It is
sufficient to say here that religious and political
Vmotives have sunk into insignificance. There was
a time when men were compelled to leave their
country in order to enjoy religious freedom, and
that movement has given birth to some of the most
solid and progressive colonial communities. But the
growth of religious tolerance has abrogated that ne-
cessity ; the only exception is the persecution of
the Jews in Russia, and this seems to have as much
of a social as of a reli'rious side to it.
The History of Emigi'ation. 31
It is also true that down to this century men emi-
-x^rated in order to escape political tyranny. Even
after the insurrections and revolutions of 1848 politi-
cal refugees fled to the United States. This occa-
sionally happens in the case of nihilists and socialists
at the present time. So also after Prussia incorpo-
rated the kingdom of Hanover, and after the German
empire took possession of Alsace and Lorraine, many
of the old inhabitants migrated rather than submit
to the new regime ; but such movements are also
insignificant.
The main cause of emigration at the present time
\rnay be correctly described as economic. It is the
jdesire to escape some economic pressure or to attain
[a better economic condition. The occasions for the
working of the cause may be different, and the result
may be fortunate or disastrous, but the cause is
neither religious nor political but economic, l This is
seen when one studies the variations in the flow of
emigration from one year to another. Whenever
famine or hard times occur in the countries of
Europe, there is an immediate increase in the flow
of emigration. Whenever there is distress in the
countries of the new world, there is a decrease in
the volume of immigration. The causes are sure to
be followed by the effects, although it may take
some time for the cause to be fully felt and acted
upon. Other influences may modify this primary
32 Emigratioft and Immigration.
one in a great variety of ways. The temptation to
nJ escape military duty is always present. An impend-
ing war in Europe might give a sudden stimulus to
the movement, or a war in the United States might
greatly retard or almost entirely check it.^ The
establishment of a new steamship line or the sud-
jden reduction of the rates of fare has sometimes
increased the emigration from a particular country
or locality. The activity of steamship agents is an
abnormal influence which has greater or less weight.
Especially, the knowledge of the new country and
the solicitations of relatives and friends who have
already settled there are powerful inducements which
work with more or less disregard of economic condi-
tions. All these are minor variations but the gen-
eral influence may still be said to be the desire to
^^ better one's economic condition.^
^ See statistics of immigration in next chapter.
2 Roscher (Kolonien, etc., S. 35) points out that one great induce-
ment to colonization has been that, however hard the colonists may have
to labor, the children will rise to a better position than they could ever
have attained at home. Many of the pioneers in our Western states
were actuated by the same motive. See Hugh McCuUoch's experience
in Indiana, Men and Measures of Half a Century.
CHAPTER III.
THE HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION.
In many respects the history of immigration is
much more interesting than that of emigration. The
latter may have some effect in diminishing the popu-
lation or the material resources of a country, al-
though, as we have seen in the previous chapter, even
such effects are not felt perceptibly in states having
a vigorous life. At the worst it becomes one of
the factors in the decline of those states which
are losing their position among the nations of the
world.
Immigration, on the other hand, is the life history^
of the countries of the new world. Through it we
trace the beginning of that process by which the
civilization of Europe has spread over the whole face
of the globe. It is in itself the history of the new
world. Still further, immigration directly increases
population in the later stages of the history of these
countries, — an increase that is independent of the
relation of births and deaths and that has the most
important influence in determining the position of ^^^^
the country among the other powers of the world.
33
34 Emigration and Immigration.
The quality of the immigration also has important in-
fluence on the civilization of the new country. The
ethnic constitution may undergo the most decided
change by the addition of elements differing from the
original population. The immigrants may be of dif-
ferent race or nationality, with different language,
customs, or habits of thought from the people of the
country that receives them. They may have been
accustomed to different political institutions and not
be able to adjust themselves readily to the political
life of the new country. Economically, they may
have been accustomed to a lower standard of living, ^
and thus introduce a distressing competition in the
labor market. Socially, they may represent an ab-
normal proportion of the classes that contribute, Jp-^
the pauperism, the crime and the vice of the commu-
nity, and thus add to the burden of private and pub-
lic charity. Whenever immigration assumes large
proportions these questions are sure, sooner or later,
to become very important.
It is only in recent times that these problems of
immigration have presented a serious aspect. Of
course wherever there is emigration there is a corre-
sponding immigration, but the chief interest of the
whole movement has hitherto been supposed to be
to the country of emigration, and the question has
been viewed entirely from that standpoint. All
through the middle ages there was little immigra-
The History of Immigration. 35
tion in the real meaning of the word, for neither
conquest nor commercial colonization can be saiJ
to have any immigration side to them. The stranger
was generally looked upon with disfavor, where he
^was not absolutely excluded. There are instances
where foreigners were admitted and even urged to
come; as Edward III imported Flemish weavers into
England in order to establish the cloth industry, and
Colbert introduced Venetian glass-makers and Swed-
ish iron-workers into France ; but these are isolated
examples and not of importance. It is needless to
say that the introduction of Scotch and English into
Ireland had the characteristics of a conquest rather
than of immigration.
The history of immigration into the United States,
to which we shall now confine ourselves, may be
briefly traced as follows : —
In one sense all the inhabitants of the United
States are immigrants or the descendants of immi-
grants. The only exception would be the few de-
scendants of the aborigines, who still exist, but in
a position of insignificance and utter inferiority.
There is, however, a great difference between those
who came to this country when it was an unclaimed
wilderness, and by their toil and sacrifices established
a great commonwealth, and those who simply migrate
into a country where state, laws and customs are
already fixed. The first are colonists ; the second
36 Emigration and Immigration.
are merely immigrants. To the first belongs the
glory of having established the state and given to
the new country its institutions, laws, customs and
language. They are, in a sense, the fouriders and
proprietors of the new state, and they have a right to
^guard its institutions from alien influences, if these
should threaten danger to their integrity. > The sec-
ond, the immigrants who have not shared the dan-
gers of the period of settlement, occupy a subordinate
position. They are not there through any merit of
their own, but by consent and upon invitation of the
original colonists. It is true that they may have
aided in the material development of the country and
>in that respect have been of very great service, but
they are still merely immigrants ; they are not the
founders of the state.
In the history of any new country it is not easy to
draw the line between colonists and immigrants. In
other words it is not easy to say exactly when the
process of colonization is complete. In the case of
the United States a convenient date is furnished by
the conclusion of the war of independence against
Great Britain. Down to 1783 may be termed the
period of colonization. At that time the state was
established, and any further additions to the popula-
tion had little influence in changing its form or the
language and customs of the people. Since 1783,
the growth of population in the United States has
The History of Immigration. 37
been due to natural increase and to imrr igration.
This period we can conveniently, although somewhat
arbitrarily, divide into two. Our statistics of immi-
gration begin in 1820. From 1783 to 1820 there
seems to have been little immigration, so that we
may call that the period of natural increase ; and
from 1820 to the present day we may call the period
of immigration.
Our knowledge of the growth of population during
the colonial period is extremely meagre. No accu-
rate records were kept of new comers or of births and
deaths. The data lie scattered through a great
many books, tax lists, voters* lists, military levies,
etc., and it is only by careful comparison of these
and a knowledge of the laws of population that we
can arrive at any conclusion. The latest estimates
of this character are those made by Prof. F. B.
Dexter and presented to the American Antiquarian
Society at a recent meeting. The conclusions of
this careful paper are summarized as follows : —
•* In the first third of a century, or by 1640, when Parliament
gained the ascendancy in England^ British America contained
a little over 25,000 whites, — 60 per cent of them in New Eng-
land, and the most of the remainder in Virginia. At the restora-
tion of the monarchy in 1660, the total was about 80,000, the
greatest gain being in the most loyal divisions, Virginia and
Maryland, which now comprehended one-half the whole. At
the next epoch, the Protestant Revolution of 1689, Mr. Bancroft
concludes that our numbers were not much beyond 200,000, and
38 Emigration and Immigration.
I
the figures I have presented give about 206,000 ; in this increase
one large factor was due to tlie Middle Colonies, which now foi*
the first time assumed importance, numbering already nearly
one-half as many as New England.
"A round half million appears to have been reached about
172 1, with the Middle Colonies showing again the largest per-
centage of growth, and New England the least. A million
followed in twenty-two years more, or 1743, this figure being
doubled in turn twenty-four years later, or in 1767, — the latter
reduplication being delayed a little, doubtless by the effect of
intervening wars.
*' In the Congress of 1774 the colonists ventured for the first
time on a guess at their own strength, their estimate being a
little over three millions ; but the true number cannot have been
much more than two millions and a half, and this in turn was
double the figure reached about twenty-three years before, which
period is the usual time of doubling shown by our later censuses
down to the date of the civil war.
"These results differ slightly from those approved by Mr.
Bancroft in his last edition, who exceeds my estimates from 1750
to 1770 by amounts varying from 50,000 to 100,000, or from 4 to
5 per cent of the totals."
(Note.) '* My own figures are, for 1750, 1,207,000; for 1760,
1,610,000; for 1770, 2,205,000; for 1775, 2,580,000; for 1780,
7.5780,000. The published figures of the census of 1790 (3,929,-
214) do not include Vermont or the territory northwest of the
Ohio, which would bring the total above 4,000,000." ^
The part played in this increase of population by
colonization from the old world and by the natural
1 Estimates of Population in the American Colonies, by Franklin
Bowditch Dexter, Worcester, 1887.
The History of Immigration. 3^
increase of the original settlers is absolutely un-
known. Considering the difficulties of getting to
America and the dangers to be encountered there,
it is probable that after the first settlement the
increase was mainly natural, supplemented by an
intermittent flow of new comers. The dangers of
the frontier life were very considerable ; but on the
other hand there was no restraint on the increase of
population due to the difficulty of providing careers
for the children, so that a man could havje as large a
family as he chose. It is not improbable that the
doubling period of twenty-three years represents th^
normal excess of births over deaths. Immigrants 1
were naturally welcome, for there was always a de- 1
mand for labor and a place fdr ' every able-bodied I
man.
For the period from 1783 to 1820 we know the
actual number of the population at the censuses of
1790, 1800, 1 8 10 and 1820. But during this period
we have no statistics of immigration, so that we
cannot tell how much of the gtowth was due to
the natural increase of the people and how much
to immigration. The increment — about thirty-five
per cent during each decade — was large, but no
larger than we should expect from the natural in-
crease of population in a new country where there
were few restraints. Everything was still in favor >*-
of early marriages and large families. On the other
40 Emigration and Immigration.
hand the period was not one that encouraged immi-
gration. The colonies were not rich except in the
necessaries of hfe ; their pohtical future was uncer-
tain ; their commerce and finances were in a state of
confusion ; and there could have been but Httle in-
ducement to Europeans to undertake the difficult
and dangerous voyage. During a great portion of
the time the new republic was on an unfriendly and
even hostile footing with the mother country, and
commercial intercourse was often cut off by embar-
goes and wars. In accordance with this condition
of things the notices that we find of actual arrivals
of immigrants are scattering, and indicate an uncer-
tain and sporadic movement. These notices have
been c(3llected by various writers who have attempted
to calculate from them the total immigration during
the period.^ It is utterly impo*ssible, however, to
arrive at any conclusion, because the imformation is
so meagre. The estimate that is commonly accepted,
and the one that is published by the bureau of statis-
tics, is that the number for the whole period was
about_2 50,000.
The real history of immigration into the United
States begins with 1820. Since that time the col-
lectors of customs at the seaports in the United
1 See Seybert, Statistical Annals of the United States, 181 8; Chick
ering, Immigration into the United States, 1848; Tenth Census of the
United States, vol. i, p. 457.
J
The History of Immigration. 41
States have been obliged to make a record of all
passengers arriving by sea from foreign countries,
also the age, sex and occupation of such passengers
and the country to which they severally belong.
The statistics taken under this act are probably
pretty accurate. In early years there may have been
omissions, and there is a considerable over-land im-
migration much of which escapes enumeration, and
which in fact since 1885 has been omitted entirely
from the returns. Down to 1856 no distinction was f
made between aliens who were simply travellers and
intended to return, and the bo7ia fide immigrants who
came to stay.
The tide of immigration has swollen enormously ^
during the seventy years covered by this record.
During the " twenties " the immigration was small,
only ten or twelve thousand coming over annually,
increasing to twenty thousand in 1826 and 1827,
owing probably to the commercial depression in En^-j ,
land. In the "thirties" it grew steadily, decreasing-^
in the years 1836 and 1837, on account of the depres-| ''
sion of trade in this country. - The number first
reached one hundred thousand in 1 842, but sank the
following year, showing that the normal figure at
that time was somewhat less. In 1846 began the*
first of those great movements due to crises in the p
old world which have occurred frequently since and
whose reflex action tends to keep the tide perma-
42 Emigratioit and Immigration.
nently strong. The combination of bad times in
Germany and the famine in Ireland made the enor-
Imous maximum (427,833) in 1854. This number
was not reached again until after the civil war. Dur-
ing that period, the conditions, especially the facili-
ties for transportation, changed materially. Instead
of sailing vessels, steamships came into general use.
The voyage was shorter, the rates of fare were lower,
and the efforts of transportation companies to obtain
passengers much more persistent and wide-spread.
The Western states were welcoming the immigrants
and establishing immigration bureaux for the pur-
pose of aiding foreigners to come and settle with
them. Knowledge of the new countries was spread-
ing, a great many persons had friends already here,
and these friends were trying to induce them to
come. The civil war had terminated in favor of
>Tfree labor, and the enormous development of rail-
roads had opened up a great territory to colonization
and settlement.
The result of all this was the renewal of immigra-
."^ tion immediately after the civil war. The years
from 1867 to 1872 were years of immense business^
^activity in the United States. Much of this activity
was speculative and brought about by an inflated
paper currency, but it gave employment to labor.
So immigration went on and on until in 1872 it
reached the figure of 437,750. Then the commercial/
The History of hnmigration. 43
depression stopped the flow for several years. With^
the apparent return of prosperity in 1879 and 1880,
immigration commenced again, until in 1882 it
reached the enormous number of 730,000. Since
then it has gone down only to revive again, until at
the present time the number is over half a million
annually.^
The course of immigration into the United States
may be pictured as a succession of waves. There is
always a flood and an ebb, but the succeeding tide
is, as a rule, higher than the preceding one. The
movement increases although it does not do so by
regular gradations, and there is no sign that we
have reached the end of it, or even the end of the
increase.
Immigration to this country is of course mainly
from Europe, especially since we have absolutely
prohibited the coming of the Chinese. The countries
that contribute most largely to the number are Ire^^-
land and Germany. During the last few years a
marked change has occurred, the proportion of Irish
immigrants having fallen off and that of the German
having increased. In recent years the Scandina-
vian immigration has steadily grown, as has also the
Italian. *;
The causes of this enormous immigration have al-
* 1887=516,933; 1888=525,019; 1889 will probably show a
decrease.
44 Emigration and Immigration,
ready been partly indicated. Since 1820 over fifteen
million persons have come to the United States and
more than one-half of these have come since 1870.
No cause that works merely on the disposition or the
sentiments can account for such a movement. Some
tpart has been due to politicaljdiscontent, but that is
ino longer a determining influence. Political discon-
tent is not so wide-spread in Europe to-day as it was
in 1848. The socialists do not look upon the Ameri-
can republic as any nearer their ideal than the mon-
archies of Europe, and they find no better treatment
here than at home. Again it is no potato famine
now as it was in 1846. It is true that in the history
of immigration we can trace the effect of economic
distress in Europe in increasing emigration, and of
economic distress in the United States in decreasing
immigration. The great Irish emigration of 1846
p.nd the great German emigration of 1853 were un-
doubtedly due to famine in the old countries. So
also immigration to this country was decreased by
Ijthe commercial disasters of 1836-37, by the civil
jw.ar of 1861-64 and by the commercial depression
\of 1873." But absolute famine is not so frequent
in Ireland as it once was, and mere hard times ex-
tend over the world and are commonly felt as keenly
and at the same time in the United States as in
Europe. Doubtless the immigrant does expect to
better his economic condition by the migration, but
The History of Immigration. 45
it is not the direct pressure of want or the definite
knowledge of how he will gain that leads him to
change his domicile. The whole movement is more
[economic than political, but there are certain minor
influences which are the immediate cause of the
increase of immigration in recent years. These are
as follows : —
( The im^TQ^d means of transportation at the
present time make it very easy for persons to
change their domicile. In former days the journey
was long, difficult and expensive. The emigrant, if
he lived in an inland town, had to reach the coast,
and there await the sailing of some vessel. Then he
was crowded into a small sailing ship, miserably fed,
liable to sickness and disease, obliged to live in
that way weeks and perhaps months, subject to the
brutality of the captain and crew of an ordinary
merchantman, and he was fortunate if he reached
the other side not permanently enfeebled by some
disease. Landing in the United States he had a
long and expensive journey still before him if he
wished to settle in one of the newer states.
Now all this is changed. The intending emigrant
buys a ticket in his native village, the railroad trans-
ports him quickly and comfortably to the port where
steamers leave regularly two and three times a week.
The voyage lasts but eight or ten days. The owners
of the vessel are obliged by law to provide him with
46 Emigration and Immigration.
comfortable quarters, — so and so many feet of space
for each passenger, — with sufficient food, of good
quahty and well-cooked, and medical attendance.
When he lands he can buy a railroad ticket to his
point of destination and in a few hours find himsell
there. Steamships sail from every prominent port
in Europe many times a week. For instance, in
1887, there were running to the port of New York
alone steamers that made 259 trips from Liverpool
and Queenstown, 265 from Bremen, Hamburg and
Havre, 96 from Glasgow, 15 from London, 106 from
Antwerp and Rotterdam, and 144 from other ports of
Europe.^ Some of these ships carry from a thousand
to fifteen hundred steerage passengers.
Of course a regular transportation business on
such a scale as this cannot be maintained except by
a very extensive organization for the purpose Of se-
curing passengers. The Inman Steamship Company
has thirty-five hundred agents in Europe, and an
equal number in this country selling prepaid tickets
to be sent to friends and relatives of persons already
here in Order to provide them with passage. In the
little country of Switzerland, with one-half the popu-
lation and one-third the area of the state of New
York, there were, in 1885, four hundred licensed
emigration agents. The object of these men is to
1 Report of the Emigration Commissioners of the State of New
York, 1888.
The History of Immigration. 47
sell tickets and get their commission. They picture
the advantages of America in glowing terms to the
peasants and artisans and to any that are discon-
tented with their lot. The young and ambitious,
or the young and reckless, lend a willing ear ; and
even the married men go, expecting in a short time
to earn easily sufficient to send for wife and chil-
dren. In many cases they mortgage or sell the little
farm or vineyard, which is their sole support, for the
purpose of raising the money. In other cases the
^agent loans them the sum necessary, and they repay
him with their first earnings on the other side.
\ Competition brings down the rate of fare. These
great steamships must be filled, and filled at the time
they sail. It is better to take people for something
just above the bare cost of feeding them rather than
to have the ship go empty. At one time, says a Ger-
man official document, steerage passengers were car-
ried from Hamburg to New York by way of England ^
for the sum of seven dollars. During the steamship
war of 1885 steerage rates were reduced to twelve t
and even ten dollars. In 1888 emigrants were car-
ried from New York to Chicago for five dollars.^
The moment a man is discontented the alluring
prospect is held out to him, that by paying a small
sum he can reach a country where everything will
be better. The low rate of fare offers a great temp-
^ Testimony before Ford Committee, pp. 5, 415.
48 Emigration and Immigration.
tation to charitable societies and poor-relief guardians
to get rid of the burden of paupers and persons un-|-C
able to support themselves, by buying them a ticket
to America, in the expectation that they will never
be heard from again.
Another thing that has greatly increased the tide
of immigration, and that keeps it large notwithstand-
ing adverse influences, is the constant communica-
tion between those already here and the friends they
have left behind. There is a steady flow of letters
to the old country. The immigrants who have pros-
pered here depict their success in the most glow-
ing terms to old friends and acquaintances. In
many cases they exaggerate, as is natural, deter-
mined to vindicate their own wisdom. Occasionally
they revisit the old home in order to display their
wealth and dilate on the advantages they have
reaped. One such letter passed from hand to hand
in a little village, or one visit of such a magnate, is
more efficacious in sowing the seed of discontent and
restlessness than many steamship agents. One after
another is seized with the desire to try his luck, and
the influence is continued from year to year and only
waits for the fitting occasion to bear fruit. Again,
many of these letters carry with them money or a
prepaid ticket in order that the parent or the wife or
the relative may follow in the steps of those who
have made the first venture. Millions of dollars are I
J
The History of Immigration, 49
[sent back every year for the purpose of aiding friends
to come over.
The result of all this is that emigration is no
longer going among strangers. Almost every one
has a relative, or a friend, or at least an acquaintance
in the new country to whom he can look for aid and
counsel on first arriving. To a man of almost anyi
nationality this country is like a colony of the!^
mother land. Here he finds countrymen, news-
papers in his own language, people who are able to
understand him, home customs, etc. It is no longer
emigration in the sense of expatriation, but simply
migration in the sense of moving from one part of
the country to another. It no longer requires a vio-j
lent wrench to detach a man from his domicile and'
transplant him to a new home ; he does not leave
after long deliberation, and only under the stress of
absolute want or persecution ; the slightest occasion
is sufficient to persuade him to undertake an adven-
ture which in former times would have been consid-
ered the most important event of his life. The same
disposition to wander and to try one's fortune under
new conditions, which is characteristic of our own
people in their migrations from the East to the West,
is being acquired by the peoples of Europe in this
international movement.
Our statistics of immigration carry us one step
further in the way of giving us a description of the
50 . Emigration and Immigration.
immigrants as to sex, age and occupation. It is well
V known that a majority of the immigrants are males,
^^ generally about sixty per cent. The proportion
varies, however, in an interesting way among dif-
ferent nationalities. The Irish show a very large
proportion of females, owing doubtless to the large
immigration of unmarried girls as domestic servants.
Next in this respect come the immigrants from Nova
Scotia and from Prince Edward Island, among whom
there is often an excess of females. These girls find
N employment in New England as domestic servants
^
and in the factories. Germany shows a greater pro-
portion of females than any country of Europe except
Ireland. This is due also to the employment of Ger-
^^ man girls as domestic servants, and points to another
I interesting fact, viz., that as the custom of emigra-
. tion continues whole families are apt to go together.
(When a movement of emigration commences it con-
sists mainly of unmarried men. They can best make
their way alone in the new world. A few married
men may come out alone and afterwards if they
prosper they send for their families. Thus at the
. present time the Italians, the Hungarians and the
I Poles show a comparatively small percentage of fc:;,
^rnales. The immigration of these nationalities is at
the present time of the lowest kind of unskilled
labor, and they have not the money to bring their
families with them. So it has been noticed in the
The History of Immigration. 51
recent German statistics that the number of house-
holds emigrating tends to increase.
It is also well known that the immigrants aref
largely in the productive ages of manhood and ^^
womanhood. The figures for 1887 were as follows:
Under 15 years of age 94,278 or 17.18 per cent.
15 and under 40 years of age . . . 345,575 or 70.51 per cent.
40 years of age and upward . . . 50,256 or 12.31 per cent.
The proportions differ somewhat according to na^
tionality. Germany shows an extraordinarily large!
number of children, due doubtless to the immigra-
tion by families noticed above. Ireland shows a
large number in the period from fifteen to forty, and
a correspondingly small number of children and per-
sons above the age of forty. The apparent tendency
in Ireland is for the youths of both sexes to emigrate \
before marriage.
J These immigrants are mostly from the lower ^
dlasses, the unskilled laborers, of Europe. Of all
those who return an occupation, three-fourths are
unskilled. We shall deal with these figures more in
detail when we come to consider the economic effect
of immigration.
We have now outlined this great movement of
immigration as it has continued its course during
the last seventy years and as it appears to-day. It
remains for us to consider it more carefully and to
52
Emigration and Immigration,
[attempt to define the effect it has had on the people
'and the institutions of the United States. Sucii
effect cannot have been insignificant. It may have
been for good or it may have been for evil. At any
rate it is worth our while to follow out this great
social movement in its details.
CHAPTER IV.
IMMIGRATION AND POPULATION.
Nothing is more astonishing in the history of the
United States than the rapidity with which its terri-
tory has been populated. The task that lay before
the original settlers was immense. There was in
front of them to be subdued a wilderness three thou-
sand miles wide, covered with primeval forests, un-
broken by roads and even unexplored. The colonist
could have maintained his equanimity in the pres-
ence of this task only by ignoring it and contenting
himself with an open frontier subject to Indian
invasions as one of the ordinary conditions of exist-
ence. His life was a sort of constant picket duty,
without relief or furlough, and practically without
truce. But although the original settler did not
trouble himself with the problem of how the whole
continent was to be filled up and added to the
realm of civilization, and although he probably had
very vague notions as to when this result would be
consummated, yet the spirit of history was busy with
the task and brought it to a conclusion much sooner
than could have been deemed possible. At first, as
53
54 Emigration and Immigration.
we have seen, the progress was extremely slow. The
active force was only the original body of colonists,
few in number and armed with the hand implements
of the seventeenth century, — and not the best of
these. The principal addition to this labor force
came from the natural increase of the population, i.e.
the excess of births over deaths. This excess was
very considerable, although the mortality must have
been large during the first few years of the settle-
ment. But although th^ rate of increase was per-
haps the largest of which we have any historic
example, yet the basis for the increase was so insig-
nificant that the absolute numbers remained small.
At the close of the revolution there were less than
three million men in the thirteen colonies. At the
first census of the United States there were about
four million.
We must picture to ourselves the population of the
United States in 1790 as stretching along the coast
from Maine to Georgia in a narrow belt. The depth,
so to speak, of the inhabited area was scarcely two
hundred and fifty miles at its deepest parts, and that
was only where navigable rivers allowed settlers to
ascend them and still keep up communication with
the coast. The great mass of the people were on
the seaboard or in its immediate neighborhood. The
so-called cities were small and insignificant. The
population was mainly agricultural, only three per
Immigration aiid Population. 55
cent living in towns of eight thousand inhabitants
and over. It seemed as if the future republic might
very probably be confined to this narrow strip along
the seaboard. The Mississippi valley was still only
half-acquired, and the occupation even of the North-
west Territory was hindered by the hostile attitude
of the Indians incited by British agents. The
means of communication were poor, and even if
the western country were to be settled it would be
difficult to hold it in political and social connection
with the eastern coast. And if these difficulties
were successfully surmounted, it must be a long
time before the natural increase of population would
create that density which is necessary in order that I
a nation shall enjoy the strength and prestige ofj
high civilization.
During the first century of our national life all this
has been changed. The whole continent stretching
from ocean to ocean has been brought under the
control of man. Our population has reached sixty
or sixty-five millions, — equal to that of any first-class
power in the world. Great commonwealths have
sprung up in the Mississippi valley and on the Pa-
cific slope. Distant sections have been brought into
harmonious relations, and the different parts of the
present community are more firmly united and feel
more like the parts of one whole than did the colo-
nies of a hundred years ago.
56 Emigration and Immigration.
Three factors have been instrumental in bringing
' this about. They are the acquisition of territory,
^ the building of railroads, and the immigration of
3 people from Europe.
It is scarcely possible to exaggerate the influence
of the plentiful supply of land on the social history
of this country. It has permitted and encouraged
the rapid increase of population, which, instead of
growing denser, has spent itself in taking up new
territory. Thus from 1820 to 1830 the population
increased 32.51 per cent, but the settled area in-
creased during the same period 24.4 per cent, so that
the density of population in the settled area increased
only 1.4 individuals to the square mile. From 1830
to 1840 population increased 32.52 per cent, settled
area 27.6 per cent, and density only 0.8 individuals to
the square mile. Even after 1 840, when the immigra-
tion began to affect population so that it increased
over thirty-five per cent in each of the decades fol-
lowing, the settled area increased nearly twenty-two
per cent in each decade so that the density only
increased from 21.1 persons to the square mile in
1840, to 26.3 in i860.
Few people realize how this abundance of land has
simplified all social problems for us in this country.
We have laughed at the fear of over-population, — that
nightmare of the countries of Europe. There has
always been room for the restless and energetic.
Immigration and Population. 57
When a man failed in the East he could go to the
West. When trade became unprofitable, a man
could take to agriculture. Our public land has been
our great safety-valve, relieving the pressure of eco-
nomic distress and failure. This enormous expan-W
sion has been due very largely to it.
The process of settling this immense territory
would, however, have been extremely slow if it had
not been for the invention of railroads by which the
land was brought within reach of the population of
the East and at the same time an outlet provided for
the products of the West. Railroads began in 1830.
Since that time there have been built over 150,000
miles. They have hastened the material develop-
ment of the country by many decades. Political unity,
also, could scarcely be possible over our immense terri-
tory if it were not for these means of communication
which have made the Pacific coast as near to Wash-
ington as New York was in the old days; or if po-
litical unity were possible it would be only by the
exercise of despotic power such as the Czar's in
Russia,
The third factor in this development has been/
immigration. Thereby the growth of population
has been reinforced by an enormous influx of people
from Europe, in the most productive ages of man-
hood and womanhood, who have not only directly
added to the number of inhabitants but have con-
$8 Emigration and Immigration.
tributed to the power of natural increase. It is an
interesting question to determine the amount of this
influence and its effect on the race composition of
the population of the United States.
If we start with the distinction expressed in the
preceding chapter between colonists and immigrants,
and draw the line between the two at 1790 or, what
would amount to very much the same thing, at 1820,
the question would naturally arise : How many of
the present inhabitants of the United States are the
descendants of the original colonists and how many
of the immigrants } It is impossible to answer this
question accurately, because we have no statistics
of births and deaths for the whole of the United
States, and we do not attempt to follow the nation-
ality of the people in our decennial censuses further
than the birthplace of the parent. There are, how-
ever, one or two ways by which we can estimate the
number due to immigration. One is on the bi^sis
of the fifteen million people who, according to the ,
census of 1880, were either themselves of foreign X
birth or the children of parents born abroad. That
number represents those immigrants who survived
down to 1880 and their children born on this soil.
But many of the immigrants who came in the earlier
years, say before 1850, are now represented by the
third and even by the fourth generation. These
should be added to the others. The number of
Immigratio7i and Population. 59
immigrants who arrived before 1850 was nearly
2,500,000. Granting that they are now represented
by grandchildren and in some cases by great-grand-
children, and that by the natural increase of each
succeeding generation the number would by 1880
have doubled, we have an additional five millions,
making about twenty millions in all.
A second method of estimating the number of our
population who are of foreign descent has been pointed
out by Dr. Edward Jarvis.^ The basis of his esti-
mate is the two figures of the number of immigrants
landing here during each decade and the total popu-
lation of the United States at each census. For in-
stance take the decade 1 870-1 880. During that
period the white population increased by 9,815,981.
There arrived during the decade 2,944,695 immi-
grants. In 1880 these in^migrants had lived here
an average of 3.7 years. Allowing them an increase
during that period of two per cent per annum, the
total number of immigrants and their descendants in
1880 would have been 3,162,502. This would leave
6,653,479 ^s the natural increase of the white popu-
lation exclusive of the immigrants, or 19.48 per cent
in ten years. This rate of increase applies equally
to those of the white population in 1870 who were
descendants of colonists and those who were descen-
dants of immigrants. This is, of course, an arbitrary
1 Atlantic Monthly, vol. 29, p. 468 (April, 1872).
6o Emigration and Immigration.
assumption, but there appears to be no good reason
to suppose that the natural increase of the descen-
dants of the immigrants is any less than that of the
descendants of the colonists. In fact when we re-
member that the majority of these immigrants are
in the productive ages of manhood and womanhood,
and that they belong to the lower classes, in which the
tendency to marry and have large families is greater
than among the upper classes, the probability is that
they contribute their full share to the growth of the
community.
By this same method the natural rate of increase
is worked out for each decade back to 1820. Then
we can begin at 1790 and taking the immigration
and the rate of increase from decade to decade esti-
mate the present number of immigrants and their
descendants. Dr. Jarvis, by this method of computa-
tion, calculated that in 1870 the number of whites of
foreign descent was 11,607,394 and the number of
native descent was 21,479,595. Carrying on the same
calculation to 1880 it appears that the number of
whites of foreign descent was about eighteen mil-
lions, and of native descent about twenty-five and
one-half millions. Using the rate of increase of the
decade 1 870-1 880 to carry the calculation still further
it would appear that by the middle of the year 1888
the whites of foreign descent numbered over twenty-
five millions, and of American descent twenty-nine
Immigration and Population. 6 1
millions. Less than one-half of the total populationj
of the United States are descendants of the original/
white colonists.
The enormous influence of immigration on the
population of the United States is at once seen by
these figures. The native white population has in-
creased with wonderful rapidity, for, as we have said,
most of the natural restraints on population have,
not been operative in our past history. But besides
this enormous natural increase we have constantly
received additional people from the countries of
Europe. A writer in the Journal of the London
Statistical Society for 1884 has expressed this graphi-
cally as follows : Assume the average age of the
immigrants on arrival to be twenty years. Suppose
that one hundred persons of that age represent the
survivors of one hundred and fifty births. These
one hundred and fifty births represent the natural
increase of a population of six thousand souls. Such
an immigration as that of 1882 represents the natural
increase of a population of nearly fifty million people. \
In other words we have a foreign population equal
to our own contributing to our growth by its natural
increase.
It is not necessary to point out the immense influ-
ence which the rapid growth of population due to
immigration has had on the material development of
this country. It has supplied that labor force which
62 Emigration and Immigration.
was necessary to bring the soil under cultivation. It
has enabled us to take up great stretches of territory.
It has built railroads, dug canals, made highways, cut
down forests, in short turned the wilderness into cul-
tivated land. It is safe to say that without this
immigration the growth of the country would have
been very much slower, and that we should only now
be where we were twenty years ago. It has quick-
ened the pace of our development and made us do
things rapidly and on a large scale. We are apt to
attribute our prosperity too much to our own genius
and talent. We forget the factors that have worked
with us and in our favor. Unlimited land and an
army of intelligent workers furnished with the best
implements of labor have made great material prog-
ress almost necessary.
A much more important subject of study, how-
ever, is the effect of this immigration on the ethnical
-J or race composition of our population. If it at pres-
ent consisted merely of the descendants of the people
who were here in 1790, with slight additions from
year to year of immigrants from Europe, we should
be, with the exception of the blacks, a remarkably
^homogeneous people. / Notwithstanding the fact that
among the original colonists were to be found Dutch,
Germans, Swedes and French, yet the dominating
element was the English. This is seen m the fact
that the language has remained English, and that
hnmigration and Population. 63
the institutions are English. The long connection
of all the colonies with England, whatever the orig«
inal home of the colonists, accounts for this in large
measure. The revolutionary struggle united the
people and gave them the feeling of one nationality.
Free institutions have worked in the same way, until
we find the native born Americans, however widely
separated by distance, exhibiting very much the
same traits. In later years the means of communi-
cation, the common interest in the common govern-
ment, and still more the commercial intercourse un-
hindered by tax-barriers and facilitated by the same
language, the same money and similar commercial
law have unified the whole. There is less difference
in language, customs and feeling between the in-
habitants of distant portions of the United States /^
than there is often between counties or provinces of
European States, which have had different historical
development. This influence has been so strong
that it has enabled us to assimilate many elements
of different quality, and has leavened, at least to a
certain extent, the whole lump.
But during the last forty years the immigration
has been so large that the process of assimilation
has become more difficult, and the addition of foreign
elements has been so rapid that it has made the race
composition of our population essentially different,
l.om what it would have been if we had been left to \
64 Emigration and Immigration.
our own natural growth. These foreign elements
are now so prominent that it is worth our while to
consider the actual composition of our population as
it presents itself to-day. The method of analysis
and the results have already been indicated. Our ^
population falls into three groups : — the descendants
pf the original colonists (whites) ; the immigrants
jsince 1790 and their descendants; and the negroes.
TThe proportion of the descendants of the immigrants
tends to become greater, for they are reinforced not
only by the natural increase of those already here
but by fresh immigrants and their natural increase.
The fact therefore that the proportion of the foreign
to the native born was slightly less in 1880 than it
was in i870-"^shows nothing in regard to the real
strength of the foreign born and their descendants
in this country. The proportion is vitiated by the
fact that the children of immigrants who are born
in this country are classed as native born.
It would appear from the figures that alien ele-
ments are very strongly represented in our popula-
tion. The negroes are by birth and race and previous
condition of servitude incapable of representing the
full American capacity for political and social life.
Xhey have neither the traditions of political life nor
pf4ctical experience in self-government. The pres-
ei^'ce of this numerous body of people, who will never
fiilly amalgamate with the white population, will al-
I
Immigration and Population. 65
ways be a problem for us. The tendency will be for
them to remain in a position of inferiority, unable
fully to meet the demands on their intelligence and
virtue which our system of political liberty and equal-
ity makes. They are a legacy of the slave period
and the nemesis which long years of evasion of our
national problem has left with us. We cannot escape
the difficulty, and it is only fair to say that they
have displayed a docility and good nature since their
emancipation which have made them a cemparatively 1
harmless, if not progressive and desirable, element in '
our national life.
We turn now to the consideration of the ethnic
influence of the elements added to our population by
immigration. This is a much more difficult problem
than that of the black race. In the first place, be-
cause there is no distinguishing mark, such as color,
to separate the foreigners and their descendants from
the descendants of the colonists. Even if there is
no amalgamation, the very fact that they are all
white makes them indistinguishable either by the
census or by common observation. We have already
seen how difficult it is to determine even the total
number of the descendants of immigrants now living
in this country. But in the second place there is a
real amalgamation going on which renders the de-
scendant of the immigrant in many cases practically
identical with the native American in capacity, feeling
66 Emigration and Immigration.
and national characteristics. I It would be absurd to
treat the whole twenty or twenty-five millions whom
we have reckoned to be of foreign descent as alien
elements in our civilization. Many of these persons
have been born on our soil and know no other coun-
try and no other language or institutions than ours.
They are as truly American in thought and feeling
as any descendant of the Puritan fathers.\ Even
where they have come to this country poor, ignorant
and perhaps vicious, they have seized upon the
chance to begin a new life and have elevated them-
selves and their children to a higher plane of civiliza-
{ tion. Economic well-being and the practice of free
\ institutions are the most powerful agents of civiliza-
tion.
There are, now, three figures which will give us
some notion of the strength and character of this
foreign influence. One is the statistics of immigra-
tion according to nationality ; a second is the number
of persons of foreign parentage, — that is, who were
either born abroad or whose parents were born
abroad ; the third is the number of persons now
living in this country who were actually born abroad.
Each one of these figures is incomplete in itself as
an index of the influence of immigration, but each
supplements the others ; and by a skilful interweav
ing of the facts indicated by the three we can arrive
at some appreciation of this great movement.
J
hnmigration and Population. 6j
The foreign element in the United States is
composed of many different nationalities, and the
first step is to determine the relative proportions of
these. Since the year 1820 more than fifteen million
immigrants have landed on our shores. Of these
3,387,279 came from Ireland ; 1,529,792, from Eng-
land and Wales; 312,924, from Scotland; 4,359,121,
from Germany; 857,083, from Norway and Sweden;
127,642, from Denmark; 357,333, from France;
160,201, frofti Switzerland ; 320,796, from Italy.
The principal elements added to our population are
German and ^ish, with a strong mixture also of
Scotch, Scandinavian and, in recent years, a con- |
siderable number of Italians. _^<''-'
Statistics for successive years show that the char-
acter of the movement is undergoing considerable
change. The relative number of the Irish is decreas-
ing and that of the Germans is increasing. During
the decade 1 841-1850 the Irish formed 45.57 per\
cent of the whole number of immigrants; from 1871
to 1880 they were only 15.10 per cent. On the other ^Z
hand the Germans, who formed in 1 841-1850, 25.37
per cent of the whole number, in 1851-60 were 36.63
per cent, in 1861-1870 were 33.32 per cent, and in
1 87 1 -1 880 still 25.74 per cent. The relative number
from the smaller nationalities such as Norway and
Sweden, Italy and Austria-Hungary tends constantly
to increase.
4
6S Emigration and Tminigfation.
About the same distribution of ethnic elements
is seen in the statistics of foreign parentage at the
tenth census. Taking the birthplace of the father
as a test, it appeared that there were in the United
States :
4,883,842 persons having German fathers.
4,529,523 persons having Irish fathers.
2,039,808 persons having British fathers.
635,405 persons having Scandinavian fathers.
939,247 persons having British American fathers.
1,321,485 persons having fathers born in other foreign countries,
573,434 persons having native fathers and foreign mothers.
It appears from this that the ethnic element most
powerfully influencing the population of the United
States at the present time is the German, and that
'next to it comes the Irish. When we consider, how-
ever, that there are over two million persons having
British fathers and mothers, most of them English ;
that there are over six hundred thousand Scandi-
navians who are of pure Germanic blood ; and that
a part of the British Americans would also be Eng-
lish (although a part of them would doubtless be
French and Irish), it will appear that the Germanic
influence is still dominant in the formation of the
population of the United States.
The statistics of the foreign born in the tenth
census present very much the same picture. Of the
6,679,943 persons of foreign birth, 1,966,742 were
1
Immigration and Population, 69
born in Germany; 1,854,571 in Ireland; 662,6']6 in
England; 170,136 in Scotland; 717,157 in British
America; 194,337 in Sweden; 181,729 in Norway;
106,971 in France, etc. The importance of the Ger-/
manic element is seen in these figures.
If we follow out these foreign elements we shall
find that they are very differently distributed through-
out the United States. They are much stronger in |
the North than in the South ; different nationalities
tend to concentrate themselves in particular states \
and the foreigners are as a rule more numerous in\
the cities than in the country. All of these things
are clearly disclosed by the statistics of the tenth
census.
The record of the avowed destination of immigrants
landing at the port of New York, presents a very curi-
ous picture of the influences already felt by the
immigrants almost before they have landed. For
instance, of the 371,619 immigrants who arrived
in the year 1887, New England was the avowed des-
tination of 24,510; the Middle States of 219,836;
the Western States of 100,347 ; the Pacific States
and the Territories of 16,371 ; and the Southern
States of 4,651. No very great stress can be laid
on these figures, because in many cases the immi-
grants have no definite intention as to where they
will settle. Thus not less than 151,023 avowed their
^
70 Etnigration and Immigration.
intention of settling in New York. Of course many
of these afterwards moved on to other states.^
The tenth census showed similar results in the
distribution of the foreign born. In 1880 the New
England States contained 793,612 persons of foreign
birth; the Middle States, 2,130,304; the Western
States, 2,916,829; the Pacific States and the Terri-
tories, 614,678 ; and the Southern States, 224,520.
/The reasons for this distribution are sufficiently
I obvious. For many years slavery kept free labor
lout of the Southern States, and so they received
but a small part of the immigration. The factory
towns, the large cities and the mines attracted the
unskilled labor to the New England and Middle
States ; while the unlimited land attracted the great-
est number to the West.
The nationalities show their aptitudes in the choice
of localities in which to settle. The Irish stay largely
\n the great cities or in factory towns, and so we find
them represented heavily in Massachusetts (226,700),
in New York (499,445), Pennsylvania (236,505), Illi-
nois (117,343), New Jersey, Connecticut and Rhode
Island. The Germans stay to a certain extent in
large cities, and we find them, too, in New York
(355,913), Pennsylvania (168,426), Illinois and Mis-
souri. The Germans are also farmers and we find
them in Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa. The
1 New York Commissioners of Emigration, Report for 1887.
J
Immigration and Population. 71
English are found in the mines of Pennsylvania as
well as in the city of New York. The British N
Americans are in the factories of Massachusetts and
in the lumber forests of Michigan — and in fact all^,
along the frontier. The Scandinavians have founded I
their own colonies in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The strength of this foreign element is disclosed
if we take a typical state and study the make-up of
its population more closely. Massachusetts is com-
monly thought of as peculiarly an American com-
munity, where the population is largely composed
of descendants of the Puritans. It was found in
1885 that over twenty-seven per cent of the inhabi-
tants of that commonwealth were of foreign birth,
and that over one-half of all the inhabitants wera^\
of foreign parentage. Nearly thirty per cent were
of Irish parentage alone.
The persons of foreign birth in the United Statesj
seem to seek the large cities. In 1880 more than
thirty-four per cent were found therein. Of the Irish,
forty-five per cent settle in the large cities ; of the
Germans, thirty-eight per cent ; of the English and
Scotch, thirty per cent ; of the Italians, sixty per
cent. In the city of Boston in 1885 only thirty-one
per cent of the inhabitants were of native {i.e. born
in the United States) parentage ; the rest were of
foreign parentage. In the city of Lowell only thirty
per cent were of native parentage ; in Lawrence,
y
72 Emigration and Immigratioii.
twenty-two per cent ; in Fall River, seventeen per
cent ; and in the city of Holyoke, only sixteen per
cent. Many of our factory towns and cities are
really foreign so far as the nationality of their in-\
habitants goes.
These statistics show that in certain parts of the
country the foreign element in our population has
^ become very powerful and is in fact overshadowing
the native. Especially in the cities it shows its
strength. But it always tends to concentrate. This
is due to several causes. One is that the immigrants
naturally seek that portion of the country where they
lean find employment in their particular trades. The
miners from Wales and England naturally go to the
mines of Pennsylvania. The lumbermen from Can-
ada seek the forests of the Northern States. The
Vmskilled labor remains in the large city where it is
employed in the rougher parts of building trades, or
seeks the factory town where it can soon learn to
manage the simple operations of industrial machin-
ery. Another great influence is the presence of
)>C [friends or countrymen upon whom the newly arrived
immigrants can depend for help and counsel. Many
come at the solicitation of friends or relatives, or
with the aid of money sent by them, and naturally'
go to them on their arrival.
There are, fortunately, certain forces which tend
to counteract this exclusiveness on the part of the
Immigration and Population. 73
immigrants and gradually to fuse the different ele-
ments into one American nationality. Two of these
we have already mentioned, viz., economic prosperity
land the practice of free political institutions. The
former widens the circle of wants of the new citizen
and leads him to imitate the higher style of living
which he sees about him. This separates him from
the habits and traditions of his native country and
he adopts new standards which are associated in his
mind with the new domicile, and which produce a
feeling of superiority when he revisits the old home
or comes into contact with later arrivals. It differ-
entiates him, so to speak, from the immigrant, and
gives him a feeling of attachment to the country
where he has prosperx^d. This feeling increases with
his children and grandchildren until they become fully
identified with our customs, manner of living and
habits of thought, and are thoroughly Americanized.
The exercise of political rights, to which many of
the immigrants are strange, tends to differentiate them
in much the same way. It makes them of importance
to the political leaders. It gives them a higher posi-
tion than they were accustomed to at home, and this
naturally attaches them to the new country. How-
ever much our ix)litics may suffer from the addition
of this vote, much of it ignorant and some of it de-
praved, there is no doubt as to the educational and
nationalizing effect of the suffrage on the immigrants
74 Emigration and Immigration.
themselves. However attached the Irishman may be
to the cause of home rule for Ireland, or however
proud the German may be of the military glory of
the empire, his feelings must gradually and uncon-
sciously gravitate to the country where he has found
economic prosperity and political recognition. He
may still observe the national feast days and wave
the old flag, but if it ever came to a contest, he
would probably find that he was more of an Ameri-
can than an Irishman or a German.
/Another great fusing force has been the dominance
of one language, — the English. In the great mass of
cases the immigrant has found it necessary or desir-
able to adopt that language. Where he has not done
it himself, his children have; and in many cases it
has become the mother tongue if not the only tongue
of the descendants. As soon as that happens, the
man of foreign descent is irreparably separated from
his former liome. In some cases thickly settled com-
munities have managed to maintain the foreign speech
and the old religion for several generations. But
the disintegrating forces are at work all about them.
The moment the young man ventures out into the
world he is obliged to learn English. The moment
he aspires to the higher education or to political or
commercial position he must recognize the prevail-
ing tongue. The children learn it in the school.
The parents recognize that it is desirable for the
/
Immigration and Population. 75
children if not for themselves. It is impossible to
isolate the little community completely and it is
gradually undermined.
It is eminently desirable that it should be so. We
must have one speech in this country. We must
insist that English shall be taught in the schools
and that it shall be the fundamental language of
future generations. It must be everywhere the
official language of the courts and the laws. Ger-
man clergymen and educated men sometimes regret
that the immigrants and their descendants should
lose this connection with the old country and access
to the great literature of the German tongue. But
it is better that a man should have one country and
not divide his allegiance. | If we are to build up in
this country one nationality we must insist uponl/
one speech J
rfhere is one other way in which the foreign ele-
ments might amalgamate with each other and with
the native, so as in the course of time to form one
homogeneous people, — that is by intermarriage. In
the case of the blacks there is the insuperable color
obstacle in the way of their fusion with the whites.
But in the case of the immigrants this does not exist,
and the impediments of difference in language, cus-
toms, and even religion may gradually be removed. It
is a question of great interest how far such a fusion
of blood is actually occurring in the United States.
76 E^nigration and Immigration.
The statistics on this point are not very encourag-
ing to those persons who believe that mixture of
blood in the United States will finally produce a
race different from and superior to any of the older
nationalities. It appears that where a particular
nationality is concentrated in any one locality, the
men choose wives of their own race. For instance,
out of 10,000 Irishmen living in the city of New
York 9,441 had wives who were born in Ireland, 393
had native born wives, 1 19 had wives born in Great
Britain, 13 had German wives, etc. The same fact
is true of the Germans in New York or wherever
they are heavily represented, of the Scandinavians
in Minnesota and Wisconsin, etc. On the other
hand where the nationality is poorly represented the
men often take wives from other nationalities. For
instance, of 10,000 Irishmen in Maryland not less than
1,247 ^^d wives of native birth. ^ It is to be observed
that these statistics are not very conclusive because
they include marriages that were contracted on the
other side, when of course there was no choice open.
1 The immigrants of British birth or descent show the greatest
inclination to marry native women, — obviously because there is no
obstacle of language. The same thing is true of the British- American
except in the New England States where the French-Canadians are
included under this designation. The very interesting and curious
tables relating to this subject may be found in the Tenth Census of the
United vStates, vol. i, p. 677. See also Massachusetts Census of 1885,
vol. I, part I, p. 673.
Immigration and Population. 'jy
They are principally the marriages of the first genera-
tion where it would be natural to marry in the same
nationality. It is possible that the future gener^
tions of different blood may intermarry more freely.
But even here it is seen how desirable it is to break
up the concentration of immigrants of the same
nationality in one place, so that by intermarriage
with the natives and with people of other national-
ity this process of fusion and amalgamation may be
hastened.
It is one of the favorite theories of social philoso-
phers that mixed races are the strongest. And it is
true as a matter of history that the most progressive ^
peoples of Europe are mixed in blood. The Ameri-
can people of the future will be a race composed
of many different elements, and it is possible that
this mixture will have produced a people possessing
the best characteristics displayed by these various
elements. It seems, however, that there are two
things that ought to be carefully considered. One
is that the constituent elements of this amalgama-
tion should themselves be of desirable quality.
is scarcely probable that by taking the dregs
Europe we shall produce a people of high social
intelligence and morality. The second is that we
must see to it that the opportunity for amalgama-
tion is really given. Simply placing these discordant
elements in juxtaposition will not make a compact
iity. It'l
iregs of I
78 Emigration and Immigration.
and solid whole. On the contrary it will give rise
to an atomistic weakness which v/ill make any homo-
geneous and harmonious development impossible. A
nation is great, not on account of the number of indi-
viduals contained within its boundaries, but through
the strength begotten of common national ideals and
aspirations. No nation can exist and be powerful ^
that is not homogeneous in this sense. And the
great ethnic problem we have before us is to fuse
these diverse elements into one common nationality,
haying one language, one political practice, one pa-
triotism and one ideal of social development.
CHAPTER V.
THE POLITICAL EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION.
It is obvious that the enormous influx of imml
grants during the last thirty or forty years must have
had a great effect on poUtical life in this country.
Whatever the character of the immigrants, it is not
probable that they have had the same political tradi-
tions and training as the descendants of the original
settlers. Through the institution of universal suf-
frage and the short naturalization period, this influ-
ence is very soon measured by their numerical
strength, without regard to their education, charac-
ter or ability. In no state or territory does the
number of foreign born equal the native born, but in
many cases it bears a large proportion to the latter.
And if we take into account the foreign parentage,
the proportion is still greater. Indeed, in some locali-
ties, especially in large cities, the persons of foreign^
parentage fairly overwhelm those of native descent^
Again, the proportion of native to foreign born
does not fully represent the political strength of the
latter. Among the foreign born there is always an
labnormal proportion of males and of adults. This is
79
7
8o Emigration arid Immigration.
already disclosed in the bare figures of immigration,
where sixty per cent are males and seventy-five per
cent are above the age of fifteen. So in Massachu-
setts, while of the native born only 54.5 per cent are
twenty years of age and over, of the foreign born
84.5 per cent are of that age. The same thing is
shown by the census of 1880. At that time the
males of twenty-one years and over (voting popula-
tion) constituted 25.5 per cent of the total population
of the United States ; the native born white males
of that age constituted 22.4 per cent of the native
white population ; while the foreign born white males
of twenty-one years and over constituted 46 per cent
of the foreign born white population.
It is true that all these persons do not vote. Some
of them have not been here long enough to be natu-
ralized, some neglect the opportunity, and others are
incapacitated for various reasons. The census of
Massachusetts (1885) gave a very curious table show-
ing for each nationality the proportion of males above
the age of twenty who were still aliens, — that is,
who had not become naturalized. The Irish are mostj
eager to become naturalized, the English and Scotch I
much less so, and the French Canadians, Italians ^
and Portuguese least so. In these latter cases it is
evidently because they have been here an insufficient
length of time, or because the difficulties of the lan-
guage and the general indifference to the exercise of
The Political Effects of Immigration. 8i
^political power make it less desired by them. As
soon, however, as this vote becomes numerous enough
to be worth controlling, it will doubtless be natural- ^
ized and utilized by unscrupulous politicians and I
party managers.
It is a curious fact that only in recent years has
the increase of this foreign vote excited any appre-Kf
hension or even jealousy on the part of the native'
born voters. We have quietly received and absorbed
this addition to our electorate without making any
effort to prepare it for its new duties. There has
never been any decided movement against it. On
the contrary, the tendency has been to make the
conditions of suffrage more and more easy and to
admit foreigners to it on the same footing as the
natives. It is true that we had alien and sedition
laws as early as 1 798-99, but they were purely polit-
ical moves and had no reference to immigration
which was then in its infancy. So also there was an
American or Know-Nothing party in 1854, but that
was really a No-Popery excitement and quickly died
out.^ We have followed the principle of incorpora- I
ting the new comers with the body politic as soon as '
possible and then treating them exactly like native
citizens. They are admitted to all public offices with
1 As late as 1866 a Congressional committee on immigration re-
ported that the immigrants were a most valuable acquisition to this
country.
82 Emigration and Immigration.
the exception of the presidency and vice-presidenc}!
: of the United States.
I From the broadest point of view this has been
wise poHcy. It has prevented the formation of a
.servile class in this country or of any well-defined
system of classes. It has offered every induce-
ment to the immigrant to make the most of him-
self. It has carried out logically our ideas of politi-
cal liberty and equality, and we have secured all the
advantages that pure democracy can offer. Until
very recent years the power of assimilation has j
apparently been sufficient to carry on this process
without any serious break-down of the political ma-
chinery. Of late, however, there are signs that the
task is becoming more difficult and that we are
suffering under serious evils due to this constant
addition to our voting population of persons not
altogether fitted to exercise the right of suffrage.
Some of these indications are as follows :
Our liberality in conferring political privileges on
aliens has resulted in destroying every test of the
qualification of immigrants for the exercise of politi-j^
cal rights. The naturalization act now in force is
practically that passed in 1802. The requirements
of this act are: — i. Preliminary declaration three
years before admission (modified in some cases) ; 2.
Proof of five years* residence in the United States
and one year's residence in the state ; 3. Proof of
The Political Effects of Immigration. 83
good conduct, attachment to the principles of the
constitution, etc. ; 4. Renunciation of any title of
nobility ; 5. Declaration, on oath or affirmation, that
he (the person desiring admission) will support the
constitution of the United States, and that he
abjures his former allegiance. The evident inten-
tion of this act was to admit all persons of good
character, who came to this country with the inten-
tion of staying here, to all the rights and privileges of
American citizens. We have in fact gone so far as
to advocate expatriation as a natural right against
the law of all European states, including the common
law of England, and we have effectually protected
the rights of naturalized citizens of the United States
by the expatriation treaties of 1868 and the following
years.
But the curious thing is that in practice the test
Drovided and the proof required in regard to good
onduct and attachment to the principles of the
onstitution have become a dead letter. The courts
have made them a merely formal matter, and any
alien who has been here the required length of time
and complied with the requirement as to previous
declaration of intention, and who can bring one or
two persons who will say that he is of good char-
acter, is at once admitted to citizenship. In the
enormous number of applicants every year, it would
be impossible for the court to test the character
84 Emigration and Immigration.
of each very thoroughly ; but it seems to have
become the custom not to attempt any such exami-
nation, the court contenting itself with the formal
procedure noted above. In some cases the clerk
conducts the examination, while the court is busy
with other matters. Ajiy court, either state or fed-
eral, can naturalize aliens, so that the states have
authority over this matter which is of national im-
portance. So also the right to exercise the suffrage
does not depend upon naturalization, although it gen-
erally accompanies it, but is determined by state legis-
lation. In fourteen states the foreigner is allowed to
vote for members of the state legislature, and conse- "^
quently for members of Congress, after he has de- I
clared his intention of becoming naturalized, although I
he has never applied for naturalization and never
may. In some states only one year's residence is
required and that need not be the year previous to
naturalization. Often the applicant can neither read!
nor write. What can he know about the Constitu-
tion of the United States?^
We are thus conferring the privilege of citizenship,
including the right to vote, without any test of the
man's fitness for it. There seems to be no reason
why we should not make the test a real one, and
unhesitatingly reject those who through ignorance
^ Justice William Strong in the North American Review, rol. i38,
p. 418 (1884).
The Political Effects of Immigration, 85
or depravity are unfit for the exercise of political
riirhts. One or two recent court decisions show a
tendency on the part of the judges to carry out the
spirit of the statute instead of complying simply with
the letter.i
1 One of these decisions was rendered by Judge Daniels of the New
York Supreme Court. Upon a close examination of an applicant for
naturalization before him and the usual witnesses, the fact was brought
out that the applicant was in the habit of becoming intoxicated at
no great recurring intervals of time, and while in that condition of
abusing his wife and family, and that he had on several occasions been
arrested and punished therefor. Judge Daniels refused the application
for naturalization on the ground that the applicant was not proved to
have behaved as a man of good moral character, well disposed to the
good order and happiness of the United States as required by the
United States Revised Statutes. He said : " This privilege of citizen-
ship has been provided as a reward for good behavior and demon-
strated attachment to the principles of free government. The design
of the law is, in great part, certainly to induce and secure the co-
operation of all the persons residing in the United States in support-
ing the laws and Constitution of the country. But this fidelity to its
interests and progress is not to be expected from and will not be sup-
plied by disorderly and dissipated persons. Reliance cannot be placed
upon them for the support of the principles of free government or the
enforcement of good order or the laws enacted to secure and promote it.
They cannot therefore be held to be persons who have behaved them-
selves as persons of good nigral character, and without that they are not
permitted by the statutes tj become citizens of the United States." In
another case which came up in the Philadelphia Court of Common
Pleas the applicant, a Hungarian, when asked to take the oath of
allegiance declared that he did not believe in a deity of any kind and
that he neither swore nor affirmed. His application was refused. Both
these decisions seem to manifest a tendency on the part of the cour*.3
to scrutinize more closely the qualifications of foreigners for naturali-
zation. Bradstreet's, September 29, 1888.
86 Emigration and Immigration,
One consequence of the admission of this mass of
foreigners to political power before they have become,
thoroughly assimilated with our body politic is seen
I in the attempt to win the foreign (particularly the
Irish and German) vote. These naturalized citizens
retain certain prejudices in respect to their old
home, or have ideas not in unison with those of the
mass of American citizens about them. The Irish
demand that we shall conduct our foreign policy
according to the relations of England to Ireland, and
that we shall protect naturalized citizens in acts hos-
tile to a power with which we are on terms of friend-
ship. Politicians yield to these prejudices, and our
politics are debauched by the attempt to win these
votes. The German vote in many localities con-
trols the action of political leaders on the liquor
question, oftentimes being in opposition to the sen-
timent of the native community. It is a bad thing
(that our political life should be controlled by the
/^prejudices of a single nationality of newly arrived
immigrants. It prevents questions being decided on |<
their merits. It introduces motives which have noth-
ing to do with the question of the prosperity and
the advantage of the country at large. It is possible
that one might include here the power exercised
in our politics by the Roman Catholic church, based
on this power of suffrage vested in persons who vote
according to the commands of the priests. It is not '
The Political Effects of Immigration. %'j
easy to trace this out closely, but there is no doubt
that such power has been exercised in times past in
the state of New York for the purpose of gettin§^<
public money and lands for church purposes. Resi-
dence in this country seems to weaken the hold of
the church on its male members. But the mischief
is done by admitting these men to vote before the
solvent power of American life has had time to
loosen the bonds of priestly authority, and before
they have absorbed our notions of freedom of con-
science and absolute separation of church and state.
There would have been no trouble as it is, if it had
not been for the increasing number of immigrants,
which makes this uneducated and un-American voteU
so powerful. The combination of the number and j
the docility of this vote makes it dangerous to our I
institutions.
The bad influence of a purely ignorant vote
seen in the degradation of our municipal adminis
trations in America. The foreign born congregate
in the large cities, especially the mass of unskilled
laborers. There they easily come under the control
of leaders of their own nation who use their voting
power for the purpose of getting possession of thei
city government and administering it for the sake
of the money to be made out of it. Places in the
municipal service are filled with political work-
ers, and city contracts are jobbed out to political
te 1
i
88 Emigration and Immigration.
supporters. This indirect bribery rapidly develops
into direct buying of votes at the polls. The evil
does not stop with a bad and extravagant adminis-
tration of city affairs. State elections and even
national issues become entangled in the same vicious
connection, until the highest officers of the national
government may owe their election to some corrupt
municipal leader and be obliged to acknowledge the
obligation and cancel it by appointments to office after
election.
Another indication of the unfortunate effect of
introducing so many men of foreign birth and
belief into our social body is seen in the recent out-
breaks of anarchism and socialism. These move-
ments are always led and for the most part carried
on by persons of foreign birth. Socialism and an-
archism are not plants of American growth nor of
Anglo-Saxon origin. They are not natural to the
American mind ; neither are they due to any deterio-
ration in the condition of the laboring class in this
country, and thus the fruit of despair and hopeless-
ness in regard to the future. They are the importa-
tions of foreign agitators who come here for the
purpose of making converts to their doctrines. These
men are under false impressions as to the rights of
liberty which they shall enjoy here, and they interpret
the freedom of agitation and of speech which we
allow them as evidences of the weakness of our gov-
The Political Effects of hnftiigration. 89
ernment. And in fact we have so long been accus-
tomed to permit the individual to air his grievances,
depending upon the common-sense of the mass of the
people to distinguish the true from the false, that
we are ill prepared to cope with men who do not hes-K
itate to resort to conspiracy and revolutionary vioi
lence. We have been accustomed to rely upon the
general respect for law which prevails in a democracy
where the law is the rule of the majority. In these
agitators we have characters of a different stamp,
men who use freedom for the purpose of conspiring
social revolution by violence.
These outbreaks have a grave significance in an-
other respect. They indicate a change of sentiment
towards the institutions of this country. In former
times, — thirty or forty years ago, — the immigrants
regarded our republic as the model of a free gov-
ernment. They rejoiced in their escape from the
monarchies of Europe, and came here enthusiastic
for democratic institutions. To-day the socialist and
the anarchist look upon the republic as entirely in-
adequate to fulfil their ideal of what a state ought
to be. They are as far in advance of us as we
have supposed ourselves to be in advance of the
absolute monarchy. They desire the overthrow of
all social institutions, of state, of property, of inher-
itance, of marriage and of religion. Their views are
incompatible with social and political institutions as
90 Emigration mid Immigration.
we regard them. There is and must be an irrecon.
cilable conflict between their success and the main-
tenance of existing civiHzation. The two cannot Hve
together.
But however willing we may be to acquiesce in
reform and modification of institutions in order to
meet the changing conditions of the age, yet there
are certain ''fundamentals" in every social system,
to destroy which destroys the system itself. Our
institutions have grown up with us and are adapted
to our national character and needs. To change
them in accordance with the demands of agitators
who have no knowledge of that character and those
needs would be absurd and destructive. It is putting
politics on the worst of all ''a priori" bases. It is
neglecting all the teachings of experience and adopt-
ing the theoretical views of men of another civiliza-
tion, brought up under the influence of other ideas.
Most of these men have been trained under the
paternal system of governmental restraint and super-
vision of the actions of the individual. They have
no i4ea of the independence and self-reliance of the
American character, the result of many years of
self-government and taking care of one's self. The
economic and political philosophy adapted to them
is entirely different from that adapted to an English-
speaking race.
But these men, ignorant of our institutions, hostile
The Political Effects of Immigration. 91
to them and plotting their overthrow, we not only
admit freely to the country but grant to them free-
dom of speech and of meeting, and in a few years
invite them to share in political power. It cannot
be but that we should feel the effect on the smooth
working of democratic institutions which have for
their pre-condition the understanding that the mass
of the community are in favor of them and are satis-
fied with them. Even if we admit these men to the
country they should be held responsible before thej^
criminal law; and there is absolutely no need that*
they should be given a share in that government
which they do not understand, and which not under
standing they pretend to despise and condemn.^
^ Prof. James Bryce in his American Commonwealth thinks that
immigration " is not so largely answerable for the faults of American
politics as the stranger might be led by the language of many Ameri-
cans to believe. . . . The cities have no doubt suffered from the immi-
grant vote. But New York was not an Eden before the Irish came;
and would not become an Eden were they all to move on to San Fran-
cisco." Vol. 2, p. 261. Yet Mr. Bryce speaks in many places of the
strain put on political institutions by this constant immigration; for
instance : " The immigrants vote, ... but they are not fit for the suf-
frage. They know nothing of the institutions of the country, of its
statesmen, of its political issues. Neither from Germany nor from
Ireland do they bring much knowledge of the methods of free govern-
ment. . . . Such a sacrifice of common sense to abstract principles
has seldom been made by any country. ... A stranger must not
presume to say that the Americans have been imprudent, but he may
doubt whether the possible ultimate gain compensates the direct and
certain danger." Vol. 2, p. 67. See also pp. 260, 261, 267, 270, 328,
and 710.
92 Emigration and Immigration.
It is in these respects that unrestricted immigra-
tion is affecting our political life. Years ago when
the annual arrivals were small and the total number
of foreigners insignificant compared with the native
population, the strain was not felt. But as the num-
ber has increased and the character of the additions
to the electorate has not improved but deteriorated,
and as this hostility to our social institutions has
displayed itself, the strain has become increasingly
difficult to bear. It is a serious question how long
democratic institutions can stand such a test. The
demand of the individual for privileges and enjoy-
ments is becoming more and more vociferous. The
duty ^f the individual to the social organization and
his obligation to the social order become less and
less emphasized, until it appears as if all political life
were about to resolve^ itself into a selfish struggle for-'
personal advantage. We have not simplified but
enormously complicated the evolution of our social
life by the addition of so many heterogeneous and
discordant elements.
T'*' or TH« r
JNIVERSITT
»2lCAUF0«S>
CHAPTER VI.
THE ECONOmC GAIN BY IMMIGRATION.^
Unrestricted immigration has been defended on
two grounds — the one ideal, the other practical.
Freedom of migration is sometimes asserted to be a
natural right of man, or at least one of the products
of political liberty with which we have no business
to interfere. Coupled with this argument the notion
frequently appears that this country was destined to
be an asylum for the oppressed of all nations, and
that to restrict their coming would be to prove faith-
less to our duty. On the other hand, perfect freedom
of immigration has been defended and encouraged on
the ground of the immense economic advantage ofj
this constant addition to the labor force of the com-V
munity. It is proposed to deal in this chapter with
the second of these considerations.
It has already been pointed out that the wonderfuV
growth of this country is due in large measure to the
constant additions to our productive laboring popu-
lation by immigration. Thereby we have been en-
1 A portion of this chapter has already been printed in the Political
Science Quarterly for June, 1888.
93
94 Emigration and Immigration.
abled to occupy and settle the lands of the West. It
if true that the immigrants do not take to agricul-
ture as readily as they do to mining and mechanical
industries, possibly on account of the capital required
to purchase and stock a farm, but they are found in
large numbers engaged as agricultural laborers and
in kindred occupations. The census of 1880 re-
turned nearly 800,000 persons of foreign birth as I
engaged in agriculture, over ten per cent of the whole K-
number so engaged. In the Western States the pro-
portion is much larger. In Minnesota, for instance,
over one-half of those engaged in agriculture were of
foreign birth. In the state of Michigan in 1887,
according to an investigation by the bureau of labor
statistics, of some 90,000 farmers in that state over
one-third were of foreign birth. In all the Western
States there are communities composed entirely of
immigrants and their descendants. The Scandina-
vians, especially, take to farming; and large num-
bers of British Americans are engaged in the lumber
industry.
The exploitation of our mineral wealth has been
due largely to the immigrants, — over one-half of the
men employed in mining in 1880 being persons of
foreign birth. It is this unskilled but hardy labor!
that has enabled us to open up our immense country
with railroads ; and over one-quarter of the employees] L
of these railroads at the present time are of foreign
The Economic Gain by Immigration. 95
birth. It IS scarcely possible to see how we couldj
have accomplished this work without immigration. \
So also after the country has been opened up, it is
the foreign born who have aided in its development
by working in factories and in mechanical industries
of all sorts, besides furnishing us with domestic ser-
vants. Nearly one-third of all the persons engaged
in manufacturing, mechanical and mining industries
in 1880 were of foreign birth. In our cotton mills,
45 per cent of the operatives were of foreign birth ;
in our woollen mills, 39 per cent ; in our paper mills,
33 per cent ; in our iron and steel works, 36 per
cent ; among our curriers and leather dressers, 45
per cent ; among our engineers and firemen, 27 per
cent ; and so on through almost the entire list of fac-
tory operatives. Even in the small mechanical trades
we are dependent on the foreign born. Among our
bakers 56 per cent are foreign born ; among our
blacksmiths, 27 per cent ; among our boot and shoe-
makers, 36 per cent ; among our butchers, 38 per
cent ; among the carpenters and joiners, 23 per cent ;
among the cigar makers, 44 per cent; among the
coopers, 33 per cent ; among the masons, 35 per
cent ; among the plasterers, 27 per cent, etc. Many/
of these crafts have gone very largely into the hands <
of foreigners.^
In many of the Western States nearly one-half of
* Tenth Census of the United States, vol. 2, Manufactures.
96 Emigratio7t and Immigration.
/all the persons engaged in manufacturing, mechani-
cal and mining industries are of foreign birth ; for
instance, in Minnesota, 47.5 per cent; in Wisconsin,
48.8 per cent; in Illinois, 43.3 per cent; in Michigan,
43.4 per cent, etc. In the heavily manufacturing
states of the East even, the number of employees
of foreign birth is extremely large. In Massachu-
setts it was 35.6 per cent; in Rhode Island, 39.1 per
cent ; in New York, 38.7 per cent ; and in Connecti-
cut, 32.4 per cent.
The census of 1880 showed a great army of work-
ers who were born abroad engaged in adding to the
wealth of the United States. There were over a
million Germans, nearly a million Irish, four hundred
and fifty thousand British, three hundred and fifty
thousand British Americans, two hundred thousand
Scandinavians, and four hundred and fifty thousand
foreigners of other nationalities. We may well ask
what we should have done and what we should now
do if it were not for these workers. It must also
be remembered that there are thousands of laborers
who are the children of immigrants, who are not
included in these figures.
While admitting that immigration has been one
of the most important factors in our past develop-
ment and that without it our national progress would
certainly have been much slower, yet it does not 1
^follow that further immigration is necessary or even I
The Economic Gain by Immigration. 97
a distinct economic gain. In former times, with our
undeveloped resources and our unoccupied territory,
any addition to our Ubor force of whatever character
WIS a distinct gain. Now, however, we are beyond
I hat first necessity. We have a population of sixty
millions, the natural increase of which must be
\ between a million and a million and a half a year;
this would seem to be quite sufficient to give us
additional labor force as it is needed.
It behooves us, therefore, to consider more care-
fully the exact economic gain by immigration under
our present conditions, when we do not absolutely
need the immigrants and can exercise some freedom
of choice in admitting them. It is not good states-
manship nor good political science to go on trusting
to the generalizations of a quarter or a half a century
ago when conditions were entirely different.
The economic gain to us by immigration is of two
kinds. First there is the money or capital which the
immigrants bring with them ; and secondly there is
the economic value of the immigrants themselves. Is
it possible to calculate what these items amount to }
The immigrants bring with them a considerable
amount of money. Each one sells what he has in
the old country, and brings the proceeds in the shape
of gold or drafts or goods to be invested in the new.
In this way there is a constant stream of capital
flowing from Europe to the United States which
98 EtnigratioJt and hnmigration.
never appears in the statistics of imports, and which
has to be offset by no exports. This is a clear
economic gain, and when the immigration is heavy
this invisible supply of wealth is very considerable
and adds to our general prosperity. Various attempts
have been made to ascertain how much this sum
amounts to. In 1856 the immigrants who landed at
the port of New York were asked how much money
they had with them, and the average was $68.08 per
capita. It was said at the time that this amount was
probably too small, because many of the immigrants
would suspect that the question was asked from
some fiscal motive and would put the amount too
low. Mr. Friedrich Kapp, one of the commissioners
of emigration, estimated that the amount brought by
each immigrant was at least $100. This would indi-
cate that there was an annual movement of thirty or
forty or fifty millions of gold to this country, which
did not appear in the balance of trade — no inconsid-
erable sum. At the present time Kapp's estimate is
probably too large. Our immigrants come more and
more from the poorer classes of society, so that the
sum per capita brought in 1856 is probably no longer
brought. We have some German estimates which
indicate a smaller sum; and whatever the Germans
bring, it is probable that the Irish, the Italians, the
Hungarians, etc., bring still less. The latest German
I
The Ecofwmic Gain by Immigration, 99
authority^ estimates that the emigrants take with
them from 300 to 400 marks each, that is from $'j^
to ;^ioo. An Italian able to raise that sum of money
for each member of his family would never think of
leaving home.
It must be granted, however, that the immigrants
do bring with them a certain amount of wealth,
although that amount is probably not very large at
the present time. Against this, two things are to
be taken into consideration. One is that the inflow
of gold into this country is offset by the outflow due
to remittances to friends abroad. These remittances *
are either for the purpose of supporting those who ',
have been left behind, or of paying their passage to i
this country. Their exact amount has never been
ascertained, as they go for the most part through the
hands of private bankers or steamship companies.
The British Board of Trade printed, for many years,
in the ** Statistical Tables relating to Emigration
and Immigration from and into the United King-
dom," a table of the amount of such remittances,
furnished through the courtesy of certain bankers
and mercantile houses. The tables are not at all
complete, for there is no means of ascertaining
the amount transmitted through private parties, and
1 Becker, Unsere Verluste (lurch Wanderung, in SchmoUer's Jahr-
bucher, XI, S. 776.
loo Emigration and Immigration.
firms unwilling to make a return.^ Since 1848 no
less than ;£32,294,596 have been thus sent back
by settlers in the United States and British North
A.merica. In the year 1886 the amount was ;£ 1,276,-
^33. The number of emigrants of British and Irish
origin going to the United States and British North
America during that year was 177,455, so that in
place of the money each emigrant took out with him
0;h we know that a sum equal to ^35 was returned. We
must also remember that there is a tide of returning
immigration. Many of the emigrants, after they have
acquired what to them is a competence, return to
pass the remainder of their days in the old country.
All these returning emigrants carry money with
them, and often, doubtless, large sums. Thus in
1886 there were not less than 60,076 persons of
British and Irish origin who returned to the United
Kingdom from the United States and British North
America. This would leave a net emigration of
117,379, and the money taken by each of these
emigrants would be offset by a known sum of 1^52.84.
^ [Is it not probable that the balance is against the
^ /United States? 2
There is one other way of looking at this matter,
1 These tables were discontinued in 1888 for that reason.
2 " Dr. Tuke affirms that the amount sent to Ireland by emigrants
every year exceeds the total yearly cost of poor relief in Ireland.
And in England too we know that many old people are maintained
The Economic Gain by Immigration. lOi
when one is inclined to regard every dollar of money
that the immigrants bring with them as so much gain
to the United States. This has been suggested by
the efforts of a German statistician to prove that the
loss by emigration is not so great as it seems to be.
Dr. Becker 1 remarks that when an eMgrant ta^^di'
300 or 400 marks, out of the coilntry- ^^?itlt tiitri, be is*: :
not really taking his share of the national fortune.'
The per capita wealth of Germany is at least 3000 or
4000 marks, so that the sum each emigrant takes with
him is only one-tenth part of the average national
wealth. So long as emigration does not cripple the
power of production, it simply leaves a proportion-
ately larger share of the national wealth for every
one who remains. If we turn to this country we
shall meet the reverse phenomenon. The average
wealth in this country must be at least $1000 per
capita. What does it mean when we add to the
number of our citizens thousands who possess only
;^ioo each } Is the country by that fact alone better
or worse off.-* The sum total of wealth has been^
increased, but the average well-being of the commun-
ity has been decreased. These men add to the cost
out of the savings of their descendants in the colonies." Lord Monks-
well in The Fortnightly Review, March, 1888.
The Italian Vice-Consul at New York reported that ^^4,825,000 had
been sent to Italy from the United States alone, in 1883. Rosmini in
II Giornale degli Economisti, July, 1888.
* In the article cited above.
102 Emigration and Immigration,
of the social organization, while they do not bring
the property which is to pay the taxes to defray the
expenses of such organization. In a club there is
always an initiation fee for new members; and as
the club increases in prosperity and wealth this
; Jiijiiiatipn,' f^Q.i^ ,Qften raised with the perfectly just
feelir^^ cthgit it it*>^worth more to belong to the cliib
tiow than when' it was started. It will be said that
the immigrant gives himself to the new country and
1? thus pays his initiation fee. In that case the amount
of money he brings with him is utterly insignificant.
If he is worth having, it makes but little difference
whether he brings money with him or not. If he
is not worth having, the paltry sum h'e brings does
not begin to pay for the risk of receiving him.
The real economic gain to the United States by
immigration consists in the value of the full-grown
"^abor supplied to it by the countries of Europe.
Every person passes through two periods of life, —
that of unproductive childhood when he is only a
burden to the community, and that of productive
manhood when he not only supports himself but re-
imburses the community for the cost of bringing him
up. The longer this second period compared with
the first, the better for the community ; for the total
cost of the unproductive period is spread over a
greater number of years. The larger the number
of persons in this second period compared with the
The Ecojtomic Gain by Immigration. 103
first, the lighter the burden upon the community;
for it is shared by a larger number of persons. Of
the immigrants into the United States, about 20 per
cent are below the age of fifteen, about 70 per cent
are between the ages of fifteen and forty, and the
remaining 10 per cent are above the age /of forty.
In other words, four^^fths of the immigrants are in
the second period, that of productive manhood, and
the great mass of them in the most productive part
of that period, that of early manhood. These full-
grown laborers have been brought up by the coun-
tries of Europe and then presented to us able to
support themselves and others. When one considers
that the main effort of the world, after all, is to keep
itself alive and to provide a future generation to take
the place of the present, the economic value of suchU
a gift is enormous. It is like a workman having the
latest and best tools provided for him without ex-
pense while he is paid for the increased product on
the same basis as if he had made the improvements.
It would be absurd to contend that such a move-
ment as wc have depicted — the bodily transference
of such a labor force from one country to another —
has no economic significance. We study with care
the statistics of imports and exports ; we watch with
interest the movements of the precious metals ; we
encourage industry by artificial tariff regulations ;
and wc are quite sure that all these things have an
104 Emigration and Immigration.
important influence X)n the prosperity of the com-
munity. Is it not probable that this shifting of
labor IS as important in its influence on the happi-
ness of the community as the balance of trade or
the fluctuations in the rate of discount ? No one
can deny that ; but it is necessary that we take care
to judge this influence rightly and measure its force
correctly
Various attempts have been made to express in
figures the economic value of the immigrant. The
most common estimate of this sort and the one most
widely known is due to Mr, Friedrich Kapp.^ He val-
tues the immigrant simply at the cost of bringing him
up. Kapp found an old estimate of Dr. Ernst Engel,
the head of the Prussian bureau of statistics, that the
cost of bringing up a child in Germany was ^30.00
a year for the first five years, ;^37.50 a year for the
second five years, and ^45.00 a year for the third five
years, making a total of ;^ 562. 50 as the cost of bring-
ing up a child to the age of fifteen, when it is pre-
sumably able to support itself. Kapp said that it
would cost at least double that to bring up a child
in the United States, so that the value of each immi-
l grant above the age of fifteen is from $1000 to $1200.
On this basis the money value of the immigration
each year is t^ery large. In the year 1886, for in-
stance, the number of immigrants above the age of
* Kapp, Immigration an^l the New York Commissioners, etc., p 146.
The Economic Gain by Immigration. 105
fifteen was 263,189. Taking them at the German
valuation they represent a sum equal to nearly
$i50,cxx),0C)0, or at the American valuation a sum
nearly twice that. The immigration of 1886 was not
excessive, — in fact it was below what it is now, so
that immigration represents hundreds of millions gf
dollars saved to the United States each year.
It is easy to point out how superficial this method
of estimate is. As Riimelin says,^ it belongs to the
half-truths or pseudo-truths of political economy.
The worth of a man is not measured by the cost of
bringing him up, coupled with the consideration
whether he has paid this cost back to the community. •
If that were true, a man's greatest worth would be
when he first acquires physical strength ; and the
experienced man of forty would be of less value than
the raw youth of eighteen. Nor is every man worth
the cost of his bringing up. Of the immigrants into
this country, some are already disabled, some will die
in a few years, others will land in the poor-house,
and still others will be found in our asylums and
gaols, an absolute burden to the community to which
they are said to be worth a thousand dollars each.
The value of a man lies in his capacity and character,/
not in what it has cost to bring him up. If the imJ
migrant finds an opportunity to exercise the talents
^ Riimelin, Bevolkerungslehre, in Schonberg's Handbuch der Politi-
schen Oekonomie, 2 Ausg. Bd. 2, S. 916.
io6 Emigratio7i and Immigration.
he possesses, he is of value to himself and to the
community whether he has cost $500 or ^1000 to
bring to the age of manhood. If he is a vagabond,
ignorant, lazy, or vicious, then he is worse than of
no value to the community that receives him, and
the country that has gotten rid of him may well be
congratulated upon losing that form of capital.
This way of looking upon the cost of bringing up
children as an investment of capital is wholly falla-
cious. The cost of rearing children can scarcely be
said to be a loss of capital. It is true that they have
cost the parents labor and sacrifice ; but the sacrifice
has been made and the parents are in the same
position in which they would otherwise have been,
save that they have worked harder and have not
had so many enjoyments as they might have had.
They have preferred to bring up the children in-
stead. So also Kapp's statement that it costs double
to bring up a child in this country compared with the
cost of bringing it up in Germany is in one sense
true, but in another sense it shows the fallacy of the
whole estimate. The reason why it costs double in
this country is because we are so well off that we
spend more on our children. We are so well off that
we can afford to have children and to bring them up
in an expensive way. That is the reason why our
ancestors had such large families in the early days of
the republic. Our forefathers were not wasting their
The Economic Gain by Immigration. 107
capital, neither were they making an investment of
capital ; they were simply marrying and having large
families because they were well-to-do. It is not to
be looked upon as a matter of dollars and cents. It
is a good thing, socially and morally, that men should
have children and rear them. This forms the family
tie and keeps up the continuity of social habits and
traditions. If we could take our children at birth
and send them over to Europe and have them
brought up as German peasants or Irish cottiers
or Italian lazzaroni at little or no expense, — would
it pay us to do it }
A second method of estimating the economic value
of the immigrant is to say that he should be val-
ued in the same way as a slave. Whatever may be
the character of the immigrants, — it is argued, —
whether they come from the upper or the lower
classes of society, whether they are desirable addi-
tions to the political and social elements in our coun-
try or not, whether they are ignorant or intelligent,
skilled or unskilled, — they do represent a certain
amount of brute force. There are a certain number
of able-bodied laborers landed on our shores and
prepared to do the rough work which we have to
do. They certainly possess the value of the slave
who was also ignorant, unskilled and often degraded.
The value of a slave before the war was perhaps
;^8oo or ^1000. Every able-bodied immigrant is
io8 Emigratio7t and Immigration.
worth at least that, and may be worth more if he
is a skilled laborer.
The fallacy is very similar to that exposed above,
— namely, that of looking upon the man as an invest-
ment of capital. The slave is an investment of cap-
ital. He can be made to do a certain amomit of
unskilled labor by fear of the lash. He can be fed
and clothed in the cheapest possible way, so as to
make the net return from his labor as great as possi-
ble. If he is not profitable in one employment he
can be turned into another, and if he ceases to be of
value in one part of the country he can be sold into
another part. As a last resort, if it does not pay to
support him, he can be worked to death and his
place taken by new purchases or importations — as
was said to be the policy at one time of the sugar
planters in the West Indies, who found it more profit-
able to work their slaves hard for a few years and
then import new ones, than to keep those they had
in good condition.
But the immigrant is no slave. He is a free man.
He works or not as he pleases, and when and where
he pleases or chance determines. His consumption
is regulated only by his own desires or his abihty to
satisfy those desires. It may be prudent and eco-
nomical ; it may be foolish, wasteful and even inju-
rious. He may be willing to work; he may be
entirely unwilling. The only lash is that of hunger,
The Economic Gam by Immigration. 109
which in many individual cases proves utterly in-
effective. The trouble is that it can be escaped by
stealing or begging. To compare the value of the
immigrant with that of a slave is to say that the
free negroes of the West Indies are of the same eco-
nomic value now that they were when they were
slaves ; while the fact is that liberty has simply
taught them not to labor.^
There is, now, a third method of estimating the
economic value of the immigrant, which is scientifi-
cally correct and which is the only one to be em-
ployed if we are determined to express in figures the
value of this increase of our labor force. The valuej
of the immigrant depends upon the amount of wealth I
he will add to the community before he dies. From J)
this of course must be deducted the cost of maintain-
ing him while he lives. The result will be his net
earnings. This, capitalized at the current rate of
interest, gives us the present value of the man. It
is exactly on the principle of a life annuity. To cal-
culate the value of an immigrant you must know his
expectation of life, his earning capacity and his ex-
penses or the cost of maintaining him. The method
is not easy of application, for we do not possess these
data. But the method is not at all a new one and
1 See Mr. Froude's doleful account of the condition of the blacks
in the West Indies.
no Emigratiott and Immigration.
some applications of it will throw light on our
problem.
Dr. William Farr, for so many years the head of
the statistical department of the registrar general's
office in England, in a paper read before the Lon-
don statistical society in 1853 ^ gave elaborate tables
showing the present value of the future earnings of
an agricultural laborer, his future cost of mainte-
nance, and the value of the excess, which is the eco-
nomic value of the man. Thus, at the age of twenty,
the value of an agricultural laborer's future wages is
£,j\%2 ; the value of the necessary cost of future
maintenance is ;£248 ; and the net value of his ser-
vices is therefore £,2i\. Or, taking the whole of
the male agricultural laborers into account their
mean gross value was £349 ; the mean gross value
of the subsistence of the laborer as child and man
was ;£i99, leaving ;£^I50 as the net value of agri-
cultural laborers, or of the whole male population
estimated by this standard of the agricultural la-
borer. To extend the calculation to the whole popula-
tion, including females, the standard might be lowered
from ;£i50 to jCiio. In the thirty-ninth report of
the registrar general (1877) Dr. Farr proceeds to
make an application of this method to the question
of the loss to England by emigration. He says : ^
1 William Farr, Vital Statistics, p. 60.
2 Ibid.
The Economic Gai?t by Immigration. 1 1 1
" The emigrants are chiefly adults married and unmarried ; the
men greatly exceeding the women in number. A few infants
accompany their parents. Valuing the emigrants as the agricul-
^tural laborers have been valued at home — taking age and service
into account — the value of the emigrants in 1876 was ;^I7S per
head.
" If we may venture to apply this standard to the whole period
it will follow that the money value of the 8,000,000 people that
left England, Scotland, and Ireland in the years 1837-1876 was
1400 million pounds sterling or on an average about ;^3S,ooo,ooo
a year." /
This valuation, $875 per capita, is certainly high
enough to satisfy the most ardent advocate of im-
migration.
Recently Dr. Becker,^ the head of the German
statistical office, has used the same method in esti-
mating the value of the German emigrant. Wages
are lower and the margin of living is much closer in
Germany than in England. In fact the author reck-
ons that, taking the whole laboring population of
Germany of the class from which the emigrants
come, their future earnings just cover their future
consumption. The emigrants, however, are a select
class as to sex and age, and he reckons the present
value of the emigrant at from 800 to 900 marks,
that is, from $200 to 1^225.
This, Dr. Becker thinks, is a real loss to Germany.
^ Becker, Unsere Verluste durch Wanderung, cited above.
112 Emigration and Immigration.
Farr takes a more cheerful view of the effect on
England. He says:
" It may be contended that emigration is a loss to the mother
country. It seems so. It is like the export of precious goods
for which there is no return. But experience proves that simul-
taneously with this emigration there has been a prodigious in-
crease of the capital of the country, especially in recent years.
Wages have risen and the value of the laborer has risen in pro-
portion. . . . When the man leaves the village where he was
born and bred, he leaves the market open to his fellows, he
removes to a field where his work is in demand, and carries his
fortune with him. It is the same way when he emigrates to the
colonies. His parents in rearing him have expended their gains
in the way most agreeable to themselves. They have on an
average five children, instead of two or three, or none. Taking
a wider view, the emigrants create articles of primary use with
which in exchange they supply the mother country ; they have
sent to England in the thirty-nine years wheat, cotton, wool, gold
to the value of hundreds of millions." ^
But whatever the gain or loss to the home country,
)oth authors are agreed that there is a gain to the
new country and that this gain is measured in this
way. In fact, as wages are so much higher in the
United States and living not very much dearer, the
present value of the laborer is higher here than it
was at home.
There is the same fallacy in this estimate as in
1 Fawcett, on the other hand, thought that state-aided emigration
in connection with compulsory education caused a direct loss to the
community. Political Economy, p. 602.
The Economic Gaift by Immigration. 113
the other two. The present capitalized value of the
laborer's future wages depends on his having an op-
portunity to earn those wages. The immigrant has
an economic value only if there is opportunity for
him to work. He is of use to us only if we can
make him useful. This will depend on his charac-
ter and capacity and on the work still to be done in
this country and the number of men we have to do
it. This brings us to the question : Do we need the
immigrant .-* Here we have an immense labor force
offered us. Can we make use of it } The answer to
this question is difficult if not impossible. Some con-
siderations of the following sort may be suggestive.
In order to form any opinion on the question, •
whether or not we can make use of the immigrants, I
it is necessary to know what they can do, that is,
what their occupation or profession is ; and, again,
to know whether they settle in that part of our
country where such occupation can be successfully
pursued. I believe far too little attention has been
paid to these two points. Immigration has been
welcomed as so much addition to our labor force, or
denounced as a burden to our poor rates, without
considering whether it is of the right sort or in the
right place. But that determines most often whether
it is to be a gain or a burden.
It is not probable that our statistics of the occu-
pations of immigrants are very accurate in detail.
114 Emigration and Immigratioji.
They are collected in too hurried and careless a way
to be strictly correct. But for our present purpose
they are sufficient to show that the mass of the
immigration is of common, unskilled labor.
The statistics collected by the United States show
the following results : Nearly one-half of the im-
migrants are without occupation, this including of
course the greater part of the women and children.
Of the immigrants with occupations about i per cent
are professional, about 22 per cent are skilled arti-
sans, and 76 per cent are unskilled laborers — for
that is what the column ** miscellaneous " in the
statistics really amounts to. In other words three-
fourths of the immigrants are unskilled laborers.
These statistics are confirmed by those from the
other side of the water. In 1886, out of 54,507 adult
males (twelve years of age and upward) of British and
Irish origin, who migrated from Great Britain to the
United States, 26,096 were general laborers, 91 71
were agricultural laborers, gardeners, carters, etc.,
and 12,906 were of occupations not stated.^ These
latter were either boys or common laborers, so that
it is entirely safe to say that three-fourths of the
emigrants of British and Irish origin are laborers.
Of the emigrants from Germany in 1886 that came
by the way of Hamburg, 33.58 per cent were returned
1 Statistical Tables relating to Emigration and Immigration from
and into the United Kingdom, 1887.
The Economic Gain by Immigration. 115
as of no occupation. These are presumably women
and children. 24.89 per cent were laborers, 15.87 per
cent were agriculturists, 16.70 per cent were of the
industrial class and 8.96 per cent were of the com-
mercial class. Excluding the persons without occupa-
tions, the laborers and agriculturists constituted 61
per cent of those emigrants having occupations.^
Of the emigrants from Italy in 1885 (fourteen years
of age and upward), 59.63 per cent were husbandmen
and shepherds, 12.43 P^r c^^t were navvies, porters,
and other day laborers, 13.30 per cent were artisans
and operatives, and 5.49 per cent were masons and
stone cutters. That is, more than 72 per cent were
farmers or laborers.^
!, It appears, then, that three-fourths of our immi-
grants are agriculturists or common laborers. Can
we make use of that kind of labor } One more anal-
ysis will be necessary before we answer that ques-
tion. One of the greatest misconceptions about this
whole subject is, I believe, that all we have to do
with this mass of immigrants is to put them on the
land " out West " and make farmers of them ; and
farming is commonly conceived of as an unskilled
occupation. Now the great mass of these laborers
are not farmers at all or even farm laborers, as will
1 Bulletin de I'lnstitut international de statistique, 1887, 2eme livrai-
son, p. 53.
* Statistica della emigrazione italiana per gli anni 1884 e 1885, p. xix.
1 16 Efnigration and Immigration,
be seen by reference to the statistics of Great Brit-
ain and Germany above. In the statistics of the
United States, also, the farmers are always outnum-
bered by the laborers pure and simple. Thus in
1886 there were returned 20,600 farmers and 86,853
laborers. Even of these so-called farmers it is to be
remarked that they are not farmers in our sense of
the word. They are the farm laborers accustomed
to do the rough hand work on the farms of Europe.
They do not possess either the skill, or the capital,
or the knowledge of modem methods and the use of
agricultural machinery, requisite to enter into the
ranks of the farmers of this country. At best they
can only drift on to the farms and become farm
laborers, and perhaps after a while, by thrift and
industry, start kitchen gardening in the neighbor-
hood of a large city. However, these farmers and
farm laborers can be easily disposed of. There is
plenty of land in this country, and if they will really
become farmers or farm laborers there will be no
trouble in providing them places and opportunity to
earn a living. But the great mass of laborers are
not farmers and are not fitted to become farmers.
If you put them on the land they would not know
how to cultivate it. Of their own disposition they
are less likely to go into farming than anything else,
because a farmer must rely to a great extent upon
himself. This self-reliance is the quality they pos-
The Economic Gain by Immigration. 117
sess least of all. The number of immigrants of this
class is very large and it is this class that increases
most with every increase of immigration. How nu-
merous they are will be seen by the following figures :
Number of Immigrants classed as Laborers, i 880-1 888.
1880 ..... 105,012
1881 147,816
1882 209,605
1883 136,071
1884 106,478
1885 83,068
1886 86,853
1887 140,938
1888 170,273
Total (nine years) i , 186, 1 14
These are the men who build our railroads, who
clean our streets, who handle our freight, who are
employed more or less in every factory for lifting
and moving heavy weights, trucking, cleaning up,
etc. Can we make use of these men and in this
number.? He would be a bold man who would as-
sert that the United States, with its miles of railroad
building every year, with its canals and river transpor-
tation, with its constantly expanding factory system,
with its use of machinery whereby unskilled labor
can be more and more utilized, cannot furnish em-
ployment to this common labor. In one sense, the
newer a country is the more of this unskilled labor
it needs, because it has more of the primary work
to do — reclaiming the soil and making channels of
communication. No one can look upon a map of
the United States and see the immense unreclaimed
Ii8 Emigration and Immigration.
territory, without saying to himself : There is room
here for the unskilled labor of the world in reclaim-
ing these deserts, in draining these swamps, in open-
ing up these distant regions. In the face of this
generalization I shall only venture the following
practical suggestions.
In every country this unskilled labor is of itself
the most abundant. It constitutes the mass of the
community. In it is found that great number of
men who earn their daily bread literally by the sweat
of their brow. In it are found all those who are not
particularly intelligent and who, either from lack of
inclination or want of opportunity, have not been
trained to any great skill. They are the hewers of
wood and the drawers of water, who form the lowest
but necessary stratum of every society. I venture
to assert, not only that they are present in every
community in sufficient number, but that no com-
munity has ever found it difficult to produce them.
What is difficult to produce is the intelligent and
skilled workman, — the man who can take the ini-
tiative himself, who not only does work but makes
work. Possibly fifty years ago we needed more ot
this common labor than we could produce ourselves ;
but we are not in that early civilization now. We
have been receiving, too, an immense quantity of
this kind of labor during these years. Ever since
the great movement of 1 846 the immigration has
The Economic Gain by Imtnigratio7t. 1 19
been predominantly of this character. We have in
our employ hundreds of thousands of these unskilled
laborers and their descendants.
I would suggest, again, that the progress of our
civilization renders the demand for this unskilled
labor less than it formerly was. We have not built
all our railroads, but the country is fairly well
opened. We have not brought all our land under
cultivation, but we have taken up the better part of
it, and there is no reason why we should desire to
cultivate that inferior part which will make a less
return for the labor. The first work of the pioneer
has been done and will never have to be repeated.
Then, again, the progress of civilization has enabled
us to apply machinery to much of this work. The
steam drill, the dredge, the derrick, do the work
which was formerly done by men. We accomplish
more with a few men than our ancestors did with
hundreds. Steam takes the place of human muscle,
and it is just as well that it is so. There is no
advantage in our growing into the condition- of those
countries where it does not pay to use machinery
because labor is so cheap. Let us seek increased
cheapness not by making our labor cheap, but by
inventions which shall make our labor effective.
Finally, I would suggest that to make this un-
skilled labor effective there ought to be some guar-
antee that it shall get to the place where it is
120 Einigration and Immigration.
needed, not merely stay where it happens to land.
One would say that the place for this mere muscular
labor is on the frontier, where it can do the rough
work required. There is absolutely no guarantee
that it will get there. The census of 1880 showed an
'immense preponderance of the foreign born in the
cities, as did the census of Massachusetts for 1885.
The truth about these unskilled laborers is, as every
one knows, that they are in many cases stranded in
the large cities where they form the nucleus for an
ignorant, often depraved proletariat, living from hand
to mouth, a burden to the poor rates and a social
incubus on the community. This jjn^killed^labor
is not in^ its right _ place, the place where it aids
the development of the country, but is in directly
the wrong place, adding to the complexities of that
already complex problem, the government of large
cities.
— j»^ The object of this long and minute consideration
of the economic value of the immigrant is to point
" out that this is a question which cannot be settled
off-hand by a simple affirmative or negative. Our
civilization is becoming so complex that we have to
pay greater attention to the working of social forces
than we have in times past. It is now a serious
matter if we get too much labor or labor of the
wrong kind. We, like the countries of the old
world, have our periodical commercial crises and our
The Economic Gain by Immigration. 121
host of unemployed. The Commissioner of Labor
reported in 1886 that according to his estimate there
were a milHon men unemployed in the United States,
and that the underconsumption caused by their in-
ability to buy was enough to account in large meas-
ure at least for the continued commercial depression.
The Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics said
in its report for 1887: **that out of a total of
816,470 persons employed in gainful occupations in
that state, 241,589, or 29.59 per cent were unem-
ployed at their principal occupation, on an average,
4. 1 1 months during the year ; in short that about
one-third of the total persons engaged in remunera-
tive labor were unemployed at their principal occupa-
tion for about one-third of the working time."
In the face of these facts it is no longer possible
to say that there is such a demand for labor in this
country that immigration will take care of itself. I
do not mean to assert that there is absolutely no
more room for additional labor force. But I do say
that we need not concern ourselves lest we should
not have labor force enough ; while there is rather
reason to apprehend that continued additions from
outside sources may increase the supply of laborers
faster than the opportunities for work.
It was one of the theories of Karl Marx that the
modern industrial system creates a sort of reserve
army of proletariat. When times are good, all the
122 Emigration and Immigration.
men are employed. As soon as times are bad, the
employer discharges a portion of his men and they
are thrown into the street to look out for themselves.
Some of them die ; others are weakened by disease
and hardship so that they are never able-bodied
workmen again ; some fall on the poor relief ; others
are added to the ranks of the criminal and the
vicious. It is absolutely necessary for the modern
factory system that there should be this reserve
army in order that it may take advantage of the
times of increased demand. But it creates a prole-
tariat which is a burden to the community at large.
It is a serious question whether we are not creating
such a proletariat at the present time.
^ OF TH« ^K
UNIVERSITY
*S^CAUFOBt^
vii.
CHAPTER
COMPETITION WITH AMERICAN LABOR.
All the arguments regarding the economic gain
to this country through free immigration proceed
from the standpoint of the production <^ wealth.
They ignore the character and social influence of
the immigrant, and content themselves with showing
the advantage of having command of this increased
labor force which is furnished us free of charge by
the nations of Europe. Too often, also, they pass
over a second question which even from the purely
economic standpoint deserves consideration. That
is as follows : What effect has this constant immi-
gration on the labor already here ? on its wages, its
standard of living and its contentment ? This ques-
tion is no less important than the preceding one, —
in fact in many respects it is more important. For
the first is merely a question of more or less rapid
growth in material wealth, which, in the present con-
dition of the United States, is a matter of minor im-
portance. But the second ramifies out into the great
question of the condition of the working classes, of
their content or discontent, and this at the present
123
124 * Emigratio7t and Immigration.
time is the most serious problem confronting civil-
ized nations. We have not vindicated free immigra-
tion even economically, when we have shown that it
increases the production of wealth. We must go
one step further and determine its effect on the
laboring class of America.
Complaints in regard to this have not been want-
ing. These complaints will be found to be of three
kinds. In the first place, it is asserted that the ad-
dition of a thousand men a day to the number of
laborers in this country tends to lower wages and
throw men out of employment. Coupled with this
is the notion that if the national government protects
the American workman against foreign competition
in products, it should protect him equally againstK
direct competition of alien labor. A second com-
plaint is of the importation of laborers under con-
tract for the express purpose of taking the places of
men already employed, which renders nugatory all
the efforts of labor organizations to increase wages
by strikes or combinations. And, in the third place, it
is said that many of the immigrants have a lower
standard of living than is customary in America so
that competition with them on a plane of decent liv-
ing is impossible. It will be found on examination
that these three questions are entirely distinct in
character; the first is almost purely an economic
question, while the last two are largely social.
Competition with A^nerican Labor. 125
It is difficult to measure the direct competition
which immigration brings on the working men of
America. It is undoubtedly considerable. It may,
indeed, be said that our industries are constantly ex-
panding and by this expansion are able to absorb an
additional number of laborers without injuring the
former ones. This additional labor force may even
be necessary to give that remunerative employment
to capital which after all is the source of the pros-
perity of the entire community, laboring men in-
cluded. There is nothing more discouraging to
enterprise than a scarcity of labor, or labor at such
high prices or so completely under the control of
labor unions that no calculations can be made for
the future and no contracts undertaken with the
certainty that they can be filled at the agreed price. \
An expansive prosperity is more conducive to abun-
dance than a narrow-minded conservation of indi-
vidual interests. And working men, by monopolizing
the opportunity to work, may destroy it.
Direct competition in the case of skilled labor
would not seem to be very severe. As we have seen
in the previous chapter only about ten per cent of
the immigrants are skilled laborers. In 1886 the
only classes of which the number was over 1,000
were as follows. Bakers, 1,209; blacksmiths, 1,420;
butdiers, i, 190 ; carpenters and joiners, 3,678 ; clerks,
3,027; mariners, 1,803; masons, 1,835; mechanics,
126 Emigration and Immigration,
1,886; miners, 3,469; shoemakers, 1,681; tailors,
2,682; tobacco manufacturers, 1,160. Certainly the
competition brought about by the annual addition of
that number of men to each trade cannot be very
great.
But this is looking only at the surface of things.
When we remember that over thirty per cent of the
persons engaged in manufacturing, mechanical and
mining industries in the United States are of foreign
birth, it is clear that either the statistics of immigra-
tion are grossly inaccurate or that large numbers of
the immigrants learn a trade after they arrive here.
The latter is probably the case. The truth is that
the introduction of machinery has made many occu-
pations which were once skilled, really unskilled, or
such as can be learned after a short apprenticeship.
The unskilled foreign labor readily masters the
simple operations of the machine and then crowds
into the factories and workshops. It is here that
the unskilled and " miscellaneous " categories in the
statistics of immigration find their resting place.
The lower classes of Europe crowd into the factories Iv
of America, driving out labor that was intelligent if
not actually skilled. As has often been said, the
Irish drove the New England girls out of the cotton
factories of Massachusetts, and now the French
Canadians are driving out the Irish.
It is here that the American or Americanized
Competition with American Labor, 127
laborer is being subjected to the most strenuous
competition. This labor from Europe is not inaptly
labelled "miscellaneous" by the bureau of statistics.
It comes ready to take up any occupation in which
it can earn a living, I do not suppose that tbe
French Canadians when they come to the United
States enter themselves as cotton-mill operatives.
Probably they have never seen a cotton-mill in their
life. They are only potentially cotton-mill opera-
tives ; but they fill up the mills just the same. So
very likely the Hungarians who are imported to dig
coal in the Hocking Valley are not miners when
they arrive. They take the place of the former
workmen, however, just as if they were bona fide
miners.
It is sometimes argued that this lower labor simply
displaces the former by shoving it up to a higher
position, and thus benefits not only itself but also
the former. It is said that the American girl no
longer needs to work in the factory because that
kind of labor is now performed by the Irish or the
French Canadian, and the American is left free forl^
higher kinds of occupation. If that were universally
true it would be a favorable process. But we have
no guarantee that it works in that way. It may and
it may not. Where the immigration is large in
amount the displacement may^ occur without any
corresponding "placement,'* so to speak, elsewhere.
128 Emigration and Immigration.
Or it may force the displaced labor to another local
ity and change the character of the whole community,
and very probably for the worse. Relations will cer-
tainly adjust themselves in the end, but it is optimistic
fatalism to say that they will always adjust themselves
for the better.^
Again the relation between free immigration and
a protective tariff does not appear altogether clear.
Protectionists commonly say the tariff is for the
protection of American against the poorer-paid labor
of Europe. But what avails it to keep out the
goods and introduce the laborer and put him side by
side with the American in the competition for pro-
ducing goods at a low price ? For the manufacturer
it is obviously an advantage to have a monopoly of
the market for his goods and a free command of the
market in which to buy labor. But the advantage to
the working man is not obvious. . Notwithstanding
I this the protectionists are commonly in favor of
unrestricted immigration.
The reverse position of free trade in goods and
restriction of immigration seems to me much more
consistent. It is sometimes said that it is of no use
to keep out the laborer if at the same time you admit
1 The testimony before the House of Commons Committee on Im-
migration is very instructive on this point. In three trades, tailoring,
boot and shoe-making, and cabinet-making immigration seems simply
to have produced an over-supply of labor and given rise to the " sweat-
ing system." See post, p. 136.
///
Competition zvith American Labor. 129
the commodities in which his labor is embodied.
But there is this difference. If you admit the goods
you pay for them in others made by our laborers
with all the advantages of our natural resources, im-
jjroved machinery, superior organization of labor, etc.
But if you admit the foreign laborer you set him
down side by side with the American, furnished with
all the advantages which the latter possesses, and in
direct competition with him. In the former case you
get the advantage of his low wages and cheap living
by trading your superior advantages against them.
In the latter you divide your advantages with him,
and then compete for the same market. But what-
ever position one may take in regard to free trade in
goods, it is unreasonable to say that you are protect-
ing the American laborer when you admit free trade
in labor.
. The competition is felt more keenly when the
v4ai)orers are imported under contract. There have
been a large number of such cases during the last
ten years. Many of the Italians who have worked
on our railroads have been brought by contractors
for that purpose. The New York commissioner of
la"bor in 1885 found a contractor in Buffalo who admit-
ted that he had furnished four hundred foreigners to
railroad companies and other corporations during the
preceding year. We hear of similar cases in New
Jersey, Kansas, Iowa and Wisconsin. The com-
130 Emigration and Immigration,
missioner of the labor bureau in the last named state
asserts that in the year 1886 the state was flooded
with circulars from an Italian Labor and Construc-
tion company in New York offering to let men "for
tunnelling, grading, mining, breaking stone, laying
ties, repairing washouts, laying water and gas mains,
street cleaning, shovelling snow," or to take such
work as sub-contractors " at figures that will repay
inquiry." " Contractors will find that the authority
of this company over the men it furnishes is of
special advantage in all dealings it may have with
them." It is notorious that the mine owners in
Pennsylvania and Ohio have imported laborers to
take the places of men at work in the mines.
In New England, French Canadians are brought
in to work in the cotton-mills and at brick laying.
At the latter trade they work during the summer
and return to Canada for the winter. In New York
the labor commissioner reported similar cases of
masons who were brought over here during the busy
season and returned to Europe in the winter.
The testimony before the Ford immigration com-
mittee brought to light several cases of the impor-
tation of laborers under contract in spite of the law
of 1885 against it. That law is extremely difficult
to enforce because it is almost impossible to get
evidence. The laborer is interested in concealing the
fact, and there is no mark by which the inspectors
Competition with American Labor. 131
at Castle Garden can tell that he is under con-
tract.i
Working men protest against the importation of
labor under contract not on account of the small
amount of additional competition involved in it, buto
because it destroys the eflficacy of their labor organi^
zations. It renders strikes harmless, and the demand
for increased wages or the protest against reduction
of wages equally unavailing. It makes the employeq
master of the situation, for the supply of this im-
ported labor is practically unlimited.
it Competition is rendered more difficult for the
^American laborer and more disastrous for the com-
munity because many of the immigrants of recent
years represent a very low standard of living. The
reason these imported laborers can displace the
American by taking lower wages is that they live
in a way which it is impossible for the native work-;
man to imitate and which it would be a misfortune for
the civilization of the community if he should. It is
^ The evidence was in regard to Swedes brought over to take the
place of strikers at Fall River, p. in; Hungarian and Italian miners
in Pennsylvania, p. 205, ff.; miners in the Hocking Valley, Reports of
consuls, p. 74; Bohemians and Russian Jews as cigar makers, p. 364,
and p. 379; cotton-mill operatives in Newark, p. 370 and p. 450;
watch case makers, p. 425; stone cutters employed on the capitol,
Austin, Texas, p. 138; worsted mill hands at Forge Village, p. 578;
ship carpenters in Detroit, p. 624. Much of the testimony was very
indefinite, but some written contracts were presented.
^
132 Emigration and Immigration,
not merely that the immigrants have received less
wages and are less well off in the old country than in
this. That would be true of the mass of them since
the movement began, and the very fact that they
expected better wages in this country has in many
cases been the chief inducement to come. But in
former times most of them had the desire for a
higher style of living and quickly lifted themselves
up to the American standard. In recent years, how-
ever, a class has come, accustomed to a distinctly
lower standard, with no notion of anything else,
perfectly content to live as at home, and whose\
only ambition has been to save enough to return/
to the old country.
The types of this class of people with which we
have become familiar during the last few years are
the Italians, the French Canadians, the Poles and
the Hungarians. The causes which have contributed
to their immigration are the cheapness of transpor-
tation, the solicitation of steamship agents and the
importation of contract labor.
It is scarcely necessary to describe the standard of
living of these people. Attention has been directed
to it by newspapers, bureaux of labor statistics, labor
organizations and the Congressional committee al-
ready mentioned. Italians testified before this com-
mittee that they were accustomed to live at home on
fifteen cents a day. The committee visited in person
Competition with American Labor. 133
the tenement houses in New York city, where these
new comers lodge, and saw sights that almost baffle
description. Huddled together in miserable apart-
ments, in filth and rags, without the slightest regard
to decency or health, they present a picture of
squalid existence degrading to any civilization and a
menace to the health of the whole community.
Ignorant, criminal and vicious, eating food that we
would not give to dogs, their very stolidity and
patience under such conditions show that they lack
the faintest appreciation of what civilization means.
Neither is it merely in the slums of great cities
that we find this condition of things. In Connecti-
cut the commissioner of the bureau of labor statistics
speaks of the Italians in the following way : —
" The Italian immigrants come almost entirely from the
southern districts of Italy. They come in rudely organized
bodies, not as a rule under contract from the employers them-
selves, but under the leadership of certain of their own nation,
who arrange concerning their employment and pay. The
Jialian\s r^hjprt in f^r^mmg to this country is simple. He wishes
to stay here until he can save two or three hundred dollars, and
then go home again. This sum amounts to a competence in his
own country, and enables him to pass the remainder of his days
as a man of wealth and established position. . . .
" The task which he has before him is not a difficult one.
. . . His expenses he is able to reduce to a minimum. In
matters of personal comfort he is the reverse of exacting. He
can bear an infinite amount of crowding, without apparently
interfering with his enjoyment of life or sense of decency. His
134 Emigrattojt and Immigration.
diet is simple; it is even cheaper tlian that of the French
Canadian. While the Canadian relies largely on peas and other
cheap and nutritious vegetables, the food of the Italian consists
largely of stale bread, stale fruit and stale beer. The Italians
use these things at a point where they cease to be marketable.
Of fruit in particular, they save large quantities at a point where
it has almost no commercial value, applying a kind of drying
process of their own, and afterwards cooking the dried fruit from
time to time as it is wanted." ^
The Hungarians, Poles and Russians represent
the same condition of things, as is proven by abun-
dant testimony both in this country and before the
British commission charged with the investigation
of the immigration of foreigners. It is not the im-
migration of individual paupers and indigent persons
that we have to do with, but the beginning of an in-
flux of whole classes, that threatens to lower ouij^
']•
1 Report, 1885, pp. 60 ff.
The Italians do not seem to be favorites anywhere. The consul of
the United States at Marseilles^ France, writes: "There are in this
city more than 54,000 Italians, who hold toward the native laboring
classes a relation somewhat similar to that of the Chinese in the West-
ern American states. The Italian laborer is quite as industrious and
even more economical than the Frenchman. His wants are so few
and simple that he can exist upon a small percentage of his earnings,
and in a competition of wages he underbids the native laborer. In
several parts of this district there have been heard recently sharp pro-
tests, attended in some instances by violence, against the Piedmontese,
who swarm across the frontier and seek employment in mines and
tanneries and upon public works; but these manifestations have been
promptly suppressed and denounced as uncivilized and dangerous to
French working-people in other countries." Consvdar Reports, p. 71.
Competition with American Labor. 135
standard of material civilization. Suppose we raise^
up those who come to something like the level of
the American laborer so that they will demand the
same decencies and comforts of life and refuse to
accept anything else ; — there is an inexhaustible
supply behind and new quotas will be brought over
for the same purpose as before, namely, in order to
obtain cheap labor.
In fact at our very doors we are trying an experi-
ment of the sort, that is, to bring up a foreign com-
munity to our standard of living. The French Cana-
dians are of the same class as the Italians, and for
some years they have been flowing into New Eng-
land. They work for less wages and live on cheapei|
food than the native American or the Irishman.)
They are steadily driving the natives out of the
factory towns of New England. But they do not
take the place of the old inhabitant in the socially
life of the community. They remain under the
power of the priest ; they economize in every way
so as to return home ; they do not send their chil-
dren to the public schools ; they add to the illiteracyl^
if not to the vice and the crime of the community ;
they lower distinctly the general intelligence and
civilization. There is an inexhaustible supply of
them. When a mill owner wants additional laborers,
he simply goes among those who are already here
and asks them if they have any friends or relatives
136 Emigration and Immigration.
in the Dominion who would like to get employment.
They all do know of such cases. The only difficulty
is that they have not the means of coming. The
agent advances the funds, the new men come and
a fresh addition is made to the population, lacking
every characteristic of value to the commonwealth
except industry and a peaceable disposition.
One result of this kind of immigration will be the
introduction of those abuses incident to the factory
system, against which we have for so many years been
battling with our factory and sanitary and school
legislation. The testimony before the Ford com-
mittee ^ showed that the '' sweating system " was
already introduced in New York, with its miserable
wages, long hours of work, employment of women
and children,* and disregard of all the decencies and
health requirements of life. The testimony before
the English committee on the immigration of for-
eigners into London was still more emphatic. Two
or three trades, tailoring, boot and shoe-making, and
cabinet-making have gone over into the hands of
foreigners, mostly poor Russian and Polish Jews.
The universal testimony was that these new arrivals,
entirely destitute, ignorant of the language and accus-
tomed to a low style of living, fell into the hands of
the "sweater" almost as soon as they landed. The
"sweater" is simply a sub-contractor who takes
1 p. 222.
Competition with Americaji Labor. 137
clothing or shoes, already cut, from the manufac-
turer, agreeing to do the necessary work on them
for a given price per piece. There is great compe-
tition among these middle men and their number is
always large because but little capital is required and
it is easy to start in the business. The "sweater"
then takes the bundle of clothes or shoes home to
be made up. In a small room — sometimes a living
room, sometimes a shop built out over a yard — he
employs a number of men to assist him. Crowded
together in this room, the atmosphere made foul by
gas, by the coke fire used in heating the pressing
irons and by human breath and exhalations, the men
sit and work fourteen, sixteen and sometimes eighteen
hours a day. The sweater retains one-half the sum
received for the work, distributing the remainder
among the workmen. The tendency is to reduce
the earnings to the lowest possible point. The menf*
are helpless. It is either work or starve. The labor*
is of such poor quality that a "greener" can learn the
trade in a month's time, and if a man leave his place,
it is immediately taken by an immigrant. The same
competition reduces the wages of sewing women to
the merest pittance, and the testimony showed that
women in London were working fourteen hours a
day in order to earn a shilling. In New York it
was also shown that the wages of sewing women
138 Emigration and Immigration.
had been reduced by the competition of Russian and
Polish men who would work for less wages.
I It is this kind of competition that is unfair to our
(working classes and a danger to the community. It
(is unfair to ask the working man to compete against
Jlabor based on a standard of living which we should
/be unwilling to see him adopt. It is unwise of the
community to allow a competition which, if un-
checked, must bring the whole laboring class to a
lower standard of civilization.
Most economists and statesmen now acknowledge
that competition in the labor market should take
place only on a certain plane of living. We have
not allowed employers to drive any bargain they
pleased with their employees. We have restricted
the hours of labor for women and children ; we
have regulated the condition of the workshop and
the factory ; we have compelled the children to go
to school. In other words we have had an eye to
the maintenance of the standard of civilization for^
the present and the future. In so doing we have
pursued not only a humanitarian but a sound politi
cal and economic policy, for it is not for the good of
the community that any class should lose its position
in civilization.
' Such are the chief considerations in regard to the
effect of immigration on the economic condition of
the working classes in this country. It is not easy
Competition with American Labor. 139
to measure the exact influence on wages. The chief
effect is that the laborer is subject to a constant
stress of competition which it is difficult for him to
meet. All the old barriers of custom, nationality, and
skill have been broken down and he is at the mercy of
the market. Part of this is the natural result of the
factory system of production, but a good deal is the
effect of the constant supply of new and competing
labor from abroad. No one employs the American
because he is a man, or a neighbor, or a compatriot,
but simply because he will take the least wages.
The national pride in him and his work has ceased
It has for a long time been a dogma of economists
that labor suffers from its immobility. It is unable
to transfer itself readily from one employment to
another or from one place to another in order to
get higher wages.^ Cairnes said that competition
affected wages only within certain groups. Where an
occupation requires skill, it is impossible for others
to enter it. It is true that the new generation may
be trained into it, if it does not require too long an
apprenticeship, and thus competition be introduced,
but this process is difficult and very gradual. So
1 Walker in The Wages Question (1876), p. 180, said: "We may
fairly say that the laboring population is never likely to be more com-
pletely mobilized by intelligence and the possession of property thai^is
desirable in order to render it certain that just the amount of movement
from industry to industry, and from place to place, which may be re-
quired, will be eflfected." •
140 Emigration and Immigration.
Fawcett delighted to point out that agricultural
wages were considerably lower in one English county
than in another only a few miles distant, owing to
the inertia of the agricultural laborer. Professor
J. B. Clark has however demonstrated that the bar-
riers between groups are steadily giving way owing
to the spread of intelligence and education and the
introduction of machinery, which does aw^ay with the
skill formerly required. The immobility of labor in
respect to place is being rapidly removed by the facil-
ities for transportation and by immigration. When
a strike occurs on the street railroads of New York
city, unskilled labor flocks from all the neighboring
cities to get the job. The Chicago, Burlington and
Quincy railroad brought men from Pennsylvania, and
in a few days it had duplicated its entire force of
engineers and firemen. This mobility of labor is
greatly assisted by the employers, who go so far as to
import laborers from Europe in order to escape the
demands of their men. In no country of the world
has this barrier of distance and national prejudice
been broken down so completely as in the United
States. Our workmen are subject to competition
from the world. Almost every strike at the present
time ends in the defeat of the strikers.
For the working men of this country, with their
high wages and high standard of living, it is a misfor-
tune to have these barriers of distance, of acquired
Competition with Americait Labor. 141
skill and of nationality fall away so completely. It
renders their position one of great instability and
uncertainty. It makes it impossible that they should
calculate or provide for their future or that of their -
children. It destroys local attachments and settled
feelings. It renders efforts to better their condition
either by organization or by thrift and prudence
almost entirely futile. Competition among laborers
there will always be ; and it is not desirable that they
should be entire masters of the situation, for absolute
power is no safer in their hands than in those of any
other class of the community. But with the present
mobility of labor described above, the competition
from the laborers already in this country will be suf-
ficient to secure us from any monopoly of labor.
It is well here to consider the true office of com-
petition. Its object is simply to put a spur on
producers so that they may be compelled to produce C^
and sell as cheaply as possible. Monopoly is always
dangerous because it acts as a shield to laziness, care-
lessness, and lack of enterprise, as well as gives the
opportunity to charge extortionate prices. When a
man has a monopoly, his profits are secure whether
he makes the best use of his raw material, his capital
and his labor, or not. When he is subject to compe-
tition all this is changed. He is obliged to stop the
waste of material, to turn over his capital quickly, and
142 Emigration and Immigration,
undersold by his rival and soon swept into bank-
ruptcy.
Normal competition is for the benefit of the com-
munity at large. The price of commodities is re-
duced to a point near the lowest possible cost of
production. The productive forces of the community
are utilized to the highest degree. The control of
the processes of production comes into the hands
of the most efficient masters. The direction of
the labor force of the community is confided to
the most skilful leaders. The incompetent, the
vacillating, the stupid employer is forced out of
the ranks, and his place is taken by the better
man. This is the glory of the modem system of
free competition, and it is to this system that we
owe the immense strides made during the last hun-
dred years in the production of wealth.
The laborer has shared in the blessings of free
competition. The cheapening of articles of ordinary
consumption has come to his benefit, for he is the
largest aggregate consumer. Cheapness has led to
increased demand for commodities and thus to
greater demand for his services. The competent,
enterprising employer can make labor more effi-
cient and can thus pay higher wages ; or, at least,
wages go further owing to the cheapness of com-
modities. The condition of the laborer tends conJ'x.
stantly to improve. He is in the favorable position'
Competition with Amencan Labor. 143
of a man who is selling his products in a rising market
and buying his supplies in a falling. His very ex-
penditures (which increase as his position becomes
more favorable, so that what was once consumed by
the few is now the daily consumption of the many)
make trade prosperous and employment greater.
Here is a circle which is the reverse of vicious.
Increased cheapness caused by industry, skill and
inventiveness is a blessing to the whole community.
Suppose, however, that increased cheapness is
gained by the substitution of labor with a lower
standard of living; — the charmed circle is at once
broken. The older labor never reaps the benefit of
the increased cheapness. The laborers either lose
their places and are thrown into the street, or are
compelled to accept wages which will not give them
the necessaries and comforts of life according to<
their standard. There is created a class of discon-
tented and unambitious workmen, who are no longer
interested in the prosperity of the community. Still
further, from a purely economic point of view, there
is no gain to the community at large. The de-
graded labor with its lower standard of living does
not make the same demand for commodities that
the old did ; and the increased cheapness instead of
bringing increased demand is accompanied by a
decreased power of consumption. Even the em-
ployers, in the distressing competition caused by
144 Emigration and Immigration.
decreasing consumption, soon find that their profits
have been reduced to the old level or even lower.
Two remarkable cases of this sort of substitution
of lower standard labor for higher have occurred in
the United States and sufficient time has elapsed to
perceive the effects. One is the influx of French
Canadians into New England ; the other is the set-
tlement of Scandinavians in the Northwest. Both
of these nationalities are extremely industrious, frugal
and peaceable. They are by no means the worst
class of immigrants that we receive. As Professor
Hadley says of the French Canadians : " In economy
of food . . . they teach us a lesson from which we
might learn a good deal. The trouble is that their
economy does not stop at a point where it would be
desirable." ^ The Scandinavians have been the most
powerful element in the development of several states
in the West. But what is the result after we have
acquired these new elements in our population.? The
following description is a newspaper account but is
confirmed by other testimony.^
*' They [the French Canadians] come in families, but never
to remain more than a few years, or long enough to save two or
three thousand dollars with which to purchase a Canadian estate
big enough to support them all in affluence and genteel superi-
ority over their neighbors. Then they go back. The accumula
■^ Connecticut Labor Bureau Report, 1885, p. 60.
2 The (N. Y.) Evening Post, October 22, 1888.
Competition with American Labor. 145
tion of this fund is not a matter of much time either. The pay
is small, it is true, but there is a ready explanation of their
speedy acquisition of wealth. Where the native earned $12 a
week, his Canadian successor gets $7, or at best $9, while the
woman workers average as a rule from 75 to 90 cents per day,
perhaps now and then $1. Those whom they replace received
from $8 to $10 per week. Here then is the explanation. They
all work. From the father and mother, daughters and sons, to the
smallest boy in the family, they are employed at the picker, the
loom, or in the mule loft gathering up empty bobbins from
the long vibrating spinners. The fund thus acquired goes into
the common purse for the common maintenance and for the
common coming estate in Canada. Thus in a comparatively
short period the sum is raised. While inborn frugality and the
economy taught by bitter experience somewhat facilitates this,
the true reason lies in the fact stated ; it is a striking contrast,
this utilization of every member of the habitan family, with the
custom of the American, Irish, or German operative, who as a
rule endeavors to support himself and his family on the product
of his individual exertions.
" The undesirable effects of Canadian occupation are felt not
alone in the great centres of industry. They have pushed out
into the little villages, which in many cases mortgaged them-
selves to induce mill corporations to set up shop among them,
that the townspeople might have employment, with increased
population, increased valuation, and increased business. Such
little hives of toil abound in plenty throughout Maine and Mas-
sachusetts — one or two mills making small hamlets bustling and
prosperous. The blight of the French Canadian has now come
over these, and he predominates among their working classes,
destroying the social economy and lowering the general standing
of the town."
146 Emigratio7t and Immigration.
In the same way another writer comments on tho
success of the Scandinavians in the West. They
have succeeded where the American with a better
start has failed. They have acquired farms and now
Hve in a state of great comfort. In a certain sense
it is a survival of the fittest. ** But is it the survival
of the fittest } Has the best man, the most valuable
citizen, the man on whom the nation could depend
in its hour of need, the man of brains, of energy and
enterprise survived 1 Or has the man who could en-
dure the hardest work and live on the coarsest fare
driven the better man to the wall and survived be-
cause he was trained in a school of toil and direful
poverty to a. life which no American will endure if
he can possibly escape its hard conditions .-^ " ^
What then has the community gained by the sub-
stitution of this cheaper labor force } The American
labor is forced elsewhere, the standard of living of
the laboring class is lowered, its consumptive power j
is decreased, and the civilization of the country isj
degraded. Such is the effect of unrestricted free]
competition without any regard to the plane onl
which the competition is conducted.
1 Letter from Fargo, Dakota, in The New York Times, July 24, 1887.
CHAPTER VIII.
SOCIAL EFFECTS OF IMMIGRATION.
The whole life of a nation is not covered by its
politics and its economics. Social science is not
composed simply of the science of government and
political economy. Civilization does not consist
merely of free political institutions and material
prosperity. There is a realm outside of political and
economic life which pertains to civilization and
which is covered by what ^may be termed social
science in its narrower sense. The morality of a
community, its observance of law and order, its free-|
dom from vice, its intelligence, its rate of mortality
and morbidity, its thrift, cleanliness and freedom
from a degrading pauperism, its observance of family
ties and obligations, its humanitarian disposition and
charity, and finally its social habits and ideals are
;ust as much indices of its civilization as the trial by
jury or a high rate of wages. These things are, in
fact, the flower and fruit of civilization, — in them
consists the successful "pursuit of happiness" which
our ancestors coupled with life and liberty as the
inalienable rights of a man worthy of the name.
14.7
148 Emigration and Immigration.
Democracy and national wealth, the characteristics
of the present century, are valuable as they con-
tribute to these signs of prosperity and content and
good-living.
Nothing, however, is more illusive than the attempt
to gauge these characteristics of a nation's position
in civilization. We can compare the constitutional
and administrative systems of different countries and
say which unites the greatest security for life and
property with the greatest liberty of the individual.
Statistics of trade, manufactures and wealth give
some notion of the material prosperity of a nation.
But there is no adequate expression for the degree of
its morality, or even its respect for law, much less
for the tone of its social life and the loftiness of its
f social ideals. It is for this reason that it is impossi-
\ ble to say of the different civilized nations of the
1 world which is the most civilized. It is true that
this is due to some extent to difference in standards,
so that the Englishman will prize most highly that
which is English and the German that which is
German, because the measurements are necessarily
subjective in each case ; but if there were a com-
mon standard of measurement it would be impossible
to apply it to such complex and delicate phenomena.
We are in the same position when we try to meas-
ure the social effects of immigration. The people of
the United States started out at the beginning of
Social Effects of Immigration. 149
this 'century with certain social traits and character-
istics which doubtless would have endured or devel-
oped, modified more or less by the peculiar forces of
our surroundings and external history. There can
scarcely be a doubt, however, that this development
has been further changed and modified by the addi-
tion of millions of persons of other races, from other
civilizations, and with other ideals of social life.
This modification may have been for good or it may
have been for evil, — in either case it is almost
impossible to trace it. Still further, many of these
foreign elements have been here for a long period of
time ; they have become inextricably intermingled
with the native elements so that they can no longer
be disentangled ; they have been modified by our
institutions and environment so that they have be-
come constituent parts of the whole. It would be
absurd to trace effect back to a specific cause or
to say that certain desirable things are the inheri-
tance from our American ancestry and that others,
— undesirable ones, — are the result of immigration. ^
We can, however, study tendencies. We cani
distinguish certain characteristics of the American
people before the immigration commenced and say
whether we are preserving or losing them. We
have statistics of the participation of persons of
foreign birth in the crime, vice and illiteracy of
the community so that we can reason that the
150 Emigration and Immigration.
average is increased or decreased by their presence.
All these things are tendencies only. They may
be merely temporary evils which will cure them-
selves, and which should cause no uneasiness. We
must not lay too much stress on figures alone, for
they may be badly gathered or misleading in many
respects. With this proviso we go on to study cer-
tain facts about the participation of our citizens of
foreign birth in the social life of the community.
From general observation and from the statistics
of occupations we know that the great mass of immi-
I grants come from the lower classes, and it is always
true that mortality is greater, and crime, vice, pau-
perism and illiteracy more prevalent among the
lower classes than among the higher. It is only
natural to expect therefore that the foreign born will
contrast unfavorably with the native population in all
these respects, simply because they represent more
' numerously these lower classes. It is not neces-
sarily true that these people are more depraved or
, unfortunate than the corresponding class in our own
' country, but they simply appear so because we are
comparing a lower class with a population including
both the lower and the upper class. This does not
change the fact, but it alters the complexion of
the fact. It is not an indictment against the indi-
vidual, for he may not be any more vicious or indi-
gent than his position in society compels him to be ;
Social Effects of Immigration. 151
but it is an indictment of the movement so to speak
which forces into our population an abnormal propor-
tion of the class that contributes to the crime, vice
and pauperism of the community.
This distinction is an important one. For if
criminality and poverty are simply the result of poor
surroundings, there is a possibility that improved
economic condition and higher social position may
remove the tendency and change the immigrant into
a virtuous, law-abiding and self-supporting citizen.
In many cases there is not the slightest doubt that
residence in the United States under the more favor-
able conditions has done this. Unfortunately our
statistics cover only the first generation and these
effects work themselves out most completely in
the second and succeeding generations. It must
always be borne in mind, therefore, that the statistics
themselves are not a condemnation in toto of the
persons to whom they pertain, but only indicate that
they have come from unfortunate conditions and that
the regenerative forces have not yet had a chance to
work. When these forces have had a chance we
may witness one of those wonderful transformations
which almost make us believe, in social science, that
a man's character is the product of his environment.
This distinction points to a further investigation
that will be necessary. That is, whether there are
any influences at work in Europe for the purpose of
152 Emigration and Immigration.
selecting and sending to us the depraved and weak.
Such a process condemns itself at once. It deliber-
ately chooses out of bad material that which is the
worst and imposes it upon us. This is a process of
natural selection which can only be a hardship to us
and work us evil. All schemes of deportation of
criminals and paupers, of state-assisted and charity-
assisted emigration must be condemned and protested
against by us. This is in reality the most important
part of the present investigation and will require
close treatment in the following chapter.
One more observation may be made here in re-
gard to the statistics of vice and crime and their
relation to the foreign born. Mortality, sickness,
crime, vice, pauperism, insanity and most bodily
afflictions become more frequent with advancing
age. As we have already seen both immigrants
and foreign born are abnormally represented in
the middle and upper age classes. This is true of
the immigrants because of the large number of
adult males. It is still more true of the foreign
born as contrasted with the native born, because
the children of the former, born after the arrival in
this country, are classed with the native born. The
result is that any comparison of the amount of crime
or vice or pauperism among the foreign born as com-
pared with the native born is unfair. Owing to the
advanced age of the former we should expect a
Social Effects of hnmigration. 153
greater amount. It is in most cases impossible to
disentangle the statistics so as to correct this error.
We can only make allowance for it.
There are no mortality statistics for the whole of
the United States that are of any value and abso-
lutely none that would show the difference in mor-
tality between the native and the foreign born. It
is said by Dr. Billings, who had charge of the vital
statistics of the Tenth Census, that the mortality is
greater among the foreign born than among the
natives, just as it is greater among the colored than
among the whites ; but this is in all probability due
to the economic condition of those classes. In cer-
tain specific diseases the Irish and Germans show a
larger mortality than the native born ; but any con-
clusions from the data are vitiated by the fact men-
tioned above that the children of the foreign born
are numbered among the natives, so that it is impos-
sible to attribute the increased mortality to race or
nationality. It would be an extremely interesting
and valuable inquiry to determine the influence of
the foreign born on our birth and mortality rate
and the prevalence of different diseases, but it
needs much more accurate statistics than any we
possess as yet.
Particular attention has been directed to the large
proportion of insane in the United States who are
foreign birth. The census of 1880 returned 65
arge
eof^
,65il
154 Emigration and Immigration.
insane people as of native birth, and 26,346 as of
foreign. That is the foreigners are nearly one in
three of the insane, while they are only one in eight
of the population. So Dr. Hoyt, the Secretary of
the New York State Board of Health, says: ''The
number of insane committed to its (New York's) va-
rious state hospitals for acute cases during 1886,
coming mainly from the rural counties, was 1248, of
whom Z6^ were of native and 380 of foreign birth, it
being an excess of nearly 42 per cent in the ratio of
the insane in the foreign born population over the
ratio of the insane arising from the native popula-
tion." In the cities the proportion is much greater.
These and similar figures have been subjected to a
close analysis by Dr. C. L. Dana,^ who points out
that the proportion is not just, because insanity is
a disease of adult life and the advanced age of the
foreign born would naturally give them a large pro-
portion. " The real facts are that about one-fifth of
the persons susceptible to insanity are foreign born
and these furnish a little over one-fourth of the in-
sane, or a little over their just proportion. The ratio
of foreign born insane to foreign born adults is .047
per cent and the ratio of native insane to native
adult whites is .041 per cent, and to total native
adults .036 per cent."
1 Paper read before the American Social Science Association, Sep-
tember 7, 1887.
Social Effects of ImmigratiGn. 155
Dr. Dana has also studied the frequency of ner-
vous diseases among the foreign and the native born.
The conclusions of his valuable paper are as follows :
" I. The statements as to the excessive influence of immi-
grants in increasing nervous diseases are based on an incorrect
study of statistics.
"2. The immigrants do slightly and directly increase the
amount of insanity out of proportion to the native population.
"3. Immigration increases insanity indirectly through influ-
ence on social life and through introduction of poor nervous
stock.
" 4. Only a portion and certain special races have these ten-U^
dencies to nervous and mental disease. '
" 5. The portion probably includes all Mongolians, the Asi- I
atic and African Semites, Celts and Iberians. '
"6. Immigrants develop a slight excess of organic nervous
diseases, but fewer functional nervous diseases proportionally than
the natives.
"7. Portions (the neuropathic races), however, soon develop
functional diseases to excess in the children."
The census of 1880 showed an abnormal propor-
tion of blind among the foreign born, but a small
proportion of idiotic and of deaf and dumb, indicat-
ing clearly the influence of the age proportions.
It does not seem possible, however, with bald statis-
tics to prove that the foreign born contribute more \^
than their share to the defective and crippled portion
of the community. Probably the most careful statis-
tical investigation of this sort ever made in the
156 Emigration and Immigration.
United States is that contained in the Massachusetts
Census of 1885. The results there seemed to show-
that the foreign born contributed proportionally
rather less than more to the defective classes.^ The
foreign born were 27. i per cent of the whole popu-
lation. Among the insane they were 37 per cent ;
among the chronic diseased they were 32.8 per cent ;
among the blind, 29.2 per cent; among the maimed,
27.8 per cent. In all these cases they were abnor-
mally represented ; but these are directly the cases
where the defect is more frequent among adults
than among children. But the foreign born were 34
per cent of the total population fourteen years of age
and over, and 36.5 per cent of the population twenty
years of age and over. It would seem therefore that
they contributed rather less than their share to these
defective classes. Still further while the foreign
born were 27.1 per cent of the entire population,
among the acute diseased they were only 26.3 per
cent; among the lame, 25.5 per cent; among the
bedridden, 22.8 per cent; among the paralytic, 21.5
per cent; among the deaf and dumb, 17 per cent;
among the dumb, 16.4 per cent; among the deaf,
14.3 per cent ; among the deformed, 14,4 per cent ;
and among the idiotic, 10.4 per cent. Some of
these low percentages are explicable by the small
number of children among the foreign born, just
^ Massachusetts Census, 1885, vol. i, part 2, p. cxxvii.
Social Effects of Immigration. 157
as the large percentages are by the large number
of adults. Idiocy for instance is a disease of child-
hood and idiots are as a class short lived. The same
is true to a less extent of the deaf and dumb and of
the deformed. They are short lived because in most
cases their infirmity is accompanied by a general
constitutional weakness or by difficulty in gaining a
livelihood. The bedridden and the paralytic again
would probably be people well advanced in life and
the foreign born are poorly represented in the high-
est age classes.
If we turn to other domains of social life, such as
crime, pauperism, and illiteracy, we shall find the
statistics much more unfavorable to the foreign
born.
In regard to crime, it is an undoubted fact that
large proportion of our criminals and convicts are
foreign birth. This was shown by the census of
1880, although the statistics are so incomplete that
they are scarcely worth quoting. The record of
every prison and penitentiary in the United States
would show an abnormal proportion of foreigners.
I shall give only the statistics of Massachusetts, be-
cause they disclose not alone the place of birth of
prisoners and convicts, but also their parent nativity.
In Massachusetts in 1885 while 27.1 per cent of the
population were foreign born, 40.60 per cent of the
prisoners and 36.87 per cent of the convicts were
:\
158 Emigration and Immigration.
foreign born. Even considering that 34 per cent of
the population of the age of fourteen and over are for-
eign born, here is an abnormal proportion. But the
figures are much more important when we take the
parentage of the prisoners and convicts into consid-
eration. Of the whole number of prisoners only
16.99 P^r ^^^^ have both parents native born, 60.30
per cent have both parents foreign born, while of
the remainder the parentage was unknown. Of the
convicts, 19.70 per cent have both parents native
born, 51.14 per cent have both parents foreign born,
and of the remainder the parentage is unknown.
Even when we consider that 47.36 per cent of the
people of Massachusetts were of foreign parentage,
these proportions appear excessive.
\ It is in the statistics of pauperism and poor relief
that we find the most accentuated indication of the
presence of the immigrants. Many of them are almost
entirely without resources. When they fail to get
work their scanty savings are quickly exhausted and
they are obliged to apply to public or private char-
ity. The Secretary of State of New York reported
in 1887 that there were in county poorhouses 9172
native paupers and 9288 foreign born paupers ; while
in city poorhouses there were 18,001 natives and
34,167 foreign born.
In Massachusetts they distinguish between home-
less children and paupers. The former are less than
Social Effects of Immigration. 159
twenty-one years of age and are dependants through
no fault of their own. They have not had any real
chance to support themselves. By far the greater
number of them are of native birth as might be ex-
pected, viz., 93.25 per cent. But when we inquire as
to the parentage of these children, we find that only
21.64 per cent of all the homeless children had both
parents native born, that 31.29 per cent had both
parents foreign born, and the remainder were of
mixed or unknown parentage. It is the children of
the immigrants who make up a large portion of this ,
unfortunate class.
Of the paupers in Massachusetts 44.03 per cent are
of foreign birth. ^ The parent nativity of the pau-
pers is very doubtful ; 26.23 per cent had both parents
native born, 35.75 per cent had both parents foreign
born, while the remainder were of mixed or unknown
parentage.
The state of New York suffers more than anyl
other from increased pauperism due to immigration,!
because the largest number of immigrants land at
the port of New York, and if disabled or unable to
work drift into the almshouse or asylum. The State
Board of Chanties gave the following facts in their
annual report for the year 1887:
1 It is an astonishing fact that out of 3696 paupers of foreign birth, 9^
2829 were Irish, i.e. 76.5 per cent, although the Irish constituted only
46.4 per cent of the total foreign born. Massachusetts Census, vol. i,
part 2, p. 1265.
i6o Emigration and Immigration.
''During the year ending September 30, 1887, the Board, in
pursuance of chapter 549 of the Laws of 1880, removed 216
chronic and disabled ahen paupers to their homes in different
countries of Europe as follows : To Germany, 68 ; to Ireland,
48; to England, 50; to Switzerland, 10; to Sweden, 9; to Nor-
way, 8 ; to Scotland, 5 ; to Denmark, i ; to Austria-Hungary,
10; to France, 2; to Russia, 4; to Holland, 2; and to Italy, 2.
All of these helpless persons were found in the poorhouses,
almshouses and other charitable institutions of this state, most
of whom had been dependent upon the state or its cities and
counties from the time of their arrival in the country, and their
physical and mental condition was generally such as to preclude
their becoming self-supporting had they remained. From the
records of the examinations of these persons, kept in the office
of the Board, it appears that 153 of them reached this state
through the port of New York, 34 through other United States
ports, and 29 by the way of Canadian ports, all shipped froni^
their homes abroad by the following agencies, viz. : By cities
and towns, 36 ; by benevolent organizations and societies, 89 ;
and by relatives and friends, 91. Their condition at the time of
landing, as shown by the examinations, was as follows : Feeble-
minded, so as to be incapable of providing' for themselves, 52 ;
imbecile, 26 ; lunatic, 25 ; vagrant and diseased, 27 ; crippled,
21; old and decrepit, 10; blind, 8; epileptic, 7; paralytic, 5;
deaf and dumb, 3 ; otherwise infirm or diseased, 32. The total
expense of removing these 216 helpless alien paupers to their
respective homes abroad during the year was $4,358.47 ; the
per capita expense, $20.18. The whole number of such paupers
thus removed, since the act went into effect, has been 839 ; the
aggregate expense, $18,000.37 ; the average expense per person,
$21.45. The authorities of the cities and towns, and the societies
and friends or relatives abroad, shipping these paupers to this
country, have, whenever practicable, been notified of their return,
I
Social Effects of Immigration. i6l
and no complaint has been made that any of them have been im-
properly removed. It should be added, that of the paupers thus
returned to their European homes, no cases have reappeared/
and tliis state, and its cities and counties, have thereby been
relieved of their permanent maintenance and care."
Illiteracy in the United States is vastly increased/
by immigration. It could hardly be otherwise. The
immigrants are from the lower classes, where illiter-
acy is always most jDrevalent ; many of them are from
countries like Italy, Hungary, and French Canada,
where the population at best is ignorant. The re-
sult is that in many of our Northern States where
schools have been established and cherished for
many years there is a steady increase of illiteracy
from decade to decade. The census of 1880 reported
that 9.4 per cent of the white population above the[j^
age of ten years could neither read nor write. But
while of the native white population of that age only
8.7 per cent were illiterate, of the foreign born white
population of that age 12 per cent could neither read J^m
nor write. In the Soutliern States the illiteracy was
greater among the native white than among the for-
eign born. That is due to the general lack of educa-
tion in that section and the degraded condition of the
poor whites before the war. In the Northern States,
wherever there has been a considerable immigration,
the illiteracy is higher among the foreign than among <^
the native born. That is the case in the states of
102 Emigration and Immigration.
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New
York, Pennsylvania and many others.
Take the state of Massachusetts, for instance,
where the foreign elements are well defined. The
total number of illiterates in that state in 1885 was
122,263, but of these only 13,898 were native born,
while 108,365 {^"^.61 per cent) were foreign born.^ By
illiterates is meant those (above the age of ten) who
cannot read, or cannot write, or can neither read nor
write, any language. But besides these there were
many who could not read and write English although
they could read and write some other language. There
were not less than 30,883 such persons, almost all
foreign born.^ There were 18,231 persons (including
French Canadians) who could read and write French,
6525 who could read and write German, 898 who
could read and write Italian, 850 who could read and
write Portuguese, and 3146 who could read and write
Swedish, although none of these persons could read
and write English. In Massachusetts therefore there
were over 138,000 persons among the foreign born of ^
the age of ten years and over, who could not read and
write English.
Illiteracy in Massachusetts is due almost entirely to
the presence of the foreign bom. Of the native born
ten years of age and over only a small fraction, (1.29
1 Census of Massachusetts, 1885, vol. i, part 2, p. Ixxi.
2 Census of Massachusetts, vol. i, part 2, p. xcix.
Social Effects of Immigration. 163
per cent,) were illiterate, while of the foreign born of
that age not less than 21.50 per cent were totally-
illiterate, while 27.50 per cent could neither read nor
write English. Since 1875 the illiteracy among the
native born has decreased, while among the foreignk'
born it has increased. When therefore it is stated
that 7.73 per cent of the people of Massachusetts are
illiterate, this is due to no fault of the school system
but to immigration.
The illiteracy among the foreign born is practicallyl
incurable because they are for the most part advancedjC
in life. Of the 108,365 foreign born illiterates, more
than 100,000 are twenty years of age and over, that^
is, beyond the age when they can go to school. This I,
is the incurable illiteracy which will never be re-|
moved. Of the native born illiterates only 9530 are
twenty years of age and over, a very small fraction
of the total population.
The illiteracy among the foreign born of Massa-l
chusetts is due most largely to two nationalities, the
Irish and the French Canadians. Of the 108,356
illiterates among the foreign born ten years of age
and over, not less than 6^,169 were born in Ireland,
and 24J90 were French Canadians.^ Of all the illit-
erates m Massachusetts those of Irish birth make up
^ 54.95 per cent and those of French Canadian birth
4 19.78 per cent. Of the Irish in Massachusetts ten
1 Census of Massachusetts, p. bcxxviii,
164 Emigration and Immigratioit.
years of age and over, 27.85 per cent are illiterate,
showing a greater illiteracy than is common among
the foreign born. Of the French Canadians of the
age of ten years and over, 41.39 per cent are totally
illiterate, while 29.06 per cent can read or write
French but not English, leaving only 29.55 per cent
who can read or write English ; that is, less than one-
third. The case of the Italians is similar although
/less serious because the absolute number is as yet
small. But of the Italians already in Massachusetts,
749.88 per cent are totally illiterate, 24 per cent can
read or write Italian but not English, leaving only
26.12 per cent who can read and write English.^
These figures show what a very serious evil the
people of Massachusetts have to contend with owing
to the influx of this ignorant foreign element. The
evil tends to correct itself in the second generation
because the children of persons of foreign birth rfiay
take advantage of free schools and learn to read and
write. But it is a difficult task to educate these
children coming from ignorant households, and they
are very apt to lose the little education they get,
when they return to work among their people. Still
Vfurther, the statistics seem to show that the tendency
to illiteracy extends to the second generation. For
of the 13,898 native born illiterates, not less than.
7924 were of foreign, mixed or unknown parentage.
1 Census of Massachusetts, vol. i, part 2, p. 1142.
Social Effects of Immigration. 165
Of all the illiterates in Massachusetts only 5974 were
of native parentage. It does seem as if the people
of Massachusetts, had they had only their own igno-
rance to struggle with, would have reduced illiteracy
to a mere shadow, — an unavoidable accompaniment
of those various phases of misfortune such as pauper-
ism, insanity, idiocy and defective physical condition
which will never be entirely extirpated. '
So far statistics carry us and no farther. They
take notice only of overt acts or of the presence of
certain capacities or incapacities. They cannot
measure disposition or social inclination. We read
in them, however, indications that the social health
of the community is suffering, in some measure at
least, by this influx of foreigners, — that the struggle
of the community with unsocial and deteriorating
elements is made, in some measure at least, more
difficult. It is said that you cannot draw an indict-
ment against a whole nation. In the same way you
cannot say that any section of the whole community i-
is an unmitigated evil. Even the negro has his
place in our social economy, and one it would
perhaps be difficult to fill. But you have a perfect
right to say that the presence of certain elements or ^
the characteristics of certain portions of the popula-
tion make social development more difficult. It is in
this sense that we study the social effects of immi-
gration.
1 66 Emigration and Immigration.
And, leaving the field of statistics, we cannot
close our eyes to the fact that those national traits
enumerated in the first chapter, such as respect for
law and order, self-reliance, humane treatment of
women and children, good temper, etc., which are
none the less real for being incapable of exact meas-
urement, are not likely to be strengthened in the first
instance by the introduction of some of these foreign
Jelements. These traits are the fruit of democracy,
and the lower elements of the population of Europe
have not been trained to them. The Irish Molly
Maguires of the Pennsylvania coal fields have been
succeeded by the Poles and Hungarians who now
represent the elements of violence and disorder. In
every socialistic labor party there is an extreme
wing, — anarchistic or revolutionary, — which is
always led by persons of foreign birth. The demand
for state interference and regulation, which seems
unnecessary to the Anglo-Saxon, seems perfectly
natural to the German who has for centuries been
living under paternal government. The French
Canadian sees no reason why wife and child should
be kept out of the factory, and has ideas of home
life repugnant to the New Englander. The habit of
seeking vengeance for personal wrongs with the
Istiletto clings to the immigrant from South Italy
after he reaches this country, although it is repug-
nant to the character of our people in their more
Social Effects of Immigration. 167
temperate climate. The habits of life and methods
of living of many of the immigrants are undoubtedly
below what economic prosperity has enabled us to
establish in this country. It is foolish to maintain
^ihat these are desirable elements to be added to our
Bocial life.
CHAPTER IX.
ASSISTED EMIGRATION AND IMMIGRATION.
Emigration has been viewed with different feel
ings at different periods. During the middle ages
it was considered a loss to the community to have
its members change their domicile. It was feared
that the population of the country might be dimin-
ished ; or trade secrets be carried into other lands ;
or the military strength of the home country be
weakened. Over-population was not felt, and coun-
tries looked upon each other as rivals and possible
enemies. Public opinion was in consequence hostile
to emigration and active measures were taken to pre-
vent it. It was only in exceptional cases, such as
religious persecution, that it occurred, and the state
stood by indifferent or opposed to it. Thus the
cities of Switzerland forbade emigration : — Basel as
early as 1767, Zurich in 1770, Schaffhausen in 1817.
The Swiss government early directed its consuls to
watch the fate of Swiss emigrants, and it published
the reports of these consuls detailing the hardships
which the emigrants endured in the strange country.^
1 Karrcr, Das Schweizerische Answanderungswesen. S. 7.
168
Assisted Emigmtion and Immigration. 169
Two considerations induced men to look with
more favor on emigration. One was colonial inter-
ests ; the other was the tempting opportunity to
^et rid of worthless members of the community.
The great colonial powers desired to see their colo-
nies grow in population for the sake of the increased
trade and commerce thereby brought to the home
country. This induced economists, especially the
English, to take the position that emigration was a
good thing both for the home country and for the
emigrant. The former gained a market for its
goods ; the latter bettered his own economic con-
dition and produced cheaper food for those that
remained behind.^ The rapid introduction of machin-
ery made good the loss of labor. Still, most govern-
ments did not feel called upon either to hinder or to
encourage the movement.
In course of time another and more subtle motive
has revealed itself. In small and poor communities
the burden of supporting those unable to work has'^
always been severely felt. By emigration there
seemed to be a way of escaping it. The poor, with
a little financial aid, might be sent on a journey
from which they would never return to trouble
the commune. In some cases there may have
^ Fawcett, Political Economy, p. 145. Emigration, however, would
cease to be a remedy for over-population as soon as the colonies be-
came thickly settled, p. 235.
I/O Emigration and Immigration.
been a hope that these persons would really find
an opportunity to begin a more prosperous career.
The poor themselves were often anxious to go,
being deluded by false and exaggerated reports of
the chances for success in the countries beyond the
sea. It was easy to accede to these desires and by
a small advance of money at the present moment
to escape the future support of the paupers. The
Swiss cantons seem to have been the first to hit
on this expedient. As early as 1854 the Swiss
federal government notified the cantons that the
United States was complaining of the sending of
paupers and helpless people from Switzerland, and
that the communes must be more careful or repres-
sive measures might follow. As time went on the
federal government tried to restrain the emigration
of poor Swiss because they became a burden to the
Swiss consuls in America to whom they were con-
stantly applying for relief. The assistance was stilllid.
continued by the cantons and by charitable societies,^
so that in 1855 it was said that of a total number of
2000 Swiss emigrants one-half had been assisted.
The federal administration had no power to interfere
until the law of 1880 was passed giving it the right
to regulate agencies.
With this disposition on the part of local govern-
ing, bodies it is not surprising that cases are con-
stantly coming to light where unfit persons have
Assisted Emigration and Immigration. 1 71
been assisted to leave their homes. To the petty
burgomaster mind, intent on saving a few francs in
taxation, the temptation to "assist" a pauper to
remove himself from the locality and thus free the
poor funds from the burden of his support must
oftentimes be well-nigh irresistible. And this can
be accomplished in such indirect ways, and it is so
difficult to distinguish between the pauper and the
man who is merely poor, that it is almost impossible
to detect such cases. Then again in the case of
criminals, it is so easy for the police authorities
simply to intimate to doubtful characters that it is
better for them to betake themselves to places where
they are not known, and even to furnish them a
ticket with that end in view, that it is a wonder they
do not resort to such expedients more frequently.
It is not probable that one-tenth of these cases ever
come to light ; or they are discovered only when we
inquire into the past history of criminals detected in
this country. A few typical instances may be men-
tioned here.
The most celebrated case occurred while Mr.
Nicholas Fish was United States Charge d' Affaires
at Berne. Mr. Fish learned incidentally that one of
the cantons had paid the passage to America of- an
imbecile pauper. He immediately telegraphed to
the United States consul at Liverpool who notified
the steamship company and the man was returned.
172 Emigration and Immigration.
The incident gave rise to considerable correspond-
ence between the two governments and resulted in
stricter surveillance of intending emigrants.^
According to the testimony of a Mr. Wolff before
the Ford Immigration committee (p. 106) there exists
Jin Munich a society for the purpose of assisting
idischarged convicts to begin life again. The object
is surely an excellent one, but one means of effect-
ing it is to send the persons out of the country. Ac-
cording to its own reports the society assisted, in
the year 1883 alone, twenty-seven discharged con-
victs who wished to emigrate, and its branches in
the provinces five others; and in 1884 the society
assisted twenty-five such emigrants and the branches
five others. In Boston the agent of the State Board
of Lunacy and Charity testified (p. 558) that he had
detected two cases of discharged convicts who had
been assisted by British authorities to come to this
country. These cases are isolated ones. It is
extremely difficult to detect them, as often the only
testimony is from the criminal himself who will of
course deny that he has ever before been the inmate
of a prison.
During recent years emigration of paupers and
poor people from Europe has been assisted in various
1 Many similar cases will be found mentioned in the correspond-
ence between the State Department and Mr. Fish. Foreign Rela-
tions of United States, 1 879-1 881.
J
Assisted Emigration and Immigration. 173
ways : — By poor-law authorities ; by charitable socie-
ties and persons ; by remittances and prepaid tickets
from relatives and friends in this country ; and by
\ steamship agents and brokers who have made it a busi-
iness to induce people to emigrate and have advanced
money to them or paid their passages and collected
the sum after their arrival. When we take all these
together we shall see that a very large percentage
of the immigration is stimulated in various ways.
The British government has been the most active
in assisting paupers and poor persons to emigrate.
It has done so for the purpose of colonization and to
relieve the pressure of population, especially in the
poorer districts of Ireland and Scotland. According
to a memorandum of the Local Government Board,
of September, 1886, the poor-law guardians have
always had the right since the Poor Law act of 1 834
to use money from the rates for the purpose of
assisting paupers to emigrate. They can even assist
poor persons who have not yet come on the rates,
except that " no orphan or deserted children can be
deported unless they have actually come on the
rates." 1 From 185 1 to 1886 the number of persons
thus assisted was 40,154, and the total amount of
money spent was ;£i 52,902.2
1 Reports of U. S. Consuls, pp. 375 and 458. See Aschrott, Eng-
lish Poor Law System, pp. 42 and 200.
174 Emigration and Immigration.
In Ireland, as early as 1849, poor-law guardians
were authorized to borrow money for the purpose of
assisting emigration. By the Land act of 1881, the
Land Commission was authorized to advance to poor-
law guardians, by way of a loan, money to assist
emigration, especially of families from the poorer and
more thickly populated districts of Ireland. The
amount was not to exceed ;£200,ooo and not more
than one-third was to be spent in any one year. By
the Arrears of Rent act (1882), the Commissioner of
Public Works was allowed to make grants in aid of
emigration in certain districts where the union could
not make adequate provision. The money was to
come from the Irish Church temporalities fund and
was not to exceed ;£ 100,000, or £1 to each person
assisted. The following year (Tramways act) the
amounts were raised to ;£200,ooo and ;£8, respec-
tively. In 1887 the Local Government Board at
Dublin reported that there was still an unexpended
balance of ;£23,ooo which could be devoted to this
purpose and that emigrants had been selected to go.
The United States government had already pro-
tested against assisted emigration of paupers, and
the Local Government Board had sent out instruc-
tions that in future only those should be selected and
aided who could show by letters that they had
friends on this side of the water who would be will-
ing to receive and assist them when once landed. It
Assisted Emigration and Immigration. 175
was felt to be doubtful if the United States govern-
ment would willingly receive even such assisted
immigrants, and the British minister in Washington
was directed to make inquiry as to this of the State
Department. Mr. Bayard in answer quoted the law
of 1882, which says that "if on examination there
should be found . . . any person unable to take care
of himself or herself without becoming a public
charge, they [the officers] shall report the same in
writing to the collector of the port, and such persons
shall not be permitted to land." Then after saying
that each case would have to be determined on its
merits, the Secretary goes on to say :
•* In view of this policy and these laws, this Government could
not fail to look with disfavor and concern upon the sending to
this country, by foreign governmental agencies and at the public
cost, of persons not only unlikely to develop qualities of thrift
and self-support, but sent here because it is assumed that they
have ' friends ' in this country able to ' help and support '
them. The mere fact of poverty has never been regarded as
an objection to an immigrant, and a large part of those who have
come to our shores have been persons who relied for support
solely upon the exercise of thrift and manual industry ; and to
such persons, it maybe said, the development of this country has
in a large degree been due. But persons whose only escape
from becoming and remaining a charge upon the community is
the expected, but entirely contingent, voluntary help and support
of friends, are not a desirable accession to our population, and
their exportation hither by a foreign government, in order to get
1/6 Emigration and Immigration.
rid of the burden of their support, could scarcely be regarded
as a friendly act, or in harmony with existing Laws." ^
Notwithstanding this attitude of the United States
government, the assisted emigrants were sent for-
ward. In Philadelphia those who had letters from
friends were allowed to land. In New York they
were detained by the commissioners of emigration,
but the steamship company sued out a writ of habeas
corpus and they were released by Judge Brown on
the ground that the commissioners in detaining them
simply because they had been " assisted " had gone
out of the statute. It appears therefore that under
the present law the mere fact of having been *' as-
sisted " is not sufficient to prevent immigrants land-
ing, but the commissioners must have reason to
believe that the • persons are " unable to support
themselves without becoming a public charge." ^
In connection with this governmental "assisted"
emigration two societies have come into prominence
in England with the same object in view. One is
the so-called Tuke Committee which was originated
by and is under the direction of Mr. James H. Tuke ;
and the other is the National Association for pro-
moting State-Directed Emigration and Colonization,
1 Correspondence relating to the Admission into the United States
of Destitute Aliens and State-Assisted Emigrants. London, 1887.
2 See Correspondence, etc. Also testimony of Commissioner Charles
N. Taintor, Ford Immigration Committee, p. 266.
A
Assisted Emigration and Immigration. 177
of which Lord Brabazon is president. The Tuke
Committee 1 was organized in 1882 for the purpose
of assisting families to emigrate in order to relieve
the distress existing in certain congested districts of
Ireland. In the spring of that year the Committee
sent to various destinations in Canada and the United
States nearly 1500 persons, about 260 families, not
in any way assisted either by the government or
by Poor-Law Unions. In 1883, when the govern-
ment, strongly urged thereto by the Committee,
took up the emigration question. Lord Spencer re-
quested the Committee to undertake the emigration
from certain distressed districts in the counties of
Mayo and Galway, which they consented to do, as
well as to supplement the capitation grant made by
the government. During the two following years
the Committee with the aid of the government sent
out over 1000 families or nearly 8000 persons. Dur-
ing the same period about 16,000 persons were
assisted by government agencies. Owing to the co-
operation of the Tuke Committee with the govern-
ment the two classes of emigrants became confused,
and the hostility which was excited on account of
the government-assisted emigrants extended itself to
those sent out by the Committee, and it was obliged
to suspend operations.
1 State Aid to Emigrants by J. H. Tuke, The Nineteenth Century,
Feb. 1885.
178 Emigration and Immigration.
As to the character of these "assisted" emigrants
there is conflicting testimony. Mr. Tuke asserts that
his committee sent out no paupers and that they care-
fully examined every emigrant they assisted. "They
were seen on at least three or more occasions by
members of the Committee and every possible infor-
mation about them was obtained from the doctor,
the relieving officer, or other responsible persons best
acquainted with each particular district." The emi-
grants had their railroad fares to the interior paid
after they landed and were provided with a sum of
money in addition. Mr. Tuke quotes letters from
Bishop Ireland of Minnesota, Sir Charles Tupper,
High Commissioner for Canada, and others, speaking
of the good character of the immigrants and the
general success that attended the effort.
On the other hand, there were distinct complaints
made by the Canadian authorities that the immi-
grants were not what they had been represented to
be, and the colonial government withdrew the encour-
agement which it had at first given the undertaking.
Proof of this is seen in the letter addressed by the
Secretary of the Department of Immigration, Ontario,
to Mr. H. Hodgkin, of Mr. Tuke's Emigration Com-
mittee, from which the following extracts are made.^
1 Lord Brabazon, State-Directed Emigration, The Nineteenth Cen-
tury, Nov. 1884. See also testimony of Dr. Charles S. Hoyt, Ford Immi
gration Committee, p. 238.
Assisted Emigration and Immigration. 179
** It was deemed advisable to wait and see how the immigrants
sent out last year under the auspices of the Imperial government
would fare during the winter, before encouraging more of the same
class to follow. So far their condition is not encouraging, as
many of them are living on charity, and public feeling has been
somewhat strongly expressed, in the public press and otherwise,
concerning them. This remark really applies to the people sent
out by the unions, but they are so closely associated in the pub-
lic mind with those sent out by you, that it will be hard to find
employment for either class next summer, as the farmers place
but little value on their labor, and the people of the cities are
afraid of laying the foundations of pauperism. What makes mat-
ters worse, a considerable number of families who went to the
United States last summer have been sent back to Toronto, and
have now to be supported by charity.
** The Ontario government has therefore decided that it will
no longer be possible to give assistance to any class of workhouse
or union people either in the way of meals or railway passes.
♦* The numbers of union or workhouse people sent out appear
to the Commissioner to have considerably exceeded the number
of that class suggested by Major Gaskell, when here, as likely
to be forwarded. They are also inferior as a class to those
described by him. . . . The difficulties arising in selection are
quite understood and appreciated. For these reasons it will not
be possible any longer to continue the arrangement made with
Major Gaskell in reference to the workhouse or union people
who may be forwarded, and therefore the special privileges which
they have been granted under that arrangement must necessarily
be withdrawn.
"I take the opportunity of stating, for the benefit of your
committee, that while there is ample room in this province for
all able-bodied persons of both sexes who are willing and able to
i8o Emigration and Immigration,
\Vork, yet these two features are essential to the procuring of a live^
lihood here, namely, ability and willingness to labor. Many per-
sons in the older countries drift into the workhouse from their
inability or their unwillingness to earn a livelihood by labor. It
is impossible to provide a home here for sucli people."
The other society, of which Lord Brabazon is presi-
dent, has a much more ambitious scheme. It desires
that the government shall advance money to persons
willing to emigrate, this money to be repaid by the
emigrants and then used again for the same pur-
pose. Lord Brabazon calculates that a sum of one
hundred pounds sterling would be sufficient to remove
a family to Canada and settle it on a farm granted
by the Dominion government. If the government
would start with a grant of 1,000,000 pounds, 10,000
families could thus be removed in one year, and the
congestion of population in the east end of London
and the large cities be relieved. The association has
the backing of many influential men and the support
of trade-unions representing 150,000 members. It
has appealed to both a Liberal and a Conservative
ministry but has found little support from either,
the ministers doubting the practicability of the
scheme and whether the colonial governments would
acquiesce in it. In February, 1887, a Parliamentary
committee consisting of 32 members of the House of
Lords and 135 members of the House of Commons
was formed to favor state-assisted emigration. They
Assisted Emigration and Immigration. i8i
formulated a colonization scheme which was sub-
mitted through the colonial office to the various
governments. It met with a very chilling reception,
most of the colonial governments declining to have
anything to do with it.^
The difficulty with all these schemes of assisted
emigration is the suspicion which the colonial
governments cannot help entertaining that they
are attempts to get rid of undesirable members of
the horne community and foist them on to the new
countries. Lord Brabazon protests very vigorously
against this in the article quoted above :
"And here it would be well to make it clearly understood
that the advocates of the state direction of emigration, as repre-
sented at all events by the National Association for promoting
State-directed Emigration and Colonization, of which I have the
honor to be chairman, do not propose that her Majesty's govern-
ment should transfer the idle, the vicious, the ne'er do well, or
the pauper from the slums of London to those of Melbourne or
Toronto (as seems to be the idea of some of the opponents of
state emigration), nor has it ever been proposed that any indi-
vidual should be sent to the colonies either contrary to his or
her desire, or without the concurrence of the authorities of these
colonies, nor is there any intention of making a money present
to any emigrant to enable him to proceed to the colonies.
"All that the association desires is that the British govern-
ment shall, in conjunction with the colonial authorities, draw up
1 Correspondence from Colonial Governments in answer to Memo-
randum by Parliamentary Colonization Committee of May i, 1888,
London, 1889.
1 82 Emigration and Immigration.
a well-considered scheme of emigration and colonization, by
means of which able-bodied and industrious 7nen who may not
possess the means necessary for them to emigrate, shall be pro-
vided with the means of emigrating with their families, or of
colonizing, under the strictest possible guarantee that the money
shall be repaid with easy interest within a certain number of
years."
If this programme were strictly carried out, the
resulting emigration would not be an injury to the
colony receiving it, especially as Lord Brabazon
proposes to regulate it by an Imperial commission,
on which each colony shall be represented but from
which it may withdraw at any time, whereupon
the flow of emigrants to that particular colony
shall immediately cease. It is safe to say that
public opinion in the colonies, which is overwhelm-
ingly under the control of the laboring class, would
demand such withdrawal whenever the slightest
inconvenience was felt or supposed to be felt from
the influx of labor. In fact it is easy to imagine
that, were such a commission once established, the
colonies might demand that its functions should be
extended to unassisted emigration, so that they
might control the whole matter. In such a case the
position of England with its surplus labor would be
worse than ever.
But it is not easy to see exactly how the commis-
sion or the society is going to select only the able-
bodied and industrious workmen. In voluntary emi-
Assisted Emigration and Immigration. 183
gration, the fact that the man has obtained money
enough to emigrate is some evidence that he is able-
bodied and thrifty ; although the value of this evi-
dence is being steadily diminished by the low cost of
the passage and the remittances of friends, — as Lord
Derby pointed out in his speech in the House of
Lords, March 29, 1884:
** Probably there was not a village in the country from which
one or two persons had not emigrated, and these persons com-
municated with their friends at home ; thus ignorance as to the
advantages of emigration diminishes, while with more rapid and
more complete communication the risks of an emigrant's life
would tend to decrease."
But when the state advances the money, this test of
the emigrant's fitness to emigrate is taken away,
even if the money is nominally a loan ; and one does
not see exactly what is to take its place. The agent
of the government or of the colony will be able to
distinguish, perhaps, the really criminal, the actually
infirm or crippled, and those who have been paupers ;
but he will not be able to discern whether a man is
an indolent vagabond, or morally vicious and good
for nothing. And if the government is to send only
those who are industrious and thrifty, will it really
afford relief to over-population } And will not its
action be open to the objection urged by Professor
Rogers, that the cream of the population will be
expatriated.? The difficulty is evidently felt by the
184 Emigration and Immigration,
members of the society, and they find it hard to
satisfy both the home people who want to get rid of
the poor and worthless, and the colonists who want
only the good and industrious. The difficulty comes
out very naively in the speech of the Earl of Carnar-
von, in advocating the scheme before the House of
Lords, in which he said :
'• It was sometimes said that in sending out emigrants by the
aid of the state you would choose the best man. He should be
sorry to see the best men leave the country, but there was an
intermediate class who were easily convertible into excellent
workmen and good colonists."
But will the colonies be content with this newly
defined "middle working class," when by volun-
tary emigration they may get the "upper work-
ing class," or even members of the " lower middle
class " ?
In fact the interests of the colony and of the
mother country in this matter are antithetical.
State and charity assisted emigration will need to be
carefully watched from this side of the water. They
can accomplish their real object only by sending out
persons whose worth to the country receiving them
may well be questioned. The tendency will always
be to consider the poverty of the applicant rather
than his capacity to become a good citizen in the
colonies. And it is not quite safe to trust the choice
of our citizens to a body of foreign officials whose
Assisted Emigration and Immigration, 185
interests are not at all identical with ours and never
can be.^
There is another form of encouraging emigration
from the other side of the water, which, in many of
its aspects, scarcely deserves to be ranked under the
head of "assisted," while in other phases it reveals
the most demoralizing influence, deserving the sever-
1 Various other societies and individuals assist emigrants to leave
the country. Thus the London Times (Jan. 31, 1S89) says: "That
the Prisoners' Aid Society assists convicts to emigrate everybody knows,
and probably the United States receives its full quota of the persons so
aided." No fewer than 38 persons and societies are mentioned in the
U. S. Consular Reports (p. 602) as assisting pauper children to settle
in Canada. In 1881, there were brought to Canada 727 immigrants,
chiefly children, by such societies and individuals; in 1882, 1048; in
1883, 1218; in 1884, 201 1 ; in 1885, 1746. The experiment has not
always been successful. See Aschrott, English Poor Law, p. 225, and
Ford Immigration Committee, testimony of Mr. Wrightinglon, p. 546.
The Central Emigration Society at its sixth annual meeting (1889)
announced that the restrictions placed on the emigration of pauper
children by the Local Government Board had been removed, and that
the managers of reformatory and industrial schools were to be allowed
to apply treasury grants under certain conditions to the fitting out and
emigrating of such children. London Times, July 19, 1889.
In Sweden, philanthropic societies have paid the passage of liberated
criminals to America, but such practices have now generally ceased.
U. S. Consular Reports, p. 331. Lady Cathcart sent out one year 12
crofter families, and the following year 45 families to Canada. In
1864, 557 Paisley weavers were assisted to emigrate by various public
and private societies. Tuke, State-Aided Emigration. The Jewish
Board of Guardians (a private charitable organization in London)
assisted during the five years, 1 882-1 886, 8429 poor Jews, mostly Rus-
sian, to go on to America. Report from House of Commons Com-
mittee on Immigration.
1 86 Emigration and Immigration.
est condemnation and the strictest measures of re-
pression. I refer to the assistance sent back from
this country by emigrants and persons already here.
This assistance takes on one of two forms, either of
remittances of money to friends and relatives at
home in order to enable them to come, or of pre-
paid tickets. Of the amount of money sent back to
Great Britain I have already spoken in another place!
There is a steady stream of money going from this
country to be used largely for the purpose of bring-
ing persons here.
The best way, however, to bring one's friend to
this country is to purchase a prepaid ticket and send
it to him, together with a small sum of money to pay
his incidental expenses. In the stress of competi-
tion the steamship companies have been very eager
to sell these tickets and for that purpose have agents
all through this country. Thus the Inman Steam-
ship Company has not less than 3400 such agents,
and thirty-three per cent of all its steerage passen-
gers come on prepaid tickets. On the Hamburg-
American line forty per cent of the passages are
prepaid. The Anchor line has 2500 agents in this
country, and fifty per cent of the passages are pre-
paid. On the Guion line, twenty-five per cent ; on
the National line, twenty-five per cent ; on the North
German Lloyd, from thirty to forty per cent ; on the
Fabre line, thirty-three per cent ; on the Cunard line.
Assisted Emigration and Immigration. 187
fifteen per cent; and on the Red Star line, ten per
cent of the passages are prepaid. These figures show
that the management of emigration is very largely in
the hands of persons on this side of the water. The
price of the passage is regulated by the competition
of the steamship companies here, and is high or low
according as they come to an agreement as to rates
or fight each other for the purpose of getting the
traffic. It is not fixed according to the competition
of the emigrants on the other side nor according to
the cost of the service. The prevailing rate is from
twenty-three to twenty-six dollars, of which three dol-
lars commonly goes to the agent as his commission.^
That it is perfectly desirable and natural for an
immigrant who has prospered in this country to send
for his wife and family is not to be denied. The
family feeling is one that should in every way be
encouraged, and we can only rejoice in the prosperity
of these new citizens who labor and save in order to
accomplish this end. That when they prosper they
should desire to send for the aged parents or the
v/eak and helpless members of the family, who were
not able to brave the uncertainties and dangers of
the first voyage, is also altogether commendable.
The same loving care that sent for them will sup-
port them when they get here. There are instances
^ Testimony of steamship agents before the Ford Immigration
Committee, pp. 1-56.
1 88 Emigration aitd Immigration.
where persons have paid the passages of helpless
relatives to this country simply to throw them on our
poor-rates because they fare better here than at
home, but such cases are doubtless rare. That a
man should send for his able-bodied brothers and
sisters or his old acquaintances is no danger to the
community. He commonly has a place for them
either in his own occupation or in some other. This
thing regulates itself. In bad times he will not
encourage his friends to come. All such assistance
to immigration is natural and can scarcely be
stopped without violating the highest instincts of
the human heart. Mistakes are sometimes made
and more persons brought than are needed, but
with our expanding prosperity a place is finally
found for them all.
These facilities for purchasing prepaid tickets have
developed, however, a business which results in
assistance being given to immigration from purely
jcommercial motives. The rivalry of steamship com-
'panies led to the employment of numerous agents, or
rather to the payment of commissions to any person
who would sell tickets. Books of tickets were placed
in the hands of so-called bankers (exchangers),
boarding-house keepers and even liquor sellers, in
short, of those persons who came into contact with
immigrants or to whom they would naturally look
for aid and advice. For every ticket sold the agent
Assisted Emigration and Immigration. 189
received a commission. It was perfectly natural that
these agents should use their influence to persuade
immigrants to send for their relatives and friends,
promising to secure work for them when they
arrived. In many cases they sacrificed a part of the
commission in order to sell the ticket. In other
cases they even advanced the money under the
promise of repayment out of the first earnings of the
new arrivals. A further step naturally suggested
itself, — namely, to have a correspondent, or agent, 01
partner on the other side of the water to sell tha
tickets to intending emigrants. The Italian agents
introduced a still further modification in prder to
make the business more profitable. Although there
was much competition among the regular steamship
companies, still, either in self-defence or sometimes
by agreement, they did maintain the rate of fare at
a certain point. The brokers would, however, occa-
sionally find a "tramp" steamer that would take emi-
grants at less than the regular rate in order to make\
a cargo. They chose therefore to issue their own
tickets which entitled the purchaser to a passage to
America, but at a time designated by the agent. If
they could find a "tramp" steamer, the emigrant
would be brought down to the port of departure and
put on board. If no "tramp" steamer appeared,
these tickets could be exchanged for tickets by some
one of the regular lines.
V» OK THK f^
IQO Emigration and Immigration,
By these means a regular brokerage business was
established, the evil effects of which can easily be
imagined and which have been exemplified in the
case of immigration from Italy. On the other side
of the water we have a body of men whose object
is to persuade men to emigrate by holding out the
expectation that profitable employment will be found
for them by the " man " in America who is the agent's
principal. The peasant is persuaded to sell or mort-
gage his little farm or vineyard, in many cases to
leave his family, under the firm belief that work
is so plentiful and so well-paid in America that he
will have no difficulty in sending for them or in sup-
porting them until he can return with a competence.
In some cases, where the emigrant has no property,
his passage is paid by the agent, and he promises to
repay a larger sum out of his earnings, the excess
over the cost of the passage serving as compensation
for commission, interest and risk. On this side of
the water we have a body of men who receive the
immigrants on their arrival and upon whom they are
absolutely dependent owing to their contract (which
they observe religiously), and on account of their
ignorance of the language and the country. These
men exploit the immigrants in a variety of ways;
They board and lodge them in the most wretched
manner, making enormous rents ; they loan them
money at usurious rates ; they sell them bills of ex*
Assisted Emigration a7id Immigration. 191
change and prepaid passages for their families ; they
find them employment, receiving a bonus which is
euphemistically termed a "present"; they furnish
bodies of laborers to railroad companies, receiving at
the same time the contract for boarding and lodging
them, the company deducting the board-money from
the wages of the laborers. So numerous are these
sources of profit that it seems as if the agents were
not particularly concerned as to the quick repayment
of the original passage money ; for it appears that
although there were three or four thousand Italians
in New York unable to obtain work still others were
constantly brought over.
The investigation of the Ford committee showed
that the business as above described of assisting
immigrants to come to this country was literally the
case with Italian immigration. The steamship agents,
although with apparent reluctance, testified that they
had been accustomed to sell tickets in books or
bunches. Lately they had made a practice of sell-
ing only a limited number to any one person and
only with the names filled out. Their object in
doing this was apparently to prevent business accu-
mulating in the hands of single persons who would
employ "tramp" steamers. But the testimony of
immigrants showed that it was the custom of agents
in Italy to collect a number of persons, conduct them
to Naples and there put them on board of a steamer,
192 Emigration atid Immigratioji.
the intending emigrant having no previous knowledge
of the ship or the time of sailing. The emigrants also
testified that they were promised work at high wages
on their arrival, and that these promises had not been
fulfilled. Thus Angelo Antonio di Dierro testified
(p. 100) that he had been persuaded to emigrate by
a man of the name of Di Chiccio who had represented
that work was plentiful in America at ^1.50 a day,
and that his passage had been paid on his entering
into an engagement to repay 200 francs. The cost
of a ticket at that time was 115 francs. Another
Italian (p. 120) had sold his mule in order to purchase
a ticket to America, but had found no work since he
arrived. A third (p. 131) owned a little vineyard
worth 400 or 500 francs and had entered into a writ-
ten obligation to return 250 francs for his ticket before
the first of August. He had been unable to find work
since he landed and was under the apprehension that
his vineyard would be seized in payment of the debt
and his family turned out. A fourth owned a house
worth 3CX) francs and had entered into a similar obliga-
tion to return 250 francs, but had been unable to find
work since landing. Many others related similar ex-
periences. Most of the Italian witnesses expressed a
desire to return to Italy, saying they had been deceived
in regard to finding work here and that they were
much better off at home. Other witnesses brought
out the fact that these men could get work only by
Assisted Emigration aiid Immigration. 193
paying the contractors, and that they were plundered
by the contractors who received the privilege of board-
ing them, so that it was a long time before they could
i;ct out of debt.
It is needless to say that this whole business of
inducing men to emigrate is an abuse, hurtful to
the emigrants themselves and to this country which
has a lot of ignorant, unskilled laborers landed on its
shores unable to take care of themselves and entirely
at the mercy of these brokers and contractors. It is
for the interest of both Italy and America to stop this
fraudulent and deceitful business.
One other kind of assisted emigration remains to
be noticed only because it is of historic interest.
Until within a few years countries in the new world
have desired immigration and have even assisted it.
The British colonies have been particularly active in
this respect. In 1870 the various North American
governments, including the Dominion itself, spent
$97,281 for the purpose of assisting immigration.
In 1874 the provincial governments agreed to unite
their efforts in order to make them more effective,
and entered into an agreement by which the minister
of agriculture of the Dominion was vested for a
series of years with the duty of promoting immi-
gration. A high commissioner was appointed, with
offices in London and agents located at the principal
seaports, viz., Glasgow, Dublin, Belfast and Bristol.
194 Emigration and Innnigration.
Agents have also been stationed at different times
at Paris, at Hamburg and in Switzerland. Travel-
ling or lecturing agents have been employed, and at
one time it is said there were not less than thirty-
five of these missionaries in the field. In addition
to these measures, passages were paid in whole or
in part for certain kinds of immigrants ; they were
met on arrival by agents, their railroad fares paid
to points in the interior, and free grants of land made
to them.i Since 1878 efforts to induce immigration
have slackened, and in April, j888, the system of
assisted passages ceased altogether.^
The Australian colonies have also paid the pas-
sages in whole or in part of desirable immigrants.
In the colony of New South Wales the number of
assisted immigrants in 1883 was 8369. That was
the maximum number for any year. In 1885 the
number was only 5554.^
Similar efforts to induce immigration have been
made by Mexico, Brazil, Chili, Argentine, and various
states in the United States.* These efforts have
consisted for the most part in spreading information
about the resources of the country and in making
grants of land to intending settlers. But with the
1 Reports of U. S. Consuls on Immigration, pp. 456, 568 and 575.
2 Board of Trade Journal, June, 1889.
8 Reports of U. S. Consuls, p. 710.
* Numerous state bureaux to encourage immigration were established
in 1864, towards the close of the war.
Assisted Emigration and Immigratio7t. 195
new disposition to restrict immigration most of these
efforts have been abandoned. There is, however, at
the present time a movement in the southern states
to attract immigrants, especially to the state of Texas.^
1 Southern Immigration Association. — A representative gath-
ering of southern men was held at Hot Springs, N. C, recently, at
which delegates from eleven states appeared. The governors of
the states of Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia were among those
present. The purpose of the convention was to discuss the best
practicable means to be employed in inducing a desirable class of
immigrants to settle in the south. The result of the proceedings was
the proposal to organize the Southern Immigration Association, with
headquarters in New York city. Subscriptions of money in sums of
1 1000 each are to be invited. When the amount subscribed equals
$20,000 a permanent organization will be formed by the subscribers.
Southern railroads, manufacturing corporations, boards of trade and
other trade and industrial bodies south of the Ohio and east of the
Mississippi are expected to become contributors. Some idea as to the
class of immigrants desired may be obtained from the following extract
from an article in the Baltimore Manufacturers' Record : " One thing
must be plainly understood at the outset. The south needs many
more men of capital than it now has, whether that capital is in money,
in intelligence or in skill in the mechanic arts. But it does not need
mere muscle. There is enough unskilled labor for present require-
ments, and in all probability there will be for generations. The south
has happily escaped the evils attendant upon the employment of
foreign laborers at the north. It will lend no aid to any who may
wish to bring that element into its borders. None but those who have
the ability to maintain themselves and to participate in the grand
procession of progress and industrial development will be welcome.
The south makes no war upon foreigners as such, but it will object,
and that most strenuously, to any attempt to foist upon it those who
would, from their first coming into it, be an irreparable injury to the
communities among whom they might settle." After describing the
line character of recent immigration from the northwest of English-
196 Emigration and Immigration.
In response to the demands of the Association for
State-directed Emigration, the British government
has established an Emigrants' Information Office.
The object of this office is not to render assistance
in the way of paying passages, but simply to give
information to any person who is thinking of emi-
grating to the colonies. It publishes and distributes
circulars of information, answers letters of inquiry,
reports on the condition of the labor market in the
different colonies, the special demand existing for
particular kinds of labor, etc. Its activity is useful,
but there seems to be no very great increase in the
demand for that sort of information. The office it-
self is very moderate in urging men to emigrate, and
depicts the difficulties rather than the advantages of ^
life in the colonies.
We have thus enumerated the various forms of
assisted emigration m order to gain a notion of the
numerous and powerful artificial forces stimulating
speaking immigrants, the Record says : " We want more such settlers.
The south is the place for them, but not for the hordes who are coming
by thousands weekly from European ports. We repeat, if those having
the affairs of the Southern Immigration Society in charge will
announce that their efforts will be directed solely to promoting the
immigration of English-speaking people, they will receive all the moral
and material support they desire. If, on the other hand, they estab-
lish agencies on the European continent, and attempt to pour into the
south the same classes of immigrants that have been landing in New
York and Canada for the last fifteen years, they will be opposed by
nine-tenths of the southern people." Bradstreet's, May 12, 1888.
Assisted Ernig ration and Immigration. 197
the movement of persons from the old world to the
new. This enumeration dispels at once the illusion
that the movement at the present time is a natural
one in the sense that the individual initiates it of his
own notion and carries it out by his own unaided
powers. Emigration is sometimes spoken of as if it
were simply the operation of the individual, coolly
and rationally measuring the advantages to be
gained, and thus advancing his own economic condi-
tion and that of the country to which he comes.
Nothing could be further from the truth. Emigration
proceeds now under numerous influences, the efforts
of steamship companies, the urging of friends and
relatives, the assistance of poor-law authorities and
charitable societies, and the subtle but powerful
influence of popular delusion in regard to the el
dorado character of the new world, which has been
created by these different interested parties.
The atmosphere of the old world is permeated with
the spirit of emigration. In all cases of hardship,
of lack of employment, of misery and want, of mis-
fortune and crime, the sufferer is urged to emigrate.
If an industry is languishing, the workmen are told
to emigrate. If the poor-houses are crowded, the
authorities try to empty them on the colonies. If
the country is deserted for the city, the city is to be
depleted for the colonies ; and the persons who have
once deserted the soil are to be placed on it again.
198 Emigration and Immigration.
If population is constantly increasing by an excess of
births over deaths, the remedy lies in cutting down
at the other end by sending away the adults. There
is something almost revolting in the anxiety of cer-
tain countries to get rid of their surplus population
and to escape the burden of supporting the poor, the
helpless and the depraved. And an equally painful
although not equally blamable spectacle is now pre-
sented by the new countries refusing to admit these
miserable beings, so that they are thrown like shut-
tlecocks from one side of the ocean to the other,
no one willing to compassionate and afford them
shelter.
It is plain that state and charity assisted emigra-
tion is destined to fail of its 'purpose. On a small
scale it amounts to nothing one way or the other ; it
is no relief to the old country and no great danger to
the new. But the moment it is prosecuted on a
large scale the inevitable antithesis between the
interests of the old and the new country appears, as
was noted above. The old country wishes to get rid
of the worse part of its population, — (it would be }
suicidal to send away the better), — while the new
country absolutely refuses to receive that class. In
1849 the Australian colonies protested so vigorously
against the further deportation to them of convicts |
from Great Britain that it was stopped. To-day the j
colonies and the United States have made the same !
Assisted Emigration and Immigration. 199
protest against the deportation of paupers and help-
less persons, and that will inevitably cease. It can-
not be otherwise. The position of the new countries
is perfectly impregnable on that point, and even if
their position were lacking in logic, public opinion
has been made up and it is useless to expect it to
change.
But state-assisted emigration on such a scale as to
relieve the pressure of over-population at home is
impracticable, again, for economic reasons. There
seems to be a popular impression, (doubtless a survi-
val from earlier days), that all you have to do is to
transport a man to the new world and that then his
fortune is made. No fallacy could be more danger-
ous than this. It is only a select class of men who
now succeed in the new world.^ In many respects
the competition is as keen and the labor market as
1 " There is no colony where a man willing to work, able to work,
and indifferent to the kind of work, will not get a living; but agricul-
turists should be warned that farm work at home is one thing, and in
the colonies quite another, and that the conditions of country life in
Canada, Australasia, and South Africa are, as a rule, far rougher and
lonelier than in England.
" Men who have not been from their childhood engaged on the land
must remember that in new countries there is not the same strong line
drawn between different trades and different branches of the same trade
as in our own; and that, therefore, the more specialized a man has
become in his work and calling the less fitted he is to emigrate, partly
because he is unlikely, in most cases, to find an opening in his own
specialty in the colonies, partly because he is not well suited to turn his
hand to general labor." Report of Emigrant's Information Office, 1888.
200 Emigration and Immigration.
overcrowded as in Europe. In many cases capital is
absolutely needed and mere manual labor is present
in excess. The emigrant comes, ignorant of the
methods of work, inexperienced in the climatic and
other conditions, often helpless in resources, without
friends, perhaps not even speaking the language. It
is absolute cruelty to place him under these dis-
advantages in a struggle for existence. The notion
that thousands of men can be thrust into such con-
ditions without suffering themselves, and deranging
the economy of the colony is perfectly absurd.
Emigration at any rate needs no artificial stimulus.
The movement is sufficiently great in itself.
A
CHAPTER X.
PROTECTING THE EMIGRANT : THE PASSENGERS* ACTS.
The various nations of Europe have come finally,
although some of them with reluctance, to permit
freedom of migration. Under pressure from the
United States they have abandoned the doctrine that
a man can under no circumstances divest himself of
his allegiance, and now by treaty they allow their
citizens, after residence of five years and naturaliza-
tion abroad, to re-appear as citizens of the new coun-
try. Citizenship has thus become a matter of choice,
and any one can leave his own country and select a
new one where he finds the conditions of living more
favorable. There appears to be no reason why a
man cannot become successively a citizen of different
countries, as his desires or interests may dictate.
And in fact there is such a lack of harmony in the
laws of different countries, that in some cases it
may be plausibly argued that a man is the citizen of
two countries at the same time ; and in other cases it
seems as if he were the citizen of none.^ It is not
intended to enter upon the complicated and unfruit-
1 This subject is discussed more fully in the final chapter.
20I
202 Emigration and Immigration.
ful discussion of the conflict of laws, but it is inter-
esting to note the relation of the emigrant during the
process of emigration, so to speak, to the country he
is abandoning and the one he is adopting.
Freedom of emigration is not perfect even in the
modern state. The intending emigrant often comes
into conflict with the universal military duty.
Where a young man has reached the age when he is
liable to serve in the army, permission to emigrate
will be refused him, and if he leave without permis-
sion a penalty will be entered against him to which
he is liable when he returns, or his property is liable
in case he leaves any behind. Even after he has
served the term in the active service and entered
the reserve, he is expected to present himself at the
regular intervals for training, and must receive per-
mission if he desire to absent himself. Where the
state demands such a service of all its citizens it is
impossible to allow some to evade it by simple
absence, and it is unpatriotic in them to attempt it.
Even when they absent themselves long enough to
acquire citizenship in another country and then
return, using that citizenship as an excuse to escape
the burdens resting upon other members of the
community, it is impossible for the state to look
upon their position with favor. If they return with
the intention of making their permanent residence at
home, they are held to have forfeited their new
J
Protecting the Emigrant. ^O^
citizenship and taken up the old. A residence of a
certain time (generally two years) will be prima facie
evidence that they intend to stay. So also it would
seem that in the case of certain obligations imposed
on the citizen by the civil law, such as the support
of aged or infirm relatives, or the obligation to pay
taxes, permission to emigrate would not be given until
provision for the discharge of these had been made.
But the facilities for travel are so great at the
present time that it is not difficult for the individual
to escape these restrictions and leave without per-
mission. In fact the greater number of emigrants
do not take the trouble to procure a permit ; and
hundreds, if not thousands, leave for the express
purpose of evading the military duty. There seems
to be a probability, however, with the increasing
tendency toward socialistic legislation, that this per-
fect freedom of the individual will be restricted. As
the state does more and more for its citizens they
will be bound up in associations from which it will
be difficult for them to free themselves. We shall
speak of this later when we come to discuss the
abstract right to emigrate.
Even after the emigrant has started on his way,
with the definite intention of abandoning his native
country and seeking a new allegiance, he still remains
an object of solicitude to the mother country. He
is regarded as one of her citizens and entitled to her
204 Emigration and Immigration.
protection and care. This care is exercised first of
all by the diplomatic and consular service which is
instructed to look out for the interests of the emi-
grant in the foreign country, to help him in difficulties,
and (in some cases) to send him home if he desires.
As early as 1848 the Swiss government stationed a
commissioner at Havre to watch over the interests
of the numerous Swiss emigrants who shipped at
that port. During many years we have the Swiss
consuls sending information home as to the condition
of Swiss immigrants in North and South America,
and frequently appealing to be allowed to render
assistance to unfortunates who wished to return to
Switzerland. In the attempts to establish Swiss
and German colonies in Brazil, the agents of the
government have been active in seeing that the
contracts were fair to the immigrants and the stipu-
lations carried out. In some cases the home govern-
ments have made representations to the Brazilian
government in behalf of the immigrants. The Italian
consul in New York testified before the Ford com-
mittee that he had received a sum of money from the
Italian government for the purpose of relieving the
distress among the Italian immigrants who had been
unable to obtain work. Belgium has recently estab-
lished at Buenos Ayres an information bureau for
the use of Belgian emigrants.^
1 " The Belgian bureau at Buenos Ayres is required to give substantial
assistance to emigrants from Belgium. It will give them information
Protecting the Emigrant. 205
The care of the state for the emigrant is exercised
in a more general but at the same time more effective
way by the so-called passengers' acts. When emi-
gration first became extensive great abuses sprang
up. The emigrants were crowded on board sailing
ships, without sufficient room and with little regard
to health, comfort and decency. As a consequence
the maritime countries have found it necessary to
enact laws containing minute regulations for the
health and comfort of passengers, especially those in
the steerage. These laws proceed it is true from
general humanitarian and police considerations rather
than from any care of a particular state for the wel-
fare of its subjects, but they have had the effect of
protecting the emigrant from the rapacity and greed
of the individual ship-owner intent only on his profit.
As England was the first country to feel the great
tide of emigration to the new world wliich began in
the *' forties," so it was one of the first to regulate
the business of transporting emigrants. The passen-
gers' act of 1852 was amended in 1855, and, with a
as to the practical means of finding as quickly as possible occupation
under advantageous conditions; it will show them the centres where
Belgian workers are already established; and it will constitute in fact
a kind of labor exchange where those who come to offer their services
will find all the information they desire.
" Further, the agent in charge of the bureau will remain as much as
possible in relation with the emigrants established in the Argentine
Republic, and will receive any complaints they may have to make for
transmission to the Belgian Consulate." Board of Trade Journal, 1889.
2o6 Emigration and Immigration.
few changes introduced in 1863, contains the most
minute regulations of the way the emigrant passenger
shall be treated. Some of the provisions are as fol-
lows : Every ship intending to carry emigrant pas-
sengers must be inspected as to sea-worthiness and
compliance with the provisions of the law, and receive
a certificate from the emigration officers before it
sails ; it shall carry passengers on only two decks ;
sailing vessels shall carry only one passenger to every
two tons burthen ; there shall be at least five super-
ficial feet of upper deck room to each passenger for
the purpose of exercise; the space between decks
must be not less then six feet ; there shall be not
more than two tiers of berths between the decks,
with a space of at least two feet and six inches
between a berth and the bottom of the next one,
or between a berth and the deck above; berths
must be at least six feet long and two feet and
six inches wide ; male passengers above the age of
fourteen, except when accompanied by their wives,
must have a separate cabin securely separated from
the other passengers ; hospitals must be provided
on the upper deck, at least eighteen superficial feet
for every fifty passengers ; every ship must carry
a doctor and a supply of medicines and medical
comforts ; the quantity of water and provisions is
minutely regulated according to the number of pas-
sengers and the probable length of the voyage;
Protecting the Emigrant. 207
there must be proper ventilation and sanitary ar-
rangements ; there must be stewards and cooks
according to the number of passengers ; offensive
and dangerous cargoes shall not be carried, such
as gunpowder, guano, vitriol, green hides, and cat
tie; the last are allowed under certain conditions.
The act also provides for the maintenance of the
passenger if sailing be delayed after the appointed
time, or if he be delayed on the route or landed
somewhere else than the port he engaged passage
for; and provision is made for forwarding him if
he be landed elsewhere than the port for which he
engaged passage. Similar acts are now in force in
all maritime countries, so that the emigrant is abun-
dantly protected against overcrowding, sickness, hun-
ger, and the brutality of officers or crews or fellow-
passengers.
Of late years this protection of the emigrant has
extended itself to the prevention of fraudulent mis-
representations for the purpose of inducing citizens
to emigrate. It was found that emigration agents,
whose only object was to sell tickets and get their
commissions, deceived the ignorant peasants and
artisans by glowing accounts of the conditions of liv-
ing in the new countries, if not by actual misrepre-
sentation of the assistance to be received by the
immigrant from the communities across the sea.
Many persons were thus induced to emigrate who
2o8 Emigration and Immigratton.
were utterly unfit for colonial life, and who were im-
mediately plunged into misery and want, and obliged
to apply to the consuls for relief or become a burden
on the charity of their countrymen abroad. The
efforts of these agents introduced a restless spirit of
discontent. In some cases they succeeded in creating
a migratory movement which deranged the economic
relations of whole districts, and even threatened to
depopulate them. The home government could not
look upon this process with indifference. It was
assailed by the complaints of its consuls, of its citi-
zens resident abroad who were obliged to relieve the
distresses of their countrymen, and by the fears of
employers of labor at home. As a consequence, the
governments of Europe have recently been passing
laws for the regulation of the business of emigration.
The intent of these laws is that the business of
soliciting emigrants and selling tickets shall be con-
fined to responsible persons who shall enter into a
prescribed contract with the emigrant, for the viola-
tion of which they can be held liable.
The English passengers' act of 1855 contained a
provision that emigrant brokers should be licensed
by the emigration commissioners and enter into a
bond to the amount of one thousand pounds sterling ;
also that emigrant runners should be licensed by a
justice of the peace and wear a badge. By the same
Protecting the Emigrant. 209
act a form of contract was prescribed which was to
be a part of the passage ticket of every emigrant.
So also the various states of Germany have for a
number of years had laws regulating the business of
selling emigrant tickets. Generally these laws pre-
scribe that the agent must be a German by birth ; he
must receive a license and deposit a sum of money as
security ; he must keep a register of the persons to
whom he sells tickets ; he must use a prescribed form
of contract ; he is not allowed to sell tickets for for-
warding the emigrant beyond the landing place in
the new country.^ There is no uniform law for the
German empire, although article four of the consti-
tution gives to the imperial authorities the power of
regulating emigration. There is a growing demand
in Germany, however, that the empire shall take the
matter in hand and pass a law regulating the whole
business. The laws hitherto have probably been in-
tended to prevent evasion of military service rather
than to protect the emigrant or discourage emigra-
tion. Both of these latter motives would probably
find expression in a new law.
Switzerland has been the first country to pass a
comprehensive law to prevent the abuses of indis-
criminate emigration, and to protect the citizen
against the misrepresentations and solicitations of
^ Altenbcrg, Deutsche Auswanderungsgesetzgebung, 1885.
2IO Emigration and Immigration.
the emigration agent. Her example has been fol
lowed by Italy, and will probably be followed by the
other countries of Europe.^ This legislation marks a
new attitude on the part of the countries of Europe
towards unrestricted emigration. It treats the act of
changing one's domicile or the persuading another so
to do as a very serious matter which is not to be un-
dertaken except under guarantees to prevent mistakes
and frauds. Still further, the measures intended to
prevent the emigrant being deceived can easily be
extended, (especially if there should happen to be a
disposition on the part of the administration to ex-
tend them,) so as to be a restriction on emigration of
a very effective kind. Taken in connection with the
disposition of the United States and the British col-
onies to discourage immigration, these measures may
lead to a modification of the right of free migration
which the individual now enjoys. It will be sufficient
for our purpose to notice the general scope of the
Swiss law.
The Swiss law of 1880 has been superseded by
the law of May 24, 1888. The main provisions of
this law are as follows : —
I. The business of forwarding emigrants is sub-
jected to very close supervision. No person can
1 Resume of the new Italian law in an article by Eugene Schuyler
on Italian Immigration, in The Political Science Quarterly, September,
1889.
Protecting the Emigrant. 21 1
engage in it without a license from the federal coun-
cil. Licenses shall be issued only to such persons as
furnish proof that they enjoy a good reputation and
are in possession of civil rights and honors, are
familiar with the business of emigration, and have a
fixed domicile in the confederation. A yearly fee of
fifty francs is to be paid for a license, and the license
may be withdrawn if the holder no longer fulfils the
provisions noted above, or transgresses the law, or
participates in any colonization scheme against which
the federal council has issued a warning. Each
agency must deposit security to the amount of 40,000
francs, and further security to the amount of 3,000
francs for each sub-agent appointed. The security
can be returned to the depositor only after the lapse
of one year from the expiration of the license, and if
claims then exist against the agency the security
shall stand until these are settled. No agent or
sub-agent shall be in the service of, or in any
way dependent upon, any railroad or transatlantic
steamship company. The names of all licensed
agents and sub-agents shall be entered in a book
and published in the official gazette. To all other
persons announcements pertaining to emigration are
prohibited.
II. Agents are forbidden to forward : (i) Persons
incapable of labor owing to advanced age, disease, or
infirmity, so far as no evidence is forthcoming of
212 Emigration and Immigration.
adequate maintenance at the place of destination.
(2) Minors, or persons under guardianship, unless
provided with the written, authenticated consent of
the parent or guardian. (3) Persons who after de-
fraying the expenses of the journey would arrive
without means at place of destination. (4) Persons
forbidden to land by the laws of the country to which
they wish to emigrate. (5) Persons who are in pos-
session of no pai>ers showing their place of origin
and citizenship. (6) Swiss citizens liable to mili-
tary duty who are not able to produce evidence that
they have returned the equipments which they have
received from the state. (7) Parents desiring to
leave children, not yet raised, behind them, and to
whose emigration the poor authorities have not
agreed.
III. There are minute provisions as to the form of
contraK:t, the supplies to be furnished the emigrant
on his journey both by land and by sea, care for him
while at the port of shipment, free medical attend-
ance, decent interment in case of death on the route,
insurance of baggage, etc.
IV. Persons or companies desiring to carry out
colonization schemes must submit them to the federal
council, which has the right to determine whether
or not, and under what conditions, parties may be
allowed to present them. Agencies, as well as coloni-
zation companies, are forbidden to conclude contracts
I
Protecting the Emigrant. 213
by which they obligate themselves to deliver a certain
number of persons either to a shipping company, or
to a colonization or other project, or to state govern-
ments. The federal council is authorized to prohibit
advertisements in public journals, or other publica-
tions of any kind calculated to mislead persons desir-
ing to emigrate. The council shall establish a bureau
which shall place itself in communication with points
of importance in other countries, and shall, when
called upon, furnish necessary information, advice,
and recommendations to persons desiring to emigrate.
The council may, within the limits of the credit
granted to it for this purpose, take the necessary
measures in order that emigrants may be furnished
with advice and assistance at the principal ports of
embarkation and debarkation. Swiss consuls are
directed to inquire without charge into any complaint
made by Swiss emigrants for violations of the con-
ditions guaranteed them, if the complaints are lodged
within ninety-six hours after the complainant's arrival ;
and on demand of the complainant, to draw up a
report of the case and transmit a copy thereof to the
federal council.^
It is not difficult to find justification for such a law
as this. It is intended to protect the emigrant who
is still a citizen of the state, to prevent the violation
1 Translation of the law on page 113 of reports from consuls ap-
pended to the Ford Immigration Committee report.
214 Emigration and Immigration,
of international obligations respecting the sending
out of undesirable persons, and to stop a migratory
movement which has no good cause, but is artifi-
cially produced and maintained. It is a preventive
rather than a restrictive measure, and need not stand
in the way of any really desirable movement of effi-
cient and energetic men to better their condition by
seeking a new field for their industrial powers. It
will, however, prevent a great deal of suffering and
disappointment on the part of the emigrant and dis-
satisfaction on the part of the country receiving him.
It seems to put this important social movement on
a common sense basis, where we can watch it and
to a certain extent at least guide it, in the interest pf
the persons and communities concerned. If through
these measures the migratory movement becomes less
general but more intelligent, it will be a gain to all
parties, and not the least so to those countries to
which the movement is directed.
The emigrant is an object of care not only to the
country which he is forsaking, but even more so to
the country he is seeking. Thus the United States
early took an interest in the treatment of emigrants
on board ship and at the port of landing. The
United States has passengers' acts similar in scope
to the British and intended to remedy the abuses
which had grown up about the business of transport-
ing immigrants. In addition it has made provision
Protecting the Emigrant, 21$
for the reception of the immigrant after he has landed
at Castle Garden or other place of entry. Mr.
Friedrich Kapp^ has given a vivid account of the
sufferings of the emigrant during his voyage and
upon landing in New York, previous to the passage
of the passengers' acts and the establishment of
the board of commissioners of emigration. The
vessels were small saiUng vessels ; the emigrants
were crowded into the space between decks which
was seldom more than five feet in height and some-
times less, lighted and ventilated only by the hatches
which were battened down during bad weather ; some-
times the orlop deck below that was also used for
passengers. The emigrants were obliged to provide
their own food and cook it at the galleys which were
insufficient in number for the passengers, so that
there was a constant struggle to get to them, and
the food was badly cooked. The filth, bad air and
insufficient nourishment gave rise to disease and sick-
ness, against which there was no adequate provision
for medical treatment- The emigrants were at the
mercy of the brutality and greed of the officers and
crew of the ship, and often suffered corporal punish-
ment or were put on short allowance of food. The
voyage lasted many weeks, sometimes months ; the
mortality was enormous, often ten and sometimes
1 Kapp, Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the
State of New York. New York, 1870. Chapter 2.
2i6 Emigration and Immigration.
twenty per cent ; and those who arrived were either
sick, or enfeebled and unable to take care of them-
selves and quickly became applicants for admission
to the hospitals and almshouses of the state.
Many of these evils have been remedied by the
substitution of steamships for sailing vessels, by
which the voyage is shorter and the space and ac-
commodations more generous. Legislation has also
been invoked to protect the immigrant.
The first passengers' act of the United States was
passed in 1819. It provided that no ship should
carry more than two passengers to every five tons of
the ship's burden. The act was not very effective
because it did not regulate the relation between the
ship's burden and the amount of space devoted to
the carrying of passengers. In early times ships
were not fitted up especially for the carriage of pas-
sengers, but such space as was left after the freight
was secured was filled with passengers. Thus a ship
of a thousand tons' burden would be entitled to carry
four hundred passengers, although only half of the
space between decks was given up to their use. The
act of 1855 was much more effective, securing suffi-
cient space for each passenger, providing for ventila-
tion, for a plentiful supply of food and for its cooking
and distribution. The act of 1882 provides 100
cubic feet of space for each passenger (120 feet if
Protecting the Emigrant. 217
on the lower deck), and contains minute regulations
similar to the English act.
But it was through the legislation of the state of
New York that the first efficient provision was made
for the care of the immigrant. As immigration in-
creased it was found to be imposing a heavy burden
on the poor relief of New York city, many of the
immigrants entering the almshouse or hospital a few
days after their arrival. Accordingly in 1824 the
legislature of New York passed an act requiring the
master of every ship bringing alien passengers to
the port of New York to enter into a bond, in such
sum as the mayor or recorder of the city might deem
sufficient, not to exceed three hundred dollars for
each passenger, to indemnify the city in case any said
immigrants or children born of them after importa-
tion should become a charge on the city within two
years after the date of the bond.^ An ordinance of
the city of New York allowed the master of the ship
to escape the execution of the bond by the payment
of a sum varying from one to ten dollars for each
alien passenger.
These acts, according to Kapp, led to evasions and
great abuses. The bonds were often insufficient ;
when an immigrant became a charge on the city it
was difficult to identify him and compel the persons
1 Kapp, Immigration, etc., p. 45.
2i8 Emigration and Immigration.
responsible to pay for him ; speculators entered into
contracts to secure the captains against further re-
sponsibility on the basis of so much a passenger, or
even so much a ship, and these speculators availed
themselves of every device for evading payment of
the bond. Finally they went so far as to establish
private almshouses, where the pauper immigrants
were cared for at a cheaper rate than in the city
almshouses. The most flagrant abuses sprang up
in these institutions. The inmates were treated in
the harshest and most inhumane manner, and after
the two years required by law had expired they were
thrown on the county for support. In 1842 a com-
mittee of the board of aldermen reported the ineffi-
ciency of the bonding system, and recommended that
a uniform tax of one dollar be levied on the immi-
grants for the benefit of the city. They declared that
only one-ninth of the immigrants were commuted for
by the captains, and that it was difficult to hold the
bondsmen to their obligation, so that while during
the last three years the number of passengers landed
at the port had been 181,615, the city had received
only $41,391. That left ;^ 140,223 which had gone
into the pockets of private individuals, for the ship-
owners were accustomed to collect one dollar from
each immigrant by adding it to the fare.^ The finan-
cial interests of the city demanded a change ; while
1 Kapp, Immigration, etc., p. 50.
Protecting the Emigrant. 219
the lowest sense of justice could be satisfied with
nothing less than that the money collected from the
immigrants should be administered for their benefit.
The treatment of the ordinary immigrants was a
disgrace to the administrative authorities of New
York city and to American civilization. As soon as
an emigrant ship reached the port it was boarded by
a class of men called " runners," in the employment
of boarding-house keepers or of forwarding compa-
nies. Disputes between rival runners often led to
violence, and the unfortunate immigrant was decoyed,
often half-forced, into the boarding-house. There he
was charged three or four times the prices he had
been promised ; if he did not pay, his baggage was
held in custody. He was persuaded to buy transpor-
tation over particular routes by misrepresentations ;
he was charged extravagant prices for his ticket ; his
baggage was falsely weighed ; and in every way he
was victimized. Helpless, in a strange country, igno-
rant often of the language, not knowing whom to
trust, he was obliged to submit to extortion and went
on his way, making place for new victims. The
author of the wrong went unpunished because there
was no one to make complaint. These evils con-
tinued until 1855, when Castle Garden was made
the landing-place for all immigrants, and they could
there be protected against sharpers.^
^ Kapp, Immigration, etc., chapter 4.
220 Emigration and Immigration,
The financial interests of the city and the noto-
rious wrongs perpetrated on the immigrants led
finally to an agitation in 1846-47 for a reform of the
law. The city council favored the abolition of the
bonding system, and the payment of a head-tax to
the mayor or comptroller of the city for the purpose
of defraying the expenses of poor relief. This would
have secured the financial interests of the city. But
a number of public-spirited gentlemen believed that
the measure did not go far enough to remedy the
abuses connected with the treatment of immigrants.
They therefore agitated for a different measure, which
was finally passed by the legislature and became a
law, May 5, 1847. This law established the first
Board of Emigration Commissioners of the State of
New York. Six commissioners were named in the
bill, who were to hold office for two, four, and six
years, their successors to be appointed by the gov-
ernor and to hold office for six years. To these were
added as ex officio members of the board, the mayor
of the city of New York, the mayor of the city of
Brooklyn, the president, for the time being, of the
Irish Immigration Society, and the president, for the
time being, of the German Immigration Society.^
This board of commissioners was to have full power
of taking charge of all immigrants v/ho should within
five years of their landing come on the poor relief of
1 Kapp, Immigration, etc., chapter 5.
Protecting the Emigrant. 221
any city or county in the state ; it was to have power
to remove them from one part of the state to another,
or from the state, and to lease or purchase property
and erect buildings for the purpose of carrying out
the provisions of the act. Money was to be provided
by a head-tax of one dollar on each immigrant, which
was afterwards increased to two, and later to two and
a half dollars. The commissioners were afterwards
authorized to lease a pier where all immigrants should
be landed and to which other persons should be ad-
mitted only by a permit. This was in order to
protect the immigrant from extortion. It was not,
however, till 1855 that the commissioners succeeded
in securing what is known as Castle Garden. There
the immigrants are landed and inspected ; those who
desire to proceed to the interior purchase tickets
from the regular railroad agents, and have their bag-
gage weighed and sent free of charge to the depot ;
those who stay in the city can have their baggage
delivered at fixed rates ; only boarding-house keepers
holding licenses from the mayor and whose houses
are subject to inspection and regulation are admitted
to the garden to solicit custom ; the immigrant has
his money exchanged by authorized brokers at posted
rates ; he is supplied with food according to fixed
prices ; and every effort is made to protect him against
fraud and imposition.^
^ Reports <jf Commissioners of Emigration of the State of New York.
222 Emigration and Immigration.
I
The enormous increase of immigration after 1847
made it extremely difficult to provide the necessary
poorhouses and hospitals for the helpless and infirm
among the immigrants. The commissioners at first
leased and afterwards acquired by purchase land on
Ward's Island, and there established their own hospi-
tal. These purchases were continued from time to time
until in i868 they had acquired over 120 acres at a cost
of $140,000. The property is said to be worth now
from two to three million dollars. The term during
which the commissioners were obliged to receive the
immigrant was reduced in 1882 from five years to
one year after the landing. At the expiration of
that time they are turned over to the authorities of
the county of New York. In 1888 there were 4,136
persons admitted to the hospital and 202 persons to
the insane asylum on Ward's Island.
The work of the Emigration Commissioners of the
State of New York has been performed with great
fidelity. The hoard was originally instituted in order
to protect the immigrant and secure the community
against too heavy a burden for poor relief. There
was no intention of restricting immigration. It was
considered desirable, and the labors of the board were
calculated to facilitate rather than to hinder it. Of
late years that feeling has changed, and the demand
has arisen that immigration if not to be actually
restricted is to be closely watched and undesirable
Protecting the Emigrant. 223
immigrants kept out. With this feeling the board of
emierration commissioners of New York has been
called upon to do the work of inspection and the
enforcement of the regulating acts of Congress.
Moreover, as four-fifths of the immigration come
through the port of New York, the whole country
looks to it for the efficient discharge of this new and
onerous duty. It has not been able to meet these
demands altogether satisfactorily, partly from the
nature of the case and partly from recent legislation*
Composed of private citizens serving without pay
and busied with their own affairs the commission was
well fitted to administer a great charity, while it is
not fitted to discharge invidious administrative duties
where it would encounter the opposition of powerful
moneyed corporations. In addition it has been crip-
pled by legislation and adverse judicial decisions.
In 1876 the imposition of the head-money upon
which the board of commissioners was dependent
for its financial resources was declared unconstitu*
tional by the Supreme Court of the United States,
on the ground that it was a regulation of commerce.^
The steamship companies refusing to pay the head-
money any longer, the board was made dependent on
annual grants from the legislature of the state of New
1 Henderson vs. Mayor of New York, etc., 97 U. S. R. 259. The
Inman Steamship Co. sued the board for back commutation moneys, but
an act of Congress, 1878, legalized the past actions of the commis-
sioners. Report, 1879.
224 Emigration and Immigration.
York.^ A state act of 1881 imposing a tax of one
dollar on each immigrant, under the title of an inspec-
tion law, was in like manner declared unconstitutional.^
It was felt to be unjust that the burden of immigra-
tion should be borne by the state of New York, when
its benefits were enjoyed by the whole nation. If the
state of New York did not have the right to impose
a tax for the purpose of protecting the immigrants, it
was felt that the United States ought either to under-
take the duty or at least furnish the money. The
commissioners prepared a national act and presented
it to Congress year after year, but without success.
Finally when Congress passed the act of 1882 for-
bidding the immigration of paupers, criminals and
persons unable to take care of themselves, it provided
for the payment of a head-tax of fifty cents on each
immigrant. This money was to be paid to the Secre-
tary of the Treasury, who was authorized to enter into
contract with any state officers of emigration for the
purpose of enforcing the act. The Secretary of the
Treasury now contracts with the board of commis-
sioners of emigration of the state of New York for
the inspection of immigrants arriving at the port of
New York. The act has embarrassed the commis-
sioners in several ways. The secretary refuses to
^ 1877,^200,000; subsequent years ^150,000 annually; total amount
1876 — 1882, j$ 1, 000,000.
2 People vs. Compagnie Generale Transatlantique, 107 U. S. R. 59.
Protectmg the Emigrant. 225
pay out of the tax the rental of Ward's Island or for
improvements and permanent repairs on the property
there. The commissioners have paid for repairs and
insurance by the sale of privileges in Castle Garden,
but the money due from this source is also in dispute,
the commissioners claiming that it belongs to the
state, the secretary that it belongs to the national
immigrant fund. In 1888 the Attorney -General de-
cided that the money belonged to the state, but the
rental hitherto paid by the United States govern-
ment for Castle Garden was disallowed.^ Finally, the
commissioners are empowered to inspect immigrants
according to the law of 1 882, but the decision whether
any person shall be sent back or not rests with the
collector of the port. In 1888, twenty-eight per cent
of those rejected by the commissioners were allowed
by the collector to land.
The commissioners have been embarrassed also by
the action of the legislature of New York, which in
1883 abolished the board and provided for a new board
of three commissioners, one to be appointed by the
governor with the advice and consent of the senate,
and to have a salary of $6000, the other two to be the
president of the Irish and the president of the Ger-
man Immigration Society. The senate has, however,
refused to confirm the governor's appointees, so that
the present commissioners are holding over until
1 Report of Commissioners, 1888.
226 Eynigration and Immigration.
their successors are appointed. They have quarrelled
among themselves, two have resigned, and it is often
impossible at the present time to get a quorum for
the transaction of business.
n
CHAPTER XI.
CHINESE IMMIGRATION.
No treatment of immigration would be complete
without reference to the prohibition of Chinese immi-
gration by the United States and the British colonies
in North America and Australia. It would be a dif-
ficult and ungrateful task to enter a defence of the
brutal treatment of Chinese resident in this country,
or even to justify entirely our legislation and diplo-
macy in regard to their exclusion. Too much of it
bears the stamp of demagogic subserviency to the
passing demands of the mob. The best way, per-
haps, is to acknowledge that our conduct has not
been all that it should have been, and to deplore the
cases where injury and injustice have been inflicted.
On the other hand, the gradual modification of certain
notions respecting the efficacy of general "a priori"
principles for the practical guidance of a nation may
lead us to admit that there is some deeper reason for
the exclusion of this foreign element than mere dis-^
like. It is intended here only to trace the course of
our legislation, and to point out the particular ground
on which the exclusion of the Chinese rests.
It is a matter of common knowledge that during
227
228 Emigration and Immigration.
the greater part of our national life we have been
very much influenced by general doctrines concern-
ing the rights of man. Embodied in our Declaration >
of Independence, reinforced by French philosophy,
and commended by the success of democratic insti-
tutions among ourselves, the principles of liberty and
equality have been insisted upion by us with no little
emphasis. The great influx of immigrants having
the definite intention of remaining here forced us to
the contention that among the rights of man was
<that of free migration and expatriation. We could
take no other position. It was impossible for the
thousands of immigrants to retain their old alle-
giance ; and it was undesirable that they should have
any less rights, whether at home or abroad, than our
own native bom citizens. We have already seen how
completely we carried out this idea in our naturaliza-
tion laws and our treaties with foreign powers con-
cerning the right of expatriation. By a resolution of
Congress of July 27, 1868, the right of expatriation
^ was declared to be " a natural and inherent right of
all people, indispensable to the enjoyment of the
rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness " ;
and, "any declaration, instruction, opinion, order or
decision of any officer of the United States which
denies, restricts, obstructs or questions the right of
expatriation is declared inconsistent with the funda-
mental principles of the Republic.'*
Chinese Immigration, 229
That same year a specific application of this doc-
trine was made in a treaty concluded with China, as
follows :
"The United States of America and the Emperor of China
cordially recognize the inherent and inalienable right of man to
change his home and allegiance, and also the mutual advantage
of the free migration and emigration of their citizens and sub-
jects respectively, from the one country to the other, for the pur-
poses of curiosity, of trade or as permanent residents." ^
This treaty of 1868 marks the dividing line be-
tween two distinct and contradictory policies on
the part of the United States in its relations with
China and the Chinese. Up to that time our efforts
had been directed towards compelling the Chinese to
admit Americans to China for the pursuit of trade
and commerce. In this contention we placed our-
selves on the broad platform of the right of free
migration and the duty of international intercourse.
Shortly after this declaration we found that the influx
of Chinese into this country was causing inconven-
ience, and we immediately turned our backs on the^
principle of freedom of migration, and passed laws
excluding the Chinese as effectually as they had ever
excluded foreigners.
Our political relations with China date back to the
year 1844, when Caleb Cushing negotiated the first
treaty between the United States and that country.
1 Burlingame Treaty, Article V. Concluded July 28, 1868.
230 Emigration and Immigration,
That treaty, like all subsequent ones, had for its ob-
ject, so far as the United States was concerned, two
things. One was the protection of the lives and
property of American citizens in China ; the other
was the securing of privileges of trade and commerce.
For the first object, the Chinese government granted
extra-territorial consular jurisdiction to the United
States ; that is, " citizens of the United States who
may commit any crime in China shall be subject to
be tried and punished only by the consul, or other
public functionary of the United States, thereto au-
thorized, according to the laws of the United States."
In regard to the other point, the Chinese consented
that the Americans should be admitted to five ports
for the purposes of trade ; but this right was nar-
rowly restricted.
The United States did not take any part in the
Chinese war of 1858, but American diplomatic rep-
resentatives followed in the wake of English and
French armies and participated in the advantages of
-the Chinese discomfiture. The result was the nego-
tiation of the Reed treaty of 1858 commonly known
as the treaty of Tient-tsin. By it the number of
ports opened to commerce was increased to seven
(subsequently still further increased to eleven) ; the
extra-territorial jurisdiction of the consuls was con-
tinued ; the exercise of the Christian religion was per-
mitted ; Chinese pirates might be seized by American
Chinese Immigration. 231
men-of-war; tonnage and customs duties were regu-
lated ; the United States minister was to be allowed
to visit Pekin once a year and to reside there as soon
as that privilege was granted to the minister of any
foreign power; and finally, Americans were always
to enjoy the same rights as the citizens of the most
favored nation.
Nothing was said in these treaties about the rights
of Chinese trading or residing in the United States.
It is said that no provision was necessary, for the
Chinese came here under exactly the same conditions
as the citizens of any other nation and enjoyed exactly
the same privileges. Under our laws at that time they
were allowed to come and go freely, to engage in any
occupation they pleased ; and if they committed crimes
they were subject to the jurisdiction of our courts.
The treaty of i %6Z^ which was negotiated by Anson
Burlingame at the head of a Chinese embassy visiting
this country, went still further in the direction of open-
ing up China to the citizens of the United States.
The general declaration (quoted above) of the inhe-
rent right of migration was made, coupled with the
declaration that any involuntary emigration was to be
reprobated ; and engaging in such involuntary emi-
gration was to be made a penal offence for the sub-
jects of cither power. This clause was directed K^
against the coolie traffic. The provisions of the
treaty of 1858 protecting Christian citizens of the
232 Emigration and Immigration.
United States and Chinese converts from persecution
in China, were renewed and made reciprocal in be-
half of Chinese living in the United States who were
to have freedom of religious worship and sepulture
for their dead. Citizens of either country were to
have and enjoy all the privileges of educational in-
stitutions under the control of the other country.
Finally it was stipulated that :
" Citizens of the United^ States visiting or residing in China
shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities and exemptions in
respect to travel or residence as may there be enjoyed by the
citizens or subjects of the most favored nation. And, recipro-
cally, Chinese subjects visiting or residing in the United States,
shall enjoy the same privileges, immunities and exemptions in
respect to travel or residence as may there be enjoyed by the citi-
zens or subjects of the most favored nation. But nothing herein
contained shall be held to confer naturalization upon citizens of
the United States in China, nor upon the subjects of China in
the United States." Article VII.
Such was the famous Burlingame treaty of 1868.
The Chinese embassy was received with most marked
attentions in its journey through the United States,
at San Francisco, at New York and at Washington.
The treaty was hailed with delight as the final open-
ing up of China to the commerce and civilization of
/ the West. Merchants expected a great extension of
commerce between China and the Pacific coast ; and
the Christian churches in America considered that a
Chinese Immigration, 233
great obstacle to missionary effort in China had been
removed.
As a matter of fact it does not appear that the
Burlingame treaty changed the actual condition of
things very much. The privileges granted to Ameri-
can citizens in China in regard to trade and religion
were precisely those granted in the treaty of 1858.
China promised then to treat American citizens in the
same way that she treated the subjects of the most
favored nation. She promised to do no more now.
The reciprocal privileges granted to the Chinese of
free exercise of their religion here and to Americans of -"
free entrance to the educational institutions of China
were of no practical value, because one was already
enjoyed and the other would hardly be desired. The
position of the Chinese here was precisely that which
they had always shared with other foreigners. The
only privilege which they had not enjoyed or of which
their enjoyment was doubtful (namely, of naturaliza- "^
tion) was expressly withheld by the treaty.
There was one thing, however, which made the
treaty in later years and with the change in senti-
ment towards the Chinese full of embarrassment for
the United States. That was the express declaration
that the right of migration is inalienable and the ex-/^
press promise that "the subjects of China shall enjoy
the same privileges, immunities and exemptions in
respect to travel and residence as may be enjoyed by
234 Emigration and Immigration.
the citizens or subjects of the most favored nation."
Thereby that which, on our part, had been merely a
tacit understanding or the actually existing condition
of things became an express treaty stipulation, requir-
ing formal negotiation to modify, or express statute to
over-ride, recourse to either of which might put in jeop-
ardy the privileges accorded under the same treaty to
American citizens in China. We thereby expressly
committed ourselves, and under the most solemn cir-
cumstances, to principles which a few years later we
|| flatly repudiated.
It has been said in extenuation of our later con-
duct, and it was said even at the time, that the treaty
of 1868 and the preceding treaties did not secure any
real reciprocity ; that while the Chinese under the
most favored nation clause were allowed to travel and
settle in all parts of the United States and enjoy
the same privileges in regard to trade and protection
to life and property as the people of the United
States, Americans in China were still restricted to
certain specified seaports, that they had no access to
the interior and that they did not enjoy the same
rights in China that the Chinese enjoyed in America.
The answer of course is that Americans enjoyed the
rights which were stipulated for in the treaty, namely,
the same privileges, immunities and exemptions as
were enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of the most
favored nation. That was all that China agreed to
Chinese Immigration, 235
give and all probably in the condition of things there
that she could give. At any rate it was what we
stipulated for and what we received in return for giv-
ing to Chinamen the privileges of the most favored ^
nation here, except that of naturalization. If we look
at the question of reciprocity in that light, China
might also say that the treaty was not reciprocal, for
instance in the matter of consular jurisdiction. For
if an American committed a crime in China he was
tried by his own consul ; while if a Chinaman com-
mitted a crime in America he was tried by the
American courts and according to American law.
It is evident that in 1868 we committed ourselves, as
far as solemn treaty obligations could commit us, to
treating the Chinese in America precisely (always <
excepting naturalization) as we treated foreigners of
other nationalities.
From this high plane of ideal politics we quickly
descended. In 1870 on the revision of the natural-
ization laws, a proposition 1 in the Senate to insert
the words " or persons born in the Chinese empire "
ifter the words "aliens of African nativity and to •
persons of African descent" was easily negatived.
In 1878, Judge Sawyer, in the circuit court of the
United States, decided that a Chinaman could not be
naturalized as a citizen of the United States.^ The
1 By Senator Trumbull, July 4.
' 5 Sawyer, 155, quoted by Wharton, Int. Law Digest, § 197.
236 Emigration and Immigration.
Kgnti-Chinese feeling, which had already existed for
some time on the Pacific coast, entered into national
politics and the leaders of the two parties pandered
to it for the purpose of securing the vote of those
states. In 1876 both parties inserted an anti-Chinese
plank in their platforms, and a special joint committee
of the Senate and the House of Representatives pro-
•^ ceeded to the Pacific coast to investigate the question
on the spot, and formulated a report painting the
evils of Chinese immigration in the strongest and
blackest colors and demanding immediate legislation.
In order to understand the rapid culmination of this
feeling against the Chinese which resulted in the
) report of 1876 and the subsequent legislation, it will
be necessary to turn for a moment to the history of
Chinese immigration into California and the treat-
ment the Chinese had there received.
Chinese immigration began soon after the discov-
ery of the gold fields, but for the first few years
there are no exact statistics of the arrivals and de-
partures. From 1848 to 1852 the number is esti-
mated to have been 10,000 for the four years.^ In
1852 the number of arrivals was 20,026 and of de-
partures 1768. In 1853 the arrivals were 4270, but
the departures were 4421, that is, in excess of the
arrivals. In 1854 the arrivals were 16,084 ^^^^ the
departures 2330. During the next fifteen years the
^ Report of Committee on Chinese Immigration, 1876, p. 1 196.
Chinese Immigration, 237
arrivals were only a few thousand per annum, never
more than 8424, and the annual departures were
three or four thousand so that the annual increase
was not very great ; in some years in fact there was
an excess of departures over arrivals. In 1868 the
arrivals were 11,085 ^"<^ ^^^ ^^^ g^i^ ^^^ 6876. In
1868 the net gain was 10,098, and down to 1876 the
excess of arrivals over departures was never more <,
than 11,000 per annum and often less than that num-
ber. From 1848 to 1876, a period of nearly thirty
years, the total arrivals were estimated at 233,136
and the departures at 93,273, leaving a net gain of \
139,863. Deducting a loss by mortality of two per F^
cent per annum (which is the mortality of the white
population) making 25,900, there was estimated to be
in the United States in 1876 about 114,000 Chinese. *^
This number was subsequently proven to have been
exaggerated. The census of 1880 showed only 105,000
Chinese here.
The Chinese were at first regarded without aver- >^
sion by the other immigrants into California. Their
peculiarities of dress, their inoffensive manners and
general defencelessness soon brought upon them
abuse and persecution from the rough elements/
gathered in the mining camps. The robbery or mur-
der of a Chinaman was seldom avenged. Immi-
grants of other nationalities, quick to feel their sup-
posed superiority to the "heathen Chinee," expressed
238 Emigration and Immigration.
it by stoning him upon the streets, by mobbing him
in his house, and by general abuse and violence. His
untiring industry and perseverance made him suc-
cessful in the placer mines, the Chinaman often
working over places abandoned by the white miner ;
and envy and ill-will soon attacked him as a competi-
tor with white labor. As he subsequently engaged
in work on the railroad, on the farm, as domestic
servant, and finally even in certain manufactures, his
labor was denounced as superseding that of the white
man, and the question of Chinese immigration became
a labor question to which the statesmen of California
almost immediately succumbed. The Chinaman had
no vote, and hence could have no influence in politics.
Popular feeling against the Chinaman soon ex-
pressed itself in state legislation and city ordinances,
directed specifically or indirectly against him. An
act of the California legislature in 1855 imposed a
tax of ^55 on every Chinese immigrant. A sub-
sequent act (1858) prohibited all persons of the
Chinese or Mongolian races from entering the state
or landing at any port thereof, unless driven on shore
by stress of weather or unavoidable accident, in
which case they should immediately be re-shipped.
An act was passed in 1862 providing that every Mon-
golian over eighteen years of age should pay a
monthly capitation tax of ^2.50, except those engaged
in the production and manufacture of sugar, rice.
1
Chinese Immigration. 239
coffee and tea. All of these acts were declared un-
constitutional by the Supreme Court of California.^
In 1 86 1 there was passed the act imposing a tax on
foreign miners. It read as follows :
*' No person unless he is a citizen of the United States, or
shall have declared his intention to become such (California In-
dians excepted), shall be allowed to take or extract gold, silver,
or other metals from the mines of this state, or hold a mining
claim therein, unless he shall have a license therefor of $4
per month." ^
This act was levelled nominally against all foreign-
ers, but the universal testimony is that it was en-
forced only against the Chinese. At any rate, they
were the only ones who could not escape it, for
they were not allowed to become naturalized. The
tax collectors were often prejudiced men, who used
the authority conferred upon them in the most violent
manner. The committee of the California legislature
which inquired into the Chinese question in 1862
declared that eighty-eight cases had been reported to
them where Chinamen had been murdered by white
people, eleven of whom were known to have been
murdered by collectors of the foreign miner's license
tax — sworn officers of the law. But two of the mur- ^
derers had been convicted and hanged.^
1 Report on Chinese Immigration, p. 477.
2 This tax dates back to 1 853, and was modified at different times,
varying from $4 to $6 and to $20.
* Seward, Chinese Immigration, p. 37 ff.
240 Emigration and Immigration.
%\
In like manner a number of city ordinances were
passed for the purpose of reaching the Chinese indi
rectly. Thus, San Francisco had a laundry ordinanc(
imposing a license fee as follows : On laundries using
a one-horse vehicle, $2 per quarter; two horses, $\
per quarter ; no vehicle, $ 1 5 per quarter. The Chi
nese laundries commonly used no vehicle. Men who
sold vegetables on the street from door to door were
required to pay a fee of $2 if they drove a wagon, of
$\o\i they went on foot. The so-called ''queue or
dinance" provided that every person convicted for
any criminal offence should have his hair cut to a
length of one inch from his head. This was espe-
cially felt by the Chinaman, to whom the loss of his
queue was a lasting disgrace. The " cubic air ordi-
nance " required that no person should let or hire
any tenement house where the capacity of the rooms^
was less than five hundred cubic feet for every person
sleeping there. This ordinance was enforced only
against the Chinese. Of these petty persecutions all
that even Senator Sargent could say was : " That
[the laundry ordinance] was one of the methods this
city and state have tried, to rid themselves of this
great plague, before appealing to Congress. It may
appear ridiculous, cutting off queues, etc., but they
resort to those things before resorting to violence."^
By an act of legislature of 1863 it was provided
1 Report on Chinese Immigration, p. 479.
Chinese hnmigration. 241
that Chinese and Mongolians should not be witnesses
in an action or proceeding wherein a white person
was party. It was afterwards repealed.^ ^
The efforts of the California legislature to stop
Chinese immigration were rendered futile by the de-
cisions of the United States courts. These decisions
prevented any discrimination against the Chinese by
name because it would be a violation of treaty obli-
gations. On the other hand, the prohibition or even
regulation of immigration was held to be a regulation
of commerce, and hence to belong exclusively to
Congress. This was clearly shown by the decision
of the Supreme Court of the United States on the
constitutionality of that part of the political code of
California which gave the commissioner of immigra-
tion power to exclude from the state lunatics, idiots,
deaf and dumb persons, cripples, lewd and debauched
women, etc. The aim of the statute was to exclude^
Chinese prostitutes. The court decided, however,
that the state could not confer upon an officer the
power of going on board a ship and designating such
persons as he might deem to come within the statute
and preventing their landing. Such power involved
international relations, and belonged to Congress
alone.2
Met at every turn by the adverse decisions of the
1 Report on Chinese Immigration, p, 478.
• Chy Lung vs. J. H. Freeman et al., 92 U. S. Reports.
242 Emigration and Immigration.
•^courts, the Californians finally decided to appeal to
Congress for national action to put a stop to Chinese
immigration. The legislature authorized the munici-
pality of San Francisco to appropriate the sum of
five thousand dollars to pay the expenses of a delega-
tion to Washington to "sohcit such action on the
part of the Federal government as should modify
the Burlingame treaty, so as to prevent the immigra-
tion of certain classes of Chinese under its provisions,
whose arrival in our midst is detrimental to the moral
and material interests of our own people."
The testimony collected by the Congressional com-
mittee which was sent in response to this demand
covers every phase of the Chinese question, and is of
value to-day as showing at least the way in which the
Chinese were regarded by the various classes of
people in California. Much of the evidence is col-
ored by prejudice, some of it is economically and
politically absurd, and there is no general agreement
among the witnesses ; but still we can reach some
conclusions.
The opponents of the Chinese asserted that there
was danger of the white population of California
becoming outnumbered by the Chinese ; that they
came here under contract, in other words as coolies
or a servile class ; that they were subject to the juris-
diction of organized companies which directed their
movements, settled disputes among them, and even
Chinese Immigration. 243
had power of life and death, which they exercised by
assassination ; that Chinese cheap labor deprived
white labor of employment, lowered wages, and kept,
white immigrants from coming to the state ; that the
Chinese were loathsome in their habits, and the filth
of their dwellings endangered the health of the city ;
that they were vile in their morals, and spread pros- .
titution, gambling and opium habits ; that they did
not assimilate with the whites, and never could be-
come an integral and homogeneous part of the popu-
lation.
The evidence shows, in my opinion, that many of
these assertions are entirely too sweeping. The
number of Chinese in the state (which was asserted
by their accusers to be from 150,000 to 175,000) was
[ ^ grossly exaggerated, as was shown by the census of
i^ 1880. They failed entirely to prove the existence of
any such thing as the coolie traffic. There are or-
ganizations known as the " six companies," and their
exact function was not discovered, but they seem to
be associations of men from the same province for
mutual assistance and protection. It was not proven,
however, that the companies exercise any absolute
authority over the Chinese, or inflict punishments
upon them for disobedience to their orders. The
personal habits of the Chinese, as far as their dwell-
ings are concerned, seem to be filthy in the extreme,
but it did not appear that the municipal government
V
244 Emigration and Immigration.
had taken any steps to improve the condition of the
Chinese quarter. They did not seem to have more
\disease or greater mortahty than is usual among
people of the working classes. Their habits of per-
sonal cleanliness compare favorably with those of
laborers of other nationalities. As far as criminality
is concerned, they are peacea.ble, law abiding, never
drunk, and are represented in the statistics of the
prisons by less than their proportionate number.
They are inveterate gamblers. They are also opium
smokers ; which latter vice, however, seems to be
less of a public nuisance than drunkenness, for it
simply stupefies the victim instead of exciting him.
Chinese prostitution is a real evil, and women are
brought from China for that especial purpose, and
bound under contract. It is an evil incident to the
peculiar character of the immigration which consists
of adult males unaccompanied by their families. It
is a question how far it can be controlled either by
consular inspection before the women are allowed to
leave China or by municipal measures here. The
real evil consists in the presence of that great num-
ber of men without their families.
Passing by these considerations, which do not seem
to involve any grave national dangers, we come to
the more serious questions of the eronomiV e^ec\^
of Chinese immigration and of their assimilation
with our institutions and civilization. The real
]
Chinese Immigration. 245
excuse for their exclusion, if there be any, is to be
sought under one of these two categories.
On the question of the economic effect of the
presence of the Chinese the testimony is one mass <
of hopeless confusion. Most of the witnesses had
no economic notions at all, or, if they had any, they
were of the most rudimentary and popular kind.
To many of them the very presence of a Chinaman
in any productive employment seemed conclusive
evidence that he displaced a white man ; that he
would work for lowjyages made him a direct com-
petitor with the Caucasian ; and that he sent his
savings back to China constituted a dead loss to the
state. They forgot that in a new state there might
be room for both Mongolian and White ; that the
presence of one body of laborers often creates a
demand for other kinds of labor ; and that the wealth
produced by the Chinaman remained in the state,
whatever he might do with his surplus wages.
There doubtless comes a time when an excessive
supply of labor introduces competition among the
laborers and lowers wages. But there was little
effort on the part of witnesses, and none at all in
the report of the committee, to determine whether
that time had arrived in the case of California.
The general drift of the testimony (and even the
opponents of the Chinese did not deny it) was that
the Chinaman up to that time had been extremely
246 Emigration and Immigration.
useful in developing the resources of the state. He
had made an excellent laborer in the mines, where
he had shown himself equal to the most exhausting
kinds of work. The builders of the Pacific railroads
had employed him when they could not find an ade-
quate supply of white labor. He had reclaimed
thousands of acres of "tule" {i.e. marsh) lands,
where the white laborer could not work on account
of malaria. The wheat harvests of the state could
not have been gathered had it not been for the
Chinese coming to the assistance of the farmers.
All through the state he was employed as a domestic
servant, and in many places, especially in the rural
^^istricts, no other house servants could be obtained.
in some few manufacturing industries he had been
(introduced, but it was probable that these industries
could never have been established in California had
it not been for the cheap labor of the Chinese. In
regard to competition with white labor, it would
appear that where every kind of labor was so scarce
^there need have been no competition, for there was
|employment for all ; still further, that, while the Chi-
nese took the drudgery, the whites assumed the places
of skilled laborers and bosses ; for instance, that the
heads of the section gangs on the railroads and in
the mines were invariably whites ; that the teamsters
on the farms were always whites, the Chinese not
being skilful in handling horses ; and that there
Chinese Immigration. 247
were no Chinese blacksmiths, carpenters, masons,
bricklayers, etc. It appeared, therefore, that Chinese
labor had been of great benefit to California, and not
only to the employers of labor, but to all classes of
the community, for it had furnished that substratumx
of rough labor upon which all successful industry
must be built. It is unnecessary to discuss here the
question how long such labor will be necessary and
useful for the state of California. From the purely
economic standpoint it is probable that for a long
time to come it will be advantageous for the devel-
opment of the state.
The one serious charge that was substantiated^
I against the desirability of Chinese immigration was
that they do not assimilate with us. They come
here with the single object of making money and
then returning to China. They have no intention
of becoming permanent residents, and no desire to
adopt our customs and habits of life. The most
earnest defenders of the Chinese could not prove
that during thirty years of contact our civilization
had made any impress upon them. Our effort to
christianize them has, with a few exceptions, been
an entire failure. They have shown no desire to
become acquainted with our political institutions, or
to take part in political life. It may be contended
that we have refused to admit them to political life,
and that the treatment they have received at our
248 Emigration and Immigration.
hands has not been such as to excite admiration of
our civilization. But the very tenacity with which,
notwithstanding all this persecution, they have clung
to peculiarities of costume and living, causing them
to be singled out for abuse, shows that they are
singularly conservative in their ideas. The whole
history of the intercourse between China and the
Western powers has exemplified the fact that, with
their four thousand years of civilization behind them,
^ey are imbued with a thorough contempt for the
mushroom growths of European life. They feel no
sense of inferiority, and hence no desire for change.
In short, without committing ourselves to the eth-
nological vagaries of the Californian philosophers
who assured the committee that the Chinese did not
belong to the same species of the genus homo as the
whites, and that a cross between the two would be
inlsrtile.^ we may say that we have to do with a
race which in tenacious adherence to its own culture
seems equal to our own. The question of receiving
them, therefore, assumes an entirely different aspect
from that of receiving immigrants from Europe.
<'t'he latter blend with the native stock, and all
become one people. The Chinese remain isolated,
and constitute an alien element in the- midst of us.
There are but two solutions to such a problem as theii
coming presents. If they are less in numbers than
^ Judge Hastings, Testimony, p. 586.
S-V*^
Chinese Immigration. 249
we, they remain an inferior class, doing our drudg-
ery, but enjoying none of the rights and performing
none of the duties of citizenship. Such a solution
is abhorrent to the principles of democracy and in-
compatible with the maintenance of our institutions.
The other solution is that they shall come in such
numbers as to overwhelm our civilization, or at least
give rise to continual race conflicts in certain^
parts of our continent. The interests of civiliza-
tion forbid the opening of even the possibility of
such a conflict.*
1 The real question involved in Chinese immigra-
tion, therefore, was whether they were likely to come
in such numbers as to prove an inconvenience to our
civilization. Even Seward, the zealous defender of
the Chinese, acknowledges that if there were danger ^
of their coming en masse it would be well to protect
ourselves.2 The question is involved in obscurity.
The population of China certainly numbers hundreds
of millions, and their fertility is enormous. So long
as the economic advantages which have already at-^
tracted them to this country remain, one cannot see
why they should not continue to come, and in in-
creasing masses, as the facilities of transportation
improve. Seward maintains that they are a con-
1 See an excellent article by M. J. Dee in The North American
Review, voL 126, p. 506, 1878.
2 See also Senator Hamlin, who opposed so vigorously the exclusion
bill of 1879. Senate Debates, Feb. 14, 1879.
250 Emigration and Immigration.
servative race, and that there is no danger of any
such influx. However that may be, the problem was
one where we could easily have guarded ourselves
against danger by wise negotiation and a friendly
understanding with the government of China, which
had not the slightest inclination to encourage the
emigration of its subjects. We return now to our
actual legisl.ation on the subject. — -
The report of the committee of 1876 was violently
denunciatory of the Chinese, and regarded all the
statements of their adversaries as fully proven. It
admitted that there were some respectable people
who defended them, but insinuated that these peo-
ple were either capitalists who profited by their
cheap labor, or clergymen who considered it a relig-
ious duty to admit the Chinese in order to chris-
tianize them. The report closed as follows :
** The committee recommend that measures be taken by the
executive looking toward a modification of the existing treaty
with China, confining it to strictly commercial purposes; and
^that Congress legislate to restrain the great influx of Asiatics
to this country. It is not believed that either of these measures
would be looked upon with disfavor by the Chinese government.
Whether this is so or not, a duty is owing to the Pacific states
and territories, which are suffering under a terrible scourge, but
are patiently [?] waiting for relief from Congress."
Owing to the excitement caused by the dispute
over the presidential election of 1 876, no action was
Chinese Immigration. 251
taken on the report of the committee. The question
did not sleep long. On January 25, 1878, Mr. Willis,
from the House committee on Education and Labor,
presented a report denouncing Chinese immigration
in the strongest terms, and recommending that cor-
respondence be opened with China and Great Britain <.
with a view to putting a stop to it. On January 29,
1879, ^r- Willis again presented a special report,
which dealt with three points only: ist. Can Con-
gress repeal a treaty > 2d. Previous efforts at relief.
3d. Restrictive measures necessary.^ A bill was at
the same time introduced into the House restricting
immigration from China to fifteen persons upon any
one vessel. Extended debates followed, both in the
House and the Senate. The latter are particularly
interesting, for the Senate is the treaty-making
power, and it is natural to suppose that it would be
sensitive about legislation directly abrogating treaty
stipulations which it had itself entered into. In the
Senate we find only one member, the aged Senator
Hamlin of Maine, still standing on the basis of free
immigration as a natural right of man and one of the
foundation doctrines of the republic. Mr. Hamlin
said : " I believe in principles coeval with the fouit^
dation of government, that this country is the * home I
of the free,* where the outcast of every nation, where
the child of every creed and of every clime could
1 Quoted by Seward, p. 299.
252 Emigration and Immigration.
breathe our free air and participate in our free insti-
tutions." 1
Senator Matthews of Ohio opposed the bill vigor-
ously because it was a violation of the treaty of 1868,
and he believed that we ought first to seek to modify
that treaty by diplomatic negotiations. Mr. Blainii
tried to evade this point by declaring that China had
already broken the provision of the treaty prohibiting
the coolie traffic, — a statement for which we are un-
able to find any evidence in the testimony offered
before the committee of 1876. Mr. Sargent of Cali-
j\ fornia argued that Congress had the power to abro-
gate a treaty, although he admitted that it ought not
to be done except in an emergency. He tried to
prove that Great Britain had contravened her treaty
\\of 1858 with China by laws forbidding the entrance
of Chinese into Australian colonies. He finally re-
peated the old arguments about the dangers of Chi-
nese immigration into California.
The question seems to have gotten into practical
politics again, for the bill passed the House by an
overwhelming vote and the Senate by a vote of
thirty-nine against twenty-seven. It was vetoed by
President Hayes on the ground that it was such a vio-
lation of the treaty of 1868 as would relieve China
from her obligations and expose our citizens in China
/to the consequences of this abrogation of their treaty
1 Senate, Feb. 15, 1879.
Chinese Immigration. 253
protection. We were thus saved from the disgrace
of breaking a solemn treaty, but in a way that was
not very flattering to China.
The executive hastened to comply with the wish of
the representatives of the people that the treaty of
1868 should be modified, and a commission was sent
in 1880 to China for that purpose. The Chinese
proved to be shrewd negotiators, and showed that
they were not unconversant with the condition of
things in the United States.^ To the intimation of
the American commissioners that a modification
of the Burlingame treaty was desirable, they replied :
That there was no compulsory emigration from China
to the United States ; that China rejoiced in the free-
dom which her subjects enjoyed in America; they
also quoted a declaration of Senator Morton, that the^
constitution declared that all peoples might come to
the United States without let or hindrance ; and de-
clared that the Chinese in America had added greatly
to the wealth of this country. They said still further,
that the previous minister, Mr. Seward, had proposed
a modification of the treaty for the purpose of prohib-
iting the emigration of four classes of persons ; viz./^
coolies, prostitutes, criminals and diseased persons.
They were quite willing to consider such a proposition,
"provided always that such negotiation shall not be
contrary to the stipulations of the Burlingame treaty." \
* For negotiations, see Foreign Relations of U. S., 1880, China.
254 Emigration and Immigration.
This unexpected attitude of the Chinese negotia-
tors, together with certain insinuations on their part
that the Chinese agitation was simply a concession
\ to practical politics in America, compelled the Amer-
ican commissioners to call them to order quite
sharply, by saying that such an insinuation was an
insult to the government of the United States, that
the recall of Mr. Seward and the sending of the pres-
ent commission was intimation enough that the mod-
ification proposed was not satisfactory ; and they
finally submitted articles by which the United States
government should be allowed to limit, suspend, or
prohibit the immigration of Chinese laborers, when-
ever it saw fit. The measure was not to include per-
sons coming for trade, teaching, travel, study or
curiosity. —
The Chinese negotiators refused to acquiesce in
absolute prohibition ; desired that the restrictions
should apply to the state of California only ; that the
term laborer should, not include artisans ; and that
the regulative measures should be submitted to the
Chinese minister at Washington for his approval.
The last three suggestions the Americans declared
to be impossible ; but they agreed to drop the word
prohibit, and the clause was modified so as to read :
" The government of the United States may regulate^
limit or suspend such coming or residence, but may
not absolutely prohibit it." It was still further
Chinese Immigration, 255
agreed that the hmitation or suspension should be
reasonable, and should apply only to Chinese going
to the United States as laborers, other classes being \
exempt ; that the exempt classes and Chinese labor-
ers then in the United States should be allowed to
come and go of their own free will and accord ; and
finally, that **if Chinese laborers or Chinese of any
other class now either permanently or temporarily
residing in the United States, meet with ill treatment
at the hands of any other persons, the government of
the United States will exert all of its power to devise ^
measures for their protection, and to secure to them
the same rights, privileges, immunities and exemp-
tions as may be enjoyed by the citizens or subjects
of the most favored nation, and to which they arex
entitled by this treaty."
Such was the treaty of 1880. Congress exercised
the power therein conferred by the act of May 6,
1882, suspending the immigration of Chinese la-
borers for the period of ten years. ^ Provision was
made however that the act should not apply " to
Chinese laborers who were in the United States on
the seventeenth day of November, 1880, or who shall
have come into the same before the expiration of
ninety days next after the passage of this act." If
^ A previous act suspending the immigration of Chinese laborers for
twenty years had been vetoed by President Arthur on the ground that
it amounted to prohibition.
256 Emigration and Immigration.
they desired to leave the country they should receive
a certificate from the custom-house officials, on pres-
entation of which they should be allowed re-entry.
An act of 1884 made this certificate sole evidence of
the fact that a Chinaman had been a resident of this
country, it having been found that the courts were
crowded with Chinese who wished to prove by parole
evidence that they had been residents here before
1882, and the sanctity of an oath not being regarded
very highly by the Chinese. The act of 1882 also
forbade the naturalization of Chinese by any federal
or state court. It declared that the term " laborer "
meant both skilled and unskilled laborers and those
engaged in mining.
We seemed thus by the treaty of 1880 and the
acts in pursuance thereof to have worked ourselves
into a position where any possible danger from Chi-
^nese immigration would be averted. The number
of Chinese laborers was to be absolutely restricted
to those already here and, of course, would be con-
stantly diminished by deaths and removals. The act
of 1884 was carried out with extreme harshness and
gave rise to many cases of individual hardship. For
instance, a Chinese laborer who was here in 1880,
but departed before the act of 1882 requiring a cer-
tificate had been passed, was refused admission on
his return on the ground that he had no certificate,
which by the act of 1 884 was made an indispensable
Chinese Immigration. 257
condition of re-admission. Relief was given in his
case by the decision of the Supreme Court that the
act of Congress should not be interpreted as demand- •^
ing a condition impossible of fulfilment, and that,
although Congress has the power to abrogate treaties
by legislative action, yet such power will not be
deemed to have been exercised if any other interpre-
tation of the statute is possible.^ Another hardship
was that the statute of 1884 required that even the
exempt classes of Chinese coming to the United
States should present a certificate issued by Chinese
officials if they came from China, or by the officials
of other powers if they were subjects of such powers. -^
A Chinese merchant came from Hong-Kong where'
there was no Chinese official and was refused, admis- ^
sion under the act of 1884, although the treaty of ^vV*^
1880 said expressly that restrictions should not apply ^'
to merchants.^ >\ J
Still further, notwithstanding all the concessions\
of the Chinese government in regard to further
immigration, the Chinese in America were not
treated any better than before. In September, 1885,
the Chinese mining laborers in Rock Springs, Wyo-
ming Territory, on refusing to join in a strike were
set upon by the whites, twenty-eight were murdered
outright, fifteen were wounded, and many others
1 Chew Heong vs. U. S., 112 U. S. R. 536.
^ President Cleveland, special message of April 6, 1886.
258 Emigration and Lnntigration.
I
driven from their homes, while their property to the
value of upwards of ^147,000 was either destroyed
or pillaged by the rioters. The legal investigation-
by the local officer of the law was a mere travesty of
justice.^ Other outrages followed in Washington
Territory. The Chinese minister at Washington
appealed for redress on the basis of that article in
the treaty of 1880 in which the United States gov-
ernment promised to exert all its power to devise
measures for the protection of Chinese who were ill-
treated and secure to them the same rights as those
enjoyed by the citizens of the most favored nation.
He was rewarded by a long disquisition from the Secre-
tary of State on the division of powers in the govern-
mental system of the United States, which puts the
preservation of order into the hands of the local
authorities, and the declaration that the Chinese
enjoyed the same rights as the citizens of any other
country when they were injured in person or prop-
erty, — that is, to sue in the courts. The United
States government could not interfere with the local
authorities, even in a territory. All this is very
true, only one may ask what the United States
government intended by the article which it had
-^inserted in the treaty of 1880. The President in
successive messages deprecated the Chinese outrages
2 Wharton, Int. Law Digest, vol. i, p. 475. Secretary of State to
Chinese minister.
Chinese Immigration, 259
and recommended that Congress out of its bounty
indemnify the sufferers. The sum of ;^ 147,000
was appropriated in 1887 for the Rock Springs
victims and a further sum of ^276,000 was agreed
upon in the abortive treaty of 1888.^ All through
these years the outrages continued and the Chinese
minister in 1888 sent to our State department a list
of forty Chinamen who had been murdered, and up
to that time not one of the murderers had been
brought to justice.^ Payments of money were the
only satisfaction which China ever received from this
Christian country for outrages disgraceful to our civ-
ilization, while she was obliged to give strict account
for every offence committed against Christian mis-
sionaries in China who were constantly getting them-
selves into trouble by overstepping the limits fixed ^
by treaty stipulations.
In 1886 the Chinese government announced to
the United States minister at Pekin that China of
her own accord proposed to establish a system of
strict and absolute prohibition, under heavy pen-
alties, of her laborers coming to the United States,
and likewise to prohibit the return to the United
States of any laborer who had at any time gone back ^^^
to China "in order that the Chinese laborers may
gradually be reduced in number and causes of dan-
1 Foreign Relations, 1888, p. 31 1.
"^ Ibid. p. 391.
26o Emigration and Immigration.
ger averted and lives preserved.^ We were only too
glad to enter into such arrangements and after some
negotiations, in which China again attempted (but in
vain) to read some meaning into the clause, taken
from the treaty of 1880, by which the United States
government promised to exert all its power to pro-
^tect the Chinese already here against ill-treatment,
articles were agreed upon between the negotiators. ^
The immigration of Chinese laborers was absolutely
prohibited for twenty years ; but any Chinese laborer
having lawful wife, child, or parent, or property to
the amount of ;^iooo in the United States should be
allowed to go out of this country, and come back on
condition of his obtaining a certificate from the col-
lector of customs and returning within one year.
This measure seemed drastic enough, but in order to
be perfectly sure, the Senate added two amendments
by which the prohibition was expressly extended " to
the return of Chinese laborers who are not now in
the United States, whether holding certificates under
existing laws or not," and the production of a certifi-
cate was made absolutely necessary for re-admission.
So anxious were we to prevent the return even of
those who we had said might return! The Chinese
minister received the additional amendments with
the remark that they did not materially alter the
1 Message of President Qeveland, Oct. i, 1888. Foreign Relar
tions, 1888, p. 357.
Chinese Immigration. 261
treaty, showing that he had expected the harshest
interpretation of it as a matter of course, and the
treaty was sent on to China for ratification. This ^
was in May, 1888.
The government of the United States confidently
expected that China would ratify the treaty and
hoped to display it as a master stroke for the satisfac-
tion of the people of the Pacific slope. In China
there was unaccountable delay. It seemed that
China desired to lessen the term of twenty years,
and to gain for Chinese laborers having property less
than jjiooo in value the right to return. The Con-
gress of the United States grew impatient. A bill
was passed for the exclusion of the Chinese, to go
into effect as soon as the treaty was ratified, and this
measure was signed by the President. Finally the
report came by way of England that the Chinese^
government had rejected the treatv. The politicians
in Congress saw their way open to embarrass the
Administration and do a good stroke of business, and
passed a bill absolutely prohibiting the coming of^
Chinese laborers to the United States. The State
department telegraphed to China to know whether -
the Chinese government would ratify the treaty or
not, and a decision was demanded within forty-eight
hours. In the meantime the Chinese ministers had
been offended by the report that the House of
Representatives had already passed a bill of exclu-
262 Emigration and Immigration,
sion, and to the categorical demand of the United
States minister they returned answer that the treaty
> needed further consideration. The President there-
upon signed the bill which had been passed by both
houses. It is so brutally direct and frank that we
give it in full :
" Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled^ That from
and after the passage of this act, it shall be unlawful for any
Chinese laborer who shall at any time heretofore have been, or
who may now or hereafter be, a resident .within the United
States, and who shall have departed, or shall depart, therefrom,
and shall not have returned before the passage of this act, to
return to, or remain in, the United States.
" Sec 2. That no certificates of identity provided for in the
fourth and fifth sections of the act to which this is a supplement
shall hereafter be issued ; and every certificate heretofore issued
in pursuance thereof, is hereby declared void and of no effect,
and the Chinese laborer claiming admission by virtue thereof
shall not be permitted to enter the United States.
•*Sec. 3. That all the duties prescribed, liabilities, penalties
and forfeitures imposed, and the powers conferred by the second,
tenth, eleventh and twelfth sections of the act to which this is
a supplement are hereby extended and made applicable to the
provisions of this act.
•• Sec 4. That all such part or parts of the act to which this
is a supplement as are inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.
"Approved, October i, 1888."
The President in a message accompanying his
approval of the bill declared that the Chinese gov-
Chinese Immigration. 263
eminent in delaying the ratification of the treaty had
violated its pledges, and that the demand for further
consideration meant an indefinite postponement ofC
the objects that we had in view. While approving
the bill the President mildly suggested that it ought
not to apply to Chinese already on their way hither,
and that the Chinese indemnity money which had
been agreed upon in the treaty ought still, out of
the " spirit of humanity befitting our nation," to be
paid.^
The Chinese question has reached the same acute
stage in the British colonies that it has in the United
States. For many years the Chinese laborers in
Australia have been viewed with dislike and jealousy.
The same accusations have been brought against
them as in California, and for many years the colonial
governments have imposed a heavy head-tax on their
arrival. Their number has increased until now there
are from 43,000 to 45,000 Chinese in Australia. Mat-
ters were brought to a crisis by the news that the
United States had concluded an exclusion-treaty with
China, and a conference was called of the various colo-
nial governments in which it was proposed that the
number of Chinese immigrants should be limited to one
for every 500 tons of a vessel's burden.^ The Chinese
1 Foreign Affairs, 1888, p. 356.
* See Correspondence relating to Chinese Immigration into the
Australian Colonies, 1888.
264 Emigration and Immigration.
minister in London protested against this invidious
treatment of his countrymen, and Lord Salisbury
appealed to the colonies to be patient until a treaty
could be concluded with the Chinese government
similar to the one which it was supposed would be
gratified with the United States. It appears, however,
that the restrictive acts are still in force, and in some
colonies, British Columbia, for example, they are
more severe than any that had ever been enforced in
the United States up to the act of 1888. The rejec-
tion of the American treaty by China, which was said
to be due to Chinese popular opinion, was a severe
blow to Lord Salisbury's hope that the matter might
be adjusted by negotiation, and no satisfactory
arrangement has as yet been reached.
Such is the status of the Chinese question at the
present time. The Scott bill of 1888 has been de-
clared constitutional by the Supreme Court of the
United States, although it over-rides the treaty of
1880, and inflicts hardships on many individuals.^
The court has declared that the right of a country to
exclude aliens from its territory is necessary to its
^ ^independence, and that any permission it may have
given to aliens to come here is revocable at its
pleasure. A decision of one of the Australian courts
that the administration of Victoria could not of its
own motion, without a statute, direct aliens to be
? Chae Chang Ping vs. The Collector of the Port of San Francisco.
Chinese Immigration. 265
kept out,^ seems to turn on a question of administra-
tive law, and cannot mean that neither the colony
nor the British Parliament would possess the right
to keep aliens out of the colony. It is perfectly
natural that in the case of the Chinese the British
government should desire to proceed by way of diplo-
matic negotiation so as not to hurt the feelings of a
friendly nation, or complicate its foreign relations,
and with that end it may refuse to give the assent ^
of the crown to colonial legislation. But if diplomatic
negotiations fail, there is no doubt that the crown
will be obliged to yield to the desires of the colonies.
Popular sentiment in the United States, while con-
demning the way the Chinese have been treated, has
for the most part acquiesced in their exclusion. The
old ground of inalienable right to migrate has l)een
abandoned, and we are content Jthat a _ race which
seems so difficult of amalgamation with our own
should be kept at a distance. Humanitarian dreams
of the equality of all men of all races and degrees of
civilization have retired into the background as the
difficulty of applying such principles to the practical
problems of social life has been experienced. The new /
rule as to the exact duty which a nation owes to the'
citizens of other nations who desire to take up their re^-
dence with it has not yet been clearly formulated. J But
experience will doubtless bring that also in du"e time.
^ London Times, Oct 17, 1888.
CHAPTER XII.
RESTRICTIONS ON IMMIGRATION.
It has already been said that freedom of emigration
is restricted by the obligation to discharge military
duty, although otherwise the subject of almost any
/ civilized state has the right to expatriate himself. In
like manner the right of immigration is not perfect,
but is subject to certain restrictions applying partly
to the admission of the stranger and partly to his
continued residence in the state. All of these restric-
tions rest on the broad ground of the sovereignty of
^the nation over its own territory, which cannot possi-
bly be limited by the right of foreigners to stay there
against the desire of the state. To admit any other
principle would be to limit the sovereignty of the state
by the sovereignty of some other state. Arrange-
ments may be made by treaty, but these are always
revocable at the pleasure of either government, at
the risk, of course, of giving a casus belli to the
other party.
This absolute right to expel aliens or to refuse
<Jthem admission has often been exercised ; hitherto,
indeed, with no idea of restricting the movement of
266
Restrictions on Immigration. 26j
migration, but solely from political and police con-
siderations. It is .only within the last ten years that
there has been displayed a disposition to restrict im-
migration on account of the general economic or"^
social interests of the country.
The right to expel aliens has always been main-
tained by the governments of Europe as a means of
protecting themselves against political conspirators.-
In France, for instance, the law of December 3, 1849,
permits the expulsion of foreigners by simple minis-
terial decree, but the meaning of this law is explained
as follows :
*• It has been only too clearly shown that the plots which
threaten not only the government, but the entire order of society,
are framed by a vast organization of agitators, who, having given
up the idea of a fatherland, go wherever there is an opportunity
for disturbance, and who, as soon as their criminal enterprises
have failed, recruit their ranks on the territory of the neighbor-
ing country. Society will not regain perfect security until all
European nations refuse to extend hospitality to the secret meet-
ings of these wandering agitators, and it lies with the govern-
ment to distinguish them from true defenders of the liberty and
the nationality of the peoples, with whom they are too often
confounded." ^
As political agitation has been succeeded by social-
istic agitation, which is eminently cosmopolitan, the
^ Report of M. de Montigny, quoted in Laws of Foreign Countries
respecting the Admission and Continued Residence of Destitute Aliens,
p. 27. House of Commons Paper, 1887.
268 Emigration and Iminigration.
wish has often been entertained by governments to
come to some mutual understanding by which the
right of asylum of these enemies of the existing
order should be restricted. When the International
Association of Workingmen began to spread, the
Spanish administration addressed a circular note to
the governments of Europe proposing common meas-
ures against the organization, and in this was warmly
supported by Prince Bismarck ; but the proposal
failed on account of the refusal of Great Britain. A
few years ago, however, Great Britain expelled Most
on account of his socialistic writings, and there is a
/growing desire on the part of the English newspapers
to reach the Irish agitators who, from the friendly
shelter of this country, conduct the dynamite cam-
paign against the British government. Very recently
several nations have tried to browbeat Switzerland
into expelling from her soil socialistic agitators who
had taken refuge there. And one of the measures
suggested after the anarchistic outbreaks in Chicago
was that the President of the United States should
expel from the country all the aliens engaged in the
agitation. All these cases have only a political
interest.
Immigration or the right to take up a permanent
residence is often restricted by police measures in-
•^ tended to secure the community against the domi-
ciliation of undesirable persons. In former times
Restrictions on Immigration
this police supervision (including the necessity of
having a passport in order to cross the frontier) was
very severe, but in modern times it is much relaxed.
It generally consists in the requirement that a stran-
ger who desires to take up a permanent residence in
the country shall report himself to the police authori-
ties, producing evidence as to his nationality, his good/
character, and in some cases that he has the means
of supporting himself. The last provision is a tra-
dition of the old administration of the poor law, which
universally allowed a commune to refuse admission
to a person who was liable to come on the poor
relief. These police regulations are now generally
administered with intelligence and great leniency, so
that the ordinary stranger has no trouble in securing
the right to reside in any country he likes. Thus
in Italy the " Minister of the Interior urges the
greatest toleration towards foreigners whose papers
are not perfectly regular since the government has
decided (in i860) no longer to demand travellers'
passports. The police are to be satisfied with the
production of any kind of document proving the
identity of the individual. No special permission is
required by an alien for establishing his domicile
in the Kingdom of Italy."!
In exceptional cases these police measures are
made more severe. Such has been the case in Ger-
1 Laws of Foreign Countries, etc., p. 35.
2/0 Emigration and Immigration.
many, where large cities have been placed in the
state of petty siege {kleitier Belagerimgsziistand)y and
extraordinary powers have been conferred on the
police by the Anti-Socialistic laws. Such also seems
to be the case on the Polish frontier, where the Ger-
man government has expelled the Slavic population
and is endeavoring to colonize the country with Ger-
mans. Such are the extraordinary measures of the
Russian government in the expulsion of Jews and
the refusal to receive them again. The latest legis-
lative movement in this direction is the new French
decree (October 2, 1888) for the registration of fop
eigners. That law requires that :
*' Every foreigner proposing to reside in France must within a
fortnight of his arrival make a declaration to the authorities : Of
nationality ; of place and date of birth ; of last place of residence ;
of profession or means of livelihood ; of name, age and nation-
ality of wife and children (minors) when accompanied by them.
Documents have to be produced in support of this declaration.
In each case of change of residence a fresh declaration has to be
made. Infractions of these rules will be punishable with police
penalties, independently of the right of expulsion vested in the
Minister of the Interior." ^
The importance of these provisions lies in the fact
that they are not merely police measures such as
those noted above, but have originated in dissatis-
faction on account of the number of foreigners in
1 Translation of the regvilation printed in The Board of Trade Jour-
nal, Nov., 1888.
Restrictions on Immigration. 271
France. That number has trebled since 185 1, and
now constitutes three per cent of the total popu-
lation. These foreigners, especially the Italians, work
for less wages than the French workmen, and are
free from the military service which is such a burden.
The above measure will probably be followed by some
special taxation or restriction on the employment of
foreigners in French factories. If so, it marks a dis-
tinct departure in the legislation of Europe in regard
to immigration and the treatment of aliens.^
^ The following extract from The Economist, July 2, 1887, shows the
extent of the feeling in France against foreigners : " Nearly two years
back, in November, 18S5, a number of bills were presented to the
French Chamber of Deputies, with the object of protecting French
labor and trade from foreign competition. One proposed, that in
contracts for public works for the state, the departments, or the com-
munes, the contractors should be bound to employ French workmen
only; another, that only French materials should be used; a third,
that all stores for the public services, oats for the army, coal for the
navy, etc., should be French exclusively, unless they were articles
not produced in France; a fourth demanded that, except in case of
absolute necessity, no foreigners should be admitted as purveyors to
the state; a fifth proposed a tax on foreign workmen and employes,
etc. These bills were all referred to one committee, but until the
last few days nothing more had been heard of them. Recent events
in Alsace-Lorraine have, perhaps, led to their being taken up afresh,
for the committee has set seriously to work to draw up a bill embody-
ing all those desiderata, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs had, this
week, an interview with the committee to give his views as to how far
such measures would be compatible with the existing treaties of com-
merce. The question of the liability of foreigners to military service
was also raised in the discussion on the Army Bill, which is now before
the French Chamber. M. Flourens was of opinion that the treaties of
272 Emigration and Immigration.
There is one other class of cases where it has
been a problem what to do with aliens : that is, when
they are actual beggars and vagabonds. The laws of
all states allow these persons to be treated just as
the citizens of the same class are treated, that is,
subjected to police punishment, imprisonment, hard
labor, etc., and in some cases prescribe that they
shall be expelled or sent back to their native country.
Belgium once pursued the policy of conducting to
the nearest frontier destitute aliens who had been
arrested by the police. She was soon confronted
with the difficulty that the different countries on her
frontier refused to receive any but their own sub-
jects. By a convention with Luxemburg that frontier
commerce did not permit such restrictions, but he suggested means by
which the stipulations of the treaties might be evaded. With regard to
the employment of foreign workmen and the use of foreign material,
he said that any legislative exclusion would be contrary to the text of
the treaties, but the state and the communes could introduce whatever
conditions they pleased in the contracts they made; meaning that
clauses might be introduced imposing French material and French
workmen. That idea had, however, been already acted on before it
was suggested by the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The exhibition com-
mittee held a meeting last week to invite tenders for works, and de-
cided that no foreign firms or companies, even those established in
France and employing French workmen only, should be admitted. M.
Flourens also gave as his opinion that although foreign workmen could
not be taxed, they might be made to pay for exemption from military
service if the Army Bill contained a clause requiring payment from
French citizens exempt from military service. In that case the tax
would be extended to all persons not liable to serve in the army,
including foreigners."
Restrictions on Immigration. 273
was closed to all except natives, Italian subjects and
Swiss citizens. By a convention with Germany none
except those of German nationality were to be sent
to her. It was the custom of the Dutch gendarmerie
to reconduct to the Belgian frontier all French, Ital-
ian and Spanish subjects who had been expelled by
Belgium. The latter country was obliged to modify
the ordinance so that the indigent alien should be sent
^to the country to which he belonged. The difficulty
has sometimes been met by treaty agreement, by
which two countries agree to admit the subjects of
-^the other to the right of poor-relief. Such a conven-
tion, for instance, is in force between Germany and
Austria-Hungary, by which subjects of the German
Empire in Austria-Hungary, and subjects of Austria-
Hungary in the German Empire will be admitted to
poor law relief on the same conditions and under the
same legal provisions as the native subjects of the
country in which application for relief is made.^
The most advanced legislation in regard to immi-
gration is that of the United States. As we have
already seen, this country has always protested
against the sending of paupers and criminals to her^
shores by the countries of Europe as a violation of
international comity. The state of New York\
through her State Board of Charities has sent
pauper aliens back to the country of birth, but at
1 Laws of Foreign Countries, etc., p. 30. v . '
274 Emigration and Immigration.
her own expense. Still further, by her legislation
New York made the steamship companies respon-
sible for immigrants that were unable to support
themselves. This legislation having been declared
unconstitutional so far as the imposition of a tax was
concerned, it was superseded by the act of Congress
of 1882. This act, after providing for a head tax of
fifty cents on every immigrant by sea and for the
inspection of vessels by commissioners empowered
thereto by the Secretary of the Treasury, goes on
to say :
** And if on such examination there shall be found among such
passengers any convict, lunatic, idiot, or any person unable to
take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge,
they shall report the same in writing to the collector of the port,
and such person shall not be permitted to land."
Section 4 of this act provides :
"That all foreign convicts, except those convicted of political
offences, upon arrival, shall be sent back to the nations to which
they belong and from whence they came. . . . The expense of
such return of the aforesaid persons not permitted to land shall
^be borne by the owners of the vessels in which they came."
It has been decided, under this act, that landing
persons at Castle Garden for the purpose of inspec-
tion is not landing within the meaning of the law,
but that after they have left Castle Garden they are
beyond the power of the commissioners and can no
longer be returned. It is for the convenience of all
Restrictions 07t Immigration. 275
persons concerned that the inspection should take
place in Castle Garden rather than on board ship.
Still further, it has been decided that whether a per-
son is unable to take care of himself or herself, must
be determined in each case, and the fact that a per-
son has been assisted to emigrate is not sufficient^
evidence on which to reject him. The final decision
as to whether persons shall be permitted to land lies ^
with the collector of the port, and not with the com-
missioners of emigration. The law has been declared
constitutional by the Supreme Court, as a regulation
of commerce.^
The number of immigrants sent back under this
act from the port of New York was in 1883, 1294;
in 1884, 1363; in 1885, 1322; in 1886,997; in 1887,
443; in 1888, 502. During the last named year 707
immigrants were reported by the commissioners to
the collector of the port as being of the prohibited
classes, but of this number only 502 were returned
by the collector. In addition, 569 persons unable to
maintain themselves were returned to Europe, their
passage having been paid wholly or in part by the
commissioners of emigration. ^
This division of power between the commissioners
and the collector seems to be a bad thing and will
probably have to be remedied by placing the execu-
1 Eyde vs. Robertson. Decided Yfkc. 8, 1884.
* Reports of Commissioners of Emigration.
276 Emigration and Immigration.
tion of the whole law in the hands of paid officials of
the United States. The inspection, also, is hurried
and inefficient as is necessarily the case when thou-
sands are landed in a single day and inspected by a
/ small number of officers.
The legislation of the United States has gone still
further in restricting immigration, by the passage of
the law prohibiting the importation of laborers under
contract. The original act of 1885 provided in
brief:
That it shall be unlawful for any person, company,
partnership, or corporation to prepay the transporta-
tion or in any way assist or encourage the importa-
tion or migration of any alien or aliens, into the
United States under contract or agreement to per-
form labor or service of any kind in the United
States. All such contracts are made void ; a pen-
alty of $1000 is imposed on persons violating the
law, and of $500 on ship captains knowingly bring-
ing contract laborers. Exceptions are made in favor
of professional actors, artists, lecturers, or singers,
and persons engaged strictly as domestic servants,^
and skilled laborers in industries not yet established
in the United States. By an amendatory act of
1887 vessels are to be inspected in the same way as
by the act of 1882, and if any contract laborers are
found they are not to be permitted to land, but must
be sent back at the expense of the owners of the
Resirictiojis on Immigration. 277
vessels in which they came. By further amend-
ments in 1888 provision is made for the payment toX
informers of not to exceed fifty per cent of the pen-
alties recovered ; and also that if an immigrant lands
contrary to the provisions of the act he can still be-C
sent back within one year of his landing.^
The provisions of this act do not seem to be very
well enforced, owing to the difficulty of procuring
evidence as to the actual contract or agreement.
Such, together with the Chinese exclusion bill
mentioned in the previous chapter, is the legislation
of the United States up to the present time. The
committee of Congress commonly known as the Ford
Immigration Committee recommended a much more
severe enactment, but it never became law. It pro-
ceeded on the assumption of the absolute right of
the United States to exclude from its territory any
alien for any reason whatsoever. There is no doubt
that such portion of the preceding legislation as is
intended to prevent the coming of defectives and
delinquents will remain a part of our law. Whether
we shall go further and put absolute restrictions on
immigration is a question not yet decided by legisla-
tion.
The whole argument of this book has been to show
that it is desirable to correct certain evils which
1 All these acts are printed in Report of Emigration Commissioners
of New York, 1889.
278 Emigration and Immigration.
flow from perfect freedom of immigration. When
we ask what is the best method of doing this, the
question is difficult to answer. Of the various legis-
lative methods, noted above, none has as yet proven
entirely satisfactory. In seeking a remedy for the
present abuses there is constant danger that we
^may be simply groping back to mediaeval restric-
tions and vexations which are incompatible with the
conditions of modern life. There is danger also that
a spirit of chauvinism, or of petty trade jealousy, or
^of demagogy may take possession of the movement,
and exploit it for its own contemptible purposes.
The control of immigration must be free from the
base cry of " America for the Americans," and from
any narrow spirit of trade-unionism, or of a selfish
desire to monopolize the labor market. It must find
its justification in the needs of the community, an^
in the necessity of selecting those elements which
will contribute to the harmonious development of
our civilization. The end to be desired is perfectly
plain. It is, that immigration shall be controlled in
such a way that elements incompatible with our
civilization shall be excluded ; that the defective and
delinquent classes, who are only a burden and a
danger to us, shall also be excluded ; and that the
immigration shall not be on such a scale as to
threaten the integrity of our political institutions or
to cause economic disturbances. The general method
Restrictions on Immigration. 279
is to establish some process of selection by which
the immigration of undesirable persons shall be dis-
couraged. ,^.^
From this point of view it is apparent that abso-
lute prohibition of immigration is neither necessary
nor desirable. The only exception is perhaps in the
case of men of an alien civilization like the Chinese,
who do not seem disposed to relinquish their own
habits and customs for those of their adopted land.
The homogeneity of our civilization seems to demand
that they shall be excluded. The only question here is
when the danger point is reached. But the demands
of modern life would make the absolute prohibition
of immigration from Europe burdensome and oppres-
sive. It would be impossible, for instance, to pre-
vent the friends and relatives of those already here
from joining them. Great transportation interests
are involved which it would be unfair to destroy
suddenly and without notice. Absolute prohibitions
directed against immigrants of any particular nation-
ality are invidious, and would be apt to provoke,
retaliation. Our measures should be such as areV'^
practicable to enforce, and such as shall have the
effect of gradually discouraging immigration until it
shall be of good quality and of reasonable dimensions.
Our political institutions and economic prosperity
must take care of the rest.
The first and most obvious of all these measures
\
280 Emigration and Immigration,
is the rigid enforcement of the present laws against
the landing of paupers, criminals and persons unable
to support themselves. That these laws are not
enforced is a scandal to the community. There is
no question as to the entire un desirability of such
immigration both for us and for the persons them-
selves. It is difficult to make the inspection suc-
cessful when the immigrants land by the thousand
at Castle Garden, but additional inspectors could
make it more successful than it is now. If the whole
matter were put into the hands of United States offi-
cials, it might insure more thoroughness and some
uniformity of procedure at the different ports. Still
further, the steamship companies should be held
rigidly responsible for bringing over persons who are
prohibited by law from landing. Thereby part of
the work of inspection would be transferred to them,
and they would exercise some discrimination as to
the kind of people to whom they sell tickets. As-
sisted emigration, whether the assistance comes from
foreign governments or local authorities or charitable
societies should be protested against, and made a
subject of diplomatic negotiation.
The law against the importation of laborers under
contract should also be enforced as far as it is pos-
sible. It will not be possible to detect every case
where a man comes under promise of employment ;
nor are these isolated cases of any particular con-
Restrictions on Immigration. 281
sequence. The real evil of contract labor is that it
offers an opportunity for the establishment of a sys-
tem of induced immigration. Irresponsible private
parties gather together ignorant laborers, and un-
der promise of plentiful work on this side of the
water, persuade them to come here, abandoning them
as soon as they have made what they can out of
them. To stop such a business as this is not inter-
fering with any sound freedom of contract or of
migration, while it stops the growth of what in the
long run is pretty apt to become a sort of coolie
traffic.
Among the measures recently proposed for the re-
striction of immigration, the most feasible, in my opin-
ion, is the requirement of a consular certificate from
emigrants. The following plan has the approval of
Mr. Eugene Schuyler.^ Every person who desires to
emigrate to the United States shall be required to
give notice to the nearest United States consular of-
fice, and the consul shall thereupon cause an inquiry
to be instituted as to the person's character and past \
history and also his economic condition, whether he
is likely to become a burden on our poor rates, etc. ;
and if his inquiries are satisfactory he shall issue
consular certificates in triplicate, one copy to be
1 Political Science Quarterly, vol. iv, p. 490. This particular plan
is credited to Mr. George L. Catlin, United States consul at Zurich,
but similar proposals came from several other consuls in their reports
on cmi^rration.
282 Emigration a7td Immigration.
retained in his office, a second to be forwarded to
the collector of the port or emigration commissioner,
and the third to be given to the emigrant. No emi-
grant shall be permitted to land without the presen-
tation of such a certificate. Two objections have
been made to this scheme. One is that it would
involve our consular offices in a great amount of
clerical labor and expense. This might be met by
charging a fee for the certificate, which might act as
^a wholesome deterrent on the emigration of poor or
thoughtless persons. The seoond objection is that
our consular officers would be dependent largely on
the police authorities for their information, and these
might seize the opportunity to hinder the emigration
of desirable citizens and favor that of undesirable
ones. It is not probable that the police records,
which are kept with great minuteness in Europe,
would be manipulated for such a purpose. There
would be enough persons interested, the emigrants
themselves, their friends this side of the water, the
emigration agents, the United States officer, — to
secure justice in most cases. To carry out such
a system we must put ourselves into friendly com-
munication with the governments of Europe, and
co-operate with the system they are establishing to
prevent the evils of emigration. We must recognize
that they also are interested in the question, and
assist them in their efforts to prevent the evasion of
Restrictions 07i Immigration. 283
services due the state. With mutual good-will it
would seem possible to control the movement so that
it would be an injury to neither the old country nor
the new. So far as we are concerned, it would be
simply transferring the work of inspection from* this
side of the water, where it can never be efficiently \
performed, to the other side where it ought to be
done. If it involves us in additional expense and
trouble, we must recognize the fact that it is another
case of relations becoming so important that they
cannot be allowed to take care of themselves, but
must be regulated. The problem is not easy of
solution. Unrestricted immigration involves us in
numerous difficulties. On the other hand, we do
not wish to compromise the principle of freedom any
further than we can help. The only alternative is ^
to subject the movement to such control that the
dangers shall be removed.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE QUESTION OF PRINCIPLE.
It has been shown in the preceding chapters that
the nations of the world are actively asserting their
right to regulate the admission or continued resi-
dence of aliens in their territory. The strict legal
right of each nation to do this is not seriously dis-
puted. It is well, however, to carry the investiga-
tion one step further and inquire how the right to
restrict migration is looked upon from the standpoint
of the comity of nations and of a theoretical political
science which is not governed by considerations of
mere temporary expediency.
And first, in regard to the right of migration as a
question of theoretical international law : How are
we to interpret the practice and the declarations of
nations } The various facts already displayed in the
history of emigration and immigration and the legis-
lation at present in force will enable us to deduce
the following result.
Freedom of migration is no natural, inherent right
of the individual. It is merely an historical right
of very recent origin, never universally recognized,
284
The Question of Principle. 285
and at the present moment undergoing restriction
rather than expansion. Human history has already-
gone through two stages on this question and is
standing on the threshold of a third. These three
stages are, the mediaeval, the French Revolutionary,
and the modern socialistic.
All mediaeval life denied by its very constitution
any right of the individual to migrate or to choose
his own domicile. Social relations regulated by
status could not permit individuals to withdraw at
their own will, nor find a place for strangers not
members of the local community. This is abun-
dantly illustrated in any study of the position of
strangers during the whole mediaeval period. The
English merchant was often prohibited "going beyond
seas." The foreign merchant in England was obliged
to seek the special protection of the king. Aliens
occupied a suspicious position and were liable to be
plundered or imprisoned in return for wrongs done
the citizens of the country abroad. In Germany
there existed the so-called Wildfangsrecht, by which
a stranger could be reduced to the position of a serf.
It was the rule that the strange air made the man
unfree, and unless he belonged of status to the class
of the privileged, he sank into that of the dependant.
Police considerations required that a man should not
entertain a stranger unless he were willing to be
lesponsible for him. In other cases, a man could
2S6 Emigration and Immigration.
not withdraw from the community except by paying
a fine which indemnified it for the loss ; and often he
could not settle in another community without pay-
ing a fine for the privilege of settling. All these
restrictions are characteristic of the petty relations of
mediaeval life.
Even after the city and provincial relations of
early mediaeval times began to broaden out into the
national life of the seventeenth and eighteenth cen-
turies, the stranger was still looked upon with dislike.
In commerce he was a rival, as witness the naviga-
tion acts of Cromwell and Charles II. Nations were
often engaged in war, and monarchs looked upon the
emigration of their subjects as decreasing their mili-
tary . strength. In manufactures it was feared that
artisans might carry the secrets of trade to other
countries. The growth of the system of legal poor
relief made each community examine every accession
to the population with jealous eye lest it should add
to the burden. The English "act of settlement"
did not hesitate to prohibit migration from parish to
parish, and down to very recent years it was the
undoubted right of every ci^y in Germany to refuse
settlement to a stranger unless he could prove that he
had property or the means of earning his livelihood.
In none of these cases was there supposed to be any
right of the individual. It was a question for the com-
munity, whether it was willing to receive him or not. [^
The Question of Pritteiple. 287
The second stage was that which received the
impress of the French Revolution, and which may be
termed the period of individualism. Two factors V-^
worked together to destroy the restrictions of the old
regime. One was the expansion of industry and
commerce, which burst the narrow bonds of petty
city and provincial life and strove to become national
and international ; the other was the revolutionary
philosophy with its doctrine of individual liberty and
equality. The introduction of machinery and manu-
facturing on a large scale, which resulted in the so-
called factory system of modern times, destroyed the
restrictions which bound a man to a certain trade
and locality. The mediaeval guilds with their num-
berless regulations and privileges gave way before
the demand for large numbers of unskilled laborers
to work at the machine. The apprenticeship of
seven years, which had been required before a man
could engage in an industry, was no longer necessary,
and fell away. Women and children were employed
in increasing numbers, and the abundant supply of
labor thus obtained rendered nugatory the old regu-
lations of wages and hours of labor. The factory
drew laborers from other localities, and thus de--
stroyed the restrictions on free migration which
were connected with poor relief and the petty finan-
cial interests of narrow communal life.
So in a precisely similar way, the expansion of
288 Emigration afid Immigration.
commerce removed internal custom duties, river
tolls and prohibitions and hindrances of all sorts,
and even in international trade led to greater rec-
iprocity or to partial or entire free trade. When
commerce became international, the foreign mer-
chant was allowed the privilege of coming and going,
of residence, of protection of property and finally
practically all the rights and privileges which the
citizen enjoyed, except political rights. Freedom
of travel and domicile were thus introduced, the
V passport system became for the most part a for-
mality, and the old discriminations against aliens
were abandoned. The natural corollary of the mod-
ern system of industry and commerce is freedom
of occupation, of travel and of domicile ; just as the
natural consequence of the mediaeval relations of
status was the immobility of the individual.
The •* natural rights" doctrine of the French Revo-
lution has given a philosophic basis to this system
of freedom of migration. The revolutionary declara-
tions destroyed all that remained of the feudal rela-
tions of personal dependence. The spirit of liberty
and equality released the serf from the soil, and
finally abolished chattel slavery in its last remaining
form. It gave its sanction to the abolition of all
restrictions on trade and commerce, and even went
so far in some cases as to enshrine freedom of trade
as one of the inalienable rights of the individual. It
TJie Question of Principle. 289
reversed the doctrine of the Middle Ages, and de-
clared that freedom was the natural status of a man,
and that the free air made the stranger free without
regard to his previous condition. It deduced from
this the doctrine that a man has the right to go
where he pleases, and to choose his own domicile. It
has finally developed into a sort of cosmopolitan *^
humanitarianism, which views the men of all nations
and of all civilizations as of equal worth, and demands
that we raise ourselves above the narrow egoism of
nationality, and consider the interests of all humanity.
In this view there are no national boundaries ; the
individual is a citizen of the world ; the black man is
the equal of the white," the Asiatic *of the European;
and perfect freejd£>m of migration is one factor in
bringing about the realization of the brotherhood of
man.
No one can fail to recognize the enormous benefits
which have accrued to the world through this doc-
trine of the brotherhood of man and the right of 4-
men of all nations to be treated like men. It lies at
the bottom of much that makes our civilization what
it is. It is under the influence of this feeling that
we have treated the question of emigration and im-
migration during the greater part of this century. It
has taught us in this country to welcome the immi-lj\
grant of whatever nationality or condition of life he
may be. We have tacitly pinned our faith to the
290 Emigration and Immigration.
doctrine of the perfectibility of man, at least under
the influence of free institutions. The climax of this
movement was reached when we negotiated the
treaties by which the nations of Europe acknowl-
edged the right of expatriation, and we declared it to
be a natural and inalienable right of the individual.
It is under the influence of this doctrine that restric-
tions on emigration and immigration seem such
doubtful measures. They seem to break with a fun-
j damental principle of modern civilization, and to lead
A us back to that period when civil and political liberty
were at the mercy of government. Before entering,
therefore, upon the consideration of the third period,
that of restriction of migration, on the threshold of
which recent legislation seems to plant us, it will be
well to consider this doctrine of freedom in all its
different phases.
In the first place, we must disabuse ourselves of
the notion that freedom of migration rests upon any
Fright of the individual. It is simply a privilege
/granted by the state, the product of circumstances,
Vt]je result of expediency. The state, therefore, that
conferred the liberty may also withdraw it. The
state that feels a loss of strength by emigration may
forbid its inhabitants leaving the country. The state
V that suffers injury from immigration may put restric-
tions on persons coming to its shores, — may keep
them out altogether if it so choose. The individual
1
The Qiiestioii of Principle. 291
has no rights at all in the premises. Although he
may possibly elude the watchfulness of the govern-
ment that is trying to detain him, he cannot compel
another state to receive him. Whatever may be his
position towards his home government, as to the
foreign state he has absolutely no rights. Any privi-
leges that he may enjoy rest on diplomatic agree-
ment, or on the legislation of the receiving state, not
on any virtue residing in him. The individual has
no right to force himself into a territory where he is
not wanted.
But although freedom of immigration rests on no
right of the individual, yet it is sometimes held that
there is a cosmopolitan duty to admit other persons^
to the soil if they desire to come. A nation, it is
said, has a right to the soil only on condition of
making the best use of it, and if it have more land
than it really need, it is in duty bound to share it
with others. It is on this basis that the colonization
of America by the nations of Europe is tjifioretically
justified. The Indians were the original occupiers,
and as such they owned the country. But the white
men were more highly civilized, and could make
better use of the land. What once barely kept a
few thousand savages from starvation, now sustains
millions of men in an advanced stage of culture. Sow?*
it is said that the present inhabitants of the United
States have no right to appropriate a country fitted
292 Emigration and Immigration.
to support several times their number. Especially
is this true in sight of the millions of Europe who
\ could find here comfort which they can never hope
to attain at home. We have no right to keep these
struggling millions out from our fertile fields and
broad prairies.
This principle seems to me a perfectly sound one,
but it is difficult to apply it so as to justify perfect
freedom of migration. It is the right of the higher^
civilization to make the lower give way before it. It
was this right that the nations of Europe felt was
their justification in taking possession of this new
country. It would be the same right that would jus-
tify Germany and Belgium and Italy in founding
colonies in Africa. The higher civilization has a
£S moral right to triumph over the lower, for it is in
this way that the world progresses. The duty of
every nation to humanity is to see to it that the
higher does triumph over the lower. But it performs]
this duty best by preserving its own civilization^
against the disintegrating forces of barbarisms/And
when men demand admission who seem to be of a
lower rather than of a higher stage of culture, their v^-
right to be admitted does not seem so plain. They
may degrade the higher civilization without mate-
rially raising their own. A conquest by barbarians
does not raise even the average civilization of the
world. It destroys without replacing.. And even if
The Question of Principle. 293
it did in some slight degree raise the average of <^^
human life, it would not be a gain. One nation on a ^
high plane of civilization is better than half the world
in a state of semi-civilization. There is this danger
in indiscriminate immigration ; it may be composed
of elements which tend to pull down rather than
build up. The admission of such elements does not
help humanity at large, while it may destroy the
standard of culture of the nationality receiving theiiu^-^
There is, finally, one argument which is appealed
to whenever it is proposed to restrict immigration to
America. It is a wide-spread sentimental feeling that id
America has always been the home of the poor, the
refuge of the oppressed of all nations. It is felt that
we have always held our doors open, and that it is a
betrayal of duty to shut them the moment we feel
inconvenienced by our missionary work. I conceive
that there is a double misunderstanding here. In the
first place, our fathers, when they spoke of this coun-
try as the "asylum of the oppressed," meant that
here should be a refuge from religious and political
oppression. They meant that this should be the land
of freedom, that all who came here should have lib-
erty of conscience, liberty of opinion, of speech, etc.
This country has on the whole remained faithful to
this proclamation. Religious and political refugees of
all nations have flocked hither, and we have not only
extended protection to the new-comers, but have ad-
294 Emigration and Immigration.
mitted them to a full share in the government itself.
Our fathers did not mean that we were to be an
asylum for the paupers, the convicts and the cripples
of all nations. They did not mean asylum in the
modern, limited signification of the word. It is true
that many of the early immigrants were indentured
as servants and obliged to work out their passage
money after they came ; but we do not find but that
the colonists took the true view of these comers.
They received them on account of the dearth of
labor, but they would gladly have had better.
In the second place, there is liability to grave error
j, in reasoning from the past experience of a country to
itinfallible rules for its guidance in the future. A new
country passes through successive stages where its
needs and its demands are entirely different. At its
first settlement the need is for labor, and any kind of
labor is acceptable. As the nation advances in the
agricultural stage, the need still is for labor. So long
^s unoccupied territory remains, so long as roads are
to be built, canals dug, the country opened up, the
need still is for labor. It is in this stage that free
immigration is of benefit both to the country and to
the immigrant. Even if the immigration is not of
the highest type, the rough, hard life has a purify-
ing effect, or at least prevents much damage being
done. The immigrant meets with elements as rough
as himself, and one controls the other. But as a
The Question of Principle. 295
nation progresses it loses this capacity of absorbing
the lower elements of other civilizations. It no
longer possesses the purifying power. It has all it
can attend to with its own unfortunates. The strug-
gle for existence increases in severity, and it can no
longer offer to the immigrant the advantages it once
did. He finds in the new country very much the
same conditions as in the old, and labors under many
disadvantages, such as ignorance of the language,
customs and habits of life. It is no kindness to the
immigrant to allow him to come under mistaken
notions of the conditions of life here. No social sci-
ence teaches that we should leave great masses of
men to the guidance of blind impulse or chance.
Neither is it just to our own citizens to introduce a
mass of men, who may increase the competition in
the labor market and lower the standard of living,
without any regard to the ultimate consequences of
thus following a principle which at one time may
have been right, but which now needs modification.
No general principle inherited from "the fathers" is
sufficient to guide us in the treatment of such a
problem as indiscriminate immigration with all the
consequences therein involved.
We come now to the third period, upon which the
state is just entering, viz., the control of the right of
migration by positive law or by international agree-
ment. An inherent right of migration is seen to
296 Emigratio7i and Immigration.
be untenable in theory, and unrestricted emigration
and immigration have been proven bad in practice.
The only course that remains is to acknowledge the
right of a state to regulate the emigration of its own
citizens and the immigration of strangers, or for
states to reach a diplomatic agreement for the pur-
pose. It is true that no state has ever renounced
the right to regulate both emigration and immigra-
tion, and it would be impossible for a state so to do
without abandoning its own sovereignty; but there
is now a disposition to exercise these rights for the
purpose of escaping the evils of indiscriminate mi-
gration. This has been abundantly illustrated in the.
legislation which was noticed in the preceding chap-
ters. The states whence emigration proceeds are
determined to see to it that the business shall be
conducted in such a way that it shall neither injure
the state nor deceive the intending emigrant. The
interests of the community over-ride those of persons
engaged in the business of transportation, and can
subordinate even the interests of the emigrants if
they come in conflict with those of the state. There
is no doubt that the states of Europe are perfectly
right in this action. There is still less doubt that
their disposition is to restrict emigration as much
as possible, and with the present sentiment in this
country and the British colonies there is no likeli-
hood that any protest will be heard.
The Question of Principle, 297
The recent legislation of the United States points no
less clearly to the limitation of immigration. Such
action may proceed either against certain specified i
classes on the ground that they will become a bur- \
den to the community, or against a whole race 0.1 |
the ground that their civilization is not desirabl ■. ;
The extension of this legislation is only a questio.i
of the pressure exerted by immigration. If it re-
mains where it is or decreases, we shall probably
remain satisfied with our present measures. If it
should increase or deteriorate in character, more
drastic measures will be proposed. Our example
in regard to the Chinese has already been followed
by the Australians and British Columbians ; and
England and France show a disposition to legislate
against the incoming of poor foreign workmen. It
is not probable that any country will protest against
the principle that each nation has the right to regu-
late the matter for itself, although the countries of
Europe may demand reciprocity of treatment among ^
themselves.
The principles of international law upon which the
modern practice is to be based may be seen emerg-
ing in several directions. The right to restrict emi-
gration will be founded on a revival of the doctrine
of permanent allegiance to the state, modified by in-
ternational agreement. That doctrine, once so pow-
erful, has been undermined by the spirit of indiviJ-
298 Emigration and Immigration.
ualism, and by the practical necessities of new coun-
tries where permanent settlers could not be held in
subordination to governments which they had ex-
pressly renounced. An attempt has been made to for-
mulate this practical necessity into an absolute right
of the individual to change his allegiance whenever
he pleases, but this has led to numerous difficulties.
One is that it opens the way for evasion of those
duties which every citizen owes to the state, such as
in Europe the universal military duty, and to this no
state can as a matter of principle consent, however
many exceptions and modifications it may allow in
practice. Another is that the new allegiance may be
acquired and used simply for the purpose of escaping
the burdens of the old, and no state can afford to
stake its influence or existence on the protection of
citizens whose citizenship is merely nominal and for
the purpose of commercial gain. The experience of
the United States with its Irish-American and Ger-
man-American citizens has proven this. Finally, this
right to change one's allegiance every time one finds
it profitable so to do, has complicated the whole sys-
tem of international obligation, and has even led to
men being without a country.
The modern tendency is seen in the following
extract from a recent writer on international law,
which, although the writer is an Englishman and
prejudiced perhaps in favor of the dictum "once an
The Question of Principle. 299
Englishman always an Englishman," is a fair presen-
tation of the question. After citing the recent cases
where the question of expatriation has come up, the
author goes on to say :
" It may be taken that the practice of the foregoing states
gives a fair impression of practice as a whole ; and it may be as-
sumed that when a state makes the recognition of a change of
nationality by a subject dependent on his fulfilment of certain
conditions determined by itself, or when it concedes a right of
expatriation by express law, it in effect aifirms a doctrine of alle-
giance indissoluble except by consent of the state. Such being
the case the doctrine in question, disguised though it may be, is
still the groundwork of a vastly preponderant custom. It may
be hoped, both for reasons of theory and convenience, that it
will continue to be so. An absolute right of expatriation in-
volves the anarchical principle that an individual, as such, has
other rights as against his state in things connected with the
state society than the right not to be dealt with arbitrarily, or
dissimilarly from others circumstanced like himself, which is
implied in the conception of a duly ordered political community ;
it supposes that the individual will is not necessarily subordi-
nated to the common will in matters of general concernment.
As a question of convenience, the objections to admitting a right
of expatriation are fully as strong. The right, if it exists, is ab-
solute ; it can therefore be curtailed only with the consent of
each individual. But if the doctrine of permanent allegiance
be admitted, there is nothing to prevent the state from temper-
ing its application to any extent that may be deemed proper.
Action upon it in its crude form is obviously incompatible with
the needs of modern life ; but it is consistent with any terms of
international agreement which the respective interests of con-
300 Emigration and Immigration.
tracting parties may demand, and if recognized in principle and
taken as an interim rule where special agreements have not been
made, it would do away with practical inconveniences which fre-
quently occur, and which as between certain countries might in
some cases give rise to international dangers. It would be a dis-
tinct gain if it were universally acknowledged that it is the right
of every state to lay down under what conditions its subjects may
escape from their nationality of origin, and that the acquisition
of a foreign nationality must not be considered good by the
state granting it as against the country of origin unless the con-
ditions have been satisfied." Hall, International Law, p. 214.
The right to restrict or prohibit immigration is
based ultimately on the sovereignty of a state over
its own territory. It can suffer no abatement of
that sovereignty on the part of other states, and
still less on the part of individuals, except by inter-
national agreement. That the consensus of civilized
nations will allow a large measure of freedom of inter-
course and of trade and even of settlement there is
no doubt. The demands of modern Hfe will secure
that. And so far as the evils of indiscriminate immi-
gration are concerned, the practical rule is already
coming to be recognized that it is not a friendly act
on the part of other nations to allow the emigration
of persons whom the receiving state does not con-
sider desirable additions to its population. In prac-
tice no state would defend the right to ship its convicts
or paupers to another state, or disregard the protest
of that other state. And out of this practical rule
The Question of Principle, 301
will there not finally be developed the general princi-
ple that each nation is bound to provide for its own <
unfortunates ? They are a part of that society the
whole of which constitutes the state. They are as
much its citizens as their more fortunate neighbors.
Out of the abundance of the civilization there must
come provision for its weaknesses. We cannot re-^
tain only that which is good and cast that which is
maimed into outer darkness.
And after all is it not a higher ideal, not only of
international comity but also of humanity, that each
nation should provide for its own failures rather than
attempt to transfer the duty to some other nation }
If there be no room for them let them be sent away
with at least some provision for starting in the new
country, so that they shall not be a total burden. Emi-
gration has not proven a remedy either for over-popu-
lation or for wide-spread poverty and distress. There
remains the attempt to better the condition of the
poor at home. Modern socialistic legislation in its
effort to improve the sanitary surroundings of the
laboring classes in home and factory, by its insurance
against old age, accident and sickness, by its provis-
ion for education and culture, is slowly weaving a web
about the workman which will bind him more closely
to his native country. It is possible that this will
provide for those whom no man desires, while leav-
ing sufficient freedom to the stronger and more enter-
302 Emigration and hmnigration.
prising to work out their own destiny. Freedom
internationd intercourse and movement will thus
be preserved, while the hardships and evils of the
present unguided, ignorant and capricious migration
will be prevented.
•aNIVERSITT
CAUFOfi
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INDEX.
Age, of emigrants, 28 ; of immigrants,
SI-
A^e-ciassification, effect of, on statis-
y^ tics of insanity, crime and disease,
V^ Agriculture, foreign born persons
y^ y engaged in, 94.
/*»■ Alien paupers, removal of, by state of
New York, 160; expulsion of, by
Belgium, 272 ; treaty in regard to,
, between Germany and Austria-
Hungary, 273.
Aliens, number of, in Massachusetts,
\^^ ,80; right to expel, 267.
^Allegiance, doctrine of permanent,
^ 297, 298.
Anti- Chinese agitation in California,
, 238.
' V Assimilation of foreign elements, 63,
>v \ 65; influences towards, 73; diffi-
culty of, in case of Chinese, 247.
Assisted emigration and immigration,
.'chapter IX, 168-200; by Switzer-
land, 171 ; by British government,
173; by charitable societies, 176,
185 ; protest of U. S. against, 175 ;
immigration by Canada, 193; by
Australia, 194; Southern Associa-
tion for, 195.
Asylum, doctrine that this country is
an, for the oppressed, 251, 293.
Australia, assisted immigration to,
194 ; Chinese question in, 263.
Austria, emigration from, 19.
Austria- Hungary, paupers sent back
to, x6o; treaty between, and Ger-
many in regard to paupers, 273.
See also Hungary.
Bedridden among foreign bom in
Massachusetts, 156.
Belgium, emigration from, 19; emi-
grant's bureau at Buenos Ayres,
204 ; expels alien paupers, 272.
Bibliography, 303.
Births, excess of, over deaths com-
pared with emigration, 23.
Blind among the foreign born, 155,
156.
Boston, persons of native and foreign
parentage in, 71.
Bringing up children, cost of, 104.
British, see Great Britain.
British America {and British Amer-
icans^, female immigrants from,
50; persons having fathers born in,
68; born in, 69; marriage of, 76 n. ;
engaged in productive occupations
in U. S., 71, 96.
Brotherhood of man, doctrine of, 289.
Burlingame treaty with China, 229,
231.
Canada, assisted immigration to, 178,
185, 193. See also French Cana-
dians.
Capitalized value of immigrant, 109.
Castle Garden, 221.
Charitable societies sending out pau-
pers, 160, 176, 185.
Cheap labor, effect of, 143.
Chinese immigration, chapter XI,
227-265.
Cities, foreign born in, 71 ; unskilled
labor in, 120.
Citizenship, a matter of choice, 20i.
Civilization, characteristics of Amer-
309
310
htdex.
ican, 4; progress of, renders de-
mand for unskilled labor less, 119;
what it consists of, 147; tenacity
of Chinese in adhering to their
own, 248 ; different stages in, 294.
Colonies, early, 12; effect of, on
Europe, 13 ; separation from home
country, 14; assist immigration,
169; opposition to assisted emi-
gration, 184.
Colonists, task before, in the U. S.,
53 ; distinction between, and immi-
grants, 35.
Colonization, committee of House of
Commons, 180; of America, 291.
Commerce, regulation of, only by
Congress, 241 ; expansion of, 287.
Commissioners of Emigration of New
York, 220, 222, 225.
Committee of Congress on Chinese
immigration, 242 ; report of, 250.
Competition, with American labor,
chapter VII, 123-146; on a cer-
tain plane of living, 138 ; true
office of, 141.
Connecticut, Italian immigrants in,
133-
Consular certificates, plan of, 281.
Consular jurisdiction, in China, 230.
Consular protection to emigrants, 204.
Conquest, early migration for purpose
of, 12.
Contract labor, 129-131 ; legislation
of U. S. against, 276; should be
enforced, 279.
Control of immigration, methods of,
277-283.
Convicts, of foreign birth or parentage
in Massachusetts, 157; exclusion
of, by U. S., 274.
Critninals, among foreign born, 157.
Crippled, among foreign born, 156.
Deaf and dumb, among foreign born,
155 ; in Massachusetts, 156.
Deformed, among foreign bom, in
Massachusetts, 156.
Democratic institutions, smooth
working of, 91.
Denmark, emigration from, 19; per
1000 inhabitants, 21 ; since 1820,
67 ; paupers returned to, 160.
Destination, avowed, of immigrants,
69.
Diseased, acute and chronic, among
foreign born in Massachusetts, 156,
Distribution of foreign born in
U. S., 70.
Economic gain by immigration, chap-
ter VI, 93-122.
causes of emigration, 31 ; of
immigration, 44.
effects of Chinese immigration,
244.
problems, character of, 2.
prosperity, effect of, on immi-
grants, 73.
value of the immigrant, 104-
III.
well-being, in America, 6 ; effect
of immigration on, 8.
Emigrants, age and sex of, 28 ; money
taken with, 98 ; economic value
of, no; occupations of, 114; pro-
tecting the, 201; treatment of, on
board ship, 215. See Emigration.
Emigration, history of, chapter II,
12-32; a phenomenon of modern
Hfe, 12, 15 ; statistics of, 15 ; from
Great Britain, 17; from Germany,
18 ; other countries, 18 ; for years
1887 and 1888, 19; effect of, on
population, 21-26 ; effect of volun-
tary emigration, 27 ; opposed by
European governments, 27 ; causes
of, 30; no longer going among
strangers, 49; economic loss by,
III; assisted emigration, chapter
IX, 168-200 ; from Switzerland,
170- 171 ; assisted, by British gov-
ernment, 173-176 ; by Tuke Com-
mittee, 176-180; Association for
State-directed Emigration, 180-
185 ; prepaid tickets, 186-193 1 col-
onies assist, 193-195 ; Emigrants'
Information Office, 196, 199; arti-
ficial stimulus to, 196; regulation
Index.
311
of, 205-214 ; right of, chapter XIII,
284-302.
England, emigration from, 19; per
1000 inhabitants, 21 ; excess of
births over deaths, 23 ; importation
of Flemish weavers, 35 ; immigra-
tion into U. S. from, since 1820,
67; born in, 69; paupers returned
to, 160. See also Great Britain.
English language, influence of, 74.
Ethnical composition of population
of U. S., 62.
Expatriation, declared to be a natu-
ral and inherent fight, 228; anar-
chical in principle, 299.
Extra-territorial consular jurisdic-
tion in China, 230.
Farmers and farm laborers among
immigrants, 115.
Foreigners, descendants of, in U. S.,
58 ; French decree in respect to, 270.
Foreign born, in U. S., 1880, 68 ; dis-
tribution of, 70; in cities, 71; in-
termarriage among, 76 ; voting
population among, 80; influence
of vote, 86 ; leaders of socialism,
88 ; in occupations in U. S., 94-96,
125 ; proportion among insane,
153-155; among defective classes,
150-153. 155-157 ; among prisoners
and convicts, 157 ; among paupers,
158-161 ; among illiterates, 161-
165.
Foreign parentage, persons of, in
U. S., 58, 68; in cities of Massa-
chusetts, 71 ; influence of Ameri-
can life on persons of, 73-76; of
prisoners and convicts, 158 ; of
paupers and homeless children,
159; of illiterates, 164.
France {and French^, emigration
from, 19 ; per 1000 inhabitants, 21 ;
immigration to U. S. since 1820,
67; born in, 69; paupers returned
to, 160; decree in respect to for-
eigners residing in, 270; contracts
on public works in, excluding for-
eign workmen, 271 n.
French Canadians, naturalization of,
80 ; in cotton-mills of New Eng-
land, 127, 130; character of, 135;
influence of, in New England, 144 ;
illiteracy among, 162-164 > social
influence of, 166.
French philosophy, influence of, 228,
288.
revolution, epoch of, i, 285, 287-
295-
Germany {and Germans) , emigration
from, 16, 18 ; per 1000 inhabitants,
21-22 ; excess of births over
deaths, 23; evasion of military
service, 27, 202 ; effect of emigra-
tion on population, 29 ; age of emi-
grants, 28 ; emigration from Alsace-
Lorraine, 31 ; famine in 1853,
44; steamship fares from, 47; emi-
gration of families, 50 ; chil-
P dren among, 51 ; immigrants to
U. S. since 1820, 67; proportion
to other nationalities, 67; persons
of German parentage, 68 ; born in,
69; distribution of, in U. S., 70;
in cities, 71 ; attachment to father-
land, 73; language, 75; intermar-
riage with other nationalities, 76;
vote of, 86 ; in productive occupa-
tions in U. S., 96; money brought
by emigrants, 99 ; per capita wealth
in, loi ; cost of rearing children,
104; capitalized value of emigrants,
III ; occupations of emigrants, 114;
paupers returned to, 160 ; illiteracy
among, 162; convicts from, 172;
emigration law, 209; expulsion of
Slavic population, 270 ; conventions
in regard to German paupers, 273 ;
treatment of stranger in middle
ages, 285.
Great Britain {and British), emi-
gration from, 16-19; per 1000 in-
habitants, 21 ; persons of British
parentage, 68 ; in productive occu-
pations in U. S., 96 ; money sent
back to, 100; capitalized value of
emigrants from, no; occupations
312
Index,
of emigrants, 114 ; government
assistance to emigration, 173-176;
Emigrants' Information Office, 196 ;
passengers' acts, 205, 208 ; British
colonies and Chinese, 263-265. See
also England, Ireland and Scot-
land.
Head-tax, on immigrants, imposed
by state of New York, 221 ; declared
unconstitutional, 223 ; imposed by
Congress, 224; by California on
Chinese, 238.
Holland, emigration from, 19; pau-
pers returned to, 160.
Homeless children, in Massachu-
setts, 158.
Humanity, demands of, 301.
Hungary {and Hungarians') , emigra-
tion from, 19; small number of
females among, 50; in mines, 127;
imported laborers, 131 n. ; stan^
dard of living of, 134 ; social influ-
ence of, 166. See also Austria-
Hungary.
Idiots, among foreign born in Massa-
chusetts, 156.
Illiteracy, in U. S., 161 ; in Massa-
chusetts, 162-165.
Immigrants, age, sex and occupation
of, 50; distinction between, and
colonists, 35 ; descendants of, in
U. S., 58 ; destination of, 69 ; money
brought by, 97-102 ; economic
value of, 102-111; age of, 103; do
we need the? 113; occupations of,
114; number of laborers among,
115; in factories, 125-126; displace
American laborers, 127 ; under
contract, 129 ; low standard of liv-
ing, 131 ; treatment of, 219 ; Castle
Garden, 221; head-tax on, 223;
right to expel pauper, 268-270;
number of, returned under act of
1882, 275.
Immigration, character of the ques-
tion of, 4; very complex problem,
9; method of solution, 10; his-
tory of, chapter III, 33-52; im-
portance of, 33 ; into U. S., 35-43 ;
statistics of, 40 ; causes of, 43 ; ef-
fect of, on population, chapter IV,
53-78 ; represents an increase of
births, 61 ; effect on ethnical com-
position of population, 62, 65 ; po-
litical effects of, chapter V, 79-92 ;
economic gain by, chapter VI, 93-
122; competition with Ainerican
labor, chapter VII, 123-146; of
skilled labor, 125 ; and a protec-
tive tariff, 128 ; social effects of,
chapter VIII, 147-167; assisted,
193-195; Chinese, chapter XI,
227-265 ; restrictions on, chapter
XII, 266-283 1 methods of restrict-
ing, 278-283; right of, chapter
XIII, 284-302.
Immobility of labor, 139.
Increase, natural, in U. S., 60.
Indemnity, payment of, to Chinese,
259.
Industry, expansion of, 287.
Insanity among foreign born, 153.
International law, principles of, in
regard to migration, 297.
Ireland {atid /rii>i), emigration from,
19 n.; per 1000 of population, 21-
22; excess of birtlis over deaths,
23 ; effect of emigration on popu-
lation, 24; famine in, 44; sex of
immigrants, 50 ; age of immigrants,
51 ; immigrants since 1820, 67 ; rel-
ative number of, 67; Irish parent-
age, 68; born in, 69; distribution
of, 70; in cities, 71 ; intermarriage
with other nationalities, 76; natu-
ralization of, 80 ; Irish vote, 86 ; in
productive occupations in U. S.,
96 ; paupers in Massachusetts, 159
n. ; paupers returned to, 160; illiter-
acy among, 163; assisted emigra-
tion from, 173, 174, 177.
Italy {and Italians) , emigration from,
19; per 1000 inhabitants, 21 ; sex of
immigrants, 50; immigrants since
1820, 67; relative number, 67; in
cities, 71; naturalization of, 80;
hidex.
313
money sent back, 101; age of
emigrants, 115; contract labor,
129-131 ; social condition of, 132-
134; paupers returned to, 160;
illiteracy among, 162, 164 ; induced
immigration, 191-193 ; emigration
law, 210; residence of aliens in,
269.
Know-Nothing party in U. S., 81 ;
spirit of, 278.
Labor, foreign bom, in U. S., 94 ; need
of, in former times, 97 ; gained by
the U. S., 102; unskilled, among
immigrants, iiS; unskilled always
most abundant, 118; no need of
further, 121 ; competition with
American labor, chapter VII, 123-
146; displacement of, 127; in the
British colonies, 199 n. ; competi-
tion of Chinese, 2^-247. See Con-
tract Labor.
Labor-force, original, in U. S., 54.
Laborers, benefited by competition,
142; exclusion of Chinese, 255,
a6o, 262.
Land, supply of, in U. S., 56 ; simpli-
fied social problem, 56.
Laws regulating emigration, 209-214.
Legislation, of U. S. in regard to immi-
gration, "zrjy-^Tj \ should be en-
forced, 279-281 ; against Chinese,
251, 25s, 257, 261, 262 ; of Califor-
nia against Chinese, 238, 240;
of France in respect to foreigners,
270; extension of, in regard to
immigration, 297.
Letters to friends, 48.
Loss by emigration, iii.
Manufacturing industries of U. S.,
foreign born in, 95.
Marriage of different nationalities
with each other, 75.
Massachusetts, foreign born in, 71 ;
voting population, 80; persons of
foreign parentage in cities, 71 ;
defective classes, 156; prisoners
and convicts, 157; paupers and
homeless children, 158; illiteracy
in, 162-165; unemployed in, 121.
Mechanical and mining industries,
foreign bom in, 95.
Mediceval restgctions on emigration,
285.
Migration, inherent right of, 228 ;
right of, 284, 288, 290, 296.
Military service, evasion of, 27 ; re-
stricts emigration, 202.
Miners' license tax, in California, 239.
Mixed races, theory of, jj.
Money brought by immigrants, 97, 98 ;
sent back, 99, loi.
Municipal government, effect of im-
migration on, 87.
Murders of Chinese, 257.
National Association for State-di-
rected Emigration, 180-184.
^kitionality, of immigrants, 67; of
foreign born, 68; of persons of
foreign parentage, 68 ; in states,
70; in cities, 71; in naturalization,
80 ; in occupations, 96.
Natives, descendants of, in U. S., 59.
Native born, voters, 80; paupers,
158 ; illiterates, 162.
Native parentage, prisoners and con-
victs of, 158 ; paupers and home-
less children, 159; illiterates, 164.
Natural right, of migration, 228,
284 ; doctrine of, 228, 290.
Naturalization, of different nationali-
ties, 80 ; law of U. S., 82 ; policy
of, 84 ; recent court decisions, 85 ;
of Chinese, 235.
Negroes, in U, S., 64.
Nervous diseases, tendency of foreign
born to, 155.
New England, French Canadians in,
135. 144-
New York, foreign born in, 70 ; Ital-
ians in city, 132; insanity among
foreign born in, 154; pauperism
in, 158 ; pauper aliens removed by
State Board of Charities, 159;
legislation to protect immigrants,
314
Index.
220; Commissioners of emigra-
tion, 220, 222, 225.
Norway, emigration from, 18, 19;
per 1000 inhabitants, 21 ; since
1820, 67; born in, 69; paupers
returned to, 160. See Scandina-
vians.
Occupations, of immigrants, 51, 72,
113, 125 ; of emigrants from Great
Britain, 114; from Germany, 114;
from Italy, 115; unskilled, 117:
foreign born in, 94-96.
Over-population, emigration as a
remedy for, 24, 25.
Parentage, persons of foreign, 68 ; of
prisoners and convicts in Massa-
chusetts, 158 ; of paupers and
homeless children, 159; of illiter-
ates, 164.
Passengers' acts, British, 205-2081^
U. S\. 216.
Patriotism, foundation of, 5.
Paupers, assisted to emigrate, 169;
by Swiss cantons, 170 ; by British
government, 173 ; by Tuke Com-
mittee, 176 ; by charitable societies,
185 ; removed by New York State
Board of Charities, 160; by U. S.,
275; expulsion of, by Belgium,
272 ; of foreign birth or parentage,
158, 159-
Poles, character of immigrants, 132.
Political institutions, in America, 4;
effect of immigration on, 6, chapter
V, 79-92.
rights, exercise of, 73.
problems, in history, i.
Population, effect of emigration on,
21, 23; in U. S. during colonial
period, 37 ; from 1783 to 1820, 39 ;
effect of immigration on, chapter
IV, 53-78; growth of, in U. S.,
53; of U. S. in 1790, 54; causes
of growth of, 56; proportion due
to immigrants, 58; ethnical com-
position of, in U. S., 62; elements
of, in U. S., 64; negroes in, 64;
foreign element in, 67; parentage
of, 68 ; birth-place of, 68 ; fusion
of, 72; intermarriage of, 75; of
voting age, 80.
Portuguese, naturalization of, 80; il-
literacy, 162.
Prisoners and convicts of foreign
birth or parentage, 157.
Proletariat, Marx's theory of an in-
dustrial, 121.
Protecting the emigrant, chaprter X,
201-226.
Protective tariff and free immigration,
128.
Protest of U. S. against assisted emi-
gration, 175.
Prussia, emigration from, per 1000
inhabitants, 22, 23, 25.
Railroads, effect of, in settling U. S.,
57. J
Remittances by immigrants to friends, yf
99. loi. X87. (\.
Restriction on emigration, 202, 2iy6
212; mediaeval, 285; right' to re-
strict, 296..
on immigration, chapter XII,
266-283 ; right to restrict, 296-302.
Right of migration, 228, 229, 269,
284, 290.
Right to control emigration and im-
migration, chapter XIII, 284-302.
Rock Springs riots, 257.
Russia, emigration from, 20; con-
tract-labor, 131 n. ; paupers re-
turned to, 160.
Scandinavian, persons of, parentage,
68 ; in Northwest, 146.
Scotland, emigration from, 19; per
1000 inhabitants, 21 ; since 1820,
67 ; born in, 69 ; paupers returned
to, 160.
Social effects of immigration, chap-
ter VIII, 147-167.
science, complexity of, 8.
Social traits, in America, effect of
immigration on, 7, 166.
of Chinese, 24a.
Index.
315
Socialism, in U. S., 88, 91.
Societies, charitable, assist emigra-
tion, 172, 176, 185.
Sex, proportion of, among immi-
grants, 28.
Skilled laborers among immigrants,
125.
Soutkem Immigration Society, 195.
Sovereignty of a nation over its own
territory, 300.
Spain, emigration from, 20.
Standard of living, immigrants with
low, 131.
Staie, end and_ purpose of the, 3 ;
duty of, 292.
State-directed emigration, National
association for, 180; destined to
fail of its purpose, 195, 199,
Statistics, of emigration, 15 ; from
Great Britain, 17; from Germany,
18 ; other countries, 19 ; of emi-
gration per 1000 inhabitants, 21 ;
of excess of births over deaths, 23;
of immigration into U. S., 40; of
. insane, 153; of defective classes,
155; of criminals, 157; of pauper-
ism, 158 ; of illiteracy, 161-165 ; of
Chinese immigration, 236.
Steamships, saihng to New York, 46;
agents, 46, 186; prepaid tickets,
188.
Sweating system, in New York and
London, 136.
Sweden {and Swedes), emigration
from, 18, 19 ; per looo inhabitants,
21; since 1820, 67; born in, 69;
contract labor, 131 n. ; paupers
returned to, 160; iUiteiracy, 162;
assisted emigrants, 185. See also
Scandinavians.
Switzerland, emigration from, 20;
per 1000 inhabitants, 21 ; since
1820, 67 ; paupers returned to, 160 ;
emigration forbidden, 168 ; assisted
emigration, 170, 171 ; law regulat-
ing emigration, 210-213.
Transportation, improved means of,
45-47, 186, 205, 216.
Treaties with China, 1844, 229 ; 1858,
230 ; 1868, 231 ; 1880, 253 ; abor-
tive, 1888, 259.
Tuke Committee, 176.
Unemployed in U. S., 121 ; in Massa-
chusetts, 121.
United States, The, statistics of im-
migration into, 16 ; history of im-
migration into, 35-52; population
in, during colonial period, 37 ; pop-
ulation in, from 1783-1820, 39 ; im-
migration into, since 1820, 40;
causes of immigration to, 43;
growth of population in, 53 ; pop-
ulation in, 1790, 54 ; growth of set-
tled area, 56 ; railroads, 57 ; effect
of immigration on population ot,
57, 61 ; proportion of natives and
foreigners in, 58 ; effect of immi-
gration on ethnical composition of
population in, 62 ; nationalities in,
67; foreign born in, 68; foreign
parentage in, 68 ; foreign born vot-
ers in, 80, 86 ; Know-Nothing par-
ty in, 81 ; naturalization law, 82-85 I
municipal government in, 87 ; out-
breaks of anarchism and socialism,
88 ; economic gain by immigration,
94 ff. ; occupations in, 94-96 ; mon-
ey brought by immigrants to, 97 ;
per capita wealth in, loi ; labor
brought to, 102 ; cost of bringing
up children in, 105, 106; occupa-
tions of immigrants to, 113 ; need
for unskilled labor in, 117; the un-
employed in, 121 ; immigration of
skilled labor, 125 ; foreign born in
occupations, 126; contract labor-
ers in, 129; Italians in, 133; sweat-
ing system in, 136; French Cana-
dians and Scandinavians in, 144;
mortality statistics of, 153 ; insanity
in, 153; crime in, 157; pauperism,
158; illiteracy, 161; protest against
assisted emigration, 175; Passen-
gers' acts, 216 ; Chinese immigra-
tion, chapter XI, 227-265; law of
1882 restricting iminigration, 273,
3i6
Index.
274, 280; law against contract la-
bor, 276, 281.
Unskilled labor, 117; not in right
place, 119.
Unrestricted immigration defended
on economic grounds, 93 ; on hu-
manitarian grounds, 288.
Value, economic, of the immigrant,
104-111; of the immigrant to us,
"3-
VoiCy foreign, influence of, 86.
Voting population in Massachusetts,
80.
Wages^ capitalized value of, no, 113 ;
in sweating systftn, 137; effect of
immigration on, 139.
Wealth per capita in Germany and
United States, loi.
Well-being, average, decreased by
immigration, loi.
Western states, foreign born in, 94,
95.
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