The Alien Invasion

y nothing by anybody who chose to apply for it. In those comparatively early days, what are now flourishing States west of the Mississippi, were then, in parts, wild unpeopled wildernesses, and the c

urder and brigandage; Nihilists from Russia, and Socialists from Germany, driven forth almost at the point of the bayonet by their own Governments; Russian and Polish Jews, fleeing in terror before the fanatical persecution of the Czar. All this heterogeneous mass of inflammable human material has at length become a standing menace to the United States, endangering her friendly relations with foreign cou

heir native land and settle in the New World, were very different from the motives which actuate the greater numbers of those who are pouring into the United States at the present day. In fact, the time from the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers down to the year which witnessed the

he Annual Reports which have been issued by the late Board of Commissioners of Emigration of the State of New York. Without troubling my readers with unnecessary statistics, I may say briefly from calculations which have been made, the total number of immigrant aliens who arr

nducement. These agents picture in the most glowing terms to the poor peasants of Europe the future which awaits them in the New World. On the strength of the false representations made to them, the peasants are often induced to sell out their little homes, and to spend a life's savings in the purchase of a through passage to America. Oftentimes they will even borrow money for the passage at a ruinous rate, and the agents will advance the tickets, taking a mortgage of whatever property is of value for payment. In some cases the money is refunded, but in most cases the agent becomes the owner of the property by foreclosure; and

chief offender in this respect appears to have been the British Government; and the Poor Law Guardians in Ireland, who by the Land Act of 1881 were advanced money to assist emigration, especially from the poorer and more thickly populated districts of Ireland. Various charitable societies in Europe and the United Kingdom were no less active. The so-called "Tuke Committee" assisted over 8000 persons to emigrate from Ireland in three years, 1882-85. The Prisoners' Aid Society also assisted convicts to emigrate, while the Central Emigration Society and the Jewish Board of Guardians

Contract Labour Law; but they came to New England on the representation that employment should be found. As the freestone cutters in England only get tenpence an hour, or about twenty cents in American money, the prospect of largely increased wages naturally induced many of them to go over to America. This is only one instance out of many; and to quote the Immigration Committee's Report, "Where good wages are paid, advertisement abroad has become of common occurrence; the workmen here are thereby brought to terms, or the market becomes overflooded with labourers, and wages are reduced." In connection with this must also be considered the immi

he large industries, notably the cigar trade, tailoring trade, and the shirt manufacturing trade, what was fifteen years ago 90 per cent. American and 10 foreign, is now 90 per cent. foreign and 10 per cent. American. Frequently upon differences arising between employers and employed as to the price of wages, foreigners were imported to take the place of Am

f Chicago, and the still more recent lynchings at New Orleans, are further illustrations of my meaning. This political danger is deepened by the short period of time in which immigrants may become eligible for citizenship, and thus invested with political power. In several States the immigrant is admitted to citizenship after only one year's residence, and while he is still to a great extent ignorant of the laws, language, a

eign poor in the workhouses and penitentiaries of the United States; and there can be little doubt that the effect of deporting

section 1 of the new Act, which specifies the class of aliens henceforth to be excluded from the United States, deserves to be quoted in full:-"All idiots, insane persons; paupers, or persons likely to become a public charge; persons suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease; persons who have been convicted of felony or other infamous crime or misdemeanour involving moral turpitude, polygamists, and also any persons whose ticket or passage is paid for with the money of another, or who is assisted by others to come." The right of asylum to political and religious refugees is maintained intact by the insertion of a special p

d country like England, with an area of a little over 32,000,000 acres, and a population, according to the census of 1881, of near 25,000,000 souls-and probably of over 30,000,000 now-compelled to spend annually some ￡7,000,000 on the relief or support of

excluding undesirable aliens. If such action be good, where the vast territories of the United States are in question, what must be thought o