Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1912 — Democrat Has a New Idea About Policy of Protection. [ARTICLE]

Democrat Has a New Idea About Policy of Protection.

The Jasper County Democrat, whose publisher has always been regarded as a democrat for revenue and whose editorials have usually been the “canned” sort supplied 'by the state central committee, is now out with a declaration strictly original in connection with the Republican policy of protection and it is a declaration that might prove very embarrassing to the Democratic party if it secured sufficient endorsement to make that party answer for it Over in Pennsylvania there is a new town called Roseta, founded by Italians. There is nothing very peculiar about this. There are foreign settlements in almost every state in the union where there is scarcely an American speaking man or woman. Qur needs in America have invited foreigners of all nationalities to locate here, to become American citizens, to do the many things which our native labor can not or will not do. The Italian has been -useful in constructive labor that Americans could not be found to perform, that Is thai American labor has not been compelled to do because of the opportunity for better and more, dignified labor under the Republican policy of protected Industries. Foreigners have not ’been competitors of American laborers and are not considered so by any person of intelligence. They have built railroads all over the country that would otherwise not have been built, they are engaged in construction work tin ail the big fields of industry and they perform a class of hazardous labor from which our American laborers shrink with horror. They do not always make tbe best citizens, but they are usually men of enterprise who have deteriorated through generations of poor opportunity in their native They have come to America because of the opportunities offered by our form of government, because of the wages which American protected labor has made possible, and here they have come into possession of a new hope and often they become leaders, in fields of industry and commerce, while they are no worse from the social.point of view than some of our American people who have not cared to improve their opportunities. The Italian serves a unique purpose id tbe constructive enterprises of this countries, while the Slavs and Pollocks and Hunyaeks and Greeks and Servians and Chinese and Japanese and Hollanders and Germans and men from every country on the globe have come to America, the land of protected opportunity, to get a start in life and, we have all these nationalities only a few miles from Rensselaer in the great city of Gary doing a class of labor that Americans will not perform. It is not often that the question of immigration is discussed in relation to labor conditions now, for it is only here and there that there is an Individual who is so ignorant |as to question the value of foreign labor to the upbuilding of American industries. While the Jasper County Democrat does not explain that its hatred of all foreign classes is as intense as It is for Italians, which the Democrat calls “Dagos,” there is plainly a feeling in the article that America should be selfishly for America alone, and that any foreigner that enters into competition with America should be excluded. In this connection it will not come amiss to recall the language used by the Democrat following the election of William H. Taft , three years ago, when that paper blamed eyery person of foreign birth for the election of Mr. Taft, placing ‘ niggers,” “dagos,” and all into one classification and insulting all individually and collectively. Probably there are a great many of us that would not be in America today if it were not for the encourage-ment-of our immigration laws. Probably there are a .great many of us whose not far distant ancestors lived in a country where opportunity did not abound, but who came to America, profited by the possibilities of our free, institutions and their descendents have become stalwart citizens. Why, right here in Jasper county, we have the example of the value of foreign labor. The northern part of Jasper county is to a great extent populated by Hollander farmers, who have settled on lands that American farmers could not use with profit and have developed it to a wealth producing status that, Wtere not otherwise possible. And yet they come into competition with American labor and with American farmers, but they are valuable In our economic developement and American consumers must consider them real benefactors. ... / * Does the. Democrat these;

people in Its short but bitter tirade against our immigration laws? There can be no denyng that there are violations of the laws that admit foreigners to our shores, but to n sail the proposition as a whole were little short of madness and a confession of ignorance that needs no other, testimony. • ,-y-•-•••• ~ There was a time a few' years ago when there was a lot of objection to the admission of foreign labor into tbe United States. That was during the last democratic administration, when the Wilson-Gorman tariff bill was in force and American factories were dark and cold. American labor was receiving only $1 and $1.20 a day then and getting work only once in awhile and then there was real competition in labor and- the* Italian looked out ot place in America and he felt out of place too and went back to sunny Italy whenever he could get enough money together to get back,-But the passage of the Dingley tariff law kindled fires in the factory furnaces, put American labor to work, great enterprises cried out for men and Italians and other foreigners responded to the appeal and hence this little Pennsylvania city of 2,000- Italians over which the Democrat roars so lustily. We dare say that a visit to Roseta would show that many of the people own their own homes, have built their own churches, have good public schools and are citizens worthy the best tbat America produces. The jealousy of American labor can not be aroused by harping at jour immigration laws