Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 November 1894 — EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION. [ARTICLE]

EUROPEAN IMMIGRATION.

The question of foreign immigration has of late years become an important one. There is a substantial unanimity of sentiment among people of all parties that something must be done to check and regulate the great stream of humanity constantly being poured into this country from every foreign shore. True, the hard times have sent thousands back to their native land, and prevented other thousands from coming to us. But this condition can hardly remain permanent. In the very nature of things a readjustment will be reached, and in due course the tide of foreigners will again become oppressive—a menace to the perpetuity of our institutions, a festering canker in the body politic that must be dealt with before the evil becomes a monster beyond control. Superintendent Hermann Stumps, of the Immigration Bureau, returned to Washington, Oct. 25, after a six weeks’ tour of European cities, during which he collected a mass of valuable information bearing on the subject. Strange as it may seem, he found all foreign governments willing to co-operate with the United States in wiping out the vicious padrone system of immigration, which has been the means of bringing so many foreign criminals to our shores. The Italian government officials stated that Italians in the United States were in the habit of remitting large sums, in the aggregate, to relatives, but they agreed to co-operate with the United States in preventing their criminals from coming here. In Germany, official swere already taking unusual precautions to prevent the embarkation of the prohibited classes, and the steamship companies have imposed heavy fines upon their agents who sell tickets to persons not allowed to land in the United States. Mr. Stumps had peverai interviews with the agents of Baron Hirsch in. regard to the

Jewish exodus from Russia, and. was assured that Russian persecution ot Jews had practically ceased. In any event, he was assured, the bulk ol Jewish immigrants from that country would go to the Argentine in preference to the United States. In the opinion of the Superintendent the emigrants now coming to this country are a far better class of people than at any time in the past.