Aliens or Americans?

by Howard B. Grose

If immigration were left to the natural causes, there would be little reason for apprehension. It is in the solicited and assisted immigration that the worst element is found. Commercial greed lies at the root of this, as of most of the evils which afflict us as a nation. The great steamship lines have made it cheaper to emigrate than to stay at home, in many cases; and every kind of illegal inducement and deceit and allurement has been employed to secure a full steerage. The ramifications of this transportation system are wonderful. It has a direct bearing, too, upon the character of the immigrants. Easy and cheap transportation involves deterioration in quality. In the days when a journey across the Atlantic was a matter of weeks or months and of considerable outlay, only the most enterprising, thrifty, and venturesome were ready to try an uncertain future in an unknown land. The immigrant of those days was likely, therefore, to be of the sturdiest and best type, and his coming increased the general prosperity without lowering the moral tone. Now that the ocean has become little more than a ferry, and the rates of railway and steamship have been so reduced, it is the least thrifty and prosperous members of their communities that fall readiest prey to the emigration agent.

Assisted Immigration

Assisted immigration is the term used to cover cases where a foreign government has eased itself of part of the burden of its paupers, insane, dependents, and delinquents by shipping them to the United States. This was not uncommon in the nineteenth century, especially in the case of local and municipal governments. Our laws were lax, and for a time nearly everybody, sane or insane, sound or diseased, was passed. The financial gain to the exporting government can be seen in the fact that it costs about $150 per head a year to support dependents and delinquents in this country, while it would not cost the foreign authorities more than $50 to transport them hither. This policy seems scarcely credible, but Switzerland, Great Britain, and Ireland followed it thriftily until our laws put a stop to it, in large part, by returning these undesirable persons whence they came, at the expense of the steamship companies bringing them. It was not until 1882, however, that our government passed laws for self-protection, and in 1891 another law made "assisted" immigrants a special class not to be admitted.

Other Causes

Other and incidental causes there are, such as the influence of new machinery, opening the way for more unskilled labor, such as the ordinary immigrant has to sell; the protective tariff, which shuts out foreign goods and brings in the foreign producers of the excluded goods; the thorough advertising abroad of American advantages by boards of agriculture and railway companies interested in building up communities; and a fear of restrictive legislation. But undoubtedly, ever back of all other reasons is the conviction that America is the land of plenty and of liberty—a word which each interprets according to his light or his liking.

The Christian Attitude

Having thus considered the remarkable proportions of immigration, and the causes of it, it will be well at this point to say a cautionary word as to the attitude of mind and heart in which this subject should be approached. Impartiality is necessary but difficult. There is a natural prejudice against the immigrant. A Christian woman, of ordinarily gentle and sweet temper, was heard to say recently, while this very subject of Christian duty to the immigrant was under discussion at a missionary conference: "I hate these disgusting foreigners; they are spoiling our country." Doubtless many would sympathize with her. This is not uncommon prejudice or feeling, and argument against it is of little avail. Nevertheless, as Christians we must endeavor to divest ourselves of it. We must recognize the brotherhood of man and the value of the individual soul as taught by Jesus. It may aid us, perhaps, if we remember that we are all—with the exception of the Indians, who may lay claim to aboriginal heritage—in a sense descendants of immigrants. At the same time, it is essential to draw a clear distinction between colonists and immigrants.Colonists
and
Immigrants Distinguished Colonization, with its attendant hardships and heroisms, steadily advanced from its beginnings in New England, New Amsterdam, and Virginia, until there resulted the founding of a free and independent nation, with popular government and fixed religious principles, including the vital ones of religious liberty and the right of the individual conscience. In other words, colonization created a nation; and there had to be a nation before there could be immigration to it. "In discussing the immigration question," says Mr. Hall, "this distinction is important," for it does not follow that, because, as against the native Indians, all comers might be considered as intruders and equally without claim of right, those who have built up a complicated framework of nationality have no rights as against others who seek to enjoy the benefits of national life without having contributed to its creation."[12]

Colonist and National Rights

It ought clearly to be recognized that the colonists and their descendants have sacred rights, civil and religious, with which aliens should not be permitted to interfere; and that these rights include all proper and necessary legislation for the preservation of the liberties, laws, institutions, and principles established by the founders of the Republic and those rights of citizenship guaranteed under the constitution. If restriction of immigration becomes necessary in order to safeguard America, the American people have a clear right to pass restrictive or even prohibitory laws. In other words, America does not belong equally to everybody. The American has rights which the alien must become American to acquire.

Sympathetic and Open Mind