New Zealand Plan
The suggestion is a good one that we might study with profit, in this connection, the methods of New Zealand.[47] There the established Department of Labor has regarded as "its vital duty the practical task of finding where labor was wanted and depositing there the labor running elsewhere to waste." To this end a widely extended system of agencies is maintained for bringing workers and work together, the unemployed are scattered through the colony, and charity is refused. The experience there shows that city people and men of trades have been successful as farmers and farm workers. Mr. Lord says: "It may be a novel function of government to undertake the distributing of labor, but it is none the less more rational than an edict of exclusion would be, or the tolerance of congestion and slums now is."
Information Before Embarking
One thing that government can do is to make sure that intending immigrants are fully informed, in their own countries, before they start, concerning the laws of the United States, the conditions of the various sections, the advantages and drawbacks, the demand for labor and of what kind. An official bureau of correspondence and information would help check undesirable immigrants from coming, and distribute desirable ones when they do come.
Looking on the
Bright Side
While the question of distribution has only recently been taken up in earnest, its importance is now realized, and there is every reason to believe that it will receive henceforth large attention, and that wise measures will be vigorously pushed. Remedied congestion will mean increased assimilation and decreased danger. As we review the situation, while there is much in it that requires serious consideration and wise action, we agree heartily with these words of Dr. Charles L. Thompson:
Not Bars but Guides
"There is no need of becoming pessimistic. Above all we should not go back on the history of our Country. We have grown great by assimilation. Let us have a dignified confidence in the power of our institutions and of our Christianity to continue the process which has developed the strength of the Republic. If we are true to our principles we will be equal to any strain that may be put upon them. Only let us see to it that our principles—both civic and religious—are at work in full vigor on the questions which the floodtide of immigration raises. What we need is not more bars to keep foreigners out but more laborers to work with them and teach them how to gather the harvest of American and Christian liberty."[48]