There is a disturbing element in the influx of a foreign population reared under very unfavorable social conditions. In 1882 the immigration was 800,000. On a single day, in May last, nearly ten thousand arrived in Castle Garden. The steamships are overburdened, and the Cunard and White Star lines employ extra ships to accommodate the emigrants. Oppression in Ireland, and oppression all over Europe, drives the people into emigration; but a large portion of the emigration consists of a substantial population; yet we have enough of the turbulent and debased element to make a serious danger in our large cities, and a formidable competition with native American labor. The more laborers, and the fewer employers, the worse it is for labor. But perhaps American wealth and enterprise will find something satisfactory for all to do.
DEFECTIVE EDUCATION.
But there is nothing more unsatisfactory to the philanthropist than our meagre and inadequate system of education,—a system which aims to cram the memory with acquired knowledge, which does not develop original thought, and which does not elevate the moral nature. Such a system will never elevate society, will never repress any vice or crime, will never make the educated generation any happier for being educated. In short, it utterly fails in that which should be its chief end and aim, and simply leads society on as heretofore in the path of increasing intelligence, increasing misery, increasing crime, increasing insanity. What a commentary on our education and civilization is the common estimate that Europe, now, with the most complete educational system ever known, has 50,000 suicides a year. In this, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin take the lead.
(To be continued.)
Miscellaneous Intelligence.
Photography Perfected.—In 1838 I conceived it possible, by chemical means, to fix in permanency, on a suitable ground, the images of objects formed by the camera. While speculating on this, the discovery of Daguerre was announced, but I was disappointed, as he had not photographed colors as well as forms. I felt sure that it was possible, and a half century has realized it. Mr. J. J. E. Myall, a London photographer of great scientific skill, has succeeded in photographing the colors as well as forms of objects and fixing a permanent picture. More recent advices throw some doubt on this.
The Cannon King.—Alfred Krupp, the greatest cannon-maker of the world, died at his works, Essen, Prussia, on the 14th of July, seventy-five years old. His works covered nearly a square mile, while his fortune was about $40,000,000. He employed 10,000 men at Essen, and over 7,000 at other places. He owned nearly 600 iron and coal mines, 6 smelting works, 14 blast furnaces, 5 steamers, and 140 steam-engines. He was a plain, industrious man, shunned all ostentation, refused titles, and took good care of his workmen. Yet was his business an honorable one? If the man who supplies alcoholic beverages to drunkards is condemned by the general sentiment of the temperate community, what should we think of one who supplies slung-shot, poison, and daggers to assassins? But how little harm is there in such implements compared to the slaughtering work of the terrible cannon of Krupp, which are to be used only for wholesale homicide. Such questions must be considered by moralists. The Boston Herald in a sudden and unexpected flash of ethical sentiment, says, “Herr Krupp sold his guns to different governments for the purpose of enabling them to fight each other. There is no code in modern ethics that would condemn an action of this kind, and yet it seems to us that the time may come when a man who made his fortune by supplying men with arms for the purpose of killing each other will be looked upon as one engaged in a highly immoral enterprise.” Is it not a terrible indictment of the so-called Christian church to say, “There is no code in modern ethics that would condemn” war and its accessories?
Land Monopoly.—The United States government has squandered its rich domain with signal folly, but Mexico has been far more reckless. It has recently given away 60,000,000 of acres in Durango, Chihuahua, and other regions to an American company represented by Henry B. Clifford. It is not stated that any very valuable consideration has been given for this grant.
The Grand Canals.—Lesseps’ Panama Canal has no bright prospect. The enterprise has been badly managed, has cost a great sacrifice of life, and over $200,000,000. It is employing from 12,000 to 14,000 men, but its finances are nearly exhausted, and an American engineer says it would take ten years for the present company to finish it, if they could raise the money. The Nicaragua Canal, if started now by Americans, would be finished first, and that would kill it entirely. Meantime Captain Ead’s Ship Railway at Tehuantepec is likely to make canals unnecessary, for since his death his associate, Col. James Andrews, has undertaken to finish it, and $1,500,000 more has been raised at Pittsburg. This will carry the ships over the Isthmus by the railroad method. The German government has just begun a grand canal at Kiel, to connect the North Sea with the Baltic, large enough to allow ships to pass, drawing twenty-seven feet. Greece is slowly at work on a canal at the Isthmus of Corinth, and Massachusetts on a canal to cut off Cape Cod. Russia has determined to build a grand railroad to the Pacific Ocean across Asia, through Siberia, beginning next spring and finishing in five years. When finished, Russians could travel from St. Petersburg to the Pacific in fifteen days.