In compiling the alien lists in the future, some more definite information should also be forthcoming as to the means, nationality, and destination of the immigrants. The distinction "en route to America" is altogether inadequate for practical purposes. As matters stand, it is the only clue afforded us for judging which of the immigrants are merely birds of passage, or which come to settle here. Of course some of those who are "not stated to be en route to America" return again to the Continent; but against that unknown and altogether hypothetical number, may fairly be set the incomplete nature of the returns, and the practice so generally followed in preparing the alien lists of counting two children as one adult. As most of the immigrants against whom complaint is chiefly made do not come here alone, but with their families—and often large families—this is a point to be noted in considering the actual numerical value of the Board of Trade returns. Therefore, in making a rough estimate, I do not think I shall be far wrong if I consider the number of aliens classed in the Board of Trade returns as "not being en route to America," as practically representing about the number of those who remain here.
As matters stand, it is of course at present impossible to give the exact number; but such an estimate would be approximately correct. Nevertheless, in a letter to the Times in the month of August last, an official of the Board of Trade, writing under the nom de guerre of "Facts," did not hesitate to charge me with "attempted misrepresentation," and "an intention to create prejudice," because I estimated that the number of aliens quoted in the official returns as "not being en route to America," would probably represent about the number of those who come here to settle. The animus displayed in this letter was doubtless engendered by the remembrance of a previous epistolary duel. Opinions may differ as to the importance to be attached to this question of alien immigration; they may differ also as to the value of the Board of Trade returns; but however this may be, to write letters under a feigned name to the papers, deliberately accusing one's opponent of bad faith, is a method of conducting or prolonging a controversy happily rare. Though you may disagree with another man's views, you have no right to accuse him of dishonesty because he happens to differ from you.
After the correspondence in the Times took place, a note was appended to the monthly returns issued by the Board of Trade, to the effect that it was not implied "that the aliens not stated to be en route to America, come to this country for settlement; there being in fact a large emigration of foreigners from this country, while many of the aliens arriving from continental ports return again to the Continent." This clears the ground a little, and so far the correspondence cannot be said to have been altogether barren of results. The announcement that there is a large emigration of foreigners from this country is quite gratuitous, however, since we know that the number of aliens who came here en route to America, in the ten months ending 31st October, 1891, amounted to no less than 88,617. That does not affect the matter under consideration in the slightest. But the statement that "many of the aliens arriving from continental ports return again to the Continent" cannot be allowed to pass so easily. How is this conclusion arrived at? No account of foreigners leaving this country for European ports is taken. Of course many return, but who are they? Principally tourists, business men, and the better class of foreigners, against whom no complaint is made. But the great bulk of these are not included in the official returns at all, for the alien lists received from Dover, Folkestone, and Harwich, the three ports to which that class of foreigner generally comes, "show only deck passengers, and persons who on landing proceed by train as third-class passengers."[10] In making a fair estimate, therefore, the better class of foreigner can hardly be taken into consideration at all. This reduces the number of those included in the official returns "who return again to the Continent" to a minimum. Those against whom complaint is made—the residuum, the worthless, and the unfit—remain with us. They could not return to the Continent even if they wished to do so, for the simple reason that they would not be received back again. The law, for instance, in Hamburg is to the effect that no person without means is to land at that port. Hamburg is the great port from which the destitute aliens take ship to England; and therefore it is apparent that though steamship companies may land upon our shores any number of destitute or semi-destitute passengers they please, they dare not take back these same passengers to Hamburg, even if they should wish to go.
Hence, it may be fairly said that this "immigrant emigration," upon which the Board of Trade appears to lay so much stress, is inconsiderable, and at any rate does not touch the class against which complaint is chiefly made. Against it, is to be set the incomplete nature of the lists actually rendered; the fact that the returns are not received from all the ports of the United Kingdom; the untrustworthiness of such as are received; and the practice in preparing them of counting two children to one adult. If all these considerations be balanced against the unknown number of aliens "who return again to the Continent" or move on elsewhere, it certainly cannot be said, that, in estimating the number of those who are stated to be "not en route to America," as the approximate number of those who remain here, one is guilty of exaggeration. If anything, one under-estimates rather than overstates the case.
The fact of the matter is, that all attempts to bolster up the official returns, so long as they are compiled in the present manner, is foredoomed to failure. They are about as unsatisfactory and as inadequate as they can well be, and the distrust with which they are viewed is widespread. The importance of trustworthy official statistics upon this matter can hardly be overrated. So long as they are wanting, there will always be a tendency to exaggerate the evil on the one hand, and to minimize it on the other. Things are bad enough as they are, and there is nothing to be gained by exaggeration. It is greatly to be hoped that the present Government, which has done much in the way of good and useful reform, will take steps to wipe away this reproach—for it is nothing less than a reproach—that, while we have such admirable statistics as to the imports of merchandise, the returns as to the importation of human beings should remain in their present imperfect state.
[CHAPTER III.]
JEWISH IMMIGRATION.
In this chapter I propose to consider the nature of the immigration. At the outset of this particular aspect of the question, it is necessary to make it clear that one is animated by no sentiments of racial or religious animosity. Nothing could be more undesirable than to treat this question as a sectarian question, or to cast any slur upon the Hebrew faith. Nothing would harm the movement more than to create a Judenhetze in England, the home of religious liberty; and therefore whenever the term "Jew" is used throughout this volume, it is used merely to distinguish between other races and nationalities, and from no desire to arouse the odium theologicum. This disclaimer may seem unnecessary to some, but it is important to emphasize it, because if there is one thing hateful to the people of this country, it is religious intolerance; if there is one thing dear to them, it is that liberality which in matters of this kind recognizes no distinctions of faith or creed. It is perfectly true that a large proportion of these undesirable visitors are Jewish by race and religion. But that has nothing to do with the objection to them; it would be just the same if they were Christians, Mahommedans, Buddhists, or sun-worshippers. The objection to them is simply this, that by coming into certain trades and industries in this country, they subject our own people to a constant and unfair competition, which renders it impossible for them to obtain a decent livelihood, and tends directly to militate against their physical, financial, social, and moral well-being. In this matter there is nothing of race, nothing of religion, except so far as this, that we recognize that our first duty should be towards our own nation, our own flesh and blood. Nor is this objection by any means confined to destitute foreign Jews; it holds equally good with regard to vagrant and vicious Italians, idle Hungarians, degraded Chinese, and all the other undesirable specimens of those nationalities which go to make up the motley horde. Still it is idle to deny, in dealing with this question, that though the immigrants are of all nationalities, by far the greater part of those objected to is composed of Russian, Roumanian, and Polish Jews, drawn from the class which goes to swell the poor-houses and penitentiaries of Eastern Europe.
In the previous chapter I have dwelt upon the numbers of this particular class of alien immigrants. It is not necessary, therefore, to go over the same ground again. It suffices to point out that this increase, which would be undoubtedly serious if it were distributed impartially throughout the United Kingdom, assumes a far more formidable aspect when we consider its distribution in particular localities and particular trades. The invading hordes of destitute Jews appear to flock chiefly to our great centres of population, such as the East End of London, and to the great manufacturing cities of the North—Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and some other Scotch towns. Now it is evident that thickly-populated districts do not require immigration, but emigration. It is evident also that the Jew in England is not pastoral, but gregarious. Experts, whose opinions must be listened to with all deference, tell us that many of the foreign Jews have in them the making of good colonists and admirable agriculturalists. It may be so; but those who come here appear to show a marked distaste for agricultural and all pastoral pursuits. No one in England ever comes across a Jewish farmer, or a Jewish agricultural labourer. These immigrants invariably turn their backs on thinly-populated districts; and wherever our people are most closely huddled together, wherever the struggle for existence is keenest, there will the greatest number of foreign Jews be found, with the inevitable result that the conditions of life become even harder than before. It is very necessary to consider the distribution of this unlimited immigration, if we are to form an adequate idea of the injury it works upon our own people.