Twenty years ago it was a common calculation in the United States that every new immigrant was worth a thousand dollars to the particular State in which he settled. A farm might be had for practically nothing by anybody who chose to apply for it. In those comparatively early days, what are now flourishing States west of the Mississippi, were then, in parts, wild unpeopled wildernesses, and the country could not afford to be very discriminative as to either the character or the means of particular immigrants. Thus for many years America was the camping-ground of the social refuse of Europe. Irish paupers driven forth by famine and political misrule went West in tens of thousands, to become, many of them, prosperous farmers and worthy citizens of their adopted country. But there came also, in almost countless hordes, immigrants of a far less desirable, and, as the sequel has proved, dangerous kind: Fenians and apostles of dynamite from Ireland; secret societies from Italy, whose gospel was murder and brigandage; Nihilists from Russia, and Socialists from Germany, driven forth almost at the point of the bayonet by their own Governments; Russian and Polish Jews, fleeing in terror before the fanatical persecution of the Czar. All this heterogeneous mass of inflammable human material has at length become a standing menace to the United States, endangering her friendly relations with foreign countries, as well as the freedom her own people enjoy under their present form of government. Of course there were compensating advantages, but the evil of unrestricted immigration has of late years reached such an extent that the old sturdy race, the descendants of the English Puritans, who made the great Republic of the West, have been in danger of being gradually swallowed up by foreign-born populations.

In a certain sense it may be said that the history of immigration into the United States has been synonymous with the history of the nation itself; but it is evident to all unprejudiced minds, that the motives which induced those early immigrants, the Pilgrim Fathers, to leave their native land and settle in the New World, were very different from the motives which actuate the greater numbers of those who are pouring into the United States at the present day. In fact, the time from the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers down to the year which witnessed the inauguration of the first President of the United States, may not unfitly be regarded not as the period of immigration, but of colonization. Since then the rapid growth of the population—though of course largely due to natural causes—has been greatly accelerated by immigration.

Immigration into the United States appears to come in tidal waves. It has its flood and its ebb; but each decade, with the exception of the war period, shows that the new flood is higher than its predecessor. The magnitude of this influx of alien immigrants is best shown by the Annual Reports which have been issued by the late Board of Commissioners of Emigration of the State of New York. Without troubling my readers with unnecessary statistics, I may say briefly from calculations which have been made, the total number of immigrant aliens who arrived at the port of New York from the 5th May, 1847, until the 31st December, 1890 inclusive, was 10,050,936. It should be noted that at least two-thirds of the whole number of alien immigrants who come to the United States from other countries, arrive at the port of New York.

This large influx has arisen from a variety of causes. One of the most potent undoubtedly has been steamship solicitation. A regular "brokerage" business has gradually been established. Some of the steamship companies have as many as two thousand agents in Europe, and their sub-agents and solicitors are to be found in every district on the Continent. These sub-agents receive liberal commissions, varying from fifty cents to two dollars for each immigrant passenger obtained. This naturally leads, not only to their selling the tickets which are required, but also to their endeavouring to create a fresh demand by solicitation and inducement. These agents picture in the most glowing terms to the poor peasants of Europe the future which awaits them in the New World. On the strength of the false representations made to them, the peasants are often induced to sell out their little homes, and to spend a life's savings in the purchase of a through passage to America. Oftentimes they will even borrow money for the passage at a ruinous rate, and the agents will advance the tickets, taking a mortgage of whatever property is of value for payment. In some cases the money is refunded, but in most cases the agent becomes the owner of the property by foreclosure; and the poor peasants in a few months find themselves and their families in a strange land, without money, friends, or employment. Upon arrival, they are taken in charge by a "labour boss," who herds them together in a tenement house, and hires them out at wages he dictates, and which he shares with his victims. Abundant evidence was given before the Select Committee of the House of Representatives, recently appointed to inquire into immigration, as to the truth of these statements. For instance, it appeared that one combination in Galicia induced 12,406 emigrants to emigrate to the United States within the period of fourteen months.

Another and more indirect cause is the fierce competition which rages among the steamship lines and the different railroads. In 1888 a war of rates broke out among them, so that in that year an emigrant could travel from Liverpool to Chicago for ten dollars, or about two guineas in English money. This low rate offered exceptional facilities to foreign governments, poor-law guardians, and charitable institutions, to rid themselves of the burden of persons unable to support themselves and their families, by simply purchasing for them tickets, and shipping them off to America. The chief offender in this respect appears to have been the British Government; and the Poor Law Guardians in Ireland, who by the Land Act of 1881 were advanced money to assist emigration, especially from the poorer and more thickly populated districts of Ireland. Various charitable societies in Europe and the United Kingdom were no less active. The so-called "Tuke Committee" assisted over 8000 persons to emigrate from Ireland in three years, 1882-85. The Prisoners' Aid Society also assisted convicts to emigrate, while the Central Emigration Society and the Jewish Board of Guardians established in London, have both been active in sending their paupers, and the least desirable portion of the population, to America. Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, and Germany also help to swell this alien invasion—Germany more especially with regard to that most undesirable class of emigrants, liberated criminals and discharged convicts. There exists, for instance, in Munich, a society with several branches, especially formed for the purpose of enabling discharged convicts to begin life over again in some far-off land, and the land almost invariably selected is the United States.

Another method of evading the Contract Labour Law, and of drawing large numbers of immigrants to the United States, is the systematic advertising for labourers by employment agencies through the British and European newspapers. From evidence which came before the Select Committee investigating at Boston, it appeared that the Freestone Cutters' Association of New England had advertised in the English and Scotch papers for journeymen, agreeing to pay fifty cents per hour for work. The applicants were directed to call upon the agents signing the advertisement in London. These agents made no contract with the men, and so evaded the letter of the Contract Labour Law; but they came to New England on the representation that employment should be found. As the freestone cutters in England only get tenpence an hour, or about twenty cents in American money, the prospect of largely increased wages naturally induced many of them to go over to America. This is only one instance out of many; and to quote the Immigration Committee's Report, "Where good wages are paid, advertisement abroad has become of common occurrence; the workmen here are thereby brought to terms, or the market becomes overflooded with labourers, and wages are reduced." In connection with this must also be considered the immigration coming into the United States over the Canadian border. During the last six months of 1890, it is estimated that over 50,000 European immigrants landed in Canada, and reached the United States, coming by this circuitous route to avoid inspection. There is also another point to be noted, viz. that large numbers of Canadians come into the United States for work, wages being 40 per cent. higher in the United States than in the Canadian provinces. Several hundreds of these people cross over the border from Windsor to Detroit every morning, and find employment in the stores, seed-houses, and so forth, and return to their homes every evening.

So much for the causes which have led to this wholesale invasion. We will now consider its undesirable results. The effect of immigration upon American labour is especially marked. As was shown by the Report of the Ford investigation of 1888, the pauper and lower classes of Europe have crowded into the American factories to such an extent, that in many of the large industries, notably the cigar trade, tailoring trade, and the shirt manufacturing trade, what was fifteen years ago 90 per cent. American and 10 foreign, is now 90 per cent. foreign and 10 per cent. American. Frequently upon differences arising between employers and employed as to the price of wages, foreigners were imported to take the place of American workmen, and the wages were consequently reduced. In fact, the tendency of foreign immigration is constantly to lower the standard of wages which the American labourer has hitherto enjoyed. The only persons opposed to restricting it are the great manufacturers and contractors, whose interest is obviously to keep the price of labour at its lowest level.

Another danger of indiscriminate immigration is plainly shown in the riots which have taken place in New York and other places during the last twenty-five years. In 1863, in the city of New York, when the famous draft riots took place, no American dared to display the flag of his country without running the risk of having his house burned and destroyed. Recent outbreaks of Nihilists, Anarchists, and Socialists, in the city of Chicago, and the still more recent lynchings at New Orleans, are further illustrations of my meaning. This political danger is deepened by the short period of time in which immigrants may become eligible for citizenship, and thus invested with political power. In several States the immigrant is admitted to citizenship after only one year's residence, and while he is still to a great extent ignorant of the laws, language, and customs. The right of citizenship thus conferred is very liable to be abused. American politicians, like other politicians, are very prone to yield to their prejudices without sufficiently regarding the interests of the people at large. The German vote in many localities controls the action of political leaders on the liquor question. The Irish vote favours, and largely influences, the policy of antagonism to Great Britain.

The social effects of this increasing immigration are also very strongly marked. There is an abnormal representation of the foreign poor in the workhouses and penitentiaries of the United States; and there can be little doubt that the effect of deporting to America the destitute, the worthless, and the criminal, has largely added to the burden there of pauperism, vice, and crime.

How keenly alive American statesmen are to the evils which result from unrestricted immigration, is shown by a perusal of the Acts which have been passed upon the subject. The Acts, other than those regulating the immigration of Chinese labourers, are three in number, viz.:—The Act to regulate immigration approved by Congress in 1882, the Contract Labour Law of 1885, and the recent Act to amend all previous laws, which was approved by Congress on the 3rd of March of this year, and which came into force on the 1st of April last.[29] I do not propose to dwell upon the provisions of those Acts in detail; they are given in full elsewhere;[30] but section 1 of the new Act, which specifies the class of aliens henceforth to be excluded from the United States, deserves to be quoted in full:—"All idiots, insane persons; paupers, or persons likely to become a public charge; persons suffering from a loathsome or a dangerous contagious disease; persons who have been convicted of felony or other infamous crime or misdemeanour involving moral turpitude, polygamists, and also any persons whose ticket or passage is paid for with the money of another, or who is assisted by others to come." The right of asylum to political and religious refugees is maintained intact by the insertion of a special proviso. The working of the Act is very simple. The immigrants are stopped at the port of arrival and inspected, and the steamship companies are compelled to take back at their own expense all those who are refused admission; and heavy penalties of fine and imprisonment are dealt out to those who attempt to break or to evade the law. This course of action, though it may seem to press hardly in individual cases, has been found to have an excellent deterrent effect, for as soon as steamship companies know that they bring over such passengers at their own risk, they refuse to bring them at all, and the evil to a great extent is nipped in the bud.

Now, if such measures of self-defence have become thus early in her history imperative with a young country like America, with a habitable area of more than 3,000,000 square miles, and a population of not more than 65,000,000, what are we to think of an old country like England, with an area of a little over 32,000,000 acres, and a population, according to the census of 1881, of near 25,000,000 souls—and probably of over 30,000,000 now—compelled to spend annually some £7,000,000 on the relief or support of her own three-quarters of a million of paupers—leaving her ports, more especially the port of London, free for the entrance of a huge foreign and degraded population, from every country in Europe, which statistics demonstrate to be largely on the increase?

It is impossible for Englishmen not to feel a certain amount of envy at the energy and firmness which the American Government has displayed in excluding undesirable aliens. If such action be good, where the vast territories of the United States are in question, what must be thought of the laissez-faire policy which allows our little British Islands to be overrun by the class of foreigner which America so rigorously excludes?