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Show A DUTY ON FOREIGNERS. Does Every "Foreigner That Lands Here Throw an American Out of a Job? Mr. John Thompson writes to the American and Journal and demands a duty on foreigners. He says: "Every foreigner that lands here throws an American out of a job," and 'he thinks every foreigner, should be taxed. We wish to state that the American Ameri-can who is thrown out of a job by a green immigrant must have a pretty feeble hold on his job. The foreigner landing here does not deprive the locomotive engineer of a job: he does not deprive the carpenter carpen-ter or the typesetter or the brickla of his job; the union, and the quality of the American mechanic, prevent that calamity. The foreigner who puts an American Ameri-can out f a job puts out of a Job a man who does not amount to much. And if the . foreigner can do better, it is no great calamity to have him come and do it. We ha.ve 80,000)000 of human beings in this country now. When we fought the English and beat them, and established estab-lished the republic, there were fewer than 4,000,000 of us and at that time certain high-spirited Americans, of the kind that lose their jobs easily, wanted foreigners kept out. But the foreigners came in and possibly pos-sibly John Thompson's progenitor was among them and the nation got bigger big-ger and stronger every year. When we had 20,000,000 of Americans the demand that foreigners be kept out was very loud and strong. Still they came in, building up the country. And the nation, fed on the vigorous manhood of Europe, grew constantly In strength. Sweden and Norway built up one section of our country. Germany built up other sections of the country. Ireland Ire-land helped to build up all sections of the country, and incidentally did some pretty hard fighting to keep the coun- I try together when the civil war broke out, supplying us with a few soldiers of the General Sheridan type. It is good to get from Ireland a fighter of the Phil Sheridan type, even though that fighter may deprive some lantern- jawed American of a job that he was not fit to hold. Now there are 80,000.000 of us, and the cry still goes up that foreigners must be kept out. We have hundreds of millions of acres of land,, uncultivated. We shall not begin to realize our national possibilities pos-sibilities until we have 500,000,000 people peo-ple developing this country as . it should be developed. We shall go on until we get the 500,-000,000, 500,-000,000, and then we shall go on further fur-ther until we get 1,000.000,000. All this time the voice of John Thompson will be heard demanding that foreigners be shut out. But his voice will not be heeded. I If John Thompson had had his way) a little while ago we should never have had John P. Altgeld in the United States. Yet John P. Altgeld was worth at a low estimate 1,000,000 Thompsons, 1,000,000 men of the class of those who lose their jobs to a green immigrant. Altgeld taught the American people, especially the west, to think on truly Democratic lines. . If John Thompson had had his way. Nicola Tesl?. would not have come to this country. Tesla added to the power of the United States the power of 1,000,000 horses. For Tesla's electrical devices made it possible to harness the falls of Niagara. It is better to have Tesia here, to have Niagara harnessed and working j for the United States, than to have j I Niagara running to waste and some j imaginary Americans holding an im-I im-I aginary job that Tesla might have taken awav. ' . The whole wealth of this country consists in strong, willing working-men working-men and women working with mus- cles or brains, or both, j There is no stupider nonsense than tne statement that Europe sends us the dregs of her population. The Bavarian Ba-varian peasant, who has the courage to take his wife and his children from the spot where they and their ancestors ances-tors have lived for ages and remove them across the ocean to this country is a brave man and a good citizen. The Irish boy whose hatred of English Eng-lish rule tells him to leave his home and come over here to work hard is i a brave man and a good , citizen, despite de-spite the fleeting opinions ft Te comic press and the John Thompsons. We get from Europe her best men and best women. The scum stays in Europe. Ask the American tourist who I has gone up Mount Vesuvius. i - He has seen in one day more armless, arm-less, eyeless, toothless, scurvy-stricken beggars, more wretched creatures than ever came to Castle Garden since immigrants, im-migrants, began landing in America. Let us -thank the immigrants,- to whom we owe our prosperity. New York Journal. |