Elisha Benjamin Andrews

“ Can our foreign
population be growing more rapidly than our power to assimilate it? Is
this element as dangerous to our civilization as we think? Has
criminality increased as a result of increased immigration? Has this
element increased labor agitations during the past decade? Some contend
that we are rapidly approaching the limit of our power of assimilation
and that we are in constant danger of losing the traits which we call
American. The immigrants from southern Europe are in too many cases
deficient in education. ”

“ My happiness is not dependent on holding any office, and I
shall go back to private life with no heartburnings if the people,
after an unprejudiced review of my administration, conclude that some
one else can serve them to their greater advantage."
One thing is certain: the idea of government by the people has come into
our national politics to stay. It now controls one-third of the votes in
the Senate and has affected the laws of two-thirds of the States. The
end sought is good government responsible to popular rule. ”

“ Papers in the United States argued for a revolution in Panama. The
isthmus, it was urged, was in time nearer to Washington than to Bogota.
All Panama interests centred in the canal. Should Nicaragua get the
canal, Colon and Panama would be deserted. Both places owed their peace
to the presence of our navy. On the principle that treaties concerning
territory run with the territory, ignoring changes of sovereignty, our
time-honored obligation to keep peace on the isthmus, bound us, if
Panama set up for herself, to protect her even against Colombia. England
would concur. ”

“ Unusual honors were tendered the men by the Brazilian
government and people. The day of their arrival was made a national
festival. In reply to the friendly greeting from the Brazilian
government President Roosevelt wrote: "The war-ships on this cruise
exist for no other purpose than to protect peace against possible
aggression. As between the United States and Brazil these ships are not
men-of-war, but messengers of friendship and good-will." ”

“ By
1893 affairs had become so confused that Congress decided to take steps
toward the ultimate admission of the territory into the Union as a
State. A committee of the Senate reported that the system of government
exercised by the Indians cannot be continued, that it is not only
non-American but it is radically wrong, and a change is imperatively
demanded in the interest of the Indians and the whites alike, and such
change cannot be much longer delayed, and that there can be no
modification of the system. It cannot be reformed; it must be abandoned
and a better one substituted. ”

“ Investigation showed, however, that twenty per
cent of the articles of food in common use were adulterated. This led to
the passing of a far-reaching measure by Congress, 1906, known as the
Pure Food and Drugs law. It provides against the manufacture and sale of
adulterated or misbranded foods, drugs, medicines, or liquors in the
District of Columbia, the Territories, and the insular possessions of
the United States, and prohibits the shipment of such goods from one
State to another or to a foreign country. To the Department of
Agriculture was given the power to enforce the law. ”

“ ARTICLE VII.--In suits at common law, where the value in controversy
shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be
preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in
any court of the United States, than according to the rules of the
common law.
ARTICLE VIII.--Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive
fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
ARTICLE IX.--The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights,
shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the
people. ”

“ Throughout Japan Americans are well treated and any failure on the part
of Americans at home to treat the Japanese with a like courtesy and
consideration is by just so much a confession of inferiority in our
civilization . . . . I ask fair treatment for the Japanese as I would
ask fair treatment for Germans or Englishmen, Frenchmen, Russians, or
Italians .... In the matter now before me, affecting the Japanese,
everything that is in my power to do will be done, and all of the
forces, military and civil, of the United States which I may lawfully
employ will be so employed. ”

“ Few people took matters seriously and the
campaign was aptly characterized as the "Era of No Feeling."
The vote cast for presidential electors was primarily an expression of
popular confidence in the Roosevelt administration. For nearly half a
century the situation in the nation had been becoming more and more a
source of anxiety to the thinking men of the land. Our economic
development had taken place so rapidly that the great aggregations of
capital and the great corporations had gotten beyond control and had
shown dangerous tendencies toward lawlessness and political corruption. ”

“ The increase of population and capital is necessary to the
industrial growth of the South, and in spite of the recent influx the
scarcity of laborers remains a serious problem, the solution of which is
absolutely necessary for the development of the manufacturing industries
as well as agriculture. Immigrants of good standing are constantly
sought by the States, and to cope with the problem some individuals have
been guilty of operating a system of peonage. Lack of efficiency in the
laborers makes the problem still more perplexing. ”

“ It has been truthfully said that the fundamental problem in this
question of immigration is most frequently overlooked. Back of the
statistics of illiteracy, pauperism, criminality, and the economic value
of immigrants lies another one of great proportions. What has been the
effect upon our native stock? What has been the expense, to our native
stock, of this increase of population and wealth through immigration?
The decreasing birth rate of our native population some contend is due
to the industrial competition caused by the foreign element. ”

“ Political
corruption did not come with the immigrants: it was known in all its
forms years ago. This much can be said, however: the worst class of
foreign-born citizens has ever proved to be a support of corrupt
political bosses. Our city governments have been notoriously corrupt and
the cities harbor the great masses of foreigners. The high cost of
living in the cities and the relatively low wages force the aliens into
poor and crowded quarters which tend to weaken them physically and
degrade them morally and socially. ”

“ Conditions are
aggravated by an unequal division of taxes between the north and the
south. Often the only alternative to starvation is emigration. During
the past decade 2,000,000 Italians have come to us and, according to
estimates, about two-thirds of them have settled in the cities of the
Northern States, a condition detrimental to the foreign and our social
organization alike. These Italians, peasants and experts in fruit
culture by training, become day laborers, thus losing their greatest
productive power. The Italian who keeps away from the city finds his lot
more agreeable. ”

“ Republicans seem willing to support these principles. In almost every
State the movement for the direct primaries has met studied opposition.
The "practical politician" or the professional politician seems to hate
to see the old convention system of nominations go. There are many who
object to the election of senators by direct vote, claiming that the
people are not capable of choosing wisely in such cases. The direct
election of delegates to the national conventions is no more than the
prerogative now exercised by the voter when he casts his vote for the
presidential electors. ”

“ In the case of the American Tobacco Company, there were more than one
hundred formerly competing companies united under the control of a
single organization and the market in nearly all tobacco products was
monopolized. This domination was secured "by methods devised in order to
monopolize the trade by driving competitors out of business."
In each case the court found the defendants guilty on the grounds that
the agreements and the conduct of the defendants indicated a purpose to
destroy competitors and monopolize trade in certain articles. ”

“ The number of Europeans who return to their native lands after living a
time in the United States is comparatively small and the loss is not
great. The emigration of our farmers to Canada is a more serious thing.
Since 1897 the Dominion Government has fostered high-class immigration.
Canadian agencies have been established in many of our Western cities
with the avowed object of attracting farmers to the Provinces. The
Canadian Pacific Railway Company has taken up the pioneering business. ”

“ The question of Oriental immigration has caused much comment in our
Pacific Coast States for several years. Before 1900 the total number of
Japanese coming to America seldom reached 1,500 a year. Since that time
about 12,000 have come each year, except in 1903 when 20,000 came and
1907 when the number reached 30,000. Seventy per cent of this number,
however, went to Hawaii. Over-population and economic depression in
their native land have caused this exodus. Most of these immigrants are
laborers--skilful, energetic and efficient--who apparently desire to
become citizens. ”

“ The rapid growth of our industrial and manufacturing interests during
the past quarter of a century is shown by the fact that 22 per cent of
the people of the country are massed in cities of 100,000 inhabitants
and over. In the three largest cities alone--New York, Chicago, and
Philadelphia--there are almost one-tenth the population of the whole
country. ”

“ In the vote for delegates to the conventions the
voter is accorded the right to express his preference for men to be
candidates. The corrupt practices plank deserves commendation. It cannot
be made too strong, for every attempt to do away with the irregular,
vicious methods used is a step toward good government.
The plank which arouses the greatest opposition is that which
incorporates the initiative, referendum, and recall. ”

“ The United States, having become a world power after the war with Spain,
assumed leadership in the adjustment of Chinese problems. At the close
of the century American manufacturers had built up in China a market for
their cotton goods which they desired to extend. At the same time strife
arose among some of the European nations for trade advantages in that
empire. Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Italy were demanding
for their citizens concessions, leases, franchises, and special trade
privileges in various parts of that country. ”

“ The organizers of the Northern Securities Company contended that their
ultimate purpose in organizing the company was to control the two
railway systems not for the purpose of suppressing competition, but to
create and develop a volume of trade among the States of the Northwest
and between the Orient and the United States by establishing and
maintaining a permanent schedule of cheap transportation rates. ”