Robert DeCourcy Ward

“ It is obvious that if immigrants who have just landed can be persuaded, or forced, to go at once into the country districts at their own expense, or at the expense of some railroad or capitalist desiring 'cheap' labor, philanthropic persons would be saved the immediate cost of the transportation. It must be remembered, however, that wholesale distribution by railroads or capitalists is not likely to be controlled by a desire to do what is best for the immigrants, nor for the people among whom they are scattered, but rather by purely selfish interests. ”

“ Agricultural Distribution of Immigrants will not solve the Immigration Problem.—But few of those who are now urging the necessity of relieving the city slum burden by distributing the slum population realize that such distribution will not, and can not, of itself, lead to any relief, as long as the tide of new immigration flows on unchecked. ”

“ If any one can read Captain Lewis's weather record for the northern Pacific coast without gaining from it a vivid idea of the cloudiness, the heavy rainfall, the high winds, the small amount of sunshine and withal the mildness of the winter of the particular district which the expedition encamped, he must be a hopelessly unappreciative and unintelligent person. ”

“ To relieve the pressure in the cities without restricting the number admitted only opens the way for a still larger immigration; for, strangely enough, emigration has not relieved the pressure of population in Europe. In no period of their history, with the exception of Ireland, have the populations of Europe increased at a greater rate than during the last half century of migration to America. As a relief for current immigration, agricultural distribution is not promising. ”

“ The sober thought regarding the dangers of immigration is that of apprehension that an ever-increasing mass of our alien population which keeps its identity is a great evil in our democracy. These alien colonies have for years been found in our city slums; the present movement is evidently going to plant them all over the country, in the farming districts. The thought of danger in alien colonies is, after all, not as new as many writers would have us believe. ”

“ With an immigration as unrestrained as at present, we can have little hope of permanent gain in the struggle for uplifting the poor of our cities, since newcomers are always at hand, ignorant of American standards. ”

“ The relief which a distribution of the inhabitants of our city slums seems sure to bring to the charity workers and the philanthropists of our large northern cities, and the fact that such distribution is also being systematically, though not openly, advocated by powerful transportation and capitalistic interests, have caused this new idea to be welcomed with great enthusiasm, the selfish and unselfish interests working along the same lines, as is seldom the case in immigration matters. ”

“ The winter time which was spent by the Lewis and Clark Expedition on the Pacific coast, at the mouth of the Columbia River, gave Captain Lewis abundant opportunity to observe the meteorological and climatic peculiarities of that region, and to contrast them with those with which he had become familiar in the east. "The loss of my thermometer I most sincerely regret," he wrote on January 3, 1806. "I am confident that the climate here is much warmer than in the same parallel of latitude on the Atlantic Ocean, though how many degrees it is now out of my power to determine." ”

“ There is a misleading idea in certain quarters that 'the agricultural distribution of Italian immigrants' should be obtained simply through the employment of a large number of Italians as farm workers and farm hands. This would be only a palliative measure. The character of agricultural work is, by its very nature, precarious. The Italian immigrants would thus find employment during a few months of the year, when, for instance, at harvest time, there is an enormous demand for labor. ”

“ Such a rate makes it possible for the most ignorant and the most depraved inhabitants of Europe's slums to come here. Would a railroad fare of say $5 from Chicago to southern California induce the best or the least desirable of Chicago's residents to take advantage of the opportunity to go west? Long residence of successive generations in the Ghettoes of Europe has unfitted most of the Jews to be independent farmers; the Syrians and Armenians take naturally to non-agricultural occupations, and so it is with others. ”

“ The majority of the thinking people of the south, if they know something about the evils which have come in the train of the newer alien immigration in the north, will not look with favor upon the wholesale importation of cheap and ignorant alien, labor. Several of the southern states have emphatically stated what nationalities of immigrants they want, and their preferences are for people from the northern United States and for northern Europeans. ”

“ The southerly winds are so often referred to that we have little hesitation in concluding that this is the prevailing direction in summer on the Great Plains, and we see at once, in our mind's eye, that great sweep of southerly and southeasterly winds, across the region west of the Mississippi River—the continental inflow of summer, in response to the pressure-gradient between the Gulf of Mexico and the interior of the continent. ”

“ The powerful influences of railroad and steamship companies, and of large employers who want 'cheap' labor, have been able to turn the scale against what the majority of Americans without question believe to be the best for the country. ”

“ It is a fact, so obvious as to need no argument in support of it, that the more we try to reduce the pressure of competition among the alien immigrants in our congested city slums, the more we shall encourage other aliens, as ignorant and as poor, to come over and take the places thus vacated. ”

“ In every case, in this recent canvass, the officials protested against the shipment of southern and eastern Europeans from the city slums into their states. In the south to-day, owing to the lessened efficiency of the negro, the greater demand for field laborers, and the movement from the country into the towns, the need of pickers in the cotton fields is very great in some sections, and the demand for vast hordes of any kind of laborers—even the most ignorant of newly-arrived aliens—is referred to in the newspapers. ”

“ A different seasonal distribution of precipitation would banish agriculture from thousands of acres of land which are to-day giving our farmers good crop returns. The fact did not escape the watchful eye of Captain Lewis that the rainfall of the warmer months over the region which he crossed is essentially spasmodic and "patchy" in character, i. e., is of the shower or thunderstorm type, as contrasted with the more general and widespread rains and clouds of the large storms which characterize the winter months over the country as a whole. ”

“ Effects upon the Sections in which the Distribution takes Place not always good.—To scatter among our rural communities large numbers of aliens whose standards of living are such that they are willing to work for the lowest possible wage, is to expose our native farming population to a competition which is distinctly undesirable. In the corn belt of the west, as Professor T. N. Carver has recently shown, the newer immigrants, because of their lower standards of living, have been able to put more money into land, buildings and equipment than the native American farmer ”

“ Let me suggest, further, that a very simple study of the value, as prognostics, of many weather proverbs will prove an interesting occupation. Weather proverbs are good, and bad, and indifferent. Most of them are bad, that is, do not work at all. A large number are indifferent, that is, work both ways. Comparatively few are really good. It is well worth while to select a few of the best known proverbs and keep careful written record of the times that each one "hits," and also of the times that each one "misses." ”

“ Similar societies are at work in Chicago, Philadelphia and Boston, and the Italian societies are doing the same sort of work. Although in most cases the individuals thus removed have fared better in their new homes than in the slums, yet taken as a whole, the success 'thus far attained is not so encouraging as to lead thoughtful persons to be sanguine about the entire practicability of carrying out a successful scheme of wholesale distribution along similar lines. ”

“ Distribution and a reduction in the numbers of our immigrants: both of these remedies are needed. Private charitable agencies are not likely to have money enough to carry out any scheme of distribution on a large scale; that will be attended to by the capitalistic interests which want the cheapest labor obtainable. Charitable societies and individuals should do their best to see that this distribution is intelligently directed, and that the alien colonies which are being formed in our farming districts do not become a menace. ”

“ There are many observations which an intelligent traveler can make, even from a car-window, although a slower method of progression is, of course, to be preferred in such a study. "Wind velocity may be reasonably accurately estimated, after a little practise, by noting the effect of the wind in blowing trees, or in producing waves of different sizes in lakes or on rivers. The prevailing wind direction can often be very accurately determined by observing the slant of wind-blown trees, or again, by taking note of the effects of wave action on the leeward side of a lake or pond. ”

“ It is because the writer realizes that distribution is a remedy for existing evils which may well be added to the more fundamental one of a further restriction of immigration, and because he realizes that many persons have advocated the distribution idea without giving it careful thought, that the writer desires to call attention to a few points which need discussion before we go any farther in the matter. ”

“ Within the past quarter-century these same winds have been harnessed for the service of man, and they are to-day driving hundreds of windmills on the Great Plains for pumping water for stock and for irrigation, for sawing wood and for grinding corn and wheat. ”

“ To exclude this surplus of undesirable aliens, and to distribute the others over our farming districts where they can find suitable work and where they are wanted, is one of the most important problems before the people of this country. ”

“ Travelers, even when passing rapidly through a country on the railroad, and, still better, when moving more slowly on horseback or on foot, usually have opportunities for making simple non-instrumental observations which will add greatly to the interest of their journey, and which, if the region is comparatively little known, may really be of considerable importance. ”

“ But does the scheme sound altogether as attractive to those southerners who have the best interests of their own country at heart, and who fully appreciate how grave are the social and political responsibilities which already weigh upon their fair land? ”

“ It needs but little thought to convince any one that were it not for the continued influx of hundreds of thousands of ignorant and poverty-stricken aliens each year, there would, in few years, remain no such serious problem of Jewish charity, or of Italian charity, or of any other charity in our country as at present. ”

“ On some railroads, also, they are reported as being satisfactory laborers. On the other hand, it must be noted that the most successful settlements have been those of northern Italians; that the greater desirability of the northern Italian is generally recognized wherever experience has been had with both northern and southern Italians, and that thus far the number of Italians in the south has been small and practically none of the less happy consequences of the congestion of separate nationalities have been noted. ”

“ Vegetation always furnishes a general criterion in regard to temperature and rainfall. When trees shed their leaves we infer a season of cold or it may be of drought. The occurrence of frost may be detected both by seeing it, and by noting its effects. The altitude reached by frost may likewise be observed. The direction of rainy or snowy winds may be discovered by observing on which side trees are wet. Whether or not hail, or snow, or sleet, or frozen rain, or gales, or heavy rains, or fog, occur in a region is observable, so far as the period of his visit is concerned, by any traveler. ”

“ And in a recent study of the Chicago Stock Yards strike, in which the miserable conditions are described under which the newer immigrants employed in the yards live, we learn that "from the poorest parts of Bohemia, Poland, Lithuania, and Slavonia, these immigrants have poured in great overlapping waves into the stock yards. ”

“ The Italian laborers who are now being imported will not have very much to do until the cotton-picking season opens, and the immigrants will be maintained by the planters in comparative idleness until picking begins. 4. Do the Country Districts want the Kind of Immigrants whom it is proposed to send to them?—No distribution of our immigrants should be thought of if the states to which they are to be sent do not welcome them. ”

“ It is not enough simply to pay the fares of hundreds of thousands of persons from the cities to distant points in the west or south, but provision should be made for the new arrivals when they reach their destination, and they usually need care and oversight for a good many years. ”