3. Full publicity relating to the capital and operations of the Trusts.

The reduction of the tariff is the only method which would largely protect the community from the practice of such abuses as have occurred and from the possibility of worse. But the President has so far shrunk from laying sacrilegious hands upon McKinleyism, which has been the Ark of the Covenant for the Republican party.1

Yet, Mr. Havemeyer, the "Sugar King," has called the tariff "the mother of Trusts," and has admitted, if the duties were remitted in the case of any articles the production and distribution of which were known to be in the hands of a monopoly, the abuses we now hear so much of would be very greatly curtailed, if not for a time absolutely abolished.

In 1901 Mr. Babcock, a Republican Congressman, gave notice of a motion for placing steel on the free list. He and his friends had no difficulty in proving that when a "struggling industry" is at last capable of

1 Mr. Roosevelt has since denounced the proposition to remedy the Trust evils by changes in the tariff. He declared that the real evils connected with the Trusts could not be remedied by any change in the tariff laws. He pointed out that the products of many Trusts were unprotected, and would be entirely unaffected or at the most only slightly affected by the change. In this connection the President especially mentioned the Standard Oil Corporation and the corporations controlling the anthracite output. Some corporations, he said, did well, others did ill. The Trusts could be injured by depriving them of the benefits of a protective tariff, but only at the cost of damaging all their small competitors and all paid workers concerned.

The necessary supervision and control in which President Roosevelt firmly believed as the only method of eliminating the real evils of Trusts would have to come through wisely and cautiously framed legislation. He was confident that in this instance there were the best reasons for the amendment of the Constitution, but at the same time he believed that without this amendment a good deal could be done by the existing law. All power should be used with wisdom and self-restraint, and all men, rich and poor, should obey the laws alike, and receive their protection alike.

capitalizing itself at eleven hundred millions of dollars, it may be reasonably left by a paternal Government to take care of itself.

The tariff laws, then, are the bulwark of the oppressive Trusts, and, in the language of the Democratic exAttorney-General, "tariff reform must be coincident with Anti-Trust legislation.

Now let us take the second point. Many think the only real solution of the Trust question is Government control of the railways, because the fact is, the railway system of America has passed into the control of a few persons, and these persons must inevitably be brought into relationship with the heads of the Trusts, and so establish discrimination.

The Trust would still be comparatively harmless, so far as its ramifications over a wide extent of territory are concerned, were it not for the aid and abetment of the railways. The Interstate Commerce Commission in its last report declares—

"There is probably no one thing to-day which does so much to force out the small operator and to build up those Trusts and monopolies against which law and public opinion alike beat in vain as discrimination in freight rates. This problem is so

serious that it will soon attract an attention that has hitherto never been given it."

By reason of their control of enormous traffic, the Trusts are able to dictate to the railways the terms upon which they will purchase transportation.

The railroad and the Trusts between them employ one-fourth of the non-agricultural labour of America. The political danger of this is patent, especially when it is borne in mind that only a fraction of these workers are members of a trade union.

CHAPTER XII

THE NEW IMMIGRATION

AMERICA has always been crying out for people. Her appeal has met with a hearty response, and the Old World has poured out its teeming thousands of souls to fill up the waste places of the Republic and contribute an unwonted squalor to its cities.

But the hospitality of America has been grossly abused; the demand lately has become general for the restriction of immigration. The recent exploits of the anarchists have accelerated the movement. "We shall soon find," exclaims the Commissioner of Immigration at New York, "that this country is the harbouringplace for the malcontents, criminals, and illiterates of the world." 1

1 The Shattuck Bill, which will receive the attention of the Senate this year, aims at correcting some of the evils connected with immigration. Amongst its provisions is one dealing with the immigration of illiterates. All immigrants over fifteen years of age must be able to read the American language or some other. For testing purposes the inspection officers are to be furnished with copies of the Constitution of the United States, printed on uniform pasteboard slips, each containing not less than twenty, and not more than twenty-five words of the said Constitution, printed in the various languages of the immigrants in double small pica type. Each immigrant may designate the language in which he prefers the test shall be made, and shall be required to read the words printed on a slip in such language. No two immigrants listed on the same manifest shall be tested with the same slip.”

There is, however, another reason for the demand for restriction.

Formerly the bulk of the men and women knocking at the door, besides British, were Irish, Germans, and Scandinavians. But last year twice as many Croatians and Slavonians entered her portals as English, three times as many as Scotch, as many Slovaks as Irish, three and a half times as many South Italians, and twice as many Hebrews as Germans. Then there were Lithuanians, Magyars, Ruthenians, and other races whom not one American in a hundred had ever heard of before, and who may or may not become good Americans, speaking the American language, and helping the American eagle to scream in another generation. The three principal elements in the total immigration into New York alone of 1900 were: Italian (South), 84,346; Hebrew, 60,764; and Polish, 46,938. Following these came the Irish, 35,607; Scandinavian, 32,952; and German, 29,682.

What a contrast from thirty years ago, when the immigration from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Scandinavian countries was three-quarters of the total! Even in 1895 it was still more than one-half; and in 1898 one-third of the total. Now it is less than an eighth, and is rapidly approaching what one official declares will be a negligeable quantity.

Immigration from North-Western Europe, apart from the Irish and Scandinavian who arrive to enter domestic service, may be said to have well-nigh ceased.

Italy sends at present by far the largest number of immigrants. The returns issued in July for 1902 show that 493,840 immigrants landed in New York for the

previous twelvemonth-an increase of 104,940 over the figures for the preceding year. About half of these were Italians, while Hungarians, Russians, and Poles made up a majority of the remainder.

1

All this deluge of Latin and Slav humanity means that the West will suffer. This incoming stock does not care for farming, but elects to remain in the eastern cities and mining regions, and to help to swell the already congested labour market.

In 1895, among the States which declared to an investigating committee of the Treasury that they desired no further immigration of any kind were Illinois, Iowa, Mississippi, Minnesota, Nebraska, and California. In 1902, out of forty-eight States in the Union, only four desire any immigration.

America would thus now be glad to shut her doors to the poor-and-oppressed of Europe and Asia; to the well-to-do and oppressed alone she extends a polite welcome.

There is yet another reason for alien exclusion. America has so long fostered immigration to her shores that she does well to inquire whether it would not be well for her own interest that the steady stream should be checked. The normal increase of her population

1 "America," declared Mr. Hay, in his note to the Powers concerning the Roumanian Jews, "welcomes now as always the voluntary immigration of all aliens fitted to become merged in the body politic. Its laws provide for their incorporation indistinguishably in the mass of citizens, with absolute equality with the native born. Equal civil rights at home and equal protection abroad are guaranteed them. Almost none are excluded except paupers, criminals, and the contagiously or incurably diseased. The voluntary character of the immigration is essential. Hence assisted or constrained immigration is shut out. The purpose of this generous treatment of the alien immigrant is to benefit him and the country alike, not to afford another State a refuge for its undesirable elements."