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The year 1907 undoubtThe Flow edly will be looked upon of Immigration as a notable one in the annals of American immigration. The most definite and comprehensive law that this country has had on the subject was placed on the statute-books last February. The chief provisions of this law are likely to represent our National policy toward immigration for a much longer period of time than has elapsed since the last previous law was passed. The most vexing foreign question that this country had to face in the course of the year was one regarding Japanese immigration. The new law attempted to solve this problem, but thus far unsuccessfully. A National Commission provided for by the new statute, consisting of nine members, began a thorough investigation of the subject. Its work will be continued for at least another year before it makes a full report, and will include a careful investigation of the effects of immigration on the social and industrial life of this country. An investigation of this character is much needed. In a country in which the settlement of political and social problems depends so much upon a general knowledge of the conditions underlying them, it is important that the public should know the facts. At the present time the only exact information on the subject of immigration within the reach of the people of the United States is contained in the annual reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration and the last census. The former leaves the immigrant at the exit of the immigration station, and the latter is inadequate and antiquated so far as the subject of the effects of immigration are concerned, for its statistics were gathered before the full force of the present wave was felt. The flow of immigration also reached a new mark last year; a fact which we have already reported and commented upon. The phase of the subject which presented itself in the course of the year that will probably attract the most attention was the volume of the eastward flow, in the course of the last two months, of those styled "emigrant aliens." This was so abnormal that it is causing much apprehension regarding its effect on the coun

tries to which they have been and are returning. It is possible to obtain a good idea of the volume from the data compiled by the Transatlantic Steamship Conferences. The record shows that 103,848 persons sailed for Europe from United States and Canadian ports in the third or immigrant class between November 22 and January 1. The number who turned their faces eastward in the course of the year, the same statistics being used as a basis of computation, was 550,045, or more than two-fifths of the westward movement.

Reasons for Return

This total will surprise

many persons, for it is far above the highest estimates which have been made. Few have any impression of the magnitude of the ebb of the alien tide. As a matter of fact, while many more "emigrant aliens " sailed eastward last year than in any previous year, the most striking phase was the number who sailed in the last forty days. This "forty days' wonder " is likely to be productive of much thought on the part of students of immigration, owing to its relation to our labor conditions. In two different years, in the course of the last ten, the number who have gone to Europe in the third class has been greater, in proportion to the number who came to America, than in 1907. In 1898 the percentage was 45.39; and in 1904, a Presidential year, it was 48.74, or nearly one-half. The total number who have crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the immigrant class in the course of the last ten calendar years is 7,752,978. Those who have returned number 2,486,653, or 32.07 per cent. These figures also include Canadian ports, as many immigrants come to the United States through them. In other words, nearly one-third of our immigration, in the course of that period, has manifested no intention of remaining permanently in America. This fact will be of great interest to those who have been troubled regarding the assimilation of the immigrant. The facts regarding this heretofore little recognized phase of immigration have come to light so recently that it is not possible fully to analyze

its causes. Several stand out quite clearly, however. The movement of the last two months is due to a combination of causes, such as the approach of the holiday and idle season when many return home in normal years, fear regarding the demand for unskilled labor in the near future, and incidentally the proximity of a Presidential election. Many foreigners look upon a Presidential year as one in which labor conditions are likely to be unsettled. This movement demonstrates that we have an elastic labor supply at our command which can accommodate itself, in a measure, to conditions. If there were any doubt of the truth of this, the comparatively empty third-class quarters of certain steamships approaching New York would be convincing. This elasticity is increased by the fact that, owing to the influx of money from America and the higher wages paid in such countries as Italy, as a result of a decreased labor supply through emigration, the economic conditions in Europe are more favorable for unskilled labor than formerly. In December, 1906, 85,466 aliens were landed in the United States. In the corresponding month of 1907 the total number of arrivals in the third class at the Atlantic ports of the United States and Canada was, approximately, 48,000. Among the causes for the normal return are nostalgia, full pockets denoting a fulfilled mission, and illness. Those who complain of the cost of maintaining relief institutions for the benefit of foreigners would be astonished if they realized the number of those who go home after giving America of their best, worn out victims of a changed environment, and many of them suffering from tuberculosis and other pulmonary ail

ments.

It is an axiomatic prinThe Situation at ciple of law and comGoldfield mon sense that it is the duty of a State to preserve peace and security within its own limits. Sometimes, but not often, a condition of affairs arises when it is beyond the power of the State authorities to exercise this function completely. In that case an appeal may be made to the United

States for military aid. The clause in the Constitution upon which this right of appeal rests is as follows:

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion, and, on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened), against domestic violence.

This has always been construed to mean that when the President of the United States receives such an appeal from a State Legislature or Governor, it is almost a mandatory duty for him to furnish assistance promptly. If the President were to wait for full inquiry into the facts, the mischief apprehended might be done; the very nature of the case requires quick decision and prompt action. The Outlook has already reported the appeal of Governor Sparks, of Nevada, to the President for troops to be sent to Goldfield, and the President's action in promptly complying with the request. As a matter of fact, no single life had been lost by violence before Governor Sparks's appeal was made, nor has there been any disturbance, unless possibly the slightest, since the troops arrived. Governor Sparks, however (and, naturally, the mine-owners also), is of the opinion that if the troops were not at Goldfield extensive disturbances might occur. Meanwhile, the Nevada Legislature has not been called together to deal with the situation, and it is only too apparent that the local authorities, including the Governor, have been disposed to look to the United States Government for their sole support. This is all wrong, and when Governor Sparks went so far in a despatch to the President as to intimate that even if the Legislature were convened it might not take necessary action, the time for plain speaking had arrived. President Roosevelt accordingly notified Governor Sparks that if within three weeks the Governor did not assemble the Legislature (three weeks having been named by Governor Sparks himself as the time necessary for that purpose), the Federal troops now in Goldfield would, five days thereafter, be withdrawn. The Governor has intimated his intention to call the Legislature as recommended. So far as we have seen,

this action of the President is universally approved, unless it be by a part of the people of Nevada. If, after a genuine and earnest effort has been made by the Governor and Legislature of Nevada to establish peace and prevent violence, it shall be evident that outside assistance is really necessary, no doubt the United States might properly again come to the assistance of the local authorities; but it is certainly true that the power of sending National troops to preserve quiet in localities where disturbances exist should not be hastily or carelessly employed.

Half-Fares for School-Children

The school-children have had their day in court, and it is gratifying to record the fact that the United States Supreme Court holds that a State may lawfully order its railways to carry them to and from school at half-price. As reported through an interesting editorial in the New York Sun, this right of the State has been affirmed as constitutional, on one ground by the Massachusetts Supreme Court, on another by the United States Supreme Court. The case arose in Attleborough, where a street railway company refused to sell tickets for the transportation of pupils of the public schools at rates not exceeding half the regular fare charged for the transportation of other passengers, as the law requires. The company argued that the statute was confiscatory because it made the company carry the children at a loss. But the highest court in Massachusetts replied that, so far as the statute went, the company could raise its rates to adults so as still to make a profit on its total business, and that, as the children rode at times when the cars were not crowded and as they occupied less space, it was not certain that the half-fare involved loss. But the really important point of the decision was that the selection of children as a class to be favored was not an arbitrary act (as if, for instance, white passengers paid less than black), but was in pursuance of the sound and long-established policy of the Commonwealth to encourage education. Thus technicalities or close construction of a constitution are not to hinder the

large, helpful policy of a State working for the public good. The United States Supreme Court points out that the company got its charter after the statute was passed, and the presumption was that it at that time accepted the restrictions of the statute. But, apart from this, the Court held that the law is not objectionable, either on the ground that it denies to the railway companies the equal protection of the laws or that it deprives the corporation of its property without due process of law. Furthermore, Justice Holmes, though with some hesitation, expressed separately his belief that the statute requirement might be justified. under the State's police power, adding these significant words:

If the Fourteenth Amendment is not to be a greater hamper upon the established practice of the States, in common with other governments, than I think was intended, the minor adjustments of life, even though they must be allowed a certain latitude in by their action the burdens of a part of the community are somewhat increased. The traditions and habits of centuries were not intended to be overthrown when that amendment was passed.

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Last week the "Constructive Treason' trial of the one hundred and sixty-nine members of the first Russian Duma who signed the Viborg Manifesto was concluded. It will be remembered that during the first Duma a large number of Radicals, mostly Constitutional Democrats, claimed the right to authorize, or to refuse to authorize, taxation. When, by forcible dispersion of the Duma, they were deprived of this right, they fled to Finland, and, in a conference at the city of Viborg, recommended to their fellowcountrymen to refuse the payment of taxes. Among the political leaders at Viborg were Ivan Petrunkevitch, who framed the first demand on the Emperor for a Constitution; Prince Dimitri Shakofsky, ex Secretary of the Lower House; Prince Obolinsky, the eminent jurist; Vladimir Naboukov, the no less wellknown Radical leader, and others. It is impossible for Americans not to feel sympathy with such men. It is true that it might have been more astute not to have recommended to their fellow

countrymen to withhold tax payments until they were sure that public opinion in Russia would support them. But there has been no attempt on the part of the ex-deputies to deny their responsibility for the manifesto; on the contrary, they have sustained it before the court with courageous devotion. While the former deputies still remain at large without bail, and while the comparatively light sentence of three months' imprisonment pleasantly surprises those who had feared a sentence for one or two years' incarceration, the case will be appealed to the Senate, the highest Russian tribunal. It will be interesting to note whether that body upholds the decision of the lower court in declaring the accused individually and collectively guilty of composing and signing a document which later was circulated in Russia by other participants in the agreement for the instigation of national action against the Government-in other words, what is, according to the lower court, constructive treason.

One of the most exThe Collapse of traordinary delusions of the Druce Myth modern times received its death-blow last week when the grave of Thomas C. Druce was opened in England, and instead of a coffin filled with lead there was found the body of a bearded man corresponding to the description of Druce. It is true that a son of T. C. Druce declared that he saw his father die, saw him put into a coffin and saw that coffin interred, but this evidence was scouted by the tens of thousands of English people who have insisted that Druce was one and the same person with the fifth Duke of Portland and that he carried on a separate existence as Druce in a merchant's bazar conducted by him for years in Baker Street, London. The case has been in the courts lately in the form of a trial of the son of Druce, who now owns the bazar and who saw his father die, on a charge of perjury brought by a grandson of T. C. Druce who upholds the double-identity myth and claims to be an heir of the Portland estates. It might seem the only simple course that the grave should have been opened many years ago but then there would have

been no Druce case! People dearly love mystery and romance in high life; and for many years servant-girls, pot-boys, and readers of shilling-shockers have been responding eagerly to the requests for subscriptions to aid in ousting the present Duke. The remarkable story has had a certain appearance of probability because in point of fact the fifth Duke of Portland was a very singular person. He disappeared from public life two or three times for considerable periods, and these periods are said to correspond with the appearance in London life of T. C. Druce, whose goings and comings were also mysterious. The Duke spent hundreds of thousands of pounds in underground excavations and passages at the great Portland estate of Welbeck Abbey. Among these excavations was an immense. underground ball-room, the center of miles of passages. In this ball-room the Emperor William of Germany was quite lately entertained during his visit to England. In dress, in tastes, and in his life the fifth Duke of Portland was eccentric to a degree, and it has even been darkly intimated that he was a leper, and that he killed his brother, Lord George Bentinck, on account of a quarrel over a woman-who, it has been alleged, afterward married T. C. Druce.

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exist. So with portraits showing a remarkable resemblance between the two men; they have been printed here as if photographs, while really they are drawings by more or less imaginative newspaper artists. Once such a myth is started, it grows with marvelous rapidity. An American witness insisted that he knew the one man as both Druce and the Duke, that he was a confidant of the Duke's purpose in leading a double life, and that he arranged the makebelieve Druce funeral at Mr. Druce's request. But when this man appeared on the stand he was shown to be a notorious liar, known in America as the greatest living affidavit-maker" and to be the man who tried to sell to American newspapers a sensational falsehood about the theft of A. T. Stewart's body; his testimony collapsed like a house of cards, and when he returned to New York his extradition on a charge of perjury was demanded. Then there came forward a delightful lady liar, in whom the Duke of Portland had also confided, and with whom Charles Dickens had conversed on the subject, telling her that he knew all about it—and, by the way, because the words Druce and Drood have a vague resemblance, Charles Dickens's unfinished tale, "Edwin Drood," is supposed by the myth-believers to have had something to do with the Portland case, although there is not the slightest resemblance in plot between the two stories. This woman, Mary Robinson, said she wrote the whole story out in her diary at the time; and that was to be a prime piece of evidence. But on the stand she regretfully stated that the diary had been stolen from her, and she could only produce alleged copies of what she asserted was in it. We have only indicated some of the more salient features in this extraordinary case, which has as many intricacies and doublings as have the underground passages at Welbeck Abbey. Druce diea and was buried in 1864; the fifth Duke of Portland died in 1878; and ever since then one branch of the Druce family have been exploiting their claims to the enormous Portland estate. There are half a dozen sensational plots for novels to be had out of the affair, but we hope that some fair

minded writer will give us a clear, careful study of the facts as a fascinating contribution to the psychology of selfdelusion.

One Central American

State

The Outlook has already commented upon the remarkable provisions contained in the eight treaties signed week before last at Washington by the representatives of the five Central American states, assembled in a conference which may prove to be the most important event thus far affecting their history. The brief summary which we gave reveals only in part the extraordinary character of the treaties. Additional emphasis may well be laid upon them. This is desirable, first of all, for the good of the republics themselves, as the more adequate the notice the treaties receive in this country, the more certain will be their ratification by the Governments involved. Secondly, the building of the Panama Canal has put these countries, so to speak, "in the front yard" of the United States. Their conduct, now that of our near neighbor, is more than ever important to us. Stirred by last winter's strife and disorder, which existed in all but one of the Central American republics, Mr. Root, Secretary of State, and the Central American representatives in Washington were moved to follow the Portsmouth precedent, and asked that a Peace Conference be called. Such a plan found favor in Mexico also, and the invitations of Presidents Roosevelt and Diaz were accepted by the Central American Presidents, who were glad to see the countries to their north act the part of a friend and neighbor in helping them to reconcile their differences. But the work accomplished by the Conference quickly outran the bounds of mere arbitration. Hitherto the trouble with Central American efforts at peace has been that they have been general agreements and empty promises, which have been almost immediately broken. The treaties just signed, however, follow a different. line. They are specific and practical, Two, in especial, are well adapted to begin the progressive growth of a common-sense Central American conduct,

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