Mr. President. I wish briefly to call attention to one phase of the subject which has interested me in connection with immigration for permanent inhabitants of Alaska. We are only coming to know and to realize what a valuable addition to our territory the purchase of. that region is. and we also know thatit is so far to the north and so far out of touch with any civiliiatmon Which We have that it is altogether improbable that ther& will be any permanent settlers there in the way of development from among our own citizens. that after this harvest of gold has been reaped it will be returned to the solitude of the northern winter. the same as it has always been. But the experiment with the reindeer and the introduction into that Territory of these Laplanders and Finns has opened up a new phase to my mind which has some bearing on this question. and that is that with the present treatment of the Finns by Russia. the outrageous tyranny (I say outrageous because I feel that there has been no action of any government within my knowledge dealing with its own subjects that is more tyrannical and outrageous than the treatment of the Finns by the Russian Government). there are large numbers of those people who are emigrating. and there is a threat and a very great probability that possibly half or twothirds of those people will expatriate themselves rather than submit to the abominable Government and the loss of their liberties and their old institutions. and even their being robbed of. the right to teach their children their own language. If those people choose to cross the ocean and come to this country. it is more than likely that they will drift into a similar latitude where they will have. as we all know. the kind of climate to which they are accustomed.
Keywords matched
emigrating immigration