Speech #590030761

Each of these reports contained such surprising revel.1tions as to the means resorted to by foreign governments to flagrantly abuse the privileges accorded by our Government to foreigners that it was thought best to suppress them. Consequently they were not made public until called for by a resolution of this house adopted on the 6th day of January. 1906. lIe makes the unqualified statement that Italy. AustriaHungary. and Greece use all kinds of means to induce their subjects to emigrate to the United States for temporary sojourn. with the ultimate purpose of returning with all their earnings. and that they try to keep them grouped together as much as possible in order to maintain their influence over them and prevent them as far as possible from being converted to American ideas and citizenship. He says that south Italy is so poor and overcrowded that if their present system of emigration to the United States was checked It is the almost universal dread among the people that it would cause inevitable famine and not unlikely rebellion. This is not surprising. when he tells us in the next breath that Italian bankers and steamship agents told him that Italy received annually from the United States an average of $1 a day for every Italian who comes to this country for temporary sojourn. It is not. therefore. surprising that she should use every available means to retain her influence over her subjects while in the United States. And. as he says. she sends on every steamer leaving her ports for the United States a royal commissioner. whose mission is to coach and instruct Italian emigrants. so as to insure their entry and also to impress upon them the importance of retaining their allegiance to the mother country and not become American citizens. I have already made some reference to the manner in which AustriaHungary Is prostituting her character as a nation and the imposition she is inflicting upon a friendly power by the methods she pursues to wrong and despoil us. which is nothing short of a disgrace upon her civilization. When we are reminded that during the year 1904 $50.000.000 went to AustriaHungary from her subjects in the United States. you need not be surprised at the unwarranted. unscrupulous and extraordinary means resorted to by her to continue this flow of wealth. and that Sigmund Kornfeld. director of the Hungarian Credit Bank. goes about the country speaking and lecturing in favor of wholesale emigration to the United States. He painted in glowing terms the splendid opportunities afforded the Hungarian immigrant here. offoring as proof of this statement that there had passed through his bank alone in the last year 139.000.000 crowns sent home by Hungarian subjects in the United States. In one of these lectures he grew so enthusiastic over the thoughts of the great profit his country was realizing from this new and novel enterprise. that he exclaimed: Let all go who can earn all the money.they can. learn the practical ways of the American laborer. and come home with both money and experience. The public press is also a strong factor in organizing and promoting this heretofore unknown or unheard of foreign raid upon our institutions. and Commissioner Braun charges that the Hungarian Government maintains subsidized. papers. published in foreign language. in the United States for the twofold purpose of. first. inducing immigration here. and then keeping alive the native spirit so as to insure the return to the mother country with the rich spoils gathered here. In one of the semiofficial organs of AustriaHungary. under date July 26. 1904. It was stated that Hungarian peasants returning from the United States had purchased in one county alone 10.158 acres of land for the sum of 1.874.917 crowns of Americanearned money. It was also stated that after a given time the Government would only charge half fare to prospective emigrants over the railroads. He further discloses the fact that there is an organization in the United States giving material aid to this movement. such as steamship agents. publishers of newspapers In foreign languages. wouldbe bankers. etc.. who not only send to foreign countries their publications giving glowing accounts of the chances to make money here. but they actually travel in foreign countries giving public lectures in which they propose to establish homes and banks in the United States in which emigrants can deposit their money and to negotiate land sales iii Hungary with their Americanearned money. So complete. is this scheme that a chart is published showing all the available land in Hungary. which is being offered to prospective emigrants at most reasonable prices. It is plain to read between the lines that the real agency behind this movement is the Hungarian Government. Commissioner Braun says that in interviews with no less than twentyfive members of the Hungarian Parliament they admitted that their Government was adopting active measures to maintain connection with the people residing in the United States. such as the publication of newspapers in foreign languages. alleged bankers. priests. ministers. teachers. and private individuals with whom their Government is in constant touch. with the one view of maintaining their control over her emigrants to this country. Through these several channels hundreds of thousands of printed cards are annually sent to foreign countries and posts of embarkation. giving full detail of the extraordinary efforts taken by these agencies to look after the welfare of emigrants. From the home countries are sent thousands of national flags and hundreds of thousands of copies of patriotic literature. priests. ministers. and teachers to keep alive the native spirit and to prevent their subjects from falling into the ways of the American people and failing to return to the fatherland. adding to its wealth their earnings of American money. The astounding revelation is contained in this report that there are now at least 500 priests and ministers in the United States who are not American citizens and whose only mission is to teach and plead with their countrymen not to forsake their native country and become citizens of this. which one of them has proclaimed to be " this godless hemisphere where nothing is holy. but all is business." To prove the statement that these men are not chosen and sent here because of their fitness to look after the spiritual welfare of their people. but because of their ability to exercise the temporal control of their home governments over them and to prevent their assimilation with American ideas of freedom and independence. which. once tasted. would strangely induce in them a desire to enjoy the full measure of its blessings by becoming American citizens.