60 PEJilLS. — IMMIGKATION". 



and so set themselves apart from Americanizing influ- 

 ences. In 1845, New Glarus, in southern Wisconsin, was 

 settled by a colony of 108 persons from one of the can- 

 tons of Switzerland. In 1880 they numbered 1,060 souls ; 

 and in 1885 it was said, " No Yankee lives within a ring 

 of six miles round the first built dug-out." This Helve- 

 tian settlement, founded three years before Wisconsin 

 became a state, has preserved its race, its language, its 

 worship, and its customs in their integrity. Similar col- 

 onies are now being planted in the West. In some cases 

 100,000 or 200,000 acres in one block, have been pur- 

 chased by foreigners of one nationality and religion; 

 thus building up states within a state, having different 

 languages, different antecedents, different religions, dif- 

 ferent ideas and habits, preparing mutual jealousies, and 

 perpetuating race antipathies. In New England, conven- 

 tions are held to w^hich only French Canadian Catholics 

 are admitted . At such a convention in Nashua in 1888, 

 attended by eighty priests, the following mottoes were 

 displayed : ' ' Our tongue, our nationality, and our re- 

 ligion. " ' ' Before everything else let us remain French. " 

 If our noble domain were tenfold larger than it is, it 

 would still- be too small to embrace with safety to our 

 national future, little Germanics here, little Scandina- 

 vias there, and little Irelands yonder. A strong central- 

 ized government, like that of Rome under the Caesars, 

 can control heterogeneous populations, but local self-gov- 

 ernment implies close relations between man and man, a 

 measiu-e of sympathy, and, to a certain extent, commu- 

 nity of ideas. Our safety demands the assimilation of 

 these strange populations, and the j^rocess of assimilation 

 will become slower and more difficult as the proportion 

 of foreigners increases. 



When we consider the influence of immigration, it is 

 by no means reassuring to reflect that so large a share 

 of it is pouring into the formative West. Already is the 

 proportion of foreigners in the territories from two to 

 three times greater than in the states east of the Missis- 

 sippi. In the East, institutions have been long estab- 



