Page:Immigration and the Commissioners of Emigration of the state of New York.djvu/181

Rh {|VALUE OF
 * width=60|Year. ||width=100|Imports. ||width=100|Exports. ||width=100|Tonnage. ||width=100|Revenues.
 * 1800 ||$91,252,768 ||$70,971,780 ||972,492 ||$12,451,184
 * 1810 ||85,400,000 ||66,757,974 ||1,424,783 ||12,144,206
 * 1820 || 74,450,000 ||69,691,699 ||1,280,166 ||20,881,493
 * 1830 || 70,876,920 ||73,819,508 ||1,191,776 ||24,844,116
 * 1840 ||131,571,950 ||104,805,891 ||2,180,764 ||25,032,193
 * 1850 ||178,136,318 ||151,898,720 ||3,535,454 ||47,649,388
 * 1860 ||362,168,941 ||400,122,293 ||5,358,868 ||76,752,034
 * }
 * 1840 ||131,571,950 ||104,805,891 ||2,180,764 ||25,032,193
 * 1850 ||178,136,318 ||151,898,720 ||3,535,454 ||47,649,388
 * 1860 ||362,168,941 ||400,122,293 ||5,358,868 ||76,752,034
 * }
 * 1860 ||362,168,941 ||400,122,293 ||5,358,868 ||76,752,034
 * }
 * }

We hear it often said that immigration is to the country, not to a State; that it has a national bearing; and that in more than one respect we stand in absolute need of a national board of emigration. I do not agree with this. Immigration is undoubtedly a matter of national importance, but it is a matter of State concern also. I will endeavor to state the grounds on which this opinion rests.

Ever since immigration has attained greater proportions, legal questions have grown out of the financial interests connected with it, which have turned on the point whether a single State has or has not the right to tax the immigrant on his arrival for sanitary purposes and for his protection. As this tax, or commutation money, of $2 50, which is levied on each immigrant landing at New York, amounts to between one-half and three-quarters of a million per year, it will easily be understood that the magnitude of the amount involved induced a reference of the questions to the highest tribunals of the land. Lately, this same question has again been taken up by Western newspapers, and by some Western members of Congress. They demand that the commutation money which immigrants pay at the several ports of entry be distributed, pro rata, among the States where they settle; and to effect this purpose they insist that the United States Government should take the whole business of immigration in its own hands; that the Secretary of the Treasury make all needful rules and regulations, and appoint the proper officers in the same