This explanation appears to be satisfactory to the editor of the newspaper;
it can hardly, however, prove so to the tax-payers in Ohio who have to
provide for Ruegger’s support.
The explanation, coming as it does from a clergyman and one of the overseers
of the poor, furnishes us with a striking illustration of the convenience
made of our country as a receptacle for the paupers of very many of the
Swiss communes. Its acceptance as satisfactory by the editor represents, in
my opinion, the manner in which it would be viewed by a large portion of the
press and of the people of this country.
[Inclosure in No.
332.—Translation.]
Extract from the Swiss Emigration Gazette, Berne,
January 22, 1881.
correction.
In our last number, under the head of a “few
specimens,” from J., our New York correspondent, we mentioned
the case of Heinrich R—, of Rudolfingen, in the canton of Zurich,
complaining of R—’s helplessness, and holding the commune answerable for
him and demanding the means for his return.
Mr. Simmler, the pastor in Trüllikon, the head of the committee of the
poor-board having charge of Heinrich R—, requests us to publish the
following letter:
“In No. 3 of your valued paper, under the heading ‘Unscrupulousness in the Old Country,’ you published a
statement relating to the experience of a certain Heinrich R—, an
emigrant from Rudolfingen, canton of Zurich, in which you accuse the
communal authorities of being guilty of ‘a shoving off by the commune,’
much in the nature of a ‘banishment.’ This serious accusation is
altogether unwarranted, and compels the undersigned to make a correction
concerning the facts.
“In the first place, it should be noted that neither the commune
authority of Rudolfingen nor the poor-board of that place instigated
R—’s emigration. On the contrary, they repeatedly refused assistance for
this purpose, because they could not conceal the fact that the emigrant
would no more find his ‘fortune’ in the new world than he had in the
old. And this was not because of R—’s, shortsightedness, which in no way
prevents him from doing agricultural labor, but on account of his
aversion to labor and his dissolute life. Among the establishments in
which your correspondent mentions R—as having been, he neglected to
mention a forced-labor establishment. Indeed, the aforementioned
R—merited altogether another sort of treatment on account of his many
swindles committed during his peddling.
“If, however, officials and persons in private life finally gave a
helping hand to the unceasing requests to assist R— to emigrate, it was
evidently out of commiseration. If this was misplaced, it does not,
however, deserve censure. In the case of persons like R—, ‘fortune’ is
to to be found only in that Utopia which unfortunately is still
undiscovered.
“Here once more we find the old story repeated again to us—that as rule
the worth-loss fellows of the old country, because in America the
luxuries of life do not drop
[Page 1111]
into their mouths ready cooked to their taste, as they had expected,
instead of working, raise the customary cry of complaint. For this
reason, therefore, not only should those intending to emigrate turn a
deaf ear to such stories, but the newspaper writers should sift such
tales before giving them to the press as true.”
In the same paper was also an inquiry from C— R—, from Wölfiswyl, at
present in Nebraska, asking why 21 francs had to be paid for him, to
which a satisfactory answer is likewise furnished in the proceedings of
the High Swiss Federal Council of March 5 and May 21 last.
C— R— emigrated to America in December, 1879, of his own free will, and
at his urgent solicitation received from his native commune assistance
amounting to 525 francs. In February, 1880, a letter was received by the
government of the canton of Argovie, in which Mr. John Jenny, in
Lincoln, Nebraska, demanded on account of C— R— a sum of $200, and in
case of refusal threatening that the latter should be sent back at the
cost of his commune. Thereupon the government of Argovie made an
official investigation. It appears from the latter that C— R—’s
circumstances are not so miserable, and that he himself would oppose
being sent back.
For the requisite investigation, including postages, the commune was
ordered to pay the costs, amounting to 21 francs.
