Mr. Jackson to Mr. Hay.
Berlin, October 25, 1901.
Sir: As the Department is aware, efforts have repeatedly been made to direct the flow of German emigration away from North America, the United States, and Canada, toward the German colonies and South America. It is claimed that in North America the emigrant is too readily absorbed and that he loses his political and economic nationality in a very short time, while in the colonies he remains a German in every sense, and in South America he still retains, to a considerable extent at least, his German tastes and habits. In short, the emigrant to North America is lost to Germany entirely, while those who go to South America, although they may lose their political nationality, continue to be purchasers in the German markets. It will be remembered that arguments of this character were used in advocating the passage of an emigration law in 1897.
Germany is at present suffering from industrial depression, the eventual result of which can not but be healthy, and the immediate effect of this is almost certain to be increased emigration in the near future. The condition is such that the president of the Prussian ministry (Count Bülow) has thought it wise to instruct the provincial governors to collect information with regard to the numbers of the unemployed and to suggest measures by which aid can be given.
The Colonial Society, however, has determined to endeavor to direct the emigration which it considers inevitable, and to that end it has made a provisional arrangement with the Imperial Government for the establishment of an information bureau for emigrants. This bureau is to be under the supervision of the chancellor of the Empire, although its character will not be strictly official, and information is to be furnished by it gratuitously to intending emigrants, directly or through agents. The Government is to bear a part of the expenses connected with this work, and is to furnish to the bureau such information as may be received from its representatives abroad as may be of interest to those wishing to make a home outside the limits of the Empire proper. The avowed object of this enterprise is “to prevent the dissipation of the energy, nationality, and capital which German emigrants take out of the Empire, uselessly throughout the world, and the economic fertilization of foreign countries, and to so direct German emigration that it may remain German, nationally and economically, to the greatest possible extent.”
I have, etc.,