With unanimous voice the American press of the city and of the nation has for the last month been printing article after article about the impending danger that the wealth of the country, in a period of ten years, will all have been sent to various foreign countries. And as is usually the case, the Greeks of the land are taken as an example.

The press points out that the Greeks send $2,000,000 annually to their native land, and it argues that the other 20,000,000 foreigners from Europe and Asia must therefore send $200,000,000 to their several countries.

This sum of money exported every year for ten years will amount to $2,000,000,000 in gold. Consequently the press wants America to enact laws prohibiting the exportation of money because in years to come the country's wealth will be exhausted by foreigners who send it away.

The editors who have prepared and published these articles about the impending danger are not correct in their reasoning. Their calculations are all wrong, and our agrument follows to refute their contentions.

Among immigrants we find Irish, Germans, Poles, and Scandinavians who have come to America by hundreds of thousands with the specific intention of staying here and settling, and the majority of them have brought their families with them. This foreign element came here to stay, and the money which they may have sent back at first is absolutely insignificant, because for them this country is their home, their wealth, their all, and they have broken every relationship and tie with their native lands. Consequently no money in any great amount will be exported by them. The total of $2,000,000,000, by reason of this logical and indisputable fact, diminishes to insignificance.

As an exception to this rule we have the Greeks, part of the Italians, and other immigrants from the East. The Greeks above all other nationalities, as the papers say, send back home enormous sums of money. That is true. The Greek never forgets his parents, his brothers, his sisters, or his other relatives. He sends money, which he earns with great effort, to ameliorate conditions for his family; he sends money and plenty of it to marry his sisters and to educate his brothers (if they do not come here); and in addition to all this he sends money to his beloved Greece to build streets, roads, churches, schools, waterworks, and many other new things which he sees in America. He contributes money for the defense of his beloved native land and for many other things for which the nationalities above mentioned send not one dollar. And so with justice and with truth the Greek is singled out as the immigrant who sends plenty of money back home. That the mythical sum of two billion dollars could never be reached if this argument is valid stands to reason. The hue and cry of the press is unsupported by logic.

And now we will take the Greek (as others do) as an example. Before he left his beloved country, which is likewise dear to every other right-thinking person the world over, he was informed that America the great 4is a free country and the most democratic country in the world; that freedom and justice and philanthropy are the pillars which support this huge democracy, known as the daughter of ancient Greece because its government is thence derived. Without casting any insinuations at the other nationalities above mentioned, we may say that the Greek has traditions which are to him very sacred. His obligation and his responsibility to his family and his love for it are part of his religion. His supreme patriotic devotion to his country is recorded in the annals of time, as are many other traditions which for thousands of years he has distinguished himself by maintaining. Indeed, he cannot abandon them and throw them off so easily as we change socks. He cannot be so easily assimilated and absorbed by his environment. He stands upon solid rock. If he could change his country as quickly as he changes his shirt, he could never be a good citizen of any country. America the great does not expect him to forget his family and his mother-country. His native Greece, his religion, and his family are never forgotten by the Greek. And when he came here, he did not hesitate to tell the truth; that is, that he did not come here to stay and settle. But he came here to this free and just country to work hard and earn some money.

If the greatness of the country is such as to absorb him in the future, it is not his fault. He will do his damnedest to return to his native Greece, but from what we already observe we venture to say that the unconquerable Greek will eventually become an integral part of this great country. He is beginning to build churches and schools, and that is a sign of permanent establishment.

Time will show, if the Greek becomes established here, that he will be one of the best citizens of this democratic country, which has the power and the greatness to mold all these heterogeneous masses into one new specimen of humanity, the American citizen.

And now, to talk cold turkey, if the Greek sends $2,000,000 annually to his Mother-Greece, he must have put in motion and circulation hundreds of millions of dollars. If 75,000 Greeks in America send $2,000,000 annually to Greece, it is about $26 to each Greek, and in order to earn this sum of $26, the Greek undoubtedly has produced $300 in wealth for this country. Countries expand and become great in finance by production and comsumption.

Anyway, the Greek will continue to be taken as an example, either for good or for evil. Time will show that the Greek is not detrimental to the wealth of the land, but that on the contrary he is a producing factor. The hue and cry of the press about the impending danger will eventually die out for lack of foundation, logic, and justice.