Aliens or Americans? Part 7

_The evils attendant upon unrestricted immigration are not theoretical but actual. Emigration from one place becomes immigration into another. It is an international affair of greatest importance, and should be speedily recognized as such._--J. D.

Whelpley.

III

PROBLEMS OF LEGISLATION AND DISTRIBUTION

The immigration question in this country has never had the attention to which its importance ent.i.tles it. It has sometimes been the scapegoat of religious and racial prejudices, and always, in recent years, an annual sacrifice to the G.o.ds of transportation.--_Prescott F. Hall._

It is exasperating to any patriotic American to have brought convincingly before him the proofs of a wholesale evasion of a very carefully planned code of laws which he fain would think is a sufficient protection of his country's best interests. It is more annoying to realize that the successful evaders are for the most part foreigners, and those, too, of commonly despised races. The conclusion is plain: Seek the grounds on which to deny pa.s.sage to undesirable emigrants who wish to come to the United States, in the villages from which they emanate. In the communes of their nativity the truth is known and cannot be hidden.--_Broughton Brandenburg._

The mesh of the law needs to be stiffened rather than relaxed. The benefit of the doubt belongs to the United States rather than to the alien who clamors for admittance.--_Commissioner-General Sargent._

Distribution, rather than wholesale restriction, is being more and more recognized as the real way out of the difficulties presented by our immense una.s.similated immigration.--_Gino C. Speranza._

The need is to devise some system by which undesirable immigrants shall be kept out entirely, while desirable immigrants are properly distributed throughout the country.--_President Roosevelt._

III

PROBLEMS OF LEGISLATION AND DISTRIBUTION

_I. The Present Situation_

[Sidenote: Difficulties in the Way]

There is a growing conviction that something ought to be done to check the present enormous inflow of immigrants. But when it comes to what that something is, difficulties at once arise. There are so many foreigners already in America, and so many children of foreign-born parents, that it is impossible to touch the stream at any point without protest from some source. As some one says, "You do not have to go very far back in the family line of any of us to find an immigrant. Scratch an American and you find a foreigner." And not a few of these foreigners sympathize with the Irishman who said to a lady against whom he had a grievance because she insisted on having a Chinese servant, "We have a right here that those who are here by the mere accident of birth have not." On the other hand, it was a foreigner of wide vision who said: "I do not believe there is any peculiar virtue in American birth, or that Americans are (_per se_) superior to all other nations; but I do believe that they are better fitted than all others to govern their own country. They made the country what it is, and ought to have the first voice in determining what it is to be. In this alone consists their superiority."[31]

[Sidenote: The Immigration Conference of 1905]

It is significant and hopeful that men are thinking upon the subject.

What we want is full and fair discussion and thorough information.

Nothing is so perilous in a democracy as ignorance and indifference. It is far better for men to disagree thoughtfully than to agree thoughtlessly. What all patriotic and Christian men seek is the best good of this country, which means so much to the whole world as the supreme experiment of self-government. That the people are awakening was shown by the Immigration Conference in New York in December of 1905, when five hundred men, most of them appointed by their state governors, gathered under the auspices of the National Civic Federation to discuss the whole question of immigration. The immigration experts of the country were present, and the company included United States Senators and Representatives, college presidents and professors, leading editors, lawyers and clergymen, and prominent labor leaders.

[Sidenote: Conclusions Reached]

No such conference on this subject has before been held, and the results of the discussion, which was for the most part as temperate and sensible as it was straightforward, were such as to bring about a better understanding between the men who are supposed to be theorists and the representatives of American labor. The resolutions unanimously adopted were conservative and practical. The most important recommendations call for admission tests in Europe rather than after the alien has reached America, for the spread of information leading to better distribution, and for the establishment of a commission to investigate the subject of immigration in all its relations, including the violations and evasions of the present law. Undoubtedly such a commission, appointed by the president and possessed of competent authority, could accomplish much good. For one thing, it could keep the matter before the people and wisely guide public sentiment.

[Sidenote: The Right of Self-Protection]

However much men may differ in view as to specific legislation, one point ought to be regarded as settled. That is, the right of Congress to pa.s.s such laws as may be deemed essential to safeguard American inst.i.tutions and liberties. A nation has the inalienable right to protect itself against foreign invasion; and it does not matter whether the invasion be armed or under the guise of immigration. No foreign nation has the right to send its peoples to America, or by persecution to drive them forth upon other nations, and no foreigner has any inherent right to claim admission to the United States.

[Sidenote: Welfare of the State Supreme]

Right is determined, in migration as in civic relations, not by the will or whim of the individual, but by the welfare of the state. Further than this, the government has the right to deport at any time any aliens who may be regarded as unfit to remain. There ought to be no confusion as to rights in this matter.

[Sidenote: Cases that call for Reform]

The question recurs, however, is there need of doing anything? As to this President Roosevelt and the Commissioner-General of Immigration are agreed. In his last annual message the President recommended the prohibition of immigration through Canada and Mexico, the strengthening of our exclusion laws, heavier restraints upon the steamship companies, and severer penalties for enticing immigrants. It is a striking fact that nearly all of the proposed additions to our laws are intended to stop the evasion and violation of the laws we have, which are made ineffective by fraud and questionable practices of the most extensive kind. A recent writer[32] presents this matter in condensed form worthy of study, giving this "astonishing catalogue of abuses," brought to light by special inspectors in the employ of the Immigration Bureau:

[Sidenote: Astonishing Abuses]

"1. The importation of contract laborers, usually under the direction of padrones, from Greece, Italy, and Austria-Hungary.

"2. The smuggling of immigrants across the Canadian and Mexican borders who would be certain of rejection at our Atlantic ports.

"3. The 'patching up' of immigrants afflicted with favus, trachoma, and other loathsome or contagious diseases so that they can get past the inspectors without detection, even though the process is likely to augment their sufferings later.

"4. The forgery and sale of spurious naturalization certificates and the repeated use of the same certificates pa.s.sed back and forth between relatives and friends.

"5. The a.s.sisting of immigration, either by local authorities in Europe or by earlier comers in America.

"6. The stimulating of immigration by transportation companies and their armies of paid agents and sub-agents in Europe."

[Sidenote: A Plain Necessity]

As a result, Mr. Ogg says, of the widespread operations through these underground channels there is an abnormal immigration movement so vast as "to override and all but reduce to a mere joke our whole restrictive system. That an appalling number of aliens who are on the verge of dependency, defectiveness, and delinquency do somehow contrive to get into the country every year is a fact too well known to call for verification here. n.o.body undertakes to deny it." There is plain necessity, therefore, that some means of redeeming the situation should be found.

_II. Proposed Legislation_

[Sidenote: Three Recommendations]

The Commissioner-General of Immigration, in his report for 1905, devotes much s.p.a.ce to new or amendatory legislation, which he regards as a necessity.[33] To bring the steamship companies to stricter regard for law, he would raise the penalty for carrying diseased persons from $100 to $500. He favors the debarring of illiterates, and as a special recommendation proposes an international conference of immigration experts, with a view to secure by treaty or convention the cooperation of foreign countries from which aliens migrate hither, both in reducing the number of immigrants and preventing the inadmissible and undesirable cla.s.ses from leaving their own homes.

[Sidenote: Value of International Conference]

Such a conference would certainly be conducive to a good understanding between nations, would doubtless secure an effective restraint of the transportation agencies, and throw such light upon the att.i.tude of foreign governments toward our present system of immigration restriction as would enable Congress to decide intelligently what additional measures are necessary to protect this country from the dangers of an increasing influx of aliens. This is an admirable recommendation. As Mr.

Whelpley says, it is a question of emigration as well as immigration, and since two countries are interested in the migrants, the whole matter is properly one for international conference and action.

[Sidenote: Immigration Bills in Congress]

The interest taken by Congress in immigration is indicated by the introduction in the House during the session of 1906 of nineteen bills to regulate or restrict immigration, while a number were introduced in the Senate also. The House Committee on Immigration, of which Mr.

Gardner, of Ma.s.sachusetts, is chairman, took all the bills into consideration and reported a comprehensive Bill to Regulate the Immigration of Aliens into the United States. This proposed law advances considerably beyond the Act of 1903, which it is designed to replace. It raises the head tax from $2 to $5, introduces the reading test,[34] and practically creates a money test also, by requiring every male immigrant to have $25 in hand at the time of examination.[35] The money from the head tax is to const.i.tute a permanent immigration fund, to defray not only the cost of the Immigration Bureau, but also that of maintaining an information bureau, to save immigrants from being deceived and show them where they are most wanted and likely to succeed.[36]

[Sidenote: The Reading Test Pro and Con]

The section in this proposed legislation that has caused most discussion and dissension is the illiteracy test. This measure has been pressed upon Congress by the Immigration Restrictive League ever since the organization of that Society in 1894. Senator Lodge fathered it and it was pa.s.sed once and vetoed by President Cleveland. President Roosevelt recommended it in his message of December 3, 1901, and it has received the endors.e.m.e.nt of many boards of charities and many leading men. The strongest argument in favor of it is contained in a resolution pa.s.sed by the a.s.sociated Charities of Boston, although the same argument applies broadly to the question of restriction. The reading test was discussed by speakers at the National Immigration Conference, but that meeting did not include it in the resolutions adopted. The Jewish influence is thrown strongly against it, since the Russian Jews who are fleeing from oppression are among the most illiterate of the present immigration. This is due to lack of school facilities, however, for the Jews naturally take to education and the Jewish children in the public schools and high schools are carrying off the prizes. "Not long ago I saw a Jewish girl in a New England academy win the prize in const.i.tutional history over the heads of the boys and girls from American families, though her father was an illiterate Russian Jew."[37]

[Sidenote: In Favor of Illiterates]