Palestine, Bulgaria, Rumania, Poland, Russia, Italy-all the small quota countries since, even if the entire quotas could be devoted to relatives of resident aliens, petitions would quickly be filed in sufficient numbers to mortgage these quotas for many years ahead and the United States would be filled with disappointed and embittered resident aliens-many, if not most of whom would complain to their representative in Congress. RELIEF BY ENLARGEMENT OF PREFERENCES WITHIN QUOTAS It would seem, therefore, that the action that would most benefit wives, children, and parents of resident aliens without causing confusion and bitterness and without increasing materially the numbers permitted to come into the country annually by the act of 1924, is to increase the proportion of the nonpreference quota under which aliens in these relationship classes may come. The increase in numbers available for the visas of relatives of resident aliens which will follow a raise in the nonpreference portion of the quotas (or a reduction in the percentages reserved for preference classes) is striking. For example: 50 per cent available for nonpreferences (as at present) _ 60 per cent available for nonpreferences.. 70 per cent available for nonpreferences_ 82, 334 98, 800 115, 266 If the last percentage were available it would go far toward taking care of the 80,000 wives and children of declarants estimated by Mr. Jacobstein to be in Europe. In five years it might safely be assumed that most of them would be taken care of and many thousand parents of declarant aliens in addition. But how are the quotas to be cleared for the accommodation of these relatives? Congress is now considering the proposal to allow fathers and mothers, husbands, unmarried children between the ages of 18 and 21 of American citizens to come at once nonquota. Other measures propose reducing the percentage within the quota to whom preference is given on occupational grounds. OCCUPATIONAL PREFERENCE The preferences accorded to aliens skilled in agriculture are localized in northern and western Europe for two reasons; first, that is where the skilled farmers are and, second, preferences ro relatives of naturalized citizens whose petitions had been approved in large numbers took up practically all the 50 per cent of the quotas allowed for the southern and eastern European quotas because the quotas are smaller and because the relatives in the United States from these countries are more numerous. During the last fiscal years the countries from which appreciable numbers of skilled agriculturists came were as follows: 1 Text of sec. 6, act of 1924, "Preferences within quotas," is as follows: "SEC. 6 (a) In the issuance of immigration visas to quota immigrants preference shall be given"(1) To a quota immigrant who is the unmarried child under 21 years of age, the father, the mother, the husband, or the wife, of a citizen of the United States who is 21 years of age or over; and "(2) To a quota immigrant who is skilled in agriculture, and his wife, and his dependent children under the age of 16 years, if accompanying or following to join him. The preference provided in this paragraph shall not apply to immigrants of any nationality the annual quota for which is less than 300. "(b) The preference provided in subdivision (a) shall not in the case of quota immigrants of any nationality exceed 50 per cent of the annual quota for such nationality. Nothing in this section shall be construed to grant to the class of immigrants specified in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) a priority in preference over the class specified in paragraph (2). "(c) The preference provided in this section shall, in the case of quota immigrants of any nationality, be given in the calendar month in which the right to preference is established, if the number of immigration visas which may be issued in such month to quota immigrants of such nationality has not already beer issued; otherwise in the next calendar month." The consuls expected to have spurious claims of skill in agriculture made to them, and doubtless did, and in consequence were conservative in allowing such claims. If there was no competition between relative and agricultural preferences and the consuls were adviced that, within limits specified by Congress, this Government desired to encourage the immigration of aliens skilled in agriculture, and if this specified limit was 25 per cent of the national quotas, there is no reason to suppose we would not draw from northern and western Europe approximately the following number of aliens possessing the requisite skill and training in farming, a large proportion of whom might reasonably be expected to go on our farms because that would be the work for which they were best fitted: Properly administered and with the competition from relative preferences removed, a straight 25 per cent preference provision in section 6 for aliens skilled in agriculture would get us more farmers per year than we are getting under the present section. SKILLED TECHNICIANS The immigration act of 1924 makes no provision for supplying special needs for technical labor in American manufactories and its quota provisions effectively nullify the provisions for the importation of skilled labor under special advance authority from the Secretary of Labor which were contained in section 3 of the act of February 5, 1917. It is true that the authority to waive the contract labor provisions of the act of 1917 are still in that statute, but the act of 1924 makes no provisions for granting preference in the issue of quota immigration visas to the persons covered by such waivers. So of course they take their turn on the waiting list. Such a preference has been repeatedly urged before the Immigration Committee. The legitimate needs are sporadic and do not involve large numbers of aliens but when they do arise they are insistent. In the course of the administration of the act of 1924 several such needs have been brought strongly to the attention of the officers charged with its execution, among others, technical steel mixing experts needed by the United States Steel Corporation, weavers in metal thread needed by the Windsor Locks Co., and expert glass workers needed by the Corning Glass Works. In view of the strictly limited number involved (since the number would be limited by Congress to any per cent of the quota, and 5 per cent is ample to meet the legitimate demand) it has been proposed that a general waiver of the contract labor provisions of the act of 1917 be made in favor of the technical labor so imported. The granting of preference to occupational classes involves more than a determination whether labor of like kind unemployed can or can not be found in the United States. To be properly safeguarded, it might also involve a determination as to whether the demand on the part of the American industry is a legitimate one and not a spurious one fabricated for the purpose of evading the restrictive immigration law or gaining an advantage for a particular race or nationality. It might involve, too, the need of safeguarding our foreign relations and insuring that the selection and the inducement to migrate of skilled labor abroad is not carried to a point which would disrupt the industry of any locality and result in a legitimate protest on the part of a foreign Government. If, as has been proposed, provisions were made that would leave 70 per cent of the annual quotas available for aliens who were the relatives of resident aliens, they would go far toward meeting the demand for increased facilities for uniting separated families and at the same time increase the total immigration only to the extent that preference relatives of American citizens now held up by the 50 per cent preference limitation—or a total of about 14,000 persons. (Whereupon, at 12 o'clock noon, the committee adjourned until Monday, March 29, 1926, at 10 o'clock a. m.) SUPPLEMENTAL STATEMENTS SUBMITTED TO THE COMMITTEE BY THE CHAIRMAN RESOLUTIONS OF ALLIED PATRIOTIC SOCIETIES ON VARIOUS PENDING BILLS THIRD ANNUAL REPORT OF COMMITTEE ON IMMIGRATION OF THE ALLIED PATRIOTIC SOCIETIES (INC.), APPROVED AT A REGULAR MEETING OF THE SOCIETIES, HELD ON FEBRUARY 3, 1926, IN NEW YORK. The committee unaimously recommends the following resolutions to the affiliated societies: I. That this society is opposed to the passage of any of the bills pending in Congress which would add to, enlarge, or extend the classes of immigrants admitted outside of the quotas. II. That this society favors an amendment of the immigration act placing quota restrictions on the independent countries of North and South America and of the West Indies. 111. That this society urges the passage of an act requiring the registration of all aliens in the United States. IV. That this society believes that it should be enacted that no consul shall issue an immigration visa unless the immigrant shall produce in addition to the documents now required, a passport of such a character as will enable the United States to deport the immigrant if ineligible to remain in the country under our laws. In support of the foregoing porposed resolutions the committee submits the following statement: EFFECTS OF THE IMMIGRATION ACT OF 1924 Figures for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1925 have recently become available through the publication of the annual report of the Commissioner General of Immigration, the Hon. Harry E. Hull. The following figures as to the admission of aliens during the past fiscal year are taken from page 3 of the report: Nonimmigrant aliens. Total number of immigrants.. 60, 203 145, 971 250, 912 457, 086 396, 883 With respect to the above figure for the total immigration (396,883), it should be observed that a different total, i. e., 294,313, is given in certain statistical tables in the report (see pp. 42, 44, 58, etc.) In these tables certain aliens classified as "immigrants' under the terms of the act are not included. These consist principally of aliens previously admitted to the United States who return from temporary visits abroad, or immigrants (particularly from Mexico) who state that their last place of permanent residence was the United States. For statistical purposes these are deducted from the total number of immigrants. The difference between the two totals thus explained, amounting to approximately 102,000, is not referred to in the text of the report. It is submitted that in order that the general public may easily grasp the main facts of this great subject of immigration, it might be well if in official reports a single basis of calculating the total annual immigration were adjered to, or that an explanation were given of any departure from such method. For the purpose of comparing the immigration during the last year with the immigration of previous years, the correct figure to take is undoubtedly the lower figure of 294,314. ACTUAL QUOTA IMMIGRATION The quota immigration during the last year has been shown to be 145,971. The commissioner general explains that the reason this figure is lower than the total immigration permitted under the quotas (164667) is simply that under the present law immigration visas are good for four months from the date of issue. Thus many quota immigrants whose visas were issued within the last fiscal year did not actually enter the United States until the first part of the present fiscal year. The commissioner states that the quotas of all large countries for the last year were entirely used up. Moreover, applications now on file are sufficient to exhaust the quotas of many countries for years to come. We now insert a table showing the annual immigration to the United States since the war (not including illegal entries): Two outstanding facts appear from this table as to the effects of the act of 1924. First, the total immigration was reduced from 706, 896 to 294,313 by the new act, a reduction of over 400,000. Second, as compared with the first year under the law of 1921 (in which the immigration was 309,556) the new act has effected a reduction of less than 15,000. The enormous increase in annual immigration in the second and third years under the law of 1921 was due to a big loophole in that law which immigrants soon took advantage of. That law permitted immigrants from quota countries to enter the United States from nonquota countries after a brief residence therein; so that a large indirect European immigration found its way into the United States, principally from Canada and Mexico, in order to avoid quota restrictions. The new act by restricting the quota exemption for nonquota countries to persons born in those countries has cut off this indirect immigration. However, failure to place quotas on the countries of the Western Hemisphere still permits an unrestricted immigration of the natives of those countries which are at present without numerical restriction. It is by reason of this fact that the nonquota immigration is still so large-250,912-and that it greatly exceeds the quota immigration. NONQUOTA IMMIGRATIONS FROM WESTERN HEMISPHERE The nonquota immigration from Canada and Newfoundland is shown by the report to have been 105,076; from Mexico, 50,608; from independent countries of South and Central America, 7,617; from the West Indies, 11,963. The last figure does not include immigration from the colonial islands of the West Indies, which comes in under the quotas of the mother countries. It was one of the purposes of the act of 1924 to restrict nonwhite immigrations to the United States by the provision that no aliens ineligible to citizenship are to be admitted as permanent settlers. Our naturalization law inures to the benefit only of persons of the white race and persons of African descent, so that the provision referred to can not affect immigration of African race. IMMIGRATION FROM COUNTRIES SOUTH OF THE UNITED STATES A large part of the immigration now admitted from Mexico and certain other countries is neither white nor of African descent. Much of this immigration is racially not assimilable and is undesirable from an economic point of view because of the lower standard of living in the countries whence the immigrant comes. A survey of the population of the countries to the south of the United States by Robert F. Foerster, professor of economics at Princeton University, made a part of the hearings before the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization of the House of Representatives in March, 1925, shows that except in two or three of the countries referred to, not more than 10 per cent of the population is of pure white stock. IMMIGRATION FROM THE WEST INDIES With special reference to immigration from the West Indies, attention is again called to the fact that since the year 1899 upward of 135,000 aliens of African race have been admitted to the United States, principally from the West Indies. Much of this colored immigration is finding its way to the northern and eastern sections of the United States, thereby unnecessarily aggravating the serious race problem which we have already. Because of the great necessity of preserving the white race in the United States as well as the desirability of protecting American standards of living, your com mittee again recommends that the act of 1924 be extended so as to place quota restrictions on all those countries of the Western Hemisphere where the population is nor preponderantly of white stocks. The recommendation leaves open the question of putting a quota on Canada. That question presents a difficult problem, which perhaps must be separately treated, not only because of the close relations, commercial and other, existing for a long period between Canada and the United States, but also because Canada is the only country of the Western Hemisphere from which we have received any considerable immigration which is preponderantly and almost exclusively composed of white races. As to Canadian immigration, however, the question must be considered whether some definite limit should not be put upon it in order to protect the American standard of living from a sudden influx of cheap labor. Because of the fact that the side doors to the United States are still wide open to immigration, there are already indications that great as are the results accomplished by the present law, it will not keep down the total immigration from foreign lands to the point of safety or to the point which Congress intended. Against the common assumption that the measure of restriction already effected by the present act in its first year will be maintained in the future, we are warned by our experience with the act of 1921. That law, after restricting immigration for the first year to 309,000, admitted, two years later, 706,000. Testimony recently given to the House Committee on Immigration by officials of the State Department shows that applications are already piling up for admission of relatives of United States citizens, in the nonquota class (wives and unmarried children under 18). The procedure under the act of 1924 is such that it slowed up the number of applications during the first months when the act was in effect because petitions stating the facts must first be filed with the Secretary of Labor before the exemption can be granted. As the procedure and the exemptions become better known, the numbers admitted in this way are found to be steadily increasing. Therefore, the number of wives and children of citizens admitted during the last fiscal year outside of the quotas (7,217) is no criterion of what the number will be in future years. Without change in the law a conservative estimate of the total immigration for the current year ending June 30, 1926, would be at least 50,000 in excess of the immigration during the last year, giving an actual immigration (including about 100,000 returning immigrants) of approximately 450,000. This figure, moreover, will be further augmented if the present demand in certain quarters for cheap foreign labor (without any actual labor shortage in the United States) results in a still larger immigration from Mexico and other nonquota countries. Unless some check is put upon the probable increase from this source, an annual immigration of over 500,000 is likely in the near future. Moreover, present indications are that no great offset to this large immigration is to be expected from emigration. During the first year under the new law emigration was only 92,728, as against 76,789 in the year preceding, and 81,450 in 1922-23. ATTACKS ON THE ACT OF 1924 The act of 1924 was passed by overwhelming majorities in both Houses of Congress by a vote of 308 to 62 in the House of Representatives and by a vote of 69 to 9 in the Senate. That it represented the will of the great majority of the citizens of the United States there can be no doubt. Nor is there any reason to believe that the will of the people has changed since the law was passed. On the contrary, the operation of the law thus far has met with general approval, except from the same few well-defined groups which opposed its passage. The present Congress is probably even more strongly in favor of effective restriction of immigration than was the last. Notwithstanding this situation, a number of bills have been introduced in the House and in the Senate which, if passed, would largely nullify the present act by adding enormously to the already large immigration admitted outside the quotas. The most plausible-while at the same time the most dangerous-are the bills to admit outside of the quotas relatives of immigrants already here or to come in the future without numerical restriction. WOULD ADMIT GREAT NUMBER Proposals contained in the Wadsworth-Perlman bill (S. 2245 and H. R. 7089) are fundamentally destructive of the principle of quota limitation. The bill |