Chicago, with its gangs of Sicilian gunmen, is vitally interested in the alien question. President Coolidge and Secretary of Labor Davis have promised their aid in ridding the city and the country of these foreign undesirables, but they can do nothing without a sufficient fund. Aliens of the type of these gunmen, besides being a social hazard and a menace to the lives and property of citizens, are an economic liability as well. It is safe to say, though adequate statistics do not exist, that these undesirables certainly cost the country in a very short space of time as much as it would require to ship them out. Not only do aliens of this sort cost the State the price of keeping them in order but they are also of the type who do not spend their money here in America but send it home against the day when they shall return to their native lands. We are confidant no citizens of the United States would raise his voice were Congress to vote a lump sum of $25,000,000 and demand an immediate cleanup of aliens who do not belong in this country. He is a poor householder who will not get rid of the rats that ravage his larder and endanger the health of his family. LETTER FROM REV. 'BILLY" SUNDAY Hon. ALBERT JOHNSON, Staunton, Va., April 10, 1926. Chairman Immigration Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR CONGRESSMAN JOHNSON: While passing through Washington to-day I learned that there are organizations which are opposed to the deportation bill which your committee is trying to place before the people. In my opinion, the country needs better methods of deportation, and more deportations of alien criminals, alien gunmen, alien bootleggers, etc. I hope that Congress will pass such an act. It will be not only for the best interests of the United States but also for the law-abiding and conscientious aliens who are living among us. With personal regards, I am, sincerely yours, W. A. SUNDAY. ATTITUDE OF METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Bishop Wm. F. McDowell, LL. D., president; Dr. Stephen J. Herben, vice president; Dr. Harry W. Burgan, recording secretary; W. T. Galliher, treasurer; Clarence True Wilson, D. D., general secretary; Research Department, Deets Pickett, secretary] Hon. ALBERT JOHNSON, WASHINGTON, D. C., March 30, 1926. House Office Building, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. JOHNSON: I am informed that there has been certain church opposition to the provisions of the immigration bill which provides for deportation of alien criminals. I inclose you a letter which you may use in your discretion. We also stand ready to give you any other support in maintaining the provisions of the bill which are under fire. DEAR MR. JOHNSON: In our opinion the overwhelming sentiment of the Methodist Church will support any measure enacted by Congress to provide for the deportation of alien criminals. There is a vast dissatisfaction among the American people because of the fact that taxpayers are supporting aliens whose entire time and effort seems to be given to the violation of our laws. In our opinion, the United States would be justified in deporting any alien whose offense against our hospitality has been so serious as to call for a prison sentence, and it would be well if the bill particularly directed the deportation of any alien convicted of violation of the prohibition law, whether or not he had been sentenced to confinement, for such criminals are in almost every case peculiarly dangerous and menacing to public safety and order. Sincerely yours, CLARENCE TRUE WILSON, THE MELTING POT MISTAKE. The following editorial from a recent number of the New York Herald, in reference to enforced naturalization, and calling attention to Prof. Henry P. Fairchild's new book, "The Melting Pot Mistake," should be placed in this record. Professor Fairchild's splendid volume is on the shelves of the committee's library, and I think the publishers will be glad to supply each member of the committee with a copy. You should read it: NO FORCED NATURALIZATION The work of the League for American Citizenship is highly valuable, the more so since its leaders are fully aware that naturalization can not of itself make an American in any but a legal sense. One of the foreign press editors at a conference of the league stated the case frankly when he said: "Naturalization without Americanization is the plight of many aliens who are influenced to take out citizenship papers through reading propaganda." An alien may easily become naturalized with out desiring to become an American at heart, urged on to citizenship in the hope of material advantage, not because he feels that the United States is his country. Ac This kind of skin-deep Americanization is the subject of a chapter in Prof. Henry Pratt Fairchild's clear-headed book, "The Melting Pot Mistake." quaintance with the English language and a modicum of information about our Government are required for naturalization, but "the true test of nationality is not what you know but what you feel." In recent years there has been a great drive for assimilation on the principle that the aliens must and shall be assimilated because they ought to be, and naturalization is taken as evidence that the job has been completed, although it is really no evidence of assimilation. The foreigner has been urged to attain citizenship for what he could get out of it, being told at the same time it is his duty to love America. "It is to be feared,' remarks Mr. Fairchild, “that human nature is just contrary enough so that the surest way to make the average mortal hate an object is to tell him repetitiously that he ought to love it." Very neat is Professor Fairchild's exposure of the queer logic underlying the pressure on all aliens to speed up their assimilation, of which citizenship is to be the infallible token: "The process of reasoning (if such it may be called) which led to the conclusion that the alien should be urged to become a citizen may be summarized somewhat in this wise: 'Every foreigner who has been in this country a sufficient length of time and who has developed the right attitude toward this country will wish to become a citizen. There are millions of foreigners who have not become citizens, and who therefore presumably have not the right attitude toward this country. Therefore let us make them all citizens.' The foreign-press editors are of the opinion that the "why you should become a citizen" preachments are deterimental rather than helpful to the cause of the Americanization of aliens. It is certain that the process of assimilation can not be forced or patriotism manufactured in the naturalization mill. OBJECTS TO METHODS OF HOLDING HEARINGS Of course, not all of the newspaper reports are favorable to this deportation bill. I can not see all of the clippings, but here is one that the committee will enjoy: IMMIGRATION BILL SECRET TREATMENT (By Norman Hapgood, editorial correspondent Universal Service) WASHINGTON, April 2.-There are some subjects that receive plenty of atten tion before they are disposed of. Such a matter is the debt settlement with Italy. There are other matters of great importance which are put through practically in secret. A gross case of that kind is the treatment of the whole large subject of immigration. On July 1 we start in on a new plan of fixing the quota. It may be a sound plan or it may be a snobbish and foolish one. My point is that it was slipped into a bill after it had reached the stage of conference and was never discussed. Chairman Johnson, of the House Committee on Immigration, was the statesman who accomplished that feat. He is now busy accomplishing another. is to introduce registration of aliens without having anybody realize that it is being done. It is to give a bunch of inspectors power over the opinions of as many people as possible. It Mr. Johnson is a devotee. He will save the world for the Mayflower if he can. He will protect us not only from non-Nordics, but from any ideas that have not been in respectable cold storage for at least a century. He doesn't talk quite as much about the peril that faces us all unless everybody thinks just alike, as Blanton, of Texas, does, but he is just as good an American. He has been holding some scrimpy hearings on the immigration bills and bullying any witness who does not say what he wants said so obviously that even a member of the committee was led to protest. An illustration of the extent to which he hopes to increase the power of a bunch of inspectors and other bureaucrats is in an amendment shifting the burden of proof. Heretofore you could send a newcomer back to where he came from if within a reasonable time, varying with the offense, you found adequate evidence that he had committed some crime or misdemeanor. Under a proposed amendment you need no evidence. You merely make a charge, and the burden of proof is on the newcomer to prove a negative, namely, that he did not seven years ago in a small village in Yugoslavia steal a peck of apples or kick his mother-in-law. Of course, he can not prove this negative. He can not find any records of where he was on that day or any witnesses, and he is completely in the power of whatever minor officeholder may be charged with the duty of keeping track of him. The same is true of an offense alleged to have been committed here. One thing he will speedily understand. He had better be regular, safe, and sane. If he shows any interest in any cause that is poorly thought of by the bureaucrats, like the election of La Follette, for example, or a certain strike in the industry in which he works, he can be removed from the country by a machinery as smooth as any formerly possessed by the czars. One proposed change is to increase the time during which a charge is not barred by the statute of limitations. In one of the proposed laws there is no limitation whatever. Of course, this also adds to the difficulty the immigrant has in meeting any past charge raked up against him. The only organization that seems to be active on the liberal side of this human question is the American Civil Liberties Union. And Chairman Johnson thinks all their representatives are in the pay of Moscow. I take it that Mr. Hapgood's comments on "bullying of witnesses refers to the protest made by the chairman against the misleading advance press notices sent out about the appearance of American Civil Liberties Union, by their agent or perhaps to the debate between committee members, including myself, and Mr. Ohlmsted, the attorney from Philadelphia, during which that Civil Liberties representative advocated the right of aliens in the United States to preach the overthrow of this Government by force and violence. That witness himself said that the debate cleared the atmosphere, and I think it did-or that subject at least. LETTER FROM HON. MADISON GRANT I take pleasure in placing before you a letter from Hon. Madison Grant, of New York, who is, as you know, the author of "The Passing of the Great Race," and a leader in the movements to restrict immigration and to grade up our national stock. In that connection, let me say that if you have not read the book of Gino Speranza, entitled "Race or Nation," do so. It is one of the outstanding books of the year on the whole immigration problem. Mr. Grant's letter follows: MADISON GRANT, ATTORNEY AND COUNSELLOR AT LAW, Hon. ALBERT JOHNSON, Chairman Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, House of Representatives. DEAR MR. JOHNSON: The question of deportation of aliens seems certain to arise before your committee during the present session and I am taking the liberty of setting down some of my own views. First, to take up the economic aspect of the question, it is obviously a great injustice to the individual States to place on them the expense of the care of alien criminals and insane. This burden has been imposed upon the States, not by any fault or neglect of their own, but solely through the failure of the Federal Government to enforce its own laws. In the case of the State of New York, I am informed that the cost of maintaining the criminal and insane aliens now in its institutions, amounts to about $7,000,000 annually. If you add to this the cost of maintaining the naturalized foreign-born and their children, the total burden on the States would seem to be enormous. The Representatives in Congress of the States, where the burden is heaviest, must realize that it is their duty to put at least some of this burden on the Federal Government where it properly belongs or by supporting deportation measures to help lessen the burden of their own constituencies. It has been estimated that the cost to the State of New York to maintain a single criminal alien for one year is at least four times the cost of deportation. But the point is, however, that the annual cost of maintenance falls on the State, and the cost of deportation falls on the Federal Government. All the foregoing does not take into consideration the enormous cost to the State of the criminal activities of such aliens, or the cost of convicting them, which can not be estimated. Take the one question of the virtual "Reign of Terror" in New York, Chicago, and other large cities, caused largely by foreignborn gunmen. Why should the lives and property of law-abiding American citizens be endangered by the Federal Government's failure to deport gunmen who ought never to have been here in the first place. These foreigners are not allowed to carry deadly weapons in their own country, but do so freely here. I believe that the alien who has been caught repeatedly carrying a dirk or a revolver, should be deported without regard to the length of his sentence. Any law calling for the deportation of even the most dangerious aliens will be opposed by at least two groups: First, by those individuals and organizations, who, failing to distinguish between freedom and license of speech and action, are using every effort to undermine our form of Government. In so doing, they grotesquely invoke the protection of the very laws they seek to destroy. Secondly, any deportation measure will be opposed by alien blocs, who are striving to increase their numbers and consequently their political strength, by flooding the country with their own kind. This can best be accomplished by the breaking down of the present quota law; but, if they fail in so doing, they will endeavor to accomplish the same result by retaining in this country as many of their own kind as possible. They will oppose any deportation bill, in order that in the course of time, all illegal entrants may be made citizens. A law, providing for the deportation of future illegal entrants, but legalizing the status of illegal entrants already here, might be worse than our own present law. An effective and stringent deportation measure will be, I believe, enormously popular throughout the country. With the highest personal esteem, I remain, yours very sincerely, MADISON GRANT. In this connection let me say that the New York Evening World recently made an editorial appeal to its readers to write to the chairman and all of the members of this committee in opposition to the deportation bill. Now, the strange thing about that is that not over 5 persons wrote to me as requested by the World, while not less than 60 sent in the clipping accompanied by letters urging haste in passing the deportation bill; also making sharp comments about the World's immigration policies, and its featured exposures of last March about the aliens bootlegging on the Florida coast; the surreptitous entries across Mexican border, and the like. You remember the headings, Alien Smuggling Ring in Havana is Vast Enterprise-Seamen, Hotel Employees and Even Judges in Highly Paid Business"; "Student's Trick Used at Havana to get Into United States-Hundreds of Aliens Beat Law by Pretending to Seek Learning; All They Need is Money for Tuition and Nane of Listed School," and so on. 66 The World's appeal for opposition to the deportation bill worked just the other way around. It brought a great appeal for the deportation bill, which we are now considering. And when the Civil Liberties young lady press agent sent out the advance sheet that all kinds of witnesses had appeared at these hearings and testified in opposition to registration of aliens the World newspaper on the very next day printed a ferocious editorial and a big cartoon in opposition to registration, as if we were about to put over a great espionage system. I take it that when we find time to consider the two registration bills now on the committee's calendar, we do so with full notice. MORE DEPORTATIONS NEEDED The following is from the Saturday Evening Post of April 3, 1926: MORE DEPORTATIONS NEEDED The appeal to the Senate made by citizens of Chicago for assistance in cleaning up their municipality directs attention to the intolerable conditions which may be looked for in any great American city which, through years of indifference, has allowed itself to be overrun by bootleggers, gunmen, drug peddlers, and bandits, many of them unnaturalized aliens; others naturalized but still aliens. Chicago is a city of high traditions, of restless energy and of public spirit almost without parallel. Now that she is thoroughly aroused to the gravity of the problem which confronts the city, her better element will not doubt take the situation in hand with a firm and powerful grip; but one of their most effective opportunities for safeguarding local liberties was long ago allowed to go by default. What is true of Chicago is true in a greater or less degree of every important center of population in the land. Nine-tenths of their troubles are traceable to a high percentage of morally defective inhabitants, and ultimately in part to our policy of practically unrestricted immigration during the 40 years when we permitted Europe to dump the bad as well as the good on American shores. Two years ago we repudiated our folly and passed the quota law which bears the name of Congressman Johnson. Judged from the American point of view, it is one of the most beneficent pieces of legislation of the first quarter of the new century; but because it has failed to win the approbation of large sections of southern and eastern Europe and of many of their nationals who are now legally or illegally congregated in American cities, a determined effort is being made to hamstring it. What is more humiliating and alarming is the fact that these attacks have a fighting chance of success. During the next few months the Johnson immigration act will be the object of a concerted onslaught by legislators who would like to remodel it or scrap it, as the case may be, and the form which some of these bills are taking is winning for them a certain amount of unthinking, sentimental support. |