One attempt to modify the existing law is the preposterous WadsworthPerlman bill. This measure, which proposes to admit fathers, mothers, wives, and unmarried children of aliens now resident in the United States, without regard to the quota principle, would, according to Secretary Kellogg's estimate, at once make eligible for entry no fewer than 577,450 aliens. The most casual glance at the detailed estimates presented by the Department of State shows that more than 450,000 of the persons who would become admissible under the bill are natives of southern and eastern Europe. If this measure were enacted it would have the effect, in respect of certain countries, of hamstringing the quota principle for decades to come. Possibly this is why such determined efforts are being made to put it over. But the Johnson act, instead of being modified, ought to be substantially buttressed and every amendment to it should be of a strengthening rather than of a weakening character. As criminal conditions go from bad to worse in Chicago and other centers of population, as the operations of alien bandits, gunmen, and bootleggers become bolder and more insufferable, there is less and less excuse for deferring the adoption of a rigorous and effective system for the registration of aliens, for their certain identification and for their periodical appearance at designated points. There are certainly a million and possibly a million and half aliens in the country who entered it unlawfully. It is natural that there should be opposition to the introduction of any system which might reveal their illegal status and possibly result in their deportation. This is the reason why they and certain of their native-born champions with permanent vacancies on the top floor front tell us that such methods of control are "un-American." Unfortunately the apprehensions of our illicit guests have no firm foundations. On February 4 Chairman Johnson, of the House Committee on Immigration, sent out a circular telegram of inquiry regarding deportations to the 29 district directors of the Immigration Service. Their replies stated the number of alien criminals, subject to deportation, about to be released from penal institutions. The common report was that their funds had run so low that they were at a loss to find $87 a head to ship these aliens out of the country. Very few of them were able to pay any official attention whatever to the thousands of illegal entrants in their districts who were not in confinement. As a result of their representations it is understood that the Appropriations Committee will allow the Immigration Service $1,000,000 in excess of the amount allocated to it in the Budget. If this is done, released alien convicts can be sent overseas instead of being liberated. It may even be possible with an increased appropriation to build up the border patrol from the skeleton force it now is to a personnel of double its present strength. While the needs of this body are under consideration Congress ought to adopt permissive legislation which will allow it to retain for official use motor vehicles captured from smugglers of aliens. Europe's voice is not the only voice to be heard in the land. Old-fashioned Americans still have their say and still are in the majority, but their margin of control is not what it once was. The Europe-first opposition is steadily gaining in strength and influence. INDORSED BY CLEVELAND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE Hon. ALBERT JOHNSON, [Western Union telegram] CLEVELAND, OHIO, April 14, 1926. Chairman of House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, Washington, D. C.: Cleveland Chamber of Commerce strongly favors Johnson deportation and naturalization bill (H. R. 344), and will greatly appreciate your assistance in securing its passage. Report follows. SECRETARY CLEVELAND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. RESOLUTIONS OF JEFFERSON POST, AMERICAN LEGION, LOUIS VILLE, KY. LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 12, 1926. Be it resolved, That Jefferson Post of the American Legion hereby respectfully recommends to national headquarters of the American Legion that a nationwide campaign be mapped out looking to the deportation of all unnaturalized foreigners, who may be deported under the immigration laws for conviction of crime; that legion posts be instructed to survey the situation in their respective localities, offer their assistance to the proper authorities, and keep the public informed as to such situation; and Be it further resolved, That Jefferson Post instruct its Americanism committee to investigate and keep in touch with this situation in Louisville and Jefferson County, to offer its aid to the proper authorities and to inform this post and the public generally from time to time as to the situation in regard to lawlessness among unnaturalized foreigners and of the progress made by officials in deportable cases. STATEMENT OF HON. THOMAS L. BLANTON Hon. ALBERT JOHNSON, CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, Chairman Committee on Immigration, House of Representatives. MY DEAR COLLEAGUE: I want to congratulate you upon the able, efficient, painstaking, patriotic, and commendable manner in which you conducted your recent hearings and framed your new bill. You and your committee deserve the thanks of the Nation. I have often thanked God that we have you at the head of the important Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. The American Civil Liberties Union and other subversive organizations in the United States, which, under the influence of Soviet Russia, are eternally striving to break down and destroy our institutions meet their Waterloo when they attempt to use your committee. May I say further that, in my judgment, you are one of the most valuable Members, generally, in Congress. Your timely speeches from the floor on many important matters help wonderfully, and your sound judgment and influence is felt frequently on the floor. More strength to you! Sincerely your friend, THOMAS L. BLANTON, Representative from Seventeenth District, Texas. COMMUNISTIC STRIKES IN NEW JERSEY The following is from the Washington, D. C., Star: Beginning on the morning of January 25 last, the Passaic textile strike is in fact the fruit of an organization formed a year ago in Lawrence, Mass., known as the United Front Committee. This committee is the creation of a man who has devoted his life to radical labor organization. He went to Passaic, where there are several large textile mills, and organized there. As a result of the depression in the textile business in the past two years, the mills have been running on part schedule, and last September most of them made a 10 per cent wage cut. On the 25th of January, a delegation representing the United Front Committee went to the management of the Botany Mills and asked for a reinstatement of the former wages. Upon denial and without waiting for a discussion, the committee left the office and went through the buildings throwing off switches and calling out the workers. The United Textile Workers of America, the textile union affiiliated with the American Federation of Labor, has refused to take part in the strike or to assist the Passaic strikers on the ground that it does not represent an effort to help the textile workers, but is a move to "bore from within" by the Communists, headed by the leader of this strike. The head of the American Federation of Labor has announced that the United Front Committee has no standing that can be recognized. The Associated Silk Weavers of Paterson, also affiliated with the American Federation of Labor, has similarly refused to recognize the United Front organization. Most of the speakers at the strike meetings in Passaic and elsewhere are well known as Communists. This fight is recognized by conservative labor leaders and organizations as a part of the radical campaign to gain control of labor organizations. It is part of a campaign for Communists in the United States. LETTER OF DR. SPENCER L. DAWES Hon. ALBERT JOHNSON, STATE OF NEW YORK, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y., April 10, 1926. Chairman House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, House Office Building, Washington, D. C. MY DEAR MR. JOHNSON: Complying with your telegram, I am handing you herewith "brief statement re New York's protests as to cancellations of warrants," both of arrest and deportation. The position of the States mentioned is that, through their departments in these States similar to the State Hospital Commission in the State of New York, they indorse the position of the State of New York. The departments referred to in the various States are as follows: Pennsylvania: William C. Sandy, M. D., director of mental health, department of welfare, Harrisburg, Pa. Massachusetts: George M. Kline, M. D., commissioner, department of mental diseases, statehouse, Boston, Mass. Rhode Island: Louis H. Putnam, director of State institutions, Providence, R. I. New Jersey: William J. Ellis, commissioner, department of institutions and agencies, Trenton, N. J. Washington: Frank C. Morse, State deportation agent, department of business control, Fort Steilacoom, Wash. California: Charles F. Waymire, deportation agent, department of institu tions, Sacramento, Calif. I regret greatly the misunderstanding as to my abilty to appear before your committee, for I have been waiting anxiously for an opportunity to go to Washington and the State hospital commission, for whom I am writing and for whom I appear in each instance, is gravely concerned in this matter. You ask for a few sample cases. I have therefore given you a list of 27 cases covering various months in the calendar year of 1925 in order that you may see that these cancellations are occurring at all times. This does not represent all cancellations made during that period. I will appreciate it greatly if you will advise the commission, through me, as to what action is taken by your committee in this matter. Very respectfully yours, The inclosures follow: SPENCER L. DAWES, M. D., STATE OF NEW YORK, STATE HOSPITAL COMMISSION As may be noted by reference to hearings accorded in the past to the medical examiner of the New York State Hospital Commission, Dr. Spencer L. Dawes, the State of New York has vigorously protested against the practice under the law of the Department of Labor in arbitrarily canceling warrants of arrest and warrants of deportation without giving the interested State an opportunity first to be heard and in refusing to give any reason for such cancellations even upon request for same by the State. It is recognized by the State of New York that the Department of Labor is legally entirely within its rights, and its protest is not so much directed again the department as it is against the law itself. The State of New York believes that granting power such as this to any department or any individual, power to nulify the provisions of the law and its manifest intent and to be exempt from review by any person or any court is without parallel, is unjust and un-American. The State contends that the Department of Labor should be permitted to cancel warrants only upon eivdence presented and after a hearing has been accorded not only the alien himself but the interested State and that whatever the decision may be that such decision should be subject to review by the courts. The contention of the State of New York is supported by departments having jurisdiction over the insane in the Commonwealths of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania, the States of Washington, California, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, and these States and Commonwealths have communicated their desire to their representatives in Congress and to the Senators representing their States. The State of New York, therefore, and the States and Commonwealths before mentioned request that there be included in the immigration act about to be presented to Congress an amendment which will provide a remedy for the condition complained of. A copy of such requested amendment is attached hereto. There is attached also a partial list of the arbitrary cancellation of warrants by the Department of Labor in the year 1925. The State of New York is aware that some of these cancellations may be just and proper, but it is not at present aware that any of these were either just or proper, and on the face of the evidence, so far as the State of New York is aware, none of them were justified. There is also attached to the list of warrants canceled heretofore mentioned a memorandum in the case of Karl Kende, which is illustrative of the injustice which may be worked by the present practice. For the State hospital commission: SPENCER L. DAWES, M. D., PROPOSED AMENDMENT Resolved, That in, cases of warrants of arrest and orders for deportation of aliens the same should not be vacated or extended sine die by the Secretary of Labor without a hearing being granted to the State wherein such alien resided at the time of issuing of the warrant of arrest and a decision reciting the grounds thereof made by him and that such decision should be appealable to the United States courts by such State. Record of some of the canceled warrants in the year 1925 There are other cancellations not here recorded, and in addition there are many cases where "deportation is ordered delayed for one year" by order of the "department," in which class of cases the "department" usually eventually cancels the warrants. The following is submitted: KARL KENDE File No. M-155. Ellis Island No. 98919-62 Arrived United States June 24, 1921. Native of Czechoslovakia. Diagnosis: Dementia praecox, paranoid type. Certified to the department September 18, 1924. Examined at Ellis Island April 10, 1925, to ascertain if "the alien's present condition is of constitutional origin and whether it is likely to recur.” Warrant canceled by order of the department May 8, 1925, and patient ordered discharged over the protests of the medical examiner's office. I take this opportunity_of_informing you that this alien is again a patient in the observation ward at Bellevue Hospital, gravely disturbed, and about to be committed to one of our institutions; this nine months after the cancellation of the warrant by order of the department. I am refraining from commenting upon the grave injustice worked upon the State of New York in this case by the arbitrary action of the department in view of the letter of the Acting Commissioner General in March, 1924, relative to a complaint made by me, a portion of which reads as follows: "The matter of passing on cases involving aliens who have been made the subject of deportation proceedings is one which comes within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Secretary, and when he in his wisdom decides to withhold final action for any particular period he may not with propriety be called upon to explain such action." Very respectfully, SPENCER L. DAWES, M. D., FINANCIAL ASPECTS OF AMERICAN IMMIGRATION Mr. FREE. I have endeavored to place before the committee on a previous occasion a statement on the "Financial Aspects of American Immigration," published in the Economic Journal, of London, for September, 1923. That is the publication of the Royal Economic Society of England. I realize that the article is too long to read to the committee. I ask therefore that it be printed in these hearings. The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, the paper will be printed as suggested. (The paper referred to follows:) FINANCIAL ASPECTS OF AMERICAN IMMIGRATION By Eliot Grinnell Mears, Stanford University, Calif. Reprinted from the Economic Journal September, 1923 Migration of human capital results from influences similar to those of other capital transfers. Tending to gravitate toward those regions where the rate of return offers the greatest attractiveness, the movement of population may be likened to a short-time loan as exemplified by the "birds of passage"; or it may involve a transfer of national wealth, whenever the change of residence becomes permanent. If the newcomer is a pleasure seeker on a temporary stay, he can be regarded both as a national loan and as the objective of a steady flow of remittances from his native land. If he comes as a wage earner with the purpose of transferring his residence permanently, then he himself acts as the capital transfer. Likewise, it is correct to state that when a Scotchman, with large funds invested in home securities, settles in America, not only is there a transfer of wealth of person, but also the funds in Scotland become American capital invested in Scotland.1 The flow of goods responds to economic laws exclusively. The flow of human beings, however, has certain dissimilar features, notably because human capital is a direct agent, is both a producer and a consumer, can not be owned outright or mortgaged, is not an interchangeable unit, and can never be treated alike because of differences in age, sex, literacy, habits, industry, and material condition. Yet nowadays, in most cases the movement of peoples has a predominant economic motive. Certainly this is true as applied to America. Professor Carver states, "The reasons given in favor of the restriction of immigration are purely economic. They relate wholly to the problem of improving the conditions of the lower grades of labor." 2 The motive is gain, pure and simple. And in the quest, all conditions, especially travel, are made as easy and simple as possible through the media of tickets 1 For the best treatment of this too little understood subject of population transfers, consult Josef Grunzel, Economic Protectionism, 1916. 2 Principles of National Economy, 1921, p. 761. |