CONTRACT LABOR AND INDUCED AND ASSISTED IMMIGRATION.

In 1864 a federal law for the encouragement of immigration was enacted. This law provided that all contracts made in foreign countries by emigrants to the United States whereby such emigrants pledged their wages in the United States for not more than one year to repay the expense of emigrating, should be valid in law and might be enforced in the courts. Several companies were organized to deal in contract labor, but their operations aroused much opposition and in 1868 the law was repealed.

CONTRACT-LABOR LAW OF 1885.

Immediately following the repeal of the law an agitation was begun in favor of forbidding the importation of laborers under contract, but it was not until 1885 that the first federal law in this regard was enacted. The text of the law of 1885 is as follows:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That from and after the passage of this act it shall be unlawful for any person, company, partnership, or corporation, in any manner whatsoever, to prepay the transportation, or in any way assist or encourage the importation or migration of any alien or aliens, any foreigner or foreigners, into the United States, its Territories, or the District of Columbia, under contract or agreement, parol or special, express or implied, made previous to the importation or migration of such alien or aliens, foreigner or foreigners, to perform labor or service of any kind in the United States, its Territories, or the District of Columbia.

SEC. 2. That all contracts or agreements, express or implied, parol or special, which may hereafter be made by and between any person, company, partnership, or corporation, and any foreigner or foreigners, alien or aliens, to perform labor or service or having reference to the performance of labor or service by any person in the United States, its Territories, or the District of Columbia, previous to the migration or importation of the person or persons whose labor or service is contracted for into the United States, shall be utterly void and of no effect.

SEC. 3. That for every violation of any of the provisions of section one of this act the person, partnership, company, or corporation violating the same by knowingly assisting, encouraging, or soliciting the migration or importation of any alien or aliens, foreigner or foreigners, into the United States, its Territories, or the District of Columbia, to perform labor or service of any kind under contract or agreement, express or implied, parol or special, with such alien or aliens, foreigner or foreigners, previous to becoming residents or citizens of the United States, shall forfeit and pay for every such offence the sum of one thousand dollars, which may be sued for and recovered by the United States or by any person who shall first bring his action therefor, including any such alien or foreigner who may be a party to any such contract or agreement, as debts of like amount are now recovered in the circuit courts of the United States; the proceeds to be paid into the Treasury of the United States; and separate suits may be brought for each alien or foreigner being a party to such

@ See p. 565.

contract or agreement aforesaid. And it shall be the duty of the district attorney of the proper district to prosecute every such suit at the expense of the United States.

SEC. 4. That the master of any vessel who shall knowingly bring within the United States on any such vessel, and land, or permit to be landed, from any foreign port or place any alien laborer, mechanic, or artisan who, previous to embarkation on such vessel, had entered into contract or agreement, parol or special, express or implied, to perform labor or service in the United States, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and, on conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars for each and every such alien laborer, mechanic, or artisan so brought as aforesaid, and may also be imprisoned for a term not exceeding six months.

SEC. 5. That nothing in this act shall be so construed as to prevent any citizen or subject of any foreign country temporarily residing in the United States, either in private or official capacity, from engaging, under contract or otherwise, persons not residents or citizens of the United States to act as private secretaries, servants, or domestics for such foreigners temporarily residing in the United States as aforesaid; nor shall this act be so construed as to prevent any person, or persons, partnership, or corporation from engaging, under contract or agreement, skilled workmen in foreign countries to perform labor in the United States in or upon any new industry not at present established in the United States: Provided, That skilled labor for that purpose can not be otherwise obtained; nor shall the provisions of this act apply to professional actors, artists, lecturers, or singers, nor to persons employed strictly as personal or domestic servants: Provided, That nothing in this act shall be construed as prohibiting any individual from assisting any member of his family or any relative or personal friend, to migrate from any foreign country to the United States for the purpose of settlement here.

SEC. 6. That all laws or parts of laws conflicting herewith be, and the same are hereby, repealed.

Approved, February 26, 1885.

This law was defective, in that no inspection was provided for, nor was any arrangement made for the general execution of the provisions of the law or for the deportation of the contract laborer himself. The law of 1885 was amended by the act of February 23, 1887, and by this amendment the Secretary of the Treasury was given the same power to exclude and deport contract laborers that he had been given under the act of 1882 over criminals, paupers, idiots, and lunatics. The act of 1885 was again amended on October 9, 1888, by which amendment the Secretary of the Treasury was given power to return within the year any immigrant landed contrary to this law. Eventually the contract labor acts were merged into the general immigration law.

Closely related to the question of contract labor are the subjects of induced and assisted immigration, and because of this fact they also will be considered in this report.

The immigration law of February 20, 1907, which is the law now in force, provided relative to contract labor and induced or solicited immigration as follows:

SEC. 2. That the following classes of aliens shall be excluded from admission into the United States: * persons hereinafter called contract laborers who have been induced or solicited to migrate to this country by offers or promises of employment or in consequence of agreements, oral, written, or printed, express or implied, to perform labor in this country of any kind, skilled or unskilled; those who have been, within one year from the date of application for admission to the United States, deported as having been induced or solicited to migrate as above described; any person whose ticket or passage is paid for with the money of another, or who is assisted by others to come, unless it is affirmatively and satisfactorily shown that such person does not belong to one of the foregoing excluded classes, and that said ticket or passage was not paid

a 34 Stat., p. 898.

*

*

for by any corporation, association, society, municipality, or foreign govern.ment, either directly or indirectly; Provided, That nothing in this act shall exclude, if otherwise admissible, persons convicted of an offense purely political, not involving moral turpitude: Provided further, That the provisions of this section relating to the payments for tickets or passage by any corporation, association, society, municipality, or foreign government shall not apply to the tickets or passage of aliens in immediate and continuous transit through the United States to foreign contiguous territory: And provided further, That skilled labor may be imported if labor of like kind unemployed can not be found in this country: And provided further, That the provisions of this law applicable to contract labor shall not be held to exclude professional actors, artists, lecturers, singers, ministers of any religious denomination, professors for colleges or seminaries, persons belonging to any recognized learned profession, or persons employed strictly as personal or domestic servants.

SEC. 4. That it shall be a misdemeanor for any person, company, partnership, or corporation, in any manner whatsoever, to prepay the transportation or in any way to assist or encourage the importation or migration of any contract laborer or contract laborers into the United States, unless such contract laborer or contract laborers are exempted under the terms of the last two provisos contained in section two of this act.

SEC. 5. That for every violation of any of the provisions of section four of this act the person, partnership, company, or corporation violating the same, by knowingly assisting, encouraging, or soliciting the migration or importation of any contract laborer into the United States shall forfeit and pay for every such offense the sum of one thousand dollars, which may be sued for and recovered by the United States, or by any person who shall first bring his action therefor in his own name and for his own benefit, including any such alien thus promised labor or service of any kind as aforesaid, as debts of like amount are now recovered in the courts of the United States; and separate suits may be brought for each alien thus promised labor or service of any kind as aforesaid. And it shall be the duty of the district attorney of the proper district to prosecute every such suit when brought by the United States.

SEC. 6. That it shall be unlawful and be deemed a violation of section four of this act to assist or encourage the importation or migration of any alien by promise of employment through advertisements printed and published in any foreign country; and any alien coming to this country in consequence of such an advertisement shall be treated as coming under promise or agreement as contemplated in section two of this act, and the penalties imposed by section five of this act shall be applicable to such a case: Provided, That this section shall not apply to States or Territories, the District of Columbia, or places subject to the jurisdiction of the United States advertising the inducements they offer for immigration thereto, respectively.

SEC. 7. That no transportation company or owner or owners of vessels, or others engaged in transporting aliens into the United States, shall, directly or indirectly, either by writing, printing, or oral representation, solicit, invite, or encourage the immigration of any aliens into the United States, but this shall not be held to prevent transportation companies from issuing letters, circulars, or advertisements, stating the sailings of their vessels and terms and facilities of transportation therein; and for a violation of this provision, any such transportation company, and any such owner or owners of vessels, and all others engaged in transporting aliens into the United States, and the agents by them employed, shall be severally subjected to the penalties imposed by section five of this act.

Convictions under the sections relating to contract labor have been few in number and extremely difficult to secure. In this regard, the Commissioner-General of Immigration in his report for 1908, page 215, states:

It is very difficult to secure evidence in such a form as will be sufficient in detail to enable suit to be brought under the penal provisions of the act, though from an administrative point of view the circumstances are often sufficiently convincing that the law has been surreptitiously evaded. In practice it is less difficult to secure the evidence upon which deportation proceedings can be instituted against the laborers who have been imported.

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CONTRACT LABORERS DEBARRED AND DEPORTED.

The number of persons who sought admission to the United States but were debarred as contract laborers is shown in the table which follows for each year from 1892 to 1910. The table also compares for each year the number of contract laborers debarred with the number of immigrants admitted and the number debarred for all causes.

TABLE 1.-Immigrants admitted to the United States, total number debarred, and number of contract laborers debarred, fiscal years 1892 to 1910. [Compiled from reports of the United States Commissioner-General of Immigration. This table does not include those seeking admission from contiguous countries and debarred as contract laborers.]

The number of aliens seeking admission from contiguous territory and debarred as contract laborers during each fiscal year from 1900 to 1910 was as follows:

TABLE 2.-Intended immigrants from foreign contiguous territory refused admission as contract laborers, fiscal years 1900 to 1910.

[Compiled from reports of the United States Commissioner-General of Immigration. For the years 1900 to 1908 the figures are for citizens of foreign contiguous countries and for 1909 to 1910 for permanent residents of foreign contiguous territory applying for temporary sojourn in the United States.]

The immigration law provides for the deportation within three years of aliens who enter the United States in violation of law, and