That for the purpose of regulating and preventing the transportation in foreign commerce of alien women and girls for purposes of prostitution and debauchery, the Commissioner

General of Immigration is hereby designated as the authority of the United States to receive and centralize information concerning the procuration of alien women and girls with a view to their debauchery, and to exercise supervision over such alien women and girls, receive their declarations, establish their identity, and ascertain from them who induced them to leave their native countries, respectively; and it shall be the duty of said CommissionerGeneral of Immigration to receive and keep on file in his office the statements and declarations which may be made by such alien women and girls, and those which are hereinafter required pertaining to such alien women and girls engaged in prostitution or debauchery in this country and to furnish receipts for such statements and declarations provided for in this act to the persons, respectively, making and filing them.

During 1911 provision was made (Act of March 4, 1911; 36 Stat. L., 1363, 1442) regarding the crediting of funds reimbursing the Immigration Service for expenses of detained aliens, while an act of the succeeding year (Act of August, 24, 1912; 37 Stat. L., 417, 476) provided for the payment of maintenance and return fare expenses of deported Chinese aliens by the persons or organizations responsible for their arrival.

Department of Labor Created. With the creation of the Department of Labor in 1913 came important organization changes with regard to immigration. The act of March 3, 1913 (37 Stat. L., 736, 737), as has been noted, split the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization into its component divisions, making each a bureau under the new Department of Labor.

The act by its terms relieved the Immigration Service of all matters concerning naturalization and established the Bureau of Immigration, with the duties, status, and type of organization which, generally speaking, are still in effect."

The war now brought with it new problems and intensified many of the existing ones. While this was especially true with regard to citizenship, it applied also to immigration. Minor leniencies and obscure provisions of the law under the stress of conflict assumed vital importance.

28 Supra, p. 12.

Immigration Restrictions Increased. New legislation was indicated" and accordingly "An act to regulate the immigration of aliens to and residence of aliens in the United States " became law" February 5, 1917 (39 Stat. L., 874)."

This law dealt primarily and extensively with the problem of immigration, per se, but clarified and reincorporated old sections of the law and made new provisions relating to the organization and administration of the service.

The outstanding feature of the act with regard to immigration concerned exclusions. By the inclusion of the so-called "literacy test," that is, the requirement that an alien be able to read unless he be prevented by physical incapacity, a radical step had been taken. Although the effect could not be felt immediately the purpose was definitely to restrict numbers, especially in the unskilled labor group, and put immigration upon a “quality " basis. It constituted a new policy."

The second exclusion provision of the law was upon a geographical basis. It established a "barred zone" of a large area in Asia and the Pacific," including most of China and Afghanistan and all of India, Siam, and the East Indies. Emigration from this zone to the United States was prohibited.

On the side of administration and organization the new act made numerous provisions: requiring the Commissioner-General to issue

20 An act of lesser immediate importance, though pertinent, had been approved March 4, 1915 (38 Stat. L., 1164). This was the Seamen's Act, designed to promote the welfare of American seamen." It applied its privileges with regard to payments in American ports to alien seamen while in such ports.

30 The act was returned by the President with objections but was repassed by the necessary two-thirds vote of both houses.

"This law repealed the acts of February 20, 1907 (34 Stat. L., 898), and March 3, 1903 (32 Stat. L., 1213).

** The idea, of course, was not new. A discussion of a possible literacy provision had been included in the report of the Immigration Investigation Commission of October 7, 1895 (pp. 48-50). But a new basis for exclusion was provided. Hitherto the main basis had been disease, poverty, subnormal mentality, immorality, expressed opposition to organized government, and non-assimilability of race.

33 That there was not complete accord on the idea, is indicated by the passage of the act over the President's veto.

"For map of this zone see Bureau of Immigration Laws, Rules of May 1, 1917.

rules and regulations regarding the admission or return of certain aliens (p. 878) and regarding medical examinations (p. 882); placing (after agreement with foreign nations) immigration officers on foreign vessels and prescribing their duties (p. 882); requiring inspection by immigration officers of all aliens arriving by water (p. 885) to determine all defects other than physical or mental (p. 886) and giving such officers power to secure evidence; setting up boards of special inquiry at various ports to determine cases of exclusion and deportation (p. 887); and describing in detail the powers and duties of the Commissioner-General and the Commissioners of Immigration (pp. 892-93) and the method of appointment of various immigration officers (p. 893).

This act, with certain additions, is still in effect, and constitutes the present immigration law."

On October 16, 1918, "An act to exclude and expel from the United States aliens who are members of the anarchistic and similar classes" (40 Stat. L., 1012) was approved. This provided among other things for the deportation after entry of members of classes excluded by the act.*

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Responsibility for such deportation was delegated by the Secretary of Labor to the Bureau of Immigration, thus adding to its duties.

35 The text of the act appears in Appendix 4. It was amended by an act of June 5, 1920 (41 Stat. L., 981), which permitted the admission of illiterate alien girls coming to the United States to marry citizens who were World War veterans.

36

40 Stat. L., 1012 ". . . anarchists; aliens who believe in or advocate the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States or of all forms of law; . . . disbelieve in or are opposed to all organized government; . . . advocate or teach the assassination of public officials; . . . advocate or teach the unlawful destruction of property; are members of or affiliated with any organization that entertains a belief in, teaches, or advocates the overthrow by force or violence of the Government of the United States or of all forms of law, or that entertains or teaches disbelief in or opposition to all organized government, or that advocates the duty, necessity, or propriety of the unlawful assaulting or killing of any officer or officers, either of specific individuals or of officers generally, of the Government of the United States or of any other organized government, because of his or their official character, or that advocates or teaches the unlawful destruction of property. . .

37

Another act of importance at the time, but temporary in its application, was that of October 5, 1917 (40 Stat. L., 340), defining the status of citizens of the United States who entered the military or naval services of certain countries during the European War.

Three days later another act was approved (Act of October 19, 1918; 40 Stat. L., 1014) which dealt with soldiers and sailors. It provided for the readmission to the United States of certain aliens who had volunteered or been conscripted for service with the military forces of the United States, or cobelligerent forces. It allowed the readmission, after the war, of otherwise excludable persons who had served in the armed forces (including Czecho-Slovakian, Polish or other independent forces attached to the United States or a cobelligerent army), permitted admission if cause for exclusion was acquired during military service, extended certain time limits, and eliminated the head tax for ex-service men.

The effects of the war on the legislative mind were displayed in the act of May 10, 1920 (41 Stat. L., 593), passed "to deport certain undesirable aliens and to deny readmission to those deported." The act provided that in addition to the already excludable or deportable classes the following, upon the warrant of the Secretary of Labor, might be deported:

(1) All aliens who are now interned under section 4067 of the Revised Statutes of the United States and the proclamations issued by the President in pursuance of said section under date of April 6, 1917, November 16, 1917, December 11, 1917, and April 19, 1918, respectively.

(2) All aliens who since August 1, 1914, have been or may hereafter be convicted of any violation or conspiracy to violate any of the following Acts or parts of Acts, the judgment on such conviction having become final, namely:

(a) An Act entitled "An Act to punish acts of interference with the foreign relations, the neutrality, and the foreign commerce of the United States, to punish espionage, and better enforce the criminal laws of the United States, and for other purposes," approved June 15, 1917, or the amendment thereof approved May 16, 1918;

(b) An Act entitled "An Act to prohibit the manufacture, distribution, storage, use, and possession in the time of war of explosives, providing regulations for the safe manufacture, distribution, storage, use and possession of the same, and for other purposes," approved October 6, 1917;

(c) An Act entitled "An Act to prevent in time of war departure from and entry into the United States contrary to the public safety," approved May 22, 1918;

(d) An Act entitled " An Act to punish the willful injury or destruction of war material or of war premises or utilities

used in connection with war material, and for other purposes," approved April 20, 1918;

(e) An Act entitled "An Act to authorize the President to increase temporarily the Military Establishment of the United States," approved May 18, 1917, or any amendment thereof or supplement thereto;

(f) An Act entitled "An Act to punish persons who make threats against the President of the United States," approved February 14, 1917;

(g) An Act entitled "An Act to define, regulate, and punish trading with the enemy, and for other purposes," approved October 6, 1917, or any amendment thereof;

(h) Section 6 of the Penal Code of the United States. (3) All aliens who have been or may hereafter be convicted of any offense against section 13 of the said Penal Code committed during the period of August 1, 1914, to April 6, 1917, or of a conspiracy occurring within said period to commit an offense under said section 13, or of any offense committed during said period against the Act entitled "An Act to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies," approved July 2, 1890, in aid of a belligerent in the European War.

Persons expelled under the act were excluded from readmission. On December 26, 1920, an act was approved (41 Stat. L., 1082) providing for hospital treatment of diseased alien seamen, who arrive at American ports suffering from contagious disease, their removal from vessel for observation, retention until cured, and the levying of resultant expense upon the vessel owner.

Recent Developments. The principles of restriction established by the act of 1917 were confirmed and added to within a few years. The experiences of the war and the fear of a flood of low-grade immigration because of economic depression in Europe, led to the act of May 19, 1921 (42 Stat. L., 5).

This act limited the immigration of aliens into the United States to 3 per cent of the number of foreign-born persons of each nationality (not race) resident in the United States according to the census of 1910, making this limitation effective until June 30, 1922.

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38 The reckoning did not include aliens of one year's residence in countries on the American continent, government officers, their families, servants, and attendants, aliens in transit through the United States or temporarily detained, Chinese and Japanese (in accordance with treaties and agreements), and inhabitants of the Asiatic "barred zone." Aliens fleeing from religious persecution were also exempted from quota restrictions.