The contract-labor law was found to be generally evaded. Very few persons were ever sent back under it, because those coming under contract were so well "coached" that it was practically impossible to detect them as such. Then, there were other ways of evading it. Agents were sent to Europe to arouse interest in America by circulating glowing descriptions of the wages paid here and the great fortunes to be made. The agent entered into no contract with laborers abroad, but made such promises as influenced them to come. Neither was the evil coming from foreign advertising eliminated by the labor laws in force. When differences arose between employers and employees, advertising abroad for men was still of common occurrence. The workmen here were then brought to terms or the market became overflooded with labor and wages were reduced.

It was also found that steamship companies had large numbers of agents in Europe soliciting passengers. It was claimed in some of the testimony presented to the committee that as many as 25 per cent of the immigrants landed came in violation of the contract-labor law, and influenced by representations of the agents of carrying companies. Immigration through Canada was again considered, and it was declared that 50,000 European immigrants had landed in Canada and reached the United States by this route. They thought it impossible to keep them all out, but recommended that inspectors be located at two points.

The bill presented by the committee aimed to correct these faults in existing law. As it was presented it received rather general favor, the only opposition to it being on the part of the ultrarestrictionists, who tried to have substituted H. R. 58, which raised the head tax from 50 cents to $1 and provided for a thorough consular examination. They even suggested putting the head tax up to $5, but concluded this was not a proper provision, because "If it is intended to put the head tax high enough to limit immigration, to restrict it, to prevent the poorer classes from coming to this country, $5 is not enough to effect that. It ought to be higher. If the object of the head tax is merely to pay the expenses of the administration of an effective system of inspection, $1 would be sufficient." This substitute bill was defeated by a vote of 207 to 41. The bill of the committee passed the House February 25, 1891, by a vote of 125 to 48, and February 27 it passed the Senate without discussion. It was approved March 3, 1891.

THE IMMIGRATION LAW OF 1891.

The purpose of the immigration act of 1891 was to provide for the better selection of immigrants rather than the restriction of immigration. The head tax, being considered merely as a means of raising money for the proper administration of the law, was left at 50 cents, as provided in the law of August 3, 1882, since at that rate it had been sufficient to pay all the legitimate expenses it was designed to meet and leave a surplus.

a Mr. Oates, of Alabama, Congressional Record, Fiftieth Congress, second session, p. 2947.

See Appendix B, p. 98 (26 Stat., p. 1084).

In addition to those excluded under the act of August 3, 1882, convicts, lunatics, paupers, and idiots, also persons suffering from loathsome or contagious disease, polygamists, and persons assisted by others to come, unless under special inquiry they were found not to belong to any one of the excluded classes, were excluded by the act of 1891.

To strengthen the contract-labor law, the encouragement of the immigration of foreigners by promise of employment through advertisements published in any foreign country was made a violation of this act. This provision, however, did not prevent States from advertising the inducements they offered for immigration. All transportation companies were forbidden, either by writing, printing, or oral representation, to solicit, invite, or encourage the immigration of any alien into the United States except by ordinary commercial letters, circulars, advertisements, or oral representations, stating the sailings of their vessels and the terms and facilities of transportation. Ministers, professors of colleges, and members of any recognized profession were excepted from the provisions of the contract-labor clause and these, with skilled workmen, professional artists, lecturers, actors, singers, and personal or domestic servants, completed the list of those who could come into the United States under contract to perform some kind of service. Any person aiding in bringing in any alien excluded by law was guilty of a misdemeanor and became liable to a fine of $1,000 or imprisonment for not more than a year or both.

It now became the duty of the commanding officer of every vessel bringing alien immigrants to report to the proper inspection officers the name, nationality, last residence, and destination of all such aliens; all decisions of the inspection officers refusing any alien the right to land were final unless appeal was taken to the Secretary of the Treasury; the medical examinations of immigrants at United States ports were to be made by surgeons of the United States Marine-Hospital Service, and for the first time inspection of immigrants on the borders of Canada and Mexico was provided for, the Secretary of the Treasury being empowered to prescribe rules for such inspection.

Another provision not found in the law of 1882 was that which allowed the return within a year after arrival of any alien who had come into the United States in violation of law, such return being at the expense of the transportation company or persons bringing such aliens into the country. Any alien becoming a public charge within one year after arrival was considered to have come in violation of law. Finally the office of superintendent of immigration was established, and this office was given the entire charge of all immigration. matters, aside from the enforcing of the Chinese-exclusion act, under the supervision of the Secretary of the Treasury.

Thus it is seen that this law attempted to codify the existing laws; Federal control was completely and definitely established; the clauses relating to exclusion were extended and strengthened; more complete provisions were made for inspection and deportation; and an attempt was made to regulate overland immigration.

THE INVESTIGATIONS OF 1892.

The industrial depression following shortly after the passage of the act of 1891 resulted in renewed efforts for the restriction of immigration. Both the Republican and Democratic Parties in their conventions in 1892 adopted planks favoring the further restriction of immigration, as follows:

REPUBLICAN.

We favor the enactment of more stringent laws and regulations for the restriction of criminal, pauper, and contract immigration.

DEMOCRATIC.

We heartily approve all legitimate efforts to prevent the United States from being used as the dumping ground for the known criminals and professional paupers of Europe, and we demand the rigid enforcement of the laws against Chinese immigration, or the importation of foreign workmen under contract, to degrade American labor and lessen its wages, but we condemn and denounce any and all attempts to restrict the immigration of the industrious and worthy of foreign lands.

The immigration question also continued to receive its full share of attention in Congress, and although the new law had been in force less than one year, on January 29, 1892, a joint committee of the two Houses was charged with investigating the various Federal laws relative to immigration and the importation of contract laborers. This committee reported to Congress on July 28 of the same year. The committee found that many undesirable immigrants were being permitted to land who, under a proper and reasonable construction of the laws, should have been refused admission. This was partly because the old custom of receiving bonds that persons should not become public charges was still continued. Though this might have been allowable under the law of 1882, they considered it illegal under the law of 1891. They also came "to the conclusion that the law permitting the Commissioner of Immigration at any port to be the sole arbiter as to whether an immigrant shall land or not, with an appeal in favor of the immigrant in case he is not permitted to land and no appeal in case he is unlawfully permitted to do so, should be changed." In recommending a more careful inspection of arriving immigrants, they said that what theretofore had been called examinations appeared to be "more of a farce than a reality." To remedy this they proposed that whenever an inspector was in doubt regarding the right of an immigrant to land he might detain him for a special inquiry conducted by four inspectors, the favorable decision of three of them being necessary to admit. Finally, the committee decided that an examination should be made at foreign ports of embarkation by the captain and surgeon of the ship bringing him, thus making the steamship and transportation lines responsible for the character of the persons they bring.

Bills embodying the recommendations of the committee were introduced in the Senate and the House. The Senate bill was passed

• House Report No. 2090, Fifty-second Congress, first session.

S. 3240 (S. Rept. No. 787), H. R. 8904 (H. Rept. No. 1573), Fifty-second Congress, first session.

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without debate on July 27, 1892, but the House took no action at that session.

During the same session the Senate undertook an investigation, having passed the following resolution on July 16, 1892:

That the Committee on Immigration be empowered to investigate the workings of the laws of the United States relative to immigration from foreign countries and the importation of contract labor into the United States, and of the laws and prevailing methods of naturalization.

The result of this investigation was reported to the next session of Congress. Accompanying the report were two bills, one (S. 3786) proposing additional regulations concerning immigration and the other (S. 3513) prohibiting immigration for one year. The reason for the latter bill was the epidemic of cholera then prevailing in Europe.

The bill declaring for the total suspension of immigration for one year, simply to "defeat the arrival of cholera within our borders," however, was deemed too severe, and instead the following provision, which is still in force, was inserted in the general quarantine act: b

That whenever it shall be shown to the satisfaction of the President that by reason of the existence of cholera or other infectious or contagious disease in a foreign country there is a serious danger of the introduction of the same into the United States, and that notwithstanding the quarantine defense this danger is so increased by the introduction of persons or property from such country that a suspension of the right to introduce the same is demanded in the interest of the public health, the President shall have the power to prohibit, in whole or part, the introduction of persons and property from such countries or places as he shall designate and for such period of time as he may deem necessary.

The other bill is interesting in that for the first time restriction of immigration by means of the educational test was recommended. Along with "persons blind or crippled, or otherwise physically imperfect, so that they are wholly or partially disabled from manual labor," and "persons belonging to societies which favor or justify the unlawful destruction of property or life," the majority of the committee proposed and incorporated in their bill a clause excludingall persons physically capable and over twelve years of age who can not read and write with reasonable facility their own language, except that an aged person not so able to read and write who is the parent or grandparent of an admissible immigrant may accompany or be sent for by such immigrant.

The bill also provided for a complete passenger list or manifest made out by the passengers themselves.

In regard to a plan of consular inspection of immigrants, the committee said that while not deeming it expedient to report a provision making it compulsory, they would submit as section 3 of the proposed law a plan for issuing a consular certificate when any person chose to apply for one, in which case upon arrival here he would be subjected to a less rigid examination than if coming without such certificate.

The principal arguments against this bill were that the law of 1891 had been in force only a brief period and its operation as yet had only been of an experimental character. Instead of passing a new law it was argued that it would be better to bring about a more

a House Report No. 1333, Fifty-second Congress, second session.
27 Stat. L., p. 452.

perfect enforcement of the spirit of the existing law. The objection to the educational test was that the demand of the country was not for skilled and educated labor, but " for a class of brawn and muscle to assist in agriculture and in the line of their work to aid in the development of the almost boundless resources of the great West and South." It was further argued that the country was not demanding the exclusion of any but criminals and paupers.

While there were some who favored even a more radical restriction than was proposed in the committee bill, the idea of a better enforcement of the existing laws prevailed, and while the committee's recommendations resulted in a revised immigration law, which was approved March 3, 1893, it was by no means radical.

THE IMMIGRATION LAW OF 1893.

The immigration act of 1893 required the captain or commanding officer of all vessels bringing alien immigrants to deliver upon arrival to the proper immigration official lists of all immigrants aboard their ship. It was further required that these lists be signed and sworn to before the United States consul at the port of departure; their sworn statement being to the effect that, after a personal examination of all the passengers, no persons belonging to classes excluded by United States laws were included in the list.

In regard to each immigrant the list gave the full name, age, and sex; whether married or single; the occupation; whether able to read or write; the nationality; the last residence; the seaport of landing; the final destination; whether having ticket through to such destination; who paid his passage; whether in possession of money; and if so, whether upward of $30; whether going to join a relative; and if so, his name and address; whether ever before in the United States; whether ever in prison or an almshouse; whether under contract to perform labor; and what is the immigrant's health, mentally and physically, and whether deformed or crippled.

No longer would the word of one inspector exclude an immigrant. It now became his duty to detain for special inquiry every immigrant whom he did not think, beyond a doubt, entitled to admission. Special inquiries were to be conducted by not less than four inspectors, and to admit, a favorable decision by at least three of them

was necessary.

Bonds that no alien should become a public charge were allowed to be received only upon express authority given by the Secretary of the Treasury in each special case.

Transportation companies engaged regularly in carrying immigrants were required to certify twice a year to having kept exposed in the office of each of their agents in foreign countries a copy of the law of 1891 and all subsequent laws relating to immigration, and that they had instructed their agents to call the attention thereto of all persons before selling them tickets.

The subject of immigration, however, continued to be agitated in Congress, and on April 5, less than five weeks after the approval of the law of 1893, the Senate passed a resolution which provided-

That the Committee on Immigration be authorized and directed to make inquiry into the condition and character of the alien immigrants coming into

• Appendix B, p. 101 (27 Stat. L., p. 569).