on March 3, 1891, and on January 29, 1892, a joint committee was charged with investigating the workings of the various laws of the United States relative to immigration and the importation of contract laborers. This committee made a report 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 law should have been refused admission, and that the law permitting the commissioner of immigration at any port to be the sole arbiter as to whether an immigrant should 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 immigrants the committee said that what theretofore had been called examinations appeared to be more of a farce than a reality. To remedy this it was 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 and passed by the Senate without debate, but the House took no action at that session. On July 16, 1892, the Senate passed a resolution providing that the Committee on Immigration be empowered to investigate the workings of the immigration laws and the importation of contract labor, as well as the laws of the prevailing methods of naturalization. The result of this investigation was reported to the next session of Congress. Accompanying the report were two bills, one establishing additional regulations concerning immigration and the other entirely 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, was deemed too severe, and instead the following provision, which is still in force, was inserted in the general quarantine act:° 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 in 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 presented by the Senate committee is interesting in that for the first time restriction of immigration by means of an educational test was recommended by a congressional committee. When the committee's report was presented it was argued in Congress that the law of 1891 had been in force only a brief period and H. Rept. No. 2090, 52d Cong., 1st sess. its operation as yet had been only of an experimental character, and that instead of passing a new law it would be better to bring about a proper 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 immigrants 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 promoting 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. One important provision of the law of 1893 was that boards of special inquiry should pass upon the admissibility of immigrants, a practice which has since prevailed. With the exception of an amendment to an appropriation act in 1894 raising the head tax on immigrants from 50 cents to $1, no immigration legislation was enacted until 1903. The agitation of the subject in Congress continued, however, and the period is interesting chiefly because of the adoption by both houses of Congress of a bill providing for an educational test for immigrants and the veto of the bill by President Cleveland. PRESIDENT CLEVELAND'S VETO. As the bill went to the President it provided that persons physically capable and over 16 years of age who could not read and write the English language or some other language, parents, grandparents, wives, and minor children of admissible immigrants being excepted, were added to the excluded classes. President Cleveland returned the bill with his veto on March 2, 1897. He objected to the radical departure from the previous national policy relating to immigration, which welcomed all who came, the success of which policy was attested by the last century's great growth. In referring to the claim that the quality of recent immigration was undesirable, he said: "The time is quite within recent memory when the same thing was said of immigrants who, with their descendants, are now numbered among our best citizens." The prevailing disturbed labor conditions he attributed to a general business depression, which would in no way be affected by restricting immigration. In referring to "the best reason that could be given for this radical restriction of immigration," the "protecting of our population against degeneration and saving our national peace and quiet from imported turbulence and disorder," President Cleveland said that he did not think it would be protected against these evils by limiting immigration to those who could read and write, for, in his mind, it was safer "to admit a hundred thousand immigrants who, though unable to read and write, seek among us only a home and 427 Stat., p. 569. S. Doc. No. 185, 54th Cong., 2d sess. opportunity to work, than to admit one of those unruly agitators who can not only read and write, but delights in arousing by inflammatory speech the illiterate and peacefully inclined to discontent." Those classes which we ought to exclude, he claimed, should be legislated against directly. Sections of the bill declaring it a crime for an alien regularly to come into the United States for the purpose of obtaining work from private parties, President Cleveland declared, were "illiberal, narrow, and un-American," and, besides, he said, the residents of these border States and Territories "have separate and especial interests which in many cases make an interchange of labor between their people and their alien neighbors most important, frequently with the advantage largely in favor of our citizens." On March 3, 1897, the House passed the bill over the President's veto by a vote of 193 to 37, but no action was taken in the Senate, and considering the close vote by which the conference report was adopted by the Senate it is very doubtful whether it could have been passed over the veto. In the Fifty-fifth Congress the bill which President Cleveland vetoed was again introduced and passed the Senate by a vote of 45 to 28, but the House of Representatives refused to consider it by a vote of 103 to 101. INVESTIGATIONS BY THE INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION. By an act of June 18, 1898, the Industrial Commission was created. Section 2 of this act provided: That it shall be the duty of this commission to investigate questions pertaining to immigration, and to report to Congress and to suggest such legislation as it may deem best upon these subjects. The final report of this commission containing recommendations relative to immigration legislation was submitted to Congress on February 20, 1902, and shortly afterwards a bill was introduced in the House which was substantially in accord with the recommendations made. The principal object of the bill was to codify in concise form all immigration legislation before enacted, from the act of March 3, 1875, to the act of 1894, and to arrange the legislation in regular order and sequence according to the various specific subjects dealt with in the bill. When the Industrial Commission bill was before the House, an amendment was added providing for the exclusion of all persons over 15 who were unable to read the English language or some other language, excepting the wife, children under 18 years of age, and parents and grandparents of admissible immigrants. This amendment was adopted in the House by a vote of 86 to 7. With the addition of the literacy test provision the bill passed the House May 27, 1902, practically as introduced, but the Senate did not act upon it until the following session. Besides eliminating the educational test and raising the head tax from $1 to $2, the Senate added provisions making it unlawful for any person to assist in the unlawful entry or naturalization of alien anarchists. These amendments were accepted by the House. Before the final passage of the bill a provision was added providing that no alien, even if belonging in the excluded classes, should be deported if liable to execution for a religious offense in the country from which he came, but this provision was eliminated in conference. The bill was approved by the President March 3, 1903. From the act of March 3, 1903, until the act of February 20, 1907, no laws of general importance affecting immigration were enacted by Congress. On February 14, 1903, the Department of Commerce and Labor was established and the Commissioner-General of Immigration was placed under the jurisdiction and supervision of that department. By the law of June 29, 1906, providing for a uniform rule for the naturalization of aliens, the designation of the Bureau of Immigration was changed to the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization, and it was charged with the administration of the new naturalization law. The agitation of the immigration question was continued, however, and at each session of Congress several bills proposing restrictions or a stricter supervision of immigration were introduced. In the Fifty-eighth Congress a bill was introduced which proposed to limit the number of aliens from any one nation allowed to enter the United States in any one fiscal year to 80,000, but no action was taken upon it. THE IMMIGRATION LAW OF 1907. In the first session of the Fifty-ninth Congress, following the popular demand for the further regulation of alien immigration, several bills were introduced and bills were passed by both the Senate and House, but were not finally enacted into law until the second session of that Congress. A bill introduced by Senator Dillingham, of Vermont, which provided for some important administrative changes in the immigration act of 1903, was reported from the Senate committee March 29, 1906. This bill, as reported, proposed several changes in the law. The head tax on immigrants was increased from $2 to $5; imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, unaccompanied children under 17 years of age, and persons "who are found to be and are certified by the examining surgeon as being mentally or physically defective, such mental or physical defect being of a nature which may affect the ability of such aliens to earn a living," were added to the excluded classes; the provision of existing law excluding prostitutes was amended to also exclude "women or girls coming into the United States for the purpose of prostitution or for any other immoral purpose; " steamship companies were required to furnish lists of outgoing passengers; and the creation of a division of distribution in the Bureau of Immigration was authorized. In the Senate the bill was amended by the insertion of a literacy test which provided for the exclusion from the United States of all persons over sixteen years of age and physically capable of reading who can not read the English language or some other language; but an admissible immigrant or a person now in or hereafter admitted to this country may bring in or send for his wife, his children under eighteen years of age, and his parents or grandparents over fifty years of age, if they are otherwise admissible, whether they are so able to read or not. a 32 Stat., pt. 1, p. 1213. The bill as amended passed the Senate May 23, 1906, and in the House was referred to the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization. This committee recommended the substitution of a House bill which, however, did not differ materially from that of the Senate. The head tax provision was the same and the additions to the excluded classes practically so; a literacy test similar to that of the Senate was also included. The bill as originally reported by the House committee also provided for the exclusion of every adult male who had not $25 in his possession, and every female alien and every male alien under 16 years not possessed of $15, provided that $50 in the possession of the head of a family would be considered a sufficient amount for all members of such family, except grown sons. In a subsequent bill and report," presented June 11, 1906, however, the money qualification feature was omitted. The reports of the House committee were accompanied by a minority report, signed by two members of the committee, Mr. Bennet and Mr. Ruppert, both of New York, in which the increased head tax and the educational test provisions were disagreed to. In the House of Representatives the bill was amended by striking out the increased head-tax provision and the provision for a literacy test, by inserting a section creating the Immigration Commission, and by adopting the so-called Littauer amendment, which provided as follows:" That an immigrant who proves that he is seeking admission to this country solely to avoid prosecution or punishment on religious or political grounds, for an offense of a political character, or prosecution involving danger of punishment, or danger to life or limb on account of religious belief, shall not be deported because of want of means or the probability of his being unable to earn a livelihood. In conference between the two Houses the Senate receded from its provision relative to a literacy test; the House receded from the Littauer amendment; the head-tax provision was compromised by fixing the amount at $4, instead of $5 as provided by the Senate and $2 as provided by the House; the House amendment creating the Immigration Commission was agreed to with an amendment, which provided that the Commission should consist of three Senators, three Members of the House of Representatives, and three persons to be appointed by the President of the United States, instead of two Senators, three Members of the House, and two citizen members, as was provided in the House amendment. The section creating the Commission was further amended in conference by the addition of the following provision: the President of the United States is also authorized, in the name of the Government of the United States, to call, in his discretion, an international conference, to assemble at such point as may be agreed upon, or to send special commissioners to any foreign country, for the purpose of regulating by international agreement, subject to the advice and consent of the Senate of the United States, the immigration of aliens to the United States; of providing for the mental, moral, and physical examination of such aliens by American consuls or other officers of the United States Government at the ports of embarkation, or elsewhere; of securing the assistance of foreign governments in their own territories to prevent the evasion of the laws of the United States 59th Cong., 1st sess., H. R. 17941 (H. Rept. No. 3021). |