F. THE FURTHER RESTRICTION OF IMMIGRATION 240. The Menace of the Immigrant Farmer31 BY ROBERT D. WARD To scatter among our rural communities large numbers of aliens whose standards of living are such that they are willing to work for the lowest possible wage, is to expose our native farming population to a competition which is distinctly undesirable. In the corn belt of the west, as Professor T. N. Carver has recently shown, the newer immigrants, because of their lower standards of living, have been able to put more money into land, buildings, and equipment, than the native American farmer; and hence have an advantage in the struggle for existence. Scattering our alien population simply spreads more widely the evils which result from exposing our own people to competition with the lower class of foreigners. Even though Italians displace negroes in the agricultural districts of the South, the effect will undoubtedly be to cause a migration of the negroes to the cities, a result which those familiar with the conditions of the negroes now congested in cities can not fail to view with the greatest alarm. Lastly, the more widely we scatter the newer immigrants, the more widespread will be the effect of the competition with the lower grades of aliens in causing a decrease in numbers among the older portion of our population. American fathers and mothers naturally shrink from exposing their sons and daughters to competition with those who are contented with lower wages and lower standards of living; and therefore the sons and daughters are never born. Even if the slum population should be distributed throughout the rural sections of the country, congestion in the slums could not. be relieved, as long as the tide of new immigration flows on unchecked. Were it not for the continued influx of new immigrants, the problem of the slum burden would not exist. It is quite obvious that the more we try to reduce the pressure of competition among the alien immigrants in our great cities, the more we shall encourage other immigrants, as ignorant and as poor, to come over and take the places vacated. Distribution and a reduction in the number of our immigrants are both needed. 31 Adapted from an article in the Popular Science Monthly, LXVI, 173–175 Copyright (1904). 241. A Protest against Immigration32 Resolved, That the unprecedented movement of the very poor to America from Europe in the last three years has resulted in wholly changing the previous social, political, and economic aspects of the immigration question. The enormous accessions to the ranks of our competing wage-workers, being to a great extent unemployed, or only partly employed at uncertain wages, are lowering the standard of living among the masses of the working people of this country, without giving promise to uplift the great body of immigrants themselves. The overstocking of the labor market has become a menace to many trade-unions, especially those of the less skilled workers. Little or no benefit can possible accrue to an increasing proportion of the great numbers yet coming; they are unfitted to battle intelligently for their rights in this republic, to whose present burdens they but add others still greater. The fate of the majority of the foreign wage-workers now here has served to demonstrate on the largest possible scale that immigration is no solution of the world-wide problem of poverty. Resolved, That we warn the poor of the earth against coming to America with false hopes; it is our duty to inform them that the economic situation in this country is changing with the same rapidity as the methods of industry and commerce. 242. Consular Inspection as a Method of Restriction3 BY BROUGHTON BRANDENBURG Immigration must be either controlled and directed or it must be abolished, and the last-named alternative is eliminated by common sense and considerations of a humane nature. We need the immigrants. Our nation owes its strength today to those who have crossed the ocean in other years. Our great industries need their brawn, our undeveloped regions need their toil, and we can easily accept 150,000,000 more human beings as raw material; but they must come as raw material,-good raw material. That given, our civic atmosphere, our conditions, our national spirit must do the rest, and patriots must look to the children of the immigrants for the results rather than to the immigrants themselves. 32 These resolutions were adopted by the Executive Board of the United Garment Workers in America after an unsuccessful strike in New York in 1905. The members of this trade are very largely Russian Jews. 33 Adapted from Imported Americans, 297–301. Copyright by Frederick A. Stokes Co. (1904). Diseased, deformed, or physically insufficient persons are not and never can be good raw material, and should not be allowed to leave their homes, nor should any members of their families on whom they are, or are likely to be, dependent. Convicts, prostitutes, persons engaged in questionable pursuits, anarchists, radical socialists, and political agitators should be excluded. The true conditions of all such persons is readily ascertainable from the civic, police, and military records in the communes of their residence, to which can be added the supplemental evidence of their neighbors and the local officials of the communes. In the communes of their nativity the truth is known and cannot be hidden. At the ports of embarkation combined influences can deceive the best officials. At the ports of arrival the hand of the inspector is still weaker. The conclusion is plain; seek the grounds on which to deny passage to emigrants who wish to come to the United States in the villages from which they emanate. What seems to me to be the best plan to do this, to keep the expense below that which it is at present, and to avoid the opportunities which are sure to be presented for wholesale corruption of American officials by the transportation interests and by the emigrants themselves, is this: Select emigrants before itinerant boards of two, three, or more native-born Americans who speak fluently and understand thoroughly the language and dialects of the people who come before them,-these boards to be on a civil-service basis. The long diplomatic delays and ensuing red tape of incorporating the privileges of these boards in treaties with the several European governments can be avoided by temporary operation under the present consular system of the United States, and little objection would be met with from any of the governments from whose domains the immigrants come. The sittings of the boards should be announced by advertisements a sufficient length of time in advance to allow all persons contemplating emigration to prepare to appear for examination. Examiners should be prepared to furnish information as to destinations and opportunities, and could, with care, prevent an increase of the congestion in the cities of the East. In extremity, regulations could be made which would allow them to deny clearance and passage to persons desirous of going to districts already over-populated with aliens. It is easy to see how these visiting boards could promote emigration among the classes which are most desirable in northern and central Europe, and are now so chary of coming. Families which have something to lose by being turned back from the United States are loath to dispose of their property and make the venture. If they knew they were certain of admission before they left their homes, a year's time would see the level of the grade of emigrants greatly elevated. Deportation is the severest punishment which can fall on an alien in comparison with anything less than a several years' imprisonment, and all admissions to the country should be made probationary; the commission of any crime or crimes, and conviction therefor, to be followed by punishment and then by deportation. Many of the minor crimes committed by aliens are done with the intention of getting two or three years in prison in which to learn to read and write English and acquire a trade. 243. An Immigration Program3 As a result of the investigation the Commission is of the opinion that in legislation emphasis should be laid on the following principles: I. While the American people welcome the oppressed of other lands, care should be taken that immigration be such in quantity and quality as not to make too difficult the process of assimilation. 2. Further general legislation concerning the admission of immigrants should be based primarily upon economic or business considerations touching the prosperity and economic well-being of our people. 3. The measure of the healthy development of a country is not the extent of its investment of capital, its output of products, or its imports and exports, unless there is a corresponding economic opportunity afforded to the citizen dependent upon employment for his material, mental, and moral development. 4. A slow expansion of industry which permits the adaptation and assimilation of the incoming labor supply is preferable to a very rapid industrial expansion which results in the immigration. of laborers of low standards and efficiency, who imperil the American standard of wages and conditions of employment. The investigations of the Commission show an oversupply of unskilled labor in the basic industries of the country as a whole, and therefore demand legislation which will at the present time re34 Adapted from A Brief Statement of the Conclusions and Recommendations of the Immigration Commission, 37–40 (1910). strict the further admission of such unskilled labor. It is desirable in making these restrictions that: a. A sufficient number be debarred to produce a marked effect upon the present supply of unskilled labor. b. The aliens excluded should be those who come to this country with no intention to become American citizens, but merely to save and return to their own country. C. The aliens excluded should be those who would least readily. be assimilated. The following methods of restricting immigration have been suggested: a. The exclusion of those unable to read or write in some language. b. The limitation of the number of each race arriving each year to a certain percentage of the average of that race arriving during a given period of years. c. The exclusion of unskilled laborers unaccompanied by wives or families. d. The limitation of the number of immigrants arriving annually at any port. e. The material increase in the amount of money required to be in the possession of the immigrant at the port of arrival. f. The material increase in the head tax. g. The levy of the head tax so as to make a marked discrimination in favor of men with families. A majority of the Commission favor the reading and writing test as the most feasible single method of restricting undesirable immigration. 244. The Pro and Con of the Literacy Test a) The Necessity for the Educational Test35 BY P. F. HALL If we are to apply some further method of selection to immigrants what shall it be? It must be a definite test. For one trouble with the present law is that it is so vague and elastic that it can be interpreted to suit the temper of any of the higher officials who may happen to be charged with its execution. While there are many exceptions, those persons who can not read in their own language are, in general, those who are also ignorant of a trade, who 35 Adapted from an article in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, XXIV. 183. Copyright (1904). |