LICENSES OF DRIVERS OF PASSENGER VEHICLES FOR HIRE. APRIL 15, 1912.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed. Mr. JOHNSON of Kentucky, from the Committee on the District of Columbia, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 22010.] The Committee on the District of Columbia, to whom was referred H. R. 22010, report the same back to the House with the recommendation that it do pass with amendments. Page 1, line 11, after "a" and "railway," insert the word "street"; in same line strike out "or traction"; in same line, after the word "company," insert a comma. Page 2, line 24, after the word "by," insert "street"; same line strike out "or traction." о IMMIGRATION OF ALIENS INTO THE UNITED STATES. APRIL 16, 1912.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed. Mr. BURNETT, from the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 22527.] The Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, to which was referred the bill (H. R. 22527) to further restrict the admission of aliens into the United States, reports the same without amendment, in lieu of the Gardner bill (H. R. 1343) and the Hayes bill (H. R. 4673) on the same subject, and recommends that it be passed. The text of the bill as reported is as follows: [H. R. 22527, Sixty-second Congress, second session.] A BILL To further restrict the admission of aliens into the United States. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That after four months from the the approval of this act in addition to the aliens who are by law now excluded from admission into the United States the following persons shall also be excluded from admission thereto, to wit: All aliens over sixteen years of age, physically capable of reading, who can not read the English language, or the language or dialect of some other country, including Hebrew or Yiddish: Provided That any admissible alien or any alien heretofore or hereafter legally admitted any citizen of the United States may bring in or send for his father or grandfather over fifty-five years of age, his wife, his mother, his grandmother, or his unmarried or widowed daughter, if otherwise admissible, whether such relative can read or not; and such relatives shall be permitted to land. SEC. 2. That for the purpose of ascertaining whether aliens can read or not the immigrant inspectors shall be furnished with copies of uniform slips, prepared under the direction of the Secretary of Commerce and Labor, each containing not less than thirty nor more than forty words in ordinary use, printed in plain type in the various languages and dialects of immigrants. Each alien may designate the particular language or dialect in which he desires the examination to be made, and shall be required to read the words printed on the slip in such language or dialect. No two aliens coming in the same vessel or other vehicle of carriage or transportation shall be tested with the same slip. SEC. 3. That the following classes of persons shall be exempt from the operation of this act, to wit: (a) All aliens who shall prove to the satisfaction of the proper immigration officer or to the Secretary of Commerce and Labor that they are seeking admission to the United States solely for the purpose of escaping from religious prosecution; (b) all aliens in transit through the United States; (c) all aliens who have been lawfully admitted to the United States and who later shall go in transit from one part of the United States to another through foreign contiguous territory. SEC. 4. That an alien refused admission to the United States under the provisions of this act shall be sent back to the country whence he came in the manner provided by section nineteen of "An act to regulate the immigration of aliens into the United States," approved February twentieth, nineteen hundred and seven. It will be seen that the main purpose of the bill is to exclude from the United States alien immigrants over 16 years of age who are unable to read their own language or dialect. In order that there might be no doubt about the Hebrew and Yiddish being considered as either a language or dialect, they are expressly embraced in the bill. From the requirement of the illiteracy test in the bill, there are several exceptions which the committee thought wise to make. We believe that those who are fleeing from religious persecution should find a city of refuge on our shores. Hence the provision excepting immigrants of that class from the test where they are otherwise admissible. Out of regard for marital and other close family ties, and the duties and obligations arising therefrom, as well as high moral considerations, the committee thought proper to make the other exceptions embraced in the bill. A bill in its main features similar to this was considered by the House on February 20, 1907. The House felt that before action of that nature should be taken, there ought to be careful investigation of the question both in this country and in Europe. An amendment was offered by those opposed to the illiteracy test, providing for a commission for that purpose, and it was adopted. The commission, after nearly four years of investigation and study of the question both in this country and in Europe, made its report to Congress more than a year ago. There were nine members of that commission, and they were unanimous in the following statement: The commission as a whole recommends restriction as demanded by economic, moral, and social considerations, furnishes in its report reasons for such restrictions, and points out methods by which Congress can attain the desired result if its judgment coincides with that of the commission. Eight out of the nine, after citing various methods of restriction, concurred in the following report: A majority of the commission favor the reading and writing test as the most feasible single method of restricting undesirable immigration. It is certainly interesting, and we believe important, to know some of the reasons which led the commission up to these conclusions, and we will make a few extracts from the "Brief statement of conclusions and recommendations of the commission." On page 25 of this statement they say: The proportion of the more serious crimes of homicide, blackmail, and robbery, as well as the least serious offenses, is greater among the foreign-born. The disproportion in this regard is due principally to the prevalence of homicides and other crimes of personal violence among Italians and to the violation of city ordinances previously mentioned. On pages 29 and 30 they say: It is certain that southern and eastern European immigrants have almost completely monopolized unskilled labor activities in many of the more important industries. This phase of the industrial situation was made the most important and exhaustive feature of the commission's investigation, and the results show that while the competition of these immigrants has had little, if any, effect on the highly skilled trades, nevertheless, through lack of industrial progress and by reason of large and constant reenforcement from abroad, it has kept conditions in the semiskilled and unskilled occupations from advancing. Several elements peculiar to the new immigrants contributed to this result. They came from countries where low economic conditions prevailed and where conditions of labor were bad. They were content to accept wages and conditions which the native American and immigrants of the older class had come to regard as unsatisfactory. They were not, as a rule, engaged at lower wages than had been paid to the older workmen for the same class of labor, but their presence in constantly increasing numbers prevented progress among the older wage-earning class, and as a result that class of employees was gradually replaced. An instance of this displacement is shown in the experience in the bituminous coal mines of western Pennsylvania. This section of the bituminous field was the one first entered by the new immigrants, and the displacement of the old workers was soon under way. Some of them entered other occupations and many of them migrated to the coal fields of the Middle West. Later these fields were also invaded by the new immigrants, and large numbers of the old workers again migrated to the mines of the Southwest, where they still predominate. The effect of the new immigration is clearly shown in the western Pennsylvania fields, where the average wage of the bituminous coal worker is 42 cents a day below the average wage in the Middle West and Southwest. Incidentally, hours of labor are longer and general working conditions poorer in the Pennsylvania mines than elsewhere. Another characteristic of the new immigrants contributed to the situation in Pennsylvania. This was the impossibility of successfully organizing them into labor unions. Several attempts at organization were made, but the constant influx of immigrants to whom prevailing conditions seemed unusually favorable contributed to the failure to organize. A similar situation has prevailed in other great industries. These Like most of the immigration from southern and eastern Europe, those who entered the leading industries were largely single men or married men unaccompanied by their families. There is, of course, in practically all industrial communities a large number of families of the various races, but the majority of the employees are men without families here and whose standard of living is so far below that of the native American or older immigrant workman that it is impossible for the latter to successfully compete with them. They usually live in cooperative groups and crowd together. Consequently, they are able to save a great part of their earnings, much of which is sent or carried abroad. Moreover, there is a strong tendency on the part of these unaccompanied men to return to their native countries after a few years of labor here. groups have little contact with American life, learn little of American institutions, and aside from the wages earned profit little by their stay in this country. During their early years in the United States they usually rely for assistance and advice on some member of their race, frequently a saloon keeper or grocer, and almost always a steamship ticket agent and "immigrant banker," who, because of superior intelligence and better knowledge of American ways, commands their confidence. After a longer residence they usually become more self-reliant, but their progress toward assimilation is generally slow. Immigrant families in the industrial centers are more permanent and usually exhibit a stronger tendency toward advancement, although, in most cases, it is a long time before they even approach the ordinary standard of the American or the older immigrant families in the same grade of occupation. This description, of course, is not universally true, but it fairly represents a great part of the recent immigrant population in the United States. Their numbers are so great and the influx is so continuous that even with the remarkable expansion of industry during the past few years there has been created an oversupply of unskilled labor, and in some of the industries this is reflected in a curtailed number of working days and a consequent yearly income among the unskilled workers which is very much less than is indicated by the daily wage rates paid; and while it may not have lowered in a marked degree the American standard of living, it has introduced a lower standard which has become prevalent in the unskilled industry at large. On pages 33 and 34 they say: ASSIMILATION OF IMMIGRANTS. It is difficult to define and still more difficult to correctly measure the tendency of newer immigrant races toward Americanization, or assimilation into the body of the American people. If, however, the tendency to acquire citizenship, to learn the English language, and to abandon native customs and standards of living may be considered as factors, it is found that many of the more recent immigrants are backward H R-62-2-vol 3--25 |