A

FEW nights ago, an English and a Greek steamer, each carrying Greek immigrants, arrived at the Port of New York. They lay alongside each other all night, and each captain knew why it was specially necessary for his boat to reach port first. Curiously enough, the Greek steamer won by two minutes over the English vessel. Seventy-two disappointed Greeks in the English boat had to be deported. They were seventy-two more than the law allowed.

A few days before this two American ladies landed from the French liner La Touraine, bringing with them a Spanish maid who had a passport duly viséd by the American Consul at Barcelona. The ladies had to come ashore without their maid because the percentage allowed under the law from Spain had been reached. The maid had to be deported, as per law, on the steamer which brought her here, and thus had to travel through France, whose language she knew not at all.

Again, a few days before this occurrence a steamer arrived having on board a number of first-class alien passengers whose identity had been clearly established prior to their sailing. They were either aliens who had been in the United States returning from a temporary visit abroad, or were Government officials, or aliens about to undertake continuous transit through the United States, or aliens visiting this country as tourists. But these persons were not permitted to land overnight pending the leisurely confirmation of their status on the following day by our port agents.

TH

When the undesirable immigrant, a danger to free institutions, is admitted, and the desirable immigrant, seeking freedom and a chance to serve, is rejected, simply because the one belongs to a nation whose quota is unfilled while the other belongs to a nation whose quota happens to have been exceeded, Liberty turns her back. This can happen and does happen under the present law. The obviously unfit are ruled out, but many fit are rejected and many unfit received. Liberty to be safe must be discriminating as well as vigilant.

HE difficulty in all three cases is the present new Immigration Law. As American Consuls in Europe last year had viséd some 606,000 passports for emigrants to America, it was surmised that this year we might have at least double the number. Restrictive measures were proposed. The House promptly passed a bill introduced by the Hon. Albert Johnson, Chairman of the House Committee on Immigration, which would have practically excluded all immigrants while we are studying the general problem and preparing for more permanent legislation. The Senate, however, passed a bill introduced by Senator Dillingham, of Vermont, limiting immigration of any nationality for the ensuing fiscal year to three per cent of the number of foreign-born persons of that nationality already in the United States as determined by the Census of 1910. The House agreed to this. Such a mechanical and rigid law does not International meet the problem; it merely counts immigrants, it does not judge them.

THE IMMIGRANT AT ELLIS ISLAND MAY GAZE AT LIBERTY

Its operation at first was complicated. Most steamer companies were aware of the certain passage of a restrictive bill, and acted accordingly; for instance, the Canada, of the Fabre Line, left Naples on May 27, with only 89 steerage passengers, although she can carry 1,800. But other lines were "caught." The day following the approval of the law and the beginning of its operation the San Giorgio and two other steamers brought nearly a thousand more Italians to the port of New York than its entire June quota called for and the Canopic arrived at Boston with four times as many as the quota for that port would allow. On the same day there were on the high seas coming to seek homes in this country some six hundred more Poles than the Polish quota for the month.

The port officials were embarrassed enough by the many aliens who had already arrived. To each port had been allotted a percentage based on the usual percentage of immigrants entering the port. As New York receives over fourfifths of the total immigration and was quickly choked, the port officials wired to see whether they could not get around the regulation by "borrowing" from the Philadelphia quota. At that very moment New York received a wire from Boston asking how many Italian and Portuguese "rights" it could borrow from New York! Even if any relief could have been secured by this unconventional procedure it would have been of the slightest.

Meanwhile immigrant boats were arriving. One day there were 4,800 immigrant steeragers outside New York cooped up in hot, stifling quarters. Little as well as big countries suffered. For instance, the number from Luxemburg admissible at the Port of New York was exceeded by one when a party of eight arrived. The port officials thought themselves justified in wiring to the Commissioner of Immigration at Washington for an increase in the monthly allotment sufficient to admit the one man. But the Commissioner was inexorable. Somebody had to be!

Finally, Congress passed a bill admitting the excess over the June quotas and charging it to the later monthly quotas. At the same time it removed the provision of the original bill, prescribing that only one-fifth of the annual number to be admitted should be allowed to enter within a month.

ness for this country should be decided abroad, not here. As the House Committee on Immigration declared in its recent report, "to allow any great portion of the discontented millions of Europe to come here is not likely to aid in the reconstruction of Europe. Their responsibilities are there, not here. Discontent there, moved here en masse, will add to discontent here."

The need for the scrutiny of immigrants at the point of departure is vividly described by Mr. O'Brien's article in this issue. During the war our experience showed the value of the passport visé system.

The

Representative Albert Johnson, of the State of Washington, Chairman of the Immigration Committee in the House of Representatives, would now place this system on a peace basis, and to that end has introduced into the House a bill providing that an alien, in order to be admitted to the United States, must have a passport from a government recognized by ours, the passport to bear the visé of an American Consul stationed in the alien's country or at his port of embarkation for America. Consul is prohibited from granting such visé unless he have favorable reports (1) from immigrant inspectors and (2) from surgeons of the Public Health Service assigned to duty as vice-consuls, who are to investigate every intending emigrant to determine whether or not he belongs to one of the classes excluded from the United States by law. The bill also explicitly states that any alien who shall apply at an American consulate for visé of passport shall be required to establish satisfactorily that he is not a member of any of the classes excluded by the acts of 1918 and 1920 directed against anarchistic and similar classes.

We hope that the passage of a measure embodying the principles of this bill will be rapid.

UR immigration problem is twofold. Besides scrutiny at the point of departure, we also need, at the ports of entry and afterwards, regulation, distribution, and Americanization.

Most of our immigrants are peasant farmers. Many of them have relatives in the big cities and stay there. They succumb to the lure of those cities. Some of them succumb to Bolshevist and other propaganda that exists only in the cities.

Our Government has been strangely remiss in cheating itself and the farmerimmigrant alike. His natural instinct is to go on farming and his natural ambition is one day to own a farm.

Canada does this sort of thing much better than we do. If the Province of Alberta needs some thousands of farmhands, the fact is advertised abroad. Emigrants from the old country, who agree to go to that province and work there, then apply for visés to their passports. Moreover, whether a particular province needs workers or not, Canada has opened permanent offices abroad to give information at any time concerning the possibilities of the different regions

the Dominion. Mr. Stead's article in

this issue describes Canada's methods authoritatively. Why should we not do likewise? Why should we not advertise that there are chances of work in certain of our own regions, and that land may be had as well? Why should we not assure the immigrants transportation to such places? We would thus benefit ourselves by creating new farms and by making new farmers, for we would increase our own resources. We would also benefit the, peasant immigrant by not subjecting him to the burdens and temptations of the rude change from his rural life in the old country

(C) Keystone

A POLISH JEW AND HIS WIFE The Jewish quarters of our great cities may be overcrowded, but under the present law the Government does not ask where the Jewish applicants for admission are going, but where they come from

to the conditions obtaining in our big cities.

This, we are glad to say, is also the opinion of William W. Husband, the new Commissioner of Immigration in the Department of Labor. He calls attention to some of our Eastern lands, abandoned for farming (in not a few of these tracts immigrants have already begun truck-gardening), to the Southern swamp lands which can be drained and put to use, and to the Western lands which the Interior Department is opening for entry. Of course the immigrant could not take up these lands in large tracts. Why should they not be cut up into small farms and be opened to immigrants? Why should not the Department of Agriculture then help the immigrant by its home instruction and demonstration in expert farming? Why should not the Treasury point out to the immigrant the possibilities of the Farm

Loan Act? Much of this work can, and, we believe, will be accomplished under the present Commissioner.

Better economic distribution and adjustment is also indirectly involved in a bill, introduced by Mr. Johnson, to create a Bureau of Citizenship in the Department of Labor, to do the work of the present Bureau of Naturalization and a good deal more-that is, instruction in citizenship, in other words, Americanization.

Every year the alien would be required to register himself, his wife, and minor children of foreign birth before the superintendent of schools or similar public officer within whose jurisdiction the alien resides. Such registration would include not only the alien's name, sex, age, color, race, and nationality, but also the name of the vessel on which and the port at which the aliens arrived, their occupation, and especially their ability to speak, read, and write the English or any other language. For such registration and the receipt of a certificate there would be charged a fee of $2. From the amount of these fees the Secretary of Labor would be authorized to allot to any public school officer collecting such fees an amount equal to that which the State or community would provide for the compensation of teachers of classes of instruction for persons of foreign birth fourteen years old and over. (Compulsory school attendance for children between seven and fourteen years old is assumed.) These classes may be conducted by the public schools or by any organization in connection with the public school authorities. Such classes are primarily to promote instruction in the English language, for a speaking and reading knowledge of English is the key to immigrant assimilation. Then comes instruction in the principles of physical education, health, and sanitation. Finally comes training in citizenship responsibilities, so that the alien may understand and appreciate the institutions of our Government. Information regarding the institutions of the United States Government, the bill provides, should be disseminated "in such manner as will best stimulate loyalty to those institutions," not only by means heretofore provided but also "through the use of pictures, slides, and motion pictures." Moreover, the aliens must be afforded full opportunity to attend these classes, whether conducted "in public school buildings, places of employment, and homes, or at other suitable points." Then comes a vital provision:

In order to aid the foreign-born population to avoid embarrassments due to ignorance of American laws, customs, and life, and be enabled to combat false doctrines of government, such a plan shall include meeting newly arrived immigrants at their places of destination, or as soon thereafter as practicable, and acquainting them with the desire of this Government for their individual happiness and well-being, their early learning to speak, read, and write the English language, and their under

standing of American customs and life and institutions of government. The above measure, along the lines desired by Mr. Davis, Secretary of Labor, is well worthy the attention of Congress. Mr. Davis, we are informed, would like a larger registration fee, to be payable quarterly. The difficulty with any registration of aliens is, we think, the problem of finding a way for Federal direction without invading the rights of the States. Existing law certainly might prevent forcible registration and collection of fees from aliens now resident in the United States. The proposed act would thus supersede or

Paul Thompson

A SPANIARD

repeal this law. Moreover, the collection of a fee by the National Government might result in setting up too much machinery. At the same time, such a registration fee, to be used for Americanization work, would, we believe, be approved by most people in most States.

Under any circumstances, however, we must have some kind of compulsory education law for aliens who become permanent residents; we must have State, if not Federal, aid for the immigrant schools; and we must have institutions to train teachers for special work with adult aliens.

Paul Thompson

W

A SOUTHERN ITALIAN

HEN the proposed measures dealing with immigration have been discussed in Congress and when there shall issue sufficient legislation, we may look forward to a new era with regard to our foreign-born population.

No longer will it be composed of a vast number of undesirable persons who have come here on their own initiative; it will be composed of persons who have come here on our invitation and who have been distributed where we think they can best serve us and themselves; above all, it will consist of people for whom we have undertaken the responsibilities and duties of Americanization.

Paul Thompson

A CZECHOSLOVAK WOMAN

L

EGISLATION affecting immigration

as it exists to-day has not succeeded in surmounting the obstacle

of what qualifications shall constitute the perfect immigrant, nor has it succeeded in stipulating who shall not enter this country and been successful in barring the undesirables.

The writer was stationed at Rome when the flood of Italian immigration commenced following the cessation of hostilities. Copious volumes of regulations and rituals for testing and weeding out the prospective citizen reposed in American consulates and legations which, if they were to be applied minutely, would result in a complete breakdown of office routine. Consequently, the vital question of who should be permitted to come to America and who should be turned back was, in the main, left to the decision of the consuls and secretaries. It is true that most of the applicants for visés of passports were

commonplace, plodding peasants whose cases called for no minute inquiry as to motives and missions, but, on the other hand, it is a fact that many were permitted to proceed because no tangible grounds existed for refusing them visés.

At that very time there were undoubt edly thousands of immigrants waiting inspection at Ellis Island, the majority of whom should never have been permitted to sail. And yet, only for the unrelaxing and unceasing vigilance of the Americans in authority abroad, the number would have been augmented by several thousand.

The spring and summer of 1919 saw the steamship companies in possession, for the most part, of their steamships once more, of thousands upon thousands of Italians looking for the first time in a hectic four years toward America, and the first general concerted exodus since the war under way.

Conditions at Rome reflected in a measure what took place at Naples, Catania, Palermo, Leghorn, and other points in Italy. The American Consulate was besieged. Extra clerks of Italian nationality were enlisted to cope with the flood. The American Embassy at Rome, through its Passport Control Bureau, announced its intention of passing upon the application of every single applicant for a visé.

It was apparent then that immigration from Italy alone would mount into hundreds of thousands, if not millions. Every one seemed possessed to go.to America. Persons having relatives in the United States possessed legitimate grounds for wishing to go, and those who did not have relatives invented some. But "America at any cost" was the watchword of the motley crew which besieged American consulates throughout Italy. The officers of every consulate were bent upon scrutinizing carefully the qualifications of every one wishing to go to America. To do so

Paul Thompson

A SYRIAN

meant that regular consular work, such as commercial reports and correspondence, must suffer. The Consul-General at Rome, Francis B. Keene, a classmate of Theodore Roosevelt's at Harvard, was quick to grasp the import of the tremendous volume of immigration. He hastily reorganized the personnel of the office in an effort to select as carefully as possible the Italians best fitted to go to America.

Then and there it seemed that the bars should have been put up against further immigration. As the summer wore on the crowds of immigranti increased in numbers. They camped about the spacious walks and gardens of the Via Veneto, on which the Consulate is located, slept on benches about the streets, and literally laid siege to the Consulate, awaiting their turn. It became necessary to give each applicant as he presented himself a number, and oftentimes it was necessary for the ap

Paul Thompson

AN ARMENIAN WOMAN WRITING

Paul Thompson

A BELGIAN

plicant to wait two and three days, that those who arrived first might be attended to.

It consumed quantities of time to procure information from each of the applicants, many of whom spoke but a few words of an Italian dialect. But it had to be done if any choice in selection was to be observed. The belief existed abroad at that time that Congress must surely take cognizance of conditions abroad and summarily halt immigration, but no indications of any such action manifested themselves. Instead came additional regulations from the State Department setting forth in detail just what cousins might proceed to their relatives in America and at what age an immigrant might proceed to America to be married. During the process of weeding out the undesirables each applicant was compelled to present a penal certificate and papers proving that relatives lived in America.

Grave charges were made in the House of Representatives that foreign governments had deliberately conspired in shipping undesirables to America. Without commenting on whether the charge be true, it is a fact that in numerous instances applicants presented themselves for a visé at different consulates in Italy who, upon investigation, were found to bear reputations and records of the deepest dye. Some were known to reappear a few weeks later with new penal certificates and to swear upon their oaths that they had never asked for a visé prior to that time. The steamship companies boomed immigration by making special rates and by stationing agents outside the consulates whose business it was to facilitate the procuring of the visé. In some cases the steamship companies maintained offices where immigrant applications for visé were filled out and given to the applicant to take to the consulate.

During the time the writer was sta.