WHAT TO DO WITH THE IMMIGRANT
After long and careful study of all the many and complex phases of the
immigration question, I have formed a clear and definite idea of what
should be done with the immigrant. The first suggestion of it came to me
when I saw how grossly I, in common with other Americans of the class
that is informed on the average concerning these things, misunderstood
the aliens who come to our shores, and when I perceived the first
indications of preparation of lies to be told at Naples and at Ellis
Island, in order to evade the laws of the United States. Slowly it was
demonstrated to me that any system which makes inspection dependent on
the word of the immigrant or his friends is radically wrong. Only a
conscientious analysis of the whole system allowed me to formulate the
proposition I am about to state, and I do it without prejudice, but with
strong conviction that it is the correct solution of the gigantic
problem.
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 to-day 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 best results rather than to the immigrants
themselves.
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 are a menace to
the body politic, though reasonable inability to make a livelihood
should be considered a mark of pauperism rather than failure to
accumulate any property whatsoever under European conditions.
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, no matter
how thorough the examination or how excellent the system.
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.
In districts from which the emigration is profuse at present, a smaller
number of communes and a more frequent visitation should be the
regulation. 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.
As to the requirements for admission to the United States, our present
code of laws has them well defined except in the matter of illiteracy,
and my personal observation has been that illiteracy does not interfere
either with the value of an immigrant to the civic body or with the
rapidity of his absorption among us; in fact, the educated class cling
more tenaciously to all that is Old Worldly, and are more inclined to
hold political views that are at variance with our system of government.
That a man cannot read or write his native tongue does not make him any
the worse piece of raw material here.
When a party of emigrants has been passed and given papers with
photographic identification as well as detailed physical description,
with a time limit of use of thirty days, it should be instructed as to
baggage so as to minimize this aggravating feature, and should depart
under the charge of a courier, going to the nearest port of
transatlantic departure. This would work a great change in
emigrant-carrying lines, but is plainly the most convenient and
economical procedure for all concerned. The party could be delivered
directly on board on the day of sailing, and thus all the frauds and
grafting schemes would be avoided. The saving to emigrants by this
method would more than pay for the expenses of the examination.
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.
Of reforms in transportation, little need be said. Closed cabins and
service of food for groups of six or eight, with an American Marine
Hospital Service surgeon in charge of each ship, would bring about all
that is needed, with a few minor regulations.
Ellis Island and the smaller immigrant stations should continue their
functions much as they are now, only that little hospital room and
deportation quarters would be needed; the registry feature would be
decreased to an examination of papers for admittance and to the
maintenance of the excellent card-index system. The distribution and
detention features would necessarily be continued.
To the card-index system should be added a regulation compelling all
aliens to report, at regular intervals, their whereabouts and pursuits,
to federal officials in federal judicial districts, until such time as
they become citizens of the country or are ready to depart. A most
important feature of this should be the indexing and tabulation of the
hundreds of thousands of able-bodied men who have had the excellent
military training of the armies of Europe, and would, if properly
organized, constitute a fine reserve force in America of at least
2,000,000 men.
Deportation is the severest punishment which can fall on an alien in
comparison with anything less than 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.
The practical statesman will at once object to this programme on the
ground of the terrific expense of maintaining thousands of men in Europe
to constitute these boards of examiners. By careful computation I have
ascertained that it would cost approximately two dollars per head to
examine and admit each immigrant, whereas at this time it costs each
immigrant nearly five dollars to be examined, inasmuch as the extra
expense to which the steamship company goes is added to the price of his
ticket. Over and above this the money he relinquishes to grafters,
subagents, advisers, etc., totals a sum that is beyond reckoning.
Summing up, this plan would achieve in simple fashion the following
things:
Undesirable emigrants would be prevented from leaving their homes.
Ruin and suffering would not fall on those now sent back.
Desirable immigration would be wonderfully stimulated.
Practices of officials of foreign governments in dumping into this
country criminals, foundlings, agitators, etc., would be ended.
Emigrants would be protected and great economy in travel would be
effected.
Smuggling and underground methods would be disconcerted and
contract-labor frauds prevented.
Naturalization frauds would cease to avail, and legal naturalization
would be greatly increased.
Custom-house officers would be greatly assisted, revenues increased, and
goods-smuggling minimized.
The proper distribution of the flood of immigration would be at all
times under the control of the American government.
Immigration would cease to be affected, to its detriment, by the
business competition of transportation companies interested solely in
conveying as many aliens to America and back and forth again as often as
possible, without any regard whatsoever to the class of people carried,
so long as they have the money to pay the fares and swell the enormous
profits that emigrant-carriers realize at present.
When these things are achieved, there is no one to deny that the
immigration problem will have been solved, unless it be those who are
ignorant and prejudiced in the matter, or who profit by the continued
depression of the grade coupled with the increase in volume of
immigration which mark the present condition in a way to cause every
true American, who has the best interests of his country at heart, to
look to the future with uncertainty and dread.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Transcriber’s note:
1. Changed “iron she” to “irons he” on p. 108.
2. Silently corrected typographical errors.
3. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.