While not enough time has elapsed to afford a conclusive demonstration,
such results as have been secured indicate that our immigration law is on
the whole beneficial. It is undoubtedly a protection to the wage earners of
this country. The situation should however, be carefully surveyed, in order
to ascertain whether it is working a needless hardship upon our own
inhabitants. If it deprives them of the comfort and society of those bound
to them by close family ties, such modifications should be adopted as will
afford relief, always in accordance with the principle that our Government
owes its first duty to our own people and that no alien, inhabitant of
another country, has any legal rights whatever under our Constitution and
laws. It is only through treaty, or through residence here that such rights
accrue. But we should not, however, be forgetful of the obligations of a
common humanity.
While our country numbers among its best citizens many of those of foreign
birth, yet those who now enter in violation of our laws by that very act
thereby place themselves in a class of undesirables. Investigation
reveals that any considerable number are coming here in defiance of our
immigration restrictions, it will undoubtedly create the necessity for the
registration of all aliens. We ought to have no prejudice against an alien
because he is an alien. The standard which we apply to our inhabitants is
that of manhood, not place of birth. Restrictive immigration is to a large
degree for economic purposes. It is applied in order that we may not have a
larger annual increment of good people within our borders than we can weave
into our economic fabric in such a way as to supply their needs without
undue injury to ourselves.