CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GIFT OF The National Civic Federation Cornell University Library arV11825 Facts about immigration. 3 1924 031 448 362 olin.anx Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031448362 OFFICERS OF THE IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT OF THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION Facts About Immigration Being the Report of the Proceedings of Conferences on Immigration held in New York City, September 24 and December 12, 1906, by the Immigration Department of The National Civic Federation. Containing also a description of the work of the Immigration Department, and a brief summary of the objects of The National Civic Federation. January, 1 907 CONTRIBUTORS PAGE Ahrens^ Theodore^ President Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company, Louisville, Ky 64 Ambler, D. G., Member Board of Trade of Jacksonville, Fla 91 Archibald, James P., Assistant Commis- sioner of Licenses, New York City. . . 129 BijuR, Nathan, Counsellor-at-Law, New York City 35. 97 Chamberlain, Leander T., President of the Evangelical Alliance of the United States, New York City 62, 109 Fleischer, Charles, Publicist, Rabbi Temple Adath Israel, Boston 62 Fox, Hugh F., President of the New Jer- sey State Board of Children's Guard- ians 78 Hall, Prescott F., Secretary of the Im- migration Restriction League, Boston. 4, loi Hughes, S. A., General Immigration Agent of the St. Louis and San Fran- cisco Railroad Company 120 Jenks, J. W., Professor of Political Econ- omy and Politics in Cornell University. 63 Kelley, Mrs. Florence, Secretary Na- tional Consumers' League 61 Kinnear, James W., Attorney-at-Law, Pittsburg 82 Loeb, Morris, New York City 59, 66 MacVeagh, Franklin, of Franklin Mac- Veagh & Company, Chicago 3, 88 i Mitchell, John^ President of the United page Mine Workers of America, Indianap- olis 68 NeilLj Chakles p., Commissioner • of Labor, Washington, D. C 123 O'CoNNELL, James, President Interna- tional Association of Machinists, Washington, D. C 70 Parker, Thomas F., President Monaghan Mills, Greenville, S. C, Chairman Im- migration Committee of the South Carolina Cotton Manufacturers' Asso- ciation 125 Roeder, Adolph, President New Jersey State Civic Federation 85 Reynolds, James Bronson, Attorney-at- Law, New York City 127 Slocum'„ Thomas W., Partner of Minot, Hooper & Company, Dry Goods Com- mission Merchants, New York City. . 109 Warne, Frank Julian, Secretary Immi- gration Department of The National Civic Federation, New York City. . . . III. IX. Watchorn, Robert, Commissioner of Im- migration at Ellis Island, New York Harbor iii WiLLcox, Walter F., Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Cornell Uni- versity 50, 103, 115 INTRODUCTION ON December 6 and 7, 1905, the first national con- ference on immigration was held in New York City under the auspices of The National Civic Federation. There were present more than five hun- dred delegates from all parts of the country repre- senting all the States, Territories, and the District of Columbia, commercial and business organizations, trade bodies, institutions of learning, organizations of employers, trade unions, scientific societies, and the like. Out of this conference has grown the Fed- eration's Immigration Department. Its purpose is to make a painstaking investigation of the facts, in regard to immigration to the United States, which undertaking has promise of a successful prosecution in the fact that leading citizens, prominent in the var- ious walks of life in all sections of the country, have identified themselves with this important work. The officers of the organization are : Chairman, Franklin MacVeagh, Chicago. First Vice-Chairman, Leander T. Chamberlain, New York. Second Vice-Chairman, N. J. Bachelder, Concord, N. H. Third Vice-Chairman, Daniel J. Keefe, Detroit, Mich. iv INTRODUCTION Fourth Vice-Chairman, Thomas F. Parker, Green- ville, S. C. Fifth Vice-Chairman, Theodore B. Wilcox, Port- land, Ore. Sixth Vice-Chairman, L. Bradford Prince, Santa Fe, N. M. Treasurer, Isaac N. Seligman, New York. Secretary, Frank Julian Warne, 281 Fourth Ave- nue, New York. The Department comprises seven committees, the plan and scope of each being as follows : Committee on Basal Statistics. — While no hard and fast limits are prescribed for the province of this com- mittee, its verified and rightly tabulated statements are to include those statistical facts which are most im- portant in themselves and most significant as basis of inference. The Chairman of this committee is Dr. Walter F. Willcox, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. Committee on the Facts of Supply and Demand. — This committee is to show the actual relation of immi- gration to the country's needs, not only as to quantity and quality of supply, but also as to localities to be supplied. Its province includes the facts concerning the sources of immigration, and the distribution of the immigrants. The investigation is to embrace both the past and the present. The chairman of this com- mittee is Mr. Thomas W. Slocum, of New York City. Committee on Legislation and Its Enforcement. — As in the case of the committees on immigration sta- tistics and on supply and demand, the Committee on Legislation and Its Enforcement aims to ascertain and present indisputable facts. While expressions of opin- COMMITTEE CHAIRMEN OF THE IMMIGRATION DEPARTMENT OF THE FEDERATION INTRODUCTION v ion in the form of conclusions are not debarred, the great desideratum is verified, comparable facts. What further is needed in the way of legislation and ad- ministrative methods can best be inferred from such premises. The chairman of this committee is Prof. J. W. Jenks, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. Committee on Naturalization. — The province of this committee includes the history of naturalization in the United States, the legislation which has been passed by the Congress and by the several States and the actual results which have ensued, together with an investi- gation of the evasions and abuses which have pre- vented results far more favorable. The chairman of this committee is Mr. John H. H'olliday, President of the Union Trust Company, Indianapolis. Committee on Agencies for Advancing the Welfare of Immigrants. — The primary aim of this committee also is statistical — the enumeration and description of all such ameliorating agencies, with the outline of what they have accomplished, are now accomplishing, or are failing to accomplish. Here, too, the exact facts will furnish the best basis for an understanding of what remains to be done. It will be competent for the committee to investigate agencies which profess to be for the welfare of immigrants but in reality are shameful frauds. The chairman of this committee is Eliot Norton, Esq., of New York City. Committee on the International Relations of Immi- gration. — This committee will consider whatever ac- tion has been taken by other countries with reference to the emigration of their people, and will also con- sider whether there may not be such international vi INTRODUCTION agreements between this and other countries as shall promote the best interests of the nations affected. The chairman of this committee is Dr. Henry Lefavour, President Simmons College, Boston. Committee on Oriental Immigration.] — On no sub- ject is there more need of verified statistics and au- thentic facts. This committee will naturally have to deal with the history of Oriental immigration leading up to the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the effects of the same. The chairman of this committee is James Bronson Reynolds, Esq., of New York City. These committees are undertaking special investiga- tions as to the real effects of immigration upon our industrial, political and broad social life. In no realm of human knowledge are the facts more elusive. But these facts are just what are absolutely necessary be- fore there can be not only a correct understanding of what there is to be done for the advancement of the general welfare, but also a clear perception of how best to take action along those lines. As long as there are disputes as to what are the facts as to immigration we cannot hope for the proper direction on this subject of the energy and ability of those public-spirited citizens who strive to find the right way to the promotion of the general good. A striking illustration of the widely varying inter- pretation of the facts of immigration to the United States, and that, too, on a point whiph, it would seem, should be beyond dispute, relates to the character of aliens now coming to this country. In a circular re- cently issued to members of the Junior Order United American Mechanics by the Dayton Council of that organization is contained the following: INTRODUCTION vii Will we American citizens allow the Dago, the other rifFraflE of Southern Europe, and the "Coolie" labor- ers who will work for a matter of nothing and live on the refuse of the cess-pool and the garbage-dump to replace American labor and take our earnings back to foreign lands, or assist more filth and vice to land on our shores ? A large per cent, of immigration is made up of outcasts, criminals, anarchists, thieves and off- scourings of the earth, who are forced to leave their own land, and still are allowed to land upon American soil. Isn't it time we began to take measures to stop this inflow of foreign scum? Every true American, naturalized or native-born, regardless of nationality, partisan or sectarian affiliation, will answer. Yes ! In direct contrast with the above is the following from Commissioner Robert Watchorn, of the Ellis Isl- and immigration station at New York, which is re- produced from an interview in the New York Times : We cannot have too much of the right kind of im- migration; we cannot have too little of the wrong kind. We are seeing to it that we get the right kind — of that I am certain. Consequently I believe that increased immigration of the kind we are admitting to our shores makes for the national weal. The prime cause of immigration is the letters for- eigners in this country write to relatives and friends and to foreign newspapers. These letter writers have thrived, and they spread the news of their success abroad. The result is an influx of bright, ambitious men and women, the brawn and backbone of any country. Aliens arriving through Ellis Island last year brought with them money aggregating $938,660. Shake more than 800,000 Americans together and send them abroad, and I doubt if they would make as good, certainly no better showing. Of the 41,412 immigrants arriving here last Janu- ary, 34,363 were between the ages of fourteen and viii INTRODUCTION forty-four years — formative years of youth and man- hood; splendid years. Of the January total, 5,272 were fourteen years of age, and only 1,837 were over forty-four years of age. So what did we get, therefore? Was it not the youth and strength and vigor and ambition of foreign lands? So far as the steamship companies are concerned, I may say that they are very loath to inaugurate in- novations, but sooner or later, for one reason or an- other, they come to our way of thinking. One very important fact that they have lately digested is that it does not pay for them to ship any old sort of an im- migrant to this country. The reason why they have come to know this is that we catch the undesirable aliens at this island and make the company take them back at its own expense, plus also the cost of maintain- ing them while they are in this port. We sent back so many persons in this way that the steamship companies finally issued letters to their agents all over the world saying that it was absolutely useless for them to send on would-be Americans who were ailing in body or mind, or who were otherwise ineligible to land under the immigration laws of the United States. The re- fusal of steamship companies to carry undesirable immigrants is one of the greatest checks upon per- nicious immigration that I know of. Last year, for instance, the various steamship companies refused to bring 20,000 aliens to this country, not through any deep regard for our laws, of course, but simply for their own interests, knowing that we would have sent them back even if they had brought them here. Not only is the character of our present immigration in dispute, but also innumerable other factors which go to make up the immigration problem. There are controversies, for illustration, as to the exact percent- age of immigrants who remain in New York; as to the proportion of aliens in our penal and reformatory institutions, in our almshouses, and in other ways de- INTRODUCTION ix pendent upon public and private relief; as to the ulti- mate effect of immigration on wages and general labor conditions ; and as to the effects of immigration upon the political and broad social life of our cities, States, and even the nation itself. These and other factors of equal importance to a correct perception of the immi- gration problem must be known beyond question if we are to direct, divert or restrict the immigration stream for the advancement of the general welfare. And one essential means to their correct understanding is an organization which seeks the facts, without personal interests of any kind to serve, without preconceived opinions to support, and with the sole purpose of as- certaining those facts which alone are basal and com- parable. It is in this spirit that the Immigration De- partment of The National Civic Federation has been organized and is prosecuting its investigations. One of the most effective means for carrying out the objects of the Department is the holding of con- ferences for the discussion of the various questions which are a part of this problem, and in which repre- sentatives of all '"sides" and different points of view take part. It is with such conferences that the pro- ceedings reported herein are concerned. Frank Julian Warne, Secretary Immigration Department. New York City, January, 1907. FACTS ABOUT IMMIGRATION THE meeting of the Immigration Department of the National Civic Federation held at the Park Avenue Hotel, New York City, on September 24, 1906, was presided over by Mr. Franklin MacVeagh, of Chicago, Chairman of the Department. Hie opened the meeting with the following brief statement: Franklin MacVeagh: Ladies and gentlemen — Mr. Prescott F. Hall and Mr. Nathan Bijur have charge this morning of their respective sides in this discus- sion. They wanted particularly not to have it called a discussion, and they are not coming to any sort of rhetorical blows, but they are quite in harmony with the suggestion of the Committee that it is appropriate at the beginning that a statement should be made for the benefit of the Committees which are to make this investigation. It is presumed that it will clear the atmosphere to a certain extent, remove certain ques- tions which will be found not to be contested at all, and to bring into prominence and into relief those questions which are contested and which will have to be most thoroughly investigated by the Committees. This, after all, you must remember, is a meeting of the Committees, a gathering of this organization for the sake of starting the Committees in their work, and that these expressions, or discussions if you choose, are simply for the benefit of the Committees, and are 3 4 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION preliminary only to that essential work, and are not in themselves the occasion of this gathering. With that expression, and reminding you again that the conduct of the discussion of either side will be managed by Mr. Hall and Mr. Bijur, I will now introduce Mr. Prescott F. Hall. Prescott F. Hall: In order to be as specific as possible and not take up too much time in discussing matters which may prove to be beyond the range of practical questions for this Department, I am going to take, as a general text on which to hang my remarks, the bill now pending before the Conference Com- mittee, known as Senate Bill No. 4403. In the report of the Commissioner-General of Im- migration for the year 1905 we find these words : "The experience of another year * * * has * * * served to establish a stronger conviction of the magnitude and gravity of the problems presented by the growth of our alien population. These prob- lems loom so largely in the prospect of our country that it may be said, without giving just cause to charge exaggeration, that all other questions of public economy, relating to things rather than to human beings, shrink into comparative insignificance." (p. 3). "It is impossible that such an influx can fail to produce material effects upon the institutions of this country, as it is doing upon the population. What such effects will probably be in the long run it is not within the proper scope of this report to discuss; but attention is drawn to the subject to show that, if it is the public desire to establish some reasonable limi- tation on immigration, some restriction that will materially lessen the volume of the current until, by actual experience assurance is secured of the safety of the institutions of the country under such an unex- IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 5 ampled strain, it is time to make a new departure in legislating upon alien immigration. It is no longer sufficient to close the door upon certain classes mani- festly undesirable additions to any community. The aliens who are forbidden admission to the United States by section 2 of the act of March 3, 1903, are as objectionable to the communities in which they were born and of which they have always formed a part as they are to us. It can not be denied, how- ever, that of such as are not expressly excluded by law there are many aliens entering the United States who, if not individually open to objection on the score of physical, mental or moral defects admitted of all men, are yet of such a totally alien, if not repugnant, character and genius as to raise a doubt whether they will in the present or the succeeding generation be- come assimilated in customs and ideals to the people of this country. This view has found expression as yet in legislation affecting aliens of but one race. That solitary instance, however, is a recognition of the principle that the public welfare at this stage of the world's development demands the intervention of the law-making branch of the Government to prevent an unrestricted irruption of elements hostile to our institutions, if not incapable of comprehending them." (p. 48). And again: "A careful consideration of these figures cannot fail to suggest the wisdom of the restriction on immigra- tion elsewhere suggested, as well as the desirability of giving relief from the burden of supporting such aliens by providing for their return to the countries whence they came." (p. 59.) Those general statements show the views of the official in this country especially charged with the execution of the immigration laws, and especially fa- miliar with the present conditions. And I take it that 6 • THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION it is the feeling which is reflected in the organization of this Department by The National Civic Federation. Now, taking up Senate Bill 4403, the first proposi- tion contained in that bill is for an increase of the present head tax from two dollars to five dollars. The reasons given for this suggestion are that, although at the present time there is a surplus of something over two million dollars in the immigrant fund and, if the present immigration keeps up with a two dollar head tax, we shall have a fund of two million dollars or more a year coming in, nevertheless these sums are absolutely inadequate to properly take care of the inspection and, if they shall be established, the dis- tribution facilities of the Government. There is more money needed, in the first place, for medical inspec- tion abroad. We now have medical officers in Italy and Japan, afld it has been suggested by various peo- ple, which I shall refer to again later, that the system of medical inspection should be enlarged, and that physicians should be placed at the various other for- eign ports for the purpose as much of protecting the aliens from hardship, or making the Journey here only to be rejected, as for the benefit of this country by its securing more thorough inspection. If that medical inspection is enlarged it will take money. We need on this side of the water at the various ports better paid inspectors and more of them. It has been recently suggested that other ports should be added to the present system of ports of entry, es- pecially in the Southern and Gulf States, in order to allow immigrants to go directly south to such parts of the country as appear to desire more labor. The construction of immigrant stations at those ports and IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 7 the appointment of additional inspectors will call for a large sum of money. We need to have the present laws restricting immi- gration more thoroughly enforced ; we need more en- larged facilities in the various District Attorneys' offices, and we need more Assistant District Attorneys especially charged with the prosecution of immigrant cases. That also will cost money. The cost of the Immigration Department, by the way, as at present expressed in the report, does not take any account of the expenditure of the Department of Justice in im- migration matters which is paid out of special appro- priations for the latter Department, so that when reference is made to the large surplus we now have it is only fair to consider that there are numerous other expenditures not classified as immigration ex- penses, but which, nevertheless, are borne by the people. We need more complete and further statistical in- vestigation and reports. The experience in that regard has been that, until the public took an interest in this matter, the Government reports were in many respects very defective, and when the Immigration Restriction League was first started the tabulations were made in a way so that the average layman found considerable difficulty in getting the gist out of them. Some im- provement has been made in that respect in the last ten years, and I have no doubt that when the various Committees of this Department make their report it will lead to further methods of tabulation and investi- gation by the Government from time to time, which are indeed provided for in the present law, but if increased will take more appropriation. 2 8 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION We need more money for securing the deportation of those who become public charges in this country. The Industrial Commission, which I shall mention again in a few moments, advocated the extension of the present period of deportation from three to five years, and suggested that those who become public charges within five years from causes arising subse- quent to landing should be sent back at the expense of the Immigration Fund. If any such policy as that is to be adopted, it naturally will call for more ap- propriation. Much of the burden of our present immigration does not directly appear in the expenditures of the Department. I have already referred to the expendi- ture of the Department of Justice, but there are many other expenditures, both public and private, in the -way of law courts, charities, police, and a great many things of that kind, which are borne by various mu- nicipalities and various States, which pay so much out of the general earnings of the people. And it would seem only reasonable, in view of all this, that some increase in the head tax should be made. The Industrial Commission recommended an increase to three dollars. The present bill pending in the Senate advocates an increase to five dollars. And, of course, in addition to the justification which I have spoken of in the way of increased expenditures, there is the practical argument that if we are interested at all in the reduction of the amount of immigration, an increase in the head tax will have an effect in that direction. Mr. Anderson, for instance, manager of the American Line, freely admits that a tax of five dollars will be paid by the passenger. At present the IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 9 two dollar tax is added to the steerage rate, but a five dollar tax, he said, would be paid by the passen- ger and would materially affect the volume of the present immigration, and the Commissioner-General testified before the House Committee last winter that under certain limitations he would prefer a twenty dollar head tax for the purpose of reducing to some extent the entry of less desirable immigrants. Section 2 of the Senate bill makes certain additions to the excluded classes. In the first place, imbeciles and feeble-minded persons. I do not know that I need to spend very much time on this subject, because I feel pretty sure that Mr. Bijur would agree with me that there is no obligation on us to receive imbeciles and feeble-minded persons. I think most of us would agree that the countries which produce defective and delinquent persons should primarily assume the bur- den of taking care of them. Idiots and insane persons are now excluded, but there are a great many imbeciles and feeble-minded who cannot be brought by the immigration officials under the head of insane or idiots, and these classes are particularly objectionable, because they propagate a great deal of feeble-minded- ness in their offspring, and yet they are not, as a rule, in institutions, so that they escape attention. Many of them, however, do become insane after- wards, especially under adverse conditions of living. In 1904, according to the census bulletin just issued of the feeble-minded, there were seventeen per cent, foreign born in Ohio, twelve per cent in Minnesota, and twelve per cent, in New York, and thirty-eight per cent, of foreign and mixed parentage throughout the United States. Those persons are in general supposed 10 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION to be excluded as liable to become public charges ; but in cases where their relatives offer to take care of them there is no method under the present law of keeping them out. The exclusion of these classes was advocated by Mr. Williams and by the Commis- sioner-General last winter. The insane are already supposed to be excluded, but it appears that nineteen per cent, of the total white population furnished thirty-six per cent, of the white insane in hospitals in 1904, and twenty-nine per cent, of the admissions in 1904. The Commissioner-General has also testified that there is a large number also in the feeble-minded and imbecile class. Not to spend any more time on this subject, I will take up the next class supposed to be excluded under the Senate bill — persons of poor physique. That is expressed in the Senate bill as follows : "Persons not comprehended within any of the fore- going excluded classes who are found to be and are certified by the examining surgeon as being mentally or physically defective, such mental or physical defect being of a nature which may affect the ability of such aliens to earn a living." The Commissioner at New York in the Report of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for 1904 (p. 105), speaks of this subject as follows: "We are receiving too many immigrants whose physical condition is poor * * * fo exclude aliens suffering from either physical or mental ailment it is generally necessary to show that they are likely to become public charges, and yet it is obviously im- possible to exclude on this ground all persons whose physical condition is poor. I think that in all in- stances in which the U. S. Marine Hospital surgeons, IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 11 who conduct the medical examination at the immigra- tion stations, certify in writing that the physical con- dition of an immigrant dependent For support upon his own physical exertions, is below a certain stand- ard to be designated by them by some appropriate term, whether this be 'low vitality,' 'poor physique,' or some other similar expression, or that he is 'senile,' such immigrant should be excluded, subject to certain reasonable exceptions." Again, the Commissioner-General in his report for 1903 (p. 84), says: "Enough, however, has been learned to convince the Bureau that the inadmissible classes of aliens should be somewhat enlarged. Thus, no diseased or physically incapable person should be admitted to the United States. The number coming is large enough to justify a rigid censorship, so as to exclude all those whose presence would be, either at the time of arrival or soon thereafter, a burden upon some community. With the same purpose in view an age limit might be presented — say, sixty years — and every alien appli- cant for admission who had passed that age should be refused a landing unless possessing a son or daughter in this country amply able to provide for such alien. "It seems hardly necessary to enlarge upon the im- portance from this point of refusing admission to aliens suffering from disease, whether of a communi- cable nature or not. To meet with the physical con- ditions in a new and strange country, to avoid the risk of pauperism therein, diseased aliens should at least exhibit so much prudence as to wait recovery in their own homes." To the same effect, Mr. Williams, former Commis- sioner of Immigration at the Port of New York, in his address before the American Social Science Asso- ciation, May 3, 1906, says : "The law now specifically excludes idiots, insane 12 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION persons, epileptics and those suffering from a loath- some or contagious disease. To exclude those suf- fering from other physical or mental ailments it is generally necessary, first, to show that such ailments render them likely to become public charges, and it is not always possible to do this. I think that in all instances in which the surgeons who conduct the medical examination at the immigration stations cer- tify in writing that the physical condition of any immigrant, depending for support upon his own physical exertions, is below a certain standard to be designated by them by some appropriate term, whether it be 'low vitality,' 'poor physique,' or some other similar expression, or that he is 'feeble-minded,' such immigrant should be forthwith excluded, subject to certain reasonable exceptions in the cases of very close relatives of persons who have resided here a given length of time and are shown to be responsible." Doctor McLaughlin, of the Marine Hospital Ser- vice, who has written largely on this subject, and who is now or has been recently stationed at Naples, sums up the case as follows: "Good physique was much more general among immigrants a quarter of a century ago than among the immigrants of to-day. The bulk of the immi- grants previous to 1880 came from the sturdy races of northern and western Europe and not only was good physique the rule, but loathsome, communicable, or contagious disease was extremely rare. * * * With the change in the racial character of immigra- tion, most marked in the past decade, a pronounced deterioration in the general physique of the immi- grants, and a much higher per cent of loathsome and dangerous diseases is noticeable. * * * The im- migrant recorded as having a poor physique is usually admitted." All of which goes to show that among the immi- IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 13 grants arriving at the present time there is a much larger portion of those physically defective and of poor physique. Thus, the ratio sent to the hospital on arrival in proportion to the total landed was one in 90 among Hebrews, one in 175 among Italians, one in 200 among Slavs, one in 645 among Irish, and one in 715 among Scandinavians. The Hebrews, Italians, and Slavs are of course the people who are now coming to us in the largest numbers, and this and other tables of the same character tend to show, in a general way, that the immigrants who are arriving to-day, on the whole, are physically inferior to those we were getting some time ago. The same may be said in regard to poor physique as related to tuberculosis. We all know that in the tenement house districts of our large cities there is an alarming amount of tuberculosis, which has called forth most strenuous efforts for its prevention and cure, and a large part of this tuberculosis is undoubt- edly due to two things: first, the circumstances in which the newly-arrived immigrants live; and also in large part to the fact that coming here, as many of them do, with poor physiques, they are much more subject to attack from that disease than they would be if they had stronger constitutions and better health. In that connection, I will refer to the matter of the stimulation of immigration which takes place to a very large extent at the present time. I am referring again to Mr. Williams' remarks. This is an address before the American Social Science Association de- livered last fall, and also before the National Con- ference of Charities and Corrections at Philadelphia this spring. Mr. Williams says: 14 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION "Closely connected with the subject of assisted immigration is that of stimulated immigration. In fact if these two artificial causes of immigration could be eliminated the problem would largely take care of itself. Congress in 189 1 sought to prevent such stimu- lation by steamship companies by prohibiting them di- rectly or indirectly to encourage immigration except by ordinary commercial letters or oral representation 'stating the sailing of their vessels and the terms and facilities for transportation therein.' While I am aware that there are some who hold that the activities of steamship agents do not begin until the immigrant has made known that he intends to migrate, yet there is also much evidence tending to show that in certain portions of Europe persons either acting as agents of steamship companies or, what amounts to virtually the same thing, receiving commissions upon all tickets sold through their efforts, are actively engaged in drumming up immigration. The official reports con- tain much proof of these practices which result in people coming here, who, if let alone, would not do so, whom we do not want, and who have been de- ceived as to the ease with which they may prosper in this country. But with the present inadequate penal- ties attaching to the offense, this law must virtually remain a dead letter. It should be strengthened ma- terially and heavy penalties should be imposed for its violation." In the same way the present Commissioner-Gen- eral, in his report for 1905 (p. 57), refers to this, and says: "The facts are, as shown by the reports of those officers sent abroad for the purpose, referred to herein as well as last year, that the continent of Europe is dotted over with accredited agencies of the trans- portation lines, and they in turn have their sub-agents in every town and village, who resort to all the arts of persuasion known to such solicitors to induce aliens IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 15 to purchase transportation to this country; that no fine has ever been imposed under' the second provision and that few aliens, except those who have been in- duced to come by promises of employment, exhibit the smallest knowledge of the immigration laws of this country." And again in his report for 1904 (p. 44) : "It is useless, if not puerile, to trust that the trans- portation lines representing enormous investments of capital operated for the express purpose will not resort to every known means to secure passengers, or that persons acting as their agents in foreign countries will not do likewise to secure commissions even if such acts involve violation of the laws of the United States." I am quoting these passages for the purpose of pointing out that the flow of immigration is not en- tirely a normal and natural seeking of our shores by the immigrant, but that it is, to a certain extent, and a large extent, I believe, artificially stimulated. If that is so there is the more reason why we should, on this side, take steps to stiffen our existing law, be- cause the steamship companies will take any person whom they can possibly get through. If we stiffen up our laws they will be driven to seek a better class of immigrants, and therefore the theory of the present laws, that the steamship companies practically enforce them, will be carried out more in the way in which it was originally intended to be carried out. The reports of Special Commissioner Marcus Braun, which I will merely refer to, which were printed last year as a House document, fully show the methods employed for this stimulation of immigra- tion. 16 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION Further, the exclusion of persons of poor physique will result to a considerable extent in the diminu- tion of a class of persons known as "L. P. C.'s," i. e., persons liable to become public charges. At present those liable to become public charges form the largest excluded class, and it is impossible under the existing laws and regulations to exclude such persons if any friend or relative comes before the Board of Special Inquiry and agrees orally to be responsible for them, to get them a living or employment, or to care for their support. That is a piece of evidence which is submitted to the Board of Special Inquiry and, in most cases, there is no means of contradicting it or verifying it. Thereupon the report is made that the immigrant is not likely to become a public charge within the meaning of the law ; therefore he is landed and, in many cases, as soon as he is landed the person who has promised to take care of him disappears, and that is the last that is heard of him. And after awhile the immigrant comes upon our public institutions. Now, as a rule, there is generally some connection be- tween the amount of money which the immigrant has, his knowledge of a trade, his general ability to take care of himself, and the question of poor physique. If he is in poor health he, as a rule, has not accumulated so much money, he is not in as good condition to get a job or take care of himself after arrival; therefore, the exclusion of this class of per- sons, by a physical test for immigrants, would, as a matter of fact, eliminate a considerable number of these "L. P. C." cases which cannot now be excluded. The next class excluded by the Senate bill is chil- dren under seventeen years of age unaccompanied by IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 17 parents. The object of this clause is to care for cer- tain evils which have been disclosed under the exist- ing system, particularly the bringing in of large num- bers of boys in recent years to work under the pad- rone system, and the bringing in of young girls for immoral purposes. There is considerable evidence that both these classes of cases are quite numerous, and the Commissioner-General and the law officers of the Department of Commerce and Labor, have recom- mended several times that this addition to the laws should be made. The next class of persons that the Senate bill pro- poses to exclude are those coming in as "assisteds" — those whose passage money has been paid by some one other than themselves. The wording of that clause is as follows: "And also any person whose ticket or passage is paid for with the money of another, or who is assisted by others to come, unless it is affirmatively and espe- cially shown that such person does not belong to one of the foregoing excluded classes; * * * But this section shall not be held to prevent citizens of the United States or persons living in the United States who have declared their intention to become citizens of the United States, or women who have acquired a domicile in the United States, from sending for parents, wife, husband, children, grandchildren, brothers or sisters, or children of deceased brothers and sisters, who are not of the foregoing excluded classes." Under the present law, any "friend or relative" may send for an immigrant, and the object of this bill is to limit the privilege of sending to such persons as are under some legal or moral obligation to support such immigrants after they arrive. It is estimated that 18 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION upward of fifty per cent, of the present immigration is assisted to come. The effect of this is that a lot of persons come who probably would not come ex- cept for that assistance, that is to say, in many cases the more energetic and serviceable members of a family come over and, after getting a footing here, they send for their friends and relatives, who prob- ably would not be able to come alone. It goes without saying that a class which is obliged to be assisted to come cannot be the equal of a class which would come of its own accord, and the class of assisted individuals includes a great many persons who sooner or later come upon the public for support in various ways. I will now pass to Section 9 of this Act, relating to the subject of fines upon steamship companies. Under the existing laws a penalty of one hundred dollars is imposed upon the steamship lines which bring over immigrants suffering with a loathsome or a dangerous disease, if it could have been ascertained at the port of departure that they had that disease. The proposed law imposes fines upon steamship com- panies in certain additional cases, namely, if they bring idiots, imbeciles, feeble-minded persons, insane per- sons, or epileptics. The theory, as I said, of the pres- ent law is that the rejection of aliens at the ports on this side will of itself be a sufficient inducement to the steamship companies to examine intending immi- grants carefully at the port of embarkation, or at the time they purchase the tickets. Experience, how- ever, shows that the steamship companies will take everybody that can possibly pass muster, and that in fact they bring numerous diseased persons. This fine was put into the Act of March 3, 1903, with the ob- IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 19 ject of Stopping that practice as to diseased persons. But in 1904 $31,000 in fines was collected from the steamship companies under this section, and in 1905, after a year's experience, $27,300 in fines was col- lected, and the Commissioner-General reports that the number of diseased persons brought in by the steam- ship companies in 1905 over 1904 was 1,560, or 41 per cent., which shows that this provision as it stands in the law of March 3, 1903, is not adequate to ac- complish the purpose for which it was intended, and the object of this section in the pending bill is to extend the classes which the steamship companies shall be obliged to weed out. It may be that this fine is not large enough. In the report for 1904 the Commis- sioner-General called attention to the fact that one line at least was issuing circulars to inimigrants offering to bring over diseased persons providing a deposit of $150 was made, so that in case it was fined, the fine would come out of the immigrants, and if it was obliged to carry the immigrants back it would make a profit out of carrying them back. That line has since repudiated the circular referred to, but there is no question that the steamship companies are still bringing a great many diseased persons, and it is very essential, in my judgment, that we should enlarge the classes for which a fine should be applied, and possibly in time should increase the amount of the fine. The fines are especially necessary, because it may be that we shall be unable to have medical in- spection abroad. We have it at present in Japan and Italy, and inquiries were made of foreign governments last year by the Senate Committee on Immigration to ascertain whether they were willing that we should 20 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION have our medical officers at all points. The United Kingdom said yes; the Netherlands, Greece, and China said no; Germany, France, Norway, Sweden and Belgium did not answer, so there is a certain amount of doubt whether the medical inspection on the other side could be established satisfactorily, and if so it is all the more important we should see to it that the steamship companies should thoroughly obey the law. I now pass to Section 20 of this Act, in regard to extending the period of deportation. As I have said, the present law provides that all persons found to be public charges in the United States within three years after landing shall be sent back at the expense of the steamship company which brought them. Former Commissioner-General Powderly advocated that this period should be extended to five years, and such was also the report of the Industrial Commis- sion. The Commissioner at New York in 1901 recom- mended that insane persons from causes arising sub- sequent to landing should be sent back within one year after landing. The Industrial Commission went even further and recommended that all who fell into the excluded classes within five years after landing, whether from causes prior to or subsequent to landing, should be returned, and in case they became objec- tionable from causes subsequent to landing, their re- turn passage should be paid, not by the steamship com- pany, but from the Immigration Fund. The theory of this, as you see, is that all immigrants should be admitted on probation, so to speak. If they prove their fitness and desirability in the community, that is the end of it; if they do not, then they shall be IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 21 returned at the expense of the Immigration Fund in case they become public charges or become criminals or diseased or insane at any time within five years after landing. That, of course, would be a very valu- able addition to the present law, and would appeal to many of us who feel that an immigrant should not be too harshly treated, when he originally comes in, but should be g^ven a chance to prove himself whether he be desirable or not. Section 36 provides for a Bureau of Information to be established at Ellis Island, and perhaps at other ports, at which representatives of the various States may be present to give information in regard to the facilities for obtaining employment in the various States, the desirability of settlement, knowledge of 'soil and industries, and all that sort of thing. That provision has been much advocated. Personally, I shall not object to it at all. I do not think, however, it will solve the problem of distribution. The question of distribution is a very important question. But whether the question of distribution is solved or not, will not affect the question of proper immigration regulation, and furthermore if what amounts to a Labor Bureau is established at the ports of entry, it will tend very largely to stimulate immigration. If an emigrant says to himself, "When I arrive at New York I can be started to some place where I can get a job immediately," if he knows no one in this country who will get him a job, I believe it will tend very largely to make men come who otherwise, perhaps, would have some hesitation about it. In other words, it will act as a force pump to draw im- migration into the large ports of' entry where it will 32 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION be distributed, but for the time being there will be an accumulation which will add to the large number of immigrants who are now in the congested portions of the city. It is true, of course, that we need more farm labor- ers in various sections of the country. They are, how- ever, having the same trouble with farm labor in England that we are here. It is not purely an Ameri- can matter, and in some parts of Europe it is the same, and it arises in the United States from the sea- sonal character of the work. Immigrants are desired to harvest the crops a few weeks of the year, and the rest of the year there is nothing to do, so that the total rate of wages during the year for agricultural work is less than for contracting work in the neighbor- hood of large cities. As long as that is the case it will be impossible to get immigrants to permanently remain in the farming regions. It is the kind of im- migrant who will go to these regions and take his family there and settle there and who has some means, and who will permanently take up land there, who is desired in the various States. Mr. Stahl, President of the Farmers' National Congress, and a member of this Department, who is unfortunately unable to be here to-day, wrote me a letter, a line or two of which I would like to read. He says : "The farmers of the United States want admitted to our country every immigrant who can come here with- out serious injury to our own peoplei — those already here. But we do not want admitted immigrants of a character or in numbers that will work injury to our own people, or that will not readily be assimilated, or that are incapable of imbibing American ideas or sentiments, or that do not intend or wish to become IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 23 citizens of the United States in spirit and in fact. So far as I have been able to observe, those classes of immigrants to which objection is made would be of little value on the farms of the West, at least. Farm- ing in the great agricultural States now requires a high order of intelligence and the capacity to absorb and to use a great variety of scientific facts. We need farm labor very much, but the majority of the immigrants now coming cannot supply the labor we need." And then he adds a special note in regard to Ital- ians. So much has been said about the Italian laborer on the farm that I will take the liberty of reading that, it is so very short: "It seems to me quite certain that not enough con- sideration is given to the differences between the people from the north and from the south of Italy. For example, most people of this country suppose that an Italian is an Italian, and 'all Italians look alike' to them. For the past two years I have lost few opportunities to observe the gangs of Italians em- ployed in railway grading, as section men, etc., and I have had opportunity to observe and investigate many Italians employed on the streets, in digging sewers, etc. These Italians will not make desirable farm laborers, for the States of the upper Mississippi Valley, for example, where so much machinery is used in farming. Doubtless they would be less un- fitted for farm work in the South under present meth- ods, as little machinery is there used. This summer a friend of mine employed on his farm a man who is considered one of the best machinists in Chicago, who thought that, on account of his five children, he would try the country. In two weeks he could not learn to operate the self-binder — something my friend's son did well when ten years old. This machinist said that in twenty-two years' experience and observation he had not encountered such a difficult machine as the 24 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION self-binder — that cuts the grain, arranges the culms parallel, forms the grain into bundles of a certain size, shapes the butt of the bundle, puts a string around the bundle, compresses the bundle just so milch and draws the string tight around it, then ties the string into a safe knot, cuts it off, puts the bun- dles on a platform till half a dozen are collected and then drops them into the stubble, and does this al- most as fast as one can count, and not when anchored to a concrete foundation, but while being hauled over rough ground." My friend. Professor Willcox, has recently pub- lished an article * in which he attacks the proposition that there is a tendency of recent immigrants to con- gregate in the city slums. I do not consider myself competent to discuss that question, at any rate with- out a great deal more study, but I would like to point out that for present purposes of restriction it makes very little difference whether the tendency to settle in the slums is a tendency of persons who come here to remain after they get there, or whether it is a ten- dency to be found there. If you have a large stream of immigration passing through large cities, there will be an excess of certain kinds in the city all the time, and for the purposes of relieving that condition and of considering the question of exclusion and re- striction, it makes, to my mind, very little difference whether there is in fact this especial tendency to stick to cities or not. The eastern seaboard cities will in such a case be overcrowded by a certain class of immi- grants in any event. *" The Distribution of Immigrants in the United States," by Walter F. Willcox, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, August, 1906.— The Editor. IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 35 Section 27 of the Act takes out the word "tempo- rarily" as appHed to the Commissioner-General sending immigration officers and surgeons abroad for special service, and adds the word "Surgeon" to the word "Officer." The report of Special Inspector Marcus Braun, which I referred to, and other reports of Secret Service Agents in Europe, conclusively show that if this country wants to know what is actually being done over there, it is necessary for us to em- ploy efficient^ capable Secret Service Agents. There is a great deal going on which we cannot learn by means of newspapers, or by observing immigrants here, and the Commissioner-General, and also Com- missioner Williams, has referred to the matter in the strongest fashion. The matter of medical inspection abroad, and the matter of Secret Service abroad, is of course entirely different from the question of Consular Inspection, so- called, in Europe. I will not take up much time on that, except to say that while Consular Inspection is the method which first appeals to the student of this subject, I think it is fair to say that nearly all who have studied this question for any length of time, including the best and most experienced government officials, have come to the conclusion that it will not work and is an undesirable thing, and I simply men- tion that here as an argument for the passage of these various other provisions which I have spoken of. The principal objection to it is that it has got to be administered by persons far from, home, who are not under supervision and watching by our people here, and if the consul's certificate is to admit immi- grants here without further examination, then you 26 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION get the fact of the difficulty of securing uniform and adequate inspection at the various consular ports, be- cause of the fact that in many cases the consuls are no more able to tell about immigrants than we are. For example, what does a consul at a Russian port know about some immigrant who comes some thousands of miles from the interior; and there is also the fact that the admissibility of an immigrant is in many cases determined by some things which can only be ascertained over here, namely, the ability pi a relative to take care of him, or the development of a disease which may take place during a voyage, and which could not be told at the port of departure. If the consul's certificate is not to be conclusive, then you have division of authority between officials thousands of miles from home on the one hand and inspectors at our ports on the other, and each class of officers would be likely to throw the burden on the other, and all doubtful cases would thereupon come through. Section 29 of the Act provides for an illiteracy test, excluding "All persons over sixteen years of age and physic- ally capable of reading, who cannot read the English language or some other language; but an admissible immigrant, or a person now in, or hereafter admitted to this country, may bring in or send for his wife, his children under eighteen years of age, and his parents or grandparents over fifty years of age, if they are otherwise admissible, whether they are so able to read or not." I have elsewhere set forth at great length the argu- ment in favor of an illiteracy test, and I will simply make one or two very brief comments about it. The purpose of the illiteracy test is not at all based upon IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 27 the view that a man is necessarily a better immigrant because he can read and write, but that, as a matter of fact, the statistics show that the class that can read and write is on the whole a better class than that which cannot. That has been testified to by many per- sons of experience. The Commissioner-General of Immigration stated that to be the fact at the hearings last winter. Dr. Albert Shaw, for example, has stated the matter very strongly in the Review of Reviews for last July. The illiteracy test would not necessarily cut down the volume of immigration at all. It might do so, but it would very much, in my judgment, tend to raise the quality, and if one million immigrants a year are sufficient for us, why not get one million of the best instead of one million less good? It is not merely a question of the suffrage, although that en- ters into it, but it is a question of assimilation. An im- migrant who can read has many channels of assimila- tion open to him which a man who cannot read does not have. He can read trade journals ; he reads news- papers and imbibes a lot of ideas of one kind and another which he would not get but for his education. It is perfectly true, as will perhaps be said, that many criminals and anarchists are educated, but the illiteracy test is not a substitute for the other provisions of the law, but in addition to them. Furthermore, the il- literacy test would, as a matter of fact, exclude a cer- tain portion of those directly undesirable. For ex- ample, the census bulletin just issued shows that of the foreign born in hospitals over ten years old, eight- een per cent, were illiterate, and that of those of for- eign parentage eleven per cent, were illiterate. There, then, are twenty-nine per cent, of persons of foreign 28 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION birth or parentage in hospitals who would have been absolutely excluded if the illiteracy test had been in operation. And the same may be said in regard to the prison population. That, of course, is entirely apart from the question whether the native prisoners and insane are more or less .illiterate than the foreign born, but the illiteracy test would have, in fact, dimin- ished to a certain extent the dependent and delinquent classes. Now, in addition to the Senate bill which is pend- ing before the conference committee, there is also a House bill, commonly known as the Gardner bill That is very similar to the Senate bill, but there are one or two things in the House bill which are not in the Senate bill, and I would like to refer particularly to Section 39, which aims to define still further this class of "L. P. C.'s." One of the great difficulties of the present law is that the term "Liable to become a pub- lic charge" is very elastic. It is very hard for a twelve hundred dollar inspector, where six thousand immigrants may be examined in a day at Ellis Island, to take enough time to arrive at any sound judgment as to whether an immigrant is liable to become a public charge or not. That is one reason for wanting more inspectors, so that more time can be given to the inspection of each immigrant. Furthermore, it is very hard for anybody to tell whether an immigrant is liable to become a public charge or not, and the law is so elastic that it varies very much with the attitude of the Administration at Washington as to whether immigrants shall be allowed to come in rather easily, or whether the definition shall be made stringent. Now, Section 39 of the House bill aims to define a IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 29 little further this term "L. P. C." so that it shall not be so arbitrary and so elastic, and it is also very de- sirable from the point of view of the immigrant that it shall be made a little more clearly defined, because last year we sent back some eleven thousand immi- grants, and many of these people would not have had to make the journey over here in vain if this clause had been a little more definitely expressed. Section 39 is as follows : "That every male alien over sixteen years of age shall be deemed likely to become a public charge, un- less he shows to the proper immigration officials that he has in his physical possession at the time of his inspection money to the equivalent of twenty-five dol- lars United States currency, or that the head of his family entering with him so holds that amount on his account. Every female alien and every alien under sixteen years of age, shall in like manner be deemed likely to become a public charge unless money to the equivalent of fifteen dollars United States currency is shown to be possessed or held as above provided; Provided that whenever the head of a family seeking entrance shows, as provided above, that he has in his physical possession money to the equivalent of fifty dollars United States currency, the provisions of this Section shall not be held to be applicable to the female members of his immediate family entering with him, nor to the male members under eighteen years of age entering ; Provided further, that nothing in this section shall be considered as entitling those financially quaU- fied as above provided to land unless other condi- tions are such as to convince the proper immigration officers that they are not likely to become a public charge; Provided further, that the provisions of this section shall not apply to aliens entering the United States from the Dominion of Canada, New Found- land, the Republic of Cuba, and the Republic of Mex- 30 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION ico, provided that they have been respectively domi- ciled in any of said countries for a period of three years, nor to aliens permanently domiciled on the North American Continent returning overland from foreign contiguous territory, after a temporary resi- dence therein, to resume a domicile in the United States already acquired and uninterrupted by absence except in foreign contiguous territory; Provided further, that the provisions of this section shall not apply to aliens arriving in the Philippine Islands, Guam, Porto Rico, or Hawaii; but if any such alien not having become a citizen of the United States shall later arrive at any port or place of the United States on the North American Continent, the provisions of this section shall apply." This sort of provision of a money test is not a new thing at all. It has been in operation in Cape Colony for some time, and there a much more stringent pro- vision is enforced, to the effect that an immigrant must be in the possession of twenty pounds ($ioo), other- wise he will be deemed liable to become a public charge. Under the present British Aliens' Act, if I remember rightly, there is a provision that an immi- grant may be deemed to be a public charge who is not in possession of five pounds, or some such sum. Some persons would agree with this test who would not agree with an increase of the head tax, because this test leaves the money in the possession of the immi- grant instead of taking it out of his possession by means of the tax. Of course, as a practical matter, fifty per cent, of the immigrants coming as assisted, one result of this section would be that persons al- ready in this country would delay sending for friends and relatives until they could send them this amount, and it might be, after a time, it would not prevent a IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 31 great many assisted persons coming. On the other hand, it would put a check on the privilege of assist- ing, and it would insure that the immigrant who comes in would not immediately be thrown upon his own resources. He would have a little money to keep him until he could reach his destination or find work, which is certainly a very desirable thing. This has also been advocated by the Commissioner-General of Immigration. It is a useful addition to the provisions in regard to illiteracy and poor physique. These three provisions together would, I think, accomplish a very large part of what is desired in the way of further re- striction of immigrants. Now, I have said all that I desire to about these bills. I will simply say a word or two in reference to the burdens of present immigration. I think all who have studied this subject for any length of time feel very much the scarcity of accurate statistics on the immigration question. I certainly do. And it is one of the very encouraging things about the formation of this Department that we can hope after a time to get more accurate and reliable statistics. Until that time we have, of course, to take such as we have for what they are worth. Now, in regard to the effect of past immigration. In the first place, in regard to illiteracy. In 1900 the native white population had an illiteracy of 4.6 per cent. Foreign whites had an illiteracy of 12.9 per cent. In other words, immigration to a certain ex- tent tends to keep people illiterate in this country. Illiteracy has been going down, but it has not been going down as fast as it would if we had had an illiteracy test for immigrants in the last fifty years. 32 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION One-fifth of those in the country at the present time cannot speak English. In regard to crime, I would call your attention to these two diagrams, of which the class marked "A" represents the native whites of native parentage; "B" represents the foreign whites; "C" represents the na- tive whites of foreign parentage. These are reduced. Here are the male juvenile prisoners compared with the male population of school age. You observe that the children of the foreign born are more criminal than the immigrants themselves, to a certain extent. That means, for a generation or two at any rate, not only is there a great burden upon our penal institutions, but that it takes a little while for those unfortunate tendencies to be eliminated. It may be by the fifth or sixth generation this phe- nomenon will disappear, but for the time being it is in full force, and as immigration is keeping up and increasing we have that problem constantly with us. Mr. Fox: What is your source of information? Mr. Hall: These are Professor Common's figures in The Chatauquan based on the census. Document C shows the male prisoners per million of voting age in 1890. Here you observe the small proportion of native votes and parentage to the total of crime. Mr. Fox: Have you any later data? This is from the census of 1890. Since 1890 there has been a special increase of South European immigration. Mr. Hall : The figures on crime are not out for the present census. Mr. Fox: Is that per million of voting population or per million of people of voting age ? IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 33 Mr. Hall: People of voting age. You observe here that the children of immigrants are more than twice as criminal as the immigrants themselves. ' Of course that is due in part to the fact that immigrants come into a new country and have very often got into hard circumstances and are very largely less favor- ably situated than the native element. But at the same time, no matter what the cause, the facts remain that they are here, and that they constitute that burden. Mr. Andrew D. White, for example, speaks of this matter in a letter to Mr. Flynt, as follows : "As you know, I consider the problem furnished by immigration in the United States of the most pressing importance. We are allowing a great and powerful criminal class to be developed, and while crime is held carefully in check in most European countries and in them is certainly decreasing, with us it is certainly increasing." That is more or less confirmed by the fact that two or three persons out of one million are excluded as criminals under the immigration laws. It is im- possible for our officials, unless they have information from abroad that convicts are coming, to identify them and stop them; therefore, it is all the more im- portant that we should take steps to eliminate as far as possible the classes that are likely to become crim- inals after they get here. In regard to the insane, the census bulletin recently issued shows that the foreign insane furnishes one and three-quarter times their normal proportion of insane. And another census bulletin shows they fur- nish three times their proportion of paupers. The fact that the immigrant is a large and increasing 34 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION burden upon our institutions is evidenced by the tes- timony of those who come in practical contact with them, namely, the charity organizations. I have re- cently been in correspondence with the Boards of As- sociated Charities throughout the country, and I have here a list of endorsements of this Senate bill from widely scattered commuftities. California, the South, the Middle States, and the East alike favor this meas- ure. In many cases I got letters which heartily favor these laws and which refer to the burden they are now under. For instance, Elizabeth, New Jersey, says : "We have cause every day to appreciate the need of better legislation on the subject of immigration." One of the boards on Long Island writes: "We think the number and kind of immigrants now coming to America are a great detriment and bur- den." Santa Barbara, California, says: "We are in close sympathy with the ideas you ex- press, and have similar ideas that force us to the same conclusion, especially in southern California." Now, I have tried, ladies and gentlemen, merely to make a few remarks strung together upon a definite proposition now pending in Congress, and I have tried as fully as possible to state what I have to say in the words of those who are more competent to speak than I am myself, namely, officials who have studied this matter very fully and are brought in contact with it every day. I shall be very happy to answer any questions, and it may be that after listening to what Mr. Bijur has to say that I may have a few more re- marks to make. IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 35 Nathan Bijur: I believe in approaching a sub- ject of this magnitude with some scientific calm and, so far at least, I have refused to be stampeded by gen- eralizations or led away into a discussion of details that are purely administrative. The question of immigration, if it be analyzed, I suppose in the last stage comes down to this : Are we getting any benefit or are we getting any harm from immigration? Not do 16,000 diseased people come to our shores in thirty-six years, because, of course, if you have immigration you will have diseased immi- grants. The specious claim that fifty per cent, of the immigrants that come in here are "assisted" does not impress me a bit; because four-fifths of the whole population is assisted since we have about one male wage-earner to every family of five. There is nothing startling about any statement of that sort when you come to analyze it. If this statement is intended to convey the impression that fifty per cent, of the pres- ent immigrants are paupers and are "assisted" to come over by other persons than their relatives — it is a base calumny. The question is, What has any- body now to present in the way of facts bearing on the benefit or the disadvantage to the country of im- migration and of to-day's immigration in particular? Now, I have had, and have still, prejudices and im- pressions. One must, in taking up economic facts and statistics, try to disabuse one's mind of prejudices and preconceived impressions. I have tried to do that. I have certain sympathies, too, and while they belong in a different category and may be allowed to have some weight, I have tried so far as possible in approaching this question of immigration to, may I 36 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION call it, disabuse my mind of sympathy. I do not ap- pear, and have always refused to appear, distinctively as an advocate of immigration, or of any kind of im- migration, or of any part of the immigrant body. But I have in an humble way tried to study the question. The first thing that I have been confronted with has been just what Mr. Hall referred to, i.e., the absence of accurate and complete statistics. What I cannot understand, however, is how men can draw conclu- sions and be willing to advocate legislation based on such conclusions, when they at the same time admit that they have not the facts adequate to the forming of conclusions. Now, it is impossible, in this sort of a discussion, to cover the whole field. All we can do is to take here and there a few typical facts or circum- stances affecting the subject, and see where they lead us. The first question I have asked myself is, What IS the matter with the country? Why are we here? Why are we talking about this subject? If a man rushed up to you in the street and said, "I am going to show you a new and splendid way of moving your furniture out of your house into another," you would say, "Yes, but I do not want to move; my house is all right." Then he begins to tell you what a grand scheme he has, how he can move all the furniture you have got into the other place in fifteen minutes. Yes, but you say you do not want to move, you are satis- fied. Now, a great many gentlemen who favor re- striction of immigration have rushed up to me and said, "We can do this, and we have a bill that has this in it." I say, "Yes, but why do you want these bills? What is the matter to-day? What is there IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 37 about the United States of America, and what is there about the State of New York, and what is there about the city of New York that is giving you all this anxiety?" I find that they produce statistics (to which I shall allude in a moment) that indicate that some class of immigration is of a frightfully criminal instinct. I walk around, I go all over the city by day and by night, attended and unattended among all classes of the people; I have not been stabbed in the back by a stiletto ; I have not been starving because of this unrestricted immigration ; I have not found that the whole city was corrupt; I have not found that the whole electorate was corrupt. Qn the contrary! And I say. Why do you want me to restrict immigra- tion? Well, then, we will be broader. We will admit that I am not having any trouble, I am very happy and very prosperous, and all the people in my circle are. But there is somebody else. Well, who? The rich men are not complaining, the educated men are not complaining, the poor, so far as I have heard, are not complaining — of the immigrant. But the laboring man is complaining! That is, certain organizations of labor have complained. Now, that is a concrete proposition. They have complained of undue or un- restricted competition in their various fields, and I have always thought that that is a subject that has not received sufficient discussion, and I shall allude to it later. But that is not the evil that all these bills are aimed at, nor the evil that is developed by all the so-called statistics that have been presented to you. There is a pretty broad economic question which can be discussed without caUing on statistics; in fact, I 38 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION doubt whether any statistics would ever develop any sufficiently accurate data to enable us to settle any question suggested by immigration. So I repeat the question. What is the matter with the country ? ■ What are you complaining of? Well, I have never had any answer, and there is not any answer, because every one knows that the country is morally sound and economically prosperous. 1 think it is a fair state- ment to make that never in the history of the world has any body of men been so generally happy and pros- perous and successful — and ideally too — I do not mean purely materially — as the eighty millions of people that are now living within the borders of the United States. Well, admitting there is nothing the matter, they say something may be the matter. Our institutions may become impaired. Our political sys- tem may be affected some day by some of the tenden- cies that these people are bringing over. So, you have the labor question, if I may call it that, which is more or less concrete, and then you have this fear that something may happen some day if the present immigration continues. Now, those are the two most nearly concrete objections to the present immigration that I have been able to unearth. Let me take as an illustration some of the other kind, some of the general objections — I might call them "floaters." First, the immigrant is dependent upon public support in greater ratio than any other part of the population. Now, first it would not be surprising if he were, because the immigrant is a poor man. He comes here from other countries to improve his condition. He, of course, occupies the lowest stratum — we call it the lowest, sometimes it is not, IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 39 but it is the lowest financial stratum, — of the social structure. That is, he is doing the hard work. You must expect to find among the poorest people the greatest amount of dependence. That is nothing won- derful. You come to me and say, "Lo and behold, I have discovered a great thing. The poor people are more dependent than the rest of the people." Well, I know that. Everybody knows that. If you want to abolish poverty take that up, but do not mix up your ideas and say that that has anything to do with im- migration, unless you think that by keeping out all immigration you won't have any more poverty. I do not think that history or experience has brought out facts that would justify any such interference. Therefore, if you find the immigrant is more de- pendent than the rest of the population, I should say that would be a very natural thing. But do you find him so dependent that it is really something startling? Do you find him so dependent that you think he is un- duly dependent and you are getting what is known as a pauper class ? I think that among the most grievous effects of some of the reports of the Commissioner- General's office is that produced by the report of 1904. And it has been quoted and requoted, ?ind everybody has gathered his impression of this terrible dependence of the immigrant from that report. The particular point in it is this, i.e., that it pretends that in the charitable institutions of the United States we have 30 "alien" dependents out of each 1,000 alien popu- lation compared to 5 out of 1,000 of the naturalized and 2y2 out of 1,000 of the native. That statement has gone through the entire literature of immigration statistics, and it is absolutely a baseless statement. It 40 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION has not the ghost of a foundation and never had. The first crucial trouble is that it does not define aliens. It is generally understood as referring to people who have been here only five years. It does not say how these statistics were taken which gave the figures 30,000 alien dependents, but I made some investi- gation of both those figures. Now, remember, this is the very basis on which it has been charged repeatedly that the present immigrant is distinguished from the immigrant who came here and was so desirable in the thirties, forties and fifties — and that the present immi- grant is so undesirable. Let us see. The census of 1900 shows that there were but 1,000,000 males for- eign born of voting age in the United States un- naturalized, and that is the same number as the 1,000,- 000 aliens with which the Bureau's report compares the 30,000 alien dependents. In other words, the re- port referred to has only as many aliens with which to compare the body of dependent aliens as there are males of voting age, foreign born, not naturalized, or what we might call political aliens. On the other hand, this 30,000 alien dependents is made up of men, women and children, and is made up of men, women and children who have been in this country all the way from five to seventy years, as the report of the New York State Board of Charities for 1905 plainly pointed out. They took 939 cases of inmates in the alms- houses which were tabulated by the Commissioner- General of Immigration and they found that 544 of these were women and that more than seventy-five per cent, of all the cases in the almshouses tabulated in the government report had been in the country five years, and some forty, fifty and sixty years. IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 41 The man who prepared those figures did not know anything about logic, facts or statistics, and yet that thing has gone about broadcast and it has not been corrected, although in the 1905 report it is omitted. The fact is that nobody knows whether or not the present immigrant is a bit more dependent than any one else in the community. Mr. Hall: Mr. Bijur, you said that we should in- terrupt each other. You did not interrupt me, but I would like to interrupt you on this point, to prevent a misunderstanding. I did not refer to the report you are now criticising, so that all these figures based on the census hold good whether Mr. Sargent has made a mistake or not. Mr. Bijur: I am not arguing against Mr. Hall. I am trying to get at what we know about immigration. Now, I presume I may ask Mr. Hall a question, too. Do not you admit that those figures are totally incor- rect and unreliable, that no conclusion can be drawn from them ? Mr. Hall: They are certainly incorrect, but to a certain extent they point a view. I think they are of some value, but not accurate. Mr. Bijur: Well, I don't see that. I charge that the man who got those up doesn't know anything at all about anything. He doesn't know anything about statistics, and he doesn't know anything about immi- gration, but what is worse, he doesn't know anything about logic, and he doesn't prove anything. Suppose the figures were correct; suppose some- one had been able to get statistics about the whole body of persons in this country less than five years, and had found that the people who had been in this 42 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION country less than five years were more dependent than all the rest of the people. That is of no practical im- portance at all. The question is, Are the people who have come into this country during the last five years more dependent than the people who came into this country at some other period were during their first five years ? It is not pertinent to compare the present condition of people who came here during the last five years with that of people who came here thirty years ago, and who, I hope, now are millionaires. The fact is that the people who came in during the last five years have not had their chance yet. Give them a show. In other words, that whole statement which, through repetition, has spread broadcast throughout the country the impression that the present immigrant is more dependent than the immigrant who came in the past, is just nothing. Now, just let us dismiss that and take up something else — the criminal; the statistics of crime. Now, Mr. Hall has drawn some very pretty pictures here (referring to diagrams). I do not know where Professor Commons got them. A man says. This is what I have prepared; well, maybe he is right and maybe he is not. But let us take them at their face value. Let us take this one first. "Male prisoners per million of voting population of 1890." Now, re- member, to begin with, the immigrant is generally over fourteen years of age. The large proportion of immigration is grown up. The proportion of chil- dren among the immigrants is very much smaller than among the general population. And remember, also, that the proportion of crime is very much larger among grown up people than it is among children. IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 43 Now, then, when you find that there is a greater criminality among the immigrants than there is among the rest of the people, that must be so; it follows as the night the day, assuming merely that the immi- grant is just like we are. Now, there is nothing in that. Mr. Hall : Now, may I interrupt you again to say this table has nothing to do with children at all, either native or foreign born. Mr. Bi jur : You mean in that table children are not included ? Mr. Hall: Yes. Mr. Bijur: Well, I doubt the significance and ac- curacy of those figures. Since my experience with the undefined term "aliens" in the report to which I have alluded, I have grown very suspicious of comparisons made with the "voting population." Then what are the crimes to which this tabulation refers? Have you, as was done in Massachusetts in a set of figures pub- lished by the Immigration Restriction League, ex- cluded crimes arising from drunkenness and thus placed the recent immigrant, like the Italian, far up in the scale of criminaUty and the former immigrant, like the Englishman and the Irishman, well down on that scale, whereas by including crimes arising from drunkenness, the very reverse is found to be the case? And then what are the crimes for which those Ijuvenile prisoners (indicating diagram) were con- victed ? Let us hear about them. Were they the kind of crime for which the children of the poor are al- ways convicted : the petty offences of throwing banana skins on the street, and of breaking windows in play, 44 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION all those things that go with a poor urban popula- tion ? Yes, we know it is that. Moreover, you would expect, to find a greater ratio of crime among the poor people than among the rich people. You are not dis- covering anything when you discover those things. You are not getting one whit further than the old story that the immigrant is poor; in fact, he would prob- ably not come here if he were not poor and hoped to better his condition. Now, the other side of the picture. I do not see that here at all. The value of the immigrants to the country. The figures that Mr. Hall has quoted in his book show that every male immigrant over fourteen years of age that comes here is worth from $500 to $1,000,! — it doesn't make any difference which, be- cause the figures are so enormous. In other words, you assume a million people are coming into this country every year. To bring up one million people to the age of the immigrant would cost $500,000,000. You are getting $500,000,000 brought to the country annually, and on the other hand you are trying to figure whether or not there is not a slightly greater propor- tion of criminals and dependents among the immigrants than among the natives. Now, if you are going to work with statistics, if you think that this question can be solved with statistics, then let us have them all, let us have both sides of the picture. Then, how about their consuming capacity? There are one million immigrants who come in and they are consumers ; they are not all dependents ; they are not all in the almshouses and prisoners. And as consum- ers they are adding to the prosperity of the country, and particularly to the prosperity of the farmer. Has IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 45 anybody figured on that? They are providing, with- out effort on our part, a daily increasing home market which throws into the shade those dearly bought for- eign markets which we are seeking so eagerly and at so great cost. No, don't bother about that. We are only here to talk about the dependents and the crim- inals. Now, the reason we don't hear about this is because there is no interest — I mean any direct in- terest — that wants to present these facts from the point of view of the immigrant. The opponents of immigration quote opinions un- favorable to the present immigration. It is surely pertinent to ask to what extent such opinions, like that quoted from the reports of the Commissioner-General of Immigration for 1904 and 1905, are based upon the incorrect statistics of 1904 to which I have alluded. Moreover, they fail to find authoritative opinions based on ascertained facts that are favorable to the present immigrant ! Thus in the special report of the Bureau of the Census on "Paupers in Almshouses" under date of 1904, the following paragraph occurs on page 21. After referring to the number of Irish, Germans, English, Canadians and Scandinavians (sup- posed to be very "desirable") in almshouses, it says: "Of the remaining countries, the returns yield dis- tinctly favorable percentages for Italy, Hungary and Bohemia, and Russia and Poland ; that is, the propor- tion which these countries contributed to the foreign- horn white pauper population is considerably less than their representation in the foreign-born population. This is not true of Scotland and France. The fig- ures for France are perhaps too small to permit gen- eralizations." Now, what I hope will be done here and by this 46 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION Department (and the suggestion has come to me from some of the gentlemen who are sitting in front of me now) is that we shall gather together all the best statistics available from everywhere, and put them down, and say, "So far as we have been able to gather anything, this is what we know," and then let us inves- tigate to see how reliable they are. When we find a thing like this report of the Commissioner-General, which does not mean anything, say so and say why. When you find statistics of crime that have carelessly or invidiously left out certain classes of criminals, say so. Show what the difference would be if they were put in, and go on through and collect all these things and put to the credit of the immigrant all the facts that are to be put to his credit as well as charge to him all the things that ought to be charged. Now, that has not been done by anybody. Every one who has discussed this subject has discussed it from the point of view of the advocate. From the sentimental standpoint I am not going to discuss it at all. That is just the phase where the individual can exercise his own judgment. Every man, and I presume every woman, of voting age in the United States is supposed to have sense enough to be able to determine the general policy of the country. If you think that this country is better off by having all Americans, nobody else in it, but all Americans (I don't mean Indians, I mean the people who came and drove the Indians out), if you think that only Americans ought to be here, you don't need any statis- tics. If you think that the electorate is corrupted by the immigrant, I suppose you are welcome to think so. You can never prove or disprove it by statistics, ■»■■ IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 47 You will find that the greatest alleged corruption has generally taken place in the highly native districts. In fact, I think that the attempt to judge God's crea- tures in that way and to say that votes can be more easily purchased among CathoHcs and Lutherans than among Mohammedans or Jews — or some other similar kind of thing— is all rubbish. Nobody can get at facts , like that among 80,000,000 of people. You cannot find out whether people who came from some par- ticular mountain district of Montenegro, are, after they have been here ten years, more corrupt politically than the people who have lived down in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, for a century. All we know is that here in the City of New York, as those of us who are working for better politics take some liberty to believe, there is a general trend upward, and this is a pretty cosmopolitan city. So far as I have been able to ascertain, the so-called foreign vote is no more purchasable than any other vote, and it is certainly very intelligent. Such facts as we have would indicate the foreigner to be just as good and just as patriotic and just as honest as the native. Then you have this beautiful generalization about "Reducing the standard of living," and "Bringing down the general social standard." I confess I can- not discuss that understandingly. I never met any one who could. That is one of the realms into which imagination and sentiment and prejudice may lead you whither you will. If you think that people who live in little rooms on the fourth floor have not so high ideals as people who live in large rooms on the first floor; if you think that people who are earning only three dollars a day cannot appreciate the beauties 48 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION of Shakespeare, or the Bible, or the American Consti- tution, just as well as (or better than) the people who live in fine mansions on some of our beautiful streets, — ^you are at liberty to think that. I do not think there is any difiference. I think some very rich natives ap- preciate these things and some very poor foreigners do not, and I think vice versa, that there are some very rich foreigners who do not, and some very poor natives who do. Shall we permit ourselves to be carried away by these petty prejudices, notions that we sometimes gather from two or three instances? Here, for in- stance, Mr. Hall read a letter from a Mr. Stahl in which a farmer somewhere said that the man whom he had who was a foreigner did not know how to work a binder. Well, I don't think I could — here is a native who doesn't know how to work a binder. What does it prove? Does it prove that the immi- grant and immigration is a bad thing for the United States of America? Let us formulate great general conclusions if you will, based upon fair statistics — of course we can never have immigration statistics isolated and correct like the ascertained facts in physiology, in chemistry and in geology and other more or less exact sciences and studies, but we can get some fairly accurate statistics. Now, if you will get some fairly accurate statistics, and if you will approach them fairly, and not try to draw your preconceived infer- ences out of the statistics, but see to what conclusion these statistics lead, we may be able to find out some- thing about immigration. But what I say — and I have not heard the statement fairly challenged yet — is that up to date there have been no important facts IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 49 established in relation to immigration based upon re- liable data, and, what is more, that what statistics have been furnished us, and what inferences are fairly deducible therefrom are, if anything, favorable to the present immigration. As to the generalizations like "The present immi- grant is a danger to the community as a whole," that is an old story. Congressman Keliher, in a speech which he delivered in the House in opposition to the bill advocated by Mr. Hall, pointed out how all through our history there have been periods, begin- ning with 1797, when we had the same dread. First it was the Dutchman, and then it was the Irishman, and then it was the German, and now it is the Russian and the Italian, who has always been about to do a terrible thing for the country. The Mayor of New York, in 1837, sent a message to the Common Council in which he depicted in lurid colors the terrible things that were going to happen to New York owing to the Irishmen who were coming out from a famine- stricken country; and later it was the Germans who came out as the result of the revolution of 1848. Well, the terrible things did not happen. The city is still here and the Irish are with us happy, and the Germans are doing very well. I can remember in my boyhood days that an Irishman meant a poor man. It does not any more. The Irishman meant the poor immigrant, the man who was working in the trench, just what you mean to-day when you speak of the Italian. I have no doubt the day will come when you will speak of an Italian and think of a man with a high hat and a frock coat. Now, if I can do anything, in. this desultory way, 50 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION it is to appeal for an impartial, absolutely uncolored study of facts when presented uncolored. Walter F. Willcox : I think it is desirable at such a meeting as this for us to be quite frank and dispas- sionate and also brief in stating our personal attitude toward this great question. It seems to me that at the start we might lay down the principle, at least I feel disposed to accept the principle, that the presump- tion on this question is in favor of the traditional policy of the country. The burden of proof must be held to rest with the other side. I say that briefly for the reason that our policy has worked so well in the past, both for this country and for other countries. If we go back, say two or three hundred years, the right to change one's place of residence according to one's judgment of the advantages or disadvantages was not a recognized liberty of the individual. That liberty has gradually established itself in the coun- tries of Europe and in the United States. I take it that no country has done more to establish that liberty than has the United States. Now, what about the results of that policy? It seems to me one may say very briefly that one hun- dred and fifty years ago, or a little more, the popula- tion of Europe, according to our best knowledge, was about one hundred and thirty millions. It is now four hundred millions. At that time there were prac- tically no people of European stock living outside of Europe. At the present time there are one hundred millions of European stock living outside of Europe. In other words, the population of the world of Euro- pean stock has increased in the last hundred and fifty IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 51 years from one hundred and thirty millions to four hundred millions, and a very large part of that in- crease must be held to be due to the fact that Euro- peans about that time were allowed to follow the line of least resistance, or to seek their own advantage, even though it called upon them to leave their home or place of residence. We are wont to forget that this is not purely an American question; it is also a European question. We are wont to forget that although millions of people are coming to us from Europe, yet the popula- tion of Europe at the present time is growing faster than it ever grew before in history. And it is grow- ing faster because of the reaction of these other coun- tries, not merely of the United States, but of South America and Australia, which are sending their bene- fits back to Europe. Practically this increase of Europe is the whole increase of the population of the world, so far as we can tell. An increase of three hundred mil- lions has come to the population of Europe, the people on the whole whom we are wont to regard as the leaders of progress. Now, it seems to me that this fact or these facts establish a strong presumption in favor of the traditional policy of the United States. On the other hand, I think all persons must admit that there might be an excessive immigration into the United States ; in fact, it might become so great as to become detrimental to the welfare of this country. Every one will admit that. Where we would draw the line we cannot say, but if the influx of immigra- tion should become, instead of one million or so a year, five or ten millions a year, I think most of us, perhaps all of us, would admit that it was too great. 53 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION Then comes the third question : Is it too great now ? Here it seems to me is the central question of the problem of immigration of the present day. I am in- clined to put the question of immigration in this way, as the question before us for discussion at the present time : Is the process of assimilation keeping pace with the process of immigration? I admit frankly that no one can answer that definitely and conclusively by any proof that will satisfy all, but it seems to me that is the essential question. That is the reason why you can never answer it by statistics, for on both sides im- migration and assimilation are social processes. Sta- tistics at the best can only give, we may say, statistical conditions. They cannot give changes, at any rate, in such a complicated question as this. We may get side lights on this question, but it is too big to be answered by any statistics. Then, as to the question as to whether the process of assimilation is keeping pace with the process of immigration. It seems to me that certain statistical inferences upon that question may be drawn. If we could show, on the average, that the immigrant popu- lation or foreign born population of the United States were statistically different in some of these various sorts of ways that have been mentioned by Mr. Hall in his opening speech, that evidence would tend, so far as it goes, to indicate that the differences were great, and perhaps that the process of assimilation was not keeping up with the process of immigration. But let me call your attention very briefly to one point which I think nearly all the disputants on this question on both sides have overlooked. We want to know, of course, first of all, how large is our present influx IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 53 of population, how large is our present current of im- migration. We turn to the figures of the Bureau of Immigration for our answer. Now, has it ever been called to your attention that while the Bureau of Immigration gives us figures for the number of aliens coming into the United States, it says nothing — I think I am right in saying that it has never made any mention, certainly it makes no prominent mention — of the hundreds of thousands of aliens who leave the United States every year. Dr. Fleischer: May I interrupt you just a mo- ment to give you a bit of my experience. The steam- ship on which I came back from Italy two weeks ago brought in about i,6oo Italians and Portuguese, and that same boat returning to Italy ten days later took back a little over 700 immigrants. Mr. Hall : May I add that the Bureau of Immigra- tion has lately recommended that such statistics be obtained, and a like proposition is in the Senate bill. Prof. Willcox : In default of information from the Bureau of Immigration regarding the hundreds of thousands who leave our shores, I have attempted very roughly to get an estimate of the true current of im- migration by taking the difference between the pas- sengers arriving by water in the United States every year and the passengers leaving by water every year. This is open, of course, to some corrections which I have not the time now to specify, but I claim that, notwithstanding all the qualiiications to which these figures are subject, they give us an idea of the net increase of population of the United States from im- migration better than that drawn from the unadjusted figures of the Bureau of Immigration. I have before 54 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION me the figures for the last eight years, which cover the last great wave of immigration. They show that the total immigration as reported by the Bureau of Immigration for that period was 4,822,00x3, but the total passengers arriving less the total passengers de- parting was 3,285,000, so that in this way, measuring the influx of immigration by taking the difference be- tween the arrivals and departures, the current of im- migration would be indicated as about two-thirds of the figures shown by the Bureau of Immigration in its annual report. The figures are taken from the "Statistical Abstract," issued by the Bureau of Statis- tics of the Department of Commerce and Labor. But it should be borne in mind that neither the Bureau of Immigration nor the Bureau of Statistics in the De- partment of Commerce and Labor make any refer- ence whatsoever to the immigration overland directly from Canada or Mexico. It is necessary to make an estimate, therefore, for that amount, which we know nothing about statistically. I argue that since the Mexicans and Canadians in the United States are about 14 per cent, of all the other foreign born, we may assume that the currents of immigration from Canada and Mexico are about 14 per cent, of those from the other countries that send their immigrants over sea. After making al- lowance in this way, I find that the estimate of total immigration, including Canada and Mexico, for the last five years was about 3,750,000 instead of 4,820,- 000. In other words, a rough estimate of the net current of immigration obtained in this way is about 1,000,000 less than the figures of the Bureau. SPEAKERS AT THE FEDERATION'S IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 55 Mr. Bijur: May I interrupt you? You said that one of the questions is : Whether the present immi- grant to the number in which he comes is assimilated ? Would you indicate what you mean by that assimila- tion, so that we might gather some information on that subject if it is possible? Prof. Willcox : The question of defining what you mean by assimilation is an extremely difficult one, al- ■ most an unanswerable one. Certainly each one of us would lay stress upon different elements of the process. What I mean is this: If we had no immigration into the United States whatever, the character of our popu- lation and our civilization would gradually transform under any circumstances. It did transform through the colonial period before we had immigration. In other words, there wOuld be changes under any cir- cumstances. Now, then, is this current of immigra- tion either increasing those changes or modifying their nature or direction so that the national character of the American people is becoming decidedly differ- ent, and different in unfortunate ways from what it would be otherwise? That is as definitely as I can explain it. Mr. Bijur: Well, you leave out there, Mr. Will- cox, the effect of the institutions of the country and the environment and the material development of the country upon its ' population. In other words, even if you knew that the country had changed in a cer- tain direction during this time, you still have not cov- i-ed the question to what extent has that change been t^rought about by the political institutions of the coun- try and the environment — physical environment. For instance, you have an entirely different life among the 56 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION people in the West than you have among the people in the East, because conditions are different, and those conditions might be affected by the fact, not that Swedes or Germans went there, for instance, but be- cause that is a flat country where they grow wheat. Prof. Willcox: I think the point is a sound one. Perhaps I can illustrate more clearly what I mean in this way. Statistics have been adverted to this morn- ing tending to show that the tendency to commit crime on the part of the immigrant or on the part of foreign- born people was decidedly greater than the tendency to commit crime on the part of the native population ; that the tendency also manifested itself among the children of the foreign born. Now, quite apart from the question whether the statistics establish what they claim to, I would say that if it should be established by statistical evidence that the tendency to commit crime on the part of foreign-born population or their children, or on the part of certain classes of foreign- born population, or certain nationaUties, like the Ital- ians who have been discussed so much in the papers, was very great and if it should be further established that the tendency to commit crime on the part of the total population of the United States was increasing, then we might say with considerable reason that those two tendencies were related; that the influx of immi- gration was a factor in the increase of total crime in the United States. Now, may I advert very briefly to one or two ques- tions in regard to the statistics? Take figure A, for example (referring to diagram). It should be noted, in the first place, that crime is much more a city phe- nomenon than a country phenomenon. I do not mean IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 57. to say that the city population is more criminal, but that arrest and imprisonment for offences are more common in the city than in the country. Therefore, it will be expected that those parts of the population living largely in cities would show in the total popu- lation of the United States a larger proportion of prisoners than those living in the country. Further- more, the tendency to commit crime is largely a ques- tion of age. The criminal age is from 15 to 30; con- sequently, we should expect to find, as we do find, that those elements of the population which are very largely of criminal age, like the children of our immigrants, would have a high criminal tendency. Hence, it is not at all surprising to see that the children of im- migrants show, on the face of the figures, a much higher criminal tendency. But I should doubt whether if you could make your comparison age for age you would find anything like that difference. The ap- parent inference then is explained mainly by two facts : first, that immigrants and the children of immigrants are very largely in cities and the native population largely in country districts, and secondly, that the children of immigrants are especially of the age when crime is most likely to occur. You notice that the persons indicated by the dia- gram are not criminals. We are constantly confus- ing prisoners with criminals. Suppose a person in New York is arrested for intoxication in the streets, the question whether he goes to prison depends chiefly on whether he has ten dollars in his pocket to pay the fine. It is very largely true that the statistics of prisoners are a function of the economic standing of the people concerned. If we had the figures, not of. 58 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION all persons imprisoned for crime, but simply of all who are arrested and tried for crime, they would show a difference. There are three important qualifications in these statistics as to the tendency to commit crime. I confess I have been unable to find in the figures properly qualified the evidence that my friend Mr. Hall and so many others find, that there is any con- siderably greater tendency on the part of the immi- grants themselves to commit crime than there is on the part of the native population. I think there is a greater tendency on the part of the children of immi- grants as compared with the children of the natives. The reason I do not care to go into. That difference seems to me to be established, but these diagrams, I believe, seriously exaggerate it. Hugh F. Fox: May I say a word about that diagram? I do not think anyone who has studied much, or who has had much to do practically with juvenile delinquents, would be willing to base any conclusions on the data of sixteen years ago. The fact is that the whole progress in this question during the last ten years makes the data of sixteen years ago practically the data of the dark ages. Sixteen years ago juveniles were arrested for all sorts of things that are not considered crimes to-day, and they are now dealt with in an entirely different fash- ion ; the whole attitude of the police and the judiciary in regard to the so-called juvenile incorrigible and delinquent sixteen years ago we would consider to- day as semi-barbarous. I do not think that we can base any conclusion that is of any value in relation to the immigration problem on such data as was obtained in 1890 on that question. IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 59 Prof. Morris Loeb: I would like to add just a few words on this topic because my attention was very sharply brought to it very recently, and I took time from other work to look into it. There has been a paper published recently (I am astonished it has not been quoted, because it is too recent to be discredited) showing the tremendous effect of Russian, Italian and Slavic immigration upon homicide. The statistics are really very startling, and so startling that there was evidently something wrong. The presumption was that homicide was taken to stand for criminal tendency, while, as we all know, in New York City, for instance, a man who allows a brick to drop from a roof which hits somebody accidentally, is arrested for homicide. Homicide was taken synonymously for murder, and I found that the homicidal statistics were taken to stand for murder statistics. Of course, questions of that character have to be gone into in very great detail. I have attempted, in a paper that will shortly appear,* to show what wrong conclusions are drawn on homicide when you are unable to dif- ferentiate in various parts of the country between ac- cidental killing and murder. I do not suppose the foreman of a mine in Arizona can be arrested for homicide if it happens that half a dozen "Dagos" or "Greasers," as they call them, were blown up by an accidental discharge of dynamite in the bottom of a mine, whereas a foreman in New York would be ar- rested for any fatal building accident. The question was entirely eliminated whether, in the South, a man would be arrested for homicide if he took part in a * Popular Science Monthly, October, 1906. 60 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION lynching bee. And there was no attempt made to discriminate between homicide and murder proper. Nevertheless, within six months these statistics are going to be quoted by practically everybody in favor of restriction. But there is another side to it that strikes me very forcibly, and that is this: The worst offenders, I found, were three classes of people according to the statistics which I say are absolutely erroneous as far as showing actual criminal tendency — ^but Italians, Mexicans and Chinese were the three classes of offen-. ders who stood highest in the proportion per hundred thousand. It struck me at once that the Chinaman was pretty inoffensive, and the proof came in im- mediately. Ninety-six per cent, of all the Chinamen in the United States are males between 21 and 60 years of age; whereas only twenty-four per cent, of the inhabitants of the United States at large are of that age, which has just been shown by Prof. Willcox is the age of crime. Of course if ninety-six per cent, of the Chinamen happen to be of an age when the criminal tendency is largest, whereas only twenty- four per cent, of the entire population of the United States are of that age, you would expect the China- man to suffer by a comparison based on these statis- tics. The same thing is true as regards the Italian and the Mexican. I was struck by something else, and that was this : In Arizona and New Mexico and the entire territory which was taken from Mexico dur- ing our war of 1849, ^^1 people in that territory are called Mexicans if they speak Spanish, whether they are Mexicans or whether they have been in the United States for two or three generations. Now, all these IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 61 persons are imprisoned in Arizona and New Mexico and southern California as Mexicans. Nevertheless, there is no way in the United States census to find put how many real Mexicans are in the country, be- cause the United States census disregards the immi- gration from Mexico as a part of the immigration into the country. Furthermore, among the nationali- ties which are called very bad, on account of this homi- cidal tendency, I find there are many seamen, and that a man who is arrested on the border or arrested in a seaport for a crime committed on board ship or in some low drinking-dive on the seashore will be ac- credited to that nationality as a criminal, whereas he was never entered as an immigrant. Those figures alone produce such an effect that I cannot see how anybody with a clear conscience can go ahead and accuse these poor lambs of dirtying the water for the wolf who is drinking upstream. Mrs. Florence Kelley : I should like to suggest one other element of uncertainty in regard to the na- tionality of juvenile offenders. I should like to il- lustrate by the case of a boy whom I know personally, a professional pickpocket, who has three official na- tionalities and names. His baptismal certificate indi- cates that both his parents are Italians, and his name is Francisco de Angelo; his public school record indi- cates that he is a native, both his parents being natives, and his name Frankie Weir; his Bridewell record, he being of Chicago, shows that he is an Irish child, both his parents being Irish and his name Micky Shevlin. Now, he had, up to the time of his death, been arrested nineteen times, his bails always paid by the Shevlin gang and his name always ap- 62 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION peared on the record as Micky Shevlin. If he had had presence of mind enough any of those nineteen times to give his name as Frankie Weir it would of course have had some effect on the ratio appearing on that chart. The afternoon session of the meeting was called to order by Dr. Leander T. Chamberlain, First Vice- Chairman of the Federation's Immigration Depart- ment. Dr. Chamberlain : It devolves upon me, as First Vice-Chairman, to call the meeting to order in the absence of Chairman MacVeagh, for the continuation of the discussion, and I wish to announce that at 4 o'clock the Committees will meet. How long the dis- cussions are to last is for you to decide. Mr. Hall: Mr. Chairman — Mr. Bijur and I have concluded that perhaps the most profitable thing to do this afternoon will be first for any member of the De- partment to make any suggestions or state any facts or ask any questions of either Mr. Bijur or myself on the general subject. Our object is not to have con- troversies between ourselves but to develop the out- lines of the general topic for the benefit of the Com- mittees of the Department, and anything that any member present can say or suggest, or any doubt or theory that he desires to raise will help toward this result. The speeches in general will be limited to five minutes, unless any person wishes to take further time for the development of some important thought, and at the close of the discussion Mr. Bijur and myself will perhaps make a few remarks by way of closing. Dr. Charles Fleischer: Mr. Chairman — I would IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 63 like to ask of the Department through you whether it seems to the Department, as for some time it has seemed to me, feasible to start a project for getting the different nations of Europe interested with us in this immigration problem and lifting it practically to the plane of an international question. It is not simply the going and coming of many of these immi- grants, but the fact of the conditions stimulating im- migration to America, that raises the question to the plane of internationalism. Knowing America as I know her through history and through personal ac- quaintance, I see America as a nation somewhat diiferent from other nations in that we are avowedly humanitarian. Therefore, in justice to our national characteristics as well as to our history, it seems to me that we cannot develop an attitude of hostility tovirard immigration here and at the same time be in- different to the causes abroad which stimulate this migration. For instance, we cannot say that we have no right to interfere in the internal conditions of Russia and at the same time try to keep out the Rus- sians who are moved to migrate to America by those very internal conditions that obtain in Russia. Such an attitude of indifference to the causes that stimulate migration is false to our history. Therefore, I want to ask if it is possible for our Department to lift this problem to an international plane. Mr. MacVeagh in the Chair. The Chairman : I will ask Prof. Jenks to reply to that question. Prof. J. W. Jenks (of Cornell University) : I think that no individual has the right to speak authoritatively for this Department of the Federation 64 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION or for any Committee of this Department. So far as my own personal judgment in the matter is concerned I say this: I quite agree with the suggestions that have been made by the speaker that the question is one of international scope and of international importance; I am quite of the opinion that ultimately it will be desirable for this country to join with other countries in the study of the question with the idea of getting some joint or harmonious action. At the same time it is my judgment that at present, owing to the fact that we have legislation pending in Congress upon which it is important that some action be taken, it would probably be undesirable for us to take any immediate action looking toward international study, if it would be likely to change materially the character of legisla- tion pending in Washington. While I feel, therefore, that ultimately we shall wish to take some steps look- ing toward international action, as the question is one of international interest and importance, I should very much question the wisdom of our attempting to make it an international question immediately, if that were likely to involve, as it probably would involve, the danger of delaying pending legislation that the Con- gress has already recommended. Dr. Fleischer: What pending legislation do you refer to ? Prof. Jenks: I had in mind the bills now before Congress that were discussed this morning. Theodore Ahrens, (President of the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing Company, Louisville, Ky.) : Gentlemen, I have listened with a great deal of in- terest to the argument presented by the speakers who opened this discussion this morning, and I am now IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 65 here with the feeling that both of them are right — I mean right so far. I do not believe we can look at this entire question from any narrow point of view: I do not believe that this Department should take a position that would restrict immigration absolutely. I do, however, believe that a good many of the pro- visions in the Senate bill which Mr. Hall advocated and discussed and explained this morning are neces- sary. I do not think we have reached a point in this country where we do not need continued immigration. Speaking for my section of the country, that is the South, I am sure we do need more immigrants. As a manufacturer I to-day feel the necessity, the abso- lute want, for labor. That condition exists not only in Kentucky, but in Alabama and other Southern States, and I believe with the gentleman who stated this morning that "we could use a million more im- migrants a year, but they should be the best of the kind," is the man who struck the keynote of the whole situation. I even bdieve that in the United States we can use one million more immigrants a year, and I believe we can get one million immigrants annually but of a desirable class. I think we ought to throw around our immigration laws such restrictions as this bill proposes, at least the most of such provisions-. I think the most of them are all right, and in so far I am in favor of it. But I do not believe that this Committee or this Department should take any action that would be hostile to immigration in general. Mr. Bijur: Mr. Qiairman, I suggest to Mr. Ahrens while he is about it that he go on and de- scribe what he means by best and most desirable. What have you got in mind? 66 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION Mr. Ahrens: I mean that such immigrants as we are trying to keep out by the different sections of that law. For instance, criminal classes or consump- tives or epileptics or people who are not fit to take care of themselves should be kept out. I believe that every absolutely healthy man, woman or child who comes into the United States, whether they have $25 or not, should be allowed to come here, because we know this country was built up by just such people. We know the great majority of the Irish and Ger- mans and all the other people who came here twenty- five or fifty years ago never had twenty-five or fifty dollars that this proposed legislation provides for. Prof. Morris Loeb: There is one point about the bill a little foreign to the matter in general, but it seems to me, in a way, to typify how wrong can be done. It does not directly affect immigration, and nevertheless it is characteristic more or less of the attitude of the people who have been advocating bills of this character. I want to speak for a very un- fortunate class. Up to the present time the depor- tation is limited, I believe, to people who have developed certain troubles on the other side or may be presumed to have developed them. At the present time it is proposed, I believe, that the time during which a man may be deported shall be extended to the fifth year after his arrival, and that the cause for which he is to be deported may have arisen in this country. Now, there are two very serious matters about that. In the first place, suppose a man were working in one of the trenches out here and his leg were blown off, he would become a suitable object for deportation through the accident that happened in the IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 67 United States, while more or less working in the interest of the United States, by digging a subway in New York. Occasions of that kind could arise all the time. It is not quite fair if a man should be debilitated by anything occurring as an accident or in the natural course of the work which he is undertaking in this country, that yet he should be taken up and told, "Because you happen to have arrived in the last five years, although you have been working quite as hard as another person who happened to be born here, you shall be deported." That seems to me, I must say as a man, rather an unjust attitude. And there is something else which looks to me very much more cruel still. Those of us who have been abroad know that certain countries, take for instance Switzerland, have some curious and very unfortunate laws with regard to the handling of the paupers. It is extremely easy for a person who has been born in a canton of Switzerland, for instance, to lose the Heimatsrecht, the right to be aided in that country. Suppose the case of a man who has come over to this side; he has been here two or three years; he has been, under our own laws, encouraged to an- nounce his intention to become a citizen of the United States, and the very time he announces his intention he does all sorts of things against his former sov- ereign, swears off allegiance, and so forth. Now, our country picks him up three or four years after and throws him back, and that man is an absolute home- less and hopeless individual. He is confessedly un- able to do anything over here, that is why we sent him away, and the other side say, "You have declared 68 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION your intention to be an American citizen, go away." It is not a political fact, it is a humanitarian fact, that the law which neglects the rights of the indi- vidual cannot stand. Mr. Hall: I suggest that the pending Senate bill proposes only the extension of the period three years and the deportation of the people who have for causes arising prior to landing become a public charge. The suggestion I made was in the draft of the Industrial Commission, and personally I advocated it. But it is not in the Senate bill. Prof. Loeb : That is better for the Senate bill than for Mr. Hall. John Mitchell: I should like to make a fiew observations upon the matter under discussion this morning. I do not approach the subject as a stu- dent or an expert, but I do approach it as a prac- tical workingman who has from daily experience observed the effect of practically unregulated immi- gration. It is not sufficient to say, as was stated by Mr. Bijur this morning: What is the matter with our country? I yield to no one in my regard for my country, or to no one in my sympathy with the less fortunate in other countries. But there is something the matter, nevertheless. I belong to an organization of which practically all the coal miners of America are members. And in this period of unprecedented industrial prosperity the people of my trade are given the opportunity to work about 200 days per year. There is certainly something the matter when a man who offers to work 300 days a year is permitted to work only 200 days, and if during this time of great industrial activity a trade or an industry IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 69 is only permitted to work 200 days per year, what will it be permitted to work in times of either financial or industrial depression? It is a matter of grave concern to the 600,000 men who mine coal in America whether or not there is to be some reason- able restriction made upon the admission of aliens into this country. I think that the restriction ought to be upon the broadest possible lines. I think that we should have due regard for those who are less fortunate than our- selves, who live in other countries. I think that we should be careful not to permit ourselves to be under even the suspicion of seeking to keep immigrants from landing here because of national or religious preju- dices. But I do believe that there ought to be some qualifications, that there ought to be some educational qualifications; that it should be required by our gov-, ernment that those arriving upon our shores should have sufficient money to enable them to secure em- ployment at such points as they may be most profit- ably employed. It is certainly not fair or just to the American workingman, or those who have come here some years ago, that a newly arrived immigrant should be forced by his own necessities to take the first job that is offered to him. If that is to be — if we are to continue a system which compels the poor immigrant to take the first position that is offered to him, that means that he takes the job held by some one who preceded him here, or who was born in this country. I think it is not unreasonable, with the large population \ye have, with our citizens irregularly employed, for us to afford to them who are here the first and best consideration. 70 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION I believe that by fixing a high standard — a reason- ably high standard — as a condition of admission to this country, we not only protect our higher standards of life and labor here, but we fix a higher standard for those who are abroad. If men must have a reas- onable education, if they must have a reasonable amount of money in order to be admitted to our coun- try, the chances are that the countries of the Old World will raise their standard to meet our requirements, and in that way we not only confer upon our people that protection to which they as citizens of this country are entitled, but we fix a higher standard for those who live in the countries of the Old World. James O'Connexl, (President of the Interna- tional Association of Machinists) : I confess that I do not quite understand the position of the gentlemen who opened up this subject. In other words, I do not know where they are at, and in order to ascertain that, I want to ask Mr. Bijur a question. I want to ask if Mr. Bijur believes in the restriction of immi- gration at all. Mr. Bijur: Do you mean beyond what we have to-day? Mr. O'Connell: Yes. Mr. Bijur: I never attempt, Mr. O'Connell, to believe until I have facts upon which to base my belief, Mr. 0'Connex,l: Well, I ask the question because you must have some belief. Mr. Bijur : No, I have not formed an opinion on the subject. Mr. O'Connell: You have expressed an opinion that 1 know of. Mr. Bijur: I have expressed the opinion that I IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 71 have not had presented to me that on which to base a judgment. Mr, O'Connell: Then you do not know whether you are in favor of immigration or not? Mr. Bijur: Precisely. Mr. O'Connell: I beheve, if I remember cor- rectly, Mr. Bijur, you made a statement before the House Committee that you were opposed to restric- tion of immigration. Mr. Bijur: I said that I had never seen an argu- ment based upon facts why the present immigration was not valuable to the country. Mr. O'Connell: In other words, you were never convinced in your own mind. Mr. Bijur: Mr. O'Connell, let me explain. I have spoken now of facts. Now, by those facts I refer to economic facts, social facts. For instance, whether the coming in of immigrants has kept wages down; whether the coming in of immigrants has pro- duced greater dependence, either among the immi- grants or elsewhere. I am not now speaking of political considerations. I have an opinion as to whether this country should remain open to the per- secuted,! — ^politically or religiously persecuted people, — of the world. That opinion is based upon our political institutions and our history, and what I apprehend to be the purpose of our government. That has nothing at all to do with the discussion which is under way now, namely, the economic and social effects upon this country of the actual immigration. Now, if you ask me whether I am in favor of keeping the doors of the United States open to the politically or relig- iously persecuted people of the world, I say yes. If 72 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION you ask me whether I know that the immigrant is a valuable addition to the country, I say no, I do not. I believe he is, because while he has been coming in the country has been prosperous. Mr. O'Connell: I do not ask you either one of those questions, Mr. Bijur, because neither one of them, in my opinion, applies to the general proposi- tion of immigration. I ask you whether you are opposed to the general restriction of immigration on general principles. I ask you if you did not make the statement before the House Committee on Immigra- tion that you were opposed to restrictions, or that you were in favor of non-restriction absolutely. Mr. Bijur: No. Mr. O'Connell: I suppose that you consider the Chinese Exclusion Act is immigrant exclusion. You consider that as such. Are you opposed to Chinese exclusion ? Mr. Bijur: Mr. O'Connell, I am utterly unable to answer that. 1 do not understand the Chinese question from beginning to end. Mr. O'Connell: Well, do you know something of the effect of immigration upon the clothing in- dustry in the United States? Mr. Bijur: Yes. The opinion I have is from the figures published in the United States census of 1900, which show that the wages in the clothing industry have grown more in proportion than the wages in the other industries in the past ten or twenty years. Mr. O'Connell: I simply ask these questions to set myself straight. When a gentleman addresses a meeting with a view to occupying a position upon a subject that is open for debate, as the immigration IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 73 question is at this meeting, usually I think the audi- ence must be in a position to judge whether he is for or against the question, and I am not in that position. Now, that is what I want to get at, and in asking the question I ask with that intention. I heard Mr. Bijur speak and I listened very attentively to him, and I am yet in doubt. He criticises the statistics here, and he criticises Mr. Hall. I am not defending Mr. Hall at all, because I do not fully agree with him. But we are shooting at long range. Let us get up close. It is all right to say that we should treat this matter as an academic or from a statistical stand- point, and so on, but when you say to a man, as Mr. Bijur says, "Tell me why this is and why that is," why, that is an awfully good place to hide behind, and an awfully easy place to rest — very difficult to comply with. To us who have rubbed up against it, as Mr. Mitchell has just stated, in times when we were not at the pinnacle of prosperity as we are to-day, when men are competing with each other, vieing with each other, for a living for themselves and their off- spring, then we feel it, then we know something about immigration. It is not academic with us then. It is not a matter of figures with us, because, as you state, figures may be true, but liars can figure, and so forth — you did not put it in that way, but that is practically what it means. But there is a practical point to this. I have the honor of representing an organization of one hundred thousand skilled me- chanics, and we feel the immigration proposition every day. We meet it every day in our own way. We meet the man who comes in every day and stands at the shop door. We have to compete with him. He is 74 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION not competing with us, we compete with him, and if we (Succeed, all right. If we succeed in assimilating, well and good. But if we don't, what then? The question of assimilating the immigrant who comes over is one we have been trying for years and years. I have an idea that the countries to which Chinamen emigrate very rapidly do not assimilate them, but they become Chinaised, and I am of the opinion that it exists in this country where certain elements of immigration locate, that instead of assimi- lating, we become Chinaised, or Hungarianised, or Swedenised. There is no assimilation there. The English language is lost sight of. They speak their own language. They teach their children their own language, and so forth ; they are still being taught the instincts of an alien. But the question is whether the law, as outlined by Mr. Hall, is a solution of the question or not. We may differ very much on this, differ on the means of restricting immigration, and as to how much we should charge per head, and so forth, but the ques- tion of immigration has its effect upon the wealth producers of our country, and they are the ones who are most affected. The wage earner who is in com- petition every day with the immigrant, not the man who draws up these figures that have been presented to us, or the man who represents the various societies appearing before committees of Congress, but the men who are meeting with them in their every day life, are the ones affected. We say yes, very ma- terially affected, yery much affected. Our living is gauged by immigration. Our wages are based on immigration; the condition of our family, the way IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 75 our families are cared for and fed is gauged by im- migration ; the schooling of our children is dictated by immigration. It is governed by the fellow who is competing with us for a job. We have our own citizens and our own people who are in competition in a way, but it is the man who comes here and is met at the shore by the man who is bidding for him and becomes practically the owner of these men, as is now being done on the greatest public work the Government has ever undertaken, of- fering so much and so much, selling Chinamen by auction at nine cents an hour. And American laborers who are largely going to pay the bills, cannot find employment there. Has that any effect upon our people or our standard of living? We are the ones who suffer from immigration, not the employer. We go to Congress and ask for some protection; we are laughed at. The present immigration laws need amending very materially. The present laws are being violated in every possible way. The Chinese Exclusion Act is being flagrantly violated. But we have those among us who stand up- and say, "Oh, prove it to me," like doubting Thomas who wanted to stick his finger in the side of Christ. He would not believe there was a hole there until he put his fingers in it. "Show me!" Well, we have been up against it so often and so continuously that we do not need to be from Missouri in our case, because we meet it here and there and everywhere — in the mining district, in the mechanical trades, in the clothing in- dustry, the allied industries, and in all of the indus- tries in which labor is engaged— we are confronted with immigration. 76 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION We cannot show to you, we cannot prove to you, we cannot bring you chapter and verse for all these things, but we meet it, we know it. It is in our hearts, before our eyes every minute of the day. We want protection from it, and we do not want, above all other things, any reference of it to the fel- low who is sending the people here. We do not want it referred back to an International Conference as to whether we are suflfering or not. We here are the judges. We are best capable of judging whether we are suffering or not, and not the man who is sending the men here. . I say, Mr. Chairman, it is absolutely ridiculous to expect that we come here prepared to prove that immigration is not an injury to the people of our country, or that further restriction of labor is not a good thing for the people of our country, when we have all around us every evidence of it. You say, "Show me." We simply say we know it is so because we have suffered from it. We have felt it and our families have suffered from it, and are being punished by it. It is a real problem with us, and not imaginary. It is not academic with us, it is real. So I say to Mr, Bijur: We cannot prove to you, we cannot give you the absolute facts that would convince you; we cannot show you that we are right, and that you are wrong; we can only say to you that we feel the effects of it. We feel that our standard of living is kept down. We feel that by a better protection against immigration, we would be given better oppor- tunities for a still higher standard of citizenship. We have no desire to keep out the desirable immi- grant, and I cannot explain to you what is desirable IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE n immigration to your satisfaction, although I think I know what I mean by that, but I do not think I can prove.it to you. But we want fair opportunities here, and we do not want an unfair competition. In other words, we do not want the American labor to compete with the slums of Europe for a living. We don't want a tariff upon our product, and no tariff upon competition with our labor. We want protection from all sides. I do not say this from a political standpoint, as I am not a politician. We could not convince you, Mr. Bijur, that you are wrong and we are right, but I think we feel it. I know we suffer from the results of it, and I think we know that we need some protection from it, and I am sure if you were with us in our daily walks of life, if you were in our factories and workshops, and down in the bowels of the earth where labor is employed, you would agree with us as to the necessity for pro- tection. Not only in prosperous times like these, but when the reverses come. Then we have to contend with not only what has come in, but what will come in under the present restriction. Dr. Fleischer: I would like to know whether Mr. O'Connell believes that organized labor would feel itself more competent to compete with the more desirable immigrants that a restricted immigration would bring to us than with the class now coming in. In other words, if we raise the quality of immigra- tion through restriction would organized labor find itself better able to compete without help? Mr. O'Connell: Organized labor has its doors open. We are not competing with them. We accept 78 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION them willingly as members of our organization. We want to assimilate them as suggested here, as rapidly as possible, and make them of some profit to us. Hugh F. Fox: As the gentleman suggested just now, I want to get within close range of this sub- ject again. I confess to some confusion during the presentation of the views of the last speaker. Mr. Mitchell, who is always forceful and interesting, made us feel that labor extends the glad hand to the healthy and able-bodied immigrants, even though they may be successful competitors for positions which laborers in this country now occupy. The gentleman who fol- lowed him would apparently prefer, if we are to have unprotected and unrestricted immigration, that the class who come in should be the class least able to compete with labor. It seemed to me that the views of the gentlemen who have just spoken, while they are extremely interesting from the standpoint of what may happen, are getting rather wide of the purpose of the present discussion, which is to find out if there is a basis of facts to aid our judgment in considering the immigration problem. Now, if you will indulge me for a few minutes, I want to speak on two matters with which I am familiar. I want to speak of the conditions in the State of New Jersey with regard to the dependent and the delinquent classes, and then I want to speak of the agricultural conditions with reference to labor and immigration on the Pacific Coast. I have been at some pains to find out what the facts are in New Jersey as to the relative number of aliens and native born and American born of foreign parents in the insane asylums and almshouses in IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 79 New Jersey. The evidence which I get is of a nega- tive character. In the Hudson county almshouse, for instance, which is the largest in the State, I find that a very large percentage are of Irish parentage or of Irish heredity. Now, it would be absurd to argue upon this fact that the Irish in Hudson county are an undesirable class of immigrants. On the contrary, I think we could show that among those who have done the most to build up the State are the people af Irish descent. We had an agitation in our largest counties lately over the evils resulting from back rooms and dis- reputable adjuncts to the saloons. The churches, Protestant and Catholic, have been holding mass-meet- ings and asking for legislation to check these evils. I find in going over the roster of the saloon men who have the worst record in the two largest counties of Essex and Hudson, that with rarely an exception, their names are all either Irish or German. And yet we are perfectly sure in New Jersey that the Germans and Irish are among the most desirable people that we can import. I find in looking over the data in the State Insane Asylum that the native Americans are in the ma- jority, and next to them come the Germans and the Austrians and the Irish again and the English, all of whom belong to the nationalities that restrictionists would select as being most desirable for this country. I find the same condition of things in the State prison, and so I could cite one institution after another throughout the State. The only point which I want to make in this connection is that this sort of infor- mation is of negative value; that it proves nothing 80 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION one way or another; that there are local conditions and tentative conditions and shifting conditions that account for it. So I might, I suppose, go through the records of almost all the other States. Take the State of Indiana, for instance, which has done more to thoroughly investigate the conditions of out-door relief and put it on a good basis than any other State in the Union. Indiana has a law requiring that every man who receives out-door relief through the over- seers of the poor shall be recorded in the State Board of Charities and shall be subject to investigation, and through this system the State has succeeded in ten years, in spite of the increase in population, in re- ducing the volume of out-door relief something like sixty per cent., without increasing the numbers in the almshouses. If you will take the roster of people receiving out-door relief, I think you will find that a very large percentage of the inmates are of American parentage. And yet it would be foolish to infer that Indiana would be better off if it were over-run by foreigners ! Now, just a word with regard to labor conditions on the Pacific Coast, and I hope you will pardon me if I talk shop. I am engaged in the hop business, and something like two-thirds of the hops in the United States are now grown in Oregon, Washington and California. We are now almost at the end of harvest- ing. Telegrams have been coming to us, frantically, from all of our agents and buyers, and the growers who are interested with us in ranches out there, telling us that they have not got enough pickers to harvest the crops, and they fear that one-quarter of the crop will be lost. This condition has been getting worse and IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 81 worse each year. It has been getting worse partly be- cause the Chinamen, who came in before the Ex- clusion Act, have become prosperous, and in spite of what Mr. Stahl wrote in his letter about scientific farming, the Chinaman to-day is competing success- fully with the American, the Englishman and the Scotchman in the Pacific Coast States as a hop grower, and is running large ranches and is himself in many cases employing white labor. Now, I know it is said that that is casual and oc- casional and seasonal labor. That is true to a certain extent. But there is enough demand for it in harvest- ing fruit and in similar industries besides the hop in- dustry to keep men employed for several months, and there is ample opportunity to-day for the man who goes there as a seasonal laborer to get land — small pieces of land, if you please — and by farming not only to earn his living during the other nine months, but to become in a few years very prosperous. The fact is you cannot separate the immigrant problem from the land problem in that part of the country, or I presume elsewhere. Until the last few years that sec- tion of the country contained a large number of men who were land poor because of the policy of the gov- ernment in giving away quarter sections of extremely rich and valuable land that was very carelessly farmed. Now, I do not attempt to state what bearing that has upon the immigrant problem further than this, that it is perfectly clear there are large sections of the country to-day that are calling for labor and have no prejudice against its nationality, and that it will be a long time before the country is so filled up that demand for labor will be diminished. ^ THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION James W. Kinneak: This discussion has as- sumed almost entirely a commercial character and is based almost entirely upon commercial reasons. We have certain classes who are clamoring that the immi- grants who come here tend to make the rich richer, and reduce the wages of our workingmen. And if that were true to the extent that one of the speakers intimated — that immigration does interfere with the wages of our workingmen by overcrowding certain districts so that they cannot properly care for their families — I would favor protecting such districts. But are there not other considerations more im- portant than commerce that have a place in this dis- cussion ? Some one suggested this morning that most every country in Europe, and so far this country, has at all times recognized the right of every well-thinking person to move wherever he pleases, or change his residence to any place that he desires so long as he has a right purpose in view in so doing. Can we as a nation take any action that will repudiate that prin- ciple? Is it not a question of right that we as a free country should extend the same rights to those who are coming now that were extended to us just a few years ago? Now, if the conditions existed generally that have been stated to exist in the coal mining dis- tricts, we would be heartily in favor of keeping out competition. No one would be more heartily in favor of it than I. But that is a local matter entirely. Texas is offering 5,000,000 acres of land at a dollar an acre. Utah is offering large quantities of land at about the same price. Mr. O'Connell: What would you do with it if it was given to you at a dollar an acre ? SPEAKERS AT THE FEDERATION'S IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 83 Mr. Kinnear : Texas, if it is cultivated, can main- tain every man, woman and child in the United States. Mr. O'Connell: In a country where it will rain often enough so that you can raise crops ? Mr. Kinnear: Yes, with irrigation. I mentioned Utah offering a large extent of land. I am not ac- quainted with all the conditions of Texas. I never visited the State. Mr. John Mitchell: Will you permit me to ask a question? Under our law, how would the immi- grants get to Texas to start farming on land at a dollar an acre? Mr. Kinnear : That is just a matter of distribution. If they send all the immigrants over into your coal mining district it would be a downright sin and wrong, but have you any right to say that because you are crowded there that people in the South and West shall not have men? Mr. Mitchell : No, you don't understand my ques- tion. I ask how would the immigrant arriving from southern JEurope having thirty dollars in money reach Texas unless somebody paid his fare? Mr. Kinnear: He can be landed in New Orleans. At the conference on immigration held in December last it was recommended to Congress that a port of entry be established there. Mr. Mitchell : Why, thirty dollars would not buy a plow. Mr. Kinnear: But it is not necessary that he should buy land. There is a large demand for labor- ers there, and it would not be long until he could own his own cabbage patch, at least. Now, so long as your conditions are local, I do not think you have any right 84 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION to insist that the whole nation shall go without men simply on your account, but your overcrowded dis- tricts ought to be protected so far as it is practical to do so without interfering with the rights of other districts. If you and I did not come over as immigrants, it is not long since our forefathers came over, and if we have a good thing here, is there any honorable or just reason why we should say no one else shall come? Those political brethren who are persecuted for political reasons, these people who are persecuted for their religious beliefs, to such our gates have always been open ; should we keep them out now ? One apparent solution of this problem, to my mind, is to place the immigrants where they are most needed, and thus prevent their congregating in overcrowded districts. I cannot see myself how the common laborer inter- feres with the skilled mechanic. These skilled me- chanics a few years ago were common laborers; they would not work as common laborers to-day, and I do not blame them. They can get better wages. It seems to me that some of the representatives of labor organizations are standing in their own light. I appreciate their arguments, and I sympathize with them when it comes down to interfering with their families and the care of their families and the proper education of their children, but I believe the coming of immigrants here has helped to raise the position of those who were laborers just a few years ago. Now, one word about the Panama Canal. It was referred to. I do not believe it is possible to find Americans who would go down there and labor in IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 85 that country for any reasonable price in sufficient num- bers to build the Panama Canal. I do not speak from any exact knowledge, but I tell you if the canal is ever built, and that seems certain, it will be built largely with Chinese and Japanese labor, because they are adapted to the climate and the work, and very few people who call themselves Americans would be able to do it. I am not in favor of Coolie labor coming into this country at the present time, but I see no reason why they should not have a hand in construct- ing that great waterway when it will be almost, if not quite, impossible to build it any other way. Mr. O'Connell : Why not bring them in here later then? Why would it not be an argument to build some works in the United States ? Mr. Kinnear : Because we can do that ourselves. Mr. O'Connell : Why ? Mr. Kinnear: Because climatic conditions are dif- ferent. Mr. O'Connell : You say the American men do not want the dirty work. Rev. Adolph Roeder : I would like to add one word to the discussion, from neither a statistical, nor an academic, nor mechanical, nor commercial standpoint, but simply from the proposition of the futility of discussion. It is quite natural in a discussion that there should be a series of extreme views, and that we should be exposed to the danger of attributing results to one cause which may be largely due to a series of causes. For that reason we might have to modify our views in regard to any one proposition. Mr. Mitchell has very interestingly and very emphatically, 86 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION and Mr. O'Connell still more emphatically, presented the views of the conditions in the coal mines. And from all that was said it seems as if those conditions were entirely due to the introduction of the foreigner. Now, all of us have followed a good deal of the vari- ous kinds of muck-raking in regard to the railroads, and we have found out that the railroads play quite a large part in Pennsylvania. If the railroads were in different conditions, if things were different with the railroads, our friends in Pennsylvania might have not quite so serious a problem on their hands. The 200 days a year which they work, instead of 300 which they might work, may be partly due to the fact that the railroads refuse to transport coal at certain times, and arrange the sale among themselves and say that the coal shall stay in the mines. I am rather inclined to think that if we look into the matter carefully we should find that the 200 days a year would be at- tributable more largely to the railroads than to the immigrants. Mr. Mitchell : What I say of Pennsylvania is true of Texas. Our organization extends all over the United States. Mr. Roeder: And of course so do the railroads. I simply introduce that as an illustration, Mr. Chair- man, of the fact that we are very apt to drift away from our proposition, and that the discussion will not be as useful as it will be if we remain more closely on the proposition which is before us. That is, as I understand it, whether we are to favorably consider a series of additional restrictions to immigration, or whether we are not favorably to consider them, and I want to ask the attention of the ladies and gentle- IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 87 men here to the fact that when you come to extreme views, you come to what is not quite satisfactory. There have been few meetings that I have derived so much pleasure from as I did from the various meetings which we had in the Madison Square Gar- den in the early days of the winter, and yet I left one meeting with a sense of extreme discontent because it seemed to me that the meeting had been purposeless. It had been vigorous; it had been emphatic; it had been very disconcerting ; it had been flavored very strongly with Missouri and the West Coast, but it was restless with discontent, and not satisfactory, be- cause almost all the speakers who were most vigorous talked of the proposition as if the question was that of letting down the bars entirely and bringing all of China into America. Now, that was not the proposi- tion. The proposition was to make some alteration in the Exclusion Act and to increase the number of people who should be tested in certain ways. That was the proposition, and since the speakers did not confine themselves to that proposition, that proposition was not solved. The other proposition was thoroughly solved. We all felt quite strongly that we did not want China dumped into America, and I suppose China feels very much in the same way just now. The other proposition was when we came to this meeting that it was not supposed to restrict immigra- tion in the sense of cutting down substantially the flow and the number of immigrants. I doubt very much, Mr. Hall, when these things are put into ac- tual execution, whether the head tax or the linguistic provision of this, that or the other section of that bill will seriously interfere with the number of immi- 7 88 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION grants coming. I think there will be almost as many. I hope there will be, and I think they will be of a little better class, for their own sake, because it puts a lot of people at a disadvantage when they are thrown into a country where they cannot distinguish between liberty and license. Those little fellows (in- dicating the chart) who are represented, fairly or un- fairly, are at a serious disadvantage because they are thrown into a country of liberty, and to them it means : "This is a free country. If your ball happens to break a window it does not make any difference, it is a free country. If you want to throw banana peels on the pavement, a fellow looks nice when he goes down on them." In the removal of unintelligent men from the sway of a monarchy, where they are well con- trolled and well held in hand, there is always danger of 'that removal resulting in the feeling of license and in the increase of the sense of personal liberty which does not exist. Therefore, Mr. Chairman, I want to add to this discussion simply the question whether it would not be wiser for us to confine our- selves very strictly to the question: "Are we in favor of these (to my mind) rather slight restrictions, or are we not in favor?" Personally, I should favor these rather slight restrictions. I think they would do no one any serious harm, and I think they would result in benefits to all concerned. The Chairman : It is quite natural for Mr. Roeder and the others to address themselves to me as the Chairman, but of course this discussion has been in the hands of these two gentlemen (Mr, Hall and Mr. Bijur), and I have really felt I have nothing to do with it. But that appeal of Mrt Roeder emboldens IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 89 me to say the same thing has been running through my mind for some time. Of course, it has been per- fectly understood that everything under the sun that could be thought of was to be said here to-day for the general enlightenment of the Committees, and there- fore every latitude has been allowed by these gen- tlemen, and not interfered with by me. I was struck at the opening of the discussion by what I thought was a bit of practical wisdom by Mr. Hall in using the concrete instance that is before us, that is, the proposed legislation in Congress, and using his time in discussing the actual points that we are up against in those bills. That is the one concrete case now before the country, and it is imminent. It is going to come up again just as soon as Congress meets. Issues joined there are being joined and this body would do very well, it seems to me, to arrive, if possible, at some sort of judgment as to that par- ticular instance. Now, do not misunderstand me. I do not think that there is any finality in that legislation. I do not be- lieve there is any finality in our views. It is a pretty large question and it is going to last long enough to convince Mr. O'Connell that an international con- ference is a wise thing and not at all inimical to any- body's interest. It is a very large and important ques- tion, and this body will be in existence, if it does not die of innocuous desuetude, it will be in existence quite awhile, for America is not going to arrive for a con- siderable time at any final policy as to immigration. It is a very large and important question. But this question is before us. This legislation is facing us, and it would be very well, indeed, it seems to me, for 90 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION the opponents, especially of the legislation, to say why they are opposed to the different points. However, it may be too late for that, and I am probably quite too late in making these suggestions ; but 1 agree with Mr. Roeder that it would be very well now that we have been flying all through the air to get down to a con- crete discussion. Mr. Fox: It seems to me that there has been, whether consciously or not, a rather definite purpose in the discussion. Speaking for myself, I feel that what I have got out of this meeting is a conviction that we do not know enough yet of what the actual conditions are on which this proposed legislation is based to warrant us in asking members of Congress to support it ; that we do most of us feel that there is sufficient doubt as to the conditions which are pre- supposed in that bill to warrant us in asking Congress to take no action except such as may affect the ad- ministration of the immigrant service until this im- portant body shall have made a scientific and thorough investigation into the subject. When this is accom- plished we can present to Congress and the country information that will be a fair basis for intelligent action for the benefit of the whole people. The Chairman : I hope that it was not ufaderstood that I suggested taking any action by this body for or against this bill. What I meant was that it raises the practical points which are now under discussion in the country, and that those points are concrete enough to form the basis of a discussion. Of course, I under- stand perfectly that the whole meaning of this organi- zation is the deliberate study of a subject which has not been studied, even the facts. We do not know IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 91 where the facts are, and one of the very valuable things that has come out here to-day in this discussion is the larger appreciation which we now have of the fact that there are no statistics. However, that fact is one of the bases of this organization, and probably the most important committee of the whole organiza- tion is the Committee on Statistics, based upon the fact that we have no statistics primarily. D. G. Ambler: I come from a Southern State where perhaps the wages paid to a day laborer are equal, if not higher, than those in any other Southern State. The cry comes up in every direction for labor. I have been struck during this discussion that nought has been said on the point that I regard as basic. Are we in need of labor, and where? That there are 600,000 men in the coal fields, as a speaker has said, who prefer to dig and delve there at an insufficient wage, getting work but 200 out of 300 days ; that countless thousands prefer a mere existence in the city to good wages and good living in the coun- try, are matters that do not and should not have much bearing on this question. If there is a great demand in this country for pro- ductive labor, for labor that will add to the supplies of food or fiber at prices that keep them within the reach of all, be he a worker with his hand or head, then the lawgivers of this great country should see that we have it; sweeping off our statute books all laws that put obstacles in the way of an adequate supply of the productive energy needed to till our soil and make available for the use of our people the re- sources of our country. In dealing with the question of imtnigration, look at 93 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION it from whatsoever standpoint we may, the final de- cision should be that which conduces the most to the welfare of the nation as a whole. The needs of the country at large are of more importance than those of any one locality or one class. The contract restriction laws now on our statute books were passed at a time of industrial depression throughout the entire country. Prices of commodi- ties — of manufactured articles — had been falling for a long time and wages fell with them. The point finally came when the laboring man said he could go no further and strikes ensued. It then followed that, in the coal mines at least, men were imported from Europe in large numbers. These men, inured for gen- erations to living on such a basis as meant starvation and suffering to the American, Irish, English, and Welsh miners, were glad to fill the vacant places. To meet this situation the American people, feeling that this competition was not fair to the American worker nor well for the nation, granted legislation that shut out or attempted to shut out contract labor. Whether this legislation was effective or no is at least doubtful. It doubtless prevented the importation of labor and kept out for a time those unable to pay their passage, but in view of the great numbers of Poles, Slavs and others that have come in the past, and are now pouring into the country, I submit it is doubtful whether these laws are of any value. On the con- trary, they prevent the diversion of the flood of labor to those parts of the country sorely in need of it. Such a diversion would not only relieve these sections, but would at the same time do away with the congestion of labor in the great centers. AlMIGRAfliDN CdNFERENCfi £fe' At about' tHis same time an outcry came up from the sand lots of San Francisco against the unfair com- petition of Chinese labor, and in response to this com- plaint our Chinese exclusion laws were passed. In ad- dition to the competitive labor question involved, it was also urged that the Chinese did not become citi- zens, that they were mere laborers fattening on their American opportunities and then with their accumu- lated wages returning to China. Probably the greatest objection now existing against the Chinese is this inability to become part and parcel of us, for the competitive feature has long passed away. The Chinamen to-day are getting greater wages than their competitors, if such a term can be used where the demand for such labor is greater than the supply. Under these laws we have lived for many years, the country growing prosperous, as probably no coun- try ever has before. Responding to the laws of supply and demand, wages again rose and foreign labor poured in in ever-increasing numbers to meet the de- mand. The farms and the forests in this country also have yielded up of their brawn to fill the demand for skilled labor in the cities and to fill there places of trust, till to-day there goes up a cry for relief from the South, from its plantations, forests and mines, from the West- ern wheat fields, from the fruit growers of the Pacific, from all directions comes the cry, not for skilled labor, not for scholars, but for common brute labor, labor of the hand. To those who think that we can do without the for- eign labor that now comes our way I would ask. Where would this country be, where would New England 94 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION and the Middle States be, if the Irish, formerly in de- rision called "bog trotters," if the Germans, and Scan- dinavians, manual laborers all, had not come to fill the places made vacant by the boys raised on the farms deserting them, going to fill places that their education had fitted them for, using their heads rather than their hands ? We must realize that the education to which we ascribe so much of our growth is robbing the farm and the forest and the mine of its manual labor, and if we would continue to grow, we must secure common manual labor in ever-increasing volumes. Of skilled labor it may be that we have enough, and perhaps too much, but the time has come when all laws that interfere with the supply of common labor should be repealed. To object to it on the ground that these laborers do not become a part of the body politic is equivalent to saying that all such forms of productive energy as horses, mules and machinery should be rejected because they cannot be incorporated in the body politic. Keep the insane out. Keep the diseased out. Keep the criminal class out. But let in every able-bodied man and woman. On this basis alone can we continue to prosper. The present law against contracting for labor in Europe prevents the farmers and mill men of the South get- ting the common labor they need and bringing it di- rect to their own ports, and it is for this section I enter my plea with all the vigor I am capable of. The South of the present is awake ; she realizes her power, her resources, but alas, awaking from her lethargy, she finds her hands tied by the laws of her IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 95 country. She finds the labor she needs is denied her. The education that she has accorded to her colored population has in large part robbed her of her most valuable asset, her labor, and to-day she stands ask- ing that the laws of her country be amended so as to enable her to get relief from Europe, or if need be, from Asia. We much prefer the laborer from north- ern Europe and the sturdy Italian from Lombardy, or even the Slav, feeling sure that with time and oppor- tunity they will all make good citizens, but if need be we will take the Oriental, feeling quite sure that we can profit by his labor, letting him do with his wages as he will. At the last convention we had a hopeful speaker from Hawaii give us a fairy tale of substituting in that Island, American, English and Scandinavian small farmers for the Chinese and Japs. In response to this dream I quote from Mr. Dole's report on the Hawaiian situation : "Here are a few tropical islands in the mid-Pacific that were exceedingly prosperous until Chinese were barred out, the value of whose exports was greater in proportion to the population than that of any other country on earth; that spent millions of dollars every year for the products of American labor; that fur- nished a livelihood for thousands of white people within their own borders — as high a grade of men and women as can be found anywhere: — and without Oriental labor these islands would have been of little value to their inhabitants and of no value to American workingmen." Who then is the beneficiary of the Chinese Exclusion Law? Clearly, Hawaii is a victim. Certainly, Cali- fornia, and indeed the whole Pacific slope, if the land 96 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION owners and wage payers were appealed to, would de- cide with practical unanimity against that law. In Texas, before the contract labor law went into effect, the cotton planters could and did send across the Mexican border and bring in as cotton pickers thousands of the Peons. The law stopped it. Query : In what way is the worker North benefited by thus causing cotton to go to waste ? The failure of the Negro on the Panama Canal has been reported, and Chinese are the only remedy. Possibly greater success would have come in han- dling our West Indian laborer if those in charge un- derstood the Negro better, had known that wages are not the lever that move this man of the tropics. They should have noted that he considers those things in life worth having, which alone may move him. Of food he wants but little. Savings banks and elevating Christian amusements have no attractions for him. Let the work be let to contractors, giving them a free hand to get the labor where they can, be it Jamai- can or Chinese or Coolie, the government only seeing that justice be accorded the laborer and that proper sanitary rules are observed. In this way can the canal be built and in this way only in our day. Thus we see that from all sides comes the cry for manual labor. Machinery has filled to an enormous extent the vacuum made in the supply of labor caused by the desertion of manual occupations by the edu- cation of the masses, and it has also been of inesti- mable value in doing the work made necessary by the wonderful development of the country. There may be congestion in the great cities, and perhaps something should be done to prevent the cruel IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 97 competition of those fleeing for their lives from Rus- sia, congregating as they do in our great cities. Whether the American people are prepared to shut the door of hope, of safety, in the faces of these poor wretches is a' question. Again I say, speaking for the South, Shut out the criminals. Shut out the imbecile, Shut out those having contageous diseases. Shut out, if you will, the skilled labor or pauper labor from the cities that interferes with a man getting a fair wage in this country, but do not shut out the man of the axe, the hoe, the plow and the pick. Do away with the laws that prevent the farmers and men of the South and West importing direct the labor needed to cultivate and raise the food and the fiber needed to feed and clothe you and them. Give us of the South a chance to fill up our waste places with homes of sturdy immigrants. Give us a chance to till our lands and work our log and turpentine camps, our mills and our factories. You here have had an abundance of labor ; do not I pray you, deny it to us. The Chairman : I am informed by Mr. Hall that the time has arrived for him and Mr. Bijur to close this discussion. Of course, the Committee can do what it pleases with that time. Unless there is some one who wants specially to speak, they will now close the meet- ing. Gentlemen have come here with the expectation of meeting different committees at four o'clock, and it seems to me we ought to keep strictly to that time. Mr. Bijur : I think I can sum up all I have to say by repeating what I said this morning. I think our function should be to get information. Our Chairman 98 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION has, I think, slightly misstated the proposition. It is not for us to prove that immigration is a good thing. It is for the opponents of immigration to prove that it is a bad thing. The fact is that we have certain con- ditions, and that we have existed as a country for a hundred and twenty-five odd years, and have been get- ting along pretty well. Now, you want to change that. You want to change that system in some respects, I do not care whether it is the particular bill that Mr. Hall brings before us, or some other bill. I say that in endeavoring to institute the work of this Depart- ment we should get at the facts upon which we can base the conclusions that the traditional policy of our country is good or bad. We have it. It has been working very well. Now, why do you want to change it? My good friend, Mr. O'Connell, has given me, I think, the best illustration for which I could ask to demonstrate the need for this very work. He has a certain feeling that the men whom he represents are injured by immigration. He objects to my asking why. Now, the point is, if you want something accom- plished in this country, you cannot accomplish it with a club. You have got to accomplish it by convincing men's minds. And whether or not Mr. Bijur asks why or not may be a very unimportant matter; but the electorate of the United States, as represented by its Congress and back again to their original constituents, will always ask why. Now, Mr. O'Connell says : "I do not know why, but I believe it." That is not argument. And simply to say, "I do not know why, but I believe it," will never carry a policy through. On the other hand, Mr. IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 99 Mitchell has come here and said 600,000 miners are working 200 days out of 365, when they ought to be working 300 days. Now that is a fact. There is a distinct statement of fact and I have no doubt it is perfectly safe to say it is a deplorable fact. That is something that can be laid before the Department. Mr. Roeder has already suggested the question that arises, i.e., Is that condition due to immigration? I do not know. Mr. Mitchell has not and he could not in this assemblage in a short time state the reasons why he thinks that the unfortunate condition of the miners is due to immigration. I sympathize sincerely with the condition of people in distress, but when I try to relieve that distress it is of no use to go around and just hit at supposed causes miscellaneously. Let us get at the cause of it. If the cause of it be unrestricted immigration, or the immigration as it be to-day, then we can discuss whether or not and to what extent we shall limit it; but until you show me that the immigra- tion as it is coming to-day is the cause why the 600,000 miners of the United States are working only 200 days a year, I say I do not see why you want to change the immigration laws. The same argument that Mr. Mitchell intimates he would make against the immi- grant as a competitor of labor and as the consequent cause of a lowering of wages has been made for the last 100 years against machinery, and yet, as a matter of fact, wages have been increasing and the condition of the laboring man has been improving in the face of the growth of machinery, and in face of the constant encouragement of the immigrant. Mr. O'Connell believes that I have taken a position because I represent some interest. Now, I hay? never 100 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION yet and never shall represent any private interests on a public subject or in a public place. The interests I represent now are the interests of the people and my own individuality as a citizen. Now, that is the spirit in which I think this subject should be approached by this Department. Not make up your minds that you have got a constituent whose interest it is to do this or that; not make up your minds that you have committed yourself already to some side of a subject and are bound to prove it, but what do we know about the character of the present immigration and what do we know about the social and economic effect of this immigration upon our coun- try and its institutions ? And if we do not know much or enough, admit it, and try to find out, and after we have found it out we can lay it before the people to draw their own conclusions. Until that stage has been reached — and it is exactly the stage that was intimated by Prof. Willcox this morning — ^until the stage is reached where we have really comprehensive, assured data, I say we have no right to draw conclusions and arguments which cannot have weight when they are not supported by sufficient facts. When it comes to the other side of the question, the political side, if you will, the international side, we do not need statistics and we are not asking for them for that purpose. But when you say the immigrant is more dependent than the native; when you say the immigrant is interfering with the American laboring man and causing the rate of wages to be reduced, then I say. Wherein do you draw that conclusion? And if you have not any basis for it, I do not know why you must not agree with me, That is the position IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 101 I am taking now, a position of inquiry on the subject concerning which I think the ascertained data are not sufficient. Peescott F. Hall: There is one thing on which Mr. Bijur and I can agree, and that is that we want to get down to definite, pertinent facts and not rely upon arguments and generalizations. We do not want to argue from the fact that Mr. Bijur is not starved or stabbed that immigration conditions are all right at Ellis Island. We do not want to argue that because railroad dividends are high there is no use in excluding laboring people. We have so far got a certain body of statistics together, such as they are, I have tried this morning to show you one or two of them. And in other places I have shown others. If these are not correct we want to improve upon them. Mr. Bijur says some of these figures are nothing new. He admits frankly that there is a good deal of poverty, disease and crime. He says that is natural among poor people. The explanation of why a thing is so does not answer the argument that we do not want any more of those people here. Now, a great deal has been said several times about the traditional policy of this country, and just to re- move a possible misunderstanding about that I would like to advert to the fact that at the very beginning of this country the people who founded the country — Washington, Jefferson and Madison — were all strong restrictionists. As far back as 1826 the State of New York passed a law restricting immigration. Several other States passed other laws restricting immigration about the same time. In 1882 the Federal Govern- 103 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION ment took up the question, and since 1882 has been continually strengthening the immigration laws. If by a traditional policy of the country these gen- tlemen mean the policy of doing nothing, I maintain that is not the true fact. Our traditional policy has always been that of wise and conservative action in regard to such elements as we allow to come in, and that is the present status of things to-day. Mr. Bijur says he does not see any reason for changing the ex- isting state of things. What is the existing state of things? We exclude sixteen classes of people, and the present Senate bill is not something new of itself, although some of its provisions are new, but is an act calculated to carry out just what the original immi- gration act of 1882 was passed to accomplish. It has not accomplished it. There have been loopholes found. The act of 1891 stopped some. The act of 1893 stopped others. The act of 1903 was still better, but if the Senate bill now pending were to be passed it would do nothing more than what was originally pro- posed in the act of 1882, as shown by the debates in Congress. We already have had one elaborate inves- tigation into this subject, that of the United States In- dustrial Commission, which through its experts has made careful investigations up to the time of the pub- lication of its report. We need further data, but to my mind that is no reason for delay in passing what has been characterized as the "very mild and moderate measure" of these bills. We can at least do that. Then we can study further and see whether anything more is desirable. And in conclusion I would like to state what is my own personal position, by a quotation from the IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 103 report of a committee of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections, held last May in Philadel- phia. It says : "A large majority of the members of the Committee would keep out so far as possible all persons who are distinctly below the present standard of America, physically, mentally and morally ; they are in favor of any restriction that may upon the whole be expected to raise the average mental and moral and physical standard of immigration, and believe certain practical tests would produce this result." The meeting then adjourned. Following the conference there were held separate meetings of the seven different Committees of the Department, at which the research work for the com- ing year was planned. Before the Committee on Basal Statistics, its Chairman, Prof. Walter F. Will- cox, of Cornell University, presented the following paper : The meaning of any statistics depends largely upon the meaning of the unit in which the statistics are expressed. It is a common but fallacious assumption that a word used as the name of a statistical unit has precisely the same meaning that it has when used in popular speech. In the present case the word "immi- grant" has had and to some degree still has different meanings, which may be called respectively the popu- lar or theoretical meaning and the administrative or statistical meaning, and these two should be carefully distinguished. In the popular or theoretical sense an immigrant is a person of foreign birth who is crossing the country's 104 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION boundary and entering the United States with intent to remain and become an addition to the population of the country. In this sense of the word an alien arrival is an immigrant whether he comes by water or by land, in the steerage or in the cabin, from con- tiguous or non-contiguous territory, and whether he pays or does not pay the head tax. The essential ele- ment is an addition to the population of the country as a result of travel, and the word thus covers all additions to the population otherwise than by birth. A person cannot be an immigrant to the United States more than once any more than a person can be born more 'than once. It is a characteristic of this meaning that it does not alter. The word immigrant in its administrative or statisti- cal sense is not defined in the reports of the Commis- sioner-General of Immigration, but from that source and from the instructions and other circulars issued by the Bureau the following statements regarding its meaning have been drawn : 1. The administrative or statistical meaning of im- migrant is not fixed by statute law, but is determined by the definitions or explanations of the Bureau of Immigration and those are dependent upon and vary with the law and administrative decisions. 2. In the latest circular of the Bureau immigrants are defined as "arriving aliens whose last permanent residence was in a country other than the United States who intend to reside in the United States." This defi- nition seems to agree closely with the popular or theo- retical one. 3. But the foregoing definition is modified by a subsequent paragraph of the same circular which ex- IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 105 eludes from the immigrant class "citizens of British North America and Mexico coming direct therefrom by sea or rail." So the official definition is substantially this : An alien neither a resident of the United States nor a citizen of British North America, Cuba or Mex- ico, who arrives in the United States intending to reside there. 4. The only important difference between these two definitions is that the statistical definition excludes, as the popular definition does not, citizens of British North America, Cuba and Mexico. As the natives of Canada and Mexico living in the United States in 1900 were 14.2 per cent, of the natives of all other foreign countries, it seems likely that the figures of immigra- tion for the year 1905-06 should be increased about 14.2 per cent, in order to get an approximate estimate of the total immigration into the country during the year just ended. 5. Perhaps the most important difference between the popular or theoretical and the statistical definition of immigrant is that the former is unchanging and the latter has been modified several times by changes of law or by modifications of administrative interpreta- tion. 6. Until January i, 1906, an alien arrival was counted as an immigrant each time he entered the country, but since that date an alien who has acquired a residence in the United States and is returning from a visit abroad is not classed as an immigrant. This administrative change has brought the statistical and the popular meanings of immigrant into closer agree- ment, but in so doing has reduced the apparent number of immigrants more than ten per cent, and has made 106 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION it difficult to compare the earlier and the later sta- tistics. 7. Until January i, 1903, an alien arriving in the first or second cabin was not classed as an immigrant, but rather under the head of other alien passengers. This change likewise brought the two meanings of im- migrant into closer agreement, but also made it diffi- cult to compare the figures before and after that date. By a mere change of administrative definition the re- ported number of immigrants was increased nearly twelve per cent. 8. Until the same date an alien arrival in transit to some other country was deemed an immigrant, but since that date such persons have been classed as non- immigrant aliens. This change also makes the figures before 1903 not strictly comparable with later ones. About three per cent, of those who were formerly classed as aliens have been excluded since 1903. The alteration has brought the two definitions closer to- gether, but in so doing has entailed administrative diffi- culties which lead the Bureau to favor a return to the former system or at least to favor collecting the head tax from such aliens in transit. 9. An immigrant in the statistical sense is a person liable for and paying the head tax. But to this there are two slight exceptions. Deserting alien seamen not apprehended are liable for the head tax which is paid by the company from which they desert, but such cases are not included in the statistics. Citizens of British North America, Cuba and Mexico coming from other ports than those of their own country are reported as immigrants, but do not pay the head tax. Obviously both are minor exceptions hardly afifecting the rule. In IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 107 the popular or theoretical meaning of immigrant this head tax is not an element. 10. Probably other changes of definition have oc- curred of recent years. No attempt has been made to exhaust the list. The general tendency of the changes has clearly been toward a closer agreement of the popular and the statistical meanings. But they have probably tended to make the increase of immigration indicated by the figures greater than the actual in- crease, and to that degree to make the figures mislead- ing. If the Government Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization could make a carefully studied estimate of the extent to which such changes in the official reports really modify the apparent meaning of the published figures, it would render a valuable service. 11. A committee like the present can hardly make such an estimate or go further than to point out that for the reasons indicated the official statistics of im- migration are likely to be seriously misinterpreted and are constantly misinterpreted by the public. The official statistics of immigration being subject to all the qualifications indicated and reflecting so im- perfectly the amount of immigration as ordinarily or popularly conceived, the question at once arises, Can any substitute or any alternative be proposed? What the public is mainly interested in, I think, and what it commonly but erroneously believes is indicated by the official figures of immigration, is the net addition to the population year by year as a result of the cur- rents of travel between the United States and other countries. Alternative figures for the last eight years, a period which closely coincides with the last great wave of 108 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION immigration now at or near its crest, may be had by comparing the total arrivals and departures in the effort to get the net gain. The results appear in the following table : Per Cent That Net Total Total Arrivals Increase Passen- Passen- Total Minus Makes Fiscal gers gers Immi- De- of Immi- Year. Arrived. Departed. gration. partures. gration. 1898. . . 343.963 225,411 229,299 118,552 51.8 1899. . . 429,796 256,008 \ 311,71s 173,788 55-8 igoo... 594.478 293,404 1 448,572 301,074 67.0 1901... 675,025 306,724 487,918 368,304 , 7S.S 1902... 820,893 326,760 648,743 494,133 76.3 1903... 1,025,834 375,261 857,046 650.573 ' 7S.9 1904. . . 988,688 508,204 812,870 480,484 59-3 1905... 1,234,615 536,151 1,026,499 698,464 68.1 1898-1905 4,822,662 3,285,372 68.1 The figures indicate that the net increase of popula- tion by immigration during the last eight years has been slightly more than two-thirds of the reported im- migration. But these figures of net increase should be increased by an estimate of the arrivals by land from Canada and Mexico. As the Canadians and Mexicans by birth residing in the United States in 1900 were 14.2 per cent, of all residents born in other foreign coun- tries, this would indicate an influx of 466,000 Cana- dians and Mexicans, a figure probably in excess of the truth, since the currents have probably been setting Canadaward of recent years. I estimate, therefore, that the net increase from immigration 1898-1905 has been about 3,750,000 instead of 4,820,000, as might be inferred from tlje Reports of the Bureau of Immigra- tion. The actual increase would then be about 78 per ,cent. of the apparent increase. DISTRIBUTION CONFERENCE ON DISTRIBUTION A SPECIAL conference on the subject of "Dis- tribution of Immigrants" was held by the Federation's Immigration Department on De- cember 12, 1906, in New York City. Dr. Leander T. Chamberlain, First Vice-Chairman of the Immigration Department, was in the chair. The Chairman : We have a little over an hour for discussion. Statements are to be made with refer- ence to the one subject of the distribution of immigra- tion. It is the practical question, how the distribution may be best accomplished, and I take it that we concur in the sentiment which prevailed in the other room a few minutes ago, the sentiment expressed by Mr. Gompers, that if real progress was made, we would all be glad, by whatever method it was accomplished. I now have the pleasure of introducing to you the speakers who are to enlighten us on this subject. The first speaker is Mr. Thomas W. Slocum, Chairman of the Immigration Department's Committee on Supply and Demand. Thomas W. Slocum : As the matter of distribu- tion of immigrants is closely allied to supply and de- mand, there is something to be said, it seems to me, and that is that if by any possible way we can direct some of our immigrants to help your supply and lessen your demand, it is a step in the right direction. With- in the last year 1,025,000 immigrants came to this country. Of that number, I think 788,000, or practi- 110 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION cally eight-tenths, came into the port of New York. The best way to settle the matter of having so many immigrants here in New York is to do it in the Irish way ; the best way to get immigrants out of New York City is not to bring them in; but how are you going to attract immigrants to some other port when eight- tenths of the immigrants last year came into this port because it was to their advantage to come here. The steamship lines made opportunities for them that no other port provided. From 788f,ooo at the port of New York City, immigration falls to 65,000 in Boston, 62,000 in Baltimore, 24,000 in Phila- delphia, 7,000 in San Francisco, and all the other ports something like 36,000. So long as the immigrants can come here cheaper than they can go anywhere else, they are going to come here, and we have got the prob- lem of distributing them down through the South and out through the West, to keep them from remaining in New York. There is a certain something about the metropolis that attracts everybody. When it comes to the Italian, who comes in here and can get $2 or $2.50 a day working in New York, there is not very much to tempt him to go down South or out West for less money, although the purchasing value of that money may be greater there than it is here. It has seemed to me that we might perhaps make some practical headway if we, representing the Civic Federation, or the Immigration branch of it, could have communication with the steamship lines with the idea of opening up ports through the South, perhaps New Orleans, Charleston, or Savannah, where we could get the immigrants into agricultural pursuits and in manufacturing towns through the South. IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 111 I had occasion the other day to go over a cigar factory in this city. Practically all the hands there are foreigners, and I judge a good many of them could not have been over here very long. It was mechanical work, requiring very little experience in order to make the cigars, and I noticed that it was rather the exception where the women spoke English. They looked as if most of them were Italians or Hun- garians or Germans. I thought if I could have had those hands in some of our cotton mills, we could have given them a good deal pleasanter surroundings and they would earn certainly as much money. We are short of help down South, and in the East as well. In the cigar factory I understand that they had not only all the help they wanted, but they had not been short during the last several months or years, chiefly owing to the large number of immigrants coming to New York and not being distributed. Robert Watchorn': The question of the distribu- tion of immigrants seems to be like Banquo's ghost — it will not down — and those who have discussed it in my hearing, or whose writings I have read, have in- variably taken the view that by delivering immigrants at a certain place and leaving them there they have solved this problem. I do not agree with such a view. Those who believe that the solution can be brought about in that way certainly have not given due con- sideration to the subject. Before stating what I believe would bring about a proper distribution of our immigrants, permit me to cite one or two instances which came under my obser- vation while I had direct charge of the enforcement of our immigration laws on the Canadian frontier lia THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION during 1901-5. The steamship lines bringing immi- grants to the port of New York sent a delegation to Washington to protest against what they called an injustice in their being compelled to carry back all aliens deported by order of the immigration authori- ties. They, in substance, asked this question: What is the use of our carrying these people back to Euro- pean ports when it is known that they immediately take ship and come back to Quebec and then enter the United States by railway without being subjected to inspection ? I was then sent to the Canadian fron- tier to investigate this charge, and I found it not only quite true but very much understated. I was then directed by the Secretary of the Treasury, Lyman J. Gage, to find a way to correct this defect ; and I assure you, gentlemen, that in two years' time a wall — so to speak — was built from Halifax as far out as Winni- peg, and all those who had New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland or Cincinnati in mind as a destina- tion when they left Europe and came to Quebec, went all the way around that wall to its western end at Winnipeg and then took train and came back to the very places they had in mind when they left Europe. And if you were to land all the ships that now come to New York at Galveston, New Orleans, or Charles- ton, South Carolina, every one of the immigrants would come to the place he had in mind when he decided to emigrate. The thing that will distribute them on a sound and healthy basis is to establish sound and healthy indus- trial conditions over very much more y/idely extended areas. There is no use telling a man who can get $2.50 a day in a crowded city that it would be very IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 113 much better for him — and perhaps insure his peace of mind, health of body and enrichment of pocket, and all that sort of thing — if he would only go West or go down South where he would get perhaps only $1.15 a day and live under his own vine and fig tree. The thing to do in the distant States in order to attract immigrants, is to offer them as good wages as they can get in New York; and until that is done immi- grants will continue to avoid such sections of our country. The evils must be corrected where they exist, and then the stream will naturally flow where it belongs. It is useless trying to correct an evil by indi- rect treatment. The evil of congestion is due to the fact that the immigrants settle where they are best off, as they think, and you will have to show them where they will be actually better off by distributing them- selves, before you can induce them to seek pastures new. A delegation came from the South to Ellis Island a short time ago, and they told me that they wanted at least 50,000 men and women to go there; that all the industries were languishing for want of help. I said : "Very well, there are 700 or 1,000 immigrants here now; turn yourselves loose among them and take as many as you can divert from their chosen destina- tions." They spent the afternoon trying to coax them to go there, and they could not get one. Why? Be- cause these men knew well enough from the letters they had received from their friends and relatives what they could expect to get when they arrived there. If the report can be truthfully made and duly circu- lated that conditions in North Carolina are as favor- able as they are in Massachusetts, you will have no 114 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION difficulty in getting immigrants to go to North Caro- lina; and until conditions are as satisfactory it is no use asking them to go there, and the suggestion that by sending them to any specially selected port as a means of distributing them I think is purely artificial. So far as I am personally concerned, I wish some of them would select some other port of arrival, but that would not solve the difficulty you are trying to correct. I think industrial societies having objects of this nature in view, if they devote their time to the cor- recting of acknowledged evils, will accomplish great good and ultimately eliminate the difficulty entirely. The Chairman: May the Chairman ask how many immigrants came to New York City last year ? Mr. Watchokn: I am not in a position to state how many came to New York City, but there came to New York State approximately 227,000. Perhaps the Deputy Commissioner of Licenses (who is present) could throw some light on the subject, but no doubt a very great number of the immigrants who have New York City in mind as a destination have no intention of remaining in New York any longer than they can find an opportunity to take employment that may be offered them; but the work must be done elsewhere, and as he has to do with that branch of the service he can tell you. QuESTiOiN: Is there not a certain inequality of wages ? Are there not many working at lower wages than they can get elsewhere? Is it not a fact that sometimes that question does not entirely govern ? Mr. Watchorn: I have no doubt whatever that the average man and woman who is now working for $6 a week would gladly go elsewhere if by doing so SPEAKERS AT THE FEDERATION'S IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 115 he or she could be sure of obtaining employment at $io or $12 a week. Take this case for instance: A man came to Ellis Island last Monday, only three days ago. He was of the exceptional class, having no fixed destination. He had $150 in his pocket, and said he was a first-class carpenter, had a carpenter's trade union ticket in his pocket, and his dues paid up. The question was asked him: "Where are you going?" He said : "I really don't know ; I have a friend some- where in Brooklyn, and I think by calling at the Brit- ish Consulate I can learn of his whereabouts because he sometimes has business with the Consulate." "Were you intending to work in New York?" "No," he an- swered, "I intend to go where I can get the best wages." He was told that according to the news- paper reports $6 a day was being paid for skilled car- penters in San Francisco. He said : "Is that a fact ?" On being answered in the, affirmative, he said: "Just cut Brooklyn out and show me the way to San Fran- cisco." This case may be regarded as singularly typical. Walter F. Willcox : During the last fifteen years statements have been made frequently and with in- creasing emphasis that the immigrants are not prop- erly distributed over the country. Many writers and speakers hold that this is one of the most serious, per- haps the most serious, aspect of our immigration prob- lem. Statements supporting this conclusion have been found in the Census volumes, in Professor Mayo- Smith's standard book on Emigration and Immigra- tion, reports of the Senate Committee on Immigra- tion, in the writings of Senator Lodge, recently the Chairman of that committee; of Mr. F. P. Sargent, 116 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION Commissioner-General of Immigration, and in two messages of the President. It has gained so much credence as to lie at the basis of a provision in the bill now pending in Congress to provide a Bureau of Information at each of our immigration stations, the object of this bureau being to disseminate information regarding the United States and the facilities for occupation and employment furnished by different localities. The arguments of those accepting this position may be stated in the following propositions : 1. The foreign born have a stronger tendency to- wards the cities and city life than our native born. 2. This tendency is much stronger among recent arrivals than among those who came a generation ago. 3. It is much stronger among illiterates than among those able to write. 4. It is disadvantageous to the immigrants and a menace to the country. 5. Its results are so serious as to call for federal intervention to check the tendency. On the basis of the figures, the evidence in support of this position seems conclusive. The proportion that the foreign born make of the total population in our largest cities, those having at least 100,000 in- habitants, is about two and a half times as great as the proportion that the foreign born make of the popu- lation in the country districts, that is outside of incor- porated places having at least 2,500 inhabitants. Be- tween these extremes there is a steady decrease in the proportion that the foreign born make of the total population as the size of the city diminishes from 100,000 to 2,500. IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 117 That our foreign born have an excessive tendency toward city life is not proved, however, by these fig- ures. For it must be borne steadily in mind that a very large majority of our immigrants cross the fron- tier to enter the country at an urban center. The pro- portion so entering is at least nine-tenths, and quite possibly nineteen-twentieths, of the whole number. The currents of travel from the point where they cross the frontier to the place where they settle may all be grouped under the head of distribution, in distinction from the process of immigration which brings them to and across the frontier. Our foreign born, then, arrive, in at least nine-tenths of the cases, at some city. Our native citizens arrive by birth, in at least three-fourths of the cases, in the country. We have to do, then, with two currents or drifts of migration moving in contrary directions. The foreign born arrive mainly at seaport cities and disperse gradually from those cities to and through other interior cities, ultimately reaching in many cases the small towns or open coun- try. With the native population, the tendency of mi- gration is rather in the reverse direction; starting mainly in the country districts considerable fractions of our native population gradually drift to the smaller towns, and from them to the large and largest cities. But it is in no sense surprising or an evidence of imperfect distribution that the foreign born should be massed in cities when nine-tenths of them arrive there, and the native population massed in the country dis- tricts when three-fourths of them arrive there. To this argument it might be objected that the for- eign born now found in our country districts are the survivors of an earlier current of migration which 9 118 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION went mainly to the farms and that recent arrivals con- gregate and stagnate in our city slums. If this objec- tion were sound we should expect to find the propor- tion of foreign born in the population in our great cities larger in 1900 than in 1890. In reality it was smaller. This was true for each group of cities as well as for the country districts, but the decrease in the proportion of foreign born in our great cities was slightly greater than it was in the country districts. In other words, the differences between the city and country in this respect decreased rather than increased between 1890 and 1900. This decrease does not prove that the immigrants were distributing themselves better at the later date, for the fact must be considered in connection with another fact, namely, that they had been in the United States on the average a longer time in 1900 than in 1890, owing to the relatively small number of immi- grants arriving in the decade 1890 to 1900, and that therefore they had had a longer time on the average to distribute themselves before 1900 than they had before 1890. Notwithstanding this consideration, the evidence fails to disclose any increased massing of the foreign born in our urban centers. The evidence that illiterate immigrants tend to linger in the city slums is slight and insignificant. All the evidence tends to show that an urban population has less illiterates than a rural population, that for example the foreign born in our cities, far from being more illiterate, are less illiterate than the foreign born in our country districts, and that similarly the native population in our cities are less illiterate than the na- tive population in the country districts. In New York IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 119 State, for example, Schenectady is the only one of the twelve cities having at least 25,000 inhabitants in which illiteracy is as prevalent among the foreign born residents as it is on the average among the foreign born residents of the State outside of those twelve cities. My conclusion, then, is that the distribution of im- migrants is not a serious problem calling for federal intervention and aid. On the contrary, the immigrants, according to the best statistical evidence, are distribut- ing themselves adequately and satisfactorily. They are following the allurements of economic advantage pre- sented to them and going where those advantages are greatest. If this distribution is to be changed, I agree thoroughly with Commissioner Watchorn that it should be changed by changing the conditions, and that there is no evidence that the immigrants are in serious need of additional information regarding the conditions which now exist. To these arguments when presented at a recent meeting of this Department the answer was made that there was little difference between a tendency to stag- nate in cities and a tendency to be found there. To my thinking the difference is radical. If our tenement house quarters of New York and other cities are crowded with foreign born, who linger there indefi- nitely in a state of hopeless contentment with condi- tions as they are, the problem might well be deemed a serious one, but if it be true, as I contend, that the population of these sections is in a state of rapid change, the older arrivals passing on to something dif- ferent, and in the majority of cases, we believe, to something better, almost or quite as fast as new arriv- 120 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION als crowd in, then the whole mental attitude and tem- per of the population is one of hope, of confidence, of courage. The difference between a stagnant slime- covered pool, the picture usually raised in one's mind by the word "slum," is totally unlike the picture of a lake fed at one end by a great stream but kept at the same level and sweet and fresh by the outflow of countless streams of various sizes and in various direc- tions all around its borders. The latter, rather than the former, I believe, is the true picture of our tene- ment house sections. S. A. Hughes: I believe we are all of the same opinion on this momentous question, the distribution of immigrants. I have given it much study both at home and abroad, and in line with Mr. Watchorn's remarks I want to say that last year I traveled in the interior of Italy studying the conditions of the Italian peasant. As we drove from Naples, after about ten miles we came across a peasant woman carrjdng a basket of bread upon her head. My interpreter asked her where she was going with that bread. She said, to the town of Dinoli, five miles distant. He asked her, "Then you are to return to-night?" She replied, "Yes." He said, "Then you will cover ten miles and carry that bread five miles. How much do you get for your labor?" She replied, "Four cents." He asked, "What do you do with all that money?" She replied, "I buy bread for myself and my three chil- dren." We drove on and stopped at another little hamlet, and the people gathered around us, and I noticed a peasant woman who was talking very inter- estedly apparently to my interpreter, and I asked him IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 121 what she was saying. "Why," he replied, "she is tell- ing me that in this little town of 14,000 people there are seven steamship agents who are getting $5 per man for every man shipped to America ; they are being told that if they will only reach New York they will get work. New York is America to these people; they believe that if they can reach New York work for them will be plentiful." From what Mr. Archibald told me last summer on my visit to New York — and there may be something in it — we were led to believe in St. Louis that you had a million unemployed men in New York City. The Governor of Kansas had called for 8,000 harvest hands. I came on, thinking we could get some of this labor. We sent for Mr. Archibald; we dined together. He said : "Go back and tell your people that we are spend- ing four hundred millions of dollars in New York City to-day in improvements, and if you were to start out to-day and canvass the city I venture to say you would not find three thousand bona fide laborers in search of work." Speaking for my section, and for a solution of this distribution problem, I might say that the agricultural districts offer the solution. Yonder beyond the Mis- sissippi River there lies an empire of unoccupied terri- tory, 10,000,000 acres of undeveloped land in the State of Missouri, 28,000,000 acres of undeveloped land in the State of Arkansas, 18,000,000 in the Indian Terri- tory and 160,000,000 acres of land in the State of Texas, undeveloped awaiting the hand of man for development; 160,000,000 acres of land out of 172,- 000,000 acres ; a country larger than the State of New York and all New England combined. Still, you have 132 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION more people in the city of New York than we have in the State of Texas ; 265,000 square miles within the boundaries of the State and 800 miles across from east to west. I might offer, as a suggestion, not as a reso- lution, as a solution of this distribution problem, that we place these land propositions before these immi- grants, before they ever embark, so that they may be directed properly and to their best advantage and to the best interest of the community. We must get down to the fact that agriculture is the foundation of manufacture; always has been and always will be. If you will indulge me in quoting a few figures, I will give you a few statistics from Secretary Wilson's report of last year ; but I am a little afraid to do it in light of the fact that there have been so many differ- ences of opinion in the meeting to-day as to statistics ; but Secretary Wilson will tell you in last year's report that the farmer of this country took from the soil $6,400,000,000, not from gold, silver or metal, but from the sweat of the farmer's brow; of 10,387,000 farm owners and hired men upon farms of this coun- try to-day, they averaged last year $940 per farm and $640 per man. They are the bone and sinew of this country ; the farmer is the man behind the gun. We must look to the farmer as the one from whom all blessings flow. He is to-day the life blood and the sinew of this country, and I say to you gentlemen that I believe that the immigrants who are coming to this country, allowing you a fair quota for labor in the cities and in the industrial sections, should be attracted to the farm upon this side, and for that reason I had the pleasure of introducing last December in this con- vention a resolution providing that the Immigration IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 123 Commissioners' hands should be so strengthened that they would increase the facilities at the South Atlantic and Gulf ports for diverting the business from Ellis Island to the unoccupied and undeveloped lands of the South and the Southwest. But this cannot be done until you have placed your representatives in foreign countries with suitable land propositions, and the question then will arise, Are we not stimulating immigration to this country ? I believe that the doors of our country should be thrown open to any able- bodied man, no matter from whence he comes, so long as he is willing to live under our flag and under our constitution. Although he may be illiterate, we will educate him, barring of course Chinese coolie labor as against our American labor. Charles P. Neill: I do not feel that I can add anything to what has already been said by Commis- sioner Watchorn and Professor Willcox. I agree thoroughly with the views they have expressed. I have recently been looking into the matter of the dis- tribution of immigrants, and the results of that investi- gation thus far appear to confirm the statements Pro- fessor Willcox has made. Some good can undoubtedly be accomplished by bringing the resources and advantages of different sec- tions of the country more directly to the attention of our immigrants who have settled on the Eastern sea- board, but we must not lose sight of the fact that the only law that can in any way influence the distribution of immigrants throughout the various parts of the United States is a fundamental economic law and not a legislative enactment. The immigrants who have 134 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION come to the United States have torn themselves away from their home surroundings and life-long associ- ations, and many of them have crossed the whole Continent of Europe in addition to the Atlantic Ocean. Their purpose is largely to better their economic con- dition, and they are going to settle on the Eastern sea- board or in the South or the West, according as these respective sections offer them the greatest economic advantage. On the whole, they are going where they earn the largest wages. There is, of course, a certain friction that retards their perfectly free movement, but, generally speaking, any considerable difference in wages will bring immigrants from the East to the South and the West. I think what is most needed is to prevent such a large percentage of the immigrants going into the industrial pursuits instead of going on the land and developing our agricultural possibilities. ' What prevents this, it seems to me, is that such a large percentage of our present immigrants is without the means necessary to take up land. They cannot main- tain themselves until their farms are able to support them. Mr. Hughes told us of the millions of acres of un- occupied land in the West and has said that the first payment of $ioo is all that is necessary to secure pos- session of sections of this land, but when we consider that many of our present immigrants have not suf- ficient funds to pay their passage to this country, this item of $ioo is a very effective bar to their taking up land. In a word, I would like to suggest that it is useless to talk about any plan to distribute immigrants, other than the single plan of offering higher wages in the IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 135 places that want them than they are getting in the places that they are now, or in offering them oppor- tunities to take up land that make the opportunities actual and really within their reach. Thomas F. Parker: I am not present with the idea of making any remarks. As I have been called upon, and am on my feet, I might mention the practi- cal solution which we have been recently attempting in the State of South Carolina, with reference to the distribution of immigrants by the establishment of a new line of immigrant steamers to Charleston, S. C. There has been for some time an immigration dis- tributing point at Galveston; one at New Orleans; and it has been quite generally felt that there should be one between New Orleans and New York, and we have worked to make this Charleston, which is quite centrally located between the two. In South Carolina our wage scale is just reaching a point where we can commence to bid successfully in the world's labor market. In the last five years the wages in our State, including our mills, have advanced fully 50 per cent. The immigrants to our State for cotton mills in the past have mostly come from the native population of neighboring States. The question of immigration from abroad is very new to us. South Carolina is one of the first Southern States to have a Commissioner of Agriculture, Commerce and Immigration, with an appropriation from the Leg- islature, and his visit abroad and his return on board of the first immigration steamer, the Wittekind, to Charleston, S. C, with 475 immigrants, carefully selected abroad, has attracted considerable attention in 136 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION the South. It was entirely through the efforts of our State Commissioner, Mr. E. J. Watson, that the North German Lloyd Line has sent one experimental vessel to Charleston, the Wittekind, which arrived over a month ago, and is now preparing to send a second ves- sel to arrive early in January. We are informed that the results so far have been thoroughly satisfactory to the North German Lloyd Line, and that the indications are that it will perma- nently establish a line of steamers between Hamburg and Charleston, which would be an important step, as we see it, towards the proper distribution of immi- grants. We realize that immigrants after arriving in Amer- ica will eventually drift to where wages and conditions of living are most inviting, but our State prefers selecting the immigrants abroad, and first showing them what inducements the State of South Carolina has to offer, before others talk to them, and we want to save the per capita expense of transportation charges from New York to South Carolina of from $15 to $20. Our idea is that South Carolina has a better chance of keeping permanently people landed in Charleston, than if they were landed in New York or other ports. There were about 475 immigrants on the Wittekind, of which number 350 went to the different mill com- munities. Since the arrival of these people we find that they have been writing to friends in various sec^ tions of the United States, and that immigrant agents from other sections have been in correspondence with them. In one case, such an agent came from Chicago and paid the transportation to that place of some IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 127 twenty immigrants who had come to South Carolina whom he induced to leave with him. This sort of thing has to be expected, for we must compete with other sections of the country after the immigrants reach us. Commissioner Watson found that other interests have misrepresented the South abroad, and that much work is necessary there to fairly put before intending immigrants the relative and true advantages of the Southern States. For instance, maps are generally cir- culated in certain portions with the Southern States painted black as being populated by negroes, and un- desirable for white settlers. Marie Van Vorst literature, slandering the South, has been widely -disseminated, and the Atlanta tempo- rary race riot was sensationally magnified as much more serious than it was, and as embracing the whole South; and much publicity given to it. These are examples of the misrepresentations which had to be overcome and which are originated for the purpose of inducing immigrants to come to the Northern and Western rather than to the Southern States, and in some cases are perhaps disseminated by those who are interested in keeping people from emigrating to America. There is no question in my mind that the future development of the South is dependent on immigration from abroad, and that it is time we learn how best to handle this question. Perhaps one of the principal inducements which we can offer is cheap and desirable land. Each family of foreigners that we settle and satisfy is a nucleus around which other foreigners will collect. 138 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION James B. Reynolds: I desire to remind the gen- tlemen of the Department of Immigration that you are interested in Oriental as well as Occidental immi- gration. I am requested as Chairman of the Commit- tee on Oriental Immigration to bring before you for your approval a resolution passed by our committee. The resolution is that an investigation be made by the Committee on Oriental Immigration of the Immigra- tion Department of the Civic Federation regarding the economic and social-political conditions of the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans in this country. I will state briefly the purpose of the resolution. We desire to inquire what occupations the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans in this country are engaged in, what compensation they receive and what their hours of labor are. We desire in the second place to investi- gate their social and political relations where they are found, as is the rule, in communities by themselves. As we are probably all aware, comparatively few of them speak our language fluently, so that the laborers and trades-people of these races are limited to associ- ation with their own people. We desire to inquire into their condition under these circumstances and de- termine what are their actual relations to our own people. We have already inquired regarding the in- formation now possessed on the subject, and find that little exact information is possessed by any one. I realize that if we secure your endorsement we shall still have a delicate and perhaps difficult task to con- vince the Finance Committee of the Immigration De- partment that it must supply the sinews to undertake this investigation, but that we will undertake to do, if you approve our plans. IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 129 The Chairman : While that is not in the form of a motion, it may be considered as a resolution asking authorization with regard to the investigation by this Committee. Are there any remarks on that subject? Motion seconded and carried. The Chairman : The vote is unanimous in favor of conducting the investigation. James P. Archibald: Owing to a severe cold, I am scarcely physically fit to speak on or even do meagre justice to the various elements of the very varied question of immigration. Though the question of distribution is to my mind the most complex phase of the entire question, and until some elucidation is afforded by those most inter- ested, the farmer and the manufacturer and the con- tractor, chaos will still prevail and but unsatisfactory results remain. The wages ofBered by the large contractors of the South, such as the Florida East Coast Railway Com- pany, which is building a railroad from Jacksonville to Key West, and by the everglades, which is nothing more than swamp; the South and Western Railway Company, from Virginia through the western part of North Carolina, a very mountainous country, away from civilization and every convenience of living, and a number of other concerns which I could name, is $1.25 to $1.50 per day. Out of this the laborers have to pay the cost of transportation, which in some cases is refunded after six months of employment. They have to pay for doctors' services, which they seriously need very soon after they arrive ; they have to pay for the use of a shanty, which merely shades them, as dur- 130 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION ing inclement weather it is no protection ; they usually sleep on a little straw on the bare ground, with but little or no covering, and food of such a character that the dogs which are urged to capture these men when they attempt to escape have been known to refuse to eat it. The true story of the treatment of some of these people is best told in their own stories under oath ; their oath is frequently impugned by the employ- ment agent and the contractor to whom they were sent, who loudly proclaimed he would not believe them, but I have often been fully convinced while listening to those men that they themselves were men, to say the least, of doubtful veracity. The treatment received by these men has been brutal in the extreme. The following statement, as one illus- tration, was given under oath on August 7, 1906 : "The agent was charged with violating Section 7, Chapter 327 of the laws of 1906, in giving us who were applicants for work, false information, making false promises and representations concerning employ- ment. We were in Tompkins Square Library, and on coming out of the Library a gentleman met us on Avenue B, near Tenth Street, and asked us what we were doing. We told him not anything at present. He said, 'I have a pretty good position for you.' We asked what it was. He said, 'Timekeeper's position at $9.00 per week, board, and pay your way out.' He said, 'Have you any clothes at home?' I said, 'Yes,' and he replied, 'Bring as much as you can.' We boarded a train for Milton, West Virginia, at 5 P. M. We left Milton the next night. We could get nothing to eat but canned goods at twice the usual price, and Sicilian bread. We had to sleep on straw in bunks. The next morning about 2 o'clock Behrens and I woke up and we ran away. We got back to Milton. Two men came after us on horseback, one of them took the IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 131 slip I had for my valise and would not give it to me. We escaped and worked our way home." This affidavit was made by two young men, native born Americans, one a graduate of the New York City College, the other a student there at present. "How long were you on the work?" "I did not do any work at all, but they were abusing us out there. I stayed there one day — we were driven back — didn't get a chance to leave. We went by a different road this time and thereby misled them. The conditions were not at all as represented to us. We could not do the work and so we resolved to try to get home. We were aided by a philanthropic gentle- man in Washington in reaching New York." The following is the case of two men out of fifty- three who were hired to go to Maytown, Florida, to work for $1.50 per day at easy (?) lumber work, handling light wood, after traveling for several days by boat and rail : "We arrived at Maytown. A man from the em- ployment company took us to a store, gave us a box of sardines and some crackers, saying it was a present, but later we learned that we had to pay for it. We were then forwarded to Buff'alo Bluffs and forced to work in the turpentine forest. They gave us a bucket about three feet deep with an iron handle, and we went into the swamps, sometimes waist deep in water, would fill this bucket with ooze, carry it about seven blocks, empty it into a large barrel, re- turn again, and so on for two weeks, sleeping in shacks on straw-covered ground dripping wet every night. We rebelled against this, but could not get away. We did get away as far as a railroad station twice, once escaped entirely, the second time while waiting at the depot, and the last time we were told by a company employee he would shoot us. We said, 'If you have 132 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION the right to shoot, kill us, but we won't go back to that kind of work.' While working we were compelled to work as many hours as the superintendent desired." One of the above-mentioned men worked on "skirts" in New York City until the time he went South. The cases cited above are absolutely true and are a fair sample of the treatment which not only illiterates receive in certain parts of the South, but men of more than ordinary intelligence are inveigled into taking these chances, and to them the suffering must be keen indeed. This state of affairs does not apply, as a rule if at all, to agricultural laborers, but does in all its baseness, brutality and deceit, to contractors in par- ticular, and to quite a number of unscrupulous manu- facturers, who think that this kind of treatment is never heard of outside of the one State where it hap- pens, and presuming upon this, in which they are grievously mistaken, they keep up those vicious prac- tices until it not only gets into the local courts but to the Federal courts. Even President Roosevelt him- self has taken notice and has appointed special com- missions to stop this practice of peonage in the very localities referred to, many convictions for which have been recently obtained and salutary punishment of both imprisonment and fines has been justly inflicted. There is not a poor, out-of-work alien in New York City to-day but knows of this state of aflfairs, sixty of them having subscribed $13.00 to bring one of the men above referred to back to New York; and those among them who are willing to take a chance are those who are willing to take their lives in their hands, driven to the point of desperation, in the hope of pro- viding for those whom they have brought here with IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 133 them, or those whom they have left behind, and they are willing to almost die to keep their word to bring them here also. Thus it is necessary, I say, if those who love the South would develop its great resources, to be satisfied for the time being with less profit on their commer- cial enterprises, and devise ways and means of bring- ing the alien closer to the land — ^the land at present out of use — to give the immigrants a reasonable chance to establish homes and enable them to look into the future and see something in it for them and their offspring. No man will pay from $8.00 to $15.00 for transportation to the sunny South, undergo estrange- ment from family and friends and be subjected to almost inhuman treatment for $1.25 per diem while there are $2.00 per day and over right here in New York City, where at present there is being spent over four hundred millions of dollars in enterprises of public and private utilities, and where a greater demand for unskilled labor than can be supplied has existed for the past two years. Some of these men I have referred to become in- debted to the contractors and employing companies, and when conditions become unbearable and they en- deavor to escape, the company managers have them arrested, sue them to recover the amount of their in- debtedness, and not being able to pay, the immigrants are condemned to the chain gang and held in durance, making roads and sweeping streets, while the debt and fine are liquidated. Appendix PLAN AND SCOPE OF THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION The purpose of The National Civic Federation is to organize the best brains of the nation in an educa- tional movement toward the solution of some of the great problems related to social and industrial prog- ress ; to provide for study and discussion of questions of national import; to aid thus in the crystallization of the most enlightened public opinion; and, wrhen desirable, to promote legislation in accordance there- with. The membership of the Federation is drawn from practical men of affairs, whose acknowledged leader- ship in thought and action makes them typical repre- sentatives of the various elements that voluntarily work together for the general good. Its National Executive Committee is constituted of three factors: the general public, represented by the church, the bar, the press, statesmanship and finance ; employers, repre- sented by large manufacturers and the heads of great corporations, and employers' organizations ; and labor, represented by the principal officials of national and international organizations of wage-earners in every important industry. There" are useful organizations of farmers, manu- facturers, wage-earners, bankers, merchants, lawyers. IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 135 economists and other distinct but interacting elements of society, which hold meetings for discussion of af- fairs peculiar to their own pursuits and callings. The Federation, in addition to its Departments for the ac- complishment of specific purposes, provides a forum where representatives of all these elements of society may meet to discuss national problems in which they have a common interest. Six national conferences have thus been held upon Primary Election and Ballot Reforms, Foreign Policy, Trusts, Conciliation and Arbitration, Taxation, and Immigration. These Conferences have usually been attended by delegates appointed by Governors of States and by representatives selected by various commercial, industrial and educational bodies. The present activities of the Federation are exercised through the following agencies: Public Ownership Commission, Immigration Department, Industrial Con- ciliation Department, Industrial Economic Department, and Welfare Department. PUBLIC OWNERSHIP. The Public Ownership Commission, appointed by the Executive Council of the Federation, is composed of one hundred prominent men representing practi- cally every shade of opinion on this subject. This Commission has appointed twenty-one of its members as a Committee on Investigation, whose duties are to examine the conditions and results in this country and abroad of public ownership and operation, public ownership and private operation, and private owner- ship and operation of gas, water, electric power and light, and street railways. The personnel of this well- 136 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION balanced Committee is such as to inspire confidence that it will make a thoroughly impartial and compre- hensive report of facts which will afford the public authoritative data on the subject. Fifteen members of this Commission, with eight engineers and accountants, spent four months in ex- amining all the important public and private plants in Great Britain. They are now completing the work in this country. IMMIGRATION. The Department of Immigration is composed of more than two hundred representative men from all classes and sections. Its purpose is the investigation of all important phases of the immigration problem, the Department being organized into seven distinct committees comprising Committees on Basal Statistics, Supply and Demand, Legislation and Its Enforcement, Naturalization, Agencies for Advancing the Welfare of Immigrants, International Relations, and Oriental Immigration. The result of the work of these dif- ferent committees is to be reported to the Department through its Executive Committee for final action. This Department was organized at the request of the National Immigration Conference held in New York City, December 6-8, 1905, this conference being attended by more than five hundred delegates appointed by Governors of States, leading commercial, agricul- tural, manufacturing, labor and economic organiza- tions, and by prominent ecclesiastical and educational institutions. Some phases of the immigration problem with which the Department will deal include such subjects as the IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 137 character of immigration, assimilation of the immi- grant into American national life, the necessity for further restrictions, the administration of immigra- tion laws, the effect of immigration upon our indus- trial, political and broad social life; the part played by the steamship companies, causes of European im- migration, European inspection and examination, pro- portion of immigrants who become criminal, insane and charitable dependents ; effects of immigration upon the native birth-rate, the selection of immigrants, na- turalization, Asiatic immigration, etc. INDUSTRIAL CONCILIATION. The Conciliation Department deals entirely with strikes, lock-outs and trade agreements. The services of this Department have been enlisted in about five hundred cases, involving every conceivable phase of a problem interwoven with or underlying an industrial controversy. Its membership extends to every in- dustrial center, and includes representatives of leading organizations of employers and of wage-earners. Through this membership information of any threat- ened trouble between capital and labor usually reaches the headquarters, from one side or the other, in ad- vance of any public rupture. This early intelligence is of the utmost value, since the best time to adjust a dis- pute is before a rupture occurs. In averting or settling controversies upon the great railway systems with the brotherhoods of engineers, firemen and trainmen, thus affecting the industries dependent upon transportation in practically every State in the Union ; in promoting agreements between the longshoremen and vessel-owners, vitally related to 138 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION all the industries concerned in shipping, such as the coal, iron, steel, lumber and elevator interests; in adjusting street railway troubles in San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago, Pittsburg, New York, Newark and other cities; in averting troubles in the teaming industry in several large cities; in improving rela- tions and averting strikes in many branches of manu- facture, such as the making of textiles, garments, boots and shoes, and the metal trades ; in promoting agree- ments between coal operators and miners ; in bringing about contractual relations between the thirty-four crafts grouped as the building trades and the corres- ponding associations of employers; in establishing agreements between theatrical managers and musicians and actors throughout the country. In these and many other directions the Conciliation Department has ex- erted an influence repeatedly effective for peace in industries widely diversified and of national magni- tude. INDUSTRIAL ECONOMICS. The Department of Industrial Economics was formed to promote discussion of practical economic problems. Its membership is composed of leading economists, including the heads of the departments of political economy in universities, lecturers and economic and legal authors ; editors of the daily press, of politico-social magazines, of trade papers and of labor journals; representatives of the pulpit; large employers, and representatives of labor. This De- partment has arranged a programme for the discus- sion, by the ablest experts to be procured, of each of the vital and frequently irritating questions that arise IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 139 in the Conciliation Department in connection with the prevention or settlement of controversies. These questions include such subjects as "Wages and Cost of Living," "The Shorter Work Day," "The Open and Closed Shop," "Restriction of Output," "The Ratio of Apprentices," "Piecework," "Compul- sory Arbitration," "Initiative and Referendum," "In- come Tax," "Industrial Combinations," "Socialism." WELFARE WORK. The Welfare Department is devoted entirely to in- teresting employers in improving the conditions under which employes in all industries work and live. Conferences of employers are held periodically in different sections of the country for the interchange of experiences. There are also annual conferences of welfare workers — those who supervise the welfare work in factories, department stores and other indus- trial enterprises. A Bureau of Exchange is maintained at the head- quarters where literature, plans and photographs re- lating to welfare work are obtained by employers who desire to profit by what others have done along specific lines. The Department supplies, upon request, agents who have had practical experience in the operation of wel- fare work to examine industrial establishments and make suitable recommendations for its introduction. This includes advice on the installation of such fea- tures as: Sanitary Work Places: Systems for providing pure drinking water; for ventilation, including the cooling of superheated places, and devices for exhausting dust 140 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION and removing gases ; for lighting the work places ; and for guarding machinery; wash rooms with hot and cold water; shower baths for molders and stationary firemen ; emergency hospitals ; locker rooms ; seats for women; laundries for men's overalls or women's uni- forms; the use of elevators for women; luncheon rooms ; rest rooms or trainmen's rest houses. Recreation: The social hall for dancing parties, con- certs, theatricals, billiards, pool or bowling; the gym- nasium, athletic fields, roof gardens, vacation and sum- mer excursions for employes. Housing: Homes rented or sold to employes, and boarding houses. Architectural plans for recreation halls, employes' hotels and homes are made. Educational: Qasses for apprentices in cooking, dressmaking, millinery and first aid to the injured; night classes for technical training; kindergartens and libraries. Provident Funds: Funds for insurance, pensions, savings, or lending money in times of stress. Educational work, through public discussions and the circulation of proper literature, looking toward the improvement of the working conditions of metal pol- ishers, stationary firemen, molders, bakers, and em- ployes in other lines, is undertaken by special trade committees. Lectures upon welfare work, in many industries, with stereopticon illustrations, are given. POLITICAL REFORM. The organization of a Political Reform Department was the practical outcome of The National Conference on that subject held in New York City, March 6 and 7, 1906, under the auspices of The National Civic Federa- IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 141 tion. The Conference was attended by delegates from all parts of the country, appointed by congress- men, governors, mayors, municipal and political re- form bodies, and representing all shades of political opinion. There could be no more important work for The National Civic Federation than to help bring about clean government in our political life, whether munic- ipal, state or national. The work of this Department will tend to give our best citizens a larger hand in the making of laws and in enforcing representative gov- ernment. PUBLICITY. The chief mission of The National Civic Federation being educational, it presents accounts of much of its work in a monthly periodical entitled The National Civic Federation Review. This publication is sent to the principal libraries and educational institutions of every country; to the executive and departmental offi- cials of every nation; to the headquarters of all pro- fessional, literary and scientific societies; to organiza- tions, both national and local, of employers and em- ployes ; and to thousands of editors, clergymen, educa- tors and other leaders of thought in the professions, commerce, finance and industry. The Review has be- come a far-reaching educational force in the elucida- tion of many great public questions- The service rendered to the entire community by The National Civic Federation is rapidly becoming recognized. The strength of its membership to-day and its facilities for the effective prosecution of its purposes are a guarantee of its continued usefulness. OFFICERS OF THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION President August Belmont (President Interborough Rapid Transit Co.), New York City. Vice-Presidents Samuel Gompers (President American Federation of Labor), Washington, D. C. N. J. Bachelder (Master of the National Grange), Concord, N. H. Cyrus H. McCormick (President International Harvester Co.), Chicago, 111. Ellison A. Smyth (President Pelzer Manufacturing Co.), Pelzer, S. C. Benjamin Ide Wheeler (President University of California), Berkeley, Cal. Treasurer Isaac N. Seligman (J. & W. Seligman & Co.), New York City. Chairman Executive Council Ralph M. Easley. Secretary Samuel B. Donnelly, 281 Fourth Avenue, New York City. Chairman Conciliation Department Seth Low (Publicist), New York City. IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 143 Chairmen Trade Agreement Department Francis L. Robbins (President Pittsburgh Coal Company), Pittsburgh. John Mitchell (President United Mine Workers of America), Indianapolis. Chairman Industrial Economics Department Nicholas Murray Butler (President Columbia University), New York City. Chairman Immigration Department Franklin MacVeagh (of Franklin MacVeagh & Co.), Chi- cago, 111. Chairman Public Ownership Commission Melville E. Ingalls (Chairman Board of Directors Big Four Railroad), Cincinnati. Chairman Welfare Department Charles A. Moore (Manning, Maxwell & Moore), New York City. EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE On the part of the Public: Grover Cleveland (ex-President of the United States), Princeton, N. J. Andrew Carnegie (Capitalist), New York City. Cornelius N. Bliss (ex-Secretary of the Interior), New York City. Oscar S. Straus (Member of the Court of Arbitration at The Hague), New York City. Charles W. Eliot (President Harvard University), Cambridge, Mass. Nicholas Murray Butler (President Columbia University), New York City. Seth Low (Publicist), New York City. 144 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION Archbishop John Ireland (of the Roman Catholic Church), St. Paul. Bishop Henry C. Potter (of the Protestant Episcopal Church), Nevf York City. Charles J. Bonaparte (Attorney-General), Washington. David R. Francis (ex-Secretary of the Interior), St. Louis. Isaac N. Seligman (J. & W. Seligman & Co.) , New York City. James Speyer (Speyer & Co.), New York City. V. Everit Macy (Capitalist), New York City. Ralph M. Easley (Chairman Executive Council), New York City. On the part of Employers: Henry Phipps (Director United States Steel Corporation), New York City. August Belmont (President Interborough Rapid Transit Co.), New York City. W. A. Qark (President United Verde Copper Co.), Butte, Mont. Clarence H. Mackay (President Postal Telegraph-Cable Co.), New York City. Lucius Tuttle (President Boston & Maine Railroad), Boston. Frederick D. Underwood (President Erie Railroad Co.), New York City. Frederick P. Fish (President American Telephone and Tele- graph Co.), Boston. Melville E. Ingalls (Chairman C. C. C. & St. L. Ry. Co.), Cincinnati, O. Francis L. Robbins (President Pittsburgh Coal Company), Pittsburgh. H. H. Vreeland (President New York City Railway Com- pany), New York City. Samuel Mather (Pickens, Mather & Co.), Cleveland. Charles A. Moore (Manning, Maxwell & Moore), New York City. Franklin MacVeagh (of Franklin MacVeagh & Co.), Chi- cago, 111. Charles H. Taylor, Jr. (ex-President American Newspaper Publishers' Association), Boston. Dan R. Hanna (M. A. Hanna & Co.), Cleveland. Marcus M. Marks (President National Association of Cloth- ing Manufacturers), New York City. Otto M. EidlitE (Chairman Board of Governors, Building Trades Employers' Association), New York City. IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 145 On the part of Wage-Earners: Samuel Gompers (President American Federation of Labor), Washington. John Mitchell (President United Mine Workers of America), Indianapolis. James Duncan (General Secretary Granite Cutters' National Union), Quincy, Mass. Daniel J. Keefe (President International Longshoremen, Ma- rine and Transport Workers' Association, Detroit. Warren S. Stone (Grand Chief International Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers), Cleveland. P. H. Morrissey (Grand Master Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen), Cleveland. William D. Mahon (President Amalgamated Association of Street Railway Employes of America), Detroit. Timothy Healy (President International Brotherhood of Sta- tionary Firemen), New York City. William J. Bowen (President Bricklayers' and Masons' Inter- national Union), Indianapolis. J. J. Hannahan (Grand Master Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen), Peoria, 111. James O'Connell (President International Association of Machinists), Washington. John F. Tobin (General President Boot and Shoe Workers' Union), Boston. Joseph F. Vialentine (President Iron Molders' Union of North America), Cincinnati. James M. Lynch (President International Typographical Union), Indianapolis. Denis A. Hayes (President Glass Bottle Blowers' Association of United States and Canada), Philadelphia. William Huber (President United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America), Indianapolis. INDEX Admission of Immigrants, 11. Age limit, Proposed, 11. Agencies for Advancing the Wel- fare of Immigrants, Committee on, V. Agents of steamship companies In Europe, 14. Agricultural wages, 22. Ahrens, Theodore, 64. Aliens, Assimilation of, 52, 55, 74. Aliens, Character of, VI., 40. Aliens, Deflnltion of, 40. Aliens, Enlargement of inadmissi- ble classes of, 11. Aliens forbidden admission to the U. S., 5. Aliens, Rejection of, 18. Aliens. Money brought by, VII. Aliens, Money possessed by arrly- Ing, VII. Aliens' knowledge of immigration laws, 15. Ambler, D. G., 91. Archibald, James P., 129. Arriving immigrants, 108. Artificial causes of immigration, 14. Assimilation of immigrants, 5, 27, 52 55 74. Assis'ted' immigrants, 17, 30, 31, 35. Attitude of organized labor to- wards Immigration, 37, 75, 77, 84. B Bachelder, N. J., III. Baltimore, Immigrants arriving at, 110. Basal Statistics, Committee on, IV. Bljur, Nathan, 34, 55, 65, 70, 71, 72, 97. Bohemians as paupers, 45. Boston, Immigrants arriving at, 110. British Aliens' Act, 30. Burdens of immigration, 31. Bureau of Information, 21, 116. Bureau of Immigration and Nat- uralization (See Commissioner- General) . Canada, Immigration from, 54, 105, 108, 112. Cape Colony, Money test in, 30. Chamberlain, Leander T., III., 62, 109. Character of immigration, VI., VII., 42. Charities and Corrections, Na- tional Conference of, 103. Charity organizations, Testimony of, 34. Children among immigrants, Pro- portion of, 42. Children of Immigrants, Criminal tendency of, 32, 58. Children unaccompanied by par- ents excluded, 16. Chinese, Criminal tendenw among, 60. Chinese as farmers on the PacISc Coast, 81. Chinese Immigration, 93. Chinese, Proposed Investigation of, 128. Clothing Industry, Effects of im- migration upon, 72. Coal miners. Effects of Immigra- tion upon, 68, 82, 86, 92, 99. Commissioner-General of Immigra- tion, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11. 14, 17, 19, 27, 31, 39, 45, 53, 104. Conference on distribution, 109. Consular inspection. Criticism of, 25. Contract labor laws, 92, 94, 96. Crime of immigrants, 32, 33, 42, 43, 56. Criminal statistics, 32, 42, 56, 61. Criminal tendency among Chinese, 60. Criminal tendency among Italians, 60. Criminal tendency among Mexi- cans, 60. Criminals, Dlfllculty of exclud- ing, 33. Defective and delinquent Immi- grants, 9, 38. 39, 42, 58, 67, 78, 80. Definitions of Immigrant, 104. Delinquent and defective immi- grants, 9, 38, 39, 42, 58, 67, 78, 80. Demand, Committee on the Facts of Supply and, IV. Demand for Immigrant labor, 22, 65, 81, 91, 93, 94, 113, 121. Departing immigrants, 53, 108. Departments of National Civic Federation, 135, 137, 138. Deportation of immigrants, 8, 20, 29, 66, 68, 112. Diseased Immigrants, 11, 12, 18, 19. Distribution, Proposed bureau to assist, 21. 148 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION Distribution of Immigrants, 83, 109, 113, 115, 117, 119, 123, 125. E Educational test, Proposed, 26, 27. ECfects of Immigration, 31, 47, 55, 82. Effects of Immigration upon coal miners, 68, 82, 86, 92, 99. Effects of Immigration upon cloth- ing Industry, 72. Effects of Immigration upon skilled mechanics, 73. Ellis Island, Character of arrivals at, VII. Ellis Island, Proposed Bureau of Information at, 21. Enforced labor in the South, 129. Enforcement of immigration re- striction laws, 7. Epileptics, 12, 18. Examination of immigrants, 6, 18, 19, 28. Exclusion of children unaccom- panied by parents, 16. Excluded immigrants, 5, 9, 10, 11, 16. F Facts about immigration. Impor- tance of, IX. Farm laborers, Itallaiis as, 23, Farmers on Immigration, Views of, 22. Feeble-minded persons, 9, 18. Fines upon steamship companies, 18, 19. Fleischer, Charles, 53, 62, 64, 77. Fox, Hugh F., 58, 78, 90. t'ardner BUI, The, 28. Government reports on Immigra- tion, 7, 104. Hall, Prescott P., 4, 41, 43, 62, 68, 101. Head tax. Increase of, 6, 8. HolUday, John H., V. Homicide and immigration, 59. Hughes, S. A., 120. Hungarians as paupers, 45. Idiots, 9, 11, 18. Illiteracy among immigrants. Sta- tistics of, 27, 31, 118. Illiteracy test, 26. 27. Imbeciles, 9, 18. Immigrant, Definitions of, 104. Immigrant Fund, Surplus in, 6, 8, 20. Immigrant labor, Demand for, 22, 81, 91, 93, 111, 113, 121. Immigrant prisoners, 32. Immigrants, Action of steamship companies towards undesirable, VIII. Immigrants, Age limit proposed for, 11. Immigrants and the wage-earner, 74. Immigrants arriving, 53, 108. Immigrants arriving at Baltimore, 110. Immigrants arriving at Boston, 110. Immigrants arriving at New York, 110, 114. Immigrants arriving at Philadel- phia, 110. Immigrants arriving at San Fran- cisco, 110. Immigrants, Assimilation of, 5, 27, 52, 74. Immigrants, Bureau of Informa- tion for, 116. Immigrants as consumers, 44. Immigrants, Character of, VI., VII., 12, 42. Immigrants. Crime among, 32, 33, 42, 43, 56. Immigrants, Criminal tendency among children of, 32, 58. Immigrants departing. 53, 108. Immigrants. Deportation of, 8, 20, 29. 66, 68, 112. Immigrants, Diseased, 11, 12, 18, 19. Immigrants, Distribution of, 83, 113, 115, 117, 119, 121, 123, 124, 125. Immigrants, Enlargement of Inad- missible classes of, 11. Immigrants for Immoral purposes, 17. Immigrants forbidden admission to the U. S., 5, 9, 10, 11, 16. Immigrants, Industrial Commis- sion on deportation of, 20. Immigrants, Information for, 21, 116. Immigrants, Inspection of, 6, 18, 19, 28. Immigrants, Money brought In by. Immigrants, Money test for, 29, 30, 31. Immigrants, Pauper, 33, 35. Immigrants, Physical test for, 16. Immigrants, Physique of, 10, 12, 13, 16. Immigrants, Ports of entry for, 6. Immigrants, Proposals to exclude assisted, 17. Immigrants, Proportion of chil- dren among, 42. Immigrants, Rejection of, 18. IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 149 Immigrants, Statistics of Illiter- acy among, 27, 31, 118. Immigrants, Tuberculosis among, 13. Immigrants, Value of, 44. Immigrants, Views of Powderly on deportation of, 20. Immigrants as public charges, 8, 9, 16. 28, 29, 33, 38, 39, 42, 45, 58, 67, 78, 80. Immigration and bomlcide, 59. Immigration and labor on the Pa- cific Coast, 80. Immigration and the clothing in- dustry, 72. Immigration and the land prob- lem, 81, 82, 121, 124. Immigration and the Panama Canal, 75, 85, 96. Immigration and the skilled me- chanics, 73. Immigration and the South's de- Telopment, 127. Immigration, Artificial causes of, 14. Immigration, Assisted, 31, 35. Immigration, Attitude of labor or- ganizations on, 37, 84. Immigration, Burdens of, 8, 31. Immigration, Changes in, 12. Immigration conference of Sep- tember 24, 1906, 3. Immigration conference. The first national. III. Immigration, Dangers of, 49. Immigration Department, Commit- tees of, IV. Immigration Department, Objects of. III., 136. Immigration Department, Officials of. III. Immigration Department, Origin of. III. Immigration, Effects of, 4, 31, 33, 47, 55, 68, 72, 73, 74, 82, 86. Immigration from Canada, 54, 105, 108, 112. Immigration from Mexico, 54, 61, 105, 108. Immigration, Gardner bill on, 28. Immigration, History of, 49. Immigration in city slums, 24. Immigration in our country dis- tricts, 116. Immigration in our large cities, 116. 118, 119. Immigration In the coal mines, 68, 82, 86, 92, 99. Immigration, International Con- ference on, 63. Immigration laws. Aliens' know- ledge of, 15. Immigration legislation, 34, 89, 102. Immigration, Need of facts re- garding, VI., IX. Immigration, Objections to, 38. Immigration, Possibility of excess sive, 51. Immigration, Prime causes of, Vlf. Immigration, Problems of, 4. Immigration restriction, 4, 31, 36, 65, 69, 77, 102. Immigration restriction laws, 7, 43. Immigration Bestrictlon League, 7, 43. Immigration statistics, 7, 31, 36, 38, 46, 48, 90, 100, 106. Immigration, Stimulation of, 13, 14, 75, 121. Immigration, The problem of, 52. Immigration, The question of, 35. Immigration to Hawaii, 95. Immigration to South Carolina, 125. Immigration to U. S., Volume of, 53, 54, 107, 108, 110. Immigration, Traditional policy towards, 50, 102. Inmioral purposes. Immigrants for, 17. Industrial Commission, 8, 102. Industrial Conciliation Depart- ment, 137. Industrial Economics Department, 138. Information for immigrants, 21, 116. Insane immigrants, 9, 10, 11, 18, 20, 33, 79. Inspection, Consular, 25. Inspection of Immigrants, 6, 18, 19, 28. International conference on immi- gration, 63. International conference. Effect upon proposed legislation of, 64. International relations of immi- gration, Committee on, V. Italian immigrants, 23. Italian labor on the farm, 23. Italians as paupers, 45. Italiaxis, Criminal tenden,cy among. 60. Investigation of Chinese, Japanese and Koreans, 128. Japanese, Investigations of, 128. Jenks, J. W., V., 63. Junior Order United American Mechanics, VI. Keefe, Daniel J., III. Kelley, Mrs. Florence, 61. Kinnear, James W., 82, 83, 85. Koreans, Investigation of, 128. 150 THE NATIONAL CIVIC FEDERATION Labor and immigration on tbe Pa- cific Coast, 80. Labor, Demand for, 22, 81, 91, 93, 113, 121. Land problem and Immigration, The, 81, 82, 121, 124. Lefavour, Henry, VI. Legislation and Its Enforcement, Committee on, IV. Loeb, Morris, 69, 66. M MacVeagh, Franklin, III., 3, 88, 90, 97. Mechanics, Effect of immigration upon, 73. Medical inspection of Immigrants, 6, 19. Medical inspection system. En- largement of, 6. Membership of National Civic Federation, 134. Mexicans, Criminal tendency among, 60. Mexico, Immigration from, 54, 61, 105, 108. Migrate, Individual's right to, 50, Mitchell, John, 68, 83, 86. Money test for immigrants, 29, 30. Money test in British Aliens' Act, 30. Money test in Cape Colony, 30. Money test. Views of Commis- sioner-General on, 31. N National Civic Federation, Depart- ments of, 135, 137, 138. National Civic Federation, Immi- gration Department of. III., 136. National Civic Federation, Indus- trial Conciliation Department of, 137. National Civic Federation, Indus- trial Economics Department of, 138. National Civic Federation, Mem- bership of, 134. National Civic Federation, Na- tional conferences of, 135. National Civic sFederation, Objects of, 134. National Civic Federation, Officers of, 142. National Civic Federation, Politi- cal Reform Department of, 140. National Civic Federation, Public Ownership Commissslon of, 135. National Civic Federation Review, 141. National Civic Federation, Wel- fare Department of, 139. National conferences of Civic Fed- eration, 136. Naturalization, Committee on, V. Need for labor, 22, 81, 91, 93, 111, 113, 121. Nelll, Chas. P., 123. New York, Immigrants arriving at, 110, 114. Norton, Eliot, V. O Objects of The National Civic Federation, 134. O'Connell, James, 70, 71, 72, 77, 82 S3 85 Officers 'of 'The National Civic Federation, 142. Organized labor and restricted Im- migration, 77. Oriental Immigration, Committee on, VI. P Padrone system, 17. Parker, Thomas F., IV., 125. Pauper immigrants, 8, 9, 16, 28, 29, 33, 38, 39, 42, 45, 58, 67, 78, 80. Peonage, 130. Philadelphia, Immigrants arriving at, 110. Physical test for immigrants, 16. Physique of Immigrants, 10, 12. Polish immigrants as paupers, 45. Political Reform Department, 140. Population of Europe, Increase of, 50. Population of the TJ. S., Increase from immigration of, 53, 108. Ports of entry for immigrants, 6. Prince, L. Bradford, IV. Public Ownership Commission, 136. R Racial character of immigration, 12, 42. Report of the Bureau of the Cen- sus on paupers, 45. Restricted immigration and or- ganized labor, 77. Restriction of immigration, 4, 31, 36, 65, 69, 77, 102. Review, The National Civic Fed- eration, 141. Reynolds, James Bronson, VI., 127. Right to migrate, 50, 82. Roeder, Adolph, 85, 86. Russians as paupers, 45. S San B^andsco, Immigrants arriv- ing at, 110. Secret Service Agents, 25. Seilgman, Isaac N.. IV. Senate bill No. 4403, 4. Slocum, Thomas W., IV., 109. Solution for immigration distribu- tion, 121, 124. IMMIGRATION CONFERENCE 151 South Carolina's experiment In distribution, 125. South Carolina's Immigration De- partment, 125. South misrepresented abroad, 127. .South's demand for immigrants, 65, 111. 121. South's future development and Immigration, 127. Southern immigration. Ports pro- posed for, 6. Standard of living and immigra- tion, 47, 74. State Bureau of Information at lillls Island, 21. Statistics, Committee on Basal, IV. Statistics of crime, 32, 42, 66, 58, 61. Statistics, Need of, 7, 31, 41, 46, 48, 90, 100. Statistics of Immigration, 106. Steamship agents in Europe, 14, 121. Steamship companies. Fines upon, 18, 19. Steamship companies and undesir- able immigrants, VIII. Stimulated Immigration, 13, 14, 15, 75, 121. Supply and Demand, Committee on the Facts of, IV. Traditional policy towards Immi- gration, 50, 102. Tuberculosis among Immigrants, U Undesirable Immigrants, Action of steamship companies towards, VIII. United American Mechanics, Jun lor Order, VI. Value of immigrants, 44. Views of Commissioner-General of Immigration (See Commissioner- General). Volume of inmiigratlon to U. S., 53, 107, 108, 110. W Wage-earner, Immigration and the, 74. Wages, 22. 72, 110, 113, 115, 125, 129 133 Warue, Frank Julian, IV., IX. Watchorn, Commissioner, VII., Ill, 114. Welfare Department, 139. Welfare of Immigrants, Commit- tee on Agencies for Advancing the, V. Wilcox, Theodore B., IV. WlUcox, Walter F., IV., 24, 50, 63, 56, 56, 103, 115.