" The House passed the bill over the
President's veto, but the Senate took no further action.
In 1898 the Industrial Commission was empowered "to investigate
questions pertaining to immigration" and presented a report which
prepared the way for the immigration law of 1903, approved on the 3rd
of March. This law, which was based upon a careful preliminary
inquiry, may be called the first comprehensive American immigration
statute. It perfected the administrative machinery, raised the head
tax, and multiplied the vigilance of the Government against evasions
by the excluded classes. Anarchists and prostitutes were added to the
list of excluded persons. The literacy test was inserted by the House
but was rejected by the Senate.
This law, however, did not allay the demand for a more stringent
restriction of immigration. A few persons believed in stopping
immigration entirely for a period of years. Others would limit the
number of immigrants that should be permitted to enter every year. But
it was felt throughout the country that such arbitrary checks would be
merely quantitative, not qualitative, and that undesirable foreigners
should be denied admission, no matter what country they hailed from. A
notable immigration conference which was called by the National Civic
Federation in December, 1905, and which represented all manner of
public bodies, recommended the "exclusion of persons of enfeebled
vitality" and proposed "a preliminary inspection of intending
immigrants before they embark.
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