If America is to offer the opportunity of fairer play for all men than is elsewhere practicable, it is to be done only by the most careful regulation of immigration. As American liberty does not mean individual license, so, also, it does not mean abandonment of the practical conditions of liberty. Other countries are not to be allowed to impose their duties upon us by transferring their swarming criminals and paupers to our shores, and for the same reason the refuse population of semi-civilized or barbarous lands is not to be thrown upon us. But these are arguments for wise regulation, not for peremptory and unintelligent exclusion. The basis of sound legislation is common-sense.
Nothing is so practical, because it is the fruit of experience.
The test of wise legislation is the public welfare, and if it be found that the public welfare requires entrance into this country to be regulated by laws, which are not in themselves immoral, such laws ought to be passed. But the headlong action of the House is an illustration of unintelligent zeal, which is due probably not to public but to mere political motives.