The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-06-12
THE NEW ALIEN LAW.

Ii the Dill when mas Deen reported from
the Judiciary Committee of the House of
Representatives becomes law the position
of aliens will be considerably altered.
Under the colonial regime an alien could
not own real estate, and though the old rule
of law that when he died his real property
escheated to the crown was perhaps never
enforced, an aliens title to such property
was not considered clear.
Aliens, largely subjects of the Queen of
England, have been extensive purchasers of
land during the past half century. Vast
tracts of land in California, Nevada, Ne
braska, Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois.
Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota and the
Dakotas have passed into foreign ownership
and are held under United States patents. 1t
is now claimed that this constitutes danger
to the nation that 1t tends to plant on Amer
lean soil a system Of landlordiSm similar to
that which prevails in Great Britain. Such
foreign landowners as the Scullys, whose
property lies in Illinois, and the Schooeys,
who own large interests in the city OF Pitts
burg, Pa, never sell their holdings. They
are kept in the family as securely as if a
law OF entail prevented their distribution.
So far from diminishing in area. they in
crease from year to year. The tendency of
lHc plCSCll huCAClOlVs 10 w Neh-
centrate the ownership Of land in few
hands and to convert the agricultural popu-
lati0n into tenant farmers.
The bill now before Congress places for
egners on The footing they occupied before
Ohio began to be settled and on the footing
which they occupied in England before the
Statute of 80 Victoria was passed, and in
France when the Droit d'Aubaine was in
rs Fc rNrnvisippc for
eigners to become naturalized within ten
years, under penalty of FORGETTING their land.
| There is no doubt that the provision that
unnaturalized aliens cannot hereafter take
title to lands in the United States is con-
sistent with the Constitution and the gen.
eral principles of law. Every nation pos
sesses the power to decide who may and
who may not become members of it; for
tori, it may regulate who may and who may
not own land within its territory.
Those who believe that land governs, and
that the owners of the soil are the masters
of the country, will applaud a measure
which is framed with view of preventing
q reconquest of the United States by Europe
under the cloak of land purchases. 1t is
not best that even beginning Of such a
transfer of power should be endured. 1t
should be checked before it becomes strong
enough to fight for supremacy. Nor can
aliens complain that the new disabilities
which it is proposed to place on them are
unduly harsh. The House bill proposes to
despoil no man of his own. 1t merely says
to foreigners that if they desire to own land
in the United States they must become citi-
zens Of the United States, they and their
children after them; and that, if they do
not, those who are landowners now must
sell their holdings before their death, be-
cause their children, if adhering to the
nationality of their parents, can neither
take nor give valid title to the property.
| There is nothing in that to which any fair
minded foreigner could object