The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1897-02-11

The immigration bill has emerged
a second time from the hands of the
committee of conference and in better
shape for passing both houses and
becoming a law than it did the first
time. Bills to amend the present i'm
migration laws and intended to be re-
strictive ofimmigration, and especially
of the admission of illiterates unable
to read or write any language, even
their own, had been passed by both
House and Senate. But the Senate
bill passed as an amendment of or
substitute for the House bill differed
from the latter in several important
particulars. Hence the refusal of the
House to concur in all the Senate
amendments and the necessity for a
committee Of conference. The bill re-
ported by this committee was found
to differ, however, from both the
other bills. 1t enjoyed, to use the
language of one member of the House
''the unusual distinction of not hav-
ing had prior passage through either
House." 1.-THE conferees appointed
on the part of the two houses" said
another member, have prepared an
entirely new bill and now present it
to us for action, and we are asked not
to act upon a measure passed by
either house, but upon a measure
passed, if you please, by the Senators
and two Representatives. This OBJ
lection, although it did not necessarily
touch the merits of the bill, being
rather technical and parliamentary,
undoubtedly facilitated the adoption
of the motive made by Mr.. German in
the Senate to recommit the bill to the
conference committee.
The objections, however, to some of
the changes made by the conference
committee were matters of substance
and not merely to form. One main
object of the bill being, as we have
said, the exclusion of illiterate immi-
grants, to House bill sought to accom-
plish this by excluding 'all male per-
sons between 16 and 60 years of age
who cannot read and write the Eng
fish language or some other Ian
guage." The Senate bill excluded" all
persons over sixteen years of age who
cannot read and write the language
of their native country or some other
country" without distinction of sex.
The educational test proposed in
each bill was simply the ability to
read and write some one language,
which might be English or that of
their NATIVE country" or any other
country. The effect was to bar out
such illiterates as could not read or
write at all. The bill first reported
from the conference committee adopt
ed the language of neither the House
nor the Senate bill, but proposed to
exclude ''all persons physically capa-
BILE and over sixteen years of age who
cannot read and write the English
language or the language of their ma
tire or resident country" This was
an educational test of an entirely diff
ferent and more stringent character
from that originally proposed by
either House or Senate. Its effect, as
pointed out by The Sun in previous
article, would be to exclude Russian
Jews who could read and write their
own peculiar language, for example,
but not English nor Russian, the Off
cial language of their native or resi-
dent country, and for the same rea-
sons Germans, who might not be Jews,
from the Baltic provinces of Russia
who could read and write German and
perhaps half a dozen other languages
if these did not include English or
Russian. 1t would exclude also ma
tives and residents of Alsace and Lor-
raine who could read and write
French, but not German, and Ar