The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1898-01-25
THE IMMIGRATION BILL.

one OF the UlOSl Important SuOJSStS
with which the present congress will
deal is that of the restriction of immi-
grafton. What the country would have
been without immigration it is as idle
to conjecture as it is to conjecture
what would have become of the coun-
try had Columbus never been born. The
Lodge bill, which has already passed
the senate by a strict party vote, pro-
vides:
All persons physically capable and
over sixteen years OF age, who cannot
read and write the English language
or some other language; but a person
not so able to read and write, who is
over fifty years OF age and is the par
ent or grandparent of qualified i'm
migrant over twenty-one years of age
and capable of supporting such parent
or grandparsnt may accompany such
immigrant or such a parent or grand
parent may be sent for and come to
join the family OF a child or grandchild
over twenty-one years of age similarly
qualified and capable, and a wife or
minor child not so able to read and
write may accompany or be sent for
and come to join the husband or parent
similarly qualified and capable.
Section ,. That for the purpose of
testing the ability of the immigrant to
read and write, as required by the fore
going section, the inspection officers
shall be furnished with copies of the
constitution of the United States, print
ed on numbered uniform pasteboard
slips, each containing not less than
twenty nor more than twenty-five
words of said constitution printed in
the various languages of the immi-
grants in double small plea type These
IL f.,r.
that purpose and so constructed as to
conceal the slip from view, each box
to contain slips of but one language,
and the immigrant may designate the
language in which he prefers the test
shall be made. Each immigrant shall
be required to draw one OF said slips
from the box and read, and afterv ards
write out in full view of the immigra-
ton officers the words printed thereon.
Each slip shall be returned to the box
Immediately after the test is finished
and the contents of the box shall be
shaken up by an inspection officer be-
fore another drawing is made. No i'm
migrant failing to read and write out
the slip thus drawn by him shall be
admitted, but he shall be returned to
the country from which he came at
the expense of the steamship or rail
road company which brought him, as
now provided by law. The inspection
officers shall keep in each box at all
times q full number of said printed
pasteboard slips and in the case of each
excluded immigrant shall keep certi-
fed memorandum of the number of the
slip which the said immigrant failed to
read or copy out in writing. If in any
case, from any unavoidable cause, the
foregoing slips are not at hand for use,
the inspection officers shall carefully
and thoroughly test the ability Of the
immigrant to read and write, using the
most appropriate and available means
at their command, and shall state fully
in writing the reasons why the slips
are lacking, and describe the substitute
method adopted for testing the ability
of the immigrant.
Sec. g. That this act shall not apply
to persons arriving in the United States
from any port or place in the island of
Cuba during the continuance of the
present disorders there, who have here
tofore been inhabitants Of that island.
Sec. 4 That this act shall take effect
three months after its passage.
That makes capacity to read and
write the test of fitness for admission
to the United States, and of fitness for
citizenship. Illiterate immigrants are
not desirable, but illiteracy is by no
means the most Objectionable thing in
an immigrant; in fact, some of the
most undesirable immigrants that have
ever come to the country have been
anything but illiterate; many of them
could have read the constitution in sew
eral languages.
This question of the restriction of i'm
migration may enter into politics this
wear, for already anti-Lodge immigra-
ton bill organizations have been
formed, and to them belong some of
the foremost citizens of the country.
Bourke Cochran and other prominent
rish-Americans belong to one, and this
of itself is very good guarantee that
the question will become political.
Keep out the unworthy and the unfit
by all me, 5. but first be sure that
they are unworthy and unfit.