The Montgomery advertiser., 1905-12-06


 and the Declaration of Independence It Is clearly shown in the report of the Commiasioner-Ge General of Immigra- tion that while mucn of this enormous immigration Is undoubtedly healthy is undesirable from one reason or an- other; moreover, a considerable pro- portion of 1t. probably very large proportion, including most of the un- desirable class. does not come here of It's own initiative, but because of the activity Of the agents of the great transportation companies. These agents are distributed throughout Eu- rope, and by the offer of all kinds of inducements they wheedle and cajole many immigrants, often against their serious obstacle we have to encoun ter in the effort to secure a proper regula- tion of the immigration to these. shores of the foreign steamship lines who have no interest whatever in the mat ter save to increase the returns on their capital by carrying masses of immigrants hither in the steerage quarters of their ships.
 AS l said in my last Message to the congress we can not have too much immigration of the right sort. and we should have none whatever of the wrong sort. Of course 1t is desirable that even the right kind of immigra- thls country. We need more Of such immigration for the South; and special effort should be made to secure it.. the number of Immigrants allowed to come in any one year to New York and other northern cities. while leav- ins unlimited the number allowed to however, that q strict effort is made to see that only immigrants of the right kind comt to our country anywhere. In eSs to eaforce the eas aMs where long stretches of frontier mark ed by an imaginary line alone inter vene between us and our neighbors that I recommend that no immigrants be allowed to come in from Canada and Mexico. save natives of the two coun- tries themselves. As much as possl- ble should be done, to distributes the them away from the congested tene- ment-house districts of the great cit- ies But distribution is a palliative, not cure. The prime need Is to keep out all immigrants who will not make good American citizens. The laws now existing for the exclusion of undesir- able immigrants should be strength adopted emf reed by sufficient penal ties; to compel steamship companies observe in good faith the law which fforbids them to encourage or solicit Immieration to the United States limitation imposed up'S all vessels coming in our ports as to the number of immigrants in ratio to the tonnage which each vessel can carry. This the coming htther of as good class of aliens as possible. Provision should be made for the surer punishment of those who induce aliens: to come to this country under promise or assur- ance of employment. It should be made possible to infiict heavy penalty deter him from taking the risk It seems to me wise that there should be an international conference held to deal with this question of immigra- I national significance; such confer ence could among other things enter ing thorough inspection of would be I immigrants at the port from which they desire to embark before permit ting them to embark.
 In dealing with this question it is unwise to depart from the old Amer fcan tradition and to discriminate for or against any man who desires to come here and become citizen, save on the ground of that mans fitness for citizenship It Is our right and , duty to consider this moral and social quality Ills standard of living shomld of competition, lower the standard of living of our own wage-workers; for
 it must ever be prime object of our legisla tion to keep high their standard of living. If the man who seeks to come here is from the moral and so- cial standpoint of such character as to bid fair to add value to the communi- tv he should he heartily welcomed We can not afford to pay heed to whether he is of one creed or another, or one nation or another. We can not afford to consider whether he is Catholic or Protestant. Jew or Gentile: whether he is Fn"I'shman or Trishr1an, French- man or German. Japanese. Italian. Scandinavian, Slav, or Magyar. What we should desire to find out is the in- dtvidual quality of the individual man. In my judgment, with this end in view. We shall have to prepare through our agents q far more rigid inspection in the countries from which the i'm migrants come. It will be a great deal better to have fewer immigrants. but all of the right kind. than n great number of immigrants, many of whom are necessarily of the wrong kind. As far as possible we wish to limit the immiPration to this country to persons who propose to become citizens of this country and we can well afTord to in- sist upon adequate scrutiny of tho character of those who are thus pro- should he an increase in the strinSen- cy of the laws to keep out insane, th- iotic. enileptic. and pauner Immigrants. But this is by no means enough. Not merely the anarchist but every man of anarchistic tendencies, all violcnt and disorderly peonle: all people or lazy. the vicious, the physically unit, defective. or degenerate should be kent out The stocks. out of which American ''itizenshiD Is to he hntl, should be strong and healthy. sound in hodv mind and character If it he objected that he Governlhent would not always select well the answe~ is that thev would certainlv select bet- ter than do the agents and brokers of forelen steamship companies. the peo- rle who now do whatever selection is done.
 The questions arising in connection with Chinese immigration stand bv themselves The condittcns In China class. that is the class of Chinese la borers, skilled and unskilied. legiti- nately come under the head of unde-