The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-12-06

Seven years ago my lamented predeces-
 sor, President Mckinley, stated that the
 time had come for the nation to care for
 the graves of the Confederate dead
 recommend that the Congress take action
 toward this end. The first need Is to
 take charge of the graves of the Confed-
 crate dead who died in northern prisons
 Immigration.
 The question of immigration is of vl-
 tai interest to this country. In the year
 ending June 30, 19O5 there came to the
 United States 1.O260OO alien immigrants.
 In other words, in the single year that
 has just elapsed there came to this coun- try a greater number of people than came
 here during the 169 years of our colonial life which intervened between the first landing at Jamestown and the Declara-
 ton of Independence. It Is clearly shown
 in the report of the commissioner general
 of immigration that while much of this enormous immigration is undoubtedly healthy and natural, a considerable pro- portion of 1t, probably a very large pro- , portion, includes most of the undesirable class, does not come here of it's own initiative; but because of the activities of the agents of the great transportation companies These agents are distributed throughout Europe, and by the offer of all kinds of Inducements they wheedle and cajole many immigrants. often against
 their best interest to come here. The
 most serious obstacle we have to en- counter in the effort to secure a proper regulation of the immigration to these shores arises from the determined op- position of the foreign steamship lines who have no interest whatever In the matter save to increase the returns on | their capital by carrying masses of im-
 migrants 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 it is desirable that even the right kind of immigration should be properly distributed In this country. We
 need more of such immigration for the
 south and special effort should be made to secure it. Perhaps 1t would be possible
 to limit the number of immigrants al- ] lowed to come in any one year to New York and other northern cities, while leaving unlimited the number allowed to come to the south; always provided,
 however. that a strcter effort is made
 to see that only immigrants of the right
 kind come to our country anywhere. In actual practice if has proved so difficult to enforce the mmigra tion laws where ] long stretches of frontier marked by an | imaginary line alone intervene between us and our neighbors that 1 recommend that no immigrants be allowed to come in from Canada and Mexico, save natives of the two countries themselves. As much as possible should be done to distribute the
 immigrants upon the land and keep them away from the congested tenement house districts of the great cities. But distribu- ton Is palliative. not cure. The prime
 need is to keep out all immigrants who will not make good American citizens. | I'M. +tx.~ f4r fI4 1xain of undesirable immigrants should be
 strengthened. Adequate means should be
 adopted, enforced by sufficient penalties to compel steamship companies engaged in the passenger business to observe In ! good faith the law which forbids them to encourage or solicit immigration to
 the United States. Moreover, there should be a sharp limitation imposed upon all vessels coming to our ports as to the number of immigrants in ratio to the 1, tonnage which each vessel can carry. This | ratio should be high enough to insure l the coming hither of as good a class l of aliens possible. Provision should be | made for the surer punishment of those | who induce aliens to come to this coun- | try under promise or assurance of em- | ployment. It should be made possible to infiict sufficiently heavy penalty on | any employer violating this law to deter | him from taking the risk It seems t0 | me wise that there should be an interna- | tional conference held to deal with this | question of immigration, which has more 1 than a merely national significance; such | a conference could, among other things. enter at length into the methods for se- curing a thorough inspection of would | be immigrants at the ports from which l they desire to embark before permitting | them to embark
 , In dealing with this question 1t is un- | wise to depart from the old American | tradition and to discriminate for or i against any man who desires to come here and become a citizen, save on the | ground of that mans fitnes for citizen | ship. It is our right and duty to con- | sider his moral and social quality. His | standard of living should be such that 1 he will not by pressure of competition, 1 lower the standard of living of our own 1 wage workers, for it must ever be a prime | object of our legislation to keep high
 their standard of living. If the man who | seeks to come here is from the moral 1 and social standpoint of such a character | as to bid fair to add value to the com- munity he should be heartily welcomed. We can not afford to pay heed to whether | he is of one creed or another, of one na- | ton or another. We can not afford to | consider whether he is Catholic or Prot l estant, Jew or Gentle; whether he Is |, Englishman or Irishman, Frenchman or German Japanese, Italian, Scandinavian, Slav or Magyar. What we should desire | to find out is the individual quality or 1 the individual man. In my Judgment, with this end in view, we shall have to prepare through our own agents a Tar more rigid inspection in the countries | from which the immigrants come. It Will | he great deal better to have fewer im- i migrants. but all of the right kind, than
 great number of immigrants, many or whom are necessarily of the wrong kind. 1 As far as possible we wish to limit the l inroisration to this country to persons
 who nronose to become citizens of this 1 country and we can well afford to in- l sist upon adeauate scrutiny of the char | acter of those who are thus proposed for | future citizenship There should be an l increase in the stringency of the laws
 to keep out insane, idotic, epleptic and | manner immigrants. But this Is by no | means enough Not merely the anarch- | ist. but every man of anarchistic tenden- 1 cies all violent and disorderly people, | all people of bad character, the incompe- | tent the lazy the vicious. the physically | unfit. defective or degenerate should De kept out The stocks out of which Amer 1 ican citizenship is to be built should De strong and healthy, sound in body, mind | and character If it be objected that the government agents would not always | select well, the answer is that they would 1 certainly select better than do the agents and brokers of foreign steamship compa- nies the people who now do whatever | selection is done
 | The question arising in connection with , Chinese immigra ton stand by themselves.
 h ha