The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-11-09
May Serve as Warnlna.

|
 May Serve as Warning.
 ''The lesson which the north has learn ed in this matter as well as your own cruel experience may well serve as a
 warming investigations which we have recently made show very clearly that em- ployers of unskilled or pauper labor in
 the south outside of agriculture, are pret- ty fairly agreed that the remedy for the present shortage of labor is to be found in the immigration of individuals from
 other parts of the country or from north,
 ern Europe. Our existing laws are in-
 adequate. but, however, inadequate they are any attempt to improve the character
 of immigration of to weed out the very
 worst elements will be met by perfect cyclone of opposition on the part of cer- tain selfish interests such as the foreign steamship companies.
 They will array themselves in sack cloth and ashes and plead with fervor the cause of long suffering humanity and will tell you with deep pathos how this country has always been refuge for the oppressed and an asylum for the outcast Now even If 1t be true as they say that
 we are a charitable institution, an inter- national free lunch for the primary bene- fit of the rest of the world, still we should not cultivate poverty merely for the sake of exercising benevoence. At least we
 ought not to do so. It Is clear that great
 
 in the future from the incoming of honest industrious, intelligent, thrifty, assmla- tive and physically strong aliens can only be secured by making a careful selection
 of these immigrants and by preventing
 the infowing stream from becoming a vast and destructive flood of ignorance, paupersm and debility.
 ''The north would be glad to have many | of its city slums emptied into the south and would rejoice selfishly as would | southern Europe, If the south would take its full share of the incoming tide of aliens who are of poor physique who are | illiterate, who have criminal propensities 1 and an indefectible tendency to congre- | gate in the worst quarters of the large cities, who do not pay their own passage and who are unassimiative and unfitted for American standards of citizenship. | Do you want that kind of immigrantsY The association, although applauding | Burnett Richardson, Thompson and Pat | ten for their warm speeches. unanimously adopted the report of the immigration | committee which contained a paragraph | favoring the admission of Chinese 1mmi- | grants to the United States on the same
 basis as immigrants from every other l nation.
 | Representative Oscar W. Underwood's s views on immigration. as set forth in | the Underwood bill were endorsed by Representatives Burnett and Judge Rich
 ardson and Mir. Patten.
 | Alfred GaslSill, assistant forester of the department of agriculture at Washing | ton, spoke interestingly of the economic value of Alabama forests. saying that | federal and state authorities should unite l in their efforts to conserve and preserve
 this great asset of the state.
 On Southern Quarantine.
 National control of southern quarantine was the subject of Congressman Richard | sons speech. He advocated a policy that
 would safeguard public health and at
 the same time preserve the rights of state authority and minimize federal power. Continuing, he said
 "The practical question for considera- l tion is. can a federal quarantine law giv- l ing the federal health authorities supreme control be framed within constitutional | limits for the protection of persons and | property and not interfere with the posi- | tive rights of the states? Many eminent | and distinguished men contend that this may be done. That this Is doubtful proposition seems to me to be patent, when we remember that federal jurisdic- l ton of quarantine is exercised primarily | in the interest of Commerce and that local | or state jurisdiction Is exercised pri- marily for the protection of life and health | in different communities, and secondarily, | in the interest of commerce."
 The association formally thanked the