The Topeka state journal., 1905-12-05
MESSAGE TO CONGRESS
lContinued from Page Three.l

Continued from Page Three.)
their capital by carrying masses of inn
migrants hither in the steerage quar-
ters of their ships.
AS I 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 immigra-
tion should be properly distributed in
this country. We need more of such
immigration for the south and spe-
cial effort should be made to secure it,
Perhaps it would be possible to limit
the number of immigrants allowed TO
come in any one year to New york
and other northern cities, While leav-
ing unlimited the number allowed to
come to the south; always provided,
however, that a stricter effort is made
to see that only immigrants Of the
right kind come to our country any
where. 1n actual practice 1t has proved
so difficult to enforce the lnmlgrat ton
laws where long stretches of frontier
marked by an imaginary line alone in
Tervene 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
countries. As much as poSStDl should
be done to distribute the immigrants
upon the land and keep them away
from the cOngeSted tenement-house
districts OF lllG great GllAcsv 49uL us
tributiOn is a palliative, not cure.
The prime need is to keep out all inn
migrants who Will not make GOOD
American citizens. The laws now eX-
istinR for the exclusion of undesirable
Immigrants should be strengthened
Adequate means should be adopted,
enforced by sufficient penalties, to
compel steamship companies engaged
an the passenger business to observe IN
good faith the law which IOrDlQS 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 rsl-
ito to the tonnage which each vessel
can carry. This ratio should be high
enough to insure the cOming hither OF
as good a 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 assurance of employment. 1t
should be made possible to infiict a
sufficiently heavy penalty on any en-
pIoyer violating this law to deter him
from taking the risk. 1t seems to me
wise that there should be an interna-
tfonal conference held to deal with
this question of immigration, which
has more than a merely national sig
nifcance: such conference could
among other things enter at length
into the methods for securing a thor
0ugh inspection of Would-be 1mnl-
desire to embark before permitting
them to embark.
Tn dealing with this question it is
unwfse to depart from the old Amer1-
can tradition and to discriminate for
or again any man who desires to come
here and become q citizen, save on the
ground Of that mans fitness for clt1-
zenship. 1t is our right and duty 10
consider his moral and social quality
His standard of living should be such
that he will not by pressure of com
petition, lower the standard of living
of our own Wage-WOr1ers; for 1t must
ever be 8 prime object of our leglsla-
ton to keep high their standard OF llV-
ing. IL the man who seeks to come
here is from the moral and social
standpoint of such character as to
bid fair to add value to the commun-
ftW he should be heartily welcomed
We can not afford to pay heed to
whether ne is of one creed or another,
Of one nation or another. We can not
afford to consider whether he is Cath
Ollie or Protestant, jew or GentIles
whether he is Englishman or Irish
man, Frenchman or German, japanese,
italian, scandinavian, Slav, or Mag
var. What we should desire to find out
is the individual quality of the indi-
vidual man. In my judgment, with
this end in view, we shall have to pre-
pare through our own agents a, far
more rigid inspection IN the countries
from which the immigrants come. 1t
Fewer immigrants, but all Of the right
kind, than a great number of immi-
grants, many of whom are necessarily
of the wrong kind. As far as possible
we wish to limit the immigration to
this country to persons who propose
to become citizens of this country, and
we can well afford to insist upon ade-
uuate scrutiny of the character of
those who are thus proposed for future
citizenship. There should be an in
crease in the stringency Of the laws
to keep out insane. ldiOhc, epueptc,
and pauper immigrants. But this is
by no means enough. Not merely the
anarchist but every man Of anarch-
3stfc tendencies, all violent and disor-
derby people, all people of bad charac-
ter, the incompetent, the lazy, the vi
ciOus the physically unfit, defective, OF
degenerate should be kept out. The
stocks out of which American citizen
ship is to be built should be 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 certainly select better than do
the agents and brokers of foreign
steamship companies. the people who
now do whatever selection is done
Chinese Coolies.
The questions arising in connection
with Chinese immigration stand by
themselves The conditions in China
are such that the entire Chinese cOolie
class. that is, the class of Chinese la
bOrers, skilled and unskilled, legiti-
Inately come under the head of unde-
eirable immigrants to this country. be-
cause of their numbers, the low wages
for which they work. and their low
standard Of living. Not only is it tC
the interest of this country to keeE
them out, but the Chinese authorities