The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-12-06

class of our citizens. To them, first of all among our people, honor is due.
 Seven years ago my lamented prede- cessor, President Mckinley, stated that the time had come for the Nation to care for the graves of the Confederate dead. I recommend that the Congress take action towards this end. The first need is to take charge of the graves of the Confederate dead who died in Northern prisons.
 Immigration.
 The qUesti1n of immigration is of vital interest to this country In the year ending June 30, 1905, there came to the United States 1,026OOO alien im- migrants. In other words, in the single year that has just elapsed there came to this country 3 greater number of people than came here during the one hundred and sixty-nine years of our colonial life which intervened between the first landing at Jamestown and the Declaration of Independence. It is clearly shown in the report of the Com missioner-General of Immigration that while much of this enormous immigra- ton is undoubtedly healthy and natu- ral, considerable proportion Is un- desirable from one reason or another; moreover. 8 considerable proportion of it, probably very large proportion, in- cluding most Of the undesirable class, does not come here of it's own initiative, but because of the activity of the agents of the great transportation com panes These agents are distributed throughout Europe, and by the offer of all kinds of Inducements they wheedla and cajoIa many immigrants, often against :heir best interset, to come here The most serious obstacle we have to encounter in the effort to se- cure regulation of the immigration to these shores arises from the determin- ed opposition 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 immigrants hither in the steerage quarters of their ships.
 As said in my last message to the Congress, we cannot have too much immigration of he right sort, and we should have none whatever of the wrong sort. Of course it is resirable l that even the right kind of immigration should be properly distributed in this cuntry. We need more Of such immi- grafton for the South; and, special ef- fort should be made to secure it. Per haps 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 leaving 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 anywhere. In actual practice 1t has proven so difficult to enforce the immigration laws where long stretches of frontier marked by
 an imaginary line alone intervene be-
 tween us and our neighbors that rec ommend that no immigrants be allow l ed to come in from Canada and Mexico l save natives of the two countries them
 selves. As much as possible should be 1 done to distribute the immigrants upon the land and keep them away from the congested tenement-house districts of the great cities. But distribution is a l palliative, not a cure. The prime need 1 is keep out all immigrants who will l rot make good American citizens. The laws now existing for the exclusion of undesirable immigrants should be
 strengthened. Adequate means should
 be adopted, enforced by sufficient pen alties, to compel steamship companies l engaged in the passenger business to l observe in good faith the law which l forbtds them to encourage or solicit im- i migration to the United States More 1 over there should be @ sharp limitation 1 imposed upon all vessels coming to our ports as to the numbre of immigrants | in ratio to the tonnage which each
 vessel can carry. This ratio should be | high enough to insure the coming hith-
 CT of as good a clas of aliens as possi- | ble. Provision should be made for the l surer punishment of those who induce
 aliens to come to this country under promise or assurance of employment l It should be made possible to inflict
 sufficiently heavy penalty on any
 employer violating this law to deter 1 him taking the risk. It seems to me wise that t..ere should be an inter-
 national conference held to deal with this qeuestion of immigration, which
 has more than a merely national sig nificance; such conference couldl, among other things, enter at length in~ to the methods for securing a thorough 1 inspection of would-be immigrants at
 the ports from which they desire to
 embark before permitting them to en1- l bark.
 1 In dealing with this question it is
 unwise to depart from the old Ameri-
 can tradition and to discriminate for or against any man who desires to come here and become a citizen, save
 on the ground of that mans fitness for
 citizenship. It is our right and duty
 to consider his moral and social quail i ity. His standard of living should be
 such that he will not, by pressure of competition, lower the standard of liv-
 ing of our own wage-workers: for it must ever be prime object of our i legislation to keep high their standard | of living. If the man who seeks to
 come here is from the moral and social
 standpoint of such a character as to
 bid fair to add value to the community he should be heartily welcomed. We
 could not afford to pay heed to whether
 he is of one creed or another, of one
 nation or another. We cannot afford 1 to consider whether he is Catholic or l Protestant, Jew or Gentle; whether he