The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-12-29
EXCLUSION OF
 UNDESIRABLE Burnett Bill a Practical
 Regulation. THE IMMIGRATION PROBLEM Proposes to Increase Head Tax on
 All Aliens.
HE IMMIGRATION PROBLEM
copgressmen Think the QaestisaA q Immigration wnI Be An Import ant One Ts the south within
 Few Years.
BY ALFRED J. STOPPER.


 Washington, Dec. 2S--t Special l+--If the bill introduced in the House the other day by Representative Burnett, Of Alabama, becomes law 1t will prove a practical regulation for the exclusion of undesirable aliens from admissfon into the United States.
 Mir Burnett has served for several terms on the House Immigration and Naturalization Committee. Last summer he went abroad with the Immigratton Commission appointed by Presidedk Roosevelt. and. while in Europe had op- portunitiss for studying the nationals ties from which most of our foreign population is drawn.
 The present immigration laws ex@ clude certain aliens. but Mir. Burnetfse bill goes further and would exclude all over IT years of age who are physicnl- ly capable of reading and cannot read the English language or the lanRuaGo of some other country; all aliens of poor physique. and imbeciles. except such as are under 10 years of age and are accompanied by their father or mother. or whose father or mother is already a resident of the United States at the date of the approval of the Bur nett act. and all male aliens over tB years who do not possess in their own right at least $30 of lawful money of this or some other country; and all un- married or widowed females over 10
  their own right at least s2o.
 Head Tax Increasea.
 The section of Mir. Burnstt's bill re- lating to iiiiteraoy is much stricter than the present regulations. Instead of the head tax of $2 on immigrants. Mir. Burnett proposes that 1t shall be ss.
 The bill also seeks to have a moro rigid examination of immigrants by Is.4f faA G4ofA n@ nf44 al tha 4<4f fm <2 embarkation in Europe. especially aa regards the physical condition of the people wishing to come to the United States. The chief inspectors are to bs surgeons connected with the un5tad States Marine Hospital seEvtnF Tie deputies who are to serve Under ttseip are not required to be doctores Actw-uing to what fhs average Cen gresham from the South says the iisa~As migration question within fhs next ten years is bound to be an important one to that section of the country. With the increased demand for labor in order to produce sufficient cotton to meet the requirements of domestic and foreign mills, that industry alone can give eIn- pioyment in the next ten years to hum dreds of thousands of additional men and women. The tendency of the times shows that the negroes are migrating to the North and West. and in so many of the Southern States they leave In droves the rural districts to secure po- sitions in the cities and larger towns where they hope to do less work. earn higher wages and have frequent oppor- tunities to bear bands play, and take in the cheap places of amusement
 Learned Valuable Things.
 Mir. Burnett and other members of the Immigration Commission. who visited Europe, have learned many valuable things as to which of the countries of that continent send us the most desir- able settlers. In their opinion they do not come from what is known as South ern Europe The British German. Aus- triah, Swiss and Scandinavian races are considered by long odds the best suited for the South But in compart- son with the immigration attracted to the Northern and Western States. the South has received a small proportion of the settlers. This Is believed to he due to two causes.
 In the first places 1t is only within the past ten years that the raiiroada running through the South have begun to take active steps to induce for~ eigners to seek employment or estab- fish homes in the Southern States. For forty years. the Western railroads In with the leading steamship lines have looked after this matter closely, with the result that the whole Northwest has a heavy settlement of Scandinavians and others who have helped to build up those States in- Whether true or not. the general impression Is that the Germans and, Scandinavians do not care to set tie in the South on account of the large tIaf