Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-12-09
let Them COME IN
Secretary Straus Favors Gen.
eraI Admission-of Chinese
to This Country.
TO GAIN TRADE WITH EAST
Discusses Policy of Department O
Commerce and Labor Toward
Corporations.

washing lOn, Dec. 5.-OSCdT ..
Straus, secretary of commerce and
labor, who made his annual report to
President Roosevelt yesterday, urges
that the laws and treaties of the
United States with reference to the
Chinese be so modified as to make
admission the rule and exclusion the
exception. A drop in our exports to
the oriental nation from $53 00U 600
to $4,000, 600 lover so per cent? in
two years is. he says, sufficiently
startling to challenge the attention of
Legislators and statesmen. The secre-
tary regards the present immigration
laws as affecting the Chinese as
''fraught with irritating consequences
and continues:
OGends Orientnis.
"In the administration of laws so
| framed, notwithstanding the care
taken to treat persons of the Chinese
| race lawfully entitled to admission
| with the same courtesy and considera-
| tion shown to other foreigners, it is
| impossible that persons who have to
endure requirements and formalities
peculiar to themselves should fail to
| take offense and to resent as a humil-
iation the manner in which by law
they are distinguished from natives of
other countries.
| Opposed to Republics Principles.
Laws so framed can only be re-
garded as involving a discrimination
on account of race, and it is needless
to point out that determinations on
account of race, color, previous con
dition, or religion are alike opposed
to the principles of the republic and tC
the spirit of its institutions
! Mr.. Straus says the United States
could readjust its policy toward the
Chinese to the demands of justice anC
equality and at the same time no
make it any easier for Chinese labor
ers to enter this country.
Status of Combinations.
Of the work of the bureau of cor
! porations the secretary says:
Industrial combination, as such
appears to be an inevitable economic
|
nized in order to treat the matte
successfully. The prohibition of CON
mercial power simply because it re
suits from combination is futile an
may be harmful. 1t is not the eXist
, ence of such power but its misuse, t.
which attention must be directed
| Commercial success which is base
4 col nlX tta Is
, mercial power, upon the giving of be
+ ter service or lower prices than an
competitor, is a success that justifie
! itself. is proper business develol
ment, and work benefit both to tn
public and to the corporation.
Others an Evil to Be Prevented.
: ''On the other hand, success that
1 based not on service to the publ,
but on the destruction of competition
by unfair methods. is an evil to b
prevented. The one concern holds il
power because it best serves the pul
lie; the other concern holds its powt
: because it actively prevents compel
tors from serving or attempting
@ serve the public. 1t should be IL
d aim of the government to keep ope
7 equally to all men the avenue of cor
It mercial opportunity, and to prevel
the use of those unfair means tn;
destroy or diminish such opportunit
= that close it to one man while leavir
it open to another"
Big Increase I'm Immigration.
The secretary reports that the tot
/. number of aliens admitted to th
!, country during the fiscal year 19i
II was 1,2S5,349. which exceeded that f
the fiscal year 1906 by 1S4,614, al
that for the fiscal year 1905 by %
IF $50, being increases of II and 25 p
r cent. respectively. During the ye
# 13,064 aliens were rejected, an
re crease over the reflections for the f
cal year 1906 of 632. The total nu
le ber seeking admission in 1907, the
a. fore. was 1.29S413, an increase ov
c. the total number applying in 1906
w 1S5.246. Mr. Straus estimates til
,e about 100000 aliens departed from t
I'd United States during the fiscal ye
a of which number Z probably 1UJ,C
ii. were of the nonimmigrant alien ella
thus reducing the immigration for t
year to about 1,075, 900.