The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-09-14
by JAMES Is. MeRRow.

a dam Is being built In Congress tc
lever the deiuge Of human beings, mostly
men, that IL pouring Int the United
States from Southeastern Europe. Will
lam p. Dillingham;, the Senator from Yer
mont. is chief Engineer Of the work.
Financial doctors say that undigested
securities cause panics. Legislators In
Washington declare that too many unas-
simulated aliens are likely to bring on
riots. Double the normal needs Of COM
munity for common labor. they assert
and trouble requiring the police is apt to
follow when business grows slack.
The dam now under way Is no party
enterprise, il will be completed, IL COM
pleted at all. vby the votes of Republicans
and Democrats A bill checking immi-
grafton was passed by the last Congress.
Only nine Senators opposed IT, veto
was sent back TO the lawmakers, how
ever, by President Taft Charles Maggie,
then Secretary Of Commerce ana Labor,
the President confessed. Influenced him
10 keep the bill out Of the book OF stat
utes.
The attempt toward restriction thus de-
feRted established literacy test Per
sons of educational age seeking entrance
to this country were required TO read
their own languages or dialects. The bill
was not faultless, in the opinion of SenR-
tor Dillingham;. its author. or the men
who voted 1t through Congress 1t was
the best measure OF relief. however. OBJ
tainable at the moment It would
slacken. they said, the flood Of unsHilled
workers streaming in from Southeastern
Europe and Cutting the market for labor
at manufacturing and mining centers.
objection to the BILL" Senator Dilling-
ham informed me, was made by aliens
who have prospered in this country and
by certain large manufacturers who
want plenty of cheap labor always within
call, though the same cheap labor may
occasionally become violent and threaten
to destroy the property of their en-
pIoyers.
4 New Method of Regulation.
The first class I mentioned" Senator
Dillingham; went on to say, were gov
crned by sentiment. We have grown
rich here they argued, and believe in
keeping the door of opportunity open TO
our unhappy brethren in Russia. Poland,
whom ! talked said: Ny grandfather
was a good and useful man, but he could
neither read nor sign his own name
I still maintain that the literacy test
IS sound way by which to regulate the
least desirable OF our immigration" Sen
atOr Dillingham; continued, but ] dis
carded that method in the new bill l
wrote, and which is now pending in the
Senate. Instead have based future i'm
migration from European and Western
Asiatic countries on the number of per-
sons from those countries resident in the
United States. The number of immigrants
annually coming from a country is lin
tied positively to 10 per cent of such
nationality already here.
Before the Balkan war more than
20.OOO Greeks were emigrating to the
United States every year. Many of them
were boys. and were put to work by
padrones in shoe shining shops or as
peddlers OF fruits and vegetables in city
streets. My bill would cut both the
Greek and Turkish immigration down
One-half. 1t would reduce the number of
Italians from $4,000 a year to 134OOl and
the Austria-Hungarians from 10000 to
$4,000, but would have no appreciable
effect on aliens coming from Russia, Of