The Washington herald., 1914-03-23
PRUNING ALIEN BILL
To AVOID final VETO
Senate Committee Devises Amend
ments that Will Make Eteraey
Test Unnecessary.
STUDY PRESIDENTS DESIRES

Whether the immigration bill. now
pending in the Senate. shall receive the
approval of President Wilson with the
clause MAXIM. the literacy test a stumb-
ling block for uneducated immigrants II
Is the belief of scientific students Of the
general immigration program that the
amendments provided by the Senate
Committee will be found to have included
In the bill provisions restricting the ad-
mission of undesirable aliens which will
make the literacy test unnecessary. II
is quite evident that the thoughtful men,
bers Of the Senate Committee on Immi-
grafton have hearkened to the warnings
that President Wilson would refuse to
sign the bill with the literacy test in
cluded. They have, therefore. set about
improving the bill along other lines o
that should II be sent back from the
White House with a veto. the objection
able '1iteracy test clause may be strick-
en- out and the bill. with this improve
ment may yet prove the very best re-
strictive measure yet enacted and the
only scientific immigration measure ever
placed upon the statute books.
The changes In the bill which are i'm
provements over the measure as II left
the House are those which provide
against the admission Of aliens suffer-
ing from every form OF mental ailment
and from mental deficiency In any and
every degree. On the face Of the meas
ure the changes which have been
wrought are not such as strike the eye
Of the casual reviewer Of the measure,
but here a word and there a phrase has
been changed, amplified or rewritten so
that as it stands today the greatest
curse that America has ever suffered
through a too generous Interpretation
Of the refuge OF the oppressed" idea
with regard to the land Of the free
seemingly will be removed.
The Senate Committee, while endeavor-
ing to make the law more certain in its
provision for exclusion Of the undesirable.
has shown a humanitarian disposition
along some other lines. 1t is provided
that immigrants found to be suffering
from tuberculosis in any form or any
other loathsome or dangerous contagious
disease other than that OF quarantinable
nature must be at once deported, but the
following Ieeway is given the Secretary of
Labor in such instances for the bill pro-
yides:
Unless the Secretary OF Labor is salts
fed that the existence OF the disease
could not have been detected by COM
petent medical examination at the time
Of foreign debarkation- and that to re-
fuse treatment would be inhuman or
cause unusual hardship"
ihiS pIONlsO INC dllcu 10 nos
pital treatment
But most significant of any of the
changes that have been made in the bill
as IL passed the House is the insurance
contained in the following phrase insert
ed in Section 10. In this section, under
the original language the obligation OF
deportation OF aliens who have developed
ailments mental or physical which tend
to render them public charges within
five years Of entry placed the burden
Of proof Of the development OF the malady
in the United States upon the immigra-
ton authorities. This is changed and the
language now reads:
ANY alien who within five years after
entry becomes public charge from
causes not affirmatively shown to have
arisen subsequent to landing
1t is the belief of the reframers Of the
Burnett bill that they have finally pro-
duced a workable and at the same time
sufficiently drastic bill to satisfy the
best interests OF the country whether the
much. abused and highly Objectionable
'literacy test" clause is in or out OF the
measure