The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1917-03-08

illullsIdtIoH pltl mas DetH passed over
the President veto. The provision
excluding immigrants who cannot read
the so-called literacY test-has become
law. This question has been the cause
of more disagreement between Congress
and the White House than any other in
our history. For twenty years Con-
gress has been passing bills with literacy
tests. and for twenty years various
Presidents have been vetoing them.
President Cleveland and President
Taft each vetoed such bills; President
Wilson vetoed one at the last session
OF Congress. But the Senate. with six
votes to spare oyer the two-thiris
majority necessary to override the
Presidential veto, and the House with a
margin of q votes, have made the
literacy test part of our national law
in spite of the White House.
The vital question now is, how is this
test going to effect our immigration?
The question of immigration is one
very close to the deepest interests of
the nation. The United States of to-
day has been built very largely by
immigrants and the children of i'm
migrants. The 80 million immigrants
who have settled IN the United States
in the last century, and the descendants
they have left behind them, constitute
d large majority of the present popula-
ton. Today when the country is be-
ginning to get thicklY settled, the ques-
ton of restricting the immigrant tide
becomes significant for the first time.
The new law is step in that direction.
The literacy test consists in the
simplest of tests of the ability to read.
The candidate for admission to the
United States is handed a slip of paper
containing not less than thirty nor more
than forty printed words. The words
may be in any language he cares to
select-his own native tongue or dialect.
or English, or any other. He has to be
able to read them. To people born and
brought up in land of free, of even
compulsory education, 1t does not seem
like much of test. But in the year
1914 it would have been sufficient to
bar 100000 immigrants from landing
on American soil.
There is no room for doubt-the
literacy test will prove barrier more
formidable to immigration than any we
have raised in the past. All the old
barriers are still in force-the pro-
visions excluding the criminal, the
mentally defective, the diseased, the
anarchist, the INDECENT, etc.-but the
new test will keep out more people
than ali the old ones put together.
Last year Is, S67 would-be immigrants
were denied admission on various
grounds-about per cent of the total
immigration. Had the literacy test
been in force during the same time it
would have resulted in barring out
40, 900 additional-more than twice as
many as all the other causes put to-
gether, and more than ten per cent of
the total.
In order to get clearer idea of what
the literscy test will mean in the future,
it is necessary to go back two or three
years. Since the war broke out IN
E'Irroyo ir,r,iy,r,+iCr hoe ,o4 Loor =,
pressing question-the stream has been
temporarily damned back. What it
will be after the war is a problem that
time alone can solve; but it seems
probable that after few years, the
situation will tend to return to a normal
peace basis.
In 1913 and 1914 we had gotten used
to the idea that the normal tide of i'm
migration amounted to about one mil
lion immigrants a year. In 1907, the
high-water mark in our history, and in
the history of immigration in any ma
ton, the figures climbed to 1885, 600.
In 1914 again, they reached 1918, 900,
but for the decade, million is a fair
average, How many of that annual
million would the literacy test keep
out? In 1914 it would have kept out
26O, 600; in 1913, 27O. goo; in 19l2-a low
year-177, 600. Totalling these three
typical years, enc finds that the literacy
provision would have excluded more
than 700, 600 immigrants, more than 20
per cent. of the total for these years.
1t is only reasonable to suppose that
somewhat the same ratio will obtain
after conditions return to normal. In
1915 immigration was only a quarter
what it was in 1914, and last year it
was still lower. Some people see in the
European war an agency that will
solve the immigration problem, be-
cause the scarcity of men due to battle
losses will keep the survivors at home.
Others again, predict tax burdens so
heavy that the rush to America will be
greater than ever in order to escape
them. The truth lies probably some
where between these extremes, and the