The Washington herald., 1921-07-10


sioner General Of Immigration, "the United
States finally has found for itself policy
WITH relation to the peoples to whom it Will
oper its doors; to whom Il viii offer share
Of the assets which belong to II as the
wealthiest of nations. Hereafter, 1t would
seem, If one may judge from the frame OF
the public mind, as il Is being evidenced IN
legislation, the question which will be asked
Of those who present themselves for admis-
sion into this country will be. Are they
people Of our own stockf'
had gone to Mr.. Husband to interview
him on immigration at this time when the
new law that Congress had given US expert
mentally for one year was being put to test.
1 wanted him to visualize for me the I'M
migration situation, in the first place, be-
cause be was the Government ofacial who is
charged with the application Of .he new
law. An additional reason for talking with
him was the fact that he is generally rec
ognized as the man who has given more
thought and study to this subject during the
last twenty years than any other. As
matter Of fact, he has devoted himself almost
exclusively to the study Of it during that
time. When, some years ago, Congress
u
authorized it to make an extensive study Of
that subject, a study which was afterward
published in fortytwo volumes, Mr.. Hus-
band was its secretary. No other search
into the problem has ever been in any way
comparable with that Of the immigration
Commission. Since completing this task Mr..
Husband has from time to time been at
tached to the bureau in various capacities,
has studied the problems from the stand
point of the United States, and has spent
several years in European countries gather
ing facts as to the races who seek to come
to America. His appointment as successor
Of Mr.. Caminetti was in the way Of a pro-
motion.
Mr.. Husband began life in the little VII
lage Of East Highgate, VT, which. he says,
boasted thirty two houses at the time of his
birth, but which since that time has shrunk
to q village of but thirty domiciles He was
the son of a scythe grinder in this village
and his father owned an acre of ground,
house and a COW. The food yield of the
COW and the acre, supplemented by the earn
ings Of the father in his shop. brought COM
petence and security to the little family.
America would be better of, says Mr.. Hus-
band, IL more Of its families today had an
acre and a COW.
0TNHE new Immigration Law, which went
L into effect June g." he continued,
Completely demolished the former theory
that we should allow all immigrants pre-
senting themselves and meeting certa u
rather easy requirements to find homes in
this country. Instead of leaving the doors
open to all who come, we stipulated in this
law that no nation should send to US in any
year more than 8 per cent Of the number OF
people born within its borders who resided
in the United States at the time Of the
taking of the census Of 1910. The law was
very simple and was supplementary to for
mer immigration legislation, leaving the
details of administration to be carried on
under old statutes.
This means that We are to admit into
the United Ststes for the coming year about
onefourth Of the people who will be ex-
pected to apply, one-fourth of the number
who were coming before the war In addi-
tion to restricting the number Of immigrants,
this law is quite favorable to the Western
and Northern Europeans, since their citizens
had been coming into the United States for
so many years prior to 1910 that they have
a more favorable quota upon which to base
the number that may be admitted this year.
In application, this law will admit only
about one fifth of the number of people from
Southern and Eastern Europe that might
otherwise be expected to come, while it viii
exclude no Western Europeans, since immi-
grafton from those countries has not bee-
strohs for the last two decades.
During the last twenty years more thar
$1,000, 900 immigrants have been admitted
into the United States. 1t is evident tha
this Is, 900 900 out Of a little more thar
100, 900 900 constitutes a considerable per
centage of our population and has just tha
percentage of effect upon the making up o.
the whole people.
Now when we study the elements that
have contributed most largely to this nea
blood that has been added to the American
stock, we find that the larger elements ar
Of Southern and Eastern Europeans. Their,
is one item, for instance, Of nearly $500 ,OOt
Italians, people of Latin blood and therefore
not Of fundamental American stock. Tn,
second largest item Of this immigration Is th'
Polish element, Of whom 1 500 900 have com,
in twenty years. The Poles are, Of course
slays, and therefore of very different bloot
from the old Americans. In addition L
the Poles. there have come from Eastern
Europe 2OO, 900 Firms, $50, 900 Lithuanians
100000 Rumanians, 240, 900 Russians, 26O,
900 Ruthenians, SOC, 900 Croatians an,
Slovenians, $50 900 Czechs, Serb.ans anC
Bulsarians, and nearly 100000 slovaks
Thus of these Eastern Europeans we fin,
that we have a grand total of something lik,
1900, 900.
''To the Italians in Southern Europe ",
must add half q million Greeks.
Then there is to be considered anothe