Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-04-13

NA/ hires next June the thirtieth what
shall take it's place, a more less
stringent body of rules? Some observers
think that it would be we'll to exclude for
period Of years any further influx of aliens
whatsoever; while others, rejecting this pro-
posal as unfeasible and unfair, urge never
theless that requirements for admission be
made more scrupulous. No voice is heard in
favor of relaxing the physical and moral
tests. There are cogent arguments, however,
for modifying or rather, re-adapting certain
methods of the existing statute.
In the judgment of Mrs. Alexander P.
Moore, whom Secretary Davis, OF the led
eral Department of Labor, commissioned to
study the immigration problem at its source,
the melting pot "has boiled too quickly and
is running over" wherefore, "It were bet
ter to put out the fire under it and allow it's
contents to solidify before adding any more
raw material" She recommends, according
", that for five years no immigrants be ad-
mitted This would be extremely drastic as
compared with the present law, which itself
is much in advance of former inhibitions
Defining "alien'' as "any person not ma
tive born or naturalized" exclusive of un
United States jurisdiction), the law limits
the number of aliens admissible to three
per cent of the number Of the particular
nationality in each case resident in the
United States as shown by the 1910 census"
nor may more than twenty per cent of each
nationality be admitted within month. Elk
ceptions are made in the cases Of govern
ment employees, their families or servants,
visitors for pleasure or business, others pass
ing through this country "as convenient
route" and one-year residents of Canada,
Newfoundland, Cuba, Mexico, and Central
and South America. Moreover, the law as
now written excludes the physically or
mentally diseased, anarchists and suchlike,
and "all aliens over sixteen years of age,
physically capable of reading, who cannot
read the English language or some other
language or dialect" Exempt from this test
are "aliens who shall prove to the satlsfac-
ton of the proper immigration officer or to
the Secretary of Labor that they are seeking
admission to the United States to avoid re-
ligious persecution in the country of their
last permanent residence, whether such per-
secution be evidenced by overt acts or by
laws or governmental regulations that dis
criminate against the alien or the race to
which he belongs because Of his religious
faith.''
Something of the effectiveness of the law
in keeping out undesirables may be inferred
from the fact that in the fiscal year ended
June 80, 1921, there were debarred 1879
aliens, of whom 5,872 were likely to become
a\public charge, 1,447 could not meet the
literacy test, ITS were criminals, 208 were
idiotic or insane, and 2,291 were stowaways.
In the same period 4,540 aliens were deport-
ed after landing. Of these 1928 were likely
to become aApublic charge, 6O4 were insane
or epileptic, 316 were criminals, 446 were
anarchists, and 328 failed in the literacy
test. The total number admitted in 1921 was
To 10 tod hot %Ioi Wi
grafton restriction law, the ,so-called N"three
per cent rule, was not enacted until May,
1921, so that its operation is but slightly re-
Elected in the foregoing figures.
In the year that saw the beginning of the
World War the United States admitted immi-
grants to the number of one million two hun
dred and eighteen thousand. The record was
little lower for 1913, and was we'll above the
million mark for 1910, 1907, 1906 and 1905.
1t is not surprising, then, that despite the
mere trickle of immigration during the war,
a census taken in the winter or the armlSt1ce
showed that this country contained eleven
million aliens-more than tenth of the to-
tai population. Moreover, it was apparent
from the Governments study of the matter
that millions who had gone through legal
forms of naturalization and had become NOM
inal' citizens were still aliens in thought as
well as in speech, and in their attitude to
the land of their adoption. There were, and
still are, districts entirely foreign, masses of
folk quite imperviOus to Americanizing in
fluences, neither knowing the country's Ian
guage nor understanding it's institutions, nor
visionng its ideals.
The peril in such conditions is obvious, but
the underlying principle seems to have been
glimpsed by Congress but hazily The idea
has prevailed that we could afford to admit
as many immigrants we could assimilate
economically whereas the safe cource would
be to admit only as many as could assimi-
late politically Not how many immigrants
can exc out living in midst. but how
many can be Americanized-tha is the vital
question Fabulous prosperity writes one
who has weighed the matter we'll, "set up
idols in the popular heart; it made us to feel
that only if we were rich were we successful:
and we measured the immigration problem
by no other scale. But the chapter on immi-
grafton which argues for as much of it as
business can stand is closed forever; the new
book will have to do with as much of it as
the Constitution of the United States can
stand"
May this prove, indeed to be the case
America ought ever to remain hospitable tc