The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-06-25
PEOPLES FORUM
The Migration of Ne~roes
To the Editor of The Age-Herald

The Migration of Negroes
 To the Editor of The Age-Herald;
 I was so much impressed by the applicability of an editorial from the Chicago Journal of Commerce and La Sale Street Journal to con- ditions now threatening the South, that I decided to send the editorial to you, in the hope that you will publish 1t. La Sale Street is the Wall Street of Chicago, and the Chicago Journal of Commerce is its mouthpiece. The migration ot negroes from the South Is fast producing a vacuum that must be filled, and 1t Is vitally important that the South should allow only the best class of whites to come in My idea is that the Southern states should unite in an effort to secure mainly English spe aking people from localities where land lordism prevails and the agricul- tural population must remain ten ants-from England. Ireland. Scot land, Wales. Canada and Australia. and a few exceptional nations which are successfully following aSrlcullural pursuits.
 At present, however, the object is to call attention to the danger of blood corruption through i'm migration;" later the class of im- migrants wanted can be deter mined. E. l.. BROWN.
 Chicago. H.. June 23, 1928.
 Blood and IuamiEration
 Chicago Journal of Commerce
 and La Sale Street Journal)
 A community water supply, into which typhus bacilli are constantly trickling from some poisoned source. is highly dangerous. Among those drinking it only tho ones whose resistance Is strong will escape the deadly infection. This is so thoroughly established that government everywhere takes plies pure. What typhoid con- tagion does to water, bad blood does to a family or a nation. h. ferior or corrupted blood perpetu- ates itself for generations. and so do racial characteristics. It Is for this reason that efficient gov ernment looks closely after immi- grafton. to protect a people from blood contamination that means certain deterioration for coming generations. From bad blood come bad thinking and bad conduct. Criminals breed criminals, Dis honesty, for instance, characterizes families for generations. As epi- lepsy and insanity perpetuate themselves In the children and children's children of those cursed by those diseases, so do mental traits and moral weakness. regard less of environment. In some di- rection and in some form, every drop of bad blood carries its poison into the future in the nat ural course of events.
 Some weeks ago an Eastern publication, not recalled at this homie and political evils now ex- listing in this country may be traced directly to immigration of inferior and backward peoples which we have permitted in quan- tity for thirty years. The state ment was made that "a difference of thousand years of liberty, inherited education and capacity for citizenship" lies between a British immigrant. for instance, and one from any of several peo- pies in Europe we have admitted to our own national blood during the past thirty years. We pay now, and will continue to pay in the future, for this contamina- tion.
 Apropos to this is a public an- nouncement that the immigration commissioner of New York City. our largest port of immigrant en- try, has repeatedly complained that unfit aliens were getting into the United States over his protest through the vicious influence of congressman. He has resigned. largely because of this fact, 1t Is said. In all such cases there has been a selfish political purpose which has overridden all consid- eration for the welfare of Amer ican citizenship, and has been in a sense equivalent to the admis- sion of typhus bacilli into public water supply, for the profit of a politician.
 One may read our general i'm migration laws and see what ap- pear sufficient physical require ments to keep diseased people out; and then study our immigration restriction law of 1921 and find 1t giving right of way into our blood for larger numbers of in- ferior peoples than of those who have a background of liberty. ed- ucation and capacity for citizen ship. They come to us by hum dreds of thousands, to be educated at our expense, an immediate eco homie and political liability of huge proportions, instead of a true asset-under quotas based on a percentage of nationalities resi- dent in this country in 1910. Not a sign of an effort to give prefer ence to the best peoples, or to limit backward peoples as such! What folly! When will we learn to care for our blood as we do for our water? When will we give the preference to skilled men in the trades over backward humanity with but a glimmer of the mean ing of enlightened freedom? When will industrious habits. thrift and capacity for good citizenship be considered? When will sound business principles find foothold in the immigration laws of the United States as they Nave in Canada?