Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-01-19
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

There is a song with a refrain,
There's a ship going back every
day" 1t is sung for the enlighten-
ment of such immigrants as have slip
ped into the United States unlawfully
or, since coming, have developed into
undesirable citizens" It is a great
army travelling Observation-Disclosures
10 several battalions year, and
averaging nearly i 900 a month.
That army of retreaters will be
much augmented if the measure now
pending in Congress be passed, to add
to the power of the immigration
Bureau of the Department of Labor
The bill has been introduced in the
Senate by Mr.. Wadsworth and in the
House by Chairman Johnson of the
committee on immigration.
The act of 1917. amended in 1921. is
working very satisfactorily in reduC-
ing and selecting the immigrants per-
mitted to enter this country. The
selection is made in foreign ports by
our immigration representatives, SO
that the former mad rushes of steam
ships at midnight on the first day of
each month is no longer necessary.
The quota law is approved by the Off
Gals, but there remains the great
problem of how to handle the 1000, 900
unnaturalized aliens already in the
country. No other nation carries 6
per cent of it's population owing al
legiance to foreign powers.
The new arrivals of immigrants are
select, but they constitute only 10000
IA year. They are largely in intelli-
gent sympathy with American ideals
before they arrive. The trouble is
said to lie with aliens who come from
southern Europe and from Russia
with no appreciation of this country
beyond land for good wages or other
means of accommodating wealth. They
may rot develop lawlessness until
years after arriving, but the profits
of bootlegging entiCe many and the
propaganda of Bolshevism many
others. 1t is for such that the law
will be amended to add to the powers
Of deportation, regardless of how long
the aliens have been in this country.
At present, the law recognizes a three
year limit Of liability of deportation.
A violation of law by an alien shall
not be ground for deportation unless it
can be shown that there was moral
turpitude" in the crime. What is
meant by moral turpitude'' is inter-
preted according to the various
standards of the courts. Some courts
have held that Bookkeeping does not in
volve moral turpitude,' while others,
including the District of Columbia SUI
preme Court, hold that violation of
our liquor laws is clearly moral tur-
pitude" in it's defiance of the laws of
the country. Under the pending bill
the whole limitation of, moral turpi-
tude" will be taken out of the law.
Whenever an alien is sentenced so
70 11nt bod yN,icn
amount to one year, total, he shall be
deported. The old law required that
two sentences must total a year, in
order to involve construction of
moral turpitude." An instance is
cited of one petty offender who had
been sentenced 80 times in a brief
period, though no two sentences,
alone, amounted to a year. Under
the new law, the total of the 80 SEN
must be committed subsequent to the
passage of the act of 1926, but the
length of residence of the non-citizen
in this country will have no bearing
on his deportation.
Any sentence for an act committed
after the passage of this law which,
if added to sentences for acts previous
to this law, will total IS months will
make the alien liable to deportation
In cases of indeterminate sentences
as from one to three years"-the
law will count the maximum period,
for purposes of deportation, and the
offender will be Immediately deported
after serving the sentence though it
be reduced for good behavior.
Another phase of the proposed law
will penalize, by deportation, an