Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-03-02
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL y. COLLINS.

Mussolini's country has Cancelled al
charges for vises of tourists and emf
grants coming to the United States and
tourists from America entering Italy
The new basis of vises went into eff
feet yesterday, and it means reciprocity
in making tourists vises issued to
travellers coming to the United States
Free but it cannot annul our charges COL
lected by American consuls abroad for
immigrants vises
immigration vises are fixed by legis-
lative enactment, while tourists costs
are regulated by the Department of
State. 1t Is the policy of the United
strict immigration.
immigration is handled by the De-
partment of Labor. according to the ex-
pressed mandatory will of Congress:
tourists are encouraged by the State
Department, as tending to better I'M
Outstanding between peoples. The
Secretary of State, therefore, has full
authority. by act of Congress, to make
reciprocal reductions as to passports
and vises.
On the basis of the act of February
rs, 1925, authorizing the President to
enter into agreements with the govern
ments of foreign countries for the
mutual waiver or reduction of wise fees
for persons who are non-immigrants,
an agreement was concluded on
February 26, 1929. with the Italian
government, effective March /, 1929,
whereby all American citizens travelling
to Italy are relieved of the necessity of
having Italian wise on their passports.
Italians coming to the United States
who are non immigrants in the meaning
of section 3 of the immigration act of
1924 are, under the terms of the agree
ment, relieved as of March /, 1929,
from the necessity of paying fees for
their American wise or application
therefor.
At present. the situation between the
United States and foreign countries is
as follows:
No vises az all are required for travel
between this country and Belgium.
Honduras, Italy, Liechtenstein, Nicara-
qua, Panama, Siam and Switzerland.
ViseS are required bit reciprocally
issued without cost between this
country and the following: Albania,
Costa Rica, Denmark, Esthonia, Fin
land, Germany, Guatemala, Iceland
Japan, Mexico, Persia, Salvador and
Sweden.
Fees for vises have been reduced,
reciprocally, for and by Austria, to So
Bulgaria, So; Chile, 81; Czechoslovakia,
81; Spain, 10 pesetas ($1.93); Jugo-
Slavia, 50.
Practically all Of these reductions
N6
of American diplomatic initiative but
Congress stands firm against lowering
the cost to immigrants who intend to
make this their home and thereby COM
pete with American wage earners.
1t is claimed that the fee of $40
hardly covers the cost to the Govern
ment In receiving and Americanizing
the newcomers. This includes the free
AmericaniZation schools open to all
foreigners, whether they are natural
ICED citizens or people who cling to
the hyphen. In fact, they are given
free training in the American Ian
guage before they become qualified to
pass examination for citizenship. Their
$40 fee for admission into this country
Is very slight sum to pay for the
privileges and opportunities that 20
with that admission.
X * X X
It is often overlooked that the quota
restriction upon immigration does not
indicate the number of actual admis-
sions of aliens. The quota set by law
is 1854, 667, but. owing to the fact that
some countries did not send all that
they were authorized under our law of
1924 to send us, the total quota imnligra-
ton that calendar year was 1872 .42e:
the non-quota immigration admitted at
the same time amounted to 1925
All Of those 323,684 immigrants paid
$40 each for their vises, total revenue
of $3,236,840. The money passed into
the National Treasury general funds
During the same year, 1923, the
tourists or mon immigrants who en-,