Chapter 6

The second measure is proposed by Mr. Brandenburg, who feels sure it would prove the desired remedy. His opinion carries a good deal of weight. His proposal is to "select emigrants before itinerant boards of two, three, or more native-born Americans who speak fluently and understand thoroughly the language and dialects of the people who come before them--these boards to be on a civil service basis," and to sit at stated times in the central cities of the countries whence aliens come.[38] This he believes to be "a correct solution of the gigantic problem." It would keep expense down, avoid opportunities for wholesale corruption of American officials by the transportation interests and the immigrants themselves, and enable the examiners to deny passage to persons desirous of going to districts already over-populated with aliens.

[Sidenote: Inspection Abroad]

The third measure is in line with the second, but instead of establishing itinerant boards of examiners, it proposes to select fifteen or twenty ports abroad which shall be made exclusive points for the embarkation of emigrants bound for the United States. Mr. Ogg states the plan as follows:

[Sidenote: List of Cities]

"Perhaps an adequate list would be Hamburg, Bremen, Stettin, Rotterdam, Antwerp, London, Southampton, Liverpool, Havre, St. Nazaire, Marseilles, Fiume, Trieste, Naples, Genoa, and Odessa. At each of these ports should be located an immigrant station, similar, in a general way, to the immigrant stations at our larger Atlantic ports to-day, and it should be made the duty of the resident commissioners, with their staffs of inspectors and medical attachés, to examine carefully and minutely every man, woman, and child of alien nationality who applies for passage to the United States. Successful applicants should be given a certificate which alone would enable them to land at the port of destination; those unsuccessful should be made to understand then and there that, in their present state at least, there is no chance for them to carry out their intention of migration, and that the best thing for them to do is to return to their homes."[39]

[Sidenote: Do the Sifting in Europe]

This radical plan proposes to transfer Ellis Island, in effect, to a score of points in Europe, and do the sifting before the starting. That would be sensible. Then only the desirable portion would get here. While the idea is radical, it is the outgrowth of years of experience and reflection, and Mr. Ogg says, immigration officials are generally agreed upon its wisdom and practicability. This system, thoroughly carried out, would not only stop all immigration that is illegal, but as much as possible of that which, though not illegal, is questionable and undesirable. More tests applied at this end of the route will be only partially effective, since experience proves that the present tests are evaded. The means of reform, upon which all other immigration reforms must wait, lies in this shifting of the main work of supervision and inspection to Europe. The foreign governments would welcome the plan, or at least accept it if proposed by this country.

[Sidenote: What this would Accomplish.]

This system would serve to prevent the tragedies of the excluded; would go far toward stopping the pernicious activity of the steamship companies and their enticing emissaries; would facilitate the detection and punishment of those breakers and evaders of the law who are now immune; and it would make possible a quite different and more searching examination of intending immigrants than is possible when the mass of them is poured out at Ellis Island, as through the small end of a funnel. Back to the sources is humane and wise. The expense involved could easily be met by an increased head tax; and if not, this is a case where expense in money is not to be counted in comparison with the country's welfare.

[Sidenote: International Regulation]

These are interesting propositions. Mr. Whelpley agrees with Mr. Brandenburg as to the necessity of dealing with the migrant before he reaches port, either of embarkation or disembarkation. He says our laws and restrictions are severe, and thoroughly and intelligently enforced, but fall short of their purpose for the simple reason that there is little or no control over the source of supply. "It is an effort to beat back the tide after it has rolled upon the shore, and in the vast multitude of arrivals many gain entrance legally whom the country would be better off without."[40] His plan is to have an international regulation of migration, so that each government will do its part to check the present conditions and regulate the matter at its starting point.

[Sidenote: A Higher Standard]

This subject of legislation is confessedly delicate and difficult. The diversity of opinion is confusing. Yet we cannot escape the conviction that the present immigration is altogether too vast for the good of the country. Suspension is not to be seriously considered, but surely it could do no harm to make the laws more stringent, to insist upon a higher physical standard, to debar degenerates, and to stop at any cost the solicitation and "assisted" immigration abuses which have caused so much suffering to the deceived and excluded victims of greed.

_III. The Problem of Distribution_

[Sidenote: The Crucial Point]

No phase of the immigration question is receiving more attention at present than that of distribution. There is a common opinion that if the proper distribution could be made, the chief evils of the tremendous influx would disappear. We are told that it is the congestion of aliens in already crowded centers of population that creates the menace to civilization; that there is land enough to be cultivated; and that vast enterprises are under way calling for the unskilled labor that is coming in. But the puzzling problem is how to get the immigrants where they are wanted and needed, and can be of value. On this point, Mr. Max Mitchell, Superintendent of the Federation of Jewish Charities, says:

[Sidenote: An Expert Opinion]

"The problem is that of overcrowding. We must not close our ports to the people of the Old World who seek a haven and a home in the land of liberty and plenty, but we must see to it that when they arrive here they are directed out of the city and into the country places where ordinary human industry is rewarded abundantly. The inclination of the immigrants themselves to stick so closely to the great centers of population must be overcome. If the great crowds of foreigners that inundate these shores every year could be distributed in a sensible and logical way over all the vast uncultivated territory in which this nation is so rich, we should never hear any complaint of too much immigration. No better farmers can be found anywhere than among the foreign peoples who seek America."

[Sidenote: Legislation Required]

Very likely, but the trouble is, they do not want to farm and they are free to prefer the squalor of the slums to the green of the fields. Nor is there much hope that this singular but strong inclination can be overcome save by government regulation, which shall settle the matter of location for those who have no specific destination or occupation. It is probable that on this point some reasonable legislation could be secured; especially if the various distribution societies and railroad companies should fail in their efforts to induce the aliens to go where they are needed. Commissioner-General Sargent has dealt plainly with this matter in his Reports for the last three years, and rightly estimates its importance. He says:[41]

[Sidenote: Distribution of Prime Importance]

"In my judgment the smallest part of the duty to be discharged in successfully handling aliens, with a view to the protection of the people and the institutions of this country, is that part now provided for by law. Its importance, though undeniable, is relatively of secondary moment. It cannot compare in practical value with, nor can it take the place of, measures to secure the distribution of the many thousands who come in ignorance of the industrial needs and opportunities of this country, and colonize alien communities in our great cities."

[Sidenote: Information Agencies Proposed]

Suitable legislation is strongly urged to establish agencies through which, either with or without the coöperation of the states, aliens shall be made acquainted with the resources of the country at large, and the industrial needs of the various sections, in both skilled and unskilled labor, the cost of living, the wages paid, the price and capabilities of the land, the character of the climates, the duration of the seasons--in short, all that information furnished by some of the great railway lines through whose efforts the territory tributary thereto has been transformed from a wilderness within a few years to the abiding place of a happy and prosperous population.

[Sidenote: A Growing Evil]

"Again the importance of undertaking to distribute aliens now congregating in our large cities to those parts of the United States where they can secure employment without displacing others by working for a less wage, and where the conditions of existence do not tend to the fostering of disease, depravity, and resistance to the social and political security of the country, is urged. The Bureau is convinced that no feature of the immigration question so insistently demands public attention and effective action. The evil to be removed is one that is steadily and rapidly on the increase, and its removal will strike at the roots of fraudulent elections, poverty, disease, and crime in our large cities, and on the other hand largely supply that increasing demand for labor to develop the natural resources of our country. Too much encouragement cannot be given to the reported efforts of certain railway companies to divert a portion of the tide of immigration to the Southern states. It is impossible, in the opinion of the Bureau, to overestimate the importance of this subject as bearing upon the effect of immigration on the future welfare of this country."[42]

[Sidenote: Chart of Distribution]

What are the facts concerning the present location and distribution of immigrants? The answer involves a most interesting study. Taking the immigration of 1905, the chart[43] on the next page illustrates the distribution by states.

[Sidenote: Where the Masses Stay]

The enormous proportion going to New York, Pennsylvania, and the North Atlantic section shows prominently. They got ninety per cent. of the whole, while the South received but four per cent. of the total, and only one per cent. of that went to the South Central States. The Great West had only four per cent. as against five the year preceding; showing conclusively how few of the million went where it would have been far better for the entire million to have gone. It is safe to say that there was little or no legitimate demand in New York, Pennsylvania, or New England for any of them. At the same time, there is some encouragement in the fact that the distribution of the past fourteen years shows that smaller proportions are now remaining in the states in which are located the principal ports of entry. For example, the percentage of New York State has steadily decreased from forty-two per cent. in 1892 to thirty per cent. in 1905. Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio have gained proportionately.

[Sidenote: Diagrams to be Studied]

A series of diagrams which show the distribution of the foreign-born living in the United States in 1900, was prepared by Mr. F. W. Hewes, for the _World's Work_, and published in October, 1903. By the courtesy of Doubleday, Page and Company, publishers, they are reproduced. Each dot in them represents a thousand persons. They show at a glance where the immigrants were in 1900, and the totals by race or nationality. By adding to these totals the remarkable figures of the last five years, one can appreciate the great increase in the Italian and Slavic totals, and an idea of the present situation may be obtained, for as to locality the percentages have not materially changed.

[Sidenote: Protective Societies]

The further point to be considered as to distribution is the effort now being made to accomplish desired results. In lieu of legislation or government provision, these are (1) Societies organized by individuals, and (2) Railway companies. The Bureau of Information[44] proposed by the bill now in Congress would, if established, closely coöperate with the state agencies and all other bodies promoting distribution.

[Sidenote: Italian Society]

One of the most active and efficient of these organizations, which will serve as an illustration, is the Society for Italian Immigrants, with headquarters in New York, near the Battery. The Society thus states its purpose and methods:

"About 200,000 Italian immigrants are now landing at this port during every twelve months. These immigrants are almost entirely poor peasants who cannot speak our language. In order that these people may get a fair start in this new and, to them, strange country, and that they may become familiar as soon as possible with our laws, habits, and customs, help and instruction of various kinds must be given them. To furnish these either freely or at the lowest possible cost, is the object of The Society for Italian Immigrants.

[Sidenote: A Real Service]

"Accordingly, in its work the Society employs agents to look after the needs of the immigrants at Ellis Island; it runs an escort service, by which competent persons are furnished, at nominal cost, to take immigrants to their destination; it conducts an employment agency; it maintains an information bureau; it coöperates with the United States authorities to enforce the Immigration Laws; it manages labor camps for contractors; it wages war on all persons engaged in swindling immigrants; it is engaged in breaking up the padrone system in all its forms; and lastly and generally, it does all it can to help immigrants, so that as soon as possible they may become self-supporting and self-respecting citizens, a benefit and not a detriment to this country."

[Sidenote: Grants from Italian Government]

The Society is supported by voluntary contributions, and by grants to the amount of about $7,000 a year from the Italian government. The Society has met with the approval of the police department of the city, the United States authorities at Ellis Island, and the Italian Royal Department of Emigration, and of all individuals who have made themselves familiar with what it is doing. There is also a Boston Italian Society, organized in 1902, to protect newcomers from sharpers, thieves, and fraudulent persons; also from the frauds of bankers and padrones. The Italian government has given $1,000 a year to this Society.

[Sidenote: Hebrew and Other Societies]

A similar work is done by the United Hebrew Charities, and the Removal Bureau established by the Jews in New York in 1901. Through this agency in the past three years over 10,000 of the Russian or Roumanian Jews have been kept from increasing the overcrowded population of the ghetto and swelling the sum of sweat-shop misery. While the number distributed is small compared with the steady inflow (5,525 sent out in 1903, while 43,000 settled in New York), the work bids fair to make itself felt, and shows an appreciation by the Jews already here of the situation and the necessity of changing it, for the sake both of the immigrants and the country. Industrial removal is now known wherever Jews are found, and all that is possible is being done to stimulate artificial distribution as the remedy for the worst evils of unassimilated and congested immigration.[45] There are also German, Scandinavian and other societies, benevolent and protective, which aid in distribution.

[Sidenote: A Chief Obstacle]

The principal difficulty with the distribution scheme, so far as most of the present-day immigrants are concerned, is that with the exception of the Italians they are not fitted for agriculture, while it is the farms that most need workers. Another difficulty[46] is that the authorities of the various states object to receiving shipments of immigrants from the city tenement districts, regarding them as decidedly undesirable additions to the population. The United States Immigration Investigating Commission asked the governors of the different states what nationalities of immigrants they desired, and in only two cases was any desire expressed for Slavs, Latins, Jews, or Asiatics, and these two related to Italian farmers with money, intending to become permanent settlers. The officials protest against the shipment of southern and eastern Europeans from the city slums into the states. Care must be taken, too, that the immigrants do not settle in country colonies, which would render them almost as difficult of Americanization as though they were colonized in the city.

[Sidenote: What the South is Doing]

The New South is already giving object lessons to the country at large in the successful attraction and utilization of the alien influx. The Four States Immigration League, composed of representatives of business organizations in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, was organized in 1903 to secure desirable immigrants for those states. "It was keenly realized," observed the Chattanooga Times, "that of the enormous inflow from the old country, the number seeking homes in the South was ridiculously small and out of all proportion to the importance of the country and the inducements our productive fields hold out to home seekers." An Immigration Bureau has been established in Chattanooga, and South Carolina and other states have organized active departments of agriculture and immigration.

The leading railway lines promise active coöperation, as their interests lie positively in this direction. Some, indeed, have actively engaged in the work of securing distribution.

[Sidenote: New Zealand Plan]

The suggestion is a good one that we might study with profit, in this connection, the methods of New Zealand.[47] There the established Department of Labor has regarded as "its vital duty the practical task of finding where labor was wanted and depositing there the labor running elsewhere to waste." To this end a widely extended system of agencies is maintained for bringing workers and work together, the unemployed are scattered through the colony, and charity is refused. The experience there shows that city people and men of trades have been successful as farmers and farm workers. Mr. Lord says: "It may be a novel function of government to undertake the distributing of labor, but it is none the less more rational than an edict of exclusion would be, or the tolerance of congestion and slums now is."

[Sidenote: Information Before Embarking]

One thing that government can do is to make sure that intending immigrants are fully informed, in their own countries, before they start, concerning the laws of the United States, the conditions of the various sections, the advantages and drawbacks, the demand for labor and of what kind. An official bureau of correspondence and information would help check undesirable immigrants from coming, and distribute desirable ones when they do come.

[Sidenote: Looking on the Bright Side]

While the question of distribution has only recently been taken up in earnest, its importance is now realized, and there is every reason to believe that it will receive henceforth large attention, and that wise measures will be vigorously pushed. Remedied congestion will mean increased assimilation and decreased danger. As we review the situation, while there is much in it that requires serious consideration and wise action, we agree heartily with these words of Dr. Charles L. Thompson:

[Sidenote: Not Bars but Guides]

"There is no need of becoming pessimistic. Above all we should not go back on the history of our Country. We have grown great by assimilation. Let us have a dignified confidence in the power of our institutions and of our Christianity to continue the process which has developed the strength of the Republic. If we are true to our principles we will be equal to any strain that may be put upon them. Only let us see to it that our principles--both civic and religious--are at work in full vigor on the questions which the floodtide of immigration raises. What we need is not more bars to keep foreigners out but more laborers to work with them and teach them how to gather the harvest of American and Christian liberty."[48]

QUESTIONS FOR CHAPTER III

AIM: TO STUDY THE PROBLEMS OF LEGISLATION AND DISTRIBUTION REGARDING ALIENS

I. _The Opinions of Capable Observers Regarding Legislation_.

1. Give the names and opinions of some who favor restriction of immigration. Of some who are opposed. With which do you agree?

2. The Immigration Conference of 1905: What was it? What did it recommend?

3. As to free admission: What are the rights of the government? Of the individual?

4. What does President Roosevelt recommend?

II. _Proposed Legislation_.

5. What abuses specially need to be corrected?

6. Name the chief provisions of the "Gardner Bill," before Congress in 1906.

7. * Give reasons for and against a reading test. Would you have voted for it or against?

8. Describe and give your opinion of other proposed methods of restricting immigration.

9. Would it be possible to sift immigrants before they leave Europe?

III. _Distribution._

10. How much can be done toward a wider distribution of the stream of immigrants?

11. Where do the larger numbers now settle? In what cities? What states?

12. What Societies are helping them to find better locations?

13. What special efforts are being made by some Southern states?

14. How does New Zealand deal with this question? Can we copy that plan?

15. * What spirit is needed in dealing with the whole problem?

16. Can you tell of any special endeavors to bring about better control or direction of immigration?

REFERENCES FOR ADVANCED STUDY.--CHAPTER III

I. _Further Study of Opinions of United States Immigration Officials._

See Commissioner-General's Annual Report, furnished free from Washington upon application to the "Commissioner of Immigration." Report of 1902, pp. 59, 60. Report of 1904, pp. 37-47, 123-136. Report of 1904, pp. 61-70. Report of 1905, pp. 58, 75-78.

II. _Provisions and Fate of Legislation of 1906 Proposed in Congress._

Text of "Gardner Bill" and Journal of the House for June 25, 1906, can be secured by writing to Washington.

III. _Evils of Undistributed Immigration._

Warne: The Slav Invasion, IV, V. Hunter: Poverty, VI. Lord, et al: The Italian in America, IV, X.

IV. _Efforts to Secure Wider Distribution of Immigrants._

Hall: Immigration, XIII. Lord, et al: The Italian in America, VII, IX.