Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/568

* IMMIGRATION. 494 IMMIGRATION. We may disregard tlio brief period in which the famous Alien Law was in fori*, 17'J8 to 1801, which authori/.i'd the President to o.|)el forei<;n- ers daiij.'erous to the peace of the nation, for this law was passed to meet a supposed politieal danger, and not to avert a threatened economic injury. Nor did the agitation against the for- eigner, which gained such force in the Know- nothing movement during the early part of the fifties, lead to legislation. It is doubtful if the question would liave as'^umod so large an im- portance had it not lurn for i)opuhir discon- tent with the older pcditical parties. Moreover, the agitation was quite as much anti-Catholic as it was anti-foreign, and no majority of the American people could be gained for an attitude savoring of religious persecution. The police and sanitary regulations, including quarantine, atrecting the immigrants upon their landing in the I'nited States, were matters of State, and not Federal legislation. When, in 1804. Congress finally took cogni- zance of the immigration question, it was with the idea of encouraging immigration into this country. Under the pressure of the demand for laborers in industrial pursuits, an act was passed to encourage inunigration which offered to the immigrants freedom from compulsory military service, and the services, upon their arrival, of a Commissioner of Immigration, whose duty it was to assist immigrants in obtaining transpor- tation to their destination, and to protect them from the impositions to which their ignorance ex- posed them. The act was repealed in 18G8, and no further legislation to promote immigration was enacted. The general spirit of the times was, however, favorable to immigration, and cer- tain special reports of the Bureau of Statistics, Labor in Europe and America (1870), for in- stance, were widely disseminated with a view to encouraging immigration. About the same time the States, particularly those of the West, established boards and commissioners of immi- gration, charged with the duty of promoting im- migration into their respective .States. It soon became evident that encouragement was no longer needed, and the tide of public opinion began to turn toward restriction. This did not at first extend t>eyond the idea of preventing the introduction into the eountrj- of manifestly un- desirable elements — the criminal, the pauper, the insane, and the vicious. Section 1 of the act of .August .3, 1882. imposed a head tax of 50 cents (increased to SI bv the act approved Au- gust 18, 18!>4. and to $2 by act of March 3, lOO.T) on each passenger not a citizen of the irnitcd States, stipulating that the money col- lected shall be paid into the United States Treas- ury- as a fund to defray the expenses of regu- lating immigration, of caring for immigrants, and relieving those in distress, and for the gen- eral purposes and expenses of carrjing the act into elTect. (This fund, it may he remarked, has been found ample for its purposes, and an annual surplus has been turned into the Treas- ury.) Section 2 provided that the Secretary of the Treasury should be charged with the duty of exe- cuting the provisions of the act. and for that purpose empowered him to enter into contracts with the officials of the several States at their several ports. By the act of March ."?. 1003. the Commissioner-General of Immigration is placed under the authority of the Secretary of the Treas- ury, although the Immigration Bureau is subor- dinate to the Department uf ('ommerce. .Section 3 provided that the Secretary of the Treasury establish such rules and regulations, and issue, from time to time, such instructions, not inconsistent with law. as he should ileem best calculated for the protection of immigrants from fraud and loss, and for Carrying out the provi- sions of the act and the immigration laws of the United States, etc. Section 4 treated of the exclusion and deporta- tion of specified classes. It provided that foreign convicts, except those convicted of political of- fenses, lunatics, idiots, or any persons not able to take care of themselves without becoming public charges, should be sent back at the exix-nse of the owners of the vessels on which they had come. The act of 1882 is still in force in principle, though in minor points it was modified by a law of March 3, 1891, of which the following section is the most important : "That the following classes of aliens shall be excluded from admission into the United States, in accordance with the existing acts regulating inmiigration. other than those concerning Chinese laborers: All idiots, insane persons, paupers, or persons likely to become a public charge, persons suiTering from a loathsome or a dangerous con- tagious disease, persons who have been convicted of a felony or other infamous crime or misde- meanor involving moral turpitude, polygamists, and also any person whose ticket or passage is paid for with the money of another, or who is assisted by others to come, unless it is affirma- tively and satisfactorily shown, on special in- quiry, that such person does not belong to one of the foregoing excluded classes, or to the class of contract laborers excluded by the act of Feb- ruary 20. 188.5; but this section shall not be held to exclude persons living in the United States from sending for a relative or a friend who is not of the excluded classes under such regula- tions as the Secretary of the Treasure may prescribe. Provided, That nothing in this act shall be construed to apply to or exclude per- sons convicted of a political offense, notwith- standing said political offense may be designated as a 'felony, crime, infamous crime, or misde- meanor involvins moral turpitude' by the laws of the land whence he came, or by the court convicting." The act was further amended bv the law of March 3, 1003. By this law the Bureau of Im- migration is given a right to deport epileptics, persons who have been insane within the five years preceding their arrival in America, and per- sons who advocate the overthrow of all govern- ments or the a.ssassination of public officials. Deportation may take place any time within two years after arrival. The joint administration of immigration af- fairs by Federal and State officials which had been in vogue since the passage of the act of 1882 had not proved satisfactory, and by the act of 1801 the entire charge of the matter was assumed by the general Oovernment. The stat- ute of March 3. 1803. took a step in advance of previous legislation by requiring at least a pre- liminary inspection of immigrants at the point of departure. Each immigrant is provided with a number identifying him to the inspectors of