Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 10.djvu/569

* IMMIGRATION. 495 IMMORALITY. the United States. The medical inspection pro- vided by the act has been a useful aid in prevent- ing the introduction of disease. Side by side with legislation to exclude persons morally and physically undesirable has gone the effort to exclude the contract laborer. The first law on this subject was passed Februarj- 2, 1885. It made it unlawful for any person, com- pany, partnership, or corporation in anj' manner ^^llatsoever to prepay the transportation or in any way assist or. encourage the importation or migration of any alien or foreigner into the United States, under contract or agreement or parole, special, expressed or implied, made pre- vious to the importation of such alien or foreigner to perform labor or service of any kind in tlie United States. The object of this legislation was to prevent the agents of manufacturers from contracting in Europe with the laborers, oftentimes in herds, for the purpose of breaking strikes or introduc- ing a supposedly more docile, because more ig- norant, class of laborers. Moreover, it is plain that contracts made abroad would be made with reference to the scale of wages existing in foreign countries rather than those in force here, and would thus introduce a lower-priced competi- tion, dangerous to the well-being of the working classes. The general spirit of the law has been commended by public opinion, though in its first form it presented some crudities which placed it in a ridiculous light, as where a clergyman was denied admission to the United States by reason of a contract made in England to assume charge of a parish in Xew York. Subsequent modifications distinctly eliminating the professional classes and bringing the operation of the law within the intention of the legislators have much improved the statute. Tlie general characteristic of the United States immigration laws is, that whoe^Tsr enters in vio- lation of the law is to be returned to the point of departure at the expense of the steamship company which brought him. and that this lia- bility extends in all cases for a period of one year after arrival. The machinery for the en- forcement of the law has been progressively im- proved. The number of immigrants who have been returned is as follows : No. Per cent, of No. Per cent, of YEAR re- total immi- TEAK re- total immi- turned gration tximed gration 1890.. 53.5 0.11 1896... 2,799 0.81 1891.. 1.026 .19 1897. . 1,880 0.81 1892. 3,732 .64 1R98. . . 3.229 1.45 lS9:i. 1 ,630 .36 1899... 4.061 1.30 1894. . 2.806 .98 1900. . . 4,602 1.02 1895. . 2,419 ,93 The main reason for the return of immigrants is pauperism. One of the great difficulties in the way of the thorough administration of the law is the com- parative ease with which persons of the undesir- able classes obtain access to the United States through Canada. Arrangements have recently been perfected between the Canadian Government and the immigration service establishing an in- spection in Canada. The efTort is made to in- spect not only the immigrants who give the X'nited States as their destination, though arriv- ing at Canadian ports, but also those who give Canada as their destination, but come into the United States. The fact that of less than 5000 persons of the latter class inspected, 2000 were turned back, indicates clearly that the ineligiblo classes have been coming into the United States over the Canadian border. The present immigration laws represent little more than sanitary measures designed to protect our society from the introduction of positively vicious and undesirable elements. The demand has been heard, and has been supported by a wealth of argument, that we should be more liberal in our internretation of the word 'unde- sirablcj' and exclude also such immigrants as, b^ reason' of incapacity and ignorance, give the least promise of assimilation. The question of still further restricting immi- gration made its appearance in the early nine- ties. It was felt that many persons were ad- mitted into the United States who were not desirable acquisitions to our population. The de- mand was heai-d in many quarters that the illit- erate should be excluded, and the question wa3 actively agitated in Congress until 1897. In that year a bill passed both Houses of Congress which excluded from admission to the United States all foreign persons over sixteen years of age who could not read or write the English or some other language, except parents or grandparents accom- panying persons otherwise qualified, or coming to join relatives already in the United States. The bill was vetoed in the closing hours of Con- gress, March 3, 1897, by President Cleveland, on grounds of general policy, as well as for material defects in the measure, .such as the exclusion of the illiterate wives of qualified persons. The bill was reconsidered in the House of Representatives and passed over the President's veto by the con- stitutional majority of two-thirds ; but as it passed the Senate by a narrow margin, no attempt waa made to force a vote in that body, and the veto message was simply referred to the appropriate committee. In the following years the agitation subsided in view of the decreased number of immigrants. See Chinese IiiinGRATiox. BiBLiOGBAPHV. Official Documents: Reports of Bureau of Immigration. 1891-92; Senate Report 1333, 52d Congress, 2d Session (1893); Report of the Immigiation Commission to the Secre- tary of the Treasury (1895) ; Veto Message of President Cleveland, Senate Document 185, o4th Congress. 2d Session (1897); Vol. xv. of the Report of the United States Industrial Commis- sion on Immigration (1902). See Emigration; Migration. For temporary movements of popu- lation, see Popri,.TioN. IMMOLATION (Lat. immolatio, from im- molare, to sacrifice, from in, in 4- mola, lyeal, mill-stone, from molere, to grind: connected with Goth., AS., OHG. malan, leel. mala. Ger. mahlen, to grind, Eng. meal). A Roman sacrificial cere- mony in which the victim was sprinkled with meal coarsely groimd and mixed with salt (called mola saha). Hence to 'immolate' means to 'sacrifice.' IMMORALITY (from Lat. in-, not + /iiornK.?, moral, from mo.'!, custom, right). In its broad- est sense, any breach of the moral law; in a narrower sense, as contrasted with illegal con- duct, an act of omission which is condemned by the law of morality, hut which m.ay not vio- late any rule of municipal law (q.v.). Many forms of moral conduct come under the con-