Mr. Chairman. in offering this amendment I am not in a critical or hypercritical frame of mind. I believe with the committee and the evident majority in this House that restriction of immigration is necessary and should be enacted. However. I do not believe that the restrictions called for in this bill and in the committee amendments. which to my mind strengthen it to some extent. are just the restrictions we seek and which the people at large believe they will secure through the enactment of this measure. The principal restrictions which are new are those of the literacy test and a perfunctory examination of intending immigrants at their point of sailing by physicians appointed for that purpose. who. if they suspect anything wrong with any person. may examine him and will be obliged to take his word for family history and personal fitness. provided that at the moment of examination. no matter how carefully made. it reveals no physical or mental troubte. Then. too. the literacy test is no test at ill. except that it deveops the fact that the immigrant can read a little and write a little. whether he can think or reason or has an idea of the general qualifications of a citizen seems to have no bearing in this bill. What his previous history is as to honesty and right living is left for himself to tell. and he is sent on his journey if he can write 20 or 30 words in any language he desires from a card on which his copy is set and sign his name thereto. All persons who are supposed. by their professions. to be educated are admitted without restriction. and the man who can meet the requirements of the proposed card system can also enter. all qualifications being met.
Keywords matched
immigrants immigration immigrant literacy test