Speech #640260999

It is not in the interest of public morality or public health." May I take the liberty of differing with you most emphatically in this view? I hold no brief at this time for the reading test. It seems to me. however. that most of those who attack this provision have not read the Immigration bill at all and do not realize that this bill covers about sixty pages. of which perhaps one or two pages concern this muchdiscussed reading test. With the many exceptions which are made in its application. this provision seems to me a rather unimportant part of the bill as a whole. It certainly is not worth all the fuss that is being made over it. It is in regard to the rest of the billthe 58 or 59 pages of it not concerned with the reading testthat I wish here to speak. The new bill. in my judgment. is distinctly not " against the entry of desirables." and as certainly is " in the Interest of public morality and public health." The bill is the result of years of careful study of our present law and of its workings. Its provisions. as the Commissioner General of Immigration says in his annual report (June 30. 1915). " contain the result of experience and investigationof the experience of administrative officers. extending over nearly a quarter of a century. in. the enforcement of various statutes regulating immigration. and of the investigations conducted variously but in particular by the immigration commission. created under the act of 1907. the report of which. comprising 42 volumes. was submitted to Congress in December. 1910." The provisions of this bill " have been drawn with great care and thoughtfulness. * * * by them the law is made certain in its definitions and clear in its terms throughoutimrovements badly needed in the existlug statute." The bill aims to protect the United States against the incoming of mentally and physically and of otherwise unfit and undesirable aliens. It also embodies several provisions which would insure more humane treatment to the aliens themselves and would to a large extent do away with the hardships involved in the deportation of aliens who are excluded at our ports by preventing their original embarkation. To the excluded classes the bill adds persons of constitutional psychopathic inferiority and persons with chronic alcoholism. That many persons not properly certified as Insane but who would. in many cases. become Insane soon after arrival. could be kept out under the former provision has long been the opinion of the physicians. the alienists. and the immigration officials who have made a special study of this suhect. and who have for years strongly urged the inclusion of this new provision in our immigration law. Chronic alcoholics who are surely undesirable members of our community. are often discovered by our examining surgeons. but as the law does not now state specifically that they shall be excluded they must in most cases be allowed to land. The new bill excludes vagrants. and persons afflicted with tuberculosis in any form. It also aims. to prevent the embarkation of aliens afflicted with Idiocy. insanity. imbecility. feeblemindedness. epilepsy. constitutional psychopathic inferiority. chronic alcoholism. tuberculosis in any form. or a loathsome or dangerous contagious disease. by imposing upon steamship companies who bring such aliens a fine of $200 plus the amount paid by the excluded alien from his Initial point of departure. provided the Secretary bf Labor is satisfied that the defects could have been detected by a competent medical examination before embarkation. This is an excellent and humane provision. and wofild go far toward making these companies more careful in the sale of pasage tickets and would save many unfortunate aliens the disappointment and hardship of being deported after arrival at our ports. The present fine of $100. has been shown to he too small to be really effective. and does not cover as many cases as are above enumerated. A new fine of $25. plus the aliens transportation expenses. is established In cases of certain other less serious mental defects and of physical defects which may affect- an aliens ability to earn his living.