THE REGULATION OF 
 IMMIGRATION 
 
 Principal Features of the Bills 
 Introduced into Congress 
 
 BY 
 
 Congressman BENJAMIN F. WELTY 
 
 MAY 10th, 1920 
 
 NATIONAL COMMITTEE 
 
 FOR 
 
 Constructive Immigration Legislation 
 
 105 EAST 22nd STREET 
 NEW YORK CITY 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 The Immigration Problem 
 
 Jeremiah W. Jenks and W. Jett Lauck 
 
 Fourth Edition, Revised and Enlarged, pp. 605 
 Funk and Wagnalls Co., 1917 
 
 Immigration 
 
 Henry Pratt Fairchild, Macmillan Co., 1914 
 
 The New Immigration 
 
 Peter Rpberts, Macmillan Co., 1912 
 
 The Old World in the New 
 
 Edward A. Ross, Century Co., 1914 
 
 The Tide of Immigration 
 
 Frank J. Warne, D. Appleton & Co., 1916 
 
 Immigrant Tide 
 
 Edward A. Steiner, Fleming H. Revel! Co., 1909 
 
 Immigration and Labor 
 
 Isaac A. Flourwich, G. P. Putnam Sons, 1912 
 
 Races and Immigrants in America 
 
 John R. Commons, Macmillan Co., 1908 
 
 Immigration and Its Effects on the United States 
 
 Prescott F. Flail, Second Edition, 1908, Holt 
 
 The Japanese Problem in the United States 
 
 H. A. Millis, Macmillan Co., 1915 
 
 The American Japanese Problem — 1914 
 
 American Democracy and Asiatic Citizenship 
 
 Sidney L. Gulick, Chas. Scribner's Sons, 1918 
 
 Asia at the Door 
 
 K. K. Kawakami, Fleming H. Revell Co., 1914 
 
THE NEED OF A NEW LAW 
 
 Among the most pressing questions before the United States 
 is that of immigration. 
 
 The present war-time law requiring properly vised passports 
 of all travellers expires next March. Shall we then return to 
 the law of 1917, unmodified? Organized labor with strong pop- 
 ular support is demanding complete suspension of all immigra- 
 tion for "at least two years." Organized capital, also receiving 
 strong popular support, urges the need of immediate large immi- 
 gration to meet the ''labor shortage" estimated by them at ap- 
 proximately five million workmen. In order to secure it, repeal 
 of the "illiteracy test" is demanded. 
 
 The urgency for some kind of legislation is thus widely recog- 
 nized. But what shall it be? Profound divergence of opinion 
 exists with confusion of counsel and conflict of ideals an<l 
 policies. 
 
 The first step, therefore, in securing satisfactory immigration 
 legislation is the clear formulation of sound fundamental prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 The National Committee for Constructive Immigration Legis- 
 lation holds that the wise course is neither complete suspension 
 of immigration, nor free immigration, but the regulation of 
 immigration. Only so many immigrants of any given people 
 should be admitted as we can wholesomely assimilate and 
 steadily employ. The Committee holds that the following gen- 
 eral principles are sound whether from the standpoint of social, 
 industrial, economic or national welfare. 
 
 General Principles 
 
 1. All legislation dealing with immigration and with resi- 
 dent aliens should be based on justice and goodwill as well as 
 on economic and political considerations. 
 
 2. The United States should so regulate, and where neces- 
 sary, restrict immigration as to provide that only so many 
 immigrants of each race or people may be admitted as can be 
 wholesomely Americanized. 
 
 3. The number of those individuals of each race or people 
 already in the United States who have become Americanized 
 afifords the best practicable basis of the measure for the further 
 immigration of that people. 
 
 4. American standards of living should be protected from 
 the dangerous economic competition of immigrants, whether 
 from Europe or from Asia. 
 
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5. No larger amount of immigration of any given people 
 should be admitted than can find steady employment and can 
 fit wholesomely into our social, political and economic life. 
 
 6. Such provisions should be miade for the care, education and 
 distribution of aliens who come to live permanently among us 
 as will promote their rapid and genuine transformation into 
 American citizens and thus maintain intact our democratic in- 
 stitutions and national unity. 
 
 7. The standards of naturalization should be raised so as to 
 include among other requirements at least the ability to read 
 an ordinary American newspaper, some real knowledge of the 
 history of the United States and an intelligent acceptance of 
 the practices and ideals of our democracy. 
 
 8. Under careful regulation as to numbers and qualifications 
 of permitted imm'igration from the various peoples, the privilege 
 of acquiring citizenship by those who are lawfully here and are 
 to remain a permanent part of our population should be granted 
 to all who actually qualify, regardless of race. 
 
 On the basis of these General Principles the National Com- 
 mittee for Constructive Immigration Legislation has prepared 
 the draft of a bill which has been introduced in the House by 
 Hon. Benj. F. Welty, being H. R. 14196. 
 
 Principal Features of the Proposed Law 
 
 1. The creation of an Immigration Board of the Secretaries 
 of State, Labor, Commerce, Interior and Agriculture and a 
 sixth member appointed by the President and confirmed by the 
 Senate. This Board is to have power to determine yearly the 
 maximum number of immigrants of each people to be admitted 
 to the United States. 
 
 2. Its decision shall be based on: 
 
 (a) The demonstrated assimilability of each people as shown 
 by the United States Census, in regard to the number 
 of each people who have become citizens by naturaliza- 
 tion and also the number of American-born children of 
 that people. 
 
 (b) Labor conditions in the United States, whether indus- 
 trial, agricultural, domestic or other. 
 
 (c) The maintenance of American standards of living and 
 wages. 
 
 (d) The fitness and availability of each people for general 
 or for special needs and for various localities. 
 
 3. The Board is required to study and report upon the que,?- 
 tion of distribution of immigrants. 
 
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4. Distinction is made between "transients" and immigrants ; 
 and all aliens are required on entering the United States to give 
 a Pledge of Obedience to our laws. 
 
 5. The standards of naturalization are raised as indicated in 
 paragraph seven above and the privilege of citizenship is offered 
 to every one who will duly qualify. 
 
 6. Laws now existing that contravene our treaties, that dis- 
 criminate between peoples and that are in conflict with the 
 above provisions are repealed. 
 
 Advantages of the Proposed Law 
 
 1. The proposed law will admit as immigrants from each 
 people only so many as we can hope to Americanize — because 
 it will allow an immigration of newcomers of any given people 
 only in proportion to the proved ability of that people to 
 assimilate wholesomely into our life. 
 
 2. The proposed law will provide a competent Board to deal 
 continuously with the ever-changing problems of immigration 
 as they arise, with power to adjust from year to year according 
 to our economic and industrial needs the amount of immigration 
 from each people, to deal with special exigencies of labor and 
 of human needs, and to investigate thoroughly and compre- 
 hensively the basic problem of the distribution of immigration. 
 
 3. It will protect American labor from dangers of unregu- 
 lated immigration, and help maintain American economic, social 
 and hygienic labor standards. 
 
 4. It will tend to stabilize business by preventing extreme 
 fluctuations of available labor which result in over-production 
 and then in stagnation of business with unemployment of labor, 
 causing incalculable suffering, anxiety and loss, and increasingly 
 ominous unrest. 
 
 5. It will raise the standards of naturalization, promote more 
 intelligent practice of citizenship and secure a higher efficiency 
 for our democracy. 
 
 6. It will prevent a sudden large influx from any new people 
 
 having few, if any, representatives already among us, and re- 
 strain immigration from peoples that do not readily assimilate 
 with our people; yet at the same time it will increasingly open 
 the doors to those who do assimilate. 
 
 7. It will give privileges of citizenship to every individual 
 who will properly qualify for the same. This provision will re- 
 move in a fundamental way the cause of Japanese irritation and 
 indignation. We give citizenship to many non-Caucasians, such 
 
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as Tartars, Finns and Hungarians ; Turks, Syrians, Persians 
 and Hindu ; Mexicans and South Americans ; Zulus, Hottentots, 
 Kaffirs and men from any tribe in Africa ; but we deny it to 
 Japanese and Chinese. This is why both Japanese and Chinese 
 regard our naturalization laws as ignominious and humiliating. 
 
 The proposed law will remove from our present laws this 
 humiliation, which is increasingly resented not only by Asiatics 
 in this land but also by their peoples in Asia. Yet in doing away 
 with our differential treatment of Asiatics no danger will be in- 
 curred by increased immigration from Asia. 
 
 8. It will harmonize America's policy with her treaty obliga- 
 tions to China, which obligations are violated by our present 
 special Chinese Legislation. 
 
 (a) The treaty of 1880 says, "The Government of the United 
 States may regulate, limit or suspend the coming or residence of 
 Chinese laborers, but may not absolutely prohibit it." In 1904 
 Congress, nevertheless, enacted a law that "all laws regulating, 
 suspending or prohibiting the coming of Chinese persons are 
 hereby re-enacted, extended and continued without modifica- 
 tion, limitation or condition." 
 
 (b) The treaty furthermore says, that "Chinese in the United 
 States . . , shall be accorded all the rights, privileges, 
 immunities and exemptions which are accorded to citizens and 
 subjects of the most favored nation." Beginning, however, in 
 1882, Congress has passed a dozen laws dealing differentially 
 with the Chinese, all in marked conflict with this requirement 
 of the treaty. In 1888 the Supreme Court of the United States 
 declared that the Scott Act of that year was "in contravention 
 of the treaty of 1868 and of the supplemental treaty of 1880. 
 But it is not on that account invalid. . . . This court is 
 not a censor of the morals of the other departments of the 
 government." That law, however, is still in force, as well as all 
 the others establishing differential treatment. 
 
 By voluntarily setting right our relations with Chinese and 
 Japanese we will secure among them those feelings of goodwill 
 for and confidence in us that are essential not only to successful 
 commercial relations but also to permanent international peace. 
 If we wish in the decades ahead to forestall the much discussed 
 and widely expected conflict of the white and yellow races for 
 the domination of the world, we must begin now to put into 
 practice the universal and inescapable principles of justice, fair- 
 dealing and brotherhood. In doing this we, of course, must not 
 forget the right of our own people to adequate protection from 
 the dangers of excessive immigration from any land or people. 
 
 The time has surely come to repeal our treaty-breaking laws 
 and to apply the golden rule and the plain principles of interna- 
 tional honor to our dealings with the Chinese. 
 
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Probable Effect of the Proposed Law 
 
 Careful students will desire to know how the above law 
 would work out in practice. What amount of immigration 
 would be annually admitted ? The reply is that that would de- 
 pend upon the investigation and judgments of the Immigration 
 Board. 
 
 In view of the difference in rapidity of different peoples in 
 becoming assimilated and also in view of the different occupa- 
 tions to which immigrants of different peoples usually come on 
 entering the United States, the Board is permitted to set differ- 
 ent percentage rates for different peoples. In no case, however, 
 may the Board set a percentage rate for any given people higher 
 than ten per cent of the American-born children plus the natural- 
 ized American citizens of that people. If the Board should 
 grant to each people the maximum rate, it is estimated that the 
 permissible immigration from Northwest Europe for the year 
 ending 1921 would be about 1,800,000. and from South, Central 
 and East Europe about 500,000. 
 
 If in the judgment of the Board the total volume of labor 
 immigration needed for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1921, 
 were 1,000,000, it would fix on percentage rates which would 
 admit the required number. 
 
 The Board would, moreover, be competent to deal with 
 special needs — such for instance as that of domestic servants. 
 If it found that immigrants were desiring to enter for domestic 
 service from some given people, and if in its judgment such 
 immigrants would assimilate wholesomely into our life and 
 people, the maximum permissible immigration of that people — 
 or wdiat is the same thing — the percentage rate might be so 
 raised for that people as to allow of their admission. If it were 
 felt preferable that all such persons should be admitted as ex- 
 ceptions to the "contract labor" provisions of the law, this could 
 be done. The Board in that case is to "prescribe the conditions 
 and safeguards under which such importation could be secured," 
 
 If the special need were perhaps for agricultural laborers 
 for some special region of the United States, California for in- 
 stance or Minnesota, and if immigrants from a given people 
 were desirous of entering to meet that need, if the Board 
 judged, from assured facts, that such immigration would be 
 wholesomely assimilated and absorbed into our population, the 
 maximum permissible immigration of that people could be raised 
 for a period — until that need is fairly supplied. 
 
 It will thus be seen that on the basis of the proposed law 
 it is not possible to make detailed statistical forecalculations of 
 the amount of immigration that would probably be admitted 
 annually for each people, nor of the degree of restriction that 
 may be applied. 
 
 ? 
 
Exactly this is the special merit of the iproposed law — it 
 will make possible the continuous annual adjustment of the total 
 volume of immigration to the actual and ever changing economic 
 conditions and even to the special needs of different areas in 
 the United States and yet will do it always in the light of the 
 assimilability of each people as shown by experience. 
 
 In the autumn of 1917 a small group of students of immigra- 
 tion problems issued a leaflet entitled "Tentative Proposals for 
 Constructive Immigration Legislation." This was sent to sev- 
 erar hundred individuals who were invited to become members 
 of a National Committee to promote this program in case "one 
 thousand leading citizens in all parts of the United States can 
 be found who will endorse and snipport these proposals." By 
 the close of 1918 more than one "thousand had expressed their 
 approval. The National Committee was then organized, a con- 
 ference of immigration experts was held and the first tentative 
 ])ill was drafted. I'^irther study, criticisms and suggestions have 
 resulted in the bill introduced into Congress on May 22, 1920. 
 by Congressman Welty. 
 
 Every American citizen who approves of the general prin- 
 ciples and concrete proposals described in the foregoing para- 
 graphs is invited to become a member of this Movement. 
 There are no prescribed membership dues. Each member is 
 asked to spread the knowledge of this plan and to aid in securing 
 new members. The extent and energy of our campaign of edu- 
 cation depends, of course, on the interest and contributions of 
 those who believe in it. 
 
 Correspondence is invited. 
 
 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 
 Henry W. Jessup, Chairman 
 
 Sn).\EV L. (iui.icK. Secretary 
 Central Union Trust Co. of New York, 
 42nd Strt'cl Branch, Treasurer 
 
 The National Committee 
 for 
 
 Constructive Immigration Legislation 
 
 Mrs. Hariry M. Bremer 
 John Collier 
 Mrs. C. S. Cumberson 
 DwiGHT H. Day 
 Stephen P. Duggan 
 H. P. Fairchh.d 
 W. H. P. Faunce 
 Mrs. J. Malcolm Forbes 
 John Golden 
 Hamilton Holt 
 
 Herbert S. Houston ' 
 .\lbert C. Lawson 
 Bordette G. Lewls 
 
 .•\.NTONiO Ma NO A NO 
 
 C. M, Panunzio 
 Charles Stelzle 
 Oscar S. Straus 
 Graham Taylor 
 Francis Tyson 
 
 Mrs. Honore Willsje 
 
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