rm. 
 
 MI$C. 
 
 (Proposed New Laws) 
 
 FOR 
 
 Regulating Immigration 
 
 AND FOR 
 
 Raising the Standards 
 for Naturalization 
 
 JANUARY 20, 1920 
 
 NATIONAL COMMITTEE 
 
 for 
 
 CONSTRUCTIVE IMMIGRATION LEGISLATION 
 
 tOS East 22d Street, New York Citf 
 
NATIONAL COMMITTEE 
 
 FOR 
 
 Constructive Immigration Legislation 
 
 A PROGRAM FOR THE REGULATION OF 
 IMMIGRATION AND THE AMERICAN- 
 I2ATI0N OF IMMIGRANTS 
 
 Among the most pressing questions before the United States 
 is that of immigration. 
 
 The urgent need for some new legislation by Congress deal¬ 
 ing with immigration is widely recognized throughout the 
 United States. But profound divergence of opinion prevails as 
 to what is needed. Confusion of counsel and conflict as to 
 ideals and policies characterizes the present situation. 
 
 The first step, therefore, in finding a rational and satisfactory 
 immigration policy is the clear formulation of fundamental prin¬ 
 ciples. 
 
 The National Committee proposes the following as the guid¬ 
 ing considerations in securing a comprehensive, constructive 
 and concrete program of legislation. 
 
 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 
 affords 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. 
 
 5. No larger amount of total immigration should be ad¬ 
 mitted than we can steadily employ. 
 
 2 
 
6. Such provisions should be made 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 strict provisions and rigid limitations as to num¬ 
 bers and qualifications of permissible immigration, the right 
 to acquire citizenship should be given to all who actually qualify, 
 regardless of race. 
 
 Upon the basis of these General Principles the National Com¬ 
 mittee has prepared a tentative draft of a bill presented on pages 
 6, 7. 8 and 9 of this pamphlet. 
 
 Concrete Details 
 
 1. The law' to apply only to Continental United States. The 
 territory of Hawaii and perhaps also Alaska and Porto Rico 
 should receive special treatment. 
 
 2. The permissible annual immigration from any given peo¬ 
 ple to be a certain per cent (say between 3 and 10) of a basal 
 figure composed of two factors: 
 
 (a) The number of American-born children of that people 
 residing in Continental United States as recorded in the United 
 States census of 1920, plus 
 
 (b) The number of naturalized citizens of that people resid¬ 
 ing in Continental United States as recorded in the last available 
 census. 
 
 3. This method of dealing with immigration to apply to all 
 peoples without discrimination, including Chinese and Japanese. 
 
 4. An Immigration Commission to be established with im¬ 
 portant powers for* the administration of this law. 
 
 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 annual immigration of new-comers only in pro¬ 
 portion to those of that people who have already become Ameri¬ 
 can citizens. 
 
 3 
 
2. It will provide a competent Commission to deal con¬ 
 tinuously with the ever-changing problems of immigration as 
 they arise, with power to adjust the percentage rate from year 
 to year according to our economic and industrial needs and to 
 deal with special exigencies of labor and of human needs, and 
 to investigate thoroughly and comprehensively the basic prob¬ 
 lem of the distribution of immigration. 
 
 3. It will protect American labor from dangers of unregu¬ 
 lated immigration, help maintain American economic, social and 
 hygienic labor standards and tend thus to remove the present 
 widespread industrial and social discontent. 
 
 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 
 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 bill will remove from our laws this humilia¬ 
 tion, 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 incurred 
 of large immigration from Asia. The permissible immigration 
 of Chinese and Japanese would be for many years smaller than 
 that which now comes yearly. 
 
 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 
 
 4 
 
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. 
 
 Every American citizen v/ho approves these principles and 
 will aid in securing the enactment of this bill is invited to become 
 a member of the National Committee for Constructive Immigra¬ 
 tion Legislation. 
 
 SIDNEY L. GULICK, Secretary, 
 
 105 East 22nd Street, New York City. 
 
 REVISED DRAFT 
 
 A Bill to Regulate Immigration, to Promote Assimilation, 
 and to Modify the Requirements for the Acquisition of Citizen¬ 
 ship by Naturalization. 
 
 (The foUowing proposed bill when introduced into Congress will 
 take the form of amendments to various existing laws: the immigration 
 act of February 5, 1917; the naturalization laws of May 15, 1918; and 
 eight Chinese exclusion laws. The immigration act alone fills twenty- 
 eight pages. The immigration act of February 5, 1917, would remain in 
 
substance unchanged, except as indicated in Section 8. All of its safe¬ 
 guards, including the literacy test would be incorporated in the new law. 
 The naturalization laws would be changed as indicated in Section 6 
 below.) 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
 of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
 
 Sec. 1. (a) That an Immigration Commission be and hereby is 
 
 created, consisting of the Secretary of Labor, the Secretary of Com¬ 
 merce, the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Agriculture, 
 and the Commissioner (or Secretary) of education, each of whom 
 may designate an assistant secretary to represent him (at a salary 
 
 not to exceed $-), the Chairman of the House Committee 
 
 on Immigration, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Im¬ 
 migration, a nominee of the American Federation of Labor, a 
 nominee of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States and a 
 tenth person, the last three to be appointed by the President of 
 the United States, at a salary of $—. 
 
 (b) That this Immigration Commission shall make such 
 distribution of duties and functions provided for in this act be¬ 
 tween the Departments and Bureaus represented in the Com¬ 
 mission as shall in its judgment be expedient for the proper 
 administration of this act. 
 
 (c) That as soon as the figures of the Census of 1920 are 
 available, the Immigration Commission shall prepare a schedule 
 of the permissible immigration from each people, according to 
 the provisions of section 2 (d) of this Act; and shall make 
 public announcement of this schedule within sixty days. 
 
 (d) That within a period of not less than ninety days nor 
 more than one hundred and fifty days from the public announce¬ 
 ment of the schedule, at the discretion of the Immigration Com¬ 
 mission, it shall be put into operation. 
 
 Sec. 2. That aliens entering the United States shall be clas¬ 
 sified either as Transients or Immigrants. 
 
 (a) Aliens entering the United States as Transients shall 
 include such persons as the following: 
 
 Accredited officials of foreign governments, members of their 
 families, their servants and employees, travelers for health, 
 pleasure or curiosity, business or professional men, students pro¬ 
 vided with their own fund? or guaranteed support by their own 
 governments or by institutions or friends in the United States, 
 ministers or religous teachers, missionaries, teachers, authors, 
 professional artists, their legal wives or their children under six¬ 
 teen years of age, who accompany them, singers or actors, and 
 aliens employed strictly as personal or domestic servants accom¬ 
 panying and departing with their employers. 
 
 6 
 
(b) Aliens entering the United States as Transients, ex¬ 
 cepting accredited representatives and officials of foreign gov¬ 
 ernments, shall present proper passports stating among other 
 things the purpose of the visit and the expected length of that 
 visit, not to exceed three years. The passports of students may 
 specify six years as the period. Aliens possessing such passports 
 who desire to extend the period of residence in the United States 
 may secure permission for such extension from the Commis¬ 
 sioner General of Immigration, the regulations providing for 
 such extension having been authorized by the Immigration Com¬ 
 mission. 
 
 (c) Aliens entering the United States as Immigrants shall 
 include all laborers and their families, and all persons who enter 
 for an indeterminate and possibly for permanent residence in 
 the United States. Immigrants shall not be required to present 
 passports. 
 
 (d) The number of Immigrants who may be admitted to the 
 United States in a single year shall be determined by the Im¬ 
 migration Commission according to the following provisions:— 
 
 The number of alien persons belonging to any given race or 
 mother-tongue group who may be admitted annually to Con¬ 
 tinental United States (excluding Alasko, Porto Rico, the Philippine 
 Islands, and the Territory of Hawaii) shall not be less than three 
 per cent nor more than ten per cent of a basic figure to be com¬ 
 posed of.* 
 
 A. The number of American-born children of that people or 
 mother-tongue group residing in Continental United 
 States as recorded in the United States census of 1920, 
 plus, 
 
 B. The number of naturalized aliens of that people or mother- 
 tongue group residing in Continental United States as 
 recorded in the last available census. 
 
 The permissible immigration for any people for the fraction 
 of the year between the first date of the operation of this Act 
 and the end of the fiscal year (June 30) shall be one-quarter, 
 one-half or three-quarters of the total permissible immigration 
 of that people according to the date at which this Act goes 
 into effect. 
 
 If the basic figure for any people or mother-tongue group 
 shall be found to be less than twenty thousand, the number 
 admissible each year of that people or mother-tongue group shall 
 be one thousand at the maximum) rate and five hundred at the 
 minimum rate. 
 
 ♦If a higher maximum and minimum rate were desired, this phrase 
 could be made to read “not less than five nor more than fifteen per 
 cent.” 
 
The term “people or mother-tongue group” shall be defined 
 and interpreted by the Immigration Commission. The Immi¬ 
 gration Commission shall have power for the purpose of enforc¬ 
 ing this statute, to classify as a single people, all the citizens 
 of a given nation or all persons living within a given geographical 
 area or any race or mother-tongue group.* Where such a 
 classification is applied to a group which contains among its 
 members persons speaking different mother-tongues, the Com¬ 
 mission shall deduct from the total permissible immigration of 
 those classified by a given mother-tongue classification, the num¬ 
 ber speaking that mother tongue which has been made eligible 
 for admission by virtue of citizenship in a nation or residence 
 in a specified geographical area; and the number of arriving im¬ 
 migrants of a given mother-tongue, citizens of such nation or 
 native to such a geographical area, shall not be taken into ac¬ 
 count in determining whether the admissible immigration from 
 that mother-tongue group has been admitted in the given year.f 
 
 (e) That women coming to join their husbands, children 
 under sixteen years of age accompanying or coming to join a 
 parent, and parents or grandparents accompanying or coming to 
 join a child or grandchild, who arrive after the permissible 
 number of immigrants from their race or people has been ad¬ 
 mitted, shall be admitted, but the number of such admissions 
 shall be the first charge against the permissible immigration of 
 the following year. 
 
 (f) That in addition to those aliens admitted as Transients 
 or as Immigrants the following classes of aliens shall also be 
 admitted provided they are otherwise qualified for admission. 
 
 Citizens of Canada. 
 
 Aliens who have taken out their first papers and have passed 
 certain tests in the English language prescribed by and carried 
 out under the supervision of the Immigration Commission. 
 
 Aliens in continuous transit through the United States, and 
 
 *Czecho-Siovakia, Poland, etc., thus meeting the new conditions 
 developing in Central Europe. 
 
 tThis wording, which is rather puzzling yet technically necessary, 
 is aimed to insure (a) that a naturalized immigrant would not be counted 
 twice, in arriving at the basic figures of permissible immigration, and 
 (b) that an arriving immigrant would be charged only against the per¬ 
 missible immigration from his own group. For example, if Switzerland 
 were construed as being a “people,” (a) the number of German-speaking 
 naturalized Swiss immigrants in the United States would be deducted 
 from the total of naturalized immigrants of the German mother-tongue 
 group, and would be credited to the Swiss group; and (b) the German¬ 
 speaking Swiss immigrants entering the United States in a given year 
 would be counted against the permissible Swiss immigration of that 
 year, not against the immigration from the German mother-tongue 
 group. 
 
 a 
 
aliens who have been lawfully admitted to the United States 
 and who later shall go in transit from one part of the United 
 States to another through foreign contiguous territory. 
 
 Aliens who shall prove to the satisfaction of the proper im« 
 migration officers or to the Commissioner General of Immigra¬ 
 tion that they are seeking admission to the United States to 
 avoid religious persecution in the country of their last permanent 
 residence. 
 
 Sec. 3. (a) That every adult alien entering the United 
 
 States, excepting accredited officials of foreign governments, 
 shall be required to file with the immigration officials at the port 
 of entry a sworn statement printed both in English and in the 
 language of the alien, pledging obedience to the laws of the 
 United States, and faithful fulfilment of the requirements for 
 annual registration, with the understanding that disobedience 
 may be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding 
 six months, or by deportation, or by imprisonment and deporta¬ 
 tion. 
 
 (b) That every adult alien, except Transients, upon admit¬ 
 tance to the United States shall declare the intention of learning 
 the English language and of becoming acquainted with the 
 methods of this government and with the ideals and institutions 
 of this country. A duplicate of these pledges shall be given to 
 the declarant. 
 
 (c) That alien students who are admitted as Transients shall 
 not be regarded as having lost that status by reason of having 
 secured temporarily some gainful occupation, on condition that 
 they maintain regular attendance in a High School, College or 
 University, the nature of the schools to be specifically defined 
 by the Immigration Commission. 
 
 Sec. 4. That the Commissioner General of Immigration shall 
 issue a monthly statement showing the maximum number of 
 aliens of each people or mother-tongue group who may be 
 admitted to the United States during the current fiscal year, 
 together with the number already admitted, but when seventy- 
 fivt' per cent of such maximum number of aliens of any people 
 or molher-tongue group has been admitted, like statements rela¬ 
 tive to such nationality shall be issued weekly thereafter. He 
 shall send such reports promptly to the American Consul in all 
 ports from which aliens commonly sail for the United States. 
 When the permissible number of aliens of any people or mother- 
 tongue group shall have been admitted, all other aliens of such 
 people or mother-tongue group who may apply for admission 
 during the same fiscal year shall be excluded, except that other¬ 
 wise admissible aliens as provided in Sec. 3 (e) and (f) shall 
 be admitted. 
 
 9 
 
Sec. 5. (a) That the Immigration Commission shall each 
 
 year determine the percentage rate for the following fiscal 
 year as provided in Sec. 2 (d). In determining that rate 
 it shall have regard to the labor conditions in the United States 
 and to the maintenance of the American standards of living and 
 wages; and shall make such regulations as shall prevent con¬ 
 gestion of immigration at any period of the year, promote the 
 convenience of transportation companies, and avoid hardships 
 to the immigrants. 
 
 (b) That the Commission shall be authorized to increase the 
 percentage rate at any time without notice, but not less than 
 three months notice must be given of a proposed decrease of 
 the rate. 
 
 (c) That skilled labor, if otherwise admissible, may be 
 imported if labor of like kind unemployed cannot be found in 
 this country. The question of the necessity of importing such 
 skilled labor in any particular instance shall be determined by 
 the Immigration Commission upon the application of any person 
 interested, such application to be made before such importation, 
 and such determination by the Immigration Commission to be 
 reached after a full hearing and an investigation into the facts 
 of the case. Aliens admitted under this rule shall be reckoned 
 as among those admitted on the percentage plan; if they arrive 
 after the permissible number from their countries have been ad¬ 
 mitted, they shall nevertheless be admitted, but such admissions 
 shall be charged against the permissible immigration of the fol¬ 
 lowing year. 
 
 (d) That the Immigration Commission shall as soon as prac¬ 
 ticable (1) draft special laws for the regulation of immigration 
 to Alaska, Porto Rico, the Territory of Hawaii and the Philip¬ 
 pine Islands, and submit the same to Congress for enactment, 
 and (2) institute a comprehensive inquiry into policies and 
 methods of the distribution of immigration, shall publish the re¬ 
 sults of the investigation in full, not later than two years from 
 the beginning of the inquiry; and shall carry on all further work 
 necessary to bring the approved results of the investigation ef¬ 
 fectively before the public. 
 
 (e) That the Immigration Commission shall be the final 
 judge as to fact and as to the interpretation of this Act in all 
 cases of doubt about individual immigrants. 
 
 Sec. 6. (a) That the Act of June 29, 1906, Section 4, Para¬ 
 
 graph 4, be amended by the addition of the following words 
 after the words “happiness of the same” on the eighth line*: 
 
 *Section 4 of the Naturalization Act of June 29, 1906, consists of 
 six long paragraphs giving a detailed procedure for naturalization and 
 requiring certificates of character and an expressed loyalty to the Gov¬ 
 ernment and the Constitution on the part of applicants. The new para¬ 
 graphs here proposed are additions to the Naturalization Act, raising 
 the standards and extending the scope in the ways indicated. 
 
 10 
 
“and also that he has passed certain tests prescribed by and 
 carried out under the supervision of the Immigration Commis¬ 
 sion in (1) reading and speaking the English language, (2) in the 
 principles of personal and public hygiene, (3) in the history of 
 the American people, (4) in the methods and ideals of the Gov¬ 
 ernment of the United States, and (5) in the rights and duties 
 of citizens.” 
 
 (b) That the Act of Feb., 1875, amending the Act of July 
 14, 1870, be amended by striking out the words, “The provisions 
 of this title apply to aliens being free white persons and to 
 aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent,” 
 and by substituting therefore the following words: “The privi¬ 
 lege of citizenship by naturalization is open to every alien who 
 fulfills all the intellectual and moral requirements of the law 
 specified in paragraph (a) above, and also the requirements, 
 technical and moral, specified in the Act of June 26, 1906, and 
 its later amendments.” 
 
 Sec. 7. That all acts and parts of acts relating to the exclu¬ 
 sion of Chinese from and of special treatment of Chinese in the 
 United States, shall be and the same are hereby repealed; 
 namely, the acts of 
 
 July 5, 1884, September 13, 1888, May 5, 1892, 
 November 3, 1893, July 7, 1898, April 30, 1900, 
 
 June 6, 1900, March 3, 1901, April 29, 1902, 
 February 20, 1907, August 24, 1912, June 13, 1913, 
 
 and all amendments to the same. 
 
 Sec. 8. That the clause of Section 3 of the Act of February 
 5, 1917, establishing specified geographical zones the natives 
 from which are excluded, is hereby repealed. 
 
 Also the clause of Section 3 of the Act of February 5, 1917, 
 which provides that “no alien now in any way excluded from 
 or prevented from entering the United States shall be admitted 
 to the United States” is hereby repealed. 
 
 Sec. 9. That this act shall be in full force and effect on and 
 from the.day of......of the year 1920, A. D. 
 
 U 
 
STATISTICS AND DIAGRAMS 
 
 The following statistical table illustrates what the practical 
 results would be if the percentage proposal of this pamphlet 
 had gone into operation, July 1, 1911. 
 
 The figures show that even at 2 per cent there would have 
 been no restriction on the immigration from Northwest Europe. 
 At 10 per cent the permissible immigration from South, Central, 
 East and North Europe for 1919 would have been approximately 
 350,000. This would have been a considerable reduction as Com¬ 
 pared to the immigration from these countries in the years pre¬ 
 ceding the war. The permitted immigration from Japan would 
 have been materially less than the actual immigration of recent 
 years. At 5 per cent the restriction would have been quite severe 
 for the wdiole world except Northwest Europe. A more detailed 
 statement of the statistics may be secured from the office. 
 
 Permissible Immigration Under Plan of National Committee 
 
 Countries 
 
 Actual Immigration 
 
 Permissible 
 
 1911-1920 
 
 United Kingdom . 
 
 Scandinavia . 
 
 Germany. 
 
 1912 
 
 1913 
 
 1914 
 
 Max. 10% 
 
 Min. 3% 
 
 82,978 
 
 27,554 
 
 27,788 
 
 88,204 
 
 32,268 
 
 34,329 
 
 73,417 
 
 29,391 
 
 35,734 
 
 593,338 
 
 189,648 
 
 667,044 
 
 178,001 
 
 56,893 
 
 200,113 
 
 Total, Northwest Europe. 
 
 161,299 
 
 181,887 
 
 164,133 
 
 1,518,768 
 
 455,627 
 
 Italy. 
 
 Austria- PI ungary. 
 
 Russia. 
 
 157,134 
 
 178,882 
 
 162,395 
 
 265,542 
 
 254,825 
 
 291,040 
 
 283,738 
 
 278,152 
 
 255,660 
 
 88,181 
 
 121,777 
 
 113,116 
 
 26,454 
 
 36,533 
 
 33,934 
 
 Total, South, Central, Ecist and 
 North Europe. 
 
 559,356 
 
 877,819 
 
 906,395 
 
 349,694 
 
 105,502 
 
 China. 
 
 Japan. 
 
 1,608 
 
 6,136 
 
 2,022 
 
 8,281 
 
 2,354 
 
 8,929 
 
 1,630 
 
 1,000 
 
 500 
 
 600 
 
 12