lengthy discussion, passed the act of 1907. No great change in policy
was effected by this law which, for the most part, only revised the
wording of the old laws and modified the methods of regulation. The head
tax of two dollars, hitherto levied on each alien, was doubled but was
made inapplicable to immigrants from our insular possessions or to
aliens who had resided for a year either in the British possessions in
North America, or in Cuba or Mexico. All aliens suffering from
tuberculosis or loathsome diseases or those who were "mentally or
physically defective, such mental or physical defect being of a nature
which may affect the ability . . . to earn a living," were excluded.