Races and Immigrants in America

by John R. Commons

The question of “poor physique” has come seriously to the front in recent reports of immigration officials. The decline in the average of physical make-up to which they call attention accompanies the increase in numbers of Southern and Eastern Europeans. While the commissioner at Ellis Island estimates that 200,000 immigrants are below the physical standards that should be required to entitle them to admission, the number certified by the surgeons is much less than this. Yet nine-tenths of even that smaller number are admitted, since the law excludes them only if other grounds of exclusion appear. That the physical test is practicable is shown by the following description of the qualities taken into account by the medical examiners at the immigrant stations; qualities which would be made even more definite if they were authorized to be acted upon:[151]—

“A certificate of this nature implies that the alien concerned is afflicted with a body not only but illy adapted to the work necessary to earn his bread, but also but poorly able to withstand the onslaught of disease. It means that he is undersized, poorly developed, with feeble heart action, arteries below the standard size; that he is physically degenerate, and as such not only unlikely to become a desirable citizen, but also very likely to transmit his undesirable qualities to his offspring should he, unfortunately for the country in which he is domiciled, have any.

“Of all causes for rejection, outside of those for dangerous, contagious, or loathsome diseases, or for mental disease, that of ‘poor physique’ should receive the most weight, for in admitting such aliens not only do we increase the number of public charges by their inability to gain their bread through their physical inaptitude and their low resistance to disease, but we admit likewise progenitors to this country whose offspring will reproduce, often in an exaggerated degree, the physical degeneracy of their parents.”

The history of the illiteracy test in Congress is a curious comment on lobbying. First introduced in 1895, it passed the House by a vote of 195 to 26, and the Senate in another form by a vote of 52 to 10. Referred to a conference committee, an identical bill again passed both Houses by reduced majorities. But irrelevant amendments had been tacked on and the President vetoed it. The House passed it over his veto by 193 to 37, but it was too late in the session to reach a vote in the Senate. Introduced again in 1898, it passed the Senate by 45 to 28, but pressure of the Spanish War prevented a vote in the House. The bill came up in subsequent Congresses but did not reach a vote.[152] The lobby is directed by the steamship companies, supported by railway companies, the Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association, and other great employers of labor. By misrepresentation, these interested agencies have been able at times to arouse the fears of the older races of immigrants not affected by the measure. Their fears were groundless, for the illiteracy test is not a test of the English language, but a test of any language, and it applies only to those who are 15 years of age and over, but does not apply to wife, children, parents, or grandparents of those who are admitted. With these reasonable limitations it would exclude only 1 in 200 of the Scandinavians, 1 in 100 of the English, Scotch, and Finns, 2 or 3 in 100 of the Germans, Irish, Welsh, and French; but it would exclude one-half of the South Italians, one-seventh of the North Italians, one-third to two-fifths of the several Slav races, one-seventh of the Russian Jews, altogether one-fifth or one-fourth of the total immigration.[153] But these proportions would not long continue. Elementary education is making progress in Eastern and Southern Europe, and a test of this kind would stimulate it still more among the peasants. Restrictive at first, it is only selective; it would not permanently reduce the number of immigrants, but would raise their level of intelligence and their ability to take care of themselves.

The foregoing principles do not apply to Chinese immigration. There the law is strictly one of exclusion and not selection. This distinction is often overlooked in the discussion of the subject. Respecting European, Japanese, and Korean immigration, the law admits all except certain classes definitely described, such as paupers, criminals, and so on. Respecting Chinese immigration the law excludes all except certain classes described, such as teachers, merchants, travellers, and students. In the case of European immigration the burden of proof is upon the immigration authorities to show that the immigrant should be excluded. In the case of the Chinese, the burden of proof is on the immigrant to show that he should be admitted. In the administration of the law the difference is fundamental. If the Chinese law is liberalized so as to admit doctors, lawyers, and other professional classes, against whom there is no objection, it can be done in one of two ways. It can name and specify the additional classes to be admitted. To this there is little objection, for it retains the existing spirit of the law. Or it can be reversed, and can admit all classes of Chinese except coolies, laborers, and the classes now excluded by other laws. If this were done, the enforcement of the law would break down, for the burden of proof would be lifted from the immigrant and placed on the examining board. The law is with great difficulty enforced as it is, but the evasions bear no comparison in number with those practised under the other law. European immigration is encouraged, provided it passes a minimum standard. Chinese immigration is prohibited unless it exceeds a maximum standard. One is selection, the other is exclusion. One should be amended by describing new classes not to be admitted, the other by describing classes which may be admitted.

This difference between the two laws may be seen in the effects of the restrictions which have from time to time been added to the immigration laws. Each additional ground of restriction or selection has not decreased the total amount of immigration, nor has it increased the proportion of those debarred from admission. In 1898, 3200 aliens were sent back, and this was 1.4 per cent of those who arrived. In 1901, 3900 were sent back, but this was only three-fourths of 1 per cent of those arriving. In 1906, 13,000 sent back were 1.2 per cent of the arrivals. Intending immigrants as well as steamship companies learn the standards of exclusion and the methods of evasion, so that the proportion who take their chances and fail in the attempt is very small. Nevertheless, this deportation of immigrants, though averaging less than 1 per cent, is a hardship that should be avoided. It has often been proposed that this should be done through examination abroad by American consuls or by agents of the Immigration Bureau. Attractive and humane as this proposal appears, the foreign examination could not be made final. It would remove the examiners from effective control, and would require a large additional force as well as the existing establishment to deport those who might evade the foreign inspection. It does not strike at the root of the evil, which is the business energy of the steamship companies in soliciting immigration, and their business caution in requiring doubtful immigrants to give bonds in advance to cover the cost of carrying them back.[154] It is not the exclusion law that causes hardship, but the steamship companies that connive at evasions of the law. The law of 1903 for the first time adopted the correct principle to meet this evasion, but with a limited application. Since 1898, the Bureau had debarred increasing numbers on account of loathsome and contagious diseases. But these had already done the injury which their deportation was designed to prevent. In the crowded steerage the entire shipload was exposed to this contagion. Congress then enacted the law of 1903, not only requiring the steamship companies to carry them back, as before, but requiring the companies to pay a fine of $100 for every alien debarred on that account. In 1906, the companies paid fines of $24,300 on 243 such deportations. The principle should be extended to all classes excluded by law, and the fine should be raised to $500. Then every agent of the steamship companies in the remotest hamlets of Europe would be an immigration inspector. Their surgeons and officials already know the law and its standards of administration as thoroughly as the immigration officials. It only needs an adequate motive to make them cooperators with the Bureau instead of evaders of the law. Already the law of 1903 has partly had that effect. One steamship company has arranged with the Bureau to locate medical officers at its foreign ports of embarkation. However, the penalty is not yet heavy enough, and the Commissioner-General recommends its increase to $500. By extending the law to all grounds of deportation in addition to contagious diseases, the true source of hardship to debarred aliens will be dried up.[155]

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INDEX

A
Advertising, [26], [29], [84], [85], [104], [108], [109].
Age Composition of Immigrants, [119].
Agriculture, [130], [131], [132], [133].
Alien Contract Labor Law, [118].
American Federation of Labor, [144].
Americanization, [208].
Armenians, [65], [99].
Asiatic Immigration, [101-104].
Assimilation, [17-21], [113], [198].
Atlanta University, [58], [59], [61].
Australia, [6], [19].
Austria-Hungary, [18], [65], [79-87].
B
Births, [57], [86], [94].
Bohemians, [80], [82], [132].
Boston, [203], [215].
Brinton, Daniel G., [212].
Burlingame Treaty, [111].
Butcher Workmen, [150].
C
California, [101], [103], [117].
Canada, [104]. (See [“French Canadians.”])
Carib, [106].
Castes, [8].
Charity, [108].
Charity Organization Society of New York, [100].
Chicago, [47], [110], [165], [178].
Child Labor, [152].
Chinese, [101], [109], [111], [114], [117], [130], [131], [132], [143], [144], [146], [156], [231]. (See [“Coolies.”])
Chinese Exclusion, [117], [152], [235].
Cities, [54], [55], [164], [165], [166], [215].
Civil War, [3], [63], [64], [98], [111], [129], [175].
Classes in America, [8], [12].
Closed Shop, [205].
Colorado Fuel and Iron Company, [150], [219].
Colored Farmers’ Alliance, [50].
Competition, Race, [113], [114], [115], [116], [117], [148], [149], [151], [204], [208].
Contract Labor, [99], [102], [104], [108], [109], [110], [118], [135], [138], [141], [142], [143], [231]. (See [“Coolies,”] [“Peonage.”])
Coolies, [109], [152]. (See [“Chinese,”] [“Japanese.”])
Coöperation, [49], [50].
Cost of Living, [73]. (See also [“Standard of Living.”])
Crime, [26], [168-175].
Croatians, [80], [81], [83], [84], [109], [122], [123].
Curran, Father, [223].
D
Death-rate, [58], [60], [61], [86], [95]. (See [“Infant Mortality.”])
Distribution of Immigrants, [130], [224-230].

Drunkenness, [172].
Dutch, [24], [88], [89], [123].
Dutch East India Company, [108].
E
Education, [45], [46], [52], [146], [214]. (See [“Illiteracy.”])
Educational Tests, [44], [45], [52], [194], [231], [232], [234]. (See [“Negro.”])
Eminence of Races in America, [23-27], [31], [32].
Employment Agencies, [229].
English Race, [17], [23], [25], [128].
Erie Canal, [130].
F
Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, [42], [44], [188].
Filipinos, [140], [142], [143], [144].
Finns, [95-97].
Fleming, Professor W. L., [226].
Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, [42], [44], [45].
French, [25], [128].
French Canadians, [25], [97], [151], [199].
G
Galicia, [93]. (See also [“Austria-Hungary.”])
Germans, [24], [30], [65], [67-68], [84], [122], [132], [152].
Greeks, [47], [122].
H
Hampton Institute, [49].
Hawaii, [99], [101], [102], [103], [105], [131], [132], [142], [196].
Hawaiian Sugar Planters’ Association, [234].
Heredity, [5].
Hoffman, Fred L., [55], [57].
Huguenots, [24-25].
I
Illiteracy, [76], [79], [194].
Immigration, [22-38], [63-106].
Immigration Bureaus, [225], [237].
Incentives to Immigration, [27-31], [63-68], [72], [76], [77], [80], [84-87], [88], [95], [96], [99], [100], [101], [107], [108].
India, [9], [10], [103], [141], [142].
Indigenous Races, [104].
Industrial Capacity of Races, [127-134].
Industrial Education, [46], [47], [48]. (See [“Negro.”])
Industrial Prosperity and Depression, [63], [68], [72], [157].
Infant Mortality, [60], [62], [87]. (See [“Death-rate.”])
Initiative and Referendum, [185-187].
Irish, [24], [34], [65], [66], [67], [122], [151], [153], [204], [205].
Italians, [70-79], [109], [122], [123], [127], [130], [132], [140], [141], [147], [151], [153].
J
Japanese, [101], [102], [109], [114], [130], [131], [132].
Jefferson, Thomas, [1].
Jenks, J. W., [142].
Jews, [65], [81], [83], [87-95], [115], [122], [123], [127], [132], [133], [152], [153], [164].
K
Kelsey, Carl, [54], [55].
Knights of Labor, [118].
Knownothings, [117], [173].
Koreans, [103].
Kuczynski, R. R., [198], [207].
L
Labor, [124], [125], [126], [131], [134-159]. (See [“Wage Earners,”] [“Trade Unions.”])

Labor, Department of, [177], [178].
Landlordism, [64], [66], [72], [85], [87], [180].
Languages, [20], [94], [97].
Law, John, [108].
Leadership, [52].
Legislation, [111], [117], [118], [136], [231], [234], [236].
Lincoln, Abraham, [43], [213].
Lodge, Henry Cabot, [22-25].
Longshoremen, [150].
M
Machinery, [125], [156].
Magyars, [81], [82], [83], [84], [123].
Malay Races, [140], [142].
Mallock, W. H., [179].
Marriage, [203].
Mexicans, [132].
Military Duties, [75].
Miners, [129], [130], [150], [154].
Mob Violence, [173], [174], [175].
Molly Maguires, [129].
Morality, [61], [62], [204]. (See [“Prostitution.”])
Münsterberg, Hugo, [179].
N
Naturalization, [111], [188], [189], [190], [194].
Negro, [3], [12], [16], [39-62], [106], [108], [112], [113], [114], [136], [137], [139], [140], [147], [172], [209].
New York, [164], [214], [215].
Norwegians, [164]. (See [“Scandinavians.”])
P
Padroni, [102], [103], [109], [118], [229].
“Pale of Settlement,” [91].
Penn, William, [29], [108].
Pennsylvania, [29], [30], [31].
Peonage, [135], [136], [137], [138], [139], [141].
Philippine Commission, [144].
Philippine Islands, [106], [141], [179], [180].
Poles, [83], [123], [152].
Political Boss, The, [182].
Political Exiles, [68].
Population, [53-58], [76], [157], [160]. (See [“Births”] and [“Death-rates.”])
Porto Rico, [106], [218].
Portuguese, [98], [152].
Poverty and Pauperism, [26], [66], [76], [167], [175-178].
Primaries, Direct, [185].
Profits, [108], [155].
Prohibition, [173].
Proportional Representation, [184].
Prostitution, [57].
Protective Tariff, [158].
Q
Quakers, [28], [29].
R
Race Problem, [4], [8], [40], [42], [43], [44], [113]. (See [“Negro.”])
Races, [3], [5], [7], [8], [12-17], [87], [88], [104-106], [108], [211]. (See individual name of race.)
Race Suicide, [198], [200].
Railroads, [130], [156], [225].
Reconstruction, [43], [50].
Religion, [28], [186], [217-219]. (See [“Incentives to Immigration.”])
Restriction of Immigration, [116 n.], [117], [118], [175], [230], [231].
Ripley, W. Z., [95].
Roosevelt, Theodore, [201], [206].
Rosenberg, Edward, [144].
Roumanians, [83], [84], [123].
Russia, [87], [92], [93], [132].
Ruthenians, [80], [83], [123].
S
Scandinavians, [24], [132], [152]. (See [“Norwegians.”])

Scotch Irish, [23-24], [31-38], [128], [151]. (See [“Irish.”])
Self-government, [2-4], [42], [43], [49], [53].
Seymour, Governor Horatio, [29].
Shaler, Professor N. S., [10].
Slavs, [14], [65], [80], [82], [83], [152].
Slovaks, [81], [83], [151].
Social Settlements, [219].
Socialism, [181].
Spaniards, [128].
Standard of Living, [112], [115], [151], [153], [208].
Statistics, [119], [130], [158], [160-178], [198]. (See [“Population,”] [“Births,”] [“Death-rate.”])
Steamship Lines, [84], [85], [107], [110], [237], [238].
Stone, A. H., [147].
Strikes, [102], [149].
Suffrage, [2], [42], [43], [44], [51], [52], [117], [182], [183], [188], [220]. (See also [“Educational Tests.”])
Sweatshops, [115], [133], [148].
Swedes, [47].
Syrians, [99], [151].
T
Taft, Governor, [143].
Taxation, [74], [75], [84], [86].
Temporary Immigration, [77], [98], [101].
Test Act, [35].
Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, [42].
Trade Unions, [50], [51], [115], [129], [149], [150], [152], [154], [205], [220], [221], [222], [223], [224]. (See [“Labor”] and [“Wage Earners.”])
Triple Alliance, [75].
Tuskegee Institute, [49].
U
United Garment Workers of America, [115 n.], [150].
United Hebrew Charities of New York, [167].
United Mine Workers of America, [150].
W
Wage Earners, [111-118], [157].(See [“Labor.”])
Wages, [112], [113], [129], [140], [148], [152], [153], [155], [157], [159]. (See [“Labor.”])
Wage System, The, [147].
Walker, Francis A., [198], [200], [207].
Watson, Elkanah, [200].
Wealth Production and Immigration, [119], [159].
Welfare Work, [219].
Wilcox, Professor, [227].