line is limited to the husband, wife, and unmarried minor children, all of whom must comply with all of the restrictive provisions of the present immigration laws except the quota act.

NO "ENDLESS CHAIN" OF RELATIVES.

Objections to the effect that the admission of wives and children of aliens who have been here at least two years, and who have had first papers for at least one year will result in an "endless chain" proposition, in that those first-paper aliens will ultimately have citizenship papers and will then be able to bring fathers, mothers, and orphaned nieces and nephews, are unsound, in the opinion of the committee.

The bringing of such persons will not be in great numbers, and does not open new lines of blood or collateral relationship. The only new families permissible are those few who may come as under certain exempted classes (minister and wife, etc.), and those who may come as quota" immigrants.

Herein lies one of the prime reasons for reduction of quota to 2 per cent and establishment of base for quota on the 1890 census. The plan is to admit the fewest possible number of new individuals— new seed-a top number of 186,437 annually as against a possible 387,803 new family lines under present quota law.

Further, the gross immigration since the outbreak of war in Europe to date-eight and one-half years-has been small, and made up in considerable part of members of families endeavoring to unite.

Now is the time to reduce the possibility of the entrance of new individuals of new families to the lowest practical minimum, which the bill of the House committee does. It reduces rather than increases the endless-chain possibilities.

The committee believes that the preference clauses in the present quota act have resulted in many families being brought together.

Grandparents are denied admission as "nonquota" immigrants in order to prevent future appeals for admission from lines running to the grandparents. The latter must come within quotas or not at all.

TO END PERSONAL APPEALS.

The committee also believes that Senators and Representatives desire to be relieved of the necessity of making continued personal appeal in behalf of constituents in behalf of this or that family which has been divided through the rigidity of the present quota act.

The personal appeal presents great opportunity for fraudulent and shyster lawyers and dishonest go-betweens, as the committee has abundance of proof. These crooks often use the names of Senators and Representatives without the knowledge of the latter and at cost. to uninformed, unsuspecting, and helpless persons, who are thus bitterly imposed on.

WILL PREVENT ARRIVAL OF UNFORTUNATES AT GATES OF UNITED

STATES.

In behalf of the whole measure it may be said that Senators and Representatives, as well as all of their constituents, desire to end the arrival at the gates of the United States through misinformation or

misunderstanding of the general law, or misinterpretation of the quota law of those who can not be admitted. It is the sincere belief of those who offer this measure that it will reduce such cases to the lowest possible minimum. Twice in 20 months has Congress acted by joint resolution to correct quota-law hardships.

Instead of limiting relief to Armenian refugees, the committee believes that such relief should not be so limited to people of one race, for treaty and other reasons, and the committee believes that under its plan of strict regulation and searching examination both here and abroad there will be neither fraud nor excessive admissions.

2 PER CENT ON 1890 CENSUS, PLUS A BASE QUOTA OF 400. Inasmuch as the amendment of the House committee offers opportunity of admission to certain relatives, the committee believes that general immigration in addition thereto should be further restricted. Therefore the House amendment revises the quota act of May 19, 1921, as amended and extended, and reduces the quota to 2 per cent based on the census of 1890, rather than 3 per cent on the census of 1910 as at present. In addition to 2 per cent of the number of foreign-born individuals of the various nationalities resident in the United States as determined by the census of 1890, each such country is granted a base quota of 400. This is for the purpose of preventing unnecessarily small divisions from countries with extremely small quotas. The number of countries to be named as entitled to quotas will remain at 44, so that a possible 17,600 immigrants are added to quotas, which in many cases will be almost nil.

Thus the total quota will equal 168,837 plus the total base quota of 17,600, or 186,437, as against a possible quota admission of 357,803 under the present law. It is believed that admission of nonquota classes will fall considerably short of the difference between these two figures. This belief is supported by a study of recent immigra tion and consular statistics showing, first, that the total exempt classes under the present law are numerically small; and, second, that of the number of aliens now seeking to come to relatives a comparatively small number is coming to join citizens. Statistical tables showing classification of arriving and departing aliens for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1922, as well as tables for the first six months of the present fiscal year, are attached.

The determination of quotas, geographical boundaries, etc., is to be made by the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Secretary of Labor, as in the present act.

EQUALIZATION RATHER THAN DISCRIMINATION.

It should be stated that the reduction of the quotas to 2 per cent of the foreign born in the United States, according to the 1890 census, is not proposed for reasons in any sense discriminatory. It is assumed that some nations may represent to the State Department that to base the quotas on the census of 1890 amounts to discrimination against those nations whose nationals did not begin to come to the United States in considerable numbers until after that period. But this contention can not be well sustained for the following reason: The House committee's plan admits the close relatives of naturalized citizens and of certain declarants. Those who have come to the 78952-24-SEB 1A- -2

United States in the largest numbers in recent years make the greatest demand for the admission of these relatives, including wives and children. The resultant immigration under the House committee's proposal will be, therefore, from the countries which are granted small quotas by the use of 1890 census figures. Thus the plan brings about, as nearly as any set numerical plan of restriction can do so, an equalization rather than a discrimination. Countries which exhaust quotas are thus put on a par with countries which do not exhaust quotas.

Further, the use of the 1890 census as a standard gives a more equal proportion to those countries whose immigrants were the parents of children born in the United States and who, while representing social groups entitled to consideration, are in fact discriminated against under the present law for the very reason that they are better assimilated into our body politic.

To carry this out a little further, the later the immigrants have arrived, the closer their point of contact with those of their families left behind, while those who came here several decades ago have either brought relatives here to whom they owed support and assistance, or have fallen out of touch with them.

The total number of immigrants into the United States from western Europe between 1871 and 1880 was 2,080,266, while the total from southern and eastern Europe was only 181,638. But between 1901 and 1910 the total from the former was 2,007,119, while the number from southern and eastern Europe increased to 6,128,897. Thus, while immigration from western Europe was almost the same for the two decades, that from southern and eastern Europe increased from 181,000 to over 6,000,000. During the former period immigration from the latter portion constituted only 9 per cent of the total from Europe, while in the period from 1901 to 1910 it was about 75 per cent. The following table shows the gradual decrease of the old and rapid increase of the new immigration:

Total immigration from Europe, old and new (1882-1914)......... 19,526, 163 The quick exhaustion, during the past 20 months, of quotas allotted to certain countries from which the newer immigration has come,

1 Hearings, House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, 67th Cong., 4th sess., p. 588.

the using of these quotas largely by relatives (under the preferential clauses of the act of May 19, 1921, as amended and extended) further bears out the contentions just made.

AFFIDAVITS NOW REQUIRED BY CENTRAL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.

The hearings show that quite a number of central European countries are requiring their nationals who seek passports to come to the United States to produce affidavits from relatives or friends in the United States showing intent to support the immigrant on arrival. These affidavits, which are made in the United States, must bear certifications affixed at a consular office in the United States, for which a fee is required ranging from $5 up. The certificate and application plan outlined in the committee's measure will make these affidavits unnecessary.

CERTAIN EXEMPT CASES.

In order that the quota figures shall mean exactly what they purport to mean, all persons declared to be of the exempt classes are inade exempt from quota and are not counted in quota or out of quota according to circumstances as now, which is a cause of confusion and uncertainty. This change in the method of handling the exempt classes is one of the methods adopted in order to prevent just as far as possible the arrival at the ports of the United States of immigrants not entitled to enter. The committee believes the exemptions, including Government officials and their attendants, travelers, aliens in transit, bona fide students, certain professional classes, certain highly skilled contract laborers, sailors in pursuit of their calling, to be necessary.

HARDSHIPS TO BE MINIMIZED.

The main purpose of the House committee's bill, as shown by various clauses in the several sections, is, while further restricting immigration, to reduce hardships to the absolute minimum, to avoid the division of families, to save the nationals of other countries the expense, perils, and hardships of the ocean trip to the United States only to find that for any one of various reasons the immigrant or some member of his family may not enter. Under this plan there will be no further decisions of admission or exclusion based on a circumstance such as the horsepower of a ship or the location of an immigrant's name in alphabetical order on a manifest. A certificate plan has been devised and carefully worked out. It has the approval of all thoughtful students of the problems of immigration. It is the nearest approach to the examination of immigrants overseas, recommended by President Harding and so many others, that the United States may safely adopt unless we are willing that medical, physical, and mental examinations made in other lands shall be final, and that the making of such examinations shall be a subject of treaty regulations.

THE PRESIDENT'S RECOMMENDATION.

The recommendations of President Harding, in his message at the opening of the fourth session of the Sixty-seventh Congress, in regard to the above, were as follows:

Before enlarging the immigration quotas we had better provide registration for aliens, those now here or continually pressing for admission, and establish our examination boards abroad, to make sure of desirables only. By the examination abroad we could end the pathos at our ports, when men and women find our doors closed, after long voyages and wasted savings, because they are unfit for admission. It would be kindlier and safer to tell them before they embark.

CERTIFICATE PLAN OF CONTROL.

The certificate plan has been built up from suggestions of former Commissioner General Caminetti, Secretary of Labor Davis, the present Commissioner General, Mr. Husband, and others. All of these suggestions have been developed until a workable system has been devised which embraces the following steps:

(A) Application for admission as a quota or nonquota immigrant. (1) Filling out of blank (furnished free of charge) with name and vital statistics.

(2) Answers on the blank to questions approximately the same as are asked of the immigrant on arrival at Ellis Island or other United States port.

(3) Verification by oath before United States consular officer.

(B) Issuance by consular officer of quota or nonquota certificate. (1) Means of identification.

(2) No more quota certificates to be issued than indicated by quota figures.

(3) Certificate does not entitle immigrant to enter United States. (4) Certificates are taken up at port of entry and a certificate of arrival with photograph and identification is issued.

(5) This certificate of arrival may be used for naturalization purposes in lieu of the present unsatisfactory plan.

(C) Application by relatives in the United States.

(1) Prospective immigrants claiming to be in the nonquota classification by reason of certain relationship to persons in the United States shall not receive certificates except on authority of the Commissioner General of Immigration, to whom application must be made by the relatives under safeguarded conditions.

CAREFUL SUPERVISION.

A foundation is laid by the above plan for carrying out the recommendation of President Harding in regard to registration. The President said:

There are pending bills for the registration of the alien who has come to our shores. I wish the passage of such an act might be expedited. Life amid American opportunities is worth the cost of registration if it is worth the reeking, and the Nation has the right to know who are citizens in the making or who live among us and share our advantages while seeking to undermine our cherished institutions. This provision will enable us to guard against the abuses in immigration, checking the undesirable whose irregular coming is his first violation of our laws. More, it will facilitiate the needed Americanizing of those who mean to enroll as fellow citizens.