The federal administration and the alien; a supplement to Immigration and the future

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THE FEDERAL ADMINISTRATION
AND THE ALIEN

A SUPPLEMENT TO
IMMIGRATION AND THE FUTURE

FRANCES KELLOR

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THE FEDERAL

ADMINISTRATION AND

THE ALIEN

A Supplement to
IMMIGRATION AND THE FUTURE

BY

FRANCES KELLOR

AUTHOR OF "immigration AND THE FUTURE," "EXPERI-
MENTAL SOCIOLOGY," "out OF WORK,"
"straight AMERICA," ETC.

NEW '"^Ir YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

THE NEW YORK
PUBLIC LIBRARY

/:■ I OR, LENOX AND

riLDSN FOUNDATiONS

R 1931 L

. corYnianT, looii

BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

FOREWORD

The Federal Administration and the Alien is a supple-
ment to Immigration and the FiUiire, published in Janu-
ary of this year.

The last national election reposed such an overwhelm-
ing confidence of both native and foreign born people
in the new Federal Administration that there is ground
for renewed hope of the possibility of obtaining an
immigration policy which will be representative of the
w^ishes of all of the people of this great Republic.

There are indications that the hysteria concerning an
"immigrant inva^on" is disappearing; and that there
is to be a return to a quiet time of normal thinking
and just feeling. The appointment of exceptionally able
statesmen to the posts of Secretary of State, of the
Treasury, and of Commerce, strengthens the belief that
the international aspects of immigration will receive
due attention. The appointment of a Commissioner-
General of Immigration thoroughly familiar with the
subject is a further assurance that the national conduct
of immigration will be improved, and that the laws will
be better enforced. There is a likelihood that the per-
centage limitation bill will pass Congress, in which case
the apprehension concerning an ''alien invasion" will be
be removed. This will set the American mind free to
consider larger phases of the question.

It therefore seems to be an opportune time to urge
that we take time to study, to analyze, and to com-
pare notes upon the post-war changes which affect aliens.
The consideration of aliens as international human beings

vi FOREWORD

and of their migration from place to place, as an im-
portant element in the industrial, economic, social, and
political life of both emigration and immigration coun-
tries, does not lend itself to rush action.

The inheritance from the war is too great for such,
action to be wise. The American government policy has
hitherto been to supervise the alien to the point of his
adoption or rejection. Official acquaintance with him is
limited largely to his ocean trip. The presence of thirty or
more racial minorities in this country, all possessing a
keen personal interest in international affairs, indicates
that there should be a closer acquaintance between the
American people and their alien guests. Naturally, Amer-
icans look to their national government for leadership in
affairs which involve foreign peoples. Therefore, a per-
manent policy waits the assumption of such leadership by
the new Federal Administration.

Immigration and the Future was intended to be a
dispassionate analysis. It sought to portray the nature
of the facts, the kind of procedure, as well as the attitude
of mind which appear to be indispensable to the exten-
sion of the American immigration policy. The hearings
on the Johnson bill to suspend immigration, held by the
Senate Immigration Committee, but corroborated the
beliefs, previously set forth, that scientific information
of a trustworthy character, free from class interests,
must precede the formation of a sound public opinion,
and that any action taken without it is likely to be a
political blunder. Also, that discussion on a broader scale
than that of labor supply must prevail in our councils, if
we would avoid the loss of a large part of the immi-
grants' possible contribution to American life.

This supplement deals primarily with the immediate
problems confronting the Administration. At the same
time, it seeks to place the responsibility for an inquiry

FOREWORD vii

which will assure the foundations of a permanent policy.
It indicates the necessity for considering immigration as
part of the larger international questions which now
occupy our minds. It deals with the individual alien, the
problems he endures as well as those he creates, apart
from the regulation of the amount of immigration. It
separates the man from the mass.

I am indebted to the Piibiic Ledger for the courtesy
of reprinting the following articles which have appeared
in its columns. The response to the points of view there-
in expressed seemed to indicate that a reprint might be
of service in the formulation of public opinion, — an
opinion which is fast crystallizing in favor of a more
humane policy toward the alien, and a more just policy
for the country.

Frances Kellor

April 20, 1^21

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

Synopsis xi

I. The Emergency 17

11. Fundamentals of a Policy .... 24

III. Order in Administration 30

IV. Harmony between Nation and States . 35
V. Protection of the Alien 40

VI. Naturalized Voter between Elections . 47

VII. International Inconsistencies .... 52

VIII. Racial Minorities in the United States . 58

IX. Immigration Turnover 63

X. Is Every Alien a Potential Citizen? . 69

XI. The International Outlook .... 74

SYNOPSIS

Chapter I. {The Emergency.^ Page 17. — The immediate pro-
gram is to get Ellis Island to the point of efficiency that existed
before the war ; to enforce the present immigration law ; to reas-
sign and coordinate Federal duties so as to avoid overlapping ; to
overhaul the antiquated naturalization service; to protect fully the
alien through the State Department ; to stabilize immigration
through the Commerce Department; to capitalize immigration
through the Treasury Department ; and to provide a permanent sub-
stitute for emergency legislation through Congressional inquiry.

Chapter II. {Fundamentals of a Policy.) Page 24. — The Amer-
ican immigration policy, so far as the admission of immigrants
is concerned, possesses four of the essentials of completeness —
regulation, sanitation, deportation, and naturalization. Of the essen-
tials that relate to the immigrants after admission it possesses one,
namely, naturalization, and lacks all of the others — distribution,
stabilization, capitalization, protection, and education. The facilities
for all of them exist but they have not been applied in the form of
an operating system. This country receives but does not follow up
its aliens. It deports but it does not, consciously, insure against
deportation.

Chapter III. {Order in Administration.) Page 30. — The method
of handling the alien problem during the war was largely respon-
sible for the demoralization of immigration administration. Respon-
sibilities were parcelled out and that led to dilatoriness in some
quarters, to excessive zeal in others, and resulted generally in con-
fusion and overlapping of effort. To get at the bottom of the
situation and deal with it fundamentally is the first step necessary
to the simplification of the present complicated system and to the
development of an effective one.

Chapter IV. {Harmony Between Nation and States.) Page 35.
— The manifold control of the alien makes him at once the most
regulated and the least controlled of human beings. A human
shuttlecock, buffeted about between country of origin and country
of destination ; between nation and state ; between locality and indus-
try; between friend and foe; he is driven into a new citizenship

xii SYNOPSIS

or back to his home across the sea. The failure of the Federal
Government to assume and maintain complete control of the alien
has been largely responsible for this state of affairs. It has been
partly responsible for racial colonies and racial cleavages, and
for American prejudices. It has accustomed native-born people to
trust to luck that all will come out right in the end. But what
end?

^ Chapter V. (Protection of the Alien.) Page 40. — The protec-
tion of the alien is an obligation imposed upon the national Admin-
istration by treaty agreements. He is bound to obey our laws but
we are equally bound to respect his rights as an international human
being. The imposition of unjust discriminations provokes evasion
and contempt for American law. It is but a step from suppres-
sion to exploitation. The necessity for protection from exploitation
promotes racial cleavages. This leads to conflict over jurisdiction
of the alien as between representatives of foreign governments and
our own. The United States has not assumed its full duties in this
respect, and to this may be traced much of the aliens' misunder-
standing of American institutions and reluctance to acquire citizen-
ship. The new treaties should provide for a better protection,
and the State Department should make an inquiry into the subject
to perfect the laws and its own service to better carry out the spirit
of international agreements.

Chapter VI. {Naturali:;ed Voter Between Elections.) Page 47.
— Internationalism crept into the last national election. The votes
of the foreign-born decided the election. These votes were based
largely upon the effects which American policies had produced in
the countries of Europe. It was an exceptional situation, and it
ought not to happen again. It will recur, however, if American
administrators take no notice of the foreign-born voter between
elections. It will persist, if the foreign-born voter is not called
into counsel and made to feel that he is participating in American
affairs. Larger and larger grows the immigrant's opportunities in
Europe ; smaller and smaller seems to be his outlook here. The
richest and most varied storehouse of racial information and expe-
rience in all the world lies unused between elections.

Chapter VII. {International Inconsistencies.) Page 52. — The
American Government drifted into internationalism after the war.
The first indication was the Labor Conference which convened in
Washington. The second indication was the arrival of a permanent
correspondent of the League of Nations, and the third indication
was the decision to send a delegate to the conference of the Inter-
national Emigration Commission, after the election of 1920 had

SYNOPSIS xiii

served notice as to the American attitude toward international
questions. By these acts we have been misleading Europe. We
have committed immigration to the international labor group. We
shall have to drift back again and define our ideas anew. In this
we ought to have the confidence and support of our foreign-born
citizens, acting through natural and not subterranean channels of
diplomacy. But we will not have it unless roundabout methods are
abandoned, irresponsible official statements are checked, and officials
are held responsible for public utterances on racial affairs.

Chapter VIII. (Racial Minorities in the United States.) Page
58. — When the immigrant speaks for himself on behalf of free
speech or democracy, there is little question of his rights. When
he works in his own interests, little misunderstanding arises. But
when he resorts to mass action, and acts through organizations,
it creates a different situation. Ulterior motives are suspected,
sources of funds are questioned, and activities are looked upon with
suspicion. International propaganda has thrived on organization.
Racial minorities will probably collect in solidarities so long as
racial heritage and nationalism live. The question is not as to their
suppression but their use. The problem is not to discourage their
international values, but to find a place for them to function in
American affairs and through American channels. Conciliation,
not suppression — the note of the new Administration — should be
applied to this situation.

Chapter IX. (Immigration Turnover.) Page 63. — Immigration
turnover is expensive. It is costing heavily to set the immigrant
at work and to give him experience and training, only to lose him
when he is most valuable, economically. There is little in his short
experience here to urge him, when he returns home, to win the
good will and friendship of his countrymen for this country, as
an offset to this loss. There is little effort made to convert him
into a booster for Americanism, or into a salesman for American
goods. What use, if any, can be made of the returning immigrant,
and how can the loss be offset by international benefits? It is a
new field, but the increasing cost of production and the narrowing
margin of profits urge that the field be explored.

Chapter X._ (Is Every Alien a Potential Citizen.) Page 69. — A
discredited citizenship is a deterrent to many aliens who would be
glad to become citizens if they were sure that citizenship would
be recognized in their homelands and that they would be accorded
wherever they go the full protection of the American flag. That
recognition can be secured only through naturalization conventions
between countries. This is because each nation, for military and

xiv SYNOPSIS

financial reasons, wishes to retain its hold over its own nationals.
It creates an awkward situation for the foreign-born resident who
goes abroad to visit his family or settle his affairs. Compulsory
citizenship does not improve the situation, whether it be economic
or political force that is applied.

Chapter. XI. (The International Outlook.) Page 74. — The in-
ternational field is as indefinite as the national field is definite.
The League of Nations proposes to deal with a large number of
''twilight" questions which will be the problems of tomorrow.
Americans will hardly participate in the deliberations. Neverthe-
less, it is possible for us to study the points of view, tendencies,
and legislation in other countries on aliens and on immigration.
We can extend our immigration service abroad and promote con-
ferences for the interchange of opinions. We may even experiment
with immigration treaties. We shall certainly negotiate new treaties,
which will contain provisions to protect our citizenship. These
eventualities already loom before us. What other things are in
store for us in the dim recesses of the future no one can fore-
tell.

THE FEDERAL ADMINISTRATION
AND THE ALIEN

THE FEDERAL ADMINISTRATION
AND THE ALIEN

THE EMERGENCY

THERE is a widespread conviction that an immigra-
tion emergency exists. The House Committee on
Immigration and NaturaHzation beHeves it to be a flood
of immigrants. The Senate Committee on Immigration
beHeves it to be the reorganization of a demoraHzation
immigration administration. The House Committee finds
a remedy in the three per cent. Hmitation bill, covering
a period of one year. But the emergency which requires
consistent hard work and constructive thought to remedy
is as yet untouched.

There is real ground for the belief that the immi-
gration service is demoralized. The necessity con-
fronts the new Administration of restoring it to a pre-
war basis. The pivotal point of the whole system is
Ellis Island, which receives eighty per cent, of all im-
migration. The first task of the new Commissioner-Gen-
eral is to overhaul immigration stations. This involves
restoring the morale of the staff, weeding out superfluous
and undesirable incumbents, and establishing a service
that will really serve the immigrant. It involves, also,
the re-establishment of through transportation tickets,
and the restoration of pre-war privileges, and methods
to prevent congestion.

17

18 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

Hardly less important than installing a business man-
agement Is a proper enforcement of the immigration law.
Evasions of some of the most fundamental provisions
have long been notorious. Until the law is given a fair
trial we shall never know how effective it can really be-
come. That the law will actually be enforced, with re-
sponsibility centralized, is indicated by the transfer of
certain powers from the Secretary of Labor to the new
Commissioner-General, and by the abolition of advisory
boards and other agencies which divide responsibility.

It may be seriously questioned whether the application
of business management and the intention to enforce the
law will provide the necessary relief, unless there is a
recodification of the immigration law. It is defective in
definitions ; it is ambiguous in phrasing. Certain sections
of the law as now phrased are unenforceable, and provi-
sions dealing with the same matters are scattered through-
out the law. The House Committee on Immigration could
render a valuable service by employing a commission of
experts to recodify this law.

The clear separation of the powers of the State Depart-
ment with jurisdiction over resident aliens, and of the
Labor Department with power over the admission of
aliens, is perhaps the most acute problem in reorganizing
the various activities relating to aliens. The war indi-
cated very clearly that the regulation of immigration is
quite a separate question from the treatment of the alien
resident. In the former, the matter is wholly within the
power of the Federal Government to admit or reject who-
ever it will on whatever terms it pleases. In the latter,
the matter is governed by international agreement, in a
field by itself. The regulation of immigration was in the
first instance delegated to the State Department and has
been hunting a domicile ever since. Whether it can be
reinstated in the State Department is a question, but the

THE EMERGENCY 19

functions of the two — the power to admit the ah en, and
the power to deal with him after arrival — must be kept
separate, if there is to be an efficient administration of
the existing laws and agreements.

If better administration seems to be the problem of
the Labor Department, then a survey of the field and the
specification of powers and duties is perhaps the impor-
tant task for the State Department.

The State Department should make a careful inquiry
into the alien question as affected by conditions in the
various foreign countries; the policies adopted or under
consideration by these governments ; the treaties that they
have entered into or are considering with respect thereto;
the relations between the foreign governments and their
nationals who come to this country; the function of the
foreign consulates in so far as they deal with their nation-
als who have come here to live; the protection of aliens
by the Federal, State and municipal governments of the
United States ; a study of what has been done with regard
to the protection and the rendering of service to aliens
by the Federal, State and municipal governments of the
United States; the efficacy of the laws enacted; the need
for further legislation; the legislation that has been en-
acted or proposed for the purpose of restricting the aHens
in the use of their languages or in respect to their employ-
ment and ownership of property; the extent to which any
intelligent action has been taken or omitted to be taken
with regard to the education of the ahen and his children
as to such subjects as are important for their assimila-
tion ; the activities and utilization of organizations of the
various racial and Hnguistic groups; and in general the
status of the alien in his country as affected by treaties
between the United States and the country of which he
is or has been a subject, by our Constitution and laws,
and by the legislative, political and diplomatic poHcies of

20 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

the various governments whose subjects are domiciled in
this country.

There is no division in the Department of State that
keeps in touch with the organized activities of ahens such
as the many racial societies, trade bodies, foreign lan-
guage newspapers, etc. It is vitally important that the
State Department should be constantly informed con-
cerning them since all of them have an international in-
fluence; also that their information and cooperation be
secured for American interests. There should be a friend-
ly relationship, such as existed during the war, between
the State Department and these organizations. There is
no division in which all information on laws, decisions,
etc., affecting aliens is brought together or where a stand-
ard practice is being built up with reference to their pro-
tection. It is highly important that some official should
be charged with the specific duty of dealing with this
whole subject, including the direction of the inquiry pre-
viously outlined.

The reorganization of the naturalization bureau has
been urged for many years. The elimination of techni-
calities, and of delays; the reduction of costs; a better
organization of the educational work and the harmoniz-
ing of the various war emergency provisions are among
the most important matters. But the whole question has
been so affected by the war that a commission of experts
to go over the whole subject seems necessary before the
sources of the difficulties can be reached and wise provi-
sions be recommended. Obviously the granting of citizen-
ship is not a labor function and should be combined with
the other citizenship functions of the State Department.

The stabiHzation of immigration is primarily a com-
mercial matter and should receive the attention of the
Department of Commerce. Successful distribution to
the land is a great stabilizer, but it is essentially a ques-

THE EMERGENCY 21

tion of providing transportation, of funds, and of super-
vision until the immigrant has a start. Continuity of
employment is another stabilizer, but this depends upon
proper industrial organization, the maintenance of mar-
kets, and other factors. The use of racial groups to con-
trol the foreign market at home, the use of emigrants to
improve trade relations abroad — these illustrate the nature
of the probable stabilization methods of the future.

Opportunities to engage in business, especially exports,
and to obtain credit for new enterprises may well deter-
mine whether immigrants who have saved money will
remain here. The reduction of the cost of immigration
turnover, the increase in the output of new immigrants,
and the use of latent resources in trade — these are matters
that merit the attention of the Department of Commerce.
They suggest the creation of a division to take up the
stabilization of immigration as a factor of national and
international commercial importance.

The Treasury Department has the responsibility of
capitalizing the resources of the alien. That responsibil-
ity will not have been fully met until a way has been
found to safeguard the transmission of the immigrant's
money abroad and until interstate transactions in the sale
of land and the organization of land colonies are so regu-
lated as to prevent fraud. Until these safeguards are
provided, the immigrant will continue to risk his savings
and blame this country for his losses. He will refuse to
invest in American securities and will be suspicious about
buying a home, so long as nothing is done to protect his
savings and to interest him in American investments.
We have talked so long about the evils the immigrant may
bring us that it is time to consider measures to eliminate
some of the evils that beset the immigrant on every side.

The defeat in the New York State Legislature of the
bills which have for their object the protection of im-

22 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

migrants' savings, and the failure of Congress to pass
the bill which would have created a Bureau of Export
Savings indicate not only that this subject is difficult
upon which to legislate, but that its vital bearing upon
larger affairs has not yet become apparent to business
relations in the country. It is the heart of the racial eco-
nomic system and is not lightly to be dislodged.

Congress has intimated that the three per cent, limita-
tion bill is a temporary measure, pending the formula-
tion of a permanent policy to be determined through a
comprehensive inquiry into immigration. There is no
denying that Congress has an accumulation of ques-
tions to answer. Among them are: What is Amer-
icanization? What shall be done with the foreign
language press? Shall citizenship be compulsory, with
deportation as the penalty for refusal? Shall the troubles
of Europe be brought to this country? Shall aliens be
registered? Shall the use of the English language be
mandatory ? Shall immigration be further restricted, and
if so, how?

Congress also receives almost daily would-be panaceas,
and suggestions of all kinds, some of which merit con-
sideration. An inquiry, which will answer some of these
questions and will dispose of some of the accumulation
of panaceas, will be of immense service to the country
and may bring to it some permanent peace of mind.

But while Congress is coping with this mass of ma-
terial, weeding out the impractical and sifting out the
meritorious proposals for careful study, the government
should not lose sight of the immediate program which is
to restore Ellis Island to a basis of pre-war efficiency; to
enforce and recodify the existing immigration law, to re-
arrange Federal immigration duties so as to avoid over-
lapping ; to stabilize immigration through the Department
of Commerce; to capitalize the immigrant's resources

THE EMERGENCY 23

through the Treasury Department; to protect aHens; to
overhaul the antiquated naturaHzation service ; and to in-
stitute an inquiry which will provide a permanent substi-
tute for emergency measures.

II

FUNDAMENTALS OF A POLICY

T N the meantime, let us again examine the most pressing
"'- of the conditions which confront the new national
Administration, in the hope that it may be of service to
new officials who bring to the task, not only their own
best efforts but who have the good-will of the immigrant
and the confidence of the country.

The pocket veto of the three per cent, limitation bill
which was substituted for the Johnson bill to suspend
immigration has given a clean slate to the Republican
Administration.

Since the armistice was signed, no immigration legis-
lation has been passed, and whatever action is taken will
indicate what is to be the American post-war policy.
Such action will be regarded as a measure of the prog-
ress and of the strength which this country has realized
from its war experience. But the interval between the
veto and the special session of Congress does not give
the country time to propose any wise measure. Although
unemployment and typhus will not be "news" to help
their passage, it will be strange if emergency bills do not
appear early in the session. For we are by no means free
from the hysteria which prevailed during the winter.
This will doubtless have to be satisfied before progress
on a permanent measure can be made.

Could we have used the last three months in the prep-
aration of permanent legislation, instead of spending it
on emergency measures, at least preliminary suggestions

24

FUNDAMENTALS OF A POLICY 25

would be ready for the new Congress. But it is char-
acteristic of us that we do not at the same time have a
short range and long range view.

But the winter has not been quite wasted. The Sen-
ate Immigration Committee has rendered a distinguished
service which with time will grow in importance. Its
hearings have revealed how great is the measure of igno-
rance of post-war conditions. It has indicated how far
away we are from agreement upon policies. It has shown
although the country was in no danger of a flood
of immigration, because foreign countries were keeping
it at home, and because ships were lacking to bring it to
this country, that facts could not stem the feeling engen-
dered by propaganda and irresponsible statements. But a
more important revelation was the realization that we are
not thinking in constructive terms and, therefore, the
many witnesses had no constructive suggestions for a per-
manent policy. Many thought that our present laws, if
they were enforced, would answer the purpose. Much to
our amazement and confusion, each witness who appeared,
while using the same statistics, was able to present a dif-
ferent conclusion.

As the situation unfolded, under the competent ex-
amination of the Senate Immigration Committee, it be-
came clear that our first need is to formulate a permanent
policy which will contain the inescapable fundamentals
which are necessary to the success of an intelligent and
permanent plan. These fundamentals were fairly well re-
vealed during the hearings.

The selection of immigration came first. It appears,
however, that we have no method unless we include the
very efficient selection which is now carried on by resi-
dent immigrants. They invite their friends to come to
this country and accompany their invitations with prepaid
tickets. Eighty per cent, of all the immigrants who come

26 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

here are selected in this way. Personal relationships —
not the needs and welfare of the country — are the de-
termining influences. If personal desires and public wel-
fare sometimes agree, it is due to accident rather than to
design.

The regulation of immigration seems to have been next
in importance. From the mass of immigrants who were
selected by their friends and relatives, those who were
mentally, ph^^sically, and morally unsound, or who were
undesirable because of their political beliefs, were ex-
cluded. To these tests of fitness have been added a
literacy test and labor test. But, as was shown, the final
regulation as to numbers depends upon steamship ca-
pacity ; and the final regulation as to quality depends upon
the effectiveness with which the immigration law is being
enforced.

The sanitary precautions taken under the Health Serv-
ice were found to be effective. One of the reasons for
this efficiency is that the health service has been inter-
nationalized. In this way an effective cooperation has
been built up among nations.

The deportation of immigrants, adopted as part of the
immigration law to protect the country against evils
which might result after they had been admitted, ap-
peared to have become so popular that it was often used
to anticipate as well as to remedy evils. Deportation has
come to be considered as a good substitute for due process
of law, when convictions have seemed to be difficult to
obtain. A tendency not to discriminate in its use be-
tween trivial and grave offenses was also discernible.

But when the inquiry of the Senate Immigration Com-
mittee extended beyond the selection, regulation, sanita-
tion, and deportation of immigrants, it found a mass of
conjecture and ignorance which it seemed hopeless to
explore. There were vague plans for the distribution

FUNDAMENTALS OF A POLICY 27

of immigration. But no one seemed to know whether it
was wise, as was suggested in the Sterhng Bill, to have
the various states assemble information as to opportu-
nities for work and indicate their desire tO' accept immi-
grants, before they were admitted ; or, as was suggested
by a representative of the State Department, to have the
passport issued on condition that the immigrant would
live upon the land. On the whole it seemed better to
leave the whole question to voluntary efforts.

Protection of immigrants after arrival appeared to
be equally indefinite. The government has hitherto
seemed quite content to leave this matter to the repre-
sentatives of foreign governments. These act through
the State Department on complaints, or through sub-
sidized foreign agencies, or through foreign language
groups and their organizations, or by means of the for-
eign language press. True, we have treaty provisions and
laws which, in general, protect the immigrant, but aliens
who travel from place to place under peculiar handicaps,
in search of work and of a permanent foothold, often find
it easier not to go to the trouble of invoking them.

Stabilization of immigration has received almost no
official attention. The maintenance of wage rates and of
standards of living; the promotion of interest in Ameri-
can institutions; and the establishment of contacts which
would interest immigrants to remain in this country have
been left largely to voluntary organizations, or to class
activities. In the light of the fact that in twenty-eight
years about 14,500,000 third-class immigrants entered the
United States, while nearly 7,000,000 returned, stabiliza-
tion, it appears, may be rated at about fifty per cent.

The capitalization of the immigrants' resources is
largely concentrated in the racial economic system. This
includes racial employment agents, banks, lodging houses,
shops, insurance companies, and a press — all of which

28 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

have a personal interest in the savings of the immigrant.
From the amount of the sums sent abroad by immigrants
and the large quantities of imported goods which they
use, it would seem that American business is not fully
capitalizing the resources of immigrants.

The naturalization system under which ahens become
citizens, provides amply for men who take out their first
papers. But there is a tendency to compel aliens, by
legal or by economic force, to embrace citizenship. This
indicates that the eagerness of the alien to become an
American does not keep pace with the intention of the
American. This fact cautions us to look into prevailing
methods to ascertain what is askew.

Our system of free education is the pride of the coun-
try. For the child excellent provisions have been made.
We believe in the use of one language, in the elimination
of illiteracy, and in the extension of the knowledge of our
institutions. But thus far all bills which provide a way
by which the adult immigrant may more fully avail him-
self of these advantages have failed to pass Congress.

Of the ten inescapable fundamentals in the operation
of a successful national policy, the Senate Immigration
Committee, quite unintentionally but none the less clearly,
indicated that four had been adopted and were in opera-
tion— regulation, sanitation, deportation, and naturaliza-
tion. But the remaining six — selection, distribution, pro-
tection, stabilization, capitalization, and adequate educa-
tion for the adult immigrant — remain to be provided for.

In the meantime, while we dawdle with emergencies,
what is happening to the immigrant ? He is arriving. He
is somehow reaching his destination. He is finding work,
and he is, for the most part, succeeding. But he is also
going back home. Also, what is happening to the coun-
try? It is progressing. It is prospering. It is remaining
true to Its fundamental principles of Americanism. But

FUNDAMENTALS OF A POLICY 29

only a new country, inestimably rich in resources, and
operating on wide margins of profit, can possibly afford
the wasteful and expensive methods by which these re-
sults are being accomplished. And already the strain is
beginning to tell, in business depression and in govern-
ment apprehension. Even the immigrant soon becomes
jaded by his experience and struggle.

The true situation is that we possess but half a policy
— one which receives the immigrant, but in no way pro-
vides a system for his assimilation. The emergency is
to finish the structure, so we can decide intelligently
whether we will further restrict or admit immigration.
Unfortunately, the transition from the habit of patch
work to the attitude of permanent constructive thought
cannot be accomplished by leaps. We have drifted into
a state of mind, where the fog of propaganda and race
prejudice and class antagonism is very thick. The immi-
grant and the native American have ceased to see each
other clearly through the mass of immigration bills in
Congress.

So the country is bewildered, and public opinion looks
confidently to the new Federal Administration to provide
a policy and a program which will lead it toward the light.

Ill

ORDER IN ADMINISTRATION

PERHAPS the first step toward the light is to find out
what is the matter with Federal Government Depart-
ments which deal with immigration affairs. While many
of the difficulties existed prior to the war, so many new
aspects of immigration have since been presented that the
wonder is not that we have so many government depart-
ments dealing with the subject, but so few.

The presence in the country of enemy aliens, the dis-
tribution of international propaganda, the spending of
foreign money to influence public opinion, the departure
of aliens — half nationalist and half American — to fight
for their home countries, the raising of funds for Euro-
pean purposes, the revival of nationalist sentiment and the
consequent strengthening of solidarities and organiza-
tions, and the growth of racial opinion in the country —
these and many other changes have confused our grasp of
the new problems, and of their relation to each other.
They have demoralized the administrative machinery.

There are many examples of this demoralization. Some
wise statesman foresaw a situation like typhus, and safe-
guarded the situation by a provision in the quarantine
law giving the President full powers. But we must needs
rush into local disputes and the preparation of new bills
to suspend immigration, and into most expensive methods
of sanitation, rather than act through a President's proc-
lamation, which would have reached th^ sources of the

30

ORDER IN ADMINISTRATION 31

disease. The Lord Mayor of Cork brought to light the
long outstanding differences over passports between the
State and Labor Departments. Notwithstanding the
overwhelming decision of the country on November 2nd
not to participate in the League of Nations, a representa-
tive was sent abroad in February, under Section 29 of
the Immigration Law.

In the very delegation of existing powers there are
immense possibilities for misunderstanding among offi-
cials and for a wide misunderstanding by aliens of Amer-
ican institutions. The State Department has a consular
service, a passport division, and various other functions.
The Treasury Department has an investigation bureau,
a public health service, and collectors of the port, all con-
cerning themselves with the affairs of the alien. The
Labor Department has an immigration bureau, a natural-
ization bureau, a division of information and an employ-
ment service. The Interior Department has a bureau of
education. The War Department has a recruit educa-
tional service. The Treasury and Post Office Depart-
ments share in the responsibility of dealing with the sav-
ings of immigrants. The Post Office Department has a
censorship of the foreign language press and the regu-
lation of foreign mails. The Commerce Department has
a census bureau and navigation bureau. At least four de-
partments have their own secret services.

Each of these government agencies is not only a point
of activity but it is also a center of information. Prob-
ably nowhere else in the world is there such a valuable
storehouse of information on all racial matters as there is
in this country. During the war, these departments spent
large sums of money to gather facts about the ahen, but
the information so gathered has never been assembled and
analyzed. The various facts have not been related and
their significance understood. In this condition, they are

32 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

useless as the basis for any intelligent policy. The an-
swers to many of the questions to which the Senate Immi-
gration Committee received no answer are in the records
gathered during the war.

But instead of creating at the beginning of the war a
bureau of aliens in the State Department and centralizing
all activities there, the duty of dealing with alien matters
was distributed to some forty or more services or officials
in the various departments. In the haste to demobilize
war activities not only the records, but much of the ex-
perience, of war organization has been lost.

It is doubtful if, administratively speaking, the immi-
grant question can be put together again without a thor-
ough examination into the situation. The transfer of a
few bureaus and of a few officials will not greatly improve
a situation which, if muddled at home, muddles our inter-
national relations. To be sure, administration is our own
affair. But we cannot prevent its results from being some
other nation's affair when the subject is an international
human being.

Coordination without a fundamental rmderstanding of
the immigration question is impossible. Where, for in-
stance, does the health service belong? Should it be at-
tached to immigration, or should the examination of
aliens be but one phase of its activity? Why is the Bureau
of Naturalization in the Labor Department, and the
Bureau of Citizenship in the State Department and what
is the relation between the two ? Does the education of the
alien belong to the Labor or to the Interior Department?
Are the principles underlying citizenship or are those of
education to determine its final location?

If there is to be a reorganization of the Federal admin-
istrative machinery, for once let us go to the bottom of
immigration and decide the question on its merits — a.

ORDER IN ADMINISTRATION 33

thing we have not done since the alien was placed in
charge of the Federal Government. We ought not to
take one step until a full inquiry has been made into the
situation. Such an inquiry should cover :

First, an examination of the principles of the immi-
gration law as to the origin of the existing provisions,
the considerations that dictated their passage, and their
applicability to the present situation.

Second, a study of the administration of present laws,
with especial reference to the powers of various bureaus,
the duties of officials, the superfluity and duplication of
effort, the personnel, and appropriations.

Third, a study of post-war conditions, concerning
which no policy or legislation has been adopted. These
include such matters as the hiatus created by the suspen-
sion, of war regulations, and the failure to pass laws more
suited to present conditions, and the changed status of
the alien.

Fourth, a survey of the progress which assimilation of
immigration is making, together with an analysis of the
forces which are operating for and against its success.
The tendency to base legislation upon a capacity for as-
similation creates a situation in which we may find our-
selves constructing a policy upon an insecure foundation.

Fifth, the collection of international information from
emigration countries covering the laws, regulations, or-
ders and conventions dealing with emigration and aliens ;
together with an analysis of the changes taking place in the
countries from which the United States receives immi-
gration. Similar information from countries which are
now competing with the United States for immigration
would be useful.

An important step, therefore, in the present emergency
is to put the present administrative machinery in running

34 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

order. But it will soon be obsolete in type unless we map
out an inquiry which will insure the kind of overhauling
necessary to perfect the handling of the present immigra-
tion traffic, and to improve the law that governs it.

IV

HARMONY BETWEEN NATION AND STATES

WZ HEN the states relinquished their full rights to the
^ ^ regulation of immigration, they were less specific
about their rights toward the alien. During the war the
conflict of authority between nation and states indicated
how loosely this matter is regarded. Today it presents
almost as delicate a situation as does the promotion of
harmony among Federal agencies. Whether the regu-
lation of aliens is to rest exclusively with the Federal Gov-
ernment is, however, a question which must be settled.

It has been assumed, since the Federal Government
took control of immigration in 1882, that immigration
was thoroughly nationalized. But with every new emerg-
ency, we find states and municipalities exercising powers
in contradiction of this assumption. When the United
States entered the war and the enemy alien became a
menace. New York State undertook to deal with the situ-
ation within its borders, only to be reprimanded by Fed-
eral authorities. When the "one language" campaign was
inaugurated, it was a state which undertook to prohibit
the use of all foreign languages. When the cry of Bol-
shevism was raised, it was the New York State Lusk
Committee that crossed lances with the United States
Attorney General. When the patriotism of foreign born
citizens was questioned, it was a state which prohibited
the circulation of publications in foreign languages.

The war spirit did but follow, however, precedents
which had been established during times of peace. Then,

[35

36 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

whenever unemployment prevailed, it had been municipal-
ities that had passed laws which prohibited aliens from
following certain callings. In some states, corporations
had been prohibited from employing more than a certain
percentage of aliens. In other states, employers required
citizenship papers as a condition to work in their plants.

Such discrimination had become so widespread during
the Armistice that the American Bar Association recom-
mended that the President be authorized to direct the
Attorney General to file a bill in equity against any person
threatening to violate the rights of any citizen or subject
of another country which were secured to them by treaty
rights. It was recommended that this provision should
apply to acts threatened by state officers under the sup-
posed justification of state laws. The proposed bill further
provided that any act committed in violation of such
rights, which constitutes a crime under state laws, shall
constitute a crime against the peace and dignity of the
United States and may be prosecuted in the courts of
the United States. And further, that the President may
use United States marshals to maintain the peace of the
United States when such violations occur and may use the
army and navy for such purposes if, in his judgment, the
circumstances demand it.

But such confusion between nation and states has long
been tolerated. The naturalization law furnishes the most
striking example. When naturalization became a Federal
matter, state residence was retained as a condition prece-
dent to the granting of papers. There has been no greater
obstacle to the accjuirement of citizenship. By our own
terms of employment, the alien is, in many instances,
compelled to become a migratory workman. As such,
he finds great difficulty in living long enough in any one
state to complete his naturalization.

The question is, how far may states go in such mat-

HARMONY IN NATION & STATES 37

ters as prohibiting the use of foreign languages, the
exclusion of aliens from certain occupations, the inter-
ference with the possession and use of personal prop-
erty and in forbidding the purchase of land by aliens?
The discriminations of which aliens complain are due
rather to a lack of understanding by the states of the na-
tion's treaty obligations than to any desire on their part
to contravene their guaranties. But it has apparently
never been made clear to state and local authorities just
where the rights of the nation end and those of the states
begin.

Our treaty agreements generally contain ''most favored
nation" clauses, under which citizens or subjects of for-
eign countries are to be allowed to enter, travel, or reside
in any part of the United States, and to carry on their
business and enjoy the same protection for their persons
and property as that enjoyed by citizens or subjects of the
''most favored nation." Some of these treaties, as in the
case of Serbia, frequently specify that there shall be no
discrimination against such foreign-born citizens or sub-
jects in the exercise of their trade or business, and that
they shall not be subjected to taxes or conditions of any
kind that are more onerous than those imposed upon na-
tives or citizens or subjects of other nations.

With the alien tending toward temporary residence and
nationalism and giving increasing thought to the upkeep
of his native country; and with the American bent upon
restriction, registration and suppression of racial differ-
ences and expression, protection increasingly becomes an
affair of state. A way must be found to prevent the en-
forcement of laws which contravene agreements that are
not only beyond legislative acts but are beyond the Con-
stitution itself. These agreements while they have the
force of law, rest only upon good faith, and the ultimate
penalty for their violation is war. We must find a way

38 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

to fully safeguard aliens, for as things now are, only
those who are loud and insistent in their complaints, or
who command powerful influences, racial or otherwise,
obtain redress, while, to the mass of aliens, no attention
at all is paid. It is impossible under such conditions to
leave the protection of the alien to the remote consular
agent or to the good graces of the reformer. Nothing
but a profound statesmanship and a broad, tolerant,
understanding policy can successfully shape the course
of the alien in this country, whether it be toward citizen-
ship or toward a return to his native country.

It is obviously impossible, however, for the nation to
keep international agreements unless it has the under-
standing and sympathetic support of the state. This can
be secured :

First, by studying the laws of the various states and
municipahties and pointing out to the states wherein these
laws conflict with treaty rights.

Second, by establishing a cooperation between state
authorities and the State Department which will prevent
the passage of such laws.

Third, by preventing the enforcement of existing dis-
criminatory laws.

Fourth, by inaugurating a policy of preventing injus-
tice rather than of waiting for complaints.

Most important, however, is the bringing of state and
local thought into accord with the national government
on matters affecting the alien. If state and municipal
legislators could be induced to confer with the State De-
partment before enacting laws which affect aliens, if
for no other reason than to ascertain if they were
acting within their rights, and in a way not to cause
embarrassment, then the government would be saved
many a trying situation. Racial relations throughout the
country would thus be vastly improved and the honor and

HARMONY IN NATION & STATES 39

dignity of every branch of our sei*vice would be upheld
as a consistent part of a national policy.

Like many other aspects of immigration, it requires
but intelligent interest and cooperation to avoid misun-
derstanding. There is every reason to expect such an ac-
complishment from an Administration which seeks to
bring order out of chaos and harmony out of discord,
no less between governments than among its own citi-
zens.

PROTECTION OF THE ALIEN

PENDING such an adjustment between nation and
states, the question is how to protect the aHen
against acts of commission. It is but a step from dis-
crimination by the state to evasion by the aHen, for the
levying of injustice awakens the instinct to defiance.

An aHen was arrested recently for the eightieth time in
New York City for peddling without a license. This
was a violation of a city ordinance. When he was ar-
raigned for the last offense, the court records showed
that he had paid fines at various times amounting to $210.
To the astonishment of the court, when ordered to pay
his last fine, he proposed a compromise, namely, that the
fines be regarded as 'Vent" and that they should average
not more than seven dollars for each violation thereafter.

There are some two thousand alien peddlers in a sim-
ilar position in New York City who would welcome the
arrangement proposed by this habitual offender. They are
the victims of an ordinance which prohibits the issuance
of peddlers' licenses to persons who are not citizens — an
ordinance passed not so much to hurt them as to favor
others, hardly in need of such protection.

The question arises : Why do not these peddlers avoid
this discrimination by becoming citizens ? In the first place,
many of them were born in what are technically enemy
countries, although they may not be Germans, Austrians,
Bulgarians or Turks. As technical enemy subjects, they
are not eligible to citizenship without special consent of

40

PROTECTION OF THE ALIEN 41

the President of the United States. In the second place,
not all of them can meet the requirements as to knowl-
edge of English.

It is amusing to learn that an alien cannot be a barber
in Michigan, that he cannot own a dog in Pennsylvania,
or that he cannot be employed on our city streets to shovel
snow. We are inclined to think an alien gets his deserts
when an industry refuses to employ him without citizen-
ship papers. But there is little that can hurt his pride
of race or dignity of manhood which the friendless alien
does not experience. From the first to the eightieth fine
was for the peddler a long road of humiHation and degra-
dation. The alien comes here in good faith, ignorant
of the existing laws that discriminate against him. He
makes no special appeal to our sympathy or interest. He
is charged with most of our economic, if not political
evils. He is an outcast. He is a source of revenue and
the victim for all sorts of swindles by some of the immi-
grants who came before him. He is a lonely figure.

Obviously, the effect of discriminatory laws upon such
an alien is not a good thing either for him or for the
country. In time, his respect for American law breaks
down. His obedience to authority disappears, and defi-
ance and resentment take the place of the spirit of co-
operation. Once the emergency which created these laws
disappears, they are nO' longer enforced but they are rarely
repealed. But the alien's experience with such laws has
bred caution. While he evades them he builds his own
walls for protection — the colony, the racial society, the
foreign language press and the bank.

If it is but a step from discrimination to evasion, then
it is a still shorter step from absence of protection to
exploitation. The failure to enact laws to protect the alien
from exploitation violates the spirit if not the letter of
our treaty agreements. When immigration was taken

42 ADMINISTRATIOlSr AND ALIEN

over by the Federal Government and state laws were abol-
ished, the protective features in the state laws were not
re-enacted in the federal law. This omission is the cause
of much of the prevailing system of exploitation. This
includes porters, runners, money exchangers, quasi-bank-
ers, employment agents, brokers and insurance agents, as
well as gold brick and ''get-rich-quick" swindlers. Many
of these prey upon aliens from the moment of their ar-
rival. They change their tactics with the times. The
employment agent becomes the custodian of special funds
to secure passports. The broker becomes an agent for
relief funds and relief supplies for destitute Europe.

With the increase in immigration, so widespread had be-
come their exploitation, that in 19 lo New York State cre-
ated a separate bureau for the protection of aliens and re-
enacted many of the laws which prevailed when the state
controlled immigration. Massachusetts followed suit.
But the fact that New York State has again abandoned
this work in the interests of economy, and Massachusetts
has transformed it into educational work, illustrates clear-
ly that the protection of the alien is the function of the
Federal Government.

But for some time, there has been going on silently
another conflict over the alien, none the less real because
diplomatic. Americans have rather assumed that the
protection of the alien was no particular business of theirs,
since consular agents have been appointed in this coun-
try by foreign governments to protect their nationals. In
this way, they have assured themselves that if aliens got
into a tight place, they could take up the matter, through
their legations, with the State Department. But experi-
ence shows that by the time the matter is again referred
to state or local authorities, the alien has quite likely ac-
cepted discrimination as the rule in this country and has
gone his way.

PROTECTION OF THE ALIEN 43

But aside from the effect upon the ahen, and the nature
of his reactions to our institutions, this procedure involves
grave matters of poHcy. It is a question whether too
much of our responsibihty and authority has not been
delegated to representatives of foreign governments, to
quasi-officials, and to irresponsible racial and welfare
organizations, about whose activities and ultimate pur-
poses the government is not sufficiently informed.

Some of the results of this policy are already apparent.
Today, naturalized citizens turn as readily to these
agencies as when they were aliens. Their American citi-
zenship papers have never quite emancipated them. Con-
sulates, weary of invoking local laws, sometimes operate
a banking business to protect their nationals, but they
compete with American banks, and are not amenable to
our laws. Aliens are sometimes advised to take out nat-
uralization papers to obtain the necessary protection, and
are at the same time assured that repatriation will be
made easy if they wish to return home.

The alien is in an extremely difficult position. On the
one hand he is an economic outpost of his native country
and in competition with the native American. He is the
objective of international propaganda. He is the prey
of the exploiter. He is the target for economic discrim-
ination. He is the victim of legislative discrimination.
He is the pivot on which race antagonism and friction
turn. On the other hand, he is the recipient of boundless
opportunity. He is the beneficiary of American institu-
tions. He is the much sought object of the Americanizer.
He is the future aspirant for American citizenship.

It is a question whether any consular service can
undertake to fully protect Its nationals under such condi-
tions. The very size of the country and complexity of its
political organization add to the difficulties. Not count-
ing the labor camps, the alien resides in more than 2,^00

44 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

communities where there are more than loo aliens. His
misdeeds are judged in thousands of different courts under
hundreds of varying statutes and ordinances. American
law and order is interpreted to him by officials who range
from the justice of the peace to the Supreme Court judge.
And sometimes individual citizens, impatient of the law's
delay, expound their own interpretation of Americanism
to him. In many places neither the alien nor the citizen
is aware of his rights or duties.

To this situation can be traced much of the alien's mis-
understanding of Americanism, his resentment of Ameri-
canization, his reluctance to acquire citizenship, and his
aversion to learning the English language.

Also, to this failure of protection may be traced the
increasing concern of the foreign governments for the
welfare of their nationals and their tendency to divert
emigration to other countries, safeguarded by treaty
agreements, specifically covering their protection. A study
of such treaties shows that they are taking up questions
of protection which the United States has not yet even
remotely considered. They provide, for instance for the
same standard of wages for aliens as for native work-
men engaged in the same kind of work, the full protec-
tion of laws, customs, and usages, and the same benefits
from insurance and compensation laws. Under these
treaties, countries of emigration are to be advised when
immigrants cannot find work so emigration may be stop-
ped. Charitable aid is provided through mutual aid so-
cieties for immigrants needing temporary relief. It will
be a novelty for the American to think of future immi-
gration as dependent upon an agreement to protect the
wage rates and standards of living of the immigrant.

We are about to negotiate new treaties, treaties in
which the human rights of aliens should receive more

PROTECTION OF THE ALIEN 45

consideration, and in which their status should be more
definitely fixed. We have in the past relied perhaps upon
too exalted an opinion of human fairness, to look after the
stranger far removed from his homeland. We now rea-
lize that the powers are too delicate to be so left.

We face a period in the world's history when the mi-
gration of people will be the phenomenon of the world.
The United States itself is fast becoming an emigration
as well as an immigration country. It is a time when the
lure of foreign markets and ease of transportation will
lead Americans to go to all parts of the world.
It is for the American abroad, as well as the alien
in this country, that we must plan — for as we treat
aliens here so will the American be treated abroad.
Nothing but the most exhaustive knowledge, the applica-
tion of vision, and painstaking care in the formulation of
treaty provisions can safeguard the alien whose character
and power of adjustment in the very near future is to be
tested to the uttermost.

In so grave a matter, involving good faith between
nations and the stabilization and utilization to the full of
our own immigration, it is not for a private citizen to
suggest a remedy. It can only be urged that the State
Department turn its attention to this question — that it
study carefully and thoroughly the status of the alien in
this country, his location and the laws which now apply
to him; that it ascertain in detail the nature of official
and quasi-official powers not being exercised among*
aliens; that it become familiar with the organization and
activities of the societies maintained by aliens to protect
their countrymen, and that it follow the ramifications of
these activities abroad. Whatever course the assembling
and analysis of such facts will suggest, the alien as well as
the American will be equally assured that our high obliga-

46 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

tion to other nations and to our own country will be
squarely met, for Mr. Hughes will be able no less to
achieve this than when, as Governor, he restored to aliens
in New York State the full protection of law.

VI

NATURALIZED VOTER BETWEEN ELECTIONS

^ I ^HE foreign born citizens decided the election," says
^ Irving Fisher in his recently published explanation
of the presidential vote.

Whether they did or not, an important question in
immigration policy-making is what part will foreign
born citizens have in it? For we are beginning to see
that whatever policy is formulated, and whatever pro-
gram is undertaken, cannot be a success without the
cooperation of the people whom they most affect.

For the most part such policies have been made with-
out consulting them. The result is that in national elec-
tions the nationalist issue to some has proved more ab-
sorbing than have American issues.

In the November election, many of the races changed
their political viewpoint to conform to that in their
homelands. Many of the foreign born voters, who had
overwhelmingly supported the Democratic party in the
past, swung their forces to the Republican ranks. The
national issue of the campaign had little influence on
such voters. It was what their kinspeople in Europe
thought of Mr. Wilson that determined their vote. Mem-
bers of races that failed to obtain the ''self-determina-
tion" that had been expected by small nations bolted
from the Democratic ranks. Wherever his stand in the
Peace Conference affected adversely the interests of their
native countries the foreign born turned against his party.
The foreign-language press in the United States and the

47

48 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

speeches of foreign born leaders contained many ap-
peals to foreign bom voters to vote for or against Mr.
Wilson on the plea of what he had or had not done for
their home countries.

A situation of this kind cannot continue with safety to
the nation. But it has demonstrated that Americans must
win the interest of the foreign born in national Ameri-
can affairs, and invite them to participate more fully in
our national life. This is the task that confronts the
Republican Administration, and it is a task that must be
undertaken if political unity is to be wrought out of
the thirty racial minorities in the United States.

How is it to be done ? We must admit that local politi-
cal bosses and campaign leaders have failed. In fact,
they have generally catered to the racial consciousness
of the foreign born voters instead of inducing them to
view party issues in their national significance.

To secure the interest of the foreign born voter in
American political issues and affairs requires a continu-
ous bona fide recognition of such voters — not something
to be used today and discarded tomorrow, as has been
the case with many of the friendships which were estab-
lished during the war.

For the first time in the history of this country a
friendship between Federal officials and racial leaders
and groups was built up during the war. The habit
formed by government officials of consulting these leaders
about racial affairs worked well, and some very serious
national blunders were avoided. But when the war ma-
chine was dismantled, these relationships seemed to have
no value in peace time and they were consequently rather
ruthlessly abandoned.

These friendships are well worth reviving and
strengthening. The foreign born voter has technically
given up one allegiance for another. With great diffi-

NATURALIZED VOTER 49

culty he has learned the language. He has studied our
institutions. He has met our requirements and has
done his best to become an American.

If there is any one subject in this country upon which
the foreign born voter can help the country it is immi-
gration. It is his happiness, prosperity and future that
are most greatly affected by new immigration policies
and laws. It is his point of view and personal interest
that needs to be joined to those of the native born to
secure an all-round policy that will fully represent Ameri-
can interests.

The more foreign born leaders are brought into con-
tact with leading Americans, the more their leadership
becomes identified with the American government and
American interests, the less will be the need for mass
meetings, or for wire-pulling to influence the government
through propaganda or by other indirect means.

We have the richest storehouse of racial experience and
information in the world, but we seldom use it for our
government. It was a subject of comment at the Peace
Conference that our representatives had so little racial
understanding. Our critics did not know, as we know,
that English-speaking Americans seldom get close to the
foreign-speaking Americans ; that half of the immigrants
who came here have gone back, and that one-half of those
who have stayed have not yet learned our language and
have not sought American citizenship.

To accomplish lasting national unity and harmony,
we should have in all of the Federal positions which deal
with immigrants native bom Americans who have a
knowledge of immigration affairs, who are in sympathy
with foreign peoples and who understand them and pos-
sess their confidence. To re-establish the faith of the
immigrant in American institutions, nothing less than
this is the task before us. No man should be appointed

50 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

to direct affairs which relate to the immigrant, who does
not possess such knowledge. It will be as futile to ap-
point men without such qualifications, as it would be to
appoint men unfamiliar with commerce to deal with
trade; or with finance, to direct banks; or with agricul-
ture, to manage farming.

Such consideration has never before been given to
this subject, largely because it has become almost a tra-
dition that such posts must be held by men who are known
to favor the restriction of immigration. It has, therefore,
been assumed that all foreign born people are for a
free immigration. Yet it is well known that some of
the most ardent restrictionists are foreign born, or are
the children of foreign born parents. The vitally im-
portant thing is that appointees should have no bias either
way, and that this great international subject should be
lifted from class prejudice to the plane of statesmanship.

Otherwise, capable men will not accept these positions.
Men worthy of the leadership of Mr. Hughes, Mr. Mel-
lon or Mr. Hoover are not willing to become national
policemen at ports of entry, nor are they willing to serve
as commissioners general of immigration with a high-
sounding title but with little scope for the use of their
ability, nor to act as officers of a health service which is
hampered by petty state jealousies. To attract men who
are worthy of filling these positions they must be raised
to a plane of dignity and of power and be coordinated
and governed by a broad constructive policy. This will
give them scope for the use of initiative, intelligence,
resourcefulness and judgment and enable them to appre-
ciate the significance of immigration both at home and
abroad.

There is another reason for urgent national action
having for its object a selection of better officials. The
state of mind of our foreign bom people is such today

NATURALIZED VOTER 51

that future progress in Americanization depends upon
some national recognition of them which will increase
among races already here reciprocity of thought and har-
mony of action.

We have been singularly without imagination not to
see that Americanization will fail so long as there is no
recognition of the interests, feeling and rights of these
minorities in the adoption and amendment of our immi-
gration laws, which constitute their life and happiness.
We have been slow to realize that reciprocity between the
various races and between them and ourselves requires
that, between elections, naturalized citizens be encouraged
to put something of their idealism, practicality and capac-
ity for sacrifice into national political life.

Through the right kind of leadership in office, through
conferences with foreign bom citizens, through the re-
establishment of friendships between government leaders
and foreign born citizens, it will be possible to interpret
more fully to both aliens and citizens, American institu-
tions, government, laws, and public affairs. This will se-
cure the cooperation of the racial organizations, the racial
press and racial groups.

To keep in touch with the foreign bom citizen between
elections, to find a way to use his interest and enthusiasm,
to secure the cooperation of his organizations and press,
and to put into government service his experience and
ability, requires leadership. It is for the new Adminis-
tration to find a way to re-establish the friendships be-
tween the alien and the nation and to provide such leader-
ship.

VII

INTERNATIONAL INCONSISTENCIES

npHE friendship and cooperation which existed be-
-^ tween the Federal Administration and the racial
groups during the war was based largely upon mutual
interests which were international in character. They
snapped with the revelation of American international in-
consistencies. It is doubtful if they can be renewed while
these inconsistencies persist. But the sympathetic under-
standing and support of these groups of foreign born
citizens is of the utmost importance.

One of these inconsistencies has been to attempt to
participate in international affairs in a roundabout way.
The first question is, Will the United States be content
to treat future immigration as a labor matter, imder the
International Labor Office of the League of Nations?
This question presents itself as the result of the inter-
national labor conference held in Washington in 1919, at
which time that office was created. Notwithstanding the
attitude expressed in the last national election, a repre-
sentative, with a commission from the President, was
selected in February to attend a meeting of the Emigra-
tion Commission.^ It was possible to take this action
under Section 29 of the Immigration Law which empow-
ers the President to appoint special commissioners to
make investigations or attend conferences abroad.

It is no new experience for European countries to re-

^This representative has been recalled by the new Secretary of
Labor.

52

INCONSISTENCIES 53

ceive American representatives claiming to have author-
ity to speak for the government of the United States
on immigration affairs. Europe has been overrun with
them — representatives whose trails cross and recross each
other. The people of Europe are confused by the various
interpretations of this country that are presented to them.
The foreign born in the United States are misled by the
accounts they receive concerning American activity
abroad. The native American is bewildered.

In the past, American representatives have been ap-
pointed to facilitate action in international affairs before
policies on fundamental questions had been adopted. For
instance, our participation in international discussion is
scheduled to begin with the fundamental proposition that
immigration is largely a labor matter, while the national
emiphasis is upon citizenship.

It rarely occurs to busy officials concerned with state
matters to consider how international negotiations and de-
cisions will affect the foreign born in this country. Such
officials are in the habit of thinking that America does
enough when it admits the immigrant and that the policies
of this country are of no particular concern to him.

But we would not fail to take into consideration the
effects of a tariff bill on commerce. In fact its object
is to protect trade in the interests of prosperity. We
would not fail to take into consideration the effect of a
finance measure upon American financial institutions.
But when it comes to immigration, the fact that such de-
liberations have a vital relation to the prosperity and as-
similation of the immigrant in this country is rarely
considered. In fact, a suggestion that they be so con-
sidered arouses the suspicion that "foreigners may be
trying to run the country." The leadership in immigra-
tion affairs, however, is among the foreign born people.
There is growing among them a vast racial economic

54 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

system which, because of the American's indifference, is
participating in its own way in international affairs.

A second inconsistency has been the tolerance of a
correspondent of the International Labor Office in Wash-
ington. His main work is to gather information for the
League of Nations. Here, again, the question arises
whether all agencies of a governmental character domi-
ciled in the United States should not conduct their affairs
in conformity to regulations established by the Secretary
of State. We should then know what agencies are at
work here, and their activities.

Much of the race prejudice and suspicion which cul-
minates in reactionary legislation is due to the fact that
the average American thinks that his government does
not know what international forces are at work in the
country. He is uneasy because he thinks his government
has not the situation in hand. Roundabout methods used
by foreign governments are as upsetting to American
peace, as are our roundabout methods in international
affairs to the European state of mind.

Another illustration of such methods is our use, to
secure restrictive legislation at home, of consular infor-
mation which is in effect a general condemnation of
racial groups abroad. A sample of this kind ap-
peared in the form of a paraphrased report recently
issued from the State Department. It described con-
ditions of immigration abroad and their probable effect
upon the United States. It not only placed the State De-
partment in the position of issuing propaganda, but in its
general characterization of races made the foreign bom
citizens of this country feel that prejudice ruled the De-
partment upon which they most deeply relied for pro-
tection and for interpretation of their point of view. The
following extracts, from among many, illustrate the
nature of this report:

INCONSISTENCIES 55

^'K large proportion of immigrants are inimical to
the best interests of the American Government." ''Im-
migrants are small in stature and are of a low order of
intelligence." "They are greatly un-American and dan-
gerous in their habits." "They may be expected to be a
drain on the resources of America for years." "They
are mentally incapable of acquiring any conception of
patriotic or national spirit." "Seventy-five per cent, will
congregate in urban centers and add to undesirable con-
gestion." "Immigrants are raw laborers, waiters and
servants who are intellectually incapable of being danger-
ous." "These people are without political principle and
entirely without patriotism and are usually evasive, dis-
honest and incapable of appreciating any responsibiHty to-
ward any government."

The above excerpts are from official consular reports,
presumably based upon impressions gathered by con-
sular officials while viseing passports. They are unjust
generalizations, applied to the emigrants of virtually every
European country. Yet they were partly responsible for
the passage of the Dillingham bill limiting immigration
to a three per cent, basis. The fact that these statements
were introduced in the deliberations of the House and
Senate committees gives them a more serious aspect.
It would not be surprising to hear echoes of them in the
legislative halls of Europe, where our attitude toward
European immigrants is constantly discussed. Whether
this country is justified in thus characterizing the people
of Europe in order to promote local legislation, based,
presumably, on superficial observation, involves a delicate
question of propriety.

We can perhaps best answer the question by imagining
our own reaction were we to see statements of this char-
acter issued in the official reports of foreign nations about

56 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

Americans. It requires no imagination to see that such
official documents do not tend to restore the friendship
between our gOA^ernment and the foreign born in this
country.

There are some questions that are wholly a domestic
matter. The regulation of immigration and the con-
ditions under which aliens may remain in the country
no one wishes to inject into international discussion.
Americans have reiterated over and over again, through
the contract labor law, through the literacy test and now
through the more recent percentage test, that the ques-
tion of assimilation overshadows that of labor supply;
that the maintenance of an American standard of living
is of greater importance than the cost of production, and
that we are more concerned with whether a man will be-
come a good citizen than with whether he will become a
good workman.

But there are other questions which internationalize
themselves. So long as the selection, distribution and as-
similation of aliens is largely through racial channels
in this country, the alien assumes increasing importance
in the eyes of European countries. So long as the re-
ceiving of immigration is dependent largely upon the will
and attitude of mind of the nations whose intending emi-
grant is their national, certain subjects will necessarily be
within the international field. To control immigration at
the source, to inspect it on shipboard are matters to be
arranged through international cooperation. To adopt
passports as a means of controlling immigration, to pro-
tect aliens, to secure recognition in native countries for
naturalized American citizens — these must necessarily be
the subject of international conference.

A good beginning toward clarifying public opinion
would be to discontinue roundabout methods in deal-
ing with the international aspects of immigration and

INCONSISTENCIES 57

to discourage similar methods by foreign agents in this
country. A second desirable step would be to put a stop
to the custom of issuing irresponsible and ill-considered
generalizations concerning racial groups. A third would
be to check the looseness of expression which has per-
vaded many official utterances and to hold officials as
responsible for the statements they make in after dinner
speeches as for those contained in official reports.

This would tend to restore the confidence of foreign
born people in the Federal Government, and would make
possible their whole-hearted support of our national and
international policies. But faith is not restored by proc-
lamation, nor is confidence regained by inaction. To
separate the two fields — the regulation of immigration
which is a wholly domestic affair in the hands of the
Department of Labor, from the handling of the affairs
of aliens, which is wholly an international matter in the
hands of the State Department, is essential. To build
up under each a comprehensive policy, harmonious and
supplemental, then becomes a matter of organization.
Both the native and foreign born American will then
understand that both the movement of immigration and
the resident alien are receiving due attention. The good
will of the foreign born is essential to the country's well-
being. It is to be gained as much through their under-
standing our international policies as by their participa-
tion in national affairs.

VIII

RACIAL MINORITIES IN THE UNITED STATES

T F the question of uniting the many races in this coun-
try behind the national government were only a ques-
tion of the government and the individual immigrant,
there v^ould be little ground for concern. But it is not.
This easy, natural approach to the immigrant is affected
by a racial economic system which has roots in Europe as
well as in the United States.

The native American functions in public affairs through
his organizations. So does the foreign born. To secure
consideration he has to be a member of something or
other. This, too, the foreign ^born has learned is
the road to efficiency. To interest the immigrant today
on matters of public concern his organization first must
be interested. His response, while apparently an indi-
vidual judgment, is usually in harmony with this group
thought.

How has it come about that so many of the cul-
tural, social, and benefit societies which existed among
the many racial groups before the war have since be-
come, upon an enormous scale, the medium of expression
for racial thought?

When the Committee on Public Information under-
took to "win the war by propaganda," one of the first
things it did was to strengthen old racial solidarities,
encourage new ones, and connect racial leaders with
their native governments. When the Treasury Depart-
ment sold Liberty Bonds, it did the same thing. When

58

RACIAL MINORITIES 59

the War Department needed increased production it, too,
appealed to racial groups. What is more natural than that
these powerful racial organizations, at the close of the
war, should wish to retain their power and their overseas
contacts, and to assume a greater share in shaping the
destinies of the home countries? What is more natural
than that the home countries should appeal to their for-
mer nationals to help them influence affairs at the close
of the war ? Anti-American ? Not in the least — merely
internationalism, expressing itself naturally through
racial leaders who perfectly understand and feel its sig-
nificance.

Therefore, we need not be surprised to learn that two
Greek factions in this country tried to settle the election
between Venizelos and Constantine. They held mass
meetings, which often resulted in riots. They raised
funds. They conducted a campaign by correspondence in
the interest of rival political leaders in Greece. Thou-
sands of personal letters were sent to the homeland tell-
ing the people there how to vote. Among the Greeks
in America the return to royalty was the real compaign in
October, 1920. Interest in American political issues
lagged, and might have died altogether except for the
funds which were supplied for political advertising in
their press.

Nor should we be surprised to hear that a nationalist
society has collected a fund of $750,000, of which one-
fifth is intended for the relief of war sufferers and four-
fifths for political propaganda abroad. We begin to
understand how politics overshadow all other considera-
tions, even the plight of relatives and friends experi-
encing stress and want abroad. The four daily Russian
newspapers, for instance, are more enthusiastic about
sovietism than republicanism. Subsidies to foreign so-
cieties, to preserve the culture and language of the home

60 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

countries, are not rare. It is no longer necessary for
nationals in a new country to influence affairs in their
native countries by indirect methods. They have become
prosperous and well organized and are powerful agents
for good or evil. They act upon their own initiative, and
they are also appealed to for aid by their own country-
men at home. Some European countries are openly con-
sidering how to give their nationals in foreign countries
a voice in home affairs. They are giving increasing atten-
tion to profits from transmissions of money, actually go-
ing so far as to place their consulates in competition with
American banks, so that not only remittances but also
the profits may go to the native country.

Does any sane administration think we can deal with
these manifestations of internationalism by means of a
purely domestic program? When the Netherlands Emi-
gration League established a chain of branch agencies in
this country *'to protect, distribute, and Americanize
Dutch immigrants," what did that connote? That the
Netherlands is against Americanism? Not at all. It
meant that the Netherlands wants to be sure that its im-
migrants will succeed. If they are successful, Americans
will have a higher regard for Holland and for Dutch
immigrants, and will encourage immigration from that
country. They believe that Americans will do more busi-
ness with Holland and that Dutch immigrants will in-
vest in Dutch securities. That is the long view of it.
It is chiefly because foreign nations regard emigration as
an economic asset that they set up their own agencies
of protection and grant subsidies. They consider the
protection of the immigrant and of the immigrant's sav-
ings of paramount importance.

The responsibility for dealing with these racial minor-
ity organizations belongs somewhere in the national Ad-
ministration. They are partly alien and partly made

RACIAL MINORITIES 61

up of naturalized citizens. They express the interest
and activity of milHons of American residents. They
are a storehouse of information, and they are rich in
resources, be it of leadership, intelligence or funds. Dis-
tribution, stabilization, capitalization or assimilation will
progress faster with the cooperation than with the aloof-
ness of these groups. It is all very well to say that the
native American will attend to this as his own affair.
These racial minorities exist primarily because he has
failed to do that very thing.

Americans unquestionably prefer that their attitude
and expression toward European affairs be made through
official channels and in a dignified manner that cannot be
misunderstood. It is fair to expect the same precision
from foreign groups in this country that deal with Eu-
ropean affairs. It is not too much to ask foreign societies
operating in this country to obtain American charters.
If they undertake to influence political affairs in their
home countries, our State Department should be advised
as to the tenor and extent of their action. It is a mistake
to treat with suspicion as matters for investigation by
the Department of Justice, activity which can be more
wholly American through recognition and cooperation.

It may be advisable, in order to avoid future mis-
understanding, that the promotion of new activities of
agencies of foreign governments be referred to the State
Department before they are put into operation, and that
semi-official agencies be held strictly accountable for their
activities among immigrants domiciled in this country.
Then we shall not witness the dismissal of a consular
agent who does a banking business in violation of New
York laws. We shall not find racial groups in America
trying to promote abroad measures with which our gov-
ernment is not in sympathy. We shall not be suspicious

62 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

of the representatives of American societies who attend
foreign poHtical gatherings.

When individuals speak for themselves on foreign af-
fairs, in the interest of free speech and humanity, there
can be little question of propriety. But v^hen large organ-
izations, through a small directorate, backed by large
funds, take the place of the individual, it becomes a
different matter. Some racial societies have more than
100,000 members who are thus made articulate on for-
eign affairs through a few leading spokesmen. Some
foreign language newspapers number nearly half a mil-
lion readers, and so violently do they sometimes express
their partisan opinions on foreign affairs that they have
been excluded from circulation abroad.

The integration of racial solidarities into American
life so that their international interest functions through
wholly American channels is the most delicate of all
our domestic affairs which have international connections.
The guidance of this racial thought and activity requires
deep racial understanding and expert leadership. It re-
quires patience to deal with prejudice and distrust and
the pride of race, if this vast racial power is to be directed
so that it will do no harm to American interests while
it helps to promote peace and stability in the native coun-
tries. That the war, which has strengthened racial sol-
idarities, has inextricably bound them up in future inter-
national problems is undeniable. It is a wise Admin-
istration which will take this into account and will direct
their will through winning their confidence.

IX

IMMIGRATION TURNOVER

ONE out of every two i\merican immigrants returns
to Europe. In the last twenty-eight years 7,000,000
people have recrossed the ocean. This is one of the con-
spicuous results of having but half of an immigration
policy — a policy which deals with admission, but not
with assimilation.

How do these emigrants from the United States in-
terpret the American point of view to their country?
What is their description of American character, institu-
tions, and life? Countless millions of the people abroad
have listened to them and judged this country through
their eyes. This opinion, so formed, influences com-
mercial and financial affairs between Europe and the
United States.

What as yet has America consciously done to win the
good will and friendship of these immigrants, and thus
enhance our standing with their countrymen abroad? It
is a question whether we have given any attention to the
role which the returning immigrant plays in the de-
velopment of European opinion. Therefore, it is not to
be expected that immigrants who have found conditions
in America not to their liking, or who have had reason
to complain about the inequalities of American laws
that apply one way to native born and another way to
foreign born, or who have witnessed our increasing dread
of everything that is alien, should take back with them

63

64 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

our ideals, vision or inspiration. If that is true, it is a
lost opportunity for Americanism.

With the past we can do nothing. But what about
the future? Of course, it is true that the more favorably
immigrants are impressed with America the more they
will want to stay, and in that case their appreciation will
be contained in the letters they write home. But as the
nationalistic sentiment grows and transportation facilities
increase, immigrants in even greater numbers will return
to their native land.

The graduation of the United States into an emigra-
tion as well as an immigration country presents a new
situation. First, there is the necessity for regulating and
supervising outgoing immigration and protecting the re-
turning as well as incoming and domiciled aliens. But
more serious is the cost of an immigration turnover of
such magnitude and its effect upon European production
and thought.

Eighty per cent, of all immigrants who arrive come on
prepaid tickets furnished by relatives or friends in this
country. Therefore, American wages pay for their trans-
portation. The average amount of savings which each
one takes home with him is $2,000. This is saved from
American wages. The average amount transmitted to his
family before he goes back is about $300 a year. There-
fore, American wages help to support the immigrant, his
family, his government, and foreign bankers.

We can hardly console ourselves for this distribution of
his savings on the ground that the immigrant earns this
money and can spend it as he likes. When 7,000,000
emigrants return to Europe it represents a stupendous
loss of funds which might be made to contribute to Ameri-
can prosperity, especially in the present financial de-
pression in which there is need for ready cash.

This is not all. Skilled workmen who have become

IMMIGRATION TURNOVER 65

familiar with American methods of production are re-
placed by green men who have to be trained at additional
expense. People who speak the English language are
replaced by others who do not. Residents familiar with
our customs, laws, and institutions are succeeded by
people from countries which have little in common with
us. This exchange is expensive. It has been stated that
the average cost of labor turnover per man is $40. If
it costs this much to exchange workmen, it becomes an
interesting question how much it costs to exchange im-
migrants. If America had intended to become a train-
ing school for European industries, receiving unskillecl
men from lands overseas and sending them back trained
and skilled workmen, it could not have rendered more
effective service than it has to industries abroad.

An illustration is tO' be found in the recent establish-
ment in this country of a national racial organization
known as a mechanics' company. This racial organiza-
tion is reported to have 17,000 members and 250 branches.
Only mechanics of that given race, who have been trained
in this country are eligible. The object is to secure money
from countrymen here to start factories in their native
land and to send back American-trained mechanics to
operate these plants. It is a nice question whether the
amount of American machinery and raw materials this
organization buys in order to manufacture goods to com-
pete with American products offsets the resulting loss
of man-power and of markets to American products.

Since the war, racial chambers of commerce have in-
creased the number in this country. Racial steamship lines
are in process of formation. Consulate offices and semi-
official organizations have expanded their commercial ac-
tivities enormously. The foreign trade organization is
being developed as part of the American racial economic
system. The racial trade publication is flourishing. All

66 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

of these activities rely upon cooperation from foreign
language groups to advance the trade interests of the
home country.

What Federal department has the responsibility for se-
curing the trade and influence of this foreign group mar-
ket for American commerce? The American producer
needs some national assistance, for he sees but dimly the
commercial aspects of immigration. European business
interests comprehend them much more clearly, and
are somewhat amused over the fact that a progressive
country like the United States is not yet awake to the
economic importance of immigration. Americans realize
but little the way in which commerce, finance, labor, and
international affairs are interwoven with the flow and ebb
of immigration, while the able economists of Europe have
studied every phase of the subject. They realize, as we do
not, that no country can afford to ignore such an enor-
mous commercial asset as racial business has become in
the United States.

If it is important to have some Federal department
help American business reduce the cost of immigration
turnover, afid capitalize its foreign market resources in its
own country, then it is also important for it to go a step
further and find a way for every immigrant from this
country to become an enthusiastic interpreter of Amer-
ican institutions as well as a salesman of American goods.

With the immigration door of the future swinging more
freely outward, shall we leave the advantage to be gained
from the returning immigrant solely to the native country ?
Cannot the immigrant be given an American experience
that will help to improve trade relations between his native
land and the United States ? Cannot the immigrant, while
in America, be taught the use of American-made goods,
so that his choice will be for American-made goods even

IMMIGRATION TURNOVER 67

when he is back in his homeland ? Cannot the immigrant
be taught to Hke America enough to send back other work-
men when our production needs require them ? In short,
cannot immigrants be made boosters instead of knockers
of this country when they return to their native lands?

Why not intelligently set about having foreign born
trade groups work for American business interests ? Why
not start intelligent competition to attract the interest of
the immigrant immediately after his arrival? The com-
petition will be no child's play. For instance, every
Italian immigrant who leaves his native country is given
a complete manual of instructions on how to be success-
ful in the new land. That is done to insure his assistance
to the homeland. Why cannot we as intelligently help
that immigrant toward success in his work here in order
that America will derive the benefit? While it is true
that we may not need the "foreign market" in America
for local consumption of American-made goods (although
in these times of depression we wish we had it), we may
well find the control of that market indispensable to our
future international trade relations.

The Department of Commerce will find this field well
worth cultivating even to the extent of putting in a special
bureau. The reduction of the cost of immigration turn-
over is an economic matter closely allied with interna-
tional trade. The capture of the foreign market in this
country for American goods is a trade matter involving
the racial business of the country. The education of tem-
porary immigrants so they will help Americans in for-
eign markets is a scientific matter within the jurisdiction
of the Department of Commerce.

The complete integration of the racial economic system
of this country into the American economic system is a
great task. Its achievement will make the Department of

68 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

Commerce great. The new national Administration has
the rare opportunity to achieve the economic assimila-
tion of immigration and to use it as an asset in its per-
fection of international relations.

X

IS EVERY ALIEN A POTENTIAL CITIZEN ?

17^ CONOMIC assimilation is not the only conquest
■*— ' which the new Federal Administration has the op-
portunity to make among its own foreign born people.

The Italian historian, Ferrero, could never understand
why the United States should pursue a policy of com-
pelling alien people to "declare allegiance to a constitu-
tion which they often do not understand." He inquires
''whether it is not doing violence to common sense" to
make citizens of men who have been born and educated
abroad, ''to grant them political rights which they do not
want and of which they have never thought?"

There are many persons who believe that we have gone
to extremes in the matter of offering American citizenship
to every stranger. They base their opinion on the funda-
mental proposition that whatever is thrust upon a person
is seldom welcome. They argue that citizenship, which
is the most precious gift a nation can confer, should be
guarded most zealously and that it should be most earnest-
ly sought by newcomers to this country before being
awarded. Certainly that is the attitude taken by most
European countries. Sweden, for instance, is not con-
cerned whether or not the foreign born living in
Sweden declare their allegiance to the kingdom. Italy
disavows any interest as to whether the Basques or Greeks
living in Rome enroll themselves as subjects of Italy.
France never makes citizenship a dependency of eco-
nomics.

69

70 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

But it is different in the United States. We regard
every alien, except the Oriental, as a subject for Ameri-
canization, education and citizenship. The moment he
arrives we set about incorporating him into American life.
We intimate to the alien that it will be much better for
him, especially in his employment relations, if he becomes
a citizen. Some employers in their zealous desire to ac-
celerate citizenship, advertise that none but citizens need
apply for jobs. States pass laws prohibiting aliens from
engaging in various kinds of occupations. Cities pass
ordinances prohibiting them from engaging in certain call-
ings. Patriotic organizations conduct "drives'* to induce
aliens to take out their first papers.

There can be no question but that this has cheapened
American citizenship. It has created the impression that
it is something that is given free with admission.
It has reduced it to a kind of permit to work. It has
been used as a convenience.

If this country needs immigrant workmen, should it
concern itself with the question of the fitness of the in-
tending immigrants for the work to be performed, or
should it be influenced primarily by the question of
whether the immigrants will" apply promptly for their
first papers? If we are to consider immigration as
economic rather than as political, then we must bear
in mind that economic influences are flexible, whereas
the political remain fixed. Jobs may be available today,
but there may be a surfeit of labor a few weeks later.
Economic law corrects this. But to make immigration con-
tingent upon citizenship, as has been proposed, is to go
contrary to the experience of all other countries.

Nearly every other country makes a distinction between
the political and economic aspects of immigration. They
regard those who intend to remain as distinct from im-
migrants who intend to depart after a few years. Unless

ALIEN A POTENTIAL CITIZEN 71

we, too, recognize that distinction, unless we take it for
granted that there are some immigrants who want to
become citizens and some who do not, our own perplex-
ities are bound to increase. It means that we will have
to divide our immigration into two general classifications :

First, the immigrants who intend to settle here perma-
nently, and, second, those who come here with the inten-
tion of returning to their homelands. To the former we
may properly offer the advantages of American citizen-
ship and the opportunity to learn our language and adopt
our customs. To the alien who establishes a domicile,
even greater concessions can be made. To' the alien
we should extend but the courtesies and protection of our
country. This is an attitude which the immigrant will
understand and appreciate. South American countries,
for instance, look upon the immigrant as a person who
is admitted to do a definite piece of work, and so long as
his performance is satisfactory and his behavior is not
such as to menace the public the government asks nothing
more of the immigrant. The subject of citizenship is not
raised, unless by the immigrant himself.

There are some who believe that the naturalized citizen
is in a different position from one born in this country
and that the granting of citizenship should, therefore, be
as much within the jurisdiction of the State Department
as are questions affecting native citizenship. The
fact that many countries do not recognize the American
citizenship of their nationals, and that questions affecting
the separation of families and their support and compen-
sation of injured wgrkmen and settlement of property and
other affairs of naturalized citizens are constantly arising,
illustrate the nature of the problems which exist when
naturalized citizens renounce their former allegiance and
are separated from their property and their families.

There are others who believe that every test for the ad-

72 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

mission of an alien to citizenship should be as severe as a
court trial and that the judge should be aided by an offi-
cial of the United States Attorney General's office to ar-
rive at a decision which would thus be based upon the rec-
ord of the alien and his demonstrated fitness to become a
citizen. There are still others who believe that all aliens
should be registered and be kept under a kind of surveil-
lance until they take out their citizenship papers and
that surveillance should then be supplanted by education
for American citizenship.

These varying points of view indicate that American
thought is beginning to correct the misshapen idea that
every alien is a potential citizen and that economic op-
portunity and political opportunity are identical. The
record of departures during the last twenty-eight years
indicates that every other alien evidently disagrees with
this point of view, since he returns home. It is becoming
evident that Americans are in doubt about it, as is indi-
cated by their present trend of thought.

There is another difficulty with naturalization. The
nationalization of the naturalization law has not yet been
completed. State residence is still required and other
local limitations prevail. Many aliens who, by nature of
their work, move from state to state are thus handicapped
in their desire to become citizens. This accounts for
many of the failures of first-paper men to complete their
naturalization. A large number of men, who have thrown
off the bonds of one country and have not yet acquired
those of the new country, have a confused sense of patriot-
ism to guide them in the larger aspects of their American
life. This twilight zone of mixed patriotism is well worth
our considering in any plan to secure a better citizenship.

It is apparent that the necessary steps cannot be taken
to remove technicalities in the law, nor to assure a better
preparation of the alien for citizenship or provisions

ALIEN A POTENTIAL CITIZEN 73

cannot be made to have the granting of citizenship
more ceremonious, and the examinations for such final
action more thorough, without a considerable study of the
changes which have occurred in the half century since the
principles of the law were laid down. This may well re-
quire a commission of experts to formulate. Now, all
matters affecting American citizens abroad are in one de-
partment, while all matters affecting citizenship in this
country are in another department. This is an imprac-
ticable division. For many years, Americans have been
promised an overhauling of their naturalization law which
would correct these evils and would provide for prepara-
tion for citizenship as well as improve the standards. Why
should not the new Administration fulfill a promise which
carries with its fulfillment so much of justice to the alien
and of assurance to the country?

XI

THE INTERNATIONAL OUTLOOK

GRANTED that the first duty of the New Admin-
istration is to create an effective immigration serv-
ice, the performance of that duty will not complete the
task that confronts this country in the matter of immi-
gration. There are other tasks as complex as that of
developing an effective immigration service. Adequate
enforcement of the immigration law, proper methods of
reception and distribution, looking to assimilation also,
are of paramount importance, but there are, in addition,
problems of an international character that must be
solved. These cannot wait upon the completion of a
national program.

There are several international plans under considera-
tion which will vitally affect immigration to the United
States and the status of aliens in all immigration coun-
tries. They show that, outside of American circles,
events are moving more rapidly than we think. We,
who see the headlines describing the millions who wish
to come to this country, are for the most part unaware
of this current of thought.

The first of the international plans has to do with
standardizing immigration methods and with defining the
status of aliens, and it is to be under the jurisdiction of
the Emigration Commission of the International Labor
Office of the League of Nations. There is located in
each country, including the United States, a correspond-
ent who is now engaged in gathering the following data

74

THE INTERNATIONAL OUTLOOK 75

to be presented at the fall session of the League of
Nations :

Reports of surveys conducted in various countries with
especial reference to statistics and their completeness ; in-
formation concerning existing institutions and organiza-
tions for aliens; relations between capital and labor in
reference to immigrants and the facts of their transporta-
tion; repatriation; the recruiting of foreign workers; in-
formation upon treaties, contracts, conventions, and rules
of civil law. This survey, when completed for the United
States, will afford a fairly complete picture of the situa-
tion.

The purpose of the survey is to determine, first, if it is
possible to coordinate and standardize legislation in vari-
ous countries, so as to simplify and modify the formali-
ties attending the entrance and departure of immigrants;
second, to insure competent advice to immigrants and to
permit their recourse to efficacious tribunals; third, to
insure access to labor exchanges; fourth, to settle the
conditions under which certificates from one country may
be confirmed before their acceptance by another. On this
basis the Emigration Commission of the International
Labor Office would also consider the elimination of agents
interested in stimulating immigration and the substitution
of pubHc officials charged with the responsibility of pro-
viding information to intending emigrants. The next
step would be the creation of national labor exchanges
and information offices in countries of emigration and
immigration. The abolition of padrone systems and other
forms of exploitation and the establishment of a pro-
tective system would then be in order.

But more important still is the attempt to develop
equality of treatment for immigrant workers by exam-
ining into the conditions, under which it would be possi-
ble to arrive at an international convention governing

76 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

them. This includes the formulation of the principles
to be applied to foreign workers in the matter of social
insurance as well as the right of association and meeting.
It involves also the presentation in simple terms of
those conditions under which foreign workers and their
families may enjoy the same facilities as are granted to
nationals in the matters of general and vocational edu-
cation, civil rights, the benefits of laws for relief of dis-
tress, protection for bank deposits and protection of the
transfer of the savings of immigrant workers.

In conclusion, the Emigration Commission asks an
opinion as to whether the International Labor Office
should have supervision of the following tasks :

"Adjustment, if possible, of the difficulties that may
arise between countries of immigration and emigration,
in regard to the migration of workers; co-ordination,
through common agreement, of the legislation of the
various nations so as to reduce the points of unnecessary
friction; application of measures of international char-
acter to insure the satisfactory operation of national laws
concerning migrations; protection of immigrants not en-
titled to consular protection; application of international
conventions which may be concluded in relation to the
recruiting of workers in foreign countries; cooperation
in the organization of labor exchanges for immigrants
and emigrants, and the establishment of systems for re-
cording international statistics on emigration."

It will be seen that matters upon which the American
is thinking, in national, if not local terms, are already
the subject of international discussion. Individual coun-
tries cannot deal with these matters satisfactorily, and it
is equally clear that emigration countries, in the future,
cannot afford to have their nationals dealt with in an ir-
responsible manner.

The increased use of immigration and labor treaties

THE INTERNATIONAL OUTLOOK 77

for the purpose of taking care of the surplus of popula-
tion is not improbable. A number of such agreements
have been concluded since the war. In general, these
agreements provide for the determination of the number
of people to be sent to the country of immigration and
the manner of their selection and transportation. They
specify in detail that the standard of living, of wages,
protection and insurance shall be the same for the immi-
grants as for native born workmen, that the immigrants
shall be given opportunity for education, and that they
shall be extended relief in time of stress and want.

In some instances, joint commissions have been estab-
lished to see that the provisions of the agreement are
carried out, and to make regulations to cover new situa-
tions that may develop. If there is unemployment, pro-
visions are made for the return of the nationals and the
emigration of further nationals is stopped. Arbitration
is provided for in case the joint commission cannot agree.

Negotiation of conventions between individual coun-
tries to deal with situations which present peculiar as-
pects is another development. It has been found whenever
such matters have been left to general immigration laws
that greater friction and misunderstandings have resulted.
These include such questions as the immigration of Ori-
entals, status of naturalized citizens, as between the coun-
try of origin and of adoption, and regulations and pro-
tection in new countries that are seeking immigrants for
the purpose of development but which are not providing
the usual government safeguards.

The disposition is growing in countries of emigration
to control the conditions under which their nationals shall
leave and to determine where they shall go. This does
not necessarily take the form of coercion. For instance,
there will be held in London, in June, a conference of
colonial representatives. Among other things, they will

78 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

discuss plans for sending all British emigration to the
colonies. Matters such as transportation rates, bonuses,
grants of free lands, funds for establishing settlers and
naturalization advantages will also be discussed, together
with the kind of organization best fitted to put such plans
into effect between the mother country and the colonies.

The determination to control emigration is seen in ef-
forts of various governments to prohibit stimulation, to
enforce more rigid regulation of steamship agencies and
to establish semi-governmental agencies whose object is
to check the individual's tendency to emigrate.

Some foreign governments are not only trying to hold
their people at home but they are attempting to induce
their emigrated people in other lands to return to their
home countries. The effect is already apparent in the
diminution of prepaid passage tickets which relatives and
friends in America have been in the habit of sending
home. As another step toward the control of emigra-
tion, foreign governments are seeking to devise a uni-
form passport system.

Evidences are not lacking that competition for immi-
gration from South American countries, Canada, Mexico
and Australia is increasing. The demand is not wholly
for settlers. Although settlers are preferred, the ques-
tion of providing a temporary labor supply is under con-
sideration in some of these countries.

Im.mersed as Americans are in home problems, these
tendencies seem to most of us to have very little bearing
upon immigration to America. In fact, they seem
to be rather a good thing. This, of course, depends upon
what ideal the American holds for the future. If he is
looking forward to a period of settling down and of hold-
ing what he has — a situation in which new immigration
and an increasing emigration are of little moment — then
the control of the sources of supply by other countries

THE INTERNATIONAL OUTLOOK 79

and the success of competitive countries are of small im-
portance. There can be no quarrel with this decision if
American business is prepared to pay the price. The
cost of immigration turnover, as we have shown, is heavy
unless there is some international trade compensation.
The loss of traffic to shipping may mean that the new
American steamship lines of the United States Shipping
Board will not only have to discontinue much of their
service, but that existing lines will increase their service
and extend it to other parts of the world at the expense
of our own. This will increase the freight rates and add
to the American cost of production. Railroads will suf-
fer a loss. Today they need tonnage; a slow de-
velopment of the argricultural sections and a shortage of
labor cannot but delay their restoration to a profitable
operating basis.

It is a well known fact that goods of the native country
follow the immigrant. Even in our own wide-awake
United States, we have seen that our merchants do not
have a monopoly of their own foreign market — the "for-
eign market" at home. If this is true at our doors, how
much less likely are we to obtain or hold markets in
South America and other countries where immigration
is increasing, sometimes with market concessions in re-
turn for it.

Forward action requires that no matter what immigra-
tion policy is finally adopted, it should be accompanied
by a thorough knowledge of its full economic significance.
Even though the time may not be ripe for the United
States to participate in the conferences on immigration,
or to negotiate agreements, it is foolhardy not to be in-
formed with regard to what other countries are doing,
and not to take into account the effect of these plans
upon American business and life. It is one thing to act

5607S,>{A

80 ADMINISTRATION AND ALIEN

through deliberate intention with the facts before us; it
is quite another to blunder along in ignorance.

The permanent program which should not wait even
upon the completion of our immediate domestic duty is,
therefore, for the State Department to make a careful in-
quiry into the question as affected by conditions in the
various foreign countries. It should study the policies
adopted or under consideration by those governments ; the
treaties that they have entered into or are considering
with respect thereto; the relations between foreign gov-
ernments and their nationals who come to this country;
the function of the foreign consulates, in so far as they
deal with their nationals who have come here to live,
and the protection of aliens by the Federal, State and
Municipal governments of the United States.

We shall then be prepared to say whether immigration
or labor treaties will be acceptable to this country and to
include wise provisions in our new treaties. We shall
be able to judge of the probable future of immigration
to this country and the terms upon which it will be avail-
able. We shall then be prepared to deal fully with the
alien as an international factor as well as a potential
citizen.

The probability is that the United States will pass
emergency legislation. The country, as is its habit, may
then settle back to watch its effect. If the law proves
too onerous, its provisions will be evaded. The danger
is that in the interim we will not give either thought or
inquiry to the larger aspects of immigration with which
we must sometime deal intelligently. If our policy in
regard to international human beings is ever to be as
sound as are our politicies upon international finance or
other affairs, let us not fail to see the significance of the
changes in the position of aliens, and be prepared to act.

A Frank Analysis of Americans
Gr e at est N ation al Problem in

IMMIGRATION
AND THE FUTURE

BY FRANCES KELLOR

Author of ^^Experimental Sociology" "Straight America,^* etc.

An authoritative survey of the present enormous influx
of European immigrants, considered from the opposed view-
points of capital and labor. Do we want more immigrants?
If we do, of what kind? In what numbers? And can we
assimilate them? Miss Kellor answers these questions on
behalf of American business, the part of the community
most affected by them and which can do most to solve them.
A member of the Inter-Racial Council, her former ex-
perience in the immigration field, first in civic and then in
governmental work, has led her to definite and well-
founded conclusions. This book will be a revelation and
a stimulus, not only to the business man, but to every
American who gives serious thought to America's future
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policy that will satisfy both idealists and the most practical
realists." — Paul M. Warburg, Former Vice-President of the
Federal Reserve Board.

"One of the most important contributions made to this field in
recent years. Miss Kellor speaks with authority and her recom-
mendations seem to be sound and worthwhile." — E. S. Turner,
Nezv York State University.

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upon wide experience and knowledge, and free both from
bigoted race prejudice and from sentimental preoccupation with
any particular class of immigrants." — New York Tribune.

At All Booksellers : $2.^0

GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY, Publishers, New York