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Show "I Think the Immigration Laws of the Future Should Be Wholly American" By JAMES J. DAVIS, U. S. Secretary of Labor. IMMIGRATION I propose that we establish strict but juet tests of physical and mental health, and that we make these testa under the numerical restriction now placed upon immigration. I would have those tests made abroad, in order that the applicant appli-cant for admission may not have to spend the savings of a lifetime on long sea voyage to find out whether he can enter the United States. All the sorrow and despair at Ellis island arise from the cases of those immigrants who come here despite the fact that the law prevent, their admittance. If we halt those cases before they leave their native countries we will end the troubles at our ports of entry. This I call selective immigration. So long as the United States is to admit foreigners I would have our system function to bring ua the best we can get from abroad and to make their entry into America easy and comfortable. Coupled with this I would have the immigrant enrolled upon his admission, and over a period of years I would provide for a census of the alien population by the naturalization bureau. We register every American Amer-ican citizen to ascertain his right to exercise the suffrage. Surely there can be no objection to the enrollment of the alien who comes to us to help him acquire the qualifications to be an American. If after a period of years the record of tlw individual showed plainly he was unfit for American citizenship I would provide for his deportation. I am not in favor of compelling an individual to become a citizen. Compulsory citizenship is impossible. I hold that whoever comes from abroad to degrade the American level of intelligence, of physical or mental or moral life, degrades every honest naturalized citir.cn. It is a shortsighted policy to seek cheap labor through immigration. Cheap labor is expensive labor, both for the industry which employs it and the community which houses it. I think the immigration laws of the future should be wholly American, Amer-ican, drawn by Americans, enforced by Americans, for the benefit of America today and in the future. |