2 36 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In the following Table by Illiterates is Meant those who are unable to Read 

 and Write in some Language: 



Total number landed year Percentage of 



Race. ended June 30, 1901. illiterates. 



Italians 137,807 51.26 



Lithuanians 8,815 44.85 



Slavs 90,888 34.07 



Hebrews 58,098 23.31 



Magyars 13,311 7.04 



Finn 9,999 1.84 



merit's jurisdiction over all landed immigrants and increasing the 

 period of liability of the steamship company for return of undesirable 

 immigrants from one year (the present period) to five years. Increas- 

 ing the head tax from one dollar, the amount imposed at present 

 upon each arriving alien, to five or ten dollars would probably lessen 

 the number of immigrant arrivals. This reduction in number would 

 be due to the fact that many large families, with children and aged 

 dependents, would be obliged to stay in Europe; the extra five or 

 ten dollars per head in a large family would be sufficient in many 

 cases to make the cost of passage prohibitive. Young single men 

 would pay $40 for passage to America almost as readily as $30; 

 consequently the additional head tax would not greatly affect the 

 number of single unskilled laborers. The young laborer would not 

 go back and forth quite so often perhaps if he had to pay the addi- 

 tional five or ten dollars upon landing here each time. 



The period of Government jurisdiction over the landed alien and 

 the period of the liability of the steamship companies for return of 

 undesirable aliens for cause should be extended from one year to five 

 years, or better, until the immigrant becomes a citizen. This would 

 enable the immigration authorities to deport within five years after 

 landing many diseased, insane and pauper immigrants, anarchists and 

 other criminals whose undesirability was not manifest upon landing 

 or within one year thereafter. Eelatives and interested persons would 

 not be so ready to offer to the boards of special inquiry a guarantee 

 that detained aliens would not become public charges if such guar- 

 antee were binding for five years instead of one year, as at present. 



The enactment of these amendments into law and the enactment 

 of stringent legislation bearing upon anarchists, together with a rigid 

 enforcement of our naturalization laws, would go far toward dissi- 

 pating the present popular distrust of the immigrant, and would 

 still further minimize the dangers due to immigration. 



