THE PROBLEM OF IMMIGRATION. 533 



tion of such labor will be compatible with its financial success. If this 

 assurance can not be given to capitalists, they will not invest, industrial 

 expansion ceases, and the wages of the American workers, as well as of 

 the aliens, suffer from general business depression. 



In order to be a desirable immigrant, the type of immigrant rep- 

 resented must be necessary. As skilled alien laborers are no longer 

 necessary, they can scarcely be classed as desirable. The necessity for 

 the unskilled laborer will be conceded by those who take the trouble to 

 study economic conditions. 



The aliens of poor physique, who are usually skilled laborers, go 

 to the crowded city, to the dark, poorly ventilated and disease-infected 

 tenement. The thousands of these city dwellers arriving every year 

 perpetuate the tenement house problem, and retard the work of sanita- 

 tion and reform. 



Of remedies proposed for the further exclusion of undesirable 

 immigrants, three are worthy of consideration : ( 1 ) Raising the head 

 tax, (2) an illiteracy test, (3) a definite standard of physique. 



Eaising the head tax to 100 or 150 dollars is suggested by some as a 

 means of restricting immigration. This procedure is open to serious 

 objection for several reasons. It would not be selective in its action. 

 It would bar all classes, good and bad, indiscriminately, and would be 

 almost prohibitive to the races with the best physique and highest per- 

 centage of unskilled laborers. In case of those who come here as home- 

 seekers and who are able to pay such a tax, it would deprive them of 

 a sum of money which would be of great value in their struggle, and 

 much needed at the very outset of their new life. The imposition 

 of such a tax is a weapon of defense which might be used in the event 

 of great danger from immigration, owing to absence of demand for 

 labor here, but that possibility seems remote and this high head tax 

 must be considered as a last resort, not likely to be needed. A moder- 

 ate head tax will probably be the rule for the next few years. The 

 present head tax of two dollars may be raised to five or ten dollars in 

 order to restrict the volume of immigration, if, in the opinion of our 

 lawmakers, restriction of the quantity as well as the quality of our 

 immigrants is necessary. Any head tax moderate or high can operate 

 only as a numerical restriction and can not be expected to regulate the 

 quality of immigration. 



In order to appreciate fully the effect of barring illiterates, it is 

 necessary to consider the proportion of illiterates in each of the prin- 

 cipal racial factors of our immigration. Consideration must also be 

 given to the percentage of unskilled laborers furnished by each of these 

 races, because, although the illiteracy amendment is intended to ex- 

 clude the parasitic city-dwelling immigrant, it affects as well a large 

 proportion of the races furnishing us with the bulk of our necessary 

 unskilled labor. 



